Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Hansard source

It is much more robust now. In 1993 I spoke more like a 25-year-old than a 44-year-old and David Jull taught me to speak from my diaphragm because he had that wonderful voice.

I sought a piece of advice from him once when I was first elected. In those days I was something of a firebrand and not known for necessarily smoothing over difficulties in the party. I was sometimes part of the roughness that occurred from 1993 to 1996 when we had three different leaders over that time. I once asked David Jull: 'Who gets ahead in this place? Do you get along by having the courage to stand up to the leader and have different views or do you get along by going along?'

He was such a man of letters that he referred me to HMS Pinafore and Sir Joseph Porter's song. For those of you who remember it, the first stanza is:

When I was a lad I served a term

As office boy to an attorney's firm.

I cleaned the windows and I swept the floor,

And I polished up the handle of the big front door.

I polished up that handle so carefullee

That now I am the Ruler of the Queen's Navee!

And the chorus of course is:

He polished up that handle so carefullee

That now he is the Ruler of the Queen's Navee!

I think it was his way of saying that perhaps those who get along do so by going along, and that people who stand up to the leader do not necessarily do as well. Of course, I did not take that advice and I spent many years languishing on the backbenches in the Howard government. I would have been better off to take that advice as I had taken his advice about my diaphragm.

David Jull also loved music. He was a man of so many parts that, even in the last few years of his life, he was still doing a radio show on Sunday nights in Brisbane about music. It was not just one kind of music. David Jull was an expert on almost every kind of music that you could possibly think of, but his particular favourites were Motown—and it was quite a sight seeing Jully boogying to a bit of Motown, given that he was not exactly a slim man, but he certainly could move—and jazz. He had a particular affection for church music, especially that by Vaughn Williams. He had a great voice and he loved to talk about music, the importance of it in our society and the importance it has had throughout human history.

He was, of course, also a member of the Traditional Anglican Communion, as is the Deputy Speaker. He always referred to me as a Roman Catholic and had quite a lot to say about the prevalence of popery in the Coalition over the years. He was not displeased that I was elected, but he certainly made a point about the fact that I was the first Catholic to be elected by the Liberal Party from South Australia to go to Canberra. I would not say that he did not like Catholics, but he might have had the same view of Catholics as he did of the National Party. He was pleased, however, to be able to become a member of the Traditional Anglican Communion and I am sure that, if he were still alive, he would be very pleased with their moves towards communion with Rome, which will come sooner rather than later.

He had some very interesting highlights in his political career. He was the shadow minister for aviation during the airline pilots dispute. While I do not wish to defame either the living or the dead, he did tell some quite hair-raising stories about many of his conversations with Peter Abeles at the time.

He always had a ready story and a ready joke, and he loved repeating the jokes of his very close friend Andrew Peacock, the member for Kooyong, who has a tremendous sense of humour. He and David Jull were the very best of friends. He was very pleased to be part of the campaign to bring Andrew Peacock to the leadership and then to return to the leadership. It was a measure in his favour that he was not one of the gang of four that went on The 7.30 Report to talk about that change of leadership in 1989 because he had very sound political judgement.

His interest in airline policy and his interest in being a fighter for tourism were not confined just to the airline pilots dispute. David Jull was one of the leading members of the campaign to stop the Fraser government making changes to aviation policy that he felt would be inimical to the airline industry in Australia. He led a revolt, along with many of the other newer members in those days in the mid to late 1970s, against changes that the Fraser government would make. Those were the days when party room revolts were not regarded as the critical issues that governments have to face today, or even that oppositions have to face today. In those days members of parliament used to cross the floor with some enthusiasm and repetition, which today would not be tolerated. In closing, can I just say that David Jull—or Jully, as he was to me—was a great parliamentarian. He was an assiduous local member, he was an able administrator and he was a very good friend. I pass on my condolences to his family—his sister, Gwen, and his brother, Peter, his stepchildren and his children. I knew his second wife, Erica, very well and I am sure Erica will be equally moved at David Jull's passing. I did not know his first wife well but I knew Erica very well and I also pass on my condolences to Erica and all his friends.

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