David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tonight I rise to pay homage to a good friend of mine, Graham 'Butch' Lenton, the Mayor of Winton, who tragically lost his fight against cancer on 1 October this year. Winton is a small outback town of around a thousand people. Butch was Winton to the core. He was born and bred in Winton, he was educated there and he started his own business there, Central Motors. He was a keen mechanic. After getting an apprenticeship with the Winton Shire Council 30-odd years ago, he was able to start his own business and employ local people. He was a keen motorbike rider; in fact, he raced motorbikes and rode one across the Simpson Desert.

Butch was all about community. He was president of the Diamantina Devils rugby league team for 22 years, proudly representing them and his community. He believed in the future and people of Winton. Butch was somebody that everyone trusted and looked up to. For someone in a small community, he punched above his weight. He was a man who believed in his community. When he became a councillor back in 1997, then deputy mayor, then mayor in 2012, Butch gave everything he had for his community because he believed in it and he believed in his people.

Butch faced much adversity while he was the Mayor of Winton. He saw fires and drought. In fact, he saw the Waltzing Matilda Centre burn down in 2015. It was Butch who fought fiercely for the rebuilding of the centre. It was Butch who proactively looked for an alternative power supply through geothermal. It was Butch who saw the future in the outback quite uniquely in film and created his own film festival in Winton. He was a man of great vision and pride. He was a man who believed in his community and what he did.

I was fortunate enough to meet Butch two years ago, and it was at that point that I realised this man transcended all political boundaries. He was not about trying to be on one side or the other. Butch had respect from everybody not because he ranted or raved but because he led his community with pride and conviction. He understood his community and led them in a way that was inspiring to those people, who had faced so much adversity. They understood that he was there to drive the community to a better place despite what befell them. He never let them become victims. He never let them feel as though they'd been hard done by. Instead, he inspired them to be something they always wanted to be. That is something I will always take with me: as a leader you have to inspire your community to bring them with you—not make them victims or pull on those things that are hard in life but look for the opportunities ahead.

Butch rang me only about four weeks ago, after he'd been to a specialist in Townsville who told him that the cancer he'd been fighting for some two years was terminal. Butch's words were: 'Dave, mate, I had a bit of a bad week this week. It's going to be a bit tough from here on in. But she'll be right, mate; she'll be right.' That a man facing mortality saw only what he could do for the people of Winton in the rest of his time on this planet, thought only about the things left undone, the things he felt he hadn't achieved, I find inspiring. Seeing over a thousand people turn up to Butch's funeral and the absolute respect across the political divide for what this man had achieved and the lives he had touched is something I will never forget.

I was fortunate enough to meet with Butch one last time, about a week before he died. I raced out to Winton and had an hour with him. We talked about all the things that he believed he'd done and all the things he wanted to do, with frustration in his voice about what he wanted to achieve. In the outback we don't often touch one another, but, one last time, I was given the opportunity to give Butch a hug, and it is a hug that I will never forget, not for the rest of my life. I say to Ros and all the family: you should be so proud of this man; you should be proud of everything he's done. He's a true outback legend. He's a leader of our times. I will never forget Butch Lenton. Thank you.