Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's with great sadness that I stand here today to honour the life of Senator Nick Bolkus, who was a giant in Australian politics, a giant in South Australian public life and a groundbreaking national leader. He was a wonderful mentor to me, a friend, a colleague, and someone that taught me so much about politics, and a man whose service left an undeniable mark on the state of South Australia and our nation. Today, our condolences go out to his wife, Mary; his two daughters, Aria and Mikayla; his son, Nicholas; and his sister, Anna. As I said, it is with great sadness that I stand here today.

Nick's political rise was marked by a complete determination, intellect, and an unwavering belief in the possibilities of public policy. He was elected to the Australian Senate in 1980, at the 1980 federal election, beginning a remarkable 24-year tenure as one of South Australia's longest serving senators and ministers. Prior to that, he had worked and assisted many of Labor's greats, like Clyde Cameron, the industrial relations minister in the Whitlam government; Reg Bishop, who was Postmaster-General; and many others. He was a natural-born leader. He was empathetic, understanding, and he would always take the time to speak to people and learn and question and probe and grasp exactly what that particular person was and what he could learn from them. And that happened to everyone he came across. He showed me, personally, what it was like to represent a community.

I was lucky to be given a place in his office to work for him. It was an opportunity that I will always be grateful for. In fact, I wouldn't be standing in this place as a member of the House of Representatives if it wasn't for Nick's probing and encouraging me to run for a seat back in the late nineties. I remember clearly the discussion we had about running for Hindmarsh back in 1998, and, I've got to say, if it weren't for Nick, I wouldn't have made that move. No doubt, without his support, his encouragement and his guidance throughout not just those years when I was a candidate and then elected but continuously, right up until recently, I know I wouldn't be here. So I thank him for the opportunity, and I'll always be grateful to Nick for that.

Nick was entrusted with some of the nation's most important portfolios. He served as Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Administrative Services, Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Multicultural Affairs, where he actually helped shape modern multicultural Australia. Then, in opposition, he was shadow environment minister and shadow Attorney-General, still contributing to the nation's policies.

It was during this period, the Hawke-Keating era, that Nick made his most considerable and most compassionate and far-reaching decisions, allowing thousands of Chinese nationals who were in Australia before the 1989 Tiananmen Square issue to remain permanently. Overnight he made the decision to grant visas to them along with their families, and it was a decision rooted in humanity. It gives you an idea of Nick's thought process and his beliefs. This was a decision he made that was, as I said, rooted in humanity, moral clarity and a deep belief in Australia as a nation that stands with those seeking safety and integrity. Nick was always a supporter of refugees and of making the right decision to ensure that people who were without a home and had fled their nation, their country—whether it be through war, famine or destruction—would always have an opportunity to go through the system here in this nation to be given refuge. He was a true believer in that.

I think that comes from his background as well, when you look at Nick's history. His parents migrated from a little island in the eastern Aegean called Kastellorizo. They came out in the mid-twenties or thirties and made a home for themselves, first in Port Pirie, and then they moved to Adelaide, where Nick grew up in the inner city, in west Adelaide. A lot of his beliefs were grounded in, and came to fruition through, the migrant community in the western suburbs. There was a very large Greek community and Italian and Lebanese communities in western Adelaide. Nick grew up in that environment, going to Sturt Street Primary and then to Adelaide High School. If you look at his background, his parents came from this little island that had been occupied for hundreds of years by the Ottoman Empire and had then sought freedom—then it went to the Venetians and to the English. People left this island in droves, including his parents, and therefore he grew up in this environment understanding what it's like to flee or leave for a better life, and that formed his beliefs, I believe.

Nick was not simply just a minister; he was also a reformer, a thinker, a principled advocate who understood the machinery of government. I had many conversations with him about these issues and policies et cetera. He used the machinery of government to deliver meaningful change. He modernised our consumer protection laws, advanced transparency in political funding and strengthened the foundations, of course, of multicultural Australia. He also achieved a milestone of profound symbolic importance: Nick Bolkus was the first Greek Australian to serve as a federal cabinet minister. It's not to say that there weren't other politicians of Greek descent before him, like Senator George Georges and some others. But Nick actually was a cabinet minister, and this was an incredible message not just to the Greek community but to many, many migrant communities who had settled in Australia. It showed that, as a son of migrants, you could be at the top level, forming policy with outcomes in legislation that benefit the community. For countless families—Greek, migrant and multicultural families—this was a very important message.

We were so proud of him as a Greek community. I recall the many times when Bob Hawke, the Prime Minister of Australia, or Paul Keating or cabinet ministers would come to a Greek festival, an event of the community; these things just didn't take place prior to that. You would have rarely ever—well, never—seen a prime minister at an ethnic event prior to the late seventies and early eighties. So this was a big message saying, 'Yes, we are a government that respects you, we're a government that honours you and we're a government that understands your contribution as a migrant to this nation.' And Nick had a big influence on leaders of this nation to actually take migrant communities seriously and to take them on board and understand the importance of our multicultural communities. For countless families, as I said, of Greek migrants in Adelaide and all over Australia, it was a huge message, and it said: you belong, your contributions matter, and your story is part of Australia's story. This is the time when the thinking of Australia changed and we became a truly multicultural nation.

Beyond titles and portfolios, Nick was known for his generosity—generosity of time, generosity of giving advice and generosity of just catching up and giving you his views on what he thought would be a way forward for any issues or problems that you may have had. This reached out across the political aisle. He was respected as a formidable intellect, a strategic mind and a man of deep integrity. When I say he was respected across the aisle here in this place—he was also respected internationally. I visited Greece many times, and Nick was one of the first executive members of the World Hellenic Inter-Parliamentary Association, which is a group of MPs from around the world that are of Greek descent. This was formed in 1996. Nick was on the very first executive. Through the contacts he had made—every time I visit Greece and I see politicians and have meetings, one of their first questions to me is: 'How is Nick? How's Nick going? Give him my regards.' That was especially from George Papandreou, former prime minister of Greece. I've met with him on a number of occasions. He was the former foreign affairs minister as well. His first words to me every time I'd see him in Athens were: 'How's Nick going? Give him my regards.' This is the level of respect that he had internationally.

In South Australia, Nick's imprint is absolutely everywhere—in the multicultural institutions that he strengthened, the young leaders that he mentored, the families whose lives were changed by his decisions and the political landscape he helped shape over four decades. At the heart of Nick's life, of course, was his family. He leaves behind his wife, Maria; his comrade and friend Mary Patetsos, a respected community leader; and his three beautiful children, Nicholas, who is practising law and doing very well in South Australia, Aria, his daughter who is the candidate for the seat of Colton—and we wish her the very best—and Mikayla, who has gone back to legal work but worked in my office for a few years as well. All of his three children share his strategic mind, his deep generosity and his integrity. Today, we remember the man who rose from Adelaide's western district to the highest level of national leadership and a man who championed fairness, dignity and multiculturalism before those values were widely celebrated; a man who mentored generations, including myself, transformed policy and lived his life in service to others; a man who was a personal friend to many and the leading light for change. South Australia lost a dedicated servant, and Australia has lost one of its great champions.

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