Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Judith Adams was a wonderful person who cared, who worked hard and who was always determined to change things for the better, particularly for people in rural and regional areas. Senator Judith Adams was a valued friend and respected colleague who is sadly missed by all of us who knew her. I first met Judith back in 2000 when she was a state candidate in Wagin. Wagin was then and still is deep inside National Party territory. It is fair to say that Judith engaged in the campaign with characteristic vigour, and she of course engaged then, as she did subsequently, in a battle of ideas with the National Party, with the Labor Party, with the Greens and of course on occasion inside the Liberal Party too. Judith had very strong and very clear views and she was never frightened to express them and pursue them. When she pursued an argument, when she pursued a policy issue or when she engaged in a battle of ideas she did it in a way that developed at the same time great friendships, great relationships. The presence of so many colleagues at her funeral in Kojonup was testament to the high regard in which she was held by her colleagues right across the Senate.

The last time I met Judith was just before Christmas, when she had a Christmas function in her office for her friends and supporters. She had already been in hospital for some time, and she came back that afternoon because she was not going to miss out on her Christmas function; she was not going to let down the people who had made the effort to attend. She came from her hospital bed to the function, and then she went straight back to hospital. That says something about her determination and about her endearing stubbornness in the face of adversity.

Many very kind and very appropriate words have been spoken about Judith by colleagues around the chamber—words like 'tenacious', 'hard-working' and 'courageous'. I certainly agree with all of them. 'Courageous' definitely sums up Judith. She never took the easy choices or the safest road; she never took a step back. She of course was courageous long before she joined us here in the Senate. She was courageous when, as a young woman, she served as a nurse in the New Zealand territorial army, with service in Vietnam in 1967, and then on coming to Western Australia she joined the Emergency Nursing Service, beginning a long association with the bush and healthcare needs of rural Western Australia—which of course is the role that brought her into contact with the Royal Flying Doctor Service, which is where she met her future husband, Gordon. Judith and Gordon took the decision to go farming in Kojonup in the Great Southern area of Western Australia, where they farmed for 40 years and raised two sons, Stuart and Robert.

As we all know, farming is a tough game and it is a great breeding ground for tenacious politicians. Judith was one of the most tenacious there was. Of course in recent times there have been a number of policy battles at a federal level and she has been right on the front line. When the Liberal Party had a discussion a few years ago about our position on emissions trading and carbon taxes, you name it, Judith Adams was at the forefront, taking a stand. In fact, she stepped down for a period as the senior Deputy Opposition Whip in the pursuit of her convictions on that issue. We all know how she pursued her view that all wheat farmers should be able to sell their wheat according to their own wishes rather than be forced by government regulation into a single-desk arrangement. She pursued that not just in opposition but as a relatively new senator in the Howard government. At some point, Wilson Tuckey and Senator Judith Adams in fact were putting together a private member's bill to deregulate wheat export marketing arrangements in Australia. That was part of a long campaign which ultimately led to the outcome that Judith and Wilson had been pursuing. It was a controversial issue inside and outside the coalition and it is to Judith's everlasting credit that, in the circumstances and in the context of a sometimes pretty robust campaign against her position, she stuck to her guns and ultimately achieved policy and political success.

However, for all her many political achievements, Judith was at her most courageous in her battle against breast cancer, particularly over the last 12 months. As a breast cancer survivor when she was elected to the Senate, Judith used that experience to inform her Senate committee work and to help groups like the BreastScreen WA advisory committee and various other associations. It was noticeable at Judith's memorial in Kojonup just how many groups and associations from the healthcare and aged-care sector were represented. Both before her election and as a senator she pursued a range of policy issues such as the Patient Assisted Travel Scheme, issues around the appropriate provision of aged-care services—in particular for people in rural and regional Australia—and so on.

It was heart-warming to see the number of colleagues who came all the way to Kojonup for her funeral. On our side, our leader, our deputy leader and our leader in the Senate, Senator Abetz, attended, but there were people there from all sides of parliament—the President and the Leader of the Government in the Senate, for example. It was really heart-warming to see how many people from right across the chamber and from right across the political divide made a very special effort to be there to celebrate Judith's life and to provide support and comfort to her family.

Judith was stoic and professional in the face of great personal hardship. She was a proud senator for Western Australia and a proud Liberal. If we look back at her maiden speech, we see the strong themes she carried with her throughout her time in the Senate—rural health and aged care, salinity, border control and biosecurity issues in the north-west of WA, Indigenous welfare and communications infrastructure in the bush. These issues are just as topical today across the wheat belt of WA and Australian rural communities more widely as they were when Judith raised them back in 2005.

We all miss Judith. My condolences go to her sons, Stuart and Robert, her grandchild­ren and her extended family. Rest in peace, Judith Adams.