Russell Broadbent (McMillan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The first thing that I want to say is that the words that I am about to use were prepared for me by Mary Aldred, daughter of Ken Aldred, who was a member in this House for some considerable time during David's years. The families were very close, so these words drip with the tears of sadness at the loss of a friend and of a colleague. I acknowledge Mary as I begin this address. Hearing the addresses from the other members, I was reminded of two moments with David Jull. I stand here with a really fond memory of a colleague in this House, and I have many fond memories of many colleagues.

Through this history of the nation, seminal figures have shaped the character of our parliament, uplifted the dignity of national politics and committed themselves to enlivening debate in the best spirit of parliamentary democracy. The truly honourable David Jull was one of those seminal figures. Without him, the mosaic of Australian politics would have been incomplete, missing a polished, unique and absolutely uncrackable tile. As a House of Representatives, we have been the poorer in the absence of his wit, gravitas and deep sense of what it truly means to be a member of this place.

Like me, David Jull—'Jully' as he was affectionately known by his friends—represented two seats. All up, he was elected to the House of Representatives nine times, three of which were shared together over this parliamentary career of 30 years. David Jull entered the parliament as a 'seventy-fiver' as the member for Bowman, brimming with the exuberance of not only giving his maiden speech in the Old Parliament House but joining Malcolm Fraser as his government wrested Australia back from the brink of national heart attack. Such was the turmoil of those heady days after the dismissal of the Whitlam government. I imagine that David Jull was just the sort of new talent that any leader would have been delighted to have in their parliamentary party. He was calm, thoughtful and completely unfazed by the task ahead and had a self-effacing sense of humour. A highly successful TV man in his former life, he was a wonderful storyteller who could weave a written tapestry, sewn together with the thread of a lifetime's vast experience, strung tightly where required with the needle of sharp insight and even sharper wit. Again like me, David Jull experienced what it is like to lose your seat, as he did in 1983, and to come back again, rising like a phoenix from the suffocating ashes of an election loss, returning in 1984 as the member for Fadden.

For the new Howard government, David Jull was just the sort of experienced, calm, details man that John Howard looked to as his Minister for Administrative Services in 1996. After all, the moulding and shaping of David Jull the parliamentarian had taken place during the life of the Fraser government, where public administration and propriety were given more obligation than in just about any other Australian government ever.

As history records, the bar was set too high in 1996, and it was David Jull, Jully, who took the fall for other people's indulgences and inability to comply. Not that you heard David Jull complain. But that was the nature of the man. Rather than mull over what should have been, David took on the demanding and prestigious position of Chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on ASIO, ASIS and DSD. This tasked him with the responsibility of reviewing and pulling together recommendations on national security and extended into a review of Australia's intelligence organisations in relation to Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. This was a highly strung time for national security in our nation, and David Jull handled the task with precision, care, and an abiding sense of what was at stake.

David Jull was a man loved by many, especially his staff. I know in this place we all aspire to be good bosses whom our staff want to go to work for. David Jull was truly exemplary in this regard. Viv Shield, who worked as David's electorate officer for many years, had this to say about him: 'I served with him for 11 years but other staff members served for longer. I wouldn't be surprised if David had the least turnover of staff in the parliament. All of us turned up for his annual bash on 4 October, his birthday, because we considered ourselves family.'

Viv has asked me to mention Annie, who is now 77 and served with David from the time he was with Tourism Queensland; Sharee Allaway, who went to work with David when she was just 18 and took the office through the big IT and internet changes through the 1990s; and Helen, who eventually left only to have a family and was one of David's closest friends. Says Viv, 'I can say unreservedly that we all loved him dearly and that he will be sorely missed.'

Sharee Allaway said: 'David was not only a great politician; he was a great man. I do not know if most people realise exactly how wonderful he was to all of us. I do not know of many bosses that at 11.30 in the morning would call for lunch orders and dutifully go and collect our lunches for us! He was there for us through some of the most difficult times in our lives with a cup of tea and good advice. For me David was so much more than an employer—I will miss him more than words can express.'

In his maiden speech, David Jull said:

I see my new role to a great degree as that of an ombudsman for the people of the electorate.

David certainly achieved that and he was renowned for never turning away a request for help from his constituents and those in need.

I have said that this place is the lesser without David Jull, and it is. He had a deeply respectful sense of what it means to be a parliamentarian; to have regard for your colleagues no matter on which side of the government benches they sit, precisely because they equally earned the right to be here on behalf of the communities that sent them. David will also be remembered for his abiding belief in propriety and due process in public administration. Abraham Lincoln once said that character is like a tree, and reputation its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it—the tree is the real thing. Mr Speaker, David Jull was the real thing.

I have two anecdotes of my own. When I came here as a new member in 1990, David Jull was a tree to lean on. He really was, and everybody felt comfortable being around the man. You could trust him with your problems and the things that you were facing as a new member not knowing this place. I remember saying, 'How do you get through your correspondence?' He said: 'My staff are fantastic. The letters come in; by the time I get back there on Friday every letter is prepared. We have done it over the phone. Every letter is prepared for me to sign on Friday and nobody leaves the office until every letter we have received in every week is responded to one way or the other.' Every week. Now that is an administrator. I will leave you with this—it came from David Jull in one of our conversations when I asked him for his thoughts. Mr Slipper, the member for Fisher, raised this when he talked about David's comments about a group of people. I asked David what he thought of this new frontbench compared to the old frontbench. He said: 'Russell, half of the old frontbench were lazy good-for-nothings. The other half were hardworking, diligent members of the front bench. This new frontbench is the exact opposite.'

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