Mr GRIFFIN (5:19 PM) —I rise today on what is a very sad occasion but I would like to try and focus on some positive points and some celebration of the life of Greg Wilton. I knew three Greg Wiltons. I knew Greg Wilton the activist, Greg Wilton who pursued an ambition and Greg Wilton the servant of the people. It was over a 12-year period. The first one was the activist. About 11 years ago, I was on the rules revision committee with Greg. We spent a good deal of the time trying to sort out the party rules. Back in those days my little group was in charge of the party, so I was always more careful about what I proposed in terms of rules than I would be now. Now I have come to know them very well because I have to try and use them to protect myself, very unsuccessfully. Greg was always committed; he was always there and he was always willing to engage in debate.

When he moved away from fortress Scullin and Jagajaga and came back out to my side of town, which was also his side of town, we got to know each other better in that he was actually a volunteer in my campaign for election in 1993. Right through that period you saw a guy who was committed to the Labor Party, what it stood for and what he believed it to be. He saw it as a very important part of society in terms of trying to lead forward for democratic change. As often happens and has happened to all of us on this side of the chamber, he then took that a step further. That was the ambition period. This was when the relationship that I had with Greg went through a love-hate relationship. We went through a period when we came to love to hate each other. That was certainly the case around that ambition period because we had a situation where Greg was seeking to put himself forward in the local area. I was an incumbent concerned about boundary changes in the local area and was looking to do what I could to make sure that I and others would be protected in the way that it goes in the ALP. I remember an occasion when we were at a branch meeting and some 80 members of the Latin American community had come forth of their own volition, fully abreast of the important role they were playing and seeking to play an important role in a democratic organisation such as the Labor Party. As they filed through, I turned to Greg and said, `You are not going to get it. Just back off, and maybe you'll get a state seat.'

I came to rue the day that I said that, because, as Greg put to me, every 12 months he used to remember this anniversary by saying to people that it was the day when I told him he could not get it and he decided he would get me instead and make sure that I was proven to be wrong. Some four days after those 80 Latin American members had taken that position to join the Labor Party, I learned that some 120 in another branch in another part of the electorate had taken the same decision, at Greg's instigation rather than mine. I realised that maybe he just was not going to get warned off that quickly. That led to a period of quite a bit of internal tension between the two of us. But it said something very important about Greg in that period before he became a member of parliament. The guy was driven and basically he was tough and he did not flinch. He was strong at what he did and he was effective at it.

I have had such stoushes with a few people in my time and I hope to have a few more in the years to come. The fact of the matter is that he was a very worthy opponent in that context, and I mean that in the most sincere, warrior-like way that you can put it. He was a worthy opponent in that situation, but the problem with worthy opponents is that you start to get a bit bitter and twisted, or certainly I did. I remember a conversation that I had in 1996 with the member for Werriwa when he said that he had an ambition for that term of parliament: basically, he thought Greg Wilton was a good bloke and he thought I was, so he was going to bring us back together. I will not jeopardise the question of parliamentary language by repeating my response at that time, other than to say that Mark achieved his ambition because, within about 12 months, Greg and I made peace and went forward together working, I think, in a much more constructive fashion.

That showed the servant aspect of what he did, because he certainly worked his electorate hard and it was something that came through. He actually inherited a fairly significant chunk of my first electorate in the Cranbourne area. As much as I would like to say it—and I am afraid I cannot—it was not that the good burghers of Cranbourne felt my loss to any great extent. They found themselves in a situation where they were probably tended better in a pastoral sense. That commitment that Greg showed in the electorate was something that I also think he brought here. Others have mentioned the way he spoke of his electorate on many occasions. That commitment showed a basic decency as a human being and also a concern for the common man and woman. It showed, very clearly, that he was a good bloke. There is probably no other fair way to put it. He was a very good bloke.

On the question of the problems that have occurred recently, when such a tragedy occurs we always spend a lot of time looking at why and at what really happened when, in fact, we will probably never really know. I would like to say to his family a couple of things in that respect. He was a very compassionate individual and he had a real concern for his family, as well as for others. I remember a time some years ago—I will not go into the details—when I was having a few problems. They have resolved themselves, thankfully. I remember speaking to Greg about this on one occasion and he was really upset about it. That said something about him as a man in terms of the way he felt about his colleagues—even colleagues like me that he had fought with like cat and dog over the years.

The tragedy of Greg in the context of this place was that he worked so hard to get here and then, having got here, he was consumed by a sadness about how he felt he was going. It is a problem with this place in some respects. It is an incredibly ambitious environment, but at the same time to have actually got here is a significant achievement in itself. Only a handful of those within our party or on the other side who strive to do so ever get the opportunity to stand in this place. I think of being careful about what you wish for because it might come true. I think that is what happened to Greg, to a degree, in terms of this place.

That he loved his family, that he loved his kids, has been commented on by so many people today. It is a fact. What I would say is that, in my experience, being a parent is probably one of the hardest jobs I have ever had, and I have had a few. The whole question of how you deal with children and how you act and react within a family environment is not something that his kids are going to know much about because of the fact that he has passed away while they are at a very young age. It is a question of knowing how to deal with problems and how you often make a mistake in dealing with problems, but you have to get up the next day and go on from there. I always say to my kids, `Even if I stuff it up, the fact of the matter is that I still love you no matter what.' It is being able to get that point across. That is the point I would make to Lachlan and Eliza and to Greg's whole family. To Maria, to his mother, Joy, and to his sister: it is a great loss. Obviously you are the ones feeling it more than we do, but we do feel it too. As a colleague, as a rival and as an antagonist, the fact is that Greg was a very worthy opponent, a very worthy friend, and a man that we can all be proud to have known.