John Alexander (Bennelong, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] Last week, the Bennelong community lost a giant: Peter Graham OAM was a pillar of our community. As alderman, councillor, mayor, pastor, volunteer and, until April, chair of my federal election committee he affected the lives of thousands of people across Bennelong and he will be sorely missed.

I first met Peter in the late nineties when he was mayor of Ryde and I was a sports developer looking to build a gym in the water polo stadium for the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Peter was a beacon of purity in a council which at the time was notorious—bringing his time as pastor and moderator to the Presbyterian church to provide a moral grounding to local government. Peter became an alderman in 1971 and held a position on council all the way through to 2004, with only a brief break in the late seventies—a remarkable 30 years at Ryde council. The reforms and developments he oversaw through these pivotal decades are too numerous to mention in the time I have. He had a major impact on the shape of our community.

More recently Peter stepped in to help out lead our FEC during a difficult period. He steered us through the turbulent years of a by-election and the election of 2009. Peter only stepped down from this role earlier this year to move to the Central Coast to be near his son. Peter was a genuine, stoic, kind and generous human being. In his passing Ryde has lost—(Time expired)