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

by leave—I move:

That the Senate records its deep sorrow at the death, on 21 June 2017, of Concetto Antonio (Con) Sciacca AO, a former Member of the House of Representatives for the division of Bowen and Minister for Veterans' Affairs, among other portfolios, places on record its gratitude for his service to the Parliament and tenders its profound sympathy to his family in their bereavement.

Con Sciacca's life was a great Australian story, a great Australian immigrant story. He was born in Sicily on 13 June 1947. At the age of four, Con, together with his family, followed a path familiar to many Italian Australians, leaving postwar Europe in the hope of securing a brighter future in Australia.

The Sciaccas settled in Queensland, where Con's father worked as a canecutter—another very familiar story for Australians of Italian heritage. Con always took immense pride in his Sicilian heritage, and in his maiden speech he told the story of his family and of others like them who had made the courageous journey to Australia in search of a better life. 'Like me,' he said:

Many of them are descended … from poor farming families. Their families, like mine, came to Australia with no knowledge of our language and, in fact, often unable to read or write even their own language. Their only material possessions were the clothes on their backs, but they brought with them the most valuable asset of all—a vision and a dream that through hard work, determination and tenacity they would succeed. Included in this dream was their firm belief that they could achieve for their children and for their grandchildren that which was not available to them in their own country, namely, equal opportunity—the same equal opportunity that Australians often take for granted.

What Con had so eloquently described in that maiden speech was the great Australian success story of so many migrant families, of which his life and that of his family serve as a shining example.

The political bug hit Con Sciacca very early in life. He joined the Queensland branch of the Labor Party's youth wing at the age of 17, and by 21 he had been elected state president of Queensland Young Labor. It was also at the age of 21 that Con made his first tilt at elected office, as the endorsed Labor candidate for what was then the safe Liberal seat of Mount Coot-tha in the Queensland parliament, at the 1969 Queensland state election. As Con recalled in his maiden speech, he had the rather unique distinction of casting his first ever vote in his own favour.

Between that first encounter with a ballot box and his eventual election to the House of Representatives, Con was admitted as a solicitor and built a large and successful legal practice in Brisbane, specialising in industrial law and general common law damages claims. I practised at the bar in those years, and I remember CA Sciacca and Associates was an extremely successful firm, with a very large following—a large union clientele but also a very large following among the Italian community.

In 1987, Con was endorsed for and then successfully contested the seat of Bowman at the July double dissolution election of that year, having defeated the sitting Labor member, Len Keogh, in the preselection. As he noted in his maiden speech, at the time he was elected he was only the second ever Italian member of this parliament. He was re-elected in 1990 with an increased majority, and thereafter appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Social Security.

Tragedy struck the Sciacca family in 1992 with the death of their son, Sam, then only 19, from Ewing's sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer. This was to have a profound effect on Con's life, prompting him to undertake a number of charitable projects aimed at raising awareness and assisting other families affected by cancer, including through the establishment of the Sam Sciacca Travelling Fellowship, which facilitated international health experts to visit Australia in order to present lectures on the latest developments in cancer research and technology. As Con reflected at the time: 'Sammy's death, something like that humanises you, brings you back to realise what is really important. It gave us back the old Labor spirit of mateship, that spirit that says when the chips are down you put aside your differences and help each other.'

At the March 1993 election, at which Labor's nationwide victory secured the Keating government's record fifth term, Con Sciacca was, once again, returned to parliament and served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Arts and Administrative Services. On 25 March 1994, he was promoted to the ministry, as Minister for Veterans' Affairs, succeeding former senator John Faulkner in that portfolio. In October 1995, he added to his portfolio responsibilities the role of Minister Assisting the Treasurer for Superannuation. At John Howard's landslide 1996 election victory, which saw Labor lose 29 seats, Con Sciacca lost Bowman to the Liberal Party's candidate, Andrea West. However, in 1998 he recontested the seat and successfully retook it, with a 4.2 per cent swing to the Labor Party.

Following an unfavourable redistribution, from the Labor Party's point of view, in Brisbane's eastern suburbs, Con Sciacca decided to leave Bowman and contest the newly created seat of Bonner in the 2004 poll—Bonner being named, of course, in honour of a former distinguished Liberal member of this House, the late Neville Bonner. Running against him was Ross Vasta, a fellow Italian Australian, who fondly recalls attending Italian parties in his youth with the Sciacca brothers. Con and Ross developed a friendship and a rapport during that election campaign that was unusual by the standards of modern-day political campaigning. Ross, now the member for Bonner, remembers receiving phone calls from Con in the final two weeks of the campaign, where they would compare notes on the day and, in particular, on how many postal votes each of them had received. It says volumes about the esteem in which Con Sciacca was held by the Italian community in Brisbane that, on polling day itself, Ross Vasta's father, Angelo, announced that he would feel unable to hand out Liberal how-to-vote cards for his son out of respect, he said, for the Sciacca family. I recall being with Ross Vasta on the night that he won the seat from Con Sciacca in 2004. I was the patron Liberal senator for that electorate at the time. I remember being present when Ross received the phone call from Con Sciacca congratulating him on his victory. A more gracious and generous exchange is hard to imagine.

For Con, post-parliamentary life marked a new beginning. He continued his charitable works, and his spirit of community endured long beyond his time in this place. Indeed, it continued until his death only yesterday. In 2006 that community, public and political service was recognised by his appointment as an Officer of the Order of Australia. As recently as March 2014, Con took up a place as deputy chair of the Anzac Centenary Public Fund. Among the numerous accolades bestowed upon him, in addition to the Order of Australia, were the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, the Order of the Lion of Finland and the Centenary Medal for service to the veteran community. He was also a life member of the Returned and Services League, a life member of the RAAF Association and a life member of the Naval Association of Australia.

Con's lifelong contribution to public service, to business and to the law reflects an inspiring commitment to Australian public life, to the very hopes and dreams to which is family aspired when they left war-torn Europe in search of a better future. For those who knew him best, Con Sciacca will be remembered as a beloved colleague and mentor, a generous friend with an infectious and at times wicked sense of humour and a man dedicated to his family, his party and his country.

I last saw Con Sciacca last year. We had a mutual friend in former senator Santo Santoro. Santo was indeed a very close friend and business partner of Con Sciacca's and saw him very often during the time of the illness which led to his death yesterday. At Santo's 60th birthday party last year, there were many speeches. It was a night of much mirth, much dancing, much high spirits and many, many speeches. One of the speeches was given by Con Sciacca. It was the last time I ever saw him, and I remember the joke he told. He observed that he was at an event surrounded by Liberal Party politicians and supporters, and he reminded people of a saying that he very frequently used: the worst Labor government is better than the best Liberal government. Then he paused and said, 'At least, I used to think that, until I saw the Rudd government!'

Con Sciacca was a good man who lived the Australian dream and did a very great deal for this nation. He will be dearly missed by his many friends, colleagues and professional associates but in particular, of course, by his wife, Karen; his daughter, Zina; his granddaughter, Grace; and his stepsons, Nicholas and Daniel. To them, on behalf of the government, I offer my sincerest condolences.