Patrick Gorman (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I last saw Graham at the desk of the 2024 election coverage for the Queensland state election. We had a great chat together in the Sky studios. We compared notes. We sat and had a bit of a bite as we fuelled up for some six hours on air. We admired the fight that Steven Miles and the Labor team had put into their election effort, but we agreed that the likely outcome was pretty clear for all to see. We did have some highlights during that night. We shared some smiles across the desk, as we watched the Greens struggle and then go backwards throughout the night. And there I was, admiring his determination to be a blunt, sometimes painfully honest, Labor champion, despite all of the health challenges he'd been so open about. His wife, Amanda, was there with him, supporting him and sharing her insights as well.

To Amanda and to Graham's son, D'Arcy, I share my deepest condolences. Any family that shares a family member with the public spotlight pays an additional price, and I think we all know that Amanda and D'Arcy have lost someone who had so much more depth and so much more love than the 'whatever it takes' persona that many know of Graham in public.

As the Attorney-General just referenced, Graham didn't mind picking up the phone to give some advice to various party officials. He didn't just do it for the New South Wales branch. When I was secretary of the Western Australian branch of the Labor Party, he was happy to reach both across the continent and across the factional divide with some at the time very welcome advice on how to defeat the Liberals in WA, as we did.

If I think back to having read about the start of his engagement in politics, I can imagine the Monterey branch that Graham Richardson first joined. It's been described in many of the reports as 'sleepy'. I think we can all imagine that sort of dull party meeting that he must have walked into and thought, as a 17-year-old, 'I'm here to make a difference', and everyone's there to, probably, whinge about head office. But, just a few years later, there he was in New South Wales Labor headquarters himself. And before too long he was running what then became known as the New South Wales Labor machine. That was part of the passion and pragmatism that defined him.

Despite being passionately from New South Wales and passionately from the right of the Labor Party, Richo was an Australian, first and foremost. The blistering opening to his first speech left you in no doubt of where he stood with a view that he was here to act in Australia's interests. He said:

The rejection of Supply by the Senate in 1975 finally debunked all of the myths about this being a States House.

And he went on then to reflect on the core Labor belief of ensuring employment for all who wanted to work, saying:

The last election was won by the Australian Labor Party on the issue of unemployment.

And then, some 11 years later, he gave his valedictory—an excellent contribution after many fine arguments in that Senate. But it was with humour, flair, honesty and a very proud plug for his forthcoming book, trying to encourage senators to go and buy a copy, he said:

… Senator Faulkner and I had some … disagreements. I want you to know, Senator Faulkner that, for all the appalling things you have done, I forgive you. I want you to know … I harbour no grudge and that within 30 or 40 years they will all be forgotten. But, if I were you, I would be the first to buy the book in September, and I would look up the index, because I have got to tell you that you are there in large lumps.

Which confirms, I think, what the Prime Minister said in his obituary, which was:

Richo's life was often colourful, and sometimes controversial, but what lay at the heart of it was his sense of service, underpinned by his powerful blend of passion and pragmatism. He gave so much to our party, to our nation and to the natural environment that future generations will cherish.

That passion and pragmatism gave us both Prime Minister Hawke and Prime Minister Keating—election wins that, in retrospect, looked easy and certain outcomes but were nothing like that at the time. They were very hard fought, earned and won.

But it was in the environment portfolio, as many have reflected, that a man who loved politics and the political battle in all its dimensions really demonstrated his love for Australia itself. 'The greening of Graham Richardson' was the Sydney Morning Herald headline that would define his time in the portfolio, and in that they quote Graham as saying:

Trees are the sexiest issue of the '80s.

I'd like to say that some of those trees might be a little bit older now, in 2025, but those trees are equally as sexy today. And, if we think about those forests and the natural environment which he preserved—Kakadu, the Daintree—they are uniquely Australian locations forever attached to his legacy.

The Leader of the House, who worked for then senator Richardson, shared an obituary for his friend, and he outlined that the 'whatever it takes' headline was not just about power. The Leader of the House said:

I know the title of his book will always lead people to conclude everything was about power. I saw, up close, a fiercely loyal man try to drive a better health system and invest his capital before he left parliament in obtaining what was back then the largest ever investment in Indigenous Health.

Graham Richardson was blunt about the realities of politics. He was equally blunt about the possibilities of what can be achieved, and only achieved, by Labor governments. He also realised that the time for members and senators in this place is always limited but the impact of their decisions can last forever. As the Prime Minister quoted in question time yesterday, Graham said: 'My memory won't be around for very long, but the rainforests of North Queensland will be around forever.' I extend my condolences to all who knew Graham Richardson, especially to those from the New South Wales branch of the Australian Labor Party and, most importantly, to Amanda and D'Arcy. Vale, Graham Richardson.

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