Russell Broadbent (McMillan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They were lovers. I repeat: they were lovers. Ted and Lise Brorsen arrived from Denmark in 1969 with Dorthe and Heidi, with a dream and vision for them and their family. Shaun arrived in 1977, and the family was complete. Most recently at their beautiful home near Wonthaggi in Victoria, Ken Mitchell and I sat with Ted Brorsen at a time when the horrible disease that was afflicting him was taking him over, and even then Lise had cooked him a Danish bread, which we shared with very special coffee as we spoke to him. Outside the door were other people waiting to visit him while we were sitting there enjoying this time.

Motor neurone disease is a horrible disease, and Ted had made such a contribution. He started work at William Angliss in 1969, and he and Lise turned up in their green Holden and met fellow Dane Mogens Jensen. That was the start of a 40-year friendship which endured to this day and a seven-year stint as production manager. Over the next 20 years, the name Tabro was born, with boning rooms at Laverton and Braeside and a factory in Dandenong which developed the mayonnaise and bromelaide products.

This guy had a terrific sense of humour. He was the head of Tabro Meat at Wonthaggi. He created the place. He built it up. He grew it. It has now been sold on to another company. But Ted Brorsen was the one who was out there who drove the whole explosion. He hated red tape. He hated men in white coats. He hated people who told him what to do. He was a typical Dane. He was a Viking.

You can never talk about Ted without talking about Lise. She was also in the photographs that they showed at the very large gathering at his funeral that included all sorts of people from all walks of life who were there to honour him after his passing. It was a place worth being. All of those people had been touched at some time by Ted's sense of humour or had received a pat on the shoulder from the inclusive person that he was with his staff and friends. He was that way not only with the senior staff but with the workers on the floor of the abattoir. We had all been part of the amazing journey in one form or another. We had all, to a lesser or greater degree, been touched by this wonderful man and equally by Lise.

Ted often spoke of the difficulties in doing business in Australia, whether at a state, federal or local government level. As the federal member, he often called me out. He would complain bitterly about our regulations in this country and how they were holding back his business. But he had an amazing export business which he grew out of a small one. He could turn his hand to anything. It did not matter what he tried, he did it with expertise and style. He is a man who is going to be sorely missed by his community, because there is not one community group you can list in the Wonthaggi and broader district that he has not helped.

He had a close association with Ken Smith, the MLA at the time, and me as the federal member for the area. This was a man who drew people to him. Wherever Ted and Lise went as a couple, people lit up around them. Their hospitality in their beautiful home and garden out at Wattle Bank was something to be seen. I do not know who looks after those gardens, but they are magnificent. We have been blessed by the fact that this man lived and that he came to Australia. He was a huge success story. I know this man will live on in our hearts and minds and memory. He has passed, but he will live on.

His wife is now determined to let me as her federal member know just what we should be doing about motor neurone disease. I say to you, Lise, and to your family: one day we will find a cure for motor neurone disease and you will be one of the inspiring people who drove this nation in that direction.