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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-08-24 Daily Xml
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Motions

Ridgway, Hon. D.W.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (16:44): I move:

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.

This is a slightly more enjoyable task, rather than reading the second readings of all of the Attorney-General's bills. It does give me great pleasure to speak to this particular motion. In the normal course of events, these sorts of farewell motions are moved prior to the imminent departure of a member from the chamber—not always, but more often than not. It also gives those of us who like to say nice things about a departing member the opportunity to do so, but also gives the member the opportunity to bid his or her farewell to the chamber and thank members for whatever pleasantries they might have shared in their contributions as well.

That has not been possible in the circumstances of the Hon. Mr Ridgway and so I have moved this motion. He has indicated to me that, having listened to all the nice things that people might say about him, he may well provide a short response, which, when I close the debate in a number of weeks, I will be able to place on the public record as his thanks to the contributions during this particular debate.

For those of us who have known the Hon. Mr Ridgway for some period of time they know a little of his back story. Born in Wolseley in the South-East, he attended Bordertown High School, where he tells me he was an outstanding student. I am not sure that was necessarily a view shared by either his peers or some of his teachers, but nevertheless he seemed to enjoy his school days and youthful years in the South-East. He played cricket and a range of other sports. Having seen some of the photographs of a young Mr Ridgway, I can understand he was the blonde bombshell of the Bordertown High School—on the male side of the equation anyway. For those who know the Hon. Mr Ridgway now with no hair, let alone any colour of hair, he was certainly very blonde during, I would imagine, most of his youthful days.

Upon leaving school, as many from the farming communities did, he became active in SA Rural Youth. He became president of SA Rural Youth and, as the Hon. Mr Malinauskas might have alluded to in an earlier contribution today, then enjoyed a six-month study tour of the United Kingdom as part of that role with Rural Youth. I know he continues to maintain, even to this day, many strong friendships from his Rural Youth days. We would often run into people whom he says were old contacts, or acquaintances, let me put it that way, from his Rural Youth days and he is able to always tell a story about each individual that he has met along the way.

Thankfully for all of us, and the Hon. Mr Ridgway I am sure, he met his wife Meredith relatively early and many of those rough edges that the Hon. Mr Ridgway might have had in those youthful days were refined and honed to turn him into the product that we saw when he eventually entered the Legislative Council. I do note Meredith's banking and financial background, which has stood her and them in very strong stead in terms of running their previous horticultural business, and even to this day. The Hon. Mr Ridgway is going to be well set up with Meredith with him in the United Kingdom in his new challenge.

For those of us who knew David as he sought higher office within the Liberal Party, he ran a very successful horticultural business. He has indicated that it was the largest producer of gladioli bulbs in Australia and New Zealand at that particular time, which meant that there were many occasions, when he had a surplus of gladioli, that all and sundry, for any reason, were likely to get gifts of gladioli at Liberal Party meetings or indeed other community functions as well.

David was elected to the Legislative Council in 2002. His first speech to the chamber notes that he was elected at the same time as the Hon. Gail Gago, the Hon. John Gazzola, the Hon. Andrew Evans and, of course, my parliamentary colleague the Hon. Terry Stephens. With the Hon. Mr Ridgway’s departure, the only one of the gang left is the Hon. Mr Stephens. There is a reasonable degree of turnover because at least three of those have been gone for many years from the Legislative Council.

As I said, David was elected in 2002. The Hon. Mr Ridgway’s career might have been cruelly cut short at the time of his very first speech to the parliament because, as I am sure all members are aware, most are very nervous when they give their first speech to the parliament. It can be a daunting experience, I guess, standing up for the first time in the Legislative Council and giving a speech, no matter what your background has been. He obviously had a background in Rural Youth, but no matter what your background—whether it is the city council, politics, business, or whatever it is—standing up among strangers and colleagues in the Legislative Council, with everyone looking at you, to give your first speech can be a daunting experience.

As I said, his career might have been cruelly cut short at that first speech because, being very nervous, he mispronounced the term 'lamb cuts', which did not come out quite right when he actually mentioned the phrase. Only one or two of his friends and colleagues actually noticed the slip of the tongue. Thankfully, Hansard’s tidy-up job, which was the deletion of a single consonant from what might have been said, meant that Hansard still records the first speech as 'lamb cuts'.

My only advice to members giving a first speech is perhaps not to use the phrase 'lamb cuts' in your first speech, if you are at all nervous, or indeed anything else that remotely resembles that. Nevertheless, David is eternally grateful for Hansard—Hansard generally tidies up our messes somewhere along the way. Twenty years later, the story can be told as he has now gone, and as I said it did not cut short a promising career way back in 2002.

David Ridgway has been a friend and colleague of mine for those 20 years. I did not know much of David’s background prior to that because, whilst I am from the South-East, I am from the real part of the South-East, which is Mount Gambier and not that Bordertown area, so our paths did not cross until just before he sought preselection. It would have been during the period that he was a member of the state executive of the Liberal Party and various other bodies when our paths would have crossed as he sought preselection.

David served in a number of positions during his parliamentary career. After coming in in 2002, the bulk of his career, the first 16 years, was spent in opposition. He was a parliamentary secretary for a period, he was a leader of the opposition for a long period of time and he held many different shadow ministry portfolios over that period of time. I probably will not do justice to recording all of them but, in quickly looking at Wikipedia and his parliamentary record and others, it looks like he covered portfolios such as the environment and conservation, the River Murray, urban development and planning, police, primary industries, tourism, regional development, agriculture, food and fisheries, and forests, in various iterations at various points in time during his career.

Given the fact that we have just replaced him on about ten committees with the outstanding new member, Heidi Girolamo, I will not list the committees that he has participated in over his long period of parliamentary service, suffice it to say that the record shows that he has participated in a very large number of parliamentary committees during his period in opposition.

In government, he was delighted to be appointed by new Premier Marshall to a senior ministry position. He started off with trade, tourism and investment and ended up in trade and investment for the bulk of his time in the ministry before he took the opportunity offered to him of this new role as Agent General in London.

Knowing David's background, I believe that his long experience in life, both in running a business and his knowledge of regional and rural communities, his time in rural youth and then his 20 years in public life and public service have provided him with as good a background as anybody for the challenges that he is going to confront on behalf of the state of South Australia.

Given his portfolios of trade and investment in particular, at a time when so many new opportunities are going to open up with the United Kingdom and also, frankly, with Europe with new trade agreements, someone with his background and his experience in terms of trade and investment, you could not think of a better set of skills in relation to that.

The other set of skills that I have always admired in David, even through his long years in opposition, is that the Hon. Mr Ridgway is a remarkable networker. He has the capacity to speak with people from all sorts of backgrounds, the capacity to put them at ease and the capacity to gather information, to impart information and, frankly, to network and create those sorts of contacts and networks over a long period of time. It served him well in opposition and in government and in parliament generally, but it is going to serve him well in terms of serving the interests of South Australian companies and businesses and individuals in terms of trade and investment opportunities in London.

I know that in the short period between his resignation from the Legislative Council and when he flies out on Thursday of this week to London with his family and the dog, I understand—although I think the dog is going a couple of weeks later—he spent that number of weeks meeting with any number of South Australian businesses in the defence and security area and in the food and wine area.

A number of companies or representatives of companies have said to me that they have met recently with the Hon. Mr Ridgway in relation to learning about them and their export contemplations in terms of exporting product and services to the UK or to Europe. He has been actively engaged in preparing to hit the ground running when he arrives in London.

Not all of my colleagues are going to have the opportunity to speak; I think some will. For those who do not, I know that I speak on their behalf—not just current colleagues, because he has served with many others who have now retired, but I am sure I speak on behalf of past colleagues as well—in thanking David Ridgway for his contribution to public life and in particular his contribution in this parliament and in particular to this chamber, the Legislative Council.

We wish him, Meredith and the family all the very best in the future challenges that lie ahead of them in London. We know that he will serve in that post with distinction. We look forward to the occasions when he might get back and visit with us again.

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

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