David Coleman (Banks, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's a great honour to be able to speak on this condolence motion today in memory of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Many of my colleagues have spoken about the great affection in which the Queen was held, and they're right. No person was more respected across Australian society. That respect was held not simply because of her office but because of how she conducted herself in that office. We saw something in her that we would like to see in ourselves.

Often in life, the most profound thing we can do is persevere. The Queen was the living embodiment of the power of perseverance. Stoic, steadfast, resolute. Through the trials faced by her nation, her family and the world, she kept going. I think that quiet perseverance is at the heart of why we so admired the Queen. In every life, challenges arise, and it can be hard to stay the course. The Queen never wavered. On some deep level, as human beings, we know that perseverance is everything. The Queen persevered.

Those who have great privilege and responsibility given to them can respond in extremely different ways. There are countless examples in history of people who inherited great power behaving shamefully. Sometimes they were indifferent to the people they were meant to serve. Sometimes their self-absorption consumed them. Sometimes they were deliberately destructive. Their power allowed them to indulge themselves. The Queen took the exact opposite course.

Where some would look after their own interests, she served others. Where some would give lip service to the idea of duty, she lived it. She didn't flinch. She didn't falter. She never gave up. Her guiding light was not her ego, but her country. The values of duty, honour and country can seem passe in the modern world, but in the 20th century those values saved the world. They may be called upon again.

In thinking about we how conduct ourselves in years ahead, we should remember the example of the Queen. In our own ways, large and small, we should define our duty and then live it. Like her, we should persevere.

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