Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to associate with the comments that have been made by my colleagues. I had the honour to know Jocelyn when I first came here as a staffer from 1989 to 1993 when I worked for the then shadow minister for policy coordination and transition to government Jim Carlton. Jocelyn served on the shadow social policy committee and worked very closely with Jim on that committee.

Jocelyn was truly a woman of great attribute, but she was also a woman who took time to mentor. She took time to explain. She took time out, certainly for me as a staffer here, to assist and to always provide her advice. She was the classic steel hand in the velvet glove. I remember her as a woman of great compassion but also as a woman who had the ability to deal with very difficult tasks, particularly in the social policy area, at a time when we were considering making some difficult changes, particularly in the lead-up to the 1993 election. As a conservative woman myself, I know that she will be very well remembered as a conservative woman, as somebody who brought wonderful attributes of family and all of those things to her work and, as I said, as having a great deal of compassion and a brilliant mind and as a woman, for those of us women in politics, who was truly a guiding light. I pay my condolences to all her family and to her friends on her passing.

Question agreed to, honourable senators standing in their places.