Ross Cadell (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Until, two weeks ago, waking up to the sad news of the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, she was the only monarch I had ever known and lived under. Coming from the Hunter, an area largely occupied by descendants of British citizens who came there to mine and who are generally socially conservative, it was felt—almost hoped—she would reign forever. Indeed, amongst the hundred-strong Welsh community, which includes my wife, a sense of pride exists at Her Majesty's choice of pet, with corgis coming from Wales and, indeed, the name originating from the Welsh words 'cor' and 'ci', meaning 'dwarf' and a 'dog'. Her Majesty was a constant, a stable point in the world of turbulence, whose actions, or indeed sometimes planned lack of them, gave an example of what the definition of servant leadership should be.

There are many stories of her time and service being given in this place today, and so I thought I'd use my time to talk about her involvement in my region, my home, and some small stories. Her Majesty visited the Hunter four times during her reign, starting with stepping off the train with the Duke of Edinburgh at Newcastle Railway Station in February 1954, with an estimated 300,000 people from around the region seeing her on that trip—which is amazing, as the Hunter had a population of only 147,000. The trip included my mother and father taking part with 44,000 schoolchildren taken to the showgrounds to see her. Indeed, my father told me this morning that he picked some grass that the royal Land Rover had driven across as a keepsake.

She came back in 1970, 1977 and, finally, 1988, as part of the bicentennial tour. In those visits she encapsulated so much now that is important to the Hunter. She opened the first stage of the Newcastle International Sports Centre, now known as McDonald Jones Stadium, home to the Newcastle Jets and Newcastle Knights. She visited the now lost industries of the BHP steel plant and the State Dockyard, and she had the royal motor yacht Britannia moored in our port of Newcastle. She opened the Newcastle region art gallery, the regional museum and, more importantly, some might say, the Queens Wharf development, now home to the Queens Wharf brewery, the starting place of, for many, a night out.

But it is the visits she never made to the area that show the care she had for my home region in the Hunter. A former lord mayor of Newcastle, Mr John McNaughton, often catches up with his neighbour Adrian Rich, who works in my office. He has told him over the back fence many proud stories of his two royal interactions. Mr McNaughton famously made the papers recently for his story about tearing his pants open on the bumper of his mayoral car whilst entertaining the Queen in 1988, but the story of his second interaction has been kept quiet.

After the 1989 earthquake, the Queen sent her son Prince Edward to look at the damage and the opportunity for reconstruction in the town. He visited the town and the hospital, and spoke to survivors and relatives of those lost. It was appreciated at the time as a show of support, and he was to return home with a briefing for Her Majesty. Two years later, at the opening of New South Wales's 50th parliament by Her Majesty, she saw the Newcastle mayor across the room, and she made her way to him through the crowds, singling him out, greeting him warmly and then discussing the damage and the reconstruction of Newcastle in astonishing detail. This shows that her actions at the time were not for show; they were for real. Her care for her subjects in the Hunter was such that, two years after the incident, her knowledge and understanding were still fresh. Just as she meant something to us, we meant something to her.

To Her Majesty: thank you for your service. To her family: my feelings are with you, and thank you for sharing your mum, your grandmother, your great-grandmother with the people of the Hunter and the people of Australia. May she rest now in peace with the knowledge that she leaves this earth a better place for having been our Queen. Long live the King.