Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

If the contribution that Graham Richardson made to public life was simply measured by what he achieved as a minister in the Hawke and Keating governments, then that alone would mean his legacy was one of titanic proportions.

As the minister for social services, he sought to make life fairer for pensioners by increasing the earnings on their savings, by making their pharmaceutical medicines more accessible. As the minister for sport, he oversaw an inquiry into drugs in sport, which led to the establishment of the Australian Sports Drug Agency in 1990. And, of course, as the minister for the environment he put in place protections for the Kakadu National Park and saw the inscription of the Daintree Forest on the World Heritage List, which guaranteed its protection. That achievement alone is one which will last long after all of us have left and are forgotten. It is an achievement of the most enormous proportions.

That Graham was so successful as a minister spoke to his intelligence, his passion, his drive but also to his fundamental ability to get things done in this place. Yet, of course, we all know that Graham Richardson was much bigger than all of that. Politics is about the exercise of power, and that exercise is a competitive business. Thankfully in our nation that competition is peaceful, but it is competition nonetheless, and it happens at every level between parties—within parties: competition to become preselected, competition to sit on the frontbench.

There are those who are involved in the organisation of that power, and it is far and away the most difficult task which is undertaken in political life. Graham was a person who performed that role. Now, all of us in our journeys have known those who have sought this role for all the wrong reasons. So to have a person who comes to it with the right motives and the right interests makes their place all the more precious. Graham was empathetic, he cared about the Labor Party first and foremost, he was intelligent in the way in which he went about his business and, most of all, he was willing to do hard things and make difficult decisions—quite often to his own personal detriment. But his performance of that role, with the likes of the former senator Robert Ray and others, underpinned the entirety of the Hawke-Keating government, the longest serving Labor government in our nation's history and the great peacetime government in the Australian story. It means that in addition to his own personal contributions as a minister, his name is rightly connected with the achievements of that government as a whole.

As a person growing up and coming into young adulthood, the Hawke-Keating government was for me the definition of the very best of Labor. It defined for me what I hoped my life would be about. It was a government that was filled with heroes, and amongst them from where I sat at that age, I saw Graham Richardson as a giant. Later in life, as I came to be in this place and to walk these same corridors, it was clear that, for all of us, we are on a pursuit of understanding—understanding how the Labor Party works, understanding how power works, understanding how broader politics is pursued, understanding how Australia fundamentally runs. And it occurs to me that, when Graham Richardson left this place back in 1994, his understanding of all of that was as great as anyone who has ever lived. And it meant that, in his postparliamentary life, when Graham went into the media, he was incredibly successful. He knew what he was talking about and he had an ability to cut to the heart of an issue, to understand its essence and to be able to convey that to a much broader audience and to do so with humour.

It was in his role in the media where I first met Graham personally. In fact, Graham in many ways reached out to me simply to offer his wisdom and his counsel if ever I needed it—and need it I did. I found myself speaking to Graham frequently. As all of us come across problems in this place which feel at times completely intractable, Graham was a source of advice, and, more often than not, he offered a way through. He was really clear about what needed to be done. He didn't pull any punches if that involved doing difficult things, but he was deeply encouraging in the ability for us to achieve it. It was a counsel and a wisdom and a friendship which mattered to me greatly. And of course I was not unique. There are so many others of us who have been a beneficiary of Graham's wisdom. What it means is that, in the current generation of Labor politicians in this place, Graham's mark is very much amongst us on this very day, and I'm deeply grateful for it.

When I take a step back from all of that, what strikes me is the generosity of it, because Graham was already a giant. He had every reason, having left here, to walk off into the sunset, not busy himself with the difficulties of this place and to simply enjoy life. But he loved the Labor Party. He cared about us. For those of us who were the beneficiaries of his wisdom, we very much felt that sense of care. And so, the Graham Richardson I knew is a person who was characterised as a man with a giant heart. Graham demonstrated that mostly in his relationship with his family, Graham had a former wife, Cheryl, and children Mathew and Kate, but in the time I knew Graham it was in his raising of D'Arcy and his marriage to Amanda where I really saw this on display. Graham loved both of them so, so much.

Graham had real difficulties with his health. He was a long-time sufferer from cancer, and in 2016 he had a very well publicised and very appalling decision to make. His pathway forward was to have radical surgery which involved the removal of much of his gastrointestinal tract, and it promised a future which would be one where there would be a very, very long recovery, much pain and a very different life that would be led afterwards. It was not an obvious choice to make, actually. But I remember talking to Graham about it, and he made it clear to me that, by the time he was 23, he'd lost both of his parents, and that had impacted him greatly. As his son D'Arcy was growing up, he was absolutely determined not to leave D'Arcy without a father in his childhood. He was determined to see D'Arcy achieve adulthood in his lifetime. And so he made that decision, and it was all of those things. It was painful, there was a long recovery and life afterwards was very different. But he did return to the media. He gave his insightful commentary. He continued to be a mentor to me and to so many others, but most importantly he was there as D'Arcy's father and Amanda's husband.

You know, in those years I looked at what Graham was doing and thought it was utterly heroic. It was such an incredible thing that he was doing for his family. When Graham passed away last Saturday fortnight, he did so after D'Arcy had turned 18 and he did so within 48 hours of D'Arcy completing his last final-year exam. He did indeed live to see D'Arcy complete his schooling and for his boy to become a man. Amidst the grief that I know that D'Arcy and Amanda are feeling right now, amidst the grief that we all feel right now, there is a solace in that, because it is such an incredible gift that Graham has given to D'Arcy and to Amanda. For all of us who had the privilege of seeing that, it is an extraordinary inspiration. Graham Richardson very much will live on in his family. Graham will live on in what so many of us take from his counsel and in the way in which we go about our work in this place. He is a man who is much loved, who will never be forgotten and who will be deeply, deeply missed. Vale, Graham Richardson

See this speech in context