Keith Wolahan (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Sometimes you get a message on your device that makes time stand still, and for me that happened recently, when Andrew Luke Dwight passed away at 45 years of age on Anzac Day after a 20-month battle with brain cancer. We were good friends at Ringwood Secondary College. He was the firstborn son to Graeme and Pauline, brother to Adam and Amy, brother-in-law to Jude and uncle to Kaelem, Chay and Yvere. He would be so proud of them and of all of you in how you honoured him at his funeral and have done so every day since.

I knew him as quietly confident, thoughtfully spoken and kind. He was a person far more interested in deep conversation, expansive thinking and active listening. He cared about others—how they felt and what they had to say. Andrew was a supremely gifted musician and an articulate speaker. In his own words, he described himself as a 'wide-eyed wanderer'. He enjoyed all aspects of life, from the little things like savouring good coffee to staring in wonder at distant galaxies.

He worked and studied overseas, and I recall in high school he had aspirations to be a doctor. He didn't get there, because he withdrew from his medicine degree to care for his dad, who had brain cancer. At the end of his life, he was someone who passed it forward, and to all of those who loved him and cared for him: we will pass that forward. Rest in peace, Andrew.