Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

I'd like to associate the National Party with the comments of both the government and the opposition leader on the condolence motion before the Senate chamber today. I rise on behalf of the National Party to honour and pay tribute to the late Dr Alan Eggleston AM, a distinguished Western Australian, a champion for regional communities and a former colleague of mine in this chamber.

Before entering public office, Alan trained and worked as a medical doctor. What was intended as a six-month placement in the Pilbara in 1974 became a 22-year commitment to that region and its people. He delivered care in some of the most remote and logistically challenging communities in the country, earning the trust of those he served and gaining a depth of experience that was to serve him in this place for many years. His decision to stay past that six-month placement speaks to a reality well understood by the coalition that, when professionals are encouraged to experience life in the regions, many choose to stay and contribute.

Alan brought this grounded perspective with him into public life. He began in local government, serving as a councillor and later as mayor of Port Hedland—a role in which he was known for his steady leadership and pragmatic approach to community needs. When Alan entered the Senate in 1996, he brought with him the experience of someone who had worked closely with people—humans—and who understood the direct impact of policy decisions made in this place on those who live, work and raise a family far away. His contributions in this place were shaped by a clinical eye for detail and an appreciation for the day-to-day realities of Australians living outside our capital cities.

Over the next 18 years, Alan proved himself a steadfast Western Australian federalist and a constructive member of the Liberal Party team throughout the Howard government and the years of opposition that followed. His parliamentary service was both extensive and substantive. Eggy served on a wide range of Senate committees—most notably on the procedure committee for the entirety of the Howard years, where he played a key role in upholding the Senate's procedural integrity and ensuring its operations remained fair, orderly and effective, which is something I hope we all would aspire to continue to do today. He was also a long-serving member of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, contributing to Australia's strategic and international policy deliberations with a measured and thoughtful voice.

I had the great privilege to serve alongside Eggy on Senate committees and in this chamber. He was always a very staunch constitutional champion—old school—and was actually one of five senators who crossed the floor in the Abbott government years to stand up for our Constitution and to vote against the recognition of local governments. I know Senator Dean Smith—who is in the chamber today—and I, and a handful of others were in protection of our founding document on that day, and Eggy was with us. He was a colleague marked by discipline, humility and conviction. He brought a clinician's clarity and a methodical focus and was always concerned with outcomes, not theatrics. He'd be quite challenged, I'd say, by this week!

Alan also overcame personal challenges that shaped but never defined his public life. He faced obstacles in his life that many of us will never encounter, both practical and social. But he approached these challenges, as Senator Cash has eloquently outlined, with quiet determination. He never sought sympathy, never asked for exception and never allowed them to overshadow his work. He just simply got on with the job. His service was a quiet yet powerful reminder that capability, not circumstance, defines an individual's contribution.

To his family, friends, former staff and colleagues in the Western Australian division of the Liberal Party: I and the National Party offer you our deepest condolences. Alan was widely respected across this chamber. He brought honour to the Senate, depth to its deliberations and decency to its day-to-day workings. On behalf of the Nationals, I honour the life and work of Dr Alan Eggleston—doctor, mayor, senator and servant of the people. His legacy is found in the betterment of his state and our nation and in the very lives of those he touched across the decades of his quiet, determined public service. May he rest in peace.