Paul Neville (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

No, he did not—he started before the Depression and probably saw a few along the way. Ralph's interest in politics was evidently fostered around the kitchen table, with his father, Claude, being one of the central characters in the formation of the Australian Country Party in northern New South Wales. His initial foray into party politics was during his school years, when he boarded at the Scots College in Sydney. It prompted him to join the then fledgling Liberal Party. But, on his return home, a Country Party representative visited the family farm to encourage Ralph's dad to pull together a local branch. Fortuitously, Claude suggested that Ralph would be just the man for the job, and so began a lifelong commitment to the party. He would have been in his early 20s at that time. Ralph joined the party in 1950 and was on the Central Council of the Country Party of Australia, New South Wales, by 1953. In the same year, he took the chairman's role in the Gwydir Federal Electorate Council—the body for the federal seat. It was a position he held until 1969. Between 1956 and 1968 he served his local community as councillor on the Boomi Shire Council and he also held the position of vice-president of the council between 1962 and 1968. About the same time, between 1964 and 1969, Ralph served as the New South Wales party chairman, and in 1968 and 1969 he served as the federal party chairman. It is unusual for someone to hold those two roles simultaneously.

Also during this time as New South Wales party chairman, he got right behind the idea of establishing the youth wing of the party and worked hard to see it come to fruition. In 1965 the Young Country Party was formed in New South Wales. This was a few years after it had been formed in southern Queensland. In his role as executor of the organisation of the party, you would think that he had taken on enough roles, but in 1969 he contested the by-election for the seat of Gwydir. He won the seat and held it for the next 20 years, until his retirement in 1989.

He was initially appointed Minister for the Interior in the Gorton-Anthony ministry in February 1971 and held that position until the defeat of the government in 1972, with the start of the Whitlam era. That was the period in which I knew him well in a number of capacities. I was active in the Young Country Party and in 1969 I was actually its state president in Queensland. We were agitating to get a seat on the federal council of the party because we knew the youth were going to have to have a voice in the party. To have a role in the decision making, they had to have a voice. So I took off for the federal council meeting as an observer in 1969. I remember typing up the submission in what is now the Hyatt. It was quite an experience for me because, in those days, the giants of the party were Charles Cutler, the education minister and Deputy Premier of New South Wales, and John McEwen—Black Jack McEwen. They were heady days. In fact, I remember the two of them having a fight at that meeting—which Ralph was chairing, of course, as the federal president—about the first money that was going into high school science blocks and libraries. It was the first time this money was moving into the state high school system. I remember the two of them having a blazing row, but when it really got down to their respective arguments, it was all about whether the corridors of the Dubbo High School needed to be 4-foot six or 4-foot nine wide. It was a very interesting introduction to politics under his chairmanship.

At that meeting Ralph said, 'Look, Paul, you can't move that motion because you're not yet a member of the council.' I was feeling quite despondent, having come all that way to present the case. But Kevin Lyons, who was the Deputy Premier of Tasmania and a member of the Centre Party, as they called the Country Party in Tasmania, said to Ralph, 'No, I'll move it.' So I got my day in court, so to speak, to argue the case for the youth party to have a seat on the council. I presented the case but I did not win it. Nevertheless, Ralph was a very fair man. He certainly nurtured a youth movement in politics, initially in New South Wales and then throughout the Commonwealth.

I grew to know him at the time he became minister and at the various state and federal conferences we attended. The second capacity in which I met him was in my home town of Bundaberg. We were going through a bad economic downturn, and it was decided to form a development board—but not one of these flash-in-the-pan ones where you raise a bit of money on the spur of the moment at a meeting one night, you have spent it the next year and then it all fizzles out the year after. In fact, we engaged someone that honourable members would be familiar with, Everald Compton, who in those days had Compton and Associates, which was a fundraising organisation. We decided that, if we were going to have a development board, it was going to be the best in Queensland, so we decided we would raise the money for the first five years so there would be no doubt that the thing would get off to a flying start. But we needed a big launch pad. We needed to impress on the local district how important this new board would be. So we put it to Ralph Hunt, who was the Minister for the Interior at the time; we asked whether he would come up and launch it, and indeed he did. It had the required effect: hundreds of people came on board and it was a model among development boards for many years to come.

Returning to his career, 1972 to 1975 was the Whitlam era, and that was a tough time for all those Country Party members. But, at the end of that period, Malcolm Fraser and Doug Anthony came to office in 1975, and they appointed Ralph Hunt to be Minister for Health. Fraser said to him, 'I've got a good one for you, Ralph: Health and Medibank.' Ralph responded by saying he had never made a speech in parliament on either of those two subjects. 'Good,' replied Fraser. 'Then they can't quote anything back to you.' In December 1979 he was made Minister for Transport, and his portfolio was expanded in 1982 to make him Minister for Transport and Construction. Ralph Hunt oversaw the massive highway development under the famous 3c-per-litre levy on all vehicle fuels. He became deputy leader of the party between 1984 and 1987 and retired from parliament in 1989.

At that point, you would think, Mr Deputy Speaker, he would probably have had enough. He had worked on the land, he had worked in his local council, he had worked in the administration of the party, he had worked in parliament and he had been a minister. You would think he would want to walk away; he had done his bit. I am sure we see in all three major parties in this parliament that there are some people who enjoy the fruits of being part of a party and then, when they come to retirement, they walk away, not doing anything to enhance the role of those who follow them. But not so with Ralph Hunt. His commitment to the party went on, and he served as federal treasurer of the party from 1987 to the year 2000. He was instrumental in the development of our federal secretariat, John McEwen House, and that was at the time a very risky financial move. Ralph and a handful of people really steered the party through that very important phase, which gave the National Party—no longer the Country Party by that stage—a very fine national headquarters.

In 1990 Ralph was made an officer of the Order of Australia in recognition of his work in the parliament. Last year, after 60 years of service, at our federal conference we awarded him a rare honour, the Earle Page Medal for Meritorious Service. The Nationals federal president, John Tanner, paid tribute to Ralph's work and legacy over recent days, saying that he would 'be remembered as a tireless servant of the people of regional Australia and a champion of the Nationals'. I can echo those sentiments, because I think a man's worth cannot be gauged just by dates and titles he has held. Ralph was much more than that. He was a farmer. He was a worker. He was a much-loved family man, a good husband to Mim—whom he married in 1953—and a wonderful father to his three children. On behalf of my family, my colleagues and the party itself I offer my sincere condolences to Ralph's family and hope they realise the incredible impact he had. He was more than just a participant; he was a champion, and I salute him.

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