Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I rise to pay tribute to one of Australia's greatest people, and that is Allan George Moffat. Allan Moffat was a Canadian-born race car driver who came to Australia and became up there equally one of the best drivers that this country has ever produced. Allan and his good friend Peter Brock went toe-to-toe for a decade through car racing. Allan's record still stands as one of the greatest we've seen through his Coca-Cola Mustang, the Boss 302, which won two out of every three races it was ever entered into. There were four Bathurst wins at a time. Allan and Peter are the only two who actually stand in Australian history to have won in both the 500-mile format and the 1,000-kilometre format.

Allan has made a lot of people think about Australian cars. We think about the Toranas and the GT Falcons. Of course, the 65E in 1971 was one of Allan's greatest wins, where he drove solo from start to finish in a car and finished laps and laps ahead of everyone else. But I think my favourite was Allan's win in 1977—the famous one-two finish—which I know still hurts today for Holden people. They watched cars 1 and 2, side-by-side, go down the track, with his great mate Colin Bond beside him.

I was just reading some stuff on Allan the other night and read about the commercial for the XC Ford that was built back in '77. Australia's top race car drivers all lined up, and the car weaved between them just to show how good the Ford Australia car was made. It was Allan who suggested that the only person he would allow to drive a car with him standing in the middle of the road was his mate Fred Gibson, who was another great champion.

Allan was someone who, throughout his racing career, was always seen as very much matter of fact. He was the kind of bloke who never suffered fools easily. He was always a great person to talk to and very knowledgeable and very friendly to share his time with. Unfortunately, as he got older, Allan suffered the ravages of dementia and became an absolute icon in trying to raise awareness and deliver that through Allan Moffat Foundation. His son Andrew told me about how he encouraged all Australians to honour his legacy by supporting the Allan Moffat Foundation for its work to assist others facing dementia.

I want to put on the record my view that the support he got throughout his later years from a great mate of mine Phil Grant was second to none. Phil really made sure that Allan's legacy was protected and that Allan as a person got to enjoy his final years with his friends and enjoy the stuff that he did. So I pay tribute to him because Allan was a great hero of mine, and I think that with him and Peter Brock gone, we've lost two Australian legends. But Allan certainly stood head and shoulders above everyone, and there are a lot of people driving their Falcon GTs today that owe their value and support to the great work that Allan Moffat did. Vale, Allan George Moffat; you are a champion.

Meryl Swanson (Paterson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In accordance with standing order 193, the time for members' constituency statements has concluded.