Senator McGAURAN (7:36 PM) —I extend my sympathy to the Santamaria family on the passing of Bob Santamaria. To Paul Santamaria, whom I know best, I wish him grace and strength during this sorrowful time. For while I and so many others attended today's funeral to pay respect to our hero, the Santamaria family were mourning the loss of their father. It was the family man, so well described by his daughter, Mary-Helen Woods, in the Australian newspaper during the week, that they will no doubt miss most, rather than the political mastermind he has been eulogised as this week. It was appreciated by all that the family shared this day of mourning with us.

Today's state funeral was magnificent. It was held in the full tradition of the Catholic Church befitting, as Archbishop Pell said, `one of the church's greatest sons'. The Archbishop spoke of a crusade that began in the 1930s when in the Spanish Civil War a communist bullet struck the statue of Christ outside the Madrid Cathedral, continuing through to the 1990s with the internal struggle against the anti-papacy for the soul of the church. The Archbishop's homily concluded with the line: `His legacy lives on.' Looking around at the troops who had turned out to see off their general, the poignancy of the archbishop's comments were felt.

For me, Bob Santamaria's decades of writings influenced the formation of my core political beliefs. The clarity of his intellect and argument was compelling even though I did not agree with him all the time—just most of the time. Significantly, it was the switching of the DLP Senate preferences in 1987 towards the National Party that facilitated my election to the parliament. Of all the qualities attributed to B.A. Santamaria in the multitude of articles written this week, two qualities appear over, which for me best identify the man I met: firstly, a lasting courage of his convictions; and, secondly, an honest broker. That is why he had such an influence on political life in Australia, without ever having held office. Santamaria's life example is his most powerful legacy.