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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
2014-10-30 Daily Xml
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Members

Evans, Hon. I.F.

Ms REDMOND (Heysen) (15:52): At last, Madam Deputy Speaker.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: It is pesky when the business of the state gets in the way.

Ms REDMOND: It is indeed, especially on such an important occasion as this. I have been contemplating what I could possibly say that is adequate in terms of noting the departure of, I hope my good friend, Iain Evans. They say in politics that if you want a friend, buy a dog. I hope that Iain leaves this place after 21 years knowing that he indeed has rather a lot of good friends here and that they will remain with him, whether he likes it or not, for a lot of years to come.

Iain is actually one of the last members of the Evans family that I met. I think I met his auntie Jean first, then maybe his uncle Bob, then dad Stan and then mum Barb. Of course, his brother Andrew has been my plumber for over 35 years and his sister Yvonne taught my children at Stirling East Primary School. She was the best teacher they ever had. He is indeed blessed to have not only all these wonderful brothers and sisters—I should also mention Daphne, David and Robert up there as well, the whole gang is here—but also Fiona, his wonderful wife and mother of their four children, Staten, Alexander, Fraser and Allison, who are all sitting in the front row. They are a credit to both of them, but I suspect Iain would acknowledge that a lot of it has to do with Fiona because he has been so dedicated to his job in this place and as the member for Davenport throughout much of the children's early lives. They were quite young when he became a member 21 years ago.

Iain came into this place with community service in his DNA. If you add up the years of service to the community, exhibited by the people sitting in the gallery today, you would find that it would amount to many hundreds of years over all the organisations they have served, sometimes 30, 40 and 50 years, on all sorts of organisations.

Iain came into this place with not just a sporting background in both cricket and football but a background in serving the community very significantly through Apex, becoming national president. I think he even rode a bike across the Nullarbor Plain before coming to this place. He had actually had quite a long and creditable history of community service, as well as, of course, like the member for Kavel and the member for Bragg, being the child of a politician and having had a long involvement in the political process. I know that that family connection and that community connection served him very well when coming in as the member for Davenport 21 years ago.

Iain was, in my view, a consummate politician and he covers the whole breadth. Some people come in here and they are good at doing the parliamentary stuff but not so good at doing the out in the community stuff; others come in who are fabulous in their community but may not be so good with the parliamentary stuff. Iain, as I say, was a consummate politician. He was across all the issues. He was always out in his community doorknocking, right through his 21 years, always communicating with his electorate and always understanding what their issues were.

In addition to that, he has been one of our most formidable parliamentary performers. I love his debating style and, if I knew Iain was going to do a grievance, I would always stay in the chamber to listen because it would always be entertaining and worth hanging around for. Iain also has a really good analytical, legal mind, so anyone who has been here when he has done the committee stage of bill and he has skewered the people on the other side could have learnt a lot of lessons—even the lawyers amongst us.

I know that before the member for Bragg and I were elected in 2002, Iain had to represent the legal processes because the only lawyers on our side happened to be in the upper house. Iain, needless to say, as a builder, had to do all the legal work down in the lower house, but he was very good at it. An earlier speaker—I think the Attorney-General himself—has already indicated that he would indeed have made an excellent barrister. As well as that, of course, he is an astute political strategist with that long corporate knowledge. He is highly regarded, I am sure, by everyone in our team and we will certainly miss his wise counsel.

The member for Davenport's work ethic is second to none. Very few people, I consider, would have actually continued in Iain's situation. Being one of the original superannuation scheme people who had been a minister for some time, I am sure he would have been better off financially staying at home rather than coming to work, but he came to work every day and worked hard every day, putting in a lot of effort to try to help us to get into government.

As well as that, he is also a very funny guy; some people maybe do not know that, especially those on the other side. He is a very funny guy and, in fact, the family themselves are pretty funny. I have had discussions with his mother before now because we are always puzzled. I am from a family of five children as well—and indeed there is an Evans back there, so I think maybe I am related to them in some peculiar way. When they have a family get-together, there is usually a song that goes with it.

Most recently, there was a significant anniversary for Stan and Barb, and the five children had got together and prepared a song that took them through the years of their long marriage and ended with all sorts of fun and games. It was a wonderful celebration. That is typical of what happens with the Evans family. As I say, I know I have spoken with Barb previously about people bemoaning the fact that Christmas is coming, that it is so terrible because the family all gets together and that there are all these terrible stresses, when in fact, like my family, when this family gets together it is just fun and games and a lot of laughter.

When Iain became a minister, he actually stole one of my staffers. The staffer had been a waiter at Rigoni's. I am sure you are all familiar with Rigoni's. Trevor was a waiter at Rigoni's. I acted for the owner and Trevor came to work for me as a student studying law and politics at Adelaide Uni. He came to work one day and said, 'Do you know Iain Evans?' I said, 'Yes, of course I know Iain Evans.' He said, 'I've been assigned to Iain's office as a political intern through,' who was it?

The Hon. I.F. Evans: Clem Macintyre.

Ms REDMOND: Clem Macintyre. 'He's assigned me to Iain's office,' he said, so he went to work for Iain just on a political intern basis. I was paying Trevor a paltry sum, being a university student at the time and me having a very small legal practice. When Iain became a minister, he actually rang me and said, 'Where can I contact Trevor? I'm about to offer him a job as an adviser.' In a moment, I will tell you a bit more about Trevor, but he stole Trevor from me. Iain went on to have all sorts of adventures as a minister, with Trevor some of the time as his chief of staff.

I will remark on one little moment when he became the minister for racing and his brother Andrew gave him a sugar cube. Iain said, 'What's that for?' He said, 'So you can figure out which is the front of the horse.' If I may, I will just read briefly from an email I got from Trevor earlier this week, because I contacted him advising him that Iain would be retiring today. He said he was:

…interned to Iain as a young, naive law student, helping Iain (then a backbencher in his first term) to develop legislation to reform recreational greenways. Following the Olsen election in 1998, Iain took me under his wing as a ministerial advisor and, following his appointment to cabinet, as chief of staff.

He talks about Iain's work ethic, and so on, but then he talks about the things that they got going. He said:

Our first go was at prostitution reform but, unfortunately, we never got a leg up on that one. Next, we introduced the emergency services levy. That was popular. So we moved on to renegotiating the police enterprise bargaining with Peter Alexander and the newly appointed police commissioner Mal Hyde. Let's just say it was not without its challenges.

The police portfolio, however, was not without its entertainment. I recall my first ministerial council in Wellington, New Zealand. Joe Hockey was still a rookie MP and Amanda Vanstone was federal minister for justice. Iain and I had a bet that I couldn't get Mal Hyde smoking a cigar and Amanda Vanstone drinking Jameson's straight—or was it the other way around? Let's just say, I won the bet.

I will just close with Trevor's comment that it was during his time in Iain's office that:

…a romance began to bubble in Iain's office and I owe Iain so much gratitude for so many things. My office romance has now become my loving family. My wife April of 16 years and our two children aged 14 and nine all started in Iain's office of industry and trade. Both April and I wish Iain and Fiona the best of luck for the future. Cheers, mate—

Trevor's email finishes.

One of the most important things, though, was Iain's passion for the environment and, when he held the portfolio of the environment, he added many, many hectares to the state estate in the national parks. He also protected the yellow-footed rock wallaby and I think he even had an involvement in declaring the leafy sea dragon our marine emblem for the state.

Even when he became the shadow minister when we moved into opposition (when I came into the parliament), he developed the 2006 policy document for the environment which the Conservation Council at the time said was the best policy document on the environment they had seen in 10 years. He has a passion for the environment that has actually made a difference to this state, and I hope that is one of the things of which he will be very proud.

I do not want to take up too much time, but I want to tell two quick stories about Iain as leader. I relished having Iain as leader and want to tell two quick stories, one quite serious. When Iain was leader, he, very graciously, made me shadow attorney-general. In that role, I had some serious misgivings about the way the federal government was treating David Hicks and, indeed, the Labor government on the other side had moved a motion condemning the federal Liberal government for their treatment of David Hicks. I had given the party room notice, but Iain, obviously, as leader had to tolerate a shadow attorney-general getting up in this place and supporting a Labor motion condemning the federal Liberal government, which was very generous of him. He neither accepted my resignation nor sacked me from the position of shadow attorney.

But the more fun thing I want to talk about was an occasion on which I went out of my office in Stirling to drive down to the parliament and, when I got to the car, I noticed that there was a little card under the front wiper.

Members interjecting:

Ms REDMOND: Some people know what's coming. Before starting the car, I got out and I got this card from under the wiper: it was Iain Evans' business card. I turned it over and it said, 'I love you.' To say that I was taken aback would be an understatement. Iain and I have been good friends, but there was absolutely, never in my wildest imaginings, anything that could have led to me getting a note on my windshield that said, 'I love you' from the leader of the opposition. When I got down to parliament I thought, 'I've just got to find out why I've got this note. We need to have a talk. If there is something I need to know, Iain, now is the time to tell me.'

I went around to see him, and the leader was actually involved in momentous discussions—it was a sitting day, obviously. As soon as he saw me go past the door of his office he came bounding out at the rate of knots, most concerned, and said, 'Did you get a note under your windscreen wiper?' I said, 'Well, yes, I did. That's what I've come around to see you about.'

It turned out that with this parliamentary car business, we both had cars that were almost identical: same make, same model, same colour—almost the same numberplate—and when he saw my car parked at the front of parliament he thought that his wife, Fiona, had parked the car there and so he put a note to his wife under the windscreen wiper.

When he got home he said to Fiona, 'Did you get my note?' She said, 'No, what note?' He thought she was having a go at him and pretending she had not got it. Finally, she convinced him that her car had not been parked there and she had not received any note. Then, all night they were panicked about who got this note—because it could have been anyone in the parliament who had a parliamentary car. Luckily for him, it was me, and I knew that as much as we are good friends, he did not mean to give me a note that said, 'I love you'.

I close by saying it has been a privilege and an honour to serve with the Hon. Iain Evans. He has been a mentor, a guide, a wonderful contributor to the parliament—to the parliamentary process—and, of course, particularly to the Liberal parliamentary team. I hope he will remain a friend, not just to me but to many of us. I know that his family will be happy to have him back with them for a change—or at least I think at this stage they would like to have him back with them for a change. He has made an enormous contribution to this state in so many ways and should leave this place proud of what he has achieved and pleased that, unlike so many who come into this place, he is leaving at the time of his own choosing. I wish him, and his family, all the best for his future—wherever it takes him.

Sitting extended beyond 17:00 on motion of Hon. M.L.J. Hamilton-Smith.

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