E&OE …………………………………………………………………………………
Thank you very much Stan. I first of all pay tribute to the Ngunnawal people, the traditional owners of the land on which this gathering takes place. To Heather, to Evelyn Scott, to the many former parliamentary colleagues of Neville Bonner and many other very distinguished guests who are gathered here and most particularly can I say to you Brendan Nelson, thank you very much for the dedication that you put in to assembling this wonderful evening.
Neville was elected to the Australian Senate in 1971 and I came in here in 1974 and I served with him as a colleague for eight years until he lost his seat in the 1983 election and I will come to the circumstances of that in a moment.
I didn’t know Neville before I came into Parliament. I guess as I gaze over there I remember spending a few very happy hours with him late in the evening in the Parliamentary Bar along with a number of my colleagues who I’d met for the first time when I was elected to Parliament. He was cheerful and friendly, an immensely decent man who clearly carried the twin responsibilities of knowing he was a trailblazer for his own people. He was the first indigenous person to serve in the national parliament and that imposed on him he knew a very heavy responsibility. But he was also a very loyal and passionate member of the Liberal Party. The Liberal Party had done good things for him and he’d done great things for the Liberal Party and throughout his life he remained a very loyal member.
In one of the I think more ignoble pre-selection decisions, that the Liberal Party made in the state of Queensland, he lost his endorsement for the….well he didn’t lose his endorsement, he was really put in an unwinnable position. And rather understandably he ran as an Independent and there was a period of very significant and lengthy estrangement from the Liberal Party. He was badly treated and as time went by many people came to recognise that. And one of the more emotional moments I’ve had as prime minister was to confer upon him life membership of the Queensland Division of the party when he rejoined it in 1996 and to embrace Neville both physically and metaphorically back into the Liberal fold at the State Convention on that occasion. It was a special moment for us because it was something that had to be put right. And it was put right and he showed an enormous grace and generosity of spirit in the way in which he responded.
Neville had an incredibly good sense of humour. He was a pretty ferocious, rambunctious participant in party room debates. If there was a bit of a revolt against the Cabinet line, Neville would be part of it and I remember once he was telling the then prime minister, Malcolm Fraser that he had to sort of lift his game on something and he had to change a piece of obnoxious legislation and he said if you don’t do so Malcolm I will put a land claim on Narreen. And that sort of broke the room up and sort of got rid of some of the tension of the debate. But he had what many of us would describe as that sort of very cheeky, larrikan Australian sense of humour. Whenever we met each other we’d sort of exchange mock insults, like you know he’d say you know you’d better get your policies together a bit better Howard, they’re you know they’re not up to the mark and I would sort of reply in kind and it was all done in wonderful spirit.
He could be very passionate, Neville. I remember his speech at the Constitutional Convention, I thought it was a pretty good speech because he and I were in the same mob at the Constitutional Convention. We were on the same side. It was a very passionate… it was a wonderful speech. I won’t talk about its substance but I’ll talk about its very, very deep feeling and mood and it showed a person who believed very, very strongly. He was a devoted family man and the love affair of his and Heather was one that was so evident to everybody who knew them.
In one of those things that you count as a privilege I was able to see Neville at the hospice in Ipswich only about ten days or two weeks before he died. And I spent a wonderful hour with him and his children. He was cheerful. He knew he was dying but he was ready for that. He had his family around him. He knew he had done great things for the indigenous people of Australia. He knew that he’d served them very, very well. He knew that he’d come back to the fold of the Party that embraced him and then treated him poorly and then came back to him and all was forgotten and forgiven. And as someone who was very proud that it was the Liberal Party that he chose to join, I was very proud that I was the leader of that Party when he was brought back. And I had the opportunity of expressing to him on that occasion as Prime Minister as well as Leader of the Liberal Party the gratitude of the nation for what he’d contributed. For the way in which he’d been trailblazer. For the way in which he’d been able to demonstrate to other Australians the contribution and the commitment to the life of our country of the indigenous people.
I know he suffered a lot. He shared with other indigenous people of Australia a very difficult early life. He suffered discrimination. He was treated poorly and wrongly because of his race on many occasions but he grew beyond that and he showed a great spirit of community and decency and forgiveness. He was in every sense of the word a very dedicated, loyal and committed Australian and I was very privileged to have known him and I know that in saying these things tonight I speak for all of my parliamentary colleagues and most particularly those here tonight who served with him.
He was the first indigenous person to be a member of the national parliament. He’s been followed recently as you all know by Aden Ridgeway and I know that whatever our political allegiances may be we would all hope that others would follow them in the years ahead.
And at Brendan’s instigation it’s been decided to establish a Neville Bonner Memorial Fund which will fund an indigenous scholarship each year for an indigenous person doing their honours year in political science. They’ll pay the… all of the HECS fees up front as well as the $17,000 a year stipend. The Commonwealth Government will contribute an initial amount of $400,000 to that fund and we hope in the spirit of the social coalition of which you’ve heard me speak occasionally, just occasionally some corporations will do likewise and the symbolism of it, the concept of that is that it will commemorate and remind us of a man who was the first elected politician of the indigenous people of Australia and perhaps in a small way that fund over the years will make it possible for others to play their part and to make their contribution.
Can I just say in conclusion that I think this is a wonderful evening. It’s very rich in symbolism and it is an occasion I know that means a great deal to Heather, who lost her great mate last year and who has been a source of encouragement to her many friends. I don’t think any of us will forget the warmth of the funeral service of Neville’s in Queensland and the wonderful tributes that were paid and the way in which it brought together so many strands of Australian society. It bridged all the political divides and the other divides of the Australian community and that was a fitting tribute and a fitting memorial to a wonderful person who brought great credit to the indigenous people of Australia and very importantly brought great credit to his nation. To you Heather God bless and thank you very much for sharing Neville with us for so many years.
Thank you.
[ends]