Ian Macfarlane (Groom, Liberal Party, Minister for Industry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, may I congratulate you on your speakership.

On indulgence, I rise tonight to ask this parliament to reflect on and to admire the life of Isobel Louise Reid, a woman of brightness, intelligence and vitality. She was born in Brisbane in 1921 and passed away quietly on 9 November, 2013, having enjoyed a life spanning two centuries and leaving a legacy and spirit that will doubtless span a third.

She graduated from the University of Queensland in science and worked for some time in Rockhampton before marrying Jim Macfarlane in 1945. That marriage produced four children: Louise, Robert, Neil and Ian. The first and last, as she would often remind us, were unexpected but definitely not accidents.

She was not born to be a farmer's wife in a remote part of the South Burnett away from her family and university friends, but she soon became an integral part of the Boondooma community, a community she lived in and loved for almost 35 years.

She joined the Kingaroy Forum Club so she could improve her public speaking skills and overcome her inherent shyness. Deputy Prime Minister Truss, then Mayor of Kingaroy, who often adjudicated at the forum club, would attest that she was an accomplished public speaker who spoke with knowledge and conviction.

During her time as a wife and a mother, mum did not always get an easy run in life and at times had to put up with a lot. She guided her second child through a life plagued by mental illness and at the same time encouraged her third child, who was severely handicapped by cerebral palsy, to have the determination to live a life of independence and fulfilment.

She invariably did what had to be done, dealt with each situation as it happened and made the best of what was, whatever the circumstances she and her family found herself in.

She was thoughtful but would not want to be known as a thinker or intellectual. She loved conversation which reflected her love of life and the people and places that were important to her. She put her point of view loudly with enthusiasm but it was her interest in the world and particularly the people of that world that made mum the unique person that she was.

With a brother who was once the chief political reporter for the Courier Mail here in Canberra, politics were never far from her thoughts.

Each Sunday, when I rang her, she provided a commentary on local, national and international affairs, along with advice on all facets of my life and advice for those with whom I might come in contact with during that week—prime ministers included. She had a view on any topic I cared to raise and was so well read and had such an extraordinary memory that she could tie the future predictions in with the past, weaving them into the present during a discussion on any topic you might care to mention to her. She was, by any measure, an extraordinary woman.

She was compassionate, artistic, strong, determined, opinioned, modest, forgiving, caring, thoughtful and, most importantly, wise. She was, without doubt, one of the most intelligent women I have ever met but not an intellectual. Rather, she was someone with a practical sense, who imparted knowledge without feeling that she was giving anyone anything special.

A friend once described mum to me as a sensuous woman, to my instant embarrassment, until I realised there was no better description of her as a woman who thoroughly enjoyed all the sights, sounds and vibrancy of a life she lived to the full.

There were examples of Isobel Macfarlane evident in each of her descendants who gathered to farewell her last Friday. Her attitudes are our attitudes, not because she imposed them on us but because she set an example that we of each generation of her wanted to follow. She was like no other woman I have ever known. Her honesty and her forthrightness drew attention and admiration and, ultimately, friendship from those who came in contact with her.

She leaves this world having made Australia a better place for her having been here. I thank the House for its indulgence.

House adjourned at 21:30