Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

I rise also to support this condol­ence motion for the late Senator Judith Adams. I can recall meeting Judith sometime in 2004, when we were doing all the 'baby senator' sessions. Judith basically bounced up to me in the corridor. I was having a bloke moment; I was really trying to put together who I was talking to. Within two minutes of that conversation, I realised she was talking to me because she wanted to understand who I was, what my role was here and what I knew that might be useful to anybody, and she left about 10 minutes later. I was quite exhausted, feeling husk-like. She had certainly taken away almost every piece of valuable information that she thought was appropriate. She left me and I shook my head and thought: 'There is someone who has been somewhere. She seems to have an insight into everything.' She left me with the impression that she was really going to make a significant contribution to the Senate, and that she did.

So many people around here have talked about Judith's experience and why she was able to make such a wonderful contribution. I know she would want me to preface these remarks by saying that I in no way want to diminish the young and shiny senators who have come here with bright ideas, but I think the vast breadth of experience and diversity that, as an individual, she brought to this place really enabled her to make the special contribution she did.

If we can think about her life for a minute—we have already touched on so many of those areas—Judith was brought up in a little town, Picton, in New Zealand. Imagine, as a young woman, suddenly being a scrub nurse in a surgical team in Vietnam in 1967. That sort of experience is obviously something that Judith was about. In many of our conversations in committee hearings she would share little titbits. Again, as Senator Nash indicated, sometimes it is only with someone's passing that you realise the depth of that experience. She shared with me her time in Vietnam. We had both worked inside theatre in previous lives. She was able to give such an insight into what it was like then and how much it had changed. We talked about how strange it is that you can be out of the health system only for a blink and you are out of date because technology changes so fast. We had a conversation about how we can ensure that particularly women who leave to have children, to look after a family or to enter another workforce can better gain access back into a system that is so valuable and is a function of their participation. Such a practical approach by Judith came from such deep experience. Being a nurse in regional and rural Australia, being married to a Royal Flying Doctor Service pilot, bringing up a couple of kids in regional Australia, working off the land in a small business, in a sheep farm in Kojonup—all these vast experiences brought everything that was Judith to this place. I spent a lot of time with Judith, particularly over a six-month period on the Senate Select Committee on Regional and Remote Indigenous Communities. I know many of us here spent time together on that committee. Whilst it has been touched on before, I have to reflect for a moment on Judith's ability to be pretty seriously robust. Without mention­ing the place, there was an individual who effectively tried to slander a number of other people in his community. It was pretty ugly. We were all looking at each other, not knowing what to do. But, of course, Judith was the first to say: 'Excuse me, Chair. Look, mate, this is not the place for this. If you have evidence about these things then you can tell us.' She was there to protect the process. She knew what was right instinctively and did not need reminding.

All of that experience that Judith brought with her here she also used outside in the community. She was always off somewhere. She would say: 'You are going to have to talk to this other group of people. I have spoken to this family.' You would say, 'But the schedule is full.' She would say: 'We'll be right. We'll fit them in. It's going to be really important evidence.' In those times she would wander away and seemed to have the capacity to connect so quickly with people that they had the confidence to speak to her. In Indigenous communities it can be very difficult to have the confidence to say to someone: 'I would really like to say something. I have something important to say, but I am not sure how to do it.' They always saw Judith as that lodestone. They would go to that beacon, and she would make sure that we had the capacity to listen to the remarks of those individuals. On her passing, we have heard this reported from so many different sides of the political divide, from pretty much anyone, across the political divide, who has given evidence to the committees. I think that really is a reflection that whilst she was on the right side of parliament—she would expect me to say that—she genuinely had a bipartisan approach to these matters. While she was a very strong Liberal, and politics was something she played hard, her first concern was the interests of her community, her constituency and her country.

I can recall very clearly the incident in the party room with John Howard when we were all getting a bit of a sense that, as Senator Brandis indicated, there were no baubles that could be hung before her—'Perhaps we can do this for your community or that.' There was none of that. But it was interesting to see the other side of Judith. She would say, 'I am here to be persuaded, but you have not done it so far; you have a day to convince me,' or 'I have a day to get back to them, and what you have said is not enough.' But she was genuinely there to be persuaded and, if you could give a significant argument that filled the gaps that she required be filled—and she was quite happy to articulate them—then she would take that on board and she would change her mind on some issues.

I know the people who operate the Australian Defence Force Parliamentary Program will miss her dearly. She was a great ambassador for all parliamentarians. So many of the people in my garrison town of Darwin in the Northern Territory say: 'When we met Judith it was fantastic. We now know politicians are real people. Isn't that amazing?' As a parliamentarian she was a great ambassador for how good we can be in this place. She certainly was in every aspect of her life. If you seek public life, and certainly if you come here as a senator, she would be the ideal model.

We have heard that she fought a long battle with cancer. She did that with rare dignity and courage. I can recall an interview she gave with Breast Cancer Network Australia. When asked how cancer had affected her work, she said: 'My term expires in June 2011. I am honoured to be preselected to contest the next election.' She was basically saying: 'What is your point? What is your issue? This is my work. I am continuing in my work. Just because I have had cancer does not mean I should possibly think about—if this is what you are alluding to in the question—giving up. That is certainly not what I am going to do.' It was a very fierce answer from someone who really believed that she should lead by example.

I can recall just before we came in here one day when she was in the wheelchair I said, 'How's it going?' and I put my arm around her. She said, 'Oh, this bloody thing, Nigel, is just so annoying.' If anybody did not know Judith they would have said, 'I understand.' Then she went on to say: 'The bloody doctors gave me the wrong chemo. But it's all right; we've got the right one now. But my feet are bugging me.' It was just such an annoyance. It was getting in the way of the work and that was a complete annoyance. It was not a frustration about her own level of amenity. That was absolutely classic Judith. I think she was just such an example to us all.

In terms of the politics in the Liberal Party, Senator Dean Smith, I understand that you are automatically election ready, mate. She made sure everything right up to the last minute in a political sense was all in order. That again was classic Judith. A wife, midwife, nurse, soldier, farmer, mother and senator—there were few tougher than Judith Adams. I would like to put on record my admiration for my mate and colleague and pass on my sincere condolences to her sons, Stuart and Robbie, her extended family, staff and friends.