Alexander Downer (Mayo, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Opposition wants me to tell the House more. I think not. Jeannie was a wonderful person to share a house with. She would come back late at night and we would sit around, sometimes having a drink—in fact most times having a drink—while she regaled us in a lively and feisty way with stories of what had happened during the day and her irritation with different senators and members of parliament, sometimes Labor but frankly sometimes not, and with a good deal of gossip. It is sometimes said that you should not gossip too much, and we all pretend we are a bit above gossip, but the fact is that everyone likes to hear a little bit of gossip and Jeannie was a great one for that. She always had a story about what was happening over here in Parliament House or back in South Australia which was of great interest to us.

I recall her, towards the end of last year, coming back late one night. I was sitting in the living room watching television—I guess watching Lateline or one of those late-night programs on the ABC—and Jeannie came in and started talking about the stem cell issue, which she was very passionate about. The Deputy Leader of the Opposition has spoken of her passion on that issue. She asked me what I thought about it and I talked a bit, without any great expertise, of my feelings about it. She started harassing and cajoling me and telling me that it was enormously important for the future of humanity that I support this piece of legislation. I did not dare resist her. I did vote for the legislation. Her advocacy was very important in making up my mind on that issue. It was typical of Jeannie, really, because Jeannie was essentially a pretty conservative person; there is no doubt about that. She believed in the great verities of conservative politics in Australia. But on a range of different issues, particularly medical issues—and you find this a bit in South Australia—she was actually what you might call liberal. And stem cell research was one of those issues that she did feel very passionate about.

She was an enormous champion of rural Australia, specifically rural South Australia. I had a meeting recently with apple growers in my own electorate. They were telling me, and I pass it on to the House, how deeply they missed Jeannie Ferris, who had been such a champion of the apple industry in its controversial problems with the possible importation of New Zealand apples and the risk of fire blight. She was enormously popular amongst other rural industries in South Australia and, no doubt, more broadly around Australia.

She was a champion of many causes, a woman of enormous courage. She was not one of those people who would shy away from an argument because she did not want confrontation or thought it might not suit her preselection prospects. She was somebody who very passionately stood up for what she believed in. She was a woman whom I admired enormously and who, I know, was admired right across the spectrum of the Liberal Party in South Australia and throughout very much of the South Australian community. She is and will continue to be very sadly missed by so many of us. I join with others in passing on my deepest condolences to her sons, Robbie and Jeremy, and to her extended family.

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