Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It was a time of great excitement and expectation: Bob Hawke, the cricket-loving, former ACTU head, was the Prime Minister and it seemed the whole nation had drawn its collective breath and held on—anything was possible. 'Any boss who sacks someone for not turning up is a bum,' was how we saw the country. I was 23 when Labor came to power after the grey Fraser years. Fairly soon, it became very real that they still had to govern and reform. That is where Peter Walsh came in. From a young man's perspective, it just seemed that everyone in Canberra was waiting in fear of getting their heads knocked off by this man from Western Australia. It seemed that he did not care what he said or whom he insulted; he had a job to do and he was going to do it.

I never met Peter Walsh, but he reminds me of the military leaders from my home town of Townsville like Dave Morrison and Mick Slater, who both served in Townsville. Both men are said to be good blokes and good men; it is just that there is this air about them that says that you will pay dearly if you waste their time. I reckon they shared this trait with Peter Walsh. What I do know is that he meant business. What I do know is that he loved his country and his state in that order. What I do know is that he never took his foot off the pedal and always pushed for more.

As Prime Minister Tony Abbott said, Nick Minchin is lauded on our side of politics for being a hard man economically and a great finance minister. I had only a short time with Nick in this parliament, but you knew you had to dot your i's and cross your t's whenever you went to see him. Still, Nick would admit now that he was a hard man economically with the exception of the South Australian car industry, where he became a protectionist. Peter Walsh never suffered that. Peter Walsh never seemed to play favourites. He seemed to judge things entirely on whether they were right or wrong. Again, I say this never having met the man and attending this place 17 years after he left. For someone like me to still feel his presence in these halls and in the way he approached his work speaks directly to the massive shadow cast by this man.

In a speech just before he left the Senate, Peter Walsh spoke of the then level of national debt. He lamented that we may never pay that debt back. His warning then is as valid today as it was then. He said: 'The first thing you lose is your economic sovereignty. Once that is gone, the next thing you lose is your political sovereignty.' Those words guide me every day in this place. We are fortunate to have had a man of the calibre of Peter Walsh in this place. We are fortunate that he was part of a government that was focused on reform. We are fortunate that leadership of that government saw fit to put him in a position where he could exert his influence and impose his values and will on others who may not have come from the same upbringing and background as him. Rest in peace, Peter Walsh. You were a good man, a man of your time and a great man for Australia. I thank that House.

See this speech in context