Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment) Share this | Hansard source

It is a great honour but a sadness to speak on the passing of Joan Kirner, the former Premier of Victoria. I speak in my own right, but I especially want to speak on behalf of my father, Alan Hunt, who has passed. Dad knew Joan across the chamber as somebody with whom there was a political contest, but he also knew her as a friend both during their respective parliamentary careers and beyond each of their parliamentary careers.

I had the good fortune of meeting with Joan Kirner along the way. Of course there were political differences, but that is not the point. It is that, despite the fact that there were those political differences with me and with my father, she was utterly and always immensely decent. I think that it is very important to acknowledge people for those profound and abiding human qualities, and she possessed profound and abiding human qualities. She and my father, I am sorry to say, probably shared one or two drinks together at a time when the parliament was not as abstemious as it is today—certainly at federal level! She was capable of laughing and capable of friendship. That utter decency and that joy of life characterised what she did.

Of course, that was accompanied by a vision and a determination, a purpose. She was a leader of Victoria, and she was a leader of women in particular. She was a trailblazer, and we must acknowledge her role as the first female Premier of Victoria. That is some extraordinary achievement. For anybody to be a Premier of any state at any time is a lifetime's achievement, but to have become the first female Premier of Victoria is really a massive step forward. It is my sorrow that the Liberal Party did not achieve that, but it is my recognition that Joan Kirner and the ALP did.

Having said that, what I particularly want to acknowledge is that she was one of the progenitors of the national Landcare movement. With my current role in the environment, I see the extraordinary contribution that landcarers make around the country in every state and territory, whether it is the Bass Coast Landcare Network in my own area, or you could be up in the Northern Territory or out in the backblocks of WA. You meet with Landcare groups that are doing practical things on the ground. They are proud of what they do. They do it willingly, and they do it as part of a national Landcare movement. For all of those who helped to create and establish it, they should be immensely proud, and we should acknowledge that Joan's role was critical. She had many career achievements. From an environmental perspective, this is an abiding achievement which I believe will still be a feature of the Australian community landscape 100 years from now.

That brings me, lastly, to her family. She is survived by Ron, her husband of 55 years. That is another major achievement, and I think it speaks volumes of both of them that the most important relationship in their lives was with each other. Their three children are Michael, David and Kate, and their grandchildren are Ned and Sam, Xanthe and Joachim. That is some family, some life, some Premier. She served Victoria well. On behalf of both myself and, in particular, my father, Alan, who has now left, I want to say congratulations on a wonderful life to her family. You have been an adornment to our state and our nation. In particular, Joan was somebody not only whom you loved but of whom everybody should be immensely proud.

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