Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tonight I rise in the House of Representatives to pay tribute to one of our nation’s most successful businessmen, Mr Carlo Salteri, who passed away earlier this month.

Since World War II Australia has greatly benefited from the hundreds of thousands of migrants who came from war torn lands to start a new life. Collectively they helped to build and shape modern Australia. Carlo Salteri was one of those people and must surely be regarded as one of Italy’s greatest exports to our shores.

In 1951, at the age of 30, Carlo Salteri arrived in New South Wales as a mechanical engineer to work on a new transmission line from the Illawarra to Homebush. At Rome airport he met and became friends with another member of the project team, Franco Belgiorno-Nettis. At the conclusion of the project, both wisely decided to make Australia their home. Together they founded one of Australia’s most significant construction and services enterprises, Transfield. During their 40-year partnership their company was to build some of Australia’s most iconic infrastructure, such as the Sydney Harbour Tunnel and Brisbane’s Gateway Bridge. In the late 1980s Transfield began to build its investment in defence industries. It won the tender to build the Anzac frigates and, in the process, re-established a naval shipbuilding capability in Australia.

In 1997 the Salteris and the Belgiorno-Nettises took separate paths as Transfield was de-merged. Carlo Salteri, at the tender age of 76, together with his family, established Tenix, which quickly became the largest defence contractor in Australia.

Through his work at Transfield and Tenix, Carlo Salteri was rightly regarded as one of Australia’s most significant businessmen. In 2002 he was formally recognised for his business leadership with a Companion of the Order of Australia.

Mr Salteri’s commitment to our nation extended beyond his work in business. He had a strong desire to give back more broadly to the community. He established the Tenix Foundation, which provides assistance for education, research and underprivileged children. In addition, the Salteri family are very generous benefactors of many community organisations.

Carlo Salteri had strong values and strong faith. In his quiet and considered way, he was able to imbue in his extended family a set of values that most Australians would admire and respect. Tenix derives its name from the Latin word for tenacity. It was an appropriate choice for a man who achieved so much through daring and courage combined with an incredible work ethic that saw him remain on the board of Tenix until his death. He did, however, have a resolve tempered with compassion and thoughtfulness.

Throughout his life, Mr Salteri treasured a five-centime coin that his grandfather in Italy gave him before he moved to Australia. His grandfather told the teenage Salteri that ‘to make a million, one has to start from a five-centime coin.’ It was a message that he truly took to heart. He knew that success would only come through his own labours, hard work and initiative. It is this spirit of enterprise that is at the core of Australia’s success as a nation and why we owe so much to people of Carlo Salteri’s ilk.

When Tenix was founded, they located its head office in the North Sydney CBD, in my electorate. I was honoured to spend time with Carlo Salteri over many relaxed lunches in his office. It was a particularly significant honour for me to be asked to open their new building, Innovation Place, a few years ago. It stands tall as one of North Sydney’s most modern office buildings and is a testament to a man who, as his biographer, Peter Fitzsimons, wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald obituary, helped lay the foundations of modern Australia.

A person’s legacy is not just measured by the bricks and mortar they leave behind. While such things may form permanent reminders, it is often the less tangible attributes by which we assess a person’s achievements. In this regard, Carlo Salteri can be truly proud because he accomplished the most important task of all—to be a good husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather who earned the love, respect and admiration of his family.

To all the Salteri family, on behalf of the Australian people, I send my most sincere condolences. Carlo will rest in peace knowing that his life was not only brimful with success but that his legacy will be honoured by a nation and its people for many generations to come.