Mr NEVILLE (11:38 AM) —In a fortnight significant for its tragic events—the sad departure of our colleague, Greg Wilton, the death of our greatest poet, Judith Wright, and the unspeakable events surrounding the Childers backpacker fire—another equally profound event has touched the people of the Gladstone district in my electorate of Hinkler, and that was the untimely death of Reginald Gabriel Tanna—Reg Tanna, as he was known to his friends—CEO of the Gladstone Port Authority.

It is hard to describe the shock and dismay that this caused to those who loved and admired him so widely in the Gladstone community, to say nothing of his loving family. I had the privilege of knowing Reg Tanna, first at school at the Christian Brothers in Warwick where he was some years ahead of me, and then the privilege was renewed some years later as Gladstone's local member. He was the son of Malek and Mary Tanna and brother to seven children, five of whom survive him. They were a hardworking family in the very best traditions of the Lebanese and Australian ethic, establishing their Warwick fruit and vegetable business in the days of the Depression. Reg excelled at primary school and the brothers recommended that he be sent to Nudgee College in Brisbane, where he emerged as dux in 1951. Other academic successes followed and he graduated with honours in civil engineering at Queensland University in 1955. Reg never forgot the sacrifice his family made and nothing gave him greater pleasure than to renew family contacts, as I readily remember when the Gladstone coal facility was named the R.G. Tanna Coal Terminal in his honour in 1994. I remember the thrill of some of his family being there on that day.

Reg was CEO of the Gladstone Harbour Board and Port Authority for 34 years. It would not be an exaggeration to say that he grew up with the port authority and it developed under his able and highly focused vision. The wider development of Gladstone, now the powerhouse of central Queensland industry, was dependent on an efficient port and the ever changing and increasing demands made it necessary that this port moved with the times. Reg Tanna was equal to that challenge, and it is now Australia's fastest growing port.

Few sections of Gladstone life escaped his caring attention: Lions, Blue Nurses, Hibiscus Gardens Hostel, the Red Shield Appeal, TAFE and the Central Queensland University Advisory Committee. As well, he was a devotee of the local tennis association. He was honoured in the honours list of 1991 with the Public Service Medal.

We have reflected in the last fortnight on the unfulfilled dreams of many, especially of our colleague Greg and of those young people at Childers. In Reg's case, it was no less so. He was actually within weeks of his retirement—the retirement that he and his wife, Norma, so eagerly anticipated. But, then again, he had a deep faith and would have seen his Maker's higher purpose. Reg never missed his Sunday Mass, regardless of where he was anywhere in the world.

My own memory of Reg Tanna was of a gentle, humble and caring person whose sense of fellowship was all embracing, regardless of your station in life. I can well remember him leading the songs and the Christmas carols at the port authority's annual Christmas party—hardly the role you would think for the CEO, but nevertheless the one he always took on. My thoughts go out to his family: to his wife, Norma, his children, Catherine, Michael and Tony, and to his extended family in Warwick, especially his brothers, with whom I grew up.