Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Hansard source

I'm going to take this opportunity to make a few brief comments on this myself and to associate myself with comments made about Senator Cooney, particularly by those who knew him. I attended the same school as Senator Cooney. To complete a reference by Senator Wong about Mr Scholes earlier, it happened also to be the same high school of BA Santamaria and Diamond Jim McClelland, albeit at slightly different times for all of us. I met him in my final year, when he addressed our year level and spoke to our politics class. Already interested in politics, I was pretty obviously leaning the other way, but Senator Cooney went to a great deal of trouble to outline not just what he did but why it was important and what motivated him—as Senator Carr outlined, in particular, his faith and his care for those less privileged than others.

His passion for politics was apparent not just for combat but for values and the outcomes for those he believed he was fighting for. He was proud to be a senator. Indeed, he was a proud member of the Labor Party, but he was proud to be a senator in particular and a legislator first. He represented a Senate that sometimes seemed a little bit more distant than it used to, one that placed an extraordinarily high value on the role of this place—what dedicated individuals can do with hard work, a sense of cooperation and a willingness to compromise and working to find common ground with others who want to achieve some sort of result. As others have highlighted, he believed in civil discourse and debate and in decency in its broadest sense in public life. I won't repeat what has been said by other senators this afternoon other than to say there is rarely such agreement about a member of this place.

I met him again in the early 1990s, when I came to work in this place. I think the quote from former Senator Alan Ferguson that he was 'constantly courteous', which Senator Cormann referred to, is particularly apt. When I first came to this place many years later as a senator, he was one of those people who was mentioned to me by trusted elders, both officials and senators, as someone that could be a role model for those coming to this place, in the tradition on my side of people like Senator Alan Missen. That is as true today as it was then.

Question agreed to, honourable senators standing in their places.