Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to pay my respects to a giant of the Australian Labor Party and the architect of the modern, multicultural Australia that we know today. I associate myself with the comments of Senator Wong.

The day before Christmas last year, I visited my friend Nick Bolkus in Adelaide with my new son-in-law, Lawrence Ben, where we were able to say our goodbyes for the last time to Nick. He passed away peacefully with his family around him the next morning, Christmas Day 2025. Nick and I had become friends over a long period and worked together to stabilise the South Australian branch of the Australian Labor Party, which had been divided by factional disputes for more than 10 years. This relationship resulted in the SA Labor branch focusing on its efforts to defeat the Liberals rather than fighting amongst ourselves. That stability has resulted in the ALP being the party of government for all but four of the last 24 years. I think that's Nick's greatest political legacy. Of course, his personal legacy would be so much more significant to him: his wife, Mary, and his children, Nick, Mikayla and Aria. As Senator Wong pointed out, Aria is running in the state election for the state seat of Colton, and Nick would have been so proud of her and so disappointed not to be there to see her win in a few weeks time.

I first came across Nick as a young lawyer working for the shop assistants' union in Adelaide in the 1970s. Nick wanted a political career, and the Labor Party rules back then required you to be a member of your appropriate trade union. Nick worked in his father's deli in the West End of Adelaide, and he tried to join the shop assistants' union. This was not well-received by the then secretary of the union, Ted Goldsworthy, fearing a potential left-wing challenge to his leadership. Nick never got his membership of the shop assistants' union. My next contact with Nick was in—

That's the way we do it. The next contact with Nick was in 1988, when I was running in the by-election for the federal seat of Adelaide. Nick, by then a Keating minister, was a terrific support. Unfortunately, I lost, but we became friends, both being members of the West Adelaide Football Club. In 1993, we went to Nick's house in Henley Beach to celebrate the 'true believers' election, which kept Nick in the Keating ministry as one of our greatest immigration and ethnic affairs ministers. Do you remember that? It was a great night. We lost the seat of Adelaide, but we kept government. It was after Paul Keating's loss in 1996, when working with a young Patrick Conlon—Nick's staffer—that the relationship that has resulted in the stability of which I spoke earlier was built.

After he left parliament, Nick set out to help South Australian companies prosper, which he did very, very successfully. He engaged a young Lawrence Ben, a member of Labor's left wing at the time, and convinced him that he should be a member of Labor's right wing. Of course, Lawrence followed Nick's advice, and Lawrence and Nick became great friends. Nick was a mentor to many young MPs in South Australia and was always a good source of advice. He was also a sage observer of politics, predicting that Labor would win the 2014 South Australian election when everybody else had given up. After his stroke some years ago, my wife and I would take Nick to his favourite restaurants: the Thai Orchid at Henley Beach and Enzo's on Port Road.

I was honoured to represent the Prime Minister at Nick's private funeral at the Greek Orthodox community church in Franklin Street. The church was packed with his family, members of the Greek community and all of Nick's friends. It was one of two funerals that we attended that week, the other being that of Tim Picton. I and my wife offer our deepest sympathies to Mary, Aria, Mikayla and Nick.