Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

First, can I acknowledge the contributions of my friends from the National Party. I thought they were just outstanding, and you really did justice on this occasion, so you should really be proud of those contributions. Also, I associate my remarks with the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate. Before I say anything else, I just want to acknowledge the presence of Cathy and also of Sophie.

I'm going to give you the perspective of a member of the Young Liberals in Queensland during the course of much of Senator Ron Boswell AO's career. I was reading his valedictory speech, and a few things stuck out to me. The first was the extraordinary length of service—31 years and 118 days. It is just phenomenal—absolutely phenomenal.

The second is that my good friend Senator Richard Colbeck, who is sitting next to me, actually got a mention in Senator Boswell's valedictory speech, where he said:

Prior to the September election, I worked closely with professional and recreational fishing groups, especially the Australian Recreational Fishing Foundation and its CEO, Allan Hansard. Guided also by my colleague Senator Richard Colbeck, the Liberal-National coalition developed a policy to keep the marine parks but remove the fishing bans till scientists could take a sensible look at how these parks should be managed. In government, we kept our promise and have removed the fishing bans. I am enormously proud of that achievement.

Of course, Ron Boswell was absolutely passionate about Queensland fishers and the fisheries industry in general.

Then there is the other point he made in his speech, and this was a great inspiration to me at the time as a member of the Young Liberals. He said in his valedictory speech:

Politics is an honourable calling but will remain so only if politicians have the courage of their convictions. In 1988, I tackled the League of Rights, a far-right-wing, anti-Semitic organisation I saw as trying to exert influence over the churches and other areas of society.

At that time, I was 19 and in the Young Liberals, and I and my family and so many Liberal Party supporters were so thankful for the work that Senator Ron Boswell did in that regard. He got so much admiration from people all over Queensland, across all political philosophies for the work he did holding the line against those vile extremists, who believe—I think Senator McKenzie referred to the 'lunar right'—everything from the Holocaust being a hoax through to other extraordinarily vile ideas.

He continued in his valedictory speech:

For me, this was a defining moment: to be taken seriously, you have to stand for something. In the fight of my life, against Pauline Hanson, I risked everything to stand up against her aggressive, narrow view of Australia. Defeating Pauline Hanson and One Nation in 2001 has been my greatest political achievement.

In 2001, I was in Papua New Guinea. I was a young professional lawyer—maybe not so young—in Papua New Guinea. Many of us on the non-Labor side of politics saw the immense importance of that campaign. And, whilst the Liberal National Party did not combine until 2008, I can tell you from personal experience that many members of the Liberal Party voted strategically in that Senate election. Many supporters of the Liberal Party voted strategically in that Senate election to give Ron Boswell their first preference. I remember seeing him at Sydney airport in December 2001 when I had to come to Sydney for business, and he was sitting down waiting to be picked up. I went up, shook his hand and said I was proud to vote for him. 'I was proud to vote for you.' I wasn't the only one. A lot of us realised the importance of that battle, which he won.

I want to say a few words about that campaign. I will quote from a story in the Financial Review on 2 November 2001 by Sam Strutt. It reads:

Although traditionally the National Party is not the natural constituency of the ethnic community, about one-third of the 300-plus audience at yesterday's official launch—

this was at the National Party's 2001 Senate campaign launch—

of the Queensland party's Senate campaign were from the Chinese, Vietnamese or Taiwanese communities—

one-third of the people at the National Party Queensland Senate campaign launch—

Queensland National Party Senator Ron Boswell conceded that he would not receive enough votes from the party's traditional support base rural and regional voters to get him across the line on November 10.

"The vote's got to come in from all of Queensland," he said yesterday.

"I need every vote I can get."

Senator Boswell said the ethnic community was supporting him because of his strong stand against One Nation and Ms Hanson.

"I think the Chinese, Vietnamese and Taiwanese support is there with me to stop Pauline Hanson," Senator Boswell said.

"They see me as the best way to do that, so they are supporting me," he said.

They did support him in overwhelming numbers, and he was successful. He defeated Senator Hanson for that Senate spot. It didn't just end there, though. He maintained that relationship with those communities, in particular the Vietnamese community. I've had the privilege since being elected to this place of establishing a relationship with that wonderful Vietnamese community—50 years last year, the anniversary of their coming to Australia after the fall of Saigon.

On 21 June 2012, he actually presented a petition signed by 55,000 signatories urging the Australian government to push Vietnam to improve its human rights record. That was 11 years after, with the support of that community, he achieved that remarkable success against Pauline Hanson. He was still working for the Vietnamese community and presented that petition. In 2013, I was working on a booth in Queensland—Queenslanders will get this—in a place called Acacia Ridge in Brisbane for my dear friend Malcolm Cole, a candidate in the 2013 election. Ron actually came to the booth to see how his booth workers from the Vietnamese Queensland community were going. He was still mobilising booth workers from that community.

Then, following the drought in 2018 in Queensland, he actually worked with the Vietnamese community to raise money for people in need in western Queensland. I quote from a speech which the Hon. Amanda Stoker gave on 16 October 2019 in this place:

Past president of the VCA Viet Tran first got the idea to hold a fundraiser after his friends who run a business at Miles told him about how the drought situation was crippling them.

…   …   …

He set about organising a drought appeal dinner and dance. He contacted former Senator Ron Boswell—

to organise that.

The Vietnamese community of Queensland raised $25,480 for the farmers in need in western Queensland. Still he maintained that relationship with the Vietnamese Queensland community.

So, in giving last words in this contribution to this debate, I want to give my last words to the Vietnamese community of Queensland and put their words on record. I want to quote to you from a letter from a very dear friend of mine called Viet Tran:

IN 2001, the Vietnamese community in Queensland unanimously decided to support Ron Boswell in his bid for re-election to the Senate. It was the first and only time that the community by-passed its non-partisan policy to support a parliamentary candidate because of his stand against Pauline Hanson.

In June this year, Boswell spoke in parliament about the human rights situation in Vietnam—

This letter was dated 24 September 2012. It goes on:

With Labor's Mark Furner, he sponsored a petition in the Vietnamese community raising concerns about the human rights dialogues between the Australian and Vietnamese governments.

Our community will lose a strong representative voice in parliament in 2014. However, our friendship with Ron Boswell will last forever. I will always cherish his "He's not pretty but he's pretty effective" T-shirt that he gave me during the 2001 campaign.

We thank him …

That's from Viet Tran of the Queensland Vietnamese community in tribute to the late Ron Boswell AO.