Tuesday, 8 February 2022

Condolences

Hon. Robert ‘Robin’ FitzGerald Cooper

Mr ANDREWS (Mulgrave—Premier) (12:04): I move:

That this house expresses its sincere sorrow at the death of the Honourable Robert (Robin) Cooper and places on record its acknowledgement of the valuable services rendered by him to the Parliament and the people of Victoria as member of the Legislative Assembly for the district of Mornington from 1985 to 2006 and Minister for Transport from 1997 to 1999.

Robin Cooper was born in Melbourne in 1936. The Honourable Robert ‘Robin’ FitzGerald Cooper attended Xavier College and later the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology before embarking on a cadetship at the Age newspaper. He then went on to a career in sales and marketing in the building supply sector.

Mr Cooper then entered politics—not in this place but as a servant of his local community, his beloved Mornington Peninsula—as a councillor on the Mornington shire. He joined the Mornington shire in 1972, serving in the role for 13 years, including two terms as the president of the shire. Now, particularly for someone who knew, understood, revered and was passionate about the beauty of the Mornington Peninsula and the beauty and the historic nature, the special nature, of Mornington township itself, that might have been enough, but he was called to do more than that when he was elected to the Legislative Assembly in 1985 in the seat of Mornington. He was immediately elevated to the front bench, serving as the Shadow Minister for Local Government and Shadow Minister for Public Works.

Mr Cooper then went on to serve in various parliamentary roles. He was appointed as the parliamentary secretary for transport after the election of the Kennett government in 1992—Parliamentary Secretary, Transport, Roads and Ports in 1996 in fact—and then was promoted to the ministry as the Minister for Transport in 1997. Mr Cooper represented the seat of Mornington for more than 20 years, and it is fair to say—for those of us who know and love that part of Victoria, and I think we all know—that he was a very good and strong and effective local member and someone who loved his community and had a great passion for the role and the responsibility and the opportunities that he could provide to safeguard all the special parts of that part of Victoria and also to make sure that it was strong, growing and had the services and the facilities and the infrastructure that it needed. He of course served in that long and distinguished parliamentary career for more than 20 years before he retired in 2006—at least retired from this place. His work in the community continued for many years after that.

I did not know Robin Cooper particularly well, but you do not need to know someone well to learn quite a lot from them if they are particularly good at what they do. I can well recall—in fact I will not easily forget—arriving here in 2002 as a 30-year-old, perhaps unburdened by self-doubt, as often 30-year-olds are—

Mr Newbury interjected.

Mr ANDREWS: Indeed. I do thank my honourable friend. How old are you again?

Mr Newbury: 43.

Mr ANDREWS: See? This can be a long-term predicament. This can plague you for indeed more than a decade if you are not careful. I thank the member for Brighton for his interjection.

The Honourable Robin Cooper, the then member for Mornington, sat just where the member for Malvern is sitting at the moment, just next to Hansard. He was a former minister and could have spoken from the table, but I do not think I ever saw him do that. I had the great privilege of being Parliamentary Secretary for Health, with a big legislative workload that the minister would then call upon me to usher through the house, and I would spend a lot of time in here. It did not take me long to work out that not only was Robin Cooper particularly good at what he did in this place, but he enjoyed it. He knew this place. He had that wonderful baritone broadcaster’s voice, a radio voice really, and always had a fob chain in his lapel. I am not sure what was at the end of that fob chain, but he had a presence about him. Maybe it was the fact that he had been here quite a long time. He had a confidence. To interject on him was not a smart thing to do. I learned this the hard way. I am not sure if Hansard picked it up, but on many occasions—well, perhaps not many; on a few occasions and more than there perhaps should have been—I might have had a few things to say about the points he was making. I soon saw that it was wiser to not do that so much.

He was a great parliamentarian. He understood the theatre of this place. He understood the power of this place, and argument and debate, good humour and wit—a quick wit. He was a consummate parliamentarian, and he knew this forum for what it can be: a place where you can change minds and a place where you can advocate and influence things, whether you sit on this side as we have the great pleasure to do, or whether you sit on that side; whether you have just arrived as a 30-year-old, or whether you are a bit more senior than that and perhaps in the last term of your time in this place. He was a great orator, a great parliamentarian and someone who loved his community and served his community with distinction as a local councillor, as a member of this place and indeed as a volunteer and a coordinator of other volunteers supporting the vulnerable—those who without that sort of support never get the fair go they are entitled to. I did not know him well, but I had a great and endearing respect for him. I wish him to be well remembered for all that he was able to achieve, and of course I send my very best wishes to his wife, Jennifer, and three children, Rebecca, Jeremy and Anna. Vale, Robin Cooper.

Mr GUY (Bulleen—Leader of the Opposition) (12:10): The current members for Murray Plains, Rowville and even Mornington will no doubt agree with me when I say that Robin Cooper was a no-nonsense kind of guy. You knew exactly where you stood with him at all times, in every conversation and at every occasion. His colleagues knew this, the press gallery knew this and as a government adviser in the 1990s I knew it first hand. I worked with his daughter Rebecca for those years in the 1990s and had many interactions with Robin Cooper through that time.

Robin arrived here in the Assembly after some time—as the Premier said—as a marketing man in the building industry and after more than a decade in local government. In the days of the Shire of Mornington he was a councillor from 1972 and mayor in 1975. He was a tower of local politics in Mornington: everyone knew him and he knew everyone. Elected to the state Legislative Assembly district of Mornington in 1985, Robin began a career here that would last more than two decades. He held many roles in this place: Shadow Minister for Local Government, Shadow Minister for Public Works, Shadow Minister for the Arts, Shadow Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Shadow Minister for Corrections and then finally Shadow Minister for Public Transport.

It was that last role, public transport, which captured his keen policy interest, and with the retirement of Alan Brown in early 1997 he became the Minister for Transport for almost three years in the latter period of the Kennett government. Unlike many ministers for public transport, he did what many do not do. I remember he used to catch the train to work. He would drive to Frankston, leave his car at the station, catch the train all the way to Parliament talking to passengers and come back and tell the then Premier’s office everything he had heard on the trains—everything. It was not a one-off. There was no media—and in those days, obviously, a lack of social media to boast or show off a gratuitous selfie. It was something he did by choice and on a very regular basis. He liked it. As I said, many people talked to him on the trains and he talked to many of them. At that time public transport was being reformed in Victoria. He was integral to this. We were leaving the days of the Met and going to a franchise system—back then with two operators. It was something Robin was heavily involved in, firstly as the parliamentary secretary and then as the minister. The franchise agreements were detailed. New rolling stock was mandated for both operators, which saw the eventual arrival of the Siemens and X’Trapolis trains, which Robin was integral to. It was the same for the trams—hence the arrival of the Siemens trams and the Citadis trams, both in particular to accommodate all forms of mobility and mobility scooters, which in the 1990s were new ideas, and Robin was central to all of them.

I remember the discussions with Minister Cooper and his office back in the 1990s about regional rail upgrades. What came next was the Hamer government’s New Deal for public transport, which was introduced in 1981 and which still forms the basis of our country rolling stock, the N-class carriages, some 40 years on. Minister Cooper was, I would say, very vocal about seeing what was next—the next generation of where transport would go in Victoria. He was involved heavily in the government’s transport committee and later as the parliamentary secretary, as I said. He then became the minister, where he was also, I remember, heavily involved in the acquisition and the operation of Sprinter railcars. Now, this is a key point, because it was a key point of pride in some ways. Sprinters operate at 130 kilometres an hour. It was the first time a country passenger train had been allowed to travel faster than 70 miles an hour, which is 115 kilometres an hour, since the Spirit of Progress days of 1937. So there was a measure of pride on their delivery, and maybe for him it was a little overdue.

Also overdue was the use of XPT trains on the Melbourne–Sydney corridor. Tired and a bit overused as they are now, 41 years after their introduction, they had been promised to take over from the Southern Aurora way back in 1985, 1987, 1988—just before the election—and in 1990 as well. Robin particularly was one of those government MPs—and he told many about this—who pushed and worked hard to see it replaced by a 3-hours faster service, the XPTs, which are now used on the daylight service thanks to him as well.

Robin served on the Parliament’s Privileges Committee for 14 years. For that alone he deserves major commendation, and while those meetings are and should always remain private, I have no doubt that his forthright personality would have been in the fore in those meetings, which I hear can be quite robust.

Robin was a family man. He had three children. He adored his wife, Jennifer. I noted when Robin passed in November last year the Parliament placed a public notice on his passing which stated that he was a good friend and loyal colleague to all he served with. That I believe is a very accurate description of Robin Cooper. He was a good friend to many. He was a loyal colleague to those here in the Liberal Party. I would also add that particularly in transport he was a man who saw beyond his time. He noted and knew great change had to happen for public benefit, and he was central to much of it. Vale, Robin Cooper, member for Mornington, Minister for Transport, husband, father and unwavering advocate for the community he served.

Mr WALSH (Murray Plains) (12:16): I join the condolence motion for Robert ‘Robin’ Cooper moved by the Premier and supported by the opposition leader. Robin Cooper’s political life and political career I think would be a very good case study for those who aspire to go into politics or those who are actually in politics in this place. As both the Premier and the Leader of the Opposition have said, Robin was a very forthright person and never left you in any doubt as to what his thoughts were about any particular issue, which is a lot better than some that do not do that, in my personal view.

Robin stood for preselection twice I think before he actually became a member of Parliament, and he was very passionate about his area, having lived at Mount Martha for a substantial period of his life. In his election pitch as a champion of the local area and having been a councillor for 13 years, as has already been mentioned, he was very strong about the fact that he felt the Mornington Peninsula and the area he was going to represent had missed out under the current government at that particular time. Some would argue that, particularly through COVID and the rules and restrictions that were imposed on the Mornington Peninsula, those people down there probably feel that they have missed out again. The people I talk to from down there are very passionate about it being classed as part of regional Victoria rather than part of the city of Melbourne, and I think that Robin would have been a great champion for that particular cause.

Can I thank the library for what they prepare when we do condolence motions, because they provide us with a lot of useful information. One of those bits of useful information is that coming up to the election Robin had been busy working for 10 months doorknocking his electorate as we all do when we want to get elected, and at the end of a day when he had been out doorknocking he dropped in on the Mornington Cup just to be seen at the Mornington Cup. He made a comment to the press at that particular time when he realised the Labor MP, David Hassett, had actually spent the whole day at the Mornington Cup and had not been out working and doorknocking to win votes that he felt that he was finally starting to get an edge there and that obviously the incumbent member had taken it for granted and enjoyed himself at the races rather than being out meeting and greeting and trying to get more votes.

The other thing that is interesting with condolence motions is that for most people it is probably the next time that anyone actually reads their inaugural speech. We always go back and have a read of the inaugural speech—what people come to this place with, their aspirations in coming to this place in representing their particular community—and if you go through Robin’s inaugural speech, or his maiden speech as it was called at that particular time, he talks very much about his area of Victoria, him being a champion for that area, how much he liked living in that area and, as I said, the fact that he believed that part of Victoria had not been well treated by the incumbent government at that particular time.

It is interesting that he was appointed actually the Shadow Minister for Local Government, because he had experience with local government in the 13 years he had spent on the Mornington shire and, as the Premier said, a couple of terms as president of that particular shire. But one of the things he had to do as the shadow minister was lead the charge to stop the then Cain government from amalgamating a whole heap of councils. If you read the history of that, that was a very turbulent time for the Cain government and for all those in local government that did not want to be merged at that particular time.

Robin was probably very glad he was not the minister for local government in the Kennett government—there would have been some deja vu around that particular debate—but he did put a lot of effort in as a former local government member to protect local government at that particular time. He did not gain a ministry immediately on the election of the Kennett government, but he received a phone call, when there were some changes, from someone in Premier Kennett’s office that asked him to come and meet the Premier and have a discussion about some change of roles. He is quoted as saying, ‘Damn, this just wasn’t suiting me. I actually had a big day planned, but I thought I’d better go and talk to him anyhow’, and obviously he became a minister and felt that it was a bolt out of the sky that he had become a minister. He was very privileged to serve as Minister for Transport here.

Pat O’Connor of the Public Transport Users Association actually welcomed Robin coming into that role. I am not sure that ministers like to be welcomed by particular people into their roles because they might be seen to be not hard enough in that job, but Robin did go on to cover himself with distinction. One of the key roles he had was to introduce automatic ticketing at that time, and the union actually came on board with him and understood the changes that were being made, particularly the changes that the Kennett government made to privatise some of the public transport system. The union at that time said they recognised that if they were going to survive, they had to work in a privatised world and get along with those people that owned the businesses into the future.

The Premier made his comments about Robin. Robin was a Liberal supporter to the core and in 2018 made some probably not so complimentary comments about the Premier at that time—that he had respected him when he first came into Parliament but felt the Premier had lost his way in some of the decisions that he was making at that time. Robin was very loyal to the cause.

Mr Dimopoulos: The joys of retirement.

Mr WALSH: The joys of retirement. The joys of the newspapers and being able to have an opinion, which we all do. But I think Robin, as has been said, was passionate about that part of Victoria and was very grateful for the opportunity to represent that part of Victoria for nearly 22 years. To his wife, to his three children, our sincere condolences—he was someone who was dedicated to representing his community and getting good outcomes for his community. Vale, Robin Cooper.

Mr MORRIS (Mornington) (12:23): Perhaps I can fill in that blank for the Premier: what was on the end of the chain was actually the gold pass for the Mornington electorate, and he carried it with him every day that he served in this place.

Today we pause to recognise the contribution to the Victorian community of the Honourable Robin Cooper, my predecessor of course in the seat of Mornington. The debate is occurring because Robin was a minister, as has been said, between January 1997 and October 1999. And while his time in cabinet, I think it is fair to say, marked the pinnacle of his political career, it was a relatively brief interlude in a very long period of public life and an even longer period of public service.

In preparing for the debate I managed to unearth a copy of the 1985 Liberal candidate biographies. I am not going to read it out, but when you look through, they mostly run to about half a page; Robin’s well and truly filled the page. It makes for some interesting reading. As I say, I will not go through it in detail, but it does mention that he was educated at Xavier and later at Taylors College, which was not at all unusual in the 1950s, and then followed that with a management supervision course. As others have said, 20 years followed in the building industry, interrupted—I do not think anyone has mentioned this yet—in 1964 by national service. In those days that was effectively two years out. That period ended as a self-employed consultant, but still in the building industry, from 1980.

But in terms of that profile, when you get to the community section, that is when you start to see the Robin Cooper that I really knew: 20 years service as a volunteer firefighter at the Mount Eliza CFA; election to the Shire of Mornington in 1972—there seems to be some controversy about when he was actually shire president, but my understanding is it was the council year 1979–80; member and chair of the Peninsula Regional Library Service; member and president of the Mount Eliza High School council; member of the Western Port Regional Planning Authority; member of the Mornington Peninsula development committee; and so on and so on, you get the idea. Not content with all that, he was a player in a Mount Eliza Cricket Club premiership side and a long-suffering but ultimately triumphant Demons supporter.

Robin was elected to the Mornington council in 1972 I think a few months before Henry Bolte, the long-serving Premier, retired. As many would either recall or have learned, one of Bolte’s signature policies was creating the ‘Ruhr of Victoria’ in Western Port and developing Hastings and French Island and turning that area into an industrial hub—it has got to be said—despite the wishes of most of the locals. When Bolte retired that opened an opportunity to reassess that plan, so Robin’s time in local government, the 1970s and early 80s, were an absolutely critical time for the Mornington Peninsula. If that industrialisation had gone ahead, if we had had that nuclear power plant on French Island, if we had had the suburbs that were expected to go on the Moorooduc plain with tens of thousands of houses for factory workers and port workers and so on, the Mornington Peninsula that we enjoy today would be a very, very different place. The contributions of the three councils then on the Mornington Peninsula and councillors like Robin Cooper were significant in getting those things changed.

Like many parts of Victoria, the peninsula experienced change as a result of the 1982 election. The seat of Mornington had been established in the 2nd Parliament, but in 1967 it was renamed Dromana. The footprint was pretty much the same, but the name was changed. In 1982 Dromana was captured by the ALP and for the first and only time in local electoral history the Mornington area was represented by a Labor MP in this place. Now, Robin’s political ambitions I do not think were a secret from anyone. He was active in the party. He contested preselection for state seats, as the Leader of The Nationals said, on two occasions, and he actually contested preselection for the seat of Flinders as well, so his plans were out there. As an energetic Liberal and an experienced local shire councillor he was absolutely determined that the continued presence of the ALP in the seat of Dromana, as it was then, would not be tolerated, so he put his hand up again. There was a redistribution—the seat of Mornington was recreated—and when he stood he gained a 3 per cent swing and returned the seat to the Liberal Party. As others have said, he held it for 21 years: he was re-elected in 1988, 1992, 1996, 1999 and 2002.

But in 1985 it was a very different seat to the seat we see today. On the Port Phillip side it was only the southern half of Mount Eliza and the town of Mornington that were included in the seat. Then it was sort of a long, narrow, horizontal seat that went right across to Western Port and included French Island—not Phillip Island but French Island. As the population grew the seat changed dramatically, and eventually it contracted westward and moved north and south and took in the whole of Mount Eliza, kept Mornington, took in Mount Martha and was pretty much the seat we have today although a little bit smaller. As we all know, when you have change on that scale it can make things a little bit challenging for continuing in this place, but despite those changes Robin’s reputation as a very strong local representative endured, so he ensured continued success at the polls.

When he was elected to Parliament in 1985, as others have said, he went straight to the front bench as Shadow Minister for Local Government and Shadow Minister for Public Works. And unlike today where councillors if they are elected need to immediately resign their council seats, for some time Robin was actually Shadow Minister for Local Government and a councillor at the Shire of Mornington as well. I believe his term ran out in August of the year he was elected, but he did six months wearing those two hats, so he had skin in the game when it came to the amalgamation debate.

Of course that debate immediately put him in the spotlight, and I know he relished the opportunity it gave him to get up and belt the government. I remember sitting up in that gallery one night probably in the late 1980s, and he was still waving the local government flag. He did a very vigorous adjournment—with far more vigour than you would see in most adjournments today—and was clearly performing for the audience as well. He had that spotlight, but when the reform agenda collapsed—and I do not think there is a kinder word you can use than that—he moved on. He became Shadow Minister for Police and Emergency Services, and he became Shadow Minister for Corrections as well, which I know he was not that enthusiastic about. He returned to local government in 1989 but added tourism and then the shadow ministry of public transport in 1990.

When Jeff Kennett returned to the leadership I think the nicest thing you could say is that Robin’s progress temporarily stalled. So he went to the backbench. And when the Kennett government was elected in 1992 he took the chair of the Public Bodies Review Committee, which does not sound particularly exciting, but if you think about it in the context of a reforming government and all the work that was done on amalgamating, eliminating and reforming the public sector at that time, it was a significant role. When the government was re-elected in 1996 he became Parliamentary Secretary for Transport, Roads and Ports, and he joined the cabinet in the following year as Minister for Transport and held that post until 1999. In the years of opposition that followed he, as the Premier said, sat in that chair. He mostly supported the leadership but always had serious input into parliamentary strategy—if you were to ask Robert Doyle, he might have a different view—and of course finished his time in this place as Manager of Opposition Business under leader Ted Baillieu.

The final comment I want to make in terms of Parliament is both in government and out of government he was a very strong supporter of the committee system, and when I was elected he actively encouraged me not only to be involved but to turn up and engage. And that was certainly very, very good advice. Not only did he chair the Public Bodies Review Committee but, as the Leader of the Opposition said, he served on the House Committee. He had a couple of turns on the Drugs and Crime Prevention Committee and 14 years as a member of the Privileges Committee. I am coming up for 12 years on the Privileges Committee, and I certainly endorse the remarks of the Leader of the Opposition.

Community service remained a priority for Robin after his retirement. He remained almost until the end a very active member of the community. He was a particularly active member of the committee of the Mornington Information & Community Support Centre and was for a time their president.

From a personal point of view, when I joined the Mornington business community in 1980 Robin was shire president, and at that time of course he was trying to balance the conflicting demands of public office, a growing family and a fledgling business. He was one of those people you think you know because you read about them in the paper. You might see them down the street and give them a wave, but you really do not have anything much to do with them. I cannot recall when we first met, but I suspect it was 1982 or 1983 and was probably in the context of discussions between the Mornington Chamber of Commerce, of which I was an office-bearer, and members of the council—something to do with Main Street, I suspect.

But I can certainly clearly recall sitting next to Robin at a chamber of commerce dinner in around 1984. He would have been the Liberal candidate for Mornington. I was amazed that one person could sit on one 7-ounce glass of beer for the entire night and drink the last half inch or so as he left. But I probably now understand better the demands of public life and attending dinners. At the time, though, I was a lapsed member of the Liberal Party, having joined in 1975—

Members interjecting.

Mr MORRIS: and relocated to the Mornington Peninsula from Canterbury. I had a new business, open seven days a week, and that really did not leave very much time for anything else, so as I said I had lapsed. At that time no-one was going to convince me to go and put time into a political party when I really was not getting enough sleep running the business. But by 1986 Robin had convinced me to rejoin the Liberal Party, and the following year, partly with his encouragement, I stuck my hand up for a seat on the shire council, contested a seat and won it, and that really I think began a partnership that endured for more than 20 years. For almost five of those 20 years I chaired the electorate for him, and then of course he was generous enough to work very closely with me during the campaign in 2006.

Sometimes when you work closely with people you find they are not who you thought they were, but certainly—as again the opposition leader said—that was not the case with Robin Cooper. What you saw was what you got. You might not have liked what you were getting, but that was it. I think that in part was one of the secrets of his success in public life, because he was absolutely fair dinkum. Certainly it was his example and that of another great Liberal, Alan Hunt, that fed any political ambitions I might have had, and I certainly thank him for encouraging that and for his support to allow me to be here speaking in this debate this afternoon.

All of us who serve in this place know that we cannot begin to do so without the strongest support of those closest to us. Robin’s marriage to Jennifer—it endured for most of his adult life—was a life partnership in the true sense of the word, and as the children arrived and grew, they joined and strengthened the partnership. Robin would have been the first person to admit that he could not have achieved everything he did without the backing of his family and particularly not without Jennifer’s enduring encouragement and strong support.

Robin served his electorate—the greater Mornington Peninsula—and the state of Victoria with distinction. His family can be justly proud of his service and of his achievements, and my thoughts, and I know Linda’s thoughts, are with Jennifer and with Rebecca, Jeremy and Anna. Vale, Robin Cooper.

Mr WELLS (Rowville) (12:38): Robin Cooper was a man of many flavours and colours. Born in Melbourne, Victoria, he attended Xavier College and later RMIT. He began his career in sales and marketing of building supplies. In 1972 he was elected to the Mornington shire, as mentioned, and became president in 1979–80. In 1985 he was elected to this place and was the MP for Mornington for 21 years, and as mentioned earlier he served numerous shadow portfolios.

Robin came from a strong family and when he came into politics he was absolutely committed to the Liberal cause. When he stood in this chamber he could be loud, sarcastic, cutting and scathing like no-one else. He was smart and absolutely articulate in the way that he framed his debates. He was hard and tough, and no-one ever had to second-guess where they stood with him. When he was made Minister for Transport in 1997 by Premier Kennett I was super impressed by how accessible he was and his readiness to travel the entire state to listen and to solve problems.

When we lost office in 1999 I served with Robin on the Drugs and Crime Prevention Committee, which did incredible work, but again there was never, ever second-guessing where Robin stood on law and order issues. One of the issues we had to deal with was the push by Labor to decriminalise public drunkenness, which he and the Liberals and Nationals were opposed to, but we did support sobering-up centres. These were committee meetings with a full and frank debate.

On the social side, he was one of those people you wanted to sit next to at dinner. He was always incredibly entertaining. He always had a very funny story to tell. In these days it would have been totally inappropriate, but that would have never bothered Robin. Robin was a passionate Demons supporter and did something that I do not think I will achieve or match: he saw another premiership before he died.

I will end where I started. Robin was a man of different flavours and colours. We were overseas together and we had a free day. I naturally assumed that Robin would find the local butcher shop and just chew on red meat all day, but the female MPs on the trip elected to go to a perfume factory. Robin said he loved the smell of perfume and joined them, a decision about which to this day I still shake my head in dismay. He was a very good man, Robin Cooper. My condolences to Jennifer, Rebecca, Jeremy and Anna.

Motion agreed to in silence, members showing unanimous agreement by standing in their places.

Mr ANDREWS (Mulgrave—Premier) (12:42): I move:

That, as a further mark of respect to the memory and contribution of the Honourable Robin Cooper, the house adjourns until 1.45 pm this day.

Motion agreed to.

House adjourned 12.43 pm.

The SPEAKER took the chair at 1.47 pm.