Brett Mason (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Universities and Research) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to pay sincere tribute to my two friends, Senator Gary Humphries and Senator Barnaby Joyce. Gary, when I think of you I cannot help thinking of you more than 33 years ago, in March 1980 in the Union Court at the Australian National University here in Canberra. There you were in a pair of blue shorts and a T-shirt, berating the Left on campus. I then was a shy bystander with braces, long hair and sporting a black beanie. I remember going up and saying, 'Hi.' My recollection is that you thought I was one of those unwashed Lefties. You were half right.

Gary was a leader of the Liberals at university in 1980 when it was not that easy. He would not forget what it was like then. The Vietnam War was over by only less than five years, Margaret Thatcher had just been elected and Governor Reagan was just another Republican candidate. The Left were rampant internationally and they were rampant on campus. You never, ever failed to take them on. I was always in awe of that. In many ways you showed enormous courage then and you have not changed. The character of the man—the honesty, the loyalty and, Gary, most recently the grace you have displayed—is a lesson to us all. Tony Abbott always says, 'In this place, character trumps position.' So, Gary, you leave at the very pinnacle, with our great respect and the great affection of all of us.