Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Environment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise this evening to pay tribute to a fine South Australian who, sadly, is no longer with us. Mr Allen Bolaffi would be known to you, Mr Acting Deputy President Bernardi, as he would be to Senator Farrell and to many other South Australians in this place.

Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Centenary of ANZAC) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was to have lunch with him this week.

Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Environment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As Senator Farrell notes, he was due to see him just this week. Allen's passing a couple of weeks ago was a most untimely event for a man who was living life to the full and had much still to give and to live for. Allen was a proud South Australian, a prominent businessman and community leader. He is rightly mourned and missed by many in South Australia and right around Australia. Like so many first-generation Australians, Allen worked hard and gave back to the community had became a part of. He was educated in Adelaide at Plympton High School in the western suburbs and then at the University of South Australia where he gained his accounting qualifications.

Allen sought to give back. He worked hard and served as a multicultural leader in the Portuguese community of South Australia and, notably in particular, in the Jewish community in South Australia. He was involved in numerous Jewish organisations in Adelaide and across Australia. Allen can be proud of his family and he certainly can be proud of the role he played in establishing Adelaide's Jewish Museum, which provides an opportunity for all to explore and celebrate the rich history of Adelaide's relatively small Jewish community.

Allen was a founding member of the Australia Israel Chamber of Commerce, serving as its president in South Australia for the past 20 years. It was in this role that he became a particularly prominent South Australian, building the chamber to be one of the largest business organisations in Australia. It is notable that despite, as I said before, the small Jewish community in South Australia, he was able to build the chamber. It is a testament to his ability to connect and to establish the rapport across many different South Australian businesses and so many leaders in South Australia.

As I alluded to earlier, Allen was an accountant. My wife's late father, John Morcombe, worked with Allen when he was young. Courtney, my wife, pays particular tribute to and has fond memories of Allen, as does the whole Morcombe family, for his role in the early days of his accounting career. He went on to be managing partner of UHY Haines Norton Chartered Accountants. He was a director of a number of prominent South Australian companies. He was renowned for his generosity and involvement in many nongovernment organisations, in charities and in sporting organisations, and in his engagement with the political world to advance his policies and the beliefs he fought for and believed in so deeply.

Allen's passing was a deep shock to us all. It came very suddenly and all too early at the young age of just 57. He died from an unknown illness. His death came as a bolt out of the blue for his family and for those who knew him. He was fittingly buried according to Jewish tradition, in a humble burial at Adelaide's Centennial Park. The funeral was attended by hundreds of family members, friends and colleagues, many flying in from interstate to pay their respects to Allen.

In conveying my sympathies and those of my family to Allen's family tonight, I particularly want to extend our condolences to his mother, Yvette. As we have seen already in the Senate this afternoon, it is difficult for any parent to see their child predecease them. I also extend our condolences to his wife, Vivienne, to his children Reuben, Amie and Kate, to his grandson, Leo, and to another grandchild soon to arrive. I was pleased to visit them during the Shivah morning period. I know what a proud dad and grandad Allen was. I conversed with him over twitter, no less, after his son Reuben had been admitted to the bar.

Alav ha-shalom, Allen. May you rest in peace.