Michael Forshaw (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tonight I rise to pay tribute and respects to Mr Grahame Kidd. Mr Grahame Kidd was a keen golfer. He was not a professional who won tournaments. Grahame Kidd was not a person who won Australia Day honours, but in my mind and in the minds of hundreds, indeed thousands of people, particularly young students and even older students who were educated by Grahame, he was a true hero. Grahame Kidd lived in the Sutherland shire and he was very close personal friend of mine and of my family and indeed, of many, many other people in the Sutherland shire and beyond. Grahame Kidd passed away on Monday, 23 May, having suffered a sudden stroke on 28 April. Grahame was doing one of those things that he always did: he was doing an odd job, fixing something around the house. I think he was doing some plumbing repairs. He suffered a stroke and was taken to hospital. He was operated on—twice. Although there were some initial signs that he might recover, sadly, he did not. His condition deteriorated. He passed away on 23 May.

Grahame was only 66 years old. He was just short of his 67th birthday. He was a great Aussie bloke. I know that nobody in the Senate or the parliament knew this chap, but I hope that at the end of my remarks they will understand why I rise in this great parliament today to pay him tribute.

Grahame loved a beer, especially his own home brew, which he seemed to make huge quantities of. I think that is what happens when you start making home brew: you end up with lots of it. He loved a game of golf, as I said. I used to play occasionally with Grahame and I must say I was really looking forward to resuming playing golf with him in a few weeks time after I retire from the Senate.

Grahame dearly loved his wife, Sue, and his children, Vanessa and David, and their families—particularly his grandkids. I was a great friend and my wife, Jan, was also a great friend of Grahame and Sue. We got to know them when we first moved into the Engadine area where Grahame and Sue lived back in the mid-seventies. His funeral was held at our local parish church, St John Bosco at Engadine. It was the largest crowd I have ever seen in that church. It was absolutely packed and there were hundreds of people outside. It was an amazing turnout. Why were they there? They were there because they had lost a great friend and a person who had an enormous impact on the lives of many people. That impact was particularly through his teaching career. Many people at his funeral, and at a wonderful wake afterwards, spoke about his devotion to his family and his dedication to the teaching profession.

Grahame commenced teaching in 1964 at Yowie Bay Primary School in the shire. In 1967 he went off to Parkes High School in rural New South Wales, where he was a special teacher assisting children with learning difficulties. At that time he developed a fascination for maths. He went off and started a university degree, which he completed in 1970, specialising in mathematics. In 1968, he was appointed to Joseph Banks High School in Sydney and, three years later, he was appointed as maths head teacher at Jannali High School in the shire. He was only 26. That was a very young age for a person to be appointed a head teacher. In 1980 he was transferred to Gymea High School. In 1987 he was appointed deputy principal at Kingsgrove High School and then, in 1995, he received his first appointment as a principal. He was appointed principal at Cabramatta High School, where he stayed until he retired in 2003.

We were around at Grahame's place the night after he received notice that he had been appointed principal at Cabramatta High School. I have to say that back in those days when anybody mentioned Cabramatta there was a sense of trepidation, because that area had a pretty bad reputation—which I will not go into in great detail—and most unfairly, in many respects, because it is a wonderful part of Sydney with a very multicultural community. Grahame took on the challenge with relish, and he told me once that he was very proud to have been appointed to that high school, because he had students there—particularly the students of Vietnamese families and other migrant nationalities—who were keen to get an education, and their parents were keen for their children to get an education.

I say all that because, sadly, back in 2001, Alan Jones, the well-known, multimillionaire media star, together with then detective Tim Priest, launched a vicious and untrue campaign making false allegations about Cabramatta High School. Alan Jones interviewed Tim Priest and alleged on the radio that the school was a haven for drug pushers, for criminal gangs, that students were being recruited to sell drugs and that there had been serious criminal acts of violence in the school. Indeed, an allegation was made that a student was attacked with a machete. This went on for days and days—and this was typical of Alan Jones. I remember when he did the same thing and stirred up the Cronulla race riots—but I will not go into that one.

When all of this was investigated by a committee of the New South Wales Legislative Council and members of the parliament on both sides heard the evidence, it became absolutely clear that this was an outrageous slur on this wonderful school and this wonderful principal. It was totally false. Allegations had been made up and then presented on Sydney radio as if they were true. Of course, Grahame was hurt. He tried to get onto Alan Jones's program, but Alan Jones would not interview him. He would not give him the opportunity to respond on the radio. That is typical of Mr Jones—the man who constantly talks over or cuts off anybody who disagrees with him. I acknowledge all the things that Mr Jones might do for charity and so on, but there are many occasions when he intimidates and belittles people and falsely accuses them—as he did in this case. Later on the facts become clear, but often it is too late.

Grahame did eventually get the opportunity, on Four Corners, where all of this was laid out in a program and it was all demonstrated to have been an unfair and vicious attack. Anyone who knows Cabra­matta High School knows what a wonderful school it really is. I wanted to take the opportunity tonight to recognise the fact that Grahame was deeply, deeply hurt on that occasion, but he has a reputation in education that is second to none. That was demonstrated by the fact that in Maralyn Parker's education column in the Daily Telegraph the day before Grahame's funeral, he was named as dux of the week. He had much more to give to the community. Grahame served as the secretary and then the president of the Engadine Dragons Junior Rugby League Football Club. For all of the years after his retirement up until his sad and untimely death, he was the treasurer of the local Probus Club. He was doing things for his community, just as he had done for so long in educating the students of Cabramatta High School and other schools.

Tonight I put on the record that the community owes a debt to Grahame Kidd. I extend my sincere sympathies—I have already done this, of course, but I do it publicly again—to Sue, Vanessa, David and their families and to all of Grahame's friends. He was a great Aussie bloke and a true hero.

Senate adjourned at 19 : 01