Peter Slipper (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The member who interjects is also a very complex individual, though happily very much alive. David was a strong conservative. I mentioned he was a religious person and he did not hesitate to live and stand up for his principles whether or not they were popular. As a small 'l' liberal in the Queensland Liberal Party, he was very loyal to what could be called his faction had he been in the Labor Party—of course, everyone knows the Liberal Party do not have factions. He was part of a group in the Queensland Liberal Party supportive of Bob Tucker as state president. At one conference, democracy saw Bob Tucker replaced by Bob Carroll and David made the comment that he was part of a group thereafter to be known as 'the living dead'.

David had a very broad sense of humour. On one of the Howard reshuffles—and I suppose I was a victim of one of John Howard's reshuffles, as many others were—someone said, 'David, what do you think of the ministry?' He said, 'There is John Moore there and all the rest are Nazis.' Of course, he would not have meant that, but it just indicates David's very rich sense of humour. There was an occasion when Prime Minister Howard issued an edict with respect to a certain matter and David, as the then Minister for Administrative Services, had to circularise his colleagues with this Prime Ministerial edict. With great joy, he used to relate the story of getting a letter from Leo McLeay which basically told David and the Prime Minister to go jump, but not in such polite words. He was also someone who, as has been indicated previously, was an expert in the area of travel. He absolutely detested Sir Peter Abeles. As the member for Sturt said, he used to refer to Ansett as 'Criminal Air'. He also knew the history of just about every plane in Ansett's fleet. He was able to relay the various life-threatening incidents that had occurred with respect to each of those particular planes. David was someone who was much loved by everyone. He was larger than life. While he had his share of political disappointments—and in my view he was extremely badly treated when he was sacked by Prime Minister Howard from the ministry—he did not bear ill will. He remained loyal to the party, although on occasions he would take the opportunity of, shall we say, richly expressing his views as a commentator on various political incidents and what was happening.

It was sad that he did not have a long retirement from parliament. He had the most amazing history in being elected. He had tenacity and principles. I believe that he is one of the few larger than life characters that we have seen in this parliament. I for one felt when he retired in 2007 that the entire parliament was very much the poorer for his political passing. Having said that, the entire community is very much the poorer for his passing from this world. The community will miss him greatly. His friends will feel enormously deprived of the ongoing opportunity to regularly converse with him. He was one of nature's gentlemen. He was a person who I saw as a role model for members of parliament; an icon; a person who had qualities that the rest of us could only aspire to emulate but so often fell short of. I am very pleased to be able to associate myself with the condolence motion moved by the Hon. the Prime Minister and supported by the Leader of the Opposition and colleagues.

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