Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

I rise on behalf of the opposition to pay tribute to John Moore.

From a childhood on a cattle station in Queensland to the heady world of stockbroking and on to the cut and thrust of federal politics, John Moore lived, without a doubt, a varied and interesting life. John was born in 1936 in Rockhampton, and he was raised on a cattle station west of Bowen. As Tom Switzer noted in his touching obituary for John:

He regaled generations of his family with accounts of his half-day horseback commute to the railway station in the company of his favourite Aboriginal stockman.

John's early schooling, like that of so many children living in remote areas in those days, was actually by correspondence. Later, he was a boarder at the Southport School on the Gold Coast before attending the University of Queensland, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce.

John became a stockbroker in 1960 at the Brisbane Stock Exchange, first working for AR Walker and Co, before forming his own brokerage, John Moore and Company, in 1964. He grew his company into the largest single-trader business in Queensland, opening offices in regional centres in both Queensland and New South Wales.

His success in business was not limited to broking, as he also held directorships or board memberships in a number of Australian companies such as Brant Limited and Philips. He was a board member of the Australian subsidiary of some multinational investment firms, including Merryl Lynch and Citigroup. John was appointed to the council of the Australian National University in 1971 and served as a councillor until 1976.

John had joined the Liberal Party in 1964, and by 1966 he was serving in the Queensland state executive committee and was twice president of the Queensland party. John won the Brisbane seat of Ryan at the 1975 dismissal election, becoming a backbencher in the Fraser government, which had come to power at that time by taking 30 seats from Labor. He then held the seat of Ryan until his retirement before the 2001 election.

John was re-elected nine times by the people of Ryan and, in total, he served more than a quarter of a century in the other place. His first ministerial appointment was as the Minister for Business and Consumer Affairs from 1980 to 1982 as part of the Fraser government. In that role, John helped to implement the federal companies act and the deregulation of fees in the securities industry.

While the Labor governments of Bob Hawke and Paul Keating were in power from 1983 to 1996, John served in the shadow cabinet for several key ministries, including finance, industry, and commerce and communications. John then backed Andrew Peacock in the leadership spill, which saw John Howard toppled in 1989. John later apologised for the fallout which befell the Liberal Party because of his and Wilson Tuckey's regrettable tell-all appearance on ABC's Four Corners. You then had John Howard's Lazarus rising moment, and bitterness between Mr Howard and John was set aside for the good of the party and for the good of Australia. In fact, Prime Minister Howard initially made John his Minister for Industry, Science and Tourism. John then went on to help drive investment in and the modernisation of our car and pharmaceutical industries. It was in 1998, though, that John was appointed as the Minister for Defence. In that role, John oversaw the largest deployment of Australian forces since Vietnam as part of the INTERFET role in the East Timorese independence process. He also oversaw the upgrade of the troubled Collins class submarines, ensuring Australia had a truly region-leading capability.

John was 65 when he retired from the parliament in 2001. He didn't stop there though. He decided to return to the business world, where he'd first made his mark before politics. For more than a decade after he retired from the parliament, he served as a corporate director and mentor to a number of young entrepreneurs. Some senators may be interested to know that he also pursued his interest in wine, and he actually served as chairman of what is now Wine Australia. But one of his greatest loves was travelling widely and spending time with his family. John Moore was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2004 for service to the community through the Australian parliament for the development of strategic industry policy and for both policy and management reform in the defence sector.

On behalf of the coalition, I offer my heartfelt condolences to his wife and the entire Moore family who farewelled John at a state funeral in Brisbane last week. May John Moore rest in peace.