Thursday, 7 April 2022

Condolences

Shane Warne

Ms SYMES (Northern Victoria—Leader of the Government, Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (10:09): I move, by leave:

That this house expresses its sincere sorrow at the death of Shane Warne and places on record its acknowledgement of his lasting contribution to the game of cricket and to the people of Victoria.

I would like to contribute briefly to the condolence motion on behalf of the government to mark the passing of Shane Warne. Of course there has been an outpouring of grief as well as celebration for a remarkable Victorian in recent weeks. I cannot say that I followed too closely his on-field achievements, but the overwhelming reaction from the community at his sudden passing is a testament to his outsized role and influence on Victorians, Australians and of course millions of cricket lovers right across the world. I thought a fitting tribute to his influence was captured just this past weekend, where leg spinner Alana King took three vital wickets to help secure Australia the women’s world cup. Alana said that she would not have become a leg spinner without Shane Warne, which I think is a nice tribute to how he influenced so many children to play the game of cricket.

Something I think we can take from Shane Warne is that he was somewhat of a complex character. He was fallible, and this was something that he was quite transparent about. He was by all accounts incredibly approachable. He was the same person before, during and after his cricketing career.

I think it is important to also acknowledge his commitment to worthwhile causes. My colleague in the other place Danielle Green paid tribute to his work with communities affected by the Black Saturday fires. Selling his baggy green was an incredibly generous act to support bushfire-affected communities and those affected by the 2019–20 summer bushfires.

He was also unashamedly an incredibly proud Victorian. He passionately spoke about Melbourne being the best city in the world, something I am sure most of us would agree with. His legacy will be felt for a very long time, inspiring generations of future cricketers.

His children of course spoke not of him as a great sportsperson or a media personality but of his role as a loving parent. On behalf of the government I do extend my condolences to his family, particularly Brooke, Jackson and Summer. I again pass along my deepest sympathies on the passing of your father, Shane Warne.

Mr DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan—Leader of the Opposition) (10:11): I am very pleased to rise and support this motion of condolence for Shane Warne. As somebody who does love cricket and somebody whose family loves cricket, he was somebody that we always looked to. His capacities as a bowler, his remarkable knockabout style and his generous approach to not only his family but his community and more broadly to cricket I think are things that we do want to mark. He was also a Brighton person, and people know—

A member interjected.

Mr DAVIS: Well, the electorate of Southern Metro covers the area. Many people that I know lived near and had close interaction with Shane Warne, and they universally speak incredibly positively about him. I think his impact on cricket, though, has been quite profound, and I think it has actually been part of the resurgence of cricket that we are seeing and the enthusiasm that is there for cricket from so many quarters.

Both my 18-year-old and indeed my soon-to-be 16-year-old are firm cricketers and very active in the community, and they looked to Shane Warne. I spoke to my son last night about this, and he instantly took me to a YouTube clip which was of Shane Warne demonstrating—and I will not indicate that I have the necessary dexterity to do what he did—the different mechanisms of spinning the ball. Kids look at this, and they look at the approachable style that this has been put forward in. I think there has been a resurgence in spin bowling through the impact of Shane Warne. I think he was a great Victorian, a Victorian as well as an Australian, and perhaps a Victorian first.

He also had definite views on politics, and I note for the record I do not think he was a fan of the current Premier. But leaving that aside, he was a person who wore his heart on his sleeve, and I think that he was a person that we can be proud of as a Victorian. I too extend my condolence to his family and to the many friends that he had that I have in common with him through that area in Brighton.

Mr ONDARCHIE (Northern Metropolitan) (10:14): This morning I rise to speak about Shane Warne. Many will talk about the fact that he was cap number 350 in the Australian test side, that his favourite number in the one-day series was 23 and that he was 23 for the Melbourne Stars. He actually chose 23 because he was a big fan of Dermott Brereton when he was a kid. So people will talk about that. They will talk about how he was a great leggy. He was trying to show the flipper at the time on that video, I think.

Mr Davis interjected.

Mr ONDARCHIE: Thanks, Mr Davis. He debuted in 1992 against India. His last test was in 2007 against England, and he took his 700th wicket at the G, and many people were there for it, and certainly I was as well.

I am going to talk about Shane Warne, the person that I met. I cannot say I was a great friend of his. I cannot say I knew him very well, but we did interact and chat on a number of occasions. I was fortunate enough to be one of a handful of Australians to receive an International Cricket Council medal for my services to cricket, awarded to me at the MCG. It was primarily—not that I was the greatest cricketer around, nowhere near SKW’s standard—because of my development and work around, people would know, the Milo cricket program. I did a lot of work around getting kids to play cricket through Milo cricket. I did not care if they never made it to the test side. I did not care if they never played at high levels of cricket. It just got boys and girls involved, and I was fortunate enough that the ICC recognised that.

So I want to talk about Shane, the person that I got to know. He was a real larrikin. He was a bit of a scallywag. We have all seen the press about him and the various things he did in his life. I think someone commented last week that he lived three lives in one, and he probably did live three lifetimes and did things that we would never seek to do. He was born in Upper Ferntree Gully in 1969, and whilst he might have resided for some time in the southern metropolitan area, he really saw himself as an Upper Gully man right from the start.

He was interesting as a person to chat to. Unlike many other people I have met in my life—celebrities, politicians, other people—when you were talking to Shane he was talking to you. I have found with other people I have met in my life, when you are talking to them they are actually looking past you; they are looking around you, looking to see who else is in the room. Politicians do it as well. Celebrities do it. But not Warnie. When he talked to you, he looked you straight in the eye, and you had his attention for the whole time that he was talking to you. And he wanted to talk to me about grassroots cricket. He was not the least bit interested in talking about high-level cricket; he was not interested in talking about wicket taking. I never asked him about the Gatting ball, because I suspected everybody else did. He just wanted to talk about grassroots cricket and what we did to give kids an opportunity, particularly kids who do not get an opportunity naturally, through economic circumstances, through family circumstances or through whatever. He wanted to make sure that every kid got a chance to play outside and got off their iPhones and their iPads. And that was the attention that SKW gave to me a number of times.

Others have already talked about how much of a kind man he was and how much he helped out, and I recall that after the 2004 tsunami in Sri Lanka on Boxing Day his selflessness and his time and his desire to help people through the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami in Sri Lanka was amazing. Now, it is interesting, because on his first foray into Sri Lanka, when he bowled there he took none for 150. He got smashed when he bowled in Sri Lanka, but that did not deter him one little bit. He was less interested in his prowess as a cricketer at that time; he just went there to try and help. And as soon as he got there he said to Murali at the time, ‘Just tell me what I need to do’. He did not say what he was going to do, he said, ‘Just tell me what I need to do’, and between the two of them they just spent time with kids handing out lollies, teaching them how to bowl and playing cricket. I think he encouraged kids to replicate his none for 150 there so they could hit the ball around the park. That was the sort of person that Warnie was. When he went down to the coastal village of Peraliya, the kids all clapped him; they sort of worshipped him when he walked into that small village. And he stopped them very quickly, because he actually clapped them for what they had been through during the tsunami. And that was the Warnie that I knew.

As the Leader of the Government acknowledged, there has been some commentary around the work he did around Black Saturday—the fires that occurred on Black Saturday just over the hill from my place where, as members know, my family lost friends and my kids’ school was the most affected, where they lost friends. He spent a lot of time up there with some of the kids. I know there was one kid—I might get this wrong, but I think his name was Aidan. And he took a liking to Aidan and committed to follow Aidan and mentor him through his life, which he still continued to do until his passing in Koh Samui. So that was the standard of the man. He made this commitment to this kid through Black Saturday up in Kinglake and went, ‘I’ll help you; I’ll mentor you; I’ll be there for you’, and he still did it no matter what. He was probably one of the busiest men in the world, you know. When he was not running poker tournaments around the world or having fun in all sorts of areas and with people that many men would be envious about or running Club 23, which many people have been to, including me, he still had time for people. The Warne foundation was remarkable in helping children with disabilities. In fact Shane was a person who said to me, ‘Stop calling them people with disabilities and call them people with different abilities’. It struck a chord with me—that maybe we should stop using the term ‘disability’ and just talk about people with different abilities. That was the sort of person he was.

The public perception of him was sometimes that he was a little arrogant or a little rude or that he stood on the balcony at Lord’s with a stump in his hand doing a little dance. But that was the sort of fun-loving person that he was. When it came to giving attention to people, to devoting his time to helping somebody else, he was always there and always available.

To Brooke and to Summer and to Jackson: of course our hearts go out to them. I will finish by just saying, ‘Well bowled, Shane’.

Mr FINN (Western Metropolitan) (10:20): I join this debate today with a great deal of sadness, actually. I wish we were not having this debate today. I wish Shane Warne were still with us, and it is hard to believe that he has gone. I will never forget that feeling of shock that I felt when I learned of his passing—the feeling that indeed we had all lost somebody very special, and special he was in many, many ways. He was loved by Australians but particularly loved by Victorians.

I will give you one example of a night at the cricket that I was at: a one-dayer. I think we were playing the Poms at the time. It was a very warm evening, and I think it would be fair to say there was a fair section of the crowd that had refreshed exceedingly well. They were throwing things; they were carrying on like two-bob watches in the old bay 13 area. It was on for young and old. Despite the PA people making appeals for the crowd to calm down, they just got worse. All of a sudden, Warnie appeared. Wearing a helmet, he walked across the MCG, stood in front of the crowd and beckoned them to calm down, which they almost immediately did. It was just extraordinary the power that this man had over not just cricket fans—I think he had it over a lot of Australians. He just walked out there by himself, on his own, and calmed the maddening masses. It is quite appropriate that where that crowd sat that night is now the Shane Warne Stand. That is a memory that will live with me probably forever.

I only met him a couple of times, but I can back Mr Ondarchie up when he says that when you were talking to Shane Warne, you were talking to Shane Warne. He gave you his undivided attention. Irrespective of how boring you may be, he gave his undivided attention. I have to say even though I had never met the man before the first time I met him, after about 30 seconds I felt like I had known him all my life. It was just an extraordinary ability that he had to make people relaxed—to make people feel that indeed they had known him all their life.

In fact the reason that I had met him on those occasions was because his foundation, as Mr Ondarchie again said, had donated two buses to the Jacana School for Autism, where my son attended at the time. You have got to say the autism specialist schools are probably the poor cousins of the education system, which is very sad, but they are. They had buses that were, well, just about finished. We went to the foundation and said, ‘We need one bus’. They said, ‘How many do you really need?’. We said, ‘Two’. They said, ‘Righto, we’ll give you two’. I met Shane when those buses were delivered, and it was just a tremendous gesture. Because, quite frankly, I have no idea how we would have raised the money for those buses otherwise—it would not have been possible.

I was greatly honoured to attend his memorial service at the MCG recently. It was an amazing tribute to him, it was an amazing tribute to his career and it was an amazing tribute to the contribution that he made to Australia over decades. I think that everybody who was there at the MCG that night will remember that tribute and remember the man that we went to pay tribute to.

I offer my deepest sympathy to his children, and I have to say their performance on the night of his memorial service was quite outstanding. I have no doubt he would have been so proud of those three kids that night. They were just spectacular, and I congratulate them on that, but I also offer them my deepest sympathy. Shane Warne is now gone, sadly, but at the same time he will be with us, I think, forever. Vale, Shane Warne. May God bless and keep him.

Ms BATH (Eastern Victoria) (10:26): I am very pleased to rise this morning on behalf of The Nationals and throw my support behind this condolence motion acknowledging the life and times of the fantastic man that Shane Warne was. Now, I did not ever meet him, but I met him on the television screen and I watched him at the MCG. We need quintessential Australians. We need people to be authentic. We need people in this country to be who they are and when you meet them, when you see them, to express themselves in purity, and I think that is what he did with his outrageous personality and his kindness, as we have heard today in terms of his charities.

As the granddaughter of a cricket-obsessed grandfather who spoke to me during the 1970s and 80s about and commentated on the cricket for all of his life, I have a love of cricket. I have a partner who when he puts down religion, he puts ‘cricket’ down. We love cricket. But I think one of the key things that Shane Warne did, for me, was inspired so many young people into a healthy sport. We need people again to be out from behind their laptops or iPads or PlayStations. The backyard at mum’s is a real and thriving industry because of the likes of Shane Warne. Thousands of Australians and I think millions of people across the world have tried that spin and have celebrated as Warnie did in playing the sport, so I would like to congratulate him up above on how he encouraged people into our sport. In rural Victoria and country Victoria it is an amazingly important sport that people engage in.

When I heard of his death I was in shock as well. It was a similar shock to when Steve Irwin died many years ago. It was like a disbelief that somebody so passionate, so quintessentially Australian, so authentic, had passed. I think we are the poorer for it. I hope that we can all get out one day when we have got a day off and take to the red ball, get the bat, get the rubbish bin and play a game in memory of Shane Warne. I send my condolences to his family and I say vale, Shane Warne.

Dr CUMMING (Western Metropolitan) (10:28): I too rise today to send my condolences on behalf of my community in Western Metropolitan Region to Shane Warne’s family and friends, especially his children, Jackson, Brooke and Summer, and the mother of his children, Simone. I attended the memorial at the MCG, and it was a beautiful, fitting tribute to Shane. I do believe that his family and friends would have been proud of what Eddie McGuire produced on the night and for the rest of the world to be able to celebrate his life.

For me in Western Metropolitan Region, the love of cricket is very deep. I have a strong and large Indian and Sri Lankan community. For all my years on my council, community cricket was a large part of it for me and for my community. The former CEO of Cricket Victoria, Tony Dodemaide, came from Caroline Chisholm college in Braybrook. One of the first times I actually met Shane was at one of these many community events to encourage local councils to find money for community cricket and to be able to support that. And I think Shane would have been very proud of the way that female cricket has actually come about for obviously his children Brooke and Summer and other young women out there in the community. I extend my deepest condolences to his family and friends, to Merv Hughes and others, and to his teammates. Vale, Shane Warne.

Mr GRIMLEY (Western Victoria) (10:30): I am rising to speak on the condolence motion for Shane Warne. I was just sitting there listening to everybody, and on behalf of Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party and many, many other people I express my sympathies to his family, his friends and his colleagues and to former players.

Many, many moons ago, when I was living in Western Australia—it just clicked a memory for me—I had an ‘S’ party for my birthday, and of course I dressed up as Shane Warne. I put on the old blonde wig and wore his yellow one-day international T-shirt with ‘Warnie’. I did not have a cigarette at all because I was not smoking, but I certainly had a few cans that night. That was just the impact of the person. This was going back 20-odd years. He was just a fantastic cricketer. I have played a bit of cricket in my time as well, and he certainly got us thinking in terms of leg spin and how we could best do that in our own performances. I could never do anything like he did. There are not many cricketers in the history of cricket that you can say that for almost every single ball that they bowled, you thought they were going to take a wicket. That is just the type of talent that he was.

Also I think, more importantly, in his death it is important that we look at our own health—our own heart health in particular. It is pretty significant, and if you have any issues, concerns or funny feelings, get yourself checked out, for God’s sake, because you just never know. Life is too short. Do the right thing. Get yourself checked out. Vale, Shane Warne.

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