Michael Forshaw (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today is a very sad day. I look across the chamber and I do not see Jeannie. We do not see her marshalling the troops at question time, delivering the ballot papers for some internal coalition ballot, explaining to a couple of senators how to fill out the ballot paper. We do not see Jeannie or, as Senator Moore has just said, hear her pointed interjections. I look across and see the flowers at her seat. They are entirely appropriate: they are bright, they are colourful and they are dignified. That was Senator Jeannie Ferris.

I was not associated with Jeannie in the inquiries by the Senate Community Affairs Committee into cancer. But like all other senators, and all Australians, I acknowledge and appreciate the great work that she did in initiating those inquiries and working so hard to put those issues more forcefully on the public health agenda. My main association with Jeannie in the formal political sense was through being involved in the Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Committee for quite a number of years up to about 2002. I notice my colleague Senator O’Brien is going to speak later and I am sure he will recall Jeannie’s involvement in that committee as well. I particularly recall her involvement in the first inquiry, in 2001, into the issue of the importation of New Zealand apples to Australia. This issue arose following a risk assessment analysis conducted by AQIS and led to the inquiry. I can recall Jeannie—and her coalition colleagues, but Jeannie in particular—being a vigorous and forceful defender of Australia’s agricultural industries, particularly the apple industry. That was somewhat ironic because, as has been pointed out, she was born in Auckland, New Zealand. She later came to Australia and took up her work with the National Farmers Federation and became a great champion for agriculture and agricultural communities.

But in that inquiry I well recall officers of AQIS and later of Biosecurity Australia quivering at the cross-examination by Senator Ferris. Indeed, at times we were happy to sit back and let her go: she was doing the work that oppositions often do. This was a very important issue relating to the potential risk to the Australian apple industry, and Jeannie was in there, without fear or favour, pursuing it. I notice that on Wednesday this week there is a public hearing of the Senate Standing Committee on Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport, and the title is ‘A follow-up to the inquiry into the administration of Biosecurity Australia—revised draft import risk analysis for apples from New Zealand’. So, six years later, it is still going on. I know there are other members of that committee present in the chamber now who are still vigorously pursuing it. We recall the work that Jeannie did in those earlier inquiries and I am sure that on Wednesday she will be looking down from up there to make sure they take on the issue and pursue the department and the agencies vigorously.

In his speech earlier this afternoon the Leader of the Government in the Senate, Senator Minchin, said that Jeannie had the toughest job in the Senate as the Government Whip. I would not necessarily disagree with that, but I know Jeannie disagreed with that. I recall a chat I had a couple of years ago with her—it was one of those quick chats you often have with other senators as you walk out of this chamber—and I remember that we discussed the whip’s task. She said to me that being whip was not the toughest job in this parliament; that the toughest job was being chair of the coalition’s backbench rural committee. I said, ‘How come?’ And she said, ‘If you’ve got Barnaby Joyce, Bill Heffernan, Alby Schultz and Wilson Tuckey on a committee, that’s a tough job!’ I thought to myself, ‘Gee, she’s lucky that Bob Katter has left the coalition!’ But that was Jeannie’s good humour. I would have to say that managing that committee with those individuals would be a tough job, but my money would be on Jeannie: she’d still come out on top!

Like all other members of this parliament, I enjoyed Jeannie’s company. She was feisty, she was bright, she was intelligent, she was humorous, direct and forceful—you could think of a whole lot of adjectives—but she was also a wonderful and delightful friend. I attended the memorial service on 10 April here in the parliament and that was a fitting tribute to Jeannie. It was a wonderful service.

Those who knew her for longer and in a closer way than I did, spoke that day. As I listened to the various speakers then and again today, talking about her experiences and her life, I felt that, yes, that was Jeannie. All those stories are obviously true because that was the Jeannie you expected would have lived that life—helpful, friendly and, above all, courageous both in her public and her private contribution. I am going to miss her; we are all going to miss Jeannie. It is really sad not to see her back here today because she would have continued to make a wonderful contribution to this parliament and to her political party and she would have continued to be a great friend to us all. I extend my sympathy to her family on this sad loss, and particularly to her sons, who had the double blow of losing their father in the same week. That was just tragic. Jeannie has made a wonderful contribution and her legacy will live on.