Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

You just cannot keep a good guy down, I suppose, Guy. When I was state president we worked quite closely together on a range of things including reform of elements of the party. As Guy mentioned in his speech, that process continues. It is a long relationship. It goes back 20-odd years now. We were competitors in and around the preselection process. In fact, we had some pretty friendly conversations about who was who in the zoo at particular times, but we walked away quite content that we would compete with each other on our merits. One thing I will say about my interactions with Guy—and this is, unfortunately, something which does not happen within preselection processes—is that we were prepared to compete with each other on our merits rather than trying to drag each other down. I certainly appreciated that process, Guy. When we finally got to the stage of starting our parliamentary careers, we started here within a month of each other. It is through the cruel vagaries of the political process that, unfortunately, Guy is leaving us. He still has a lot to offer in public life. He has hinted at that during his speech here tonight, and I think that is appropriate. One thing that I think Guy's nine years in this chamber has done is provide him with the tools and skills to set himself up with a large number of options. I was delighted to hear that he is taking up some representative work for something that he has become synonymous with—that is, diabetes. It is highly appropriate that Guy takes that up because we all know the strength of passion that he has for that cause. Obviously he has a personal reason for doing that, but it is not necessary, from Guy's perspective, to have a personal reason to be involved with an issue. One thing about Guy: if you have him on your side on an issue, you know that there is somebody who is just not going to let go. As much as people might like him to let go on occasions, once he is set on a path that is it; he will fight alongside you right through the process.

I reflected at his valedictory dinner a week or so ago, which again demonstrated how well regarded he is in our home state of Tasmania, that he was prepared to take up the really tough issues and to go into places where it was difficult to go. I recall in the lead-up to the election the state government had made some decisions to close hospitals at Rosebery and Ouse. Rosebery, being a mining town, is what you would call dead red Labor; she is a pretty tough place for us conservatives. I can recall campaigning down there for a day at the senior citizens and thinking I was doing a wonderful job. At the end of it they said: 'Well it's been great to meet you. We think you're a lovely bloke, but Dick Adams is good fella too.' That is the nature of the place; they are very set in their ways. But the campaign that Guy waged down there brought close to a 25 per cent swing in that seat. It was Guy's strength of advocacy that really provided the impetus for people to change their vote—which is not an easy thing to get people to do.

It is that strength of advocacy and those skills that Guy has built up over the past nine years in this place that will provide him with an enormous range of options. I am sure that we will see him working into the future. I wish Guy and his family all the best, as I do my other colleagues, and I look forward to working with him not only for the Liberal cause but for the community into the future.