32/07
Monday 2 April 2007

Farewell Jeannie

It is with a profound sense of loss that the Australian Senate farewells Senator Jeannie Ferris today, Deputy Leader of the Senate, Senator the Hon Helen Coonan said today.

Professionally, Senator Ferris was an outstanding advocate for the people of South Australia and a parliamentarian who displayed a strong empathy for issues affecting rural and regional Australians. Her continuous membership of the Senate Rural and Regional Affairs Committee since 1996 is demonstration of her commitment to issues affecting rural people and she will long be remembered by this constituency for her capacity to make their concerns her own.

In 2002, Jeannie Ferris took on the demanding position of Government Whip in the Senate and her relationships with all fellow senators around the chamber were marked by a style and a candour that was her hallmark. Often heard to remark that it was like ‘herding cats’, Jeannie brought goodwill and good humour to her role as Whip and proved to be a sage and supportive mentor to new senators and staff alike.

However it was her passionate advancement of issues affecting women and most notably, gynaecological cancers that she leaves as her outstanding legacy. Her integral and indeed very personal engagement with the Senate Community Affairs Reference Committee Report on the Inquiry into Gynaecological Cancers in Australia Breaking the silence: a national voice for gynaecological cancers has delivered ground breaking new initiatives that it is hoped, will help protect a generation of women from the cancer that inexorably took Jeannie’s life.

I know that she was particularly proud of the recent $1 million funding provided in February this year to a new Centre for Gynaecological Cancers set up by the Commonwealth Government in response to the Senate Committee Report. I also record with some poignancy that today the Government will be launching the new cervical cancer vaccine, Gardasil, in Senator Ferris’ home town of Adelaide and that whilst her passionate advocacy for this treatment will be, literally, a lifesaver for future generations of young women, she sadly passed away on the eve of this related breakthrough announcement.

We in the Senate like to think it is different than any other parliamentary chamber in Australia and indeed, it has a character and a camaraderie that often belies modern partisan politics. Perhaps it is the late nights or the six year tenure, but it breeds a relationship that is more akin in some circumstances to family than combatants and it is with this sense of community that I know the Senate Family will be mourning the loss of one of their most loved daughters in Jeannie today.

On behalf of all my senate colleagues, I extend my deepest sympathy to Jeannie’s sons, Robbie and Jeremy and her many friends and family.

I am personally proud to have worked with Jeannie Ferris, and I know the women of Australia owe her a great debt for the work she did over the past 11 years for them.