Motions

Ridgway, Hon. D.W.

Adjourned debate on motion of Hon. R.I. Lucas:

That this council notes and thanks the Hon. David Ridgway for his service to the Legislative Council and the community since his election to the Legislative Council in 2002.

(Continued from 24 August 2021.)

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (18:13): I rise to make a brief contribution to this motion which deals, of course, with the retirement from this place of the Hon. David Wickham Ridgway. I have collected a group of what might be considered fairly random thoughts about my time and interaction with David over the last nearly 16 years in this place.

I think the overarching sort of message—I am sure David will study this in Hansard quite assiduously—I hope he gets from my contribution is that he was certainly well liked, from my point of view, and that he made a significant contribution to this place over his nearly 20 years as an elected member of this chamber.

I think the one thing that stands out to me about David is that he was what my wife would call 'a glass half full guy'. He was always positive, he always had a story to tell—I think members can relate to that—and they were often quite entertaining. I always found his stories worthy of my attention. He would always finish with a laugh just about, which I think was most endearing about him.

My summation of David in terms of business life, excluding his personal life, was that he had two real passions, as I could tell. The first passion was South Australia. He is a genuinely passionate member of the South Australian community. I think it goes back to his rural origins, when he grew up in Bordertown and through the South-East. He did have a passion particularly for our produce and for the hardworking people of the land. He would express that often in his speeches and, indeed, even in his private conversations. It was really absorbed into the fabric of who he was.

I think this place is better for rural representation. In fact, sometimes we can be considered to be city-centric in this place. The Hon. David Ridgway—and I understand because he has been here more than ten years he keeps his honourable title—and people like him have added a great flavour of the rural influence that has made our state the great place it is. That is the first passion he had. I think he had a genuine passion for South Australia, not just our produce but almost everything about it. I will go into a little bit more detail about that in a moment.

His other passion was the Liberal Party. He truly was what you might call a blueblood Liberal. He loved the Liberal Party. He loved all of the opportunities that it afforded him. He loved all of the acquaintances and friendships that he made through his journey with the Liberal Party. He joined as a very young man. I have forgotten exactly how young, but I think he was in his teens.

The Hon. E.S. Bourke: Fourteen, I think.

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD: Fourteen, was it? There we go. It was something like that. He was a very young man when he joined. I am not sure you could join at 14, but David would have found a way. Anyway, he joined as a very young man and it became his life. He turned 60 recently, as members would know. That is a really significant part of your life; it is all of your adult life. It became who he was. It is hard to think of David as anything but a Liberal person, although, of course, in his new role he will need to maintain probably more of a bipartisan position, which may be a little bit challenging for him, given his long-term association with the party.

They are the two things that I associate with David, if I had to describe him. He was genuinely passionate for South Australia. His two passions were that he was passionate for South Australia and he was passionate about the Liberal Party and all that it stands for and all of the friendships and associations he was able to build through it. Indeed, he was grateful for the opportunities that it provided for him. He would often say to me, 'If it wasn't for the Liberal Party, I would not be here.' He would say he would not be this, he would not be that, and he would give a list of things, which was significant. I think David always had a high degree of gratitude to the party for that.

Of course, we know that he rose to very senior levels. He became the Leader of the Opposition in this place for a number of years. Indeed, he was bestowed the honour of being a minister in this place when the Liberal Party came to government in 2018, when he was the minister for Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment. He served in those portfolios exceedingly well, in my view. I think they fitted his personality absolutely perfectly.

I was at a dinner just last week, and the Premier happened to be at the same dinner. Some people that we were with on the table remarked to the Premier that they thought David was a terrific Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment. They also went on to say that he would be well suited to the Agent General in London because of that natural passion about our state and his desire to promote South Australia at every opportunity.

He loved our produce, he loved tourism and he believed that our state had perhaps underperformed over many years. Through the investment portfolio, he had an opportunity individually as a minister to improve substantially the lot of our state and those living in it. I believe he made a contribution in that regard. Unfortunately, he was only a minister for a relatively brief time. I am not sure exactly how long, but I guess it was a bit over two years. It was enough to make a stamp, but I think he could have done so much more given more time. He was somebody, as I said, who had a great deal of passion for that particular role, and I think those portfolios suited him particularly well.

It will come as no surprise to everyone that David enjoyed our state produce, as I said, particularly the produce made with grapes. He had a particular fondness for that particular type of produce. The very first time I met the Hon. Mr Ridgway was in the dining room in Parliament House. I had never met him prior to that. I was having lunch with my wife. I had been elected for about a whole week, or something like that, and was not even aware that there was a dining room. I was told that there was and I eventually found it and was so impressed that I thought I would invite my wife in for lunch, and I did that. She was very happy, of course.

The Hon. Mr Ridgway and the Hon. Mr Stephens happened to walk in together and dined at a table not far from us and we could overhear their conversation. They kindly came and introduced themselves and, just referring to the Hon. Mr Ridgway, the subject of this contribution, he was particularly warm, as was the Hon. Mr Stephens, but it was a very pleasant first meeting. I remember it to this day. It is not often that you remember your first meeting with somebody, but I do remember that quite well. I think both he and the Hon. Mr Stephens went out of their way to be warm and welcoming to me, which I appreciated, and so warm and welcoming were they that I remember it right to this day.

A few more random thoughts come to mind. I am developing a theme here, although I will not labour it too much. David made some interesting statements to me over the years, some of which are hard to forget. One that I have taken to repeating to my wife occasionally was when he turned 60 he said to me, 'Dennis, I'm 60 years old. I've probably got a thousand bottles of wine left in me; I'm going to make sure they're good ones.' I have started repeating that to my wife as well, which means that the Father's Day wine present on the weekend was better than average, which I am grateful for. I thank the Hon. Mr Ridgway for that, because it worked out well on Sunday for me.

He had that love for life, he had that love for enjoyment, for being around people, for promoting our state, and I guess in essence he was good company, he was good fun. In the vernacular, he was a good bloke. He was a good member, and that is important. He was passionate about the Liberal Party and serving the cause. Whether the Liberal Party was in opposition or in government, his loyalties never wavered.

He fought hard, particularly for rural issues, although much broader than that, but that is where it all started. He leaves this place with his head held high, and he will be missed. He always had time for you, he always had time to tell a story, he always had time to make some fun out of the moment, which this place can be devoid of on occasions; I am sure members will not disagree with that.

One other thing I remember about David that is worthy of sharing is that I think he had the best photo taken of anyone I have ever known. You meet a lot of people in your life. In this job particularly you are very fortunate to meet a lot of people from all walks of life. David showed me a photo after England had won the One Day World Cup Final at Lords, the year before last I guess it was, a couple of years back or thereabouts. He was there for that game. Everyone knows that his son-in-law is Eoin Morgan, the English captain of the one day team.

It was an absolutely epic game. Members probably remember that England was quite lucky to win that, and New Zealand was very unlucky in many ways. David's son-in-law was the captain, so he was particularly proud and thrilled with the outcome. Literally half an hour after the game, after the English team had raised the World Cup for the first time ever, he was fortunate to, with his wife, Meredith, and his daughter and son-in-law, stand there on the ground at Lords with the World Cup in their hands.

It was the best photo I have seen of someone in real life—not in a magazine or on television, which you get a bit blasé about. I will be insanely jealous for the rest of my life about that photo, because it is not something I will be doing, but it was something David did. It is a reflection of who he was. He managed to be in the right place at the right time and his personality was such that people warmed to him because he was a decent, likeable fellow. I take this opportunity to wish him and Meredith every single happiness and success as he moves into his new role in the UK. It is a very important role. I think South Australia will be in good hands with his representation in the UK, and I wish him well.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. I.K. Hunter.