George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

I want to associate myself with the remarks of my leader, Senator Abetz, in relation to Senator Hogg, Senator Eggleston and Senator Boyce. I will keep my remarks as short as I can.

May I speak particularly about my two Liberal colleagues, Senator Eggleston and Senator Boyce. Mr Deputy President, I cannot tell you how proud I am tonight—and I am sure that this is a pride that you share—to have been a member of a party room that contains two Australians as fine as Alan Eggleston and Sue Boyce.

If I may turn to Senator Eggleston first. We saw in his valedictory speech tonight the quality that has always, in my mind, defined him. That is, he is a perfect gentleman. It is sometimes said that in politics you can be liked or you can be respected but you cannot be both. But Senator Eggleston defies that saying because Senator Eggleston is universally liked and universally respected by every member of this chamber.

I had not met many Western Australians when I came to the Senate, but I discovered that Western Australians are not long in telling you that their state is the economic powerhouse of the nation, and they are not long in telling you that not all wisdom resides in Canberra. In that sense, Senator Eggleston is absolutely cut from the mother lode of Western Australian senators. Eggy, you have been a good friend. You have been a great Western Australian senator. You have and are a great Australian. It has been such a privilege to know you and to serve with you.

Senator Boyce I have known for somewhat longer. I was one of those who very strongly supported Sue Boyce's preselection in 2007. She has been a very good friend. Because time is very brief I just want to dwell on one episode in Senator Boyce's parliamentary career, because in a sense it is the episode that reveals her real character. That was the debate that others have mentioned tonight about the ETS. As we all know, the then opposition, the Liberal Party, was deeply and bitterly divided over that issue in the closing months of 2009. I remember in particular the meeting of the LNP State Council in Caloundra in November of that year, when the issue was coming to a crescendo. The feeling of the LNP members was, almost to a person, opposed to the policy of the then opposition frontbench led by Mr Turnbull. It was a tense weekend, and the anger in the room at the way in which the then opposition was dealing with the issue was palpable.

The easiest thing in the world for a senator to have done would have been to play to the crowd on that issue. A week or so later, when the issue did reach a climax on the floor of this chamber—after the dramatic party meeting at which famously Mr Abbott was elected in place of Mr Turnbull as the leader, and the party's policy was changed—the bills were put to a vote. Notwithstanding her knowledge of the strength of feeling of those who held her political fate in their hands, Senator Boyce actually crossed the floor, as we have heard before, to vote for the pre-existing policy, the policy that was so unpopular among the rank and file. She did that for one reason: she conscientiously and profoundly believed it to be right for Australia. For Senator Boyce to cross the floor on that famous day, in those circumstances, was the most significant act of political courage that I have seen in my time in the Senate. I never expect to see an act of greater political courage.

Sue, you have been a marvellous colleague. You have been courageous, you have been loyal and you have been good fun, as we have seen during your valedictory remarks tonight. It has been a pleasure to know you. It has been a pleasure to come to know your family, particularly Jo, who is so popular and beloved among the members of the LNP back home. I am sorry you are leaving. You, like Senator Eggleston, have left upon this place an imperishable record of honourable, good and decent behaviour for which we will always cherish you both.