Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

With the passing of Wayne Goss, Queenslanders have lost one of their finest leaders. Wayne changed Queensland, the state we love, for the better. He dragged it into the sunlight after 32 years in the darkness. He was a leader of deep integrity. He was someone that we will all miss a lot. I remember Wayne as a role model for leadership and integrity and as a man who always held humble Queenslanders close to his heart. Certainly we extend our condolences to his family—to Ro, Caitlin and Ryan.

As I said at the service in Brisbane at the Gallery of Modern Art on Friday, it was really an appropriate venue. With the Rolling Stones belting it out, standing there in the middle of modern Brisbane, fantastic modern art on the walls—it really demonstrated just how much Queensland had changed. The foundations and platform for that change were set during Wayne's term. When Wayne was elected, he was the first Labor Premier of Queensland in 32 years. Only rarely—usually only once every second or perhaps every third political generation—do you see changes of leadership, breakthrough moments like that. As I observed last week, we saw it with Gough Whitlam, we have seen it with Neville Wran, we have seen it with Don Dunstan and we have seen it with John Cain: they were all recognised as great Labor leaders. It is easy to put their success down to timing, to the fact that finally 'It's time,' but those of us who were around in 1989 know it is not just the years in opposition or even the decay of the governing party that wins those breakthrough election victories. It is the emergence of leaders of exceptional quality, people with the right combination of political toughness, personal probity, moral purpose and, above all, true idealism. They are the people who bring the crumbling empires down. Wayne Goss was one of those breakthrough leaders.

A barber's son from Inala, Wayne was inspired by Gough Whitlam. Like Gough, he believed in social justice and he lived it. He took a Labor Party in Queensland obsessed with the spoils of defeat and, after less than two years as leader, made us a governing party for the next 20 years. In everything Wayne did, he inspired by example. For Wayne, it was not about him. It was not about his ego. It was always about what he wanted for the people he represented. What he wanted was an outward looking Queensland, a vibrant Queensland, and he understood that that could only come from lasting, long-term changes. Many were put in place: electoral reform, accountability in public life, respect for human rights, antidiscrimination legislation, land rights legislation and, for the first time, women appointed to the judiciary and senior positions in the public service. Above all, he believed in the empowering gift of education, as it had empowered his own life, and environmental protection, including the World Heritage protection of Fraser Island and the protection of Cape York. This is a legacy which will endure for decades to come. With his passing, as I said at the beginning, we will remember Wayne as a role model for leadership, but above all I will remember him as a great mate, a good friend, and we think of his family when we pass this motion today.

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