Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It was a pleasure last Saturday to attend the Tregear Festival, an annual event that has been a terrific drawcard for our local community and allows us to showcase much of the local talent in our area. But this year's event was bittersweet because an enormous force behind the festival and our community could not join us. Jim Maynard, a friend to both me and my predecessor Roger Price, was not just a great supporter of the Labor Party but a tremendous champion of Tregear. Jim, sadly, passed away last Friday after a stoic battle with cancer. He was 82.

Jim and his wife, Margaret, brought their young family to Sydney from their home in Romford, north-east London, in 1965. Jim would proudly speak of his London background and his upbringing close to the famed Bow Bells, but he was equally as proud of the place his family would call their new home, Sydney. To the end, Jim never lost that broad English accent. After a brief settling-in period in Matraville, in East Hills, the Maynards would settle in Western Sydney, and there they would remain. They were one of the very first residents of the then new suburb of Tregear. Jim's daughter Teresa says that they had the very first house in Shackleton Avenue and watched the suburb develop around them.

A f itter and t urner, Jim proudly worked for Qantas. He retired at 65 , but keeping still, with Jim, was never a possibility. Always active in the community, he gave time across 44 years to the Tregear Public School P&C , and he would help with the running of Tregear F estival , working hard with the organising committee. Sometimes he would just drop by to see how his community was going . F or example , the Tregear Presbyterian church let me know how he would just stop by P ressi e C afe to see who was there , what was happenin g and what he could do to help. J im loved his garden and his club life , but most of all Jim Maynard loved to give of himself.

One of the last engagements that allowed Jim and me to share time together was as part of a push with the s hadow health minister , Catherine King , to get a n MRI for M oun t Druitt h ospital — something Jim was deeply passionate about because he was one of those who needed that unit , and he was forced to travel elsewhere for diagnosis and treatment. If there was a cause to champion, Jim would be there. That was the fabric of Jim Maynard.

To Jim's children, Michael, Roy, Neil, Teresa and Kathleen, and all the grandkids, we say we are sorry for your loss, but we also thank you for sharing your dad with us. Your father's life was rich in many ways—an innings both long and filled with many memories of community service. He was typical of what Western Sydney stands for: hardworking, a family man, who, when others suggested it was time to put the feet up, decided instead to channel his energies into projects that made life easier for others.

His family tells us that they were having some difficulty finding an available church for Jim's funeral—which happens to be held this morning—but his late wife, Margaret, must have had the final word because the service will be held shortly at the historic Saint Bartholomew's church, Prospect, the place where she is buried. Jim will join her there—a fitting end for a great Western Sydney story.