CONDOLENCES

Senator WATT (Queensland—Minister for the Environment and Water) (15:33): by leave—I move: That the Senate records its sadness at the death, on 13 August 2025, of Stanley James Collard OAM, former senator for Queensland, places on record its gratitude for his service to the Parliament and the nation, and tenders its sympathy to his family in their bereavement.

I wish to express my condolences, on behalf of the government, to Mr Collard's family, as well as his friends and former colleagues, many of whom I'm sure are watching along at home today. I didn't have the fortune of meeting Mr Collard during my time in politics, but, reading over his life, I couldn't help but notice some similarities with some of my own early life.

He was born in South-East Queensland. He's the son of a dairy farmer, with strong family ties to Sarina, in North Queensland, and he had strong connections with the union movement through the AFULE in Central Queensland. In many respects, it sounds to me like Mr Collard would have been an ideal candidate for preselection for the Labor Party.

He even went to Nambour high like former prime minister Rudd and former treasurer Wayne Swan. But, as Mr Collard's parents were dairy farmers, they were Country Party through and through and clearly influenced his political direction. After school Mr Collard moved to Brisbane and joined the Queensland Railways as a trainee engineman, where he met his wife, Gloria Pearl Auld.

Mr Collard rejoined the railways in 1961, and the family, then with two young children, moved to Cloncurry, where their third child would be born. By now he was taking an active interest in politics, having joined the local branch of the Country Party in 1959 when, prior to the 1966 federal election, Bob Katter Sr won the party's preselection for the seat of Kennedy.

Mr Collard was appointed his campaign director and continued in that role for the following three elections. There was a railway strike during the 1966 election campaign, and, while running Bob Katter Sr's campaign on the one hand, he on the other organised the Cloncurry end of the strike from the Country Party's campaign office, a story that Mr Katter dined out on for many years.

Mr Collard and his family moved to Sarina in 1971, where he became one of the first locomotive drivers of the giant six-header coal trains running between the Goonyella, Peak Downs and Saraji mines to port facilities at Hay Point. In 1975 Mr Collard sought preselection for the Senate, securing the sixth place on the joint National-Country and Liberal Party Senate ticket for Queensland.

After successfully securing a spot in the Senate, he took over an office in Rockhampton, as he saw one of his roles as staying close to central and northern Queensland. In the Senate Mr Collard spoke of the effects of isolation on rural areas and sought improved transport and communications. Mr Collard by all reports was very reliable, and that no doubt contributed to his selection as National Party Whip and deputy leader in the Senate before becoming the party's Senate leader.

In the post-Fraser years, he was appointed to the coalition shadow ministry with responsibility for veterans affairs and arts, heritage and the environment. As environment spokesman, he believed that there was 'no necessary dichotomy between conservation and development' and remained wary of what he referred to frequently as 'the lunatic fringe of the conservation movement'.

He advocated the use of sugar based ethanol in cars but was also sympathetic to the development of nuclear energy and believed that oil drilling on the Great Barrier Reef should not be ruled out—as I said, it looks like I don't agree with everything Mr Collard believed in. He was a player in the Joh for PM campaign, caught between his obligations to the coalition in Canberra and his party machine back in Queensland.

Ultimately he was forced out of the shadow ministry under a renegotiated coalition deal and was ultimately unsuccessful in securing preselection for the 1987 election. After politics Mr Collard became state president of the National Party and was a member of Life Education national board for 10 years from 1996. The following year he became state president of Lifeline Queensland, a post he held for three years.

He also served as deputy chairman of the Library Board of Queensland. I think we can see that Mr Collard, throughout his working life, was always interested in contributing to his community in a variety of ways. We thank Mr Collard for his contribution to public life, and our thoughts today are with Mr Collard's family and friends.

We pay respects to a life well lived.