Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to associate myself with the words of my colleagues in relation to the life of the Hon. Ronald Leslie Doyle Boswell AO—and I acknowledge his daughter, Cathy, here in the chamber, and Sophie as well; I know they've gone—and the service he gave to this place for more than 31 years. I was not a member of the National Party; I was a member of the coalition, alongside Ron. By the time I arrived here after the 2001 election, at the beginning of 2002, Bozzie was a very experienced player in this place. I arrived at the same time that he'd been victorious after that 2001 campaign that so many of our colleagues have talked about and one that was really important for us all at that point in time. It was an important fight to be had, and it was symptomatic of Boz. It demonstrated Bozzie's capacity for fight, his strength of conviction which he showed all through his career, his principles in the way he conducted himself and also, as Senator Wong indicated, his respect. He would have the fight, but it would be done respectfully. I think that reflecting back on Ron's service is something that would be of service to the way this chamber operates now, as has been indicated by a number of others.

Bozzie was always very self-deprecating. He talked about himself as being a paintbrush salesman. But he was a successful small-business operator, and he brought that small-business success and common sense into the way he operated in the chamber. When we were working on committees together, he always conducted his questioning of witnesses or officials of agencies keeping in mind the people who were his constituents and the issues he was interested in.

I first met Boz when he was Parliamentary Secretary for Transport and Regional Services. He was a Queenslander, yes, but he loved coming to Tassie on an annual basis for a holiday and stayed at Bicheno on the east coast. One particular day in January 2002, Bozzie was supposed to be in Devonport to do a sod turning for a new highway overpass. We were all there at the appointed hour, or a little bit before, waiting for Boz to turn up, but there was no sign of Boz. For about two hours, Bozzie was '20 minutes away'—'Yeah, I'm only 20 minutes away; I'm only 20 minutes away!' As I found out later, talking to Boz when we went for a walk up the mall and a cup of coffee, Bozzie had the wrong day; he thought the sod turning was the next day. But, once he realised what was going on, he hopped in the car and took off, and we happily conducted the sod turning for the new overpass. He did introduce me as 'Senator-elect Robert Corbett', so he hadn't had time to read his notes all that well! But we went on to get on exceptionally well over a long period of time.

We served on a number of committees together. Senator Cash reminded me this morning that we served together on the Select Committee on Climate Change. That was quite a ride, I can tell you: Senator Cash, myself, former Senator Macdonald and Bozzie on our side, and I was chairing the committee, with then senator Christine Milne as deputy chair. If you, in any way, happened to threaten a pineapple farmer or a cannery as a part of the process of implementing the new policy that was being proposed—heaven forbid. Bozzie would erupt, and his line of questioning would follow very intensely the impact on his pineapple farmers or the canneries that supported the pineapple farmers.

He was like that with all of the issues that he worked on—bananas, the importation of ginger. The number of inquiries and discussions that we had in those days—Senator Sterle, who sat around the table for many of those, would remember the Senate inquiries into biosecurity and importation of ginger into Australia, bananas, pineapples and all of those sorts of things. Bozzie was always there to defend the industries and the local communities in Queensland, and he would do it earnestly. He would make sure that they all understood what was going on. And, of course, as has been mentioned by so many people, he supported small business. A proper system of competition policy was always something that was very important to Boz. His seafood barbecue that he organised with his friends in the fishing industry at Christmas was legendary and something that we all wanted to be a part of.

He did have the odd mishap, poor old Boz. He was a larger-than-life character in more than many ways. One morning, at a House committee meeting, Boz stood up, and his trousers stayed in the chair. Boz sat straight back down again, and I never saw him without braces after that day. They became part of his persona—Bozzie with his braces. He was never without them after that particular morning.

I mentioned his frequent trips to Tasmania and his love of some things Tasmanian. In Tassie, there is a very rare delicacy that we—some of us—enjoy, and that is a food called mutton bird. It's a short-tailed shearwater. They are for people with a particular taste. My mum and dad love mutton birds. They'll have an annual feed of mutton birds. Dad calls it his 'annual grease and oil change'. They are very greasy birds. They're known by the Indigenous community in Tasmania as yolla. It's a customary Indigenous practice, but other people like mutton birds as well, and so did Boz.

Bozzie hadn't been to Tassie for a while. He'd been talking to me about how much he loved mutton birds. One day, on the way back from the Wynyard Show, I saw a sign out saying 'Mutton birds for sale', so I said to Gaylene: 'Let's stop in. We'll grab some mutton birds, and I'll take them up to Boz. He'll be delighted.' I went into the shop, got four mutton birds, brought them up and gave them to Boz. He was delighted. He said, 'I'll go up to the dining room and I'll get them cooked.' For those who aren't initiated in the cooking of mutton birds, you need to take great care. They are extremely pungent. My mum cooks them outside in the carport—wrapped in tinfoil—in a little barbecue so that the smell doesn't get in the house.

Bozzie gave no such warning to the kitchen staff up in the members' dining room. When he turned up two hours later to pick up his mutton birds, they were undertaking a full industrial clean of the entire kitchen in the members' dining room because the mutton birds had stunk the place out—not that it worried Boz. Boz collected his mutton birds, took them back to his office and enjoyed mutton bird sandwiches for lunch. He thanked me at question time later that day, and we were regaled of the story of the staff in the dining room. They told him, 'Don't ever bring that stuff back here again into our dining room, because we're not cooking it for you.' But Bozzie was not concerned about it at all. All he was worried about was that he'd had a very good feed of mutton birds and mutton bird sandwiches for lunch.

Bozzie, as has been mentioned, when he wanted something or had something on his mind, was an irrepressible force. It was one of his values. If he wanted to ask a question at question time, he was going to ask a question at question time. There was no point in arguing with him. The tactics committee would give Bozzie his question, and he would duly ask it, and he would run the issue from there.

But he was great to work with. He was really great to work with. As Senator Scarr mentioned, during the period between 2008 and 2013, there was a proposal from the then government to close huge swathes of the ocean around Australia, which put at threat the fishing industry not just in Queensland but right around the country. Bozzie, I and a couple of others worked extremely hard on this, and the number of people who we managed to engage on that particular issue was significant. Brett Mason said to me, after the 2010 election, that it got him re-elected. In 2013, we took a policy to the Australian people which kept the marine parks but took away the closures and left capacity for the industry to stay there while we had a proper process and a good review by scientists. Then, in 2017, the marine parks were proclaimed with the same boundaries but with a hugely reduced impact on the fishing industry. That was a huge success, I think, for us all and something that I was delighted to work on with Bozzie.

I have to say, as a Liberal, I am extremely proud to have received a mention in his book, because there weren't many of us that did. Bossie was a Nat. That's the way it was. We all accept that and we respect that. But, as Senator Scarr mentioned, it was part of his last speech, and it was mentioned in his book. I'm very proud of the fact that we were able to work on an issue of that nature—a very practical issue that was to the benefit of our communities around the country, particularly in the fishing industry, as it was at that point in time.

That's what personified Boz. It is that sort of thing that personified who he was. He was a person of conviction. His family was extremely important to him, as so many have already said. He worked hard for his communities, and, while I didn't always agree with him on some issues, his strength of faith showed through, and that was a key part of who he was and what he did. He's right that he wasn't all that pretty, but I think he was more than pretty effective; he was very effective. But the way he played his politics was with respect. It was about achieving things for his communities and doing the things that he promised he would do, loyally and with respect.

I believe that this country is better for that significant service of Senator Ron Boswell. I am proud to have worked with him and proud to call him a friend and colleague. I extend my sincerest condolences to his family and to his other colleagues who miss him, I know. He was a great servant of the parliament, his state and the country. He deserved the recognition he got through his AO. I very sincerely extend my condolences to his family. Rest in peace, Boz.