Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Murray Darling Basin) Share this | Hansard source

As I rise in my place the air around my desk here is rich with the smell of the fresh flowers that Senator Kroger has so thoughtfully placed on the desk of the late Senator Judith Anne Adams. It has been my pleasure since the time of the 2010 election to have this seat next to Judith. It is a shame that on so many occasions, especially this year, Judith has not been here for us all to enjoy the great camaraderie that I have shared, especially during many a question time, as we would exchange comments across the aisle and exchange our thoughts on how the politics of the day were proceeding, what was happening in the west and, of course—as we have heard from so many people—the issues Judith was so passionate about and so committed to.

I first really got to know Judith when I came to this place. I cannot speak to a condolence motion on a budget day without reflecting on the fact that it was five years ago—five budgets ago—that I entered this place. I was the Senator Dean Smith of the day, and it was a day very reminiscent of this one. Tributes flowed to my predecessor in this place, the late Jeannie Ferris. I know that Judith admired Jeannie, and I know that Jeannie admired Judith and that she would have been saddened by the fact that Judith went in such similar circumstances to those of Jeannie herself.

Getting to know Judith over those five years has been an absolute pleasure. She was, as we have heard, a direct person, a forthright person, a very matter-of-fact person. There was no messing about with Judith; you knew where you stood and you knew what the issues were, and she made sure that everybody was very clear in that sense. She was also the epitome of the adage that if you want a job done you should find a busy person to do it. Judith was a busy person and she was always getting the job done. I and everyone in this place know all too well just how busy a senator she was, how busy she was in her work in this place. As many have said, she gave so much of her time to the community affairs committee and the rural affairs committee, crisscrossing the country and listening to so many people, engaging with their issues and championing their causes. More recently when we would catch up, her work from those committees on the issue of wind farms would often become a topic of conversation relevant to my portfolio responsibilities. Judith saw that as an issue that joined her passions—her passion to ensure that issues of health care and preventive health were taken seriously and that very passionate representation she brought to regional and rural communities, as well as her desire to make sure that those communities were not adversely affected by any developments related to wind farms. She was driven by a desire to ensure that the science was applied appropriately—was developed if need be—but that those community concerns were put first and foremost.

It was not just as a senator that Judith was busy. I, like so many others, from all parties, discovered just what a busy and full life she had led when we travelled to Kojonup for her funeral service. That was where it really came through that Judith's passion in this place—her style of never stopping—was something she had every day of her life, in every act and in every step she took. We heard about Judith the horse rider and the trainer. We heard about Judith the community organiser who, if she wanted a sporting event or training activities for her two boys and they were not available in Kojonup, set about making them available—setting up the relevant organisations and ensuring that those facilities were there, not just for her two boys but for all the other children in that part of Western Australia.

Judith's was a life full of service, both to the parliament and to the Liberal Party. The Liberal Party has lost a very valued member, someone who made a tangible difference. She made a difference not just in this place and not just through her fundraising activities, hard work and service but in terms of others who have come to this place—none more so than Ken Wyatt, the member for Hasluck and the first Indigenous member of the House of Representatives, who in many ways is here thanks to the work of Judith Adams. She worked tirelessly in that electorate to ensure Ken was elected. I recall many occasions in the run-up to the 2010 election—in party room meetings, in the chamber and elsewhere—when Judith would provide, either one-on-one to me or to the entire party room, updates on how the campaign was going. Those updates would always be littered with stories of what she had picked up on the campaign trail, knocking on doors throughout the electorate of Hasluck. Judith was renowned for her service to rural communities and to health care, as I touched on earlier. We learnt that that was how she and Gordon, her late husband, came to be connected—Gordon served as a pilot for the Royal Flying Doctor Service and Judith was working as a nurse in rural health care. The passion that they both shared was obvious. And she faced her loss, in only the last couple of years, with Gordon's passing. And there was her service to the military and her commitment to service personnel that she shared, as one who had worn the uniform of the New Zealand territorial army—and she served in Vietnam in that role.

Judith was a tough character and a real fighter. She was stoic and one never to complain, even with the challenges that she faced in her latter years. She was principled and would always stick to her guns and fight for the issues that she believed in, especially those related to rural Australia. She was a real fighter in the spirit of ANZAC—and a fighter in the spirit of rural Australia, especially for those many women in rural Australia who work and fight so hard for their communities. She was, as we have heard, a nurse, a wife, a mother, a grandmother, a farmer, a horse trainer—so many things: a senator, yes, but perhaps, as her boys Stuart and Robbie put it best at her funeral, 'Senator Mum' always. I extend my condolences to them, to her grandchildren and to her entire family. As I think fitting for a woman who gave so much in service: Judith Adams, lest we forget.