Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'll begin my remarks by extending my condolences to Nick Bolkus's wife, Mary; to his children Aria, Mikayla and Nicholas; and to his sister, Anna.

When you're speaking last on a condolence motion, there's not much left to be said, especially having listened to the contributions of all my colleagues here in this place over the last day or two, where I believe that they all have beautifully summed up Nick's life.

I wasn't able to get to the funeral service for Nick at the Greek Orthodox Church, otherwise known as the Cathedral of Archangels Michael and Gabriel, in Adelaide on 21 January, because parliament here was sitting, but I was able to get to the state memorial on 22 January at the Allan Scott Auditorium in the Hawke Building at the University of Adelaide. Again, the collective contributions there on the day, beginning with Daniela Ritorto, Premier Peter Malinauskas, former deputy premier John Rau, Mary, Aria and Mikayla, and the Minister for Health, Disability and Ageing's contribution in this chamber yesterday, I believe perfectly encapsulate the life of Nick Bolkus and the person he was—the husband, the father, the friend, the politician and the community man that so many others have spoken about in their contributions about him.

The number of people who were at the Allan Scott Auditorium state memorial service also provided a glimpse of the respect that Nick was held in by people from across the country. The number and diversity of people who had come to know him and the impact that he had had on their lives were well displayed on the day by the presence of those people.

I first met Nick Bolkus shortly after the dismissal of the Whitlam government, when I took a job working as research officer to Senator Jim Cavanagh. Nick was then working for Clyde Cameron. The federal MPs and senators at the time predominantly worked on the 15th floor of the AMP building, which was located directly across the road from the state parliament house.

The senators and members had their offices up there, but the staff of the federal representatives were located in a shared room where I, Nick, Paul Holloway and Malcolm Dixon also worked—Paul working for Ralph Jacobi, the then member for Hawker, Malcolm Dixon working for Senator Reg Bishop and Nick, as I said, working for Clyde Cameron. Within that shared space there was a private office. Unsurprisingly, Nick Bolkus took the private office—he was the most senior of all of us at the time. He took the office, and I'd still see him every day as we worked, effectively, alongside each other.

What was noticeable was that Nick didn't seem to do a lot of work as a research officer but, in fact, spent most of his time networking with people within the political system and outside of it—building relationships with MPs, community leaders and business people and with whomever else he was able to. In fact, it would be fair to say that I can rarely recall Nick without the phone glued to his ear, such was his interest in trying to make connections with people in and around the state, and interstate as well.

At the time, whilst he was a young person, every Friday the MPs would come back from Canberra—people like Reg Bishop, Jim Toohey, Mick Young and, sometimes, Senator Don Cameron, Clyde's brother, and state members Jack Wright and Geoff Virgo, who were considered to be some of the more influential MPs of the day, and my friend the member for Adelaide would probably remember many of those MPs—and would gather for lunch at one place or another, and I'm pretty sure that, at those lunch meetings, they would try to sort out the issues of the country and the internal issues of the Labor Party. Chinatown and Hindley Street were popular venues. It was interesting that Nick was already embraced by that group so early in the piece. My view is that they embraced him because they saw the qualities in him that would make him a future leader, and they were absolutely right. They backed him, and he ended up as a senator in this place in 1981, after having been elected in the 1980 election.

In 1981 Senator Jim Cavanagh, who I worked for, retired, so my connection with Nick became somewhat more distant after that. He was elected to the Senate. I went back into my own private life and so on. But we always kept in touch. It wasn't until pretty much the time that I got elected to this place that we once again came together, you might say, and regularly contacted each other over a whole range of matters.

The interesting thing about Nick's career is that he went on to be a minister and—again, as the member for Adelaide pointed out—the first Greek person to become a cabinet minister, which, in its own right, was a huge achievement. But he was someone who was absolutely committed to policy work. I'm pleased that the Minister for Home Affairs, in his remarks before they were cut short, touched on his contribution to Indigenous land rights and, in particular, the debate that took place after the Mabo decision in the High Court where legislation was brought into the parliament, and, subsequently, the debate in terms of amendments to land rights when the Howard government took office.

As someone who had taken an interest in land rights—because former senator Jim Cavanagh, who I worked for, was in fact the first minister to bring legislation relating to land rights into this parliament—I listened with interest to the very long debate that took place when Labor was in opposition and there were amendments to the land rights act. Yes, it was a long debate, but, again, Nick Bolkus played a leading role in that debate—as he did in the debate under Paul Keating when Labor introduced legislation following the Mabo decision. It's one of the achievements of Nick that has not been given, I believe, sufficient airing or sufficient credit for.

Whilst we talk about multiculturalism and his contribution to that, which I entirely agree with and I concur with all the remarks that have been made about that, he also contributed immensely to the Indigenous land rights issues in this country, and that shouldn't be overlooked, because it did set a precedent and a pathway for Indigenous land ownership that we still have to this day.

When he left politics, I would occasionally catch up with Nick, and, again, his interest in politics never waned—not only his interest, but, quite frankly, he was someone who could read the political winds so well. He was someone that you would take advice from because you knew that he understood politics and he understood what the likely consequences of different decisions were. It was always a pleasure to catch up with him to hear his insights into what might lie ahead, and we would do that quite regularly.

In fact, when I had Lindsay Tanner, who was the finance minister after my election to this place in 2007, come out to my electorate to do a community forum, I had Nick as the emcee—again, because of his interest in politics, his ability to perhaps elicit the right questions that the public might want to hear and the people that were attending might want to hear and also his ability to be able to contribute to the forum responses that there might be. Lindsay was so well known and it was great to have the two of them there together, because they had both worked with each other and knew each other, and it was an asset for me to have both of them there.

Subsequent to that, as I said, I'd kept in touch with him, but, in later years, Nick's health started to decline. When he went into the nursing home in 2019, I would visit him. Regrettably, because of COVID, the visits had to be stopped for a while. But, once the restrictions were lifted, I'd still go back and visit him, and I watched him deteriorate physically over that time. I'd take him outside of the centre, and we'd go down to the local shopping centre nearby. I'd take him down there for a coffee, and we would again talk politics. And, even though he was physically almost unable to feed himself or drink his coffee, his mind was as sharp as it was the day I met him. Again, he was someone that you could ask for advice about what was likely to happen. He could read the political winds, as I said earlier, and that never left him.

In his time here, at this place, I know that he developed friendships with a lot of MPs—I'm talking about friendships that were life lasting—and it was so good to see people, at the memorial service, like Laurie Brereton, Warren Snowdon and Brendan O'Connor come along. Nick, when he was reminiscing about his time in this place with me, would often mention them as being partners in whatever else he was doing. The late Simon Crean was another person—and I know Simon would've been there had it not been for the fact that he couldn't be there, because he had passed away—that I know Nick would speak so highly of.

Everything's been said about his contribution to public life and the examples of the people that he has helped, and I'm not going to go over all of that. But I say this about him: he was a person who, like all of us, came into this place wanting to make a difference, and he did. He made a difference in this place. He made a difference back in South Australia in particular, where he was an influential leader within the Labor Party. He made a difference within his own Greek community; the member for Adelaide referred to his international contacts and so on. And he made a difference to people's lives, including people overseas—and again there were examples given of that. He did so always committed to, and always being a true believer and a faithful member of, the Labor Party. Even when he left this place—and he didn't leave under his own decision—he never turned his back on the Labor Party or the people that he had got to know over the years.

I'll finish with this observation about Nick: I knew him for most of my life, and in all that time I can never once recall him raising his voice—not once; not within the chamber and not outside of the chamber. He was always quietly spoken, very placid and very considered in everything he said. So to Nick I say: Nick, thank you for your leadership. Thank you for your friendship. Thank you for what you did for the people of Australia. May you rest in peace.

Debate adjourned.

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