Mr ALBANESE (Grayndler—Leader of the Opposition) (14:04): I thank the Prime Minister for his words.

If ever there was a face that looked like it had been designed to emit an aura of geniality and goodwill it was Michael Beahan's. Through his life he would wear many hats: electrician, peace activist, teacher, union member, encourager, changemaker, Labor true believer. He was also the survivor of tragedy: a car crash that he survived but his girlfriend, Leith Jackson, did not. Even with the passage of the decades, it is just too awful to contemplate. Somehow, the young Michael emerged from that with a sharpened focus on what mattered.

As Western Australian state Labor Secretary, he was a modernising force in the 1980s and he played a crucial role in the party's successes at a state and federal level during that remarkable decade. When he entered federal parliament as Senator for WA during the Hawke-Keating era, he made it clear in his first speech to the Senate that he was concerned with getting things done. Having overcome some of his own reservations about the Senate, which in his mind sometimes suffered from memories of its role in the 1975 constitutional crisis, he gave speeches on industrial relations and working conditions, education, the economy and electoral matters. He spoke with persuasive power on the Native Title Bill. He developed a full and detailed view of parliament, seeing how it all pieced together, what worked, what didn't and what best equipped parliamentarians to serve the interests of the Australian people. True to this approach, he looked past some of the more flashily obvious aspects of parliament and saw the value of parliamentary committees. What he saw in them was a greater breadth of representation and perspective and an overall impact that he felt was rivalled only by the emergence of political parties and the advent of proportional representation.

When he became Senate President, he took on the challenge of lifting the standard of question time, clearly taking to heart the view of another president, John F Kennedy, that we choose things not because they are easy but because they are hard. Michael understood that the televising of question time had a big impact on the standing of the institution. As he put it:

I used to think it was only my mother who watched me at question time, but there are a lot of other people who watch question time. I was recently door knocking in Shark Bay when somebody said, 'Hello, Mr President. Come on in and have a drink. I watch you every day.'

Michael also understood the potent symbolism of this very building itself and sought ways to make Parliament House a living, dynamic building that better reflected our great nation. One way to approach this was through the art collection. As he later reflected, there was almost no Western Australian art, very little Queensland art, no urban Aboriginal art and very little Northern Territory art. We set about redressing that imbalance first of all, then maintaining the collection as a living collection and not one that was rooted in 1988. As you walk through this building, possibly on your way to Aussies, you'll pass Michael's official portrait in which he's been carefully painted smiling gently from among a collection of framed canvasses.

When he left here, Michael kept his focus on what mattered, favouring the result over the display. By the time he was appointed a member of the Order of Australia in 2011 it was for service to the parliament of Australia, to the promotion of international bipartisan political debate, to the pharmacy profession and to the community—a ten-pound Pom who turned out to be a true bargain for Australia!

Our hearts go out to his wife, Margaret; his children, Daniel and Kate; his step-children, Georgia and Michael; and his eight grandchildren. May Michael rest in peace.

The SPEAKER: As a mark of respect to the memory of the Honourable Michael Eamon Beahan, I invite honourable members to rise in their places.

Honourable members having stood in their places—

The SPEAKER: I thank the House.

Debate adjourned.