CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS
Dr LEIGH (Fenner—Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury) (09:51): I rise to pay tribute to Trevor William Edward Smith, who died peacefully at home on 21 August, aged 94, just a few weeks short of his 95th birthday. Trevor was born in London in 1931 and grew up in central London during the Blitz. As a boy, he would report back to air raid wardens on which houses had been damaged.
He later served in the air force in Britain and married his beloved Dorothy when he was just 20. When the family decided to emigrate, they considered Canada but chose Australia partly because the boat schedules worked better. They were among the many 10-pound Poms who made this country home.
Trevor worked in communications at Woomera then moved to Canberra in the early 1960s, in time to watch the lake fill. He and Dorothy became Australian citizens here. His career later included a secondment to the US navy, working in Maine and California.
On returning to Canberra, he helped install the sound and vision systems in this building. As a retiree, Trevor was active in COTA, SCOA and Probus. He made handmade cards, painted garden gnomes, practised photography in his own darkroom and took his children to Canberra Airport simply to watch the planes.
Trevor played tennis, racquetball, table tennis and, above all, squash. A left-hander, he was a regular on the ACT masters team and quite possibly the oldest player at the Dickson courts. His daughter Janice joked that by the end he was not terribly mobile around the court, but he still had a wicked drop shot.
Remarkably, Trevor was still playing squash until a fortnight before his death. I knew Trevor through Labor. He was my oldest campaign volunteer in the 2022 election and was back on the trail in 2025 at the age of 93.
He told me that Hawke was his political hero. Trevor was quick witted, generous and relentlessly optimistic about Australia. On the first page of his address book, his son Damian found two quotations: Lincoln's 'government of the people by the people for the people' and John F Kennedy's call to ask what you can do for your country.
Trevor lived both. His family remember a man in his element at birthdays and weddings— A division having been called in the House of Representatives— Sitting suspended from 09:54 to 10:05 Dr LEIGH: His family remember a man in his element at birthdays and weddings, who organised annual Easter egg hunts, who arrived with enormous gift bags, who told wartime stories and listened to theirs.
Trevor was the loving husband of Dorothy; father of Janice, the late Roger, Katrina and Damian; pop to five grandchildren; and great-grandfather to 12. To all his family, I offer my deepest condolences. Canberra has lost a generous citizen, and Labor has lost a volunteer who showed that politics really is a long game.