24619 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY Wednesday 23 June 2010 __________ The Speaker (The Hon. Mr Richard Torbay) took the chair at 10.00 a.m. The Speaker read the Prayer and acknowledgement of country. CRIMES (SENTENCING LEGISLATION) AMENDMENT (INTENSIVE CORRECTION ORDERS) BILL 2010 Message received from the Legislative Council returning the bill without amendment. BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE Notices of Motions General Business Notices of Motions (General Notices) given. DEATH OF THE HONOURABLE DONALD DAY, A FORMER MEMBER OF THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY AND A FORMER MINISTER OF THE CROWN Mr STEVE WHAN (Monaro—Minister for Primary Industries, Minister for Emergency Services, and Minister for Rural Affairs) [10.08 a.m.]: I move: That this House extends to Mrs Day and family the deep sympathy of members of the Legislative Assembly in the loss sustained by the death on 18 May 2010 of the Honourable Donald Day, a former Minister of the Crown. I am honoured to move this condolence motion to mark, with regret, the passing of the Hon. Donald Day. Unfortunately I did not know him but as one of his successors in the Primary Industries portfolio, and after having read the background information and some of his speeches in Parliament, I know that we shared many similar objectives as a member of Parliament representing rural and regional New South Wales. I acknowledge members of the family present in the public gallery—Suzanne, Shane, Joanna, Benjamin, Adam and Anna. In remembering the life and career of Don, I extend my condolence to his family members: his wife Marie, who was not able to travel to be here today and is at home; Jennifer Thomas, Bill Day, Suzanne Shultz, grandchildren Benjamin and Isabel, Bart Thomas, Clare Thomas, Shane Donald Day and Joanna, Adam Shultz, Nicholas and Anna Shultz. In his long political career that spanned local and State governments, Don was the Labor member for Casino and then for Clarence. He was elected in 1971 against the odds. He won the seat of Casino for the Labor Party, which was then a safe Country Party seat. He served first in local government as deputy mayor of the Maclean municipality, then as deputy president of the shire council, and he was chairman of the Lower Clarence County Council. Then, after a career in business, Don won a seat in State Parliament. In those days the North Coast seats were dominated by great Country Party families such as the Pages and the Anthonys, yet Don blazed his way into the northern rivers seat on the back of a very strong local campaign. Don was a strong voice in this Chamber for the rural communities and villages of the North Coast. In the Wran Government, Don served as a Minister of the Crown in various portfolios, including Primary Industries, Agriculture and Decentralisation. We will hear more about Don's record later but he was recognised, almost single-handedly, as rescuing the sugar and dairy industries on the North Coast, and worked tirelessly for those industries to open new markets for their produce. His political successes were based on his great personality and affinity with the North Coast communities. I am told he usually caught the train from the northern rivers to Sydney to attend Parliament and back, which would have been a great way to travel in those days. I do not know how true this is but I gather he did not mind a drink on that long train ride— 24620 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 23 June 2010 Mr Thomas George: You had to or you would not get to sleep. Mr STEVE WHAN: That might be right. Don was a real man of the people and had great contact with his community. Don grew up during the Depression. I quote from The Untold Story: Labor in Rural NSW by Jack Hallam, which contains a fairly good section about Don. It says of his early years: I grew up in the metropolitan area of Melbourne during the depression. My father deserted us when we were kids, so we had a fairly rough upbringing; my mother had to bring up three of us without the benefit of any deserted wives' pension. We scrabbled very hard and that sort of builds a fire in your guts. It leaves a mark on you really that never leaves you. The scars are there from charity handouts and all those rather soul-destroying experiences. That's why I'll always be Labor. The book tells us that he married a girl from the country and they lived in Sydney for a while after the war before moving to northern New South Wales. It then tells how he entered his local Labor Party. On his first campaign and election to Parliament he said: I was only endorsed some three and a half weeks before election because we couldn't get a candidate for Labor. When I stood I really didn't anticipate that I would win the seat. I rather thought it would be a practice run for the federal seat of Cowper which I proposed to seek endorsement for. Now a lot of workers in the country vote Country Party because they are of the view that Labor is opposed to their interests and even ordinary toilers believe that the Country Party is really their party, but if you scratch many Country Party supporters in the bush you will find a Labor Party voter rather than a Liberal Party voter. When you look back the Country Party often got their support from people who live around the bread-line. It's extraordinary but it's a fact that people who really live at or below the bread-line will vote Country Party. If you look at the number of shopkeepers or wealthy farmers there's very few, very few indeed. You have got to convince the small-holder, the small farmer, the ordinary toiler, that in fact Labor stands for him wherever he lives and this is what I set out to do in that election. He was successful in that election and was able to hold that seat, which after redistribution became the seat of Clarence, until he retired in 1984. In the book Jack Hallam says: At the election Don got a swing to Labor of 17.6 per cent, giving him a majority of 854. While it was a prodigious effort it is to be acknowledged that Country Party complacency was a factor, so at the 1973 elections they were desperate to defeat the 'oncer'— As they called him. It tells of his success in local campaigning every Friday in Casino, Saturdays in Maclean and Mondays in Kyogle. The book continues: Someone nicknamed him 'Mr Accessible' and the tag stuck. He beat off the attack and successfully held the seat until 1984. There were some really impressive achievements in Don's life as a representative of rural New South Wales. As Minister for Agriculture he squared off to CSR when the company threatened to abandon the three sugar mills on the northern rivers and leave the area. He told CSR, "If you're going to scrap the mills, we'll give you scrap for them." The New South Wales cane growers of the northern rivers are in no doubt that Don was a strong representative and saved their industry. As I understand it, that was remembered for many years to come. In fact I noticed in some of the newspaper cuttings that representatives of the sugar industry still talk about Don's effort on their behalf. In Don's inaugural speech he said: I am satisfied, as more and more country people are becoming satisfied, that the future welfare of the rural areas of this State and this nation must rest with the party of the common man—the party of a truly national policy not afraid to plan for progress—the Australian Labor Party. He was very proud of his affiliation with the Labor Party and he was an incredible party representative in Cabinet. In his inaugural speech he accused the then government as being a government for Sydney, Newcastle, Wollongong, which seems to have been a constant refrain over many years to come. He undertook some very far-reaching initiatives to help promote decentralisation for the industries in his area. We will hear more about his great work in the dairy industry and the giving of access to the markets for the North Coast dairy industry. The member for Mount Druitt, a former Minister for Agriculture, who was closely involved with that, will tell us about it later. The Untold Story: Labor in Rural NSW continues: As a Minister, Day took responsibility for the most far-reaching restructuring of any rural industry on government initiative, with the possible exception of Bill Dunn and the irrigation areas in the mid-1920s. The same humanitarian instincts were at work in both cases. 23 June 2010 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 24621 The story goes on to tell of some of Don's work in the restructuring of the dairy industry. As the Minister responsible for decentralisation, he came in with a huge burst and took the Wran Government into areas that had not been seen in predecessor governments. He saw new State Government office blocks created at Dubbo, Broken Hill and Gunnedah, and State Government services for country people with the newly established Department of Consumer Affairs in Goulburn, Wagga Wagga, Albury, Dubbo, Grafton, Tamworth, Armidale and Casino. He took initiatives in decentralisation and revitalisation of regional centres. He was able to give all country members a great deal of pride about their record as representing regional communities when they went to the 1978 election, which is a proud legacy.