Pat Conroy (Shortland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence Industry) Share this | Hansard source

On behalf of the people of Shortland, I recognise and pay tribute to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at this momentous time of her passing. Hers was a life of dedicated service to her nation and the broader Commonwealth of Nations. I know that the people of Shortland have been deeply impacted by her passing, and on their behalf I extend our condolences to the royal family and the people of the United Kingdom.

Today I particularly want to focus on the Queen's visits to the Hunter region and her special relationship with the Pacific through the Commonwealth of Nations. As minister for the Pacific, I know how strong the bonds of affection and kinship are between our Pacific island family who are also part of the Commonwealth.

Deputy Speaker Claydon, the Queen visited the Hunter region four times over the course of her reign, as I know you know intimately—her inaugural tour of 1954 and again in 1970, 1977 and 1988. Whilst in this region, she opened significant local landmarks: the Newcastle International Sports Centre, now Hunter Stadium, home of the Newcastle Knights and Jets; and Queens Wharf in Newcastle CBD in 1988. Queens Wharf and nearby Honeysuckle are central to the relaxation and enjoyment of the Newcastle CBD and its beautiful working harbour.

The Hunter region also has a proud industrial and manufacturing heritage, and Her Majesty saw this in her visit to the state dockyard in 1970. Damon Cronshaw recently noted in the Newcastle Herald the somewhat casual attire of some of the dockyard workers who greeted the Queen. The sandals, slippers and thongs may have come as a shock, but Her Majesty certainly witnessed firsthand the working people of Newcastle and the Hunter.

The Queen's visits to the region were centred on Newcastle city, naturally, but people from all over the Hunter region, including my electorate, flocked to see her on those visits, and she was much loved and respected by many. This is evident by the many people who have attended my electorate office, over the past weeks, to sign a condolence book for her and request a portrait of the Queen.

I'm also proud to serve as minister for the Pacific in the Albanese government. The passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II holds a particular significance for the Commonwealth nations of our Pacific family. For some, including here in Australia, the Queen was our head of state. In Papua New Guinea she was affectionately known as 'Mama Queen' or 'Mrs Queen'. For most of us, she was the only Queen we knew, a seemingly everlasting constant in a world of change and tumult. So although she was 96, her death has still somehow come as a terrible shock.

Prime Minister Albanese has spoken at length about the Queen's first visit to Australia in 1954, where many people have mentioned that an estimated 70 per cent of all Australians, at that time, came out to see her. What's less known is that this visit was the last leg of a tour which began in Fiji in 1953 and went on to Tonga and New Zealand. The newly crowned Queen had wanted to learn, firsthand, the triumphs and difficulties and hopes and fears of the people of the Commonwealth. She said:

I want to show that the Crown is not merely an abstract symbol of our unity but a personal and living bond between you and me.

She exemplified that bond like no-one else could.

In time, the Queen visited every Pacific Commonwealth country: Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, first, in 1974; Samoa in 1977; Tuvalu, Kiribati and Nauru in 1982; and, as previously mentioned, Fiji, New Zealand and Tonga in 1953.

Last week I had the honour of travelling to London with a number of Pacific heads of state and their delegations, to pay our respects to her family, to honour her memory and to give thanks for her lifetime of dedicated service and devotion to duty. It was the Queen's wish that Pacific members of the Commonwealth would be able to attend her state funeral along with other Commonwealth nations. The Australian government was pleased to offer our support to fulfil this wish, because although our nations each grieve in our own way, in our own tradition, we share the loss as a family.

In 1953, at the start of that tour that would take her to Australia for the first time, the Queen made a pledge to the Commonwealth. She said:

To that new conception of an equal partnership of nations and races I shall give myself heart and soul every day of my life.

She certainly fulfilled that promise. May she rest in peace.

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