Tuesday, 2 May 2023

Hon. Graeme Weideman

Daniel ANDREWS (Mulgrave – Premier) (12:05): I move:

That this house expresses its sincere sorrow at the death of the Honourable Graeme Weideman 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 districts of Frankston from 1976 to 1982 and from 1992 to 1996 and Frankston South from 1985 to 1992 and Minister for Tourism from 1981 to 1982.

Graeme Weideman was born on 6 November 1934 to parents George and Hazel Weideman, potato farmers from the proud Ballarat region. The Weidemans would uproot their life in Ballarat when the Great Depression hit in the 1930s. The family moved to Melbourne and purchased a grocery store on Station Street in Fairfield. They lived behind the shop, where Graeme and his brother Murray, a future Collingwood star, shared a room. The brothers helped out in the shop, serving customers and stacking the shelves. It was just the start of his long life of chipping in and doing his bit for those around him.

Graeme pursued a career as a pharmacist, eventually opening his own business in Frankston. Like all community pharmacists, Graeme Weideman was a person who lived his life in the service of others. He ran a small business, but it was so much more than that: it was about the provision of health care, advice – one of the most trusted professions in our entire Victorian and Australian community. It is not surprising that he worked tirelessly in that role and then in subsequent roles for the people of the mighty City of Frankston. On top of running his pharmacy seven days a week, Graeme volunteered whatever spare time he had to local committees, to causes and to boards. Of course that culminated in 1976 with his preselection and his election to the Legislative Assembly as the member for Frankston.

In his first speech in this chamber Graeme reflected on his considerable experience serving his community in such a trusted and critically important role as a community pharmacist and in many other ways. He highlighted the importance of small business of course, and he called for greater support in the fight against drug addiction. In his pharmacy and in this place he dedicated his life to it, that most worthy of causes, his local community and those who are vulnerable, those who are in the grips of addiction and those who are in need of the very best health care, particularly primary health care, which is so much better than being failed by that system and finishing up in hospital at considerable cost to you and those around you.

Graeme served on a number of different boards and committees, as I mentioned, appointments which he took very seriously. He was one of the first board members of VicHealth when it was established in 1987. Rhonda Galbally, a fine Victorian and someone who many of us know and have worked with, the former chief executive officer of VicHealth, once said, and I quote:

The ebullient Graeme Weideman, representing the Liberal Party, was so enthusiastic a Board member that we had to assign a staff member to respond to his multitude of suggestions and ideas.

That is the best type of person that any electorate, any committee or any cause could ask for. He was a hard worker. He was somebody with vision, with drive and with a real passion to get things done at a local level and more broadly.

Graeme was someone who knew and deeply understood Frankston. He respected its history and its people. He was also acutely aware of its promise – what it might be in the right circumstances with the right investments and with passionate advocacy. He also looked forward, seeing that potential with a real sense of hopefulness. He was very positive about his local community. He also understood, though, that there are many people in Frankston, many families, who did it tough and who needed a champion. They needed someone to stand up for them. That is perhaps why he was re-elected on so many occasions, albeit with a small hiatus away from this place.

I am told that Graeme was a lively parliamentarian and someone who served his local community with enthusiasm as a local councillor and as a member of this place. He was also a devoted healthcare professional – someone of principle, someone of purpose, someone who lived a meaningful life so often in the service of other people. That is something to be revered. That is something to be remembered and celebrated, and it has been in terms of his farewell and the many tributes that have flowed. Hopefully, they have been some small comfort to his family at what is a very difficult time.

On behalf of the Victorian government I extend our deepest condolences to his wife Barbara and his family. They can be proud of all that he achieved. They can be proud of the person that he was and the fondness and affection with which he is remembered. We also extend our sympathies of course to the community of Frankston – so many individuals and families, so many businesses, so many worthy causes. So much of the fabric of Frankston was influenced positively by Graeme in his leadership and his service. There can be few more meaningful compliments paid than to say that he was a champion for his community, he was of his community, he loved his community and he made it better through his service. Vale, Graeme Weideman.

John PESUTTO (Hawthorn – Leader of the Opposition) (12:11): I am very pleased to be able to join in support of this condolence motion for George Graeme Weideman. The passing of the Honourable Graeme Weideman on 13 April of this year marks the loss of a respected community leader and a highly regarded former member and minister of this Parliament.

Graeme had an interesting early life, being born in Ballarat on Melbourne Cup Day in 1934 to a farming family who had a potato farm at Waubra, not far from Ballarat. The Weideman name is obviously well known. Graeme’s younger brother Murray, who was born some 15 months after Graeme, later became Collingwood Football Club captain and in 1958 a premiership hero and an all-round Magpie legend. But Graeme made his own way as well. During the 1930s potato farming was not very profitable, and the family purchased and moved to a grocery store in Station Street, Fairfield. In Graeme’s early years he attended Northcote Boys High School, playing clarinet and saxophone amongst many other passions that he developed through his life. He was very community minded from a young age, joining the school cadets at 14 years of age and being very active in the Scouts at nearby Alphington. Following high school, Graeme went on to attend the Victorian College of Pharmacy. Prior to his time as a member of this Parliament and a minister Graeme was a very well-respected pharmacist, commencing his practice in Preston for a short period before moving to pharmacies located in Frankston, Hastings and later Mount Buller.

Graeme’s passion for upholding the spirit of community involvement and volunteerism was reflected over many years via various roles with a range of community and professional organisations. His active community involvement commenced in 1964 as a 30-year-old when he joined the Frankston Lions Club, where he held various positions and was active in the community. Not long after, Graeme became president of the Frankston branch of Liberal Party, and in 1966 he became co-campaign manager for his good friend Sir Phillip Lynch in his first election win in Flinders. He also became secretary of the Flinders electorate committee for Sir Phillip. He was always a strong supporter of education and served on school councils over many years. From 1966 Graeme was an active member of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, and he joined the Pharmacy Board of Victoria in 1975. But it was his passion for his community that saw him turn to politics as a profession for himself as well.

Graeme was first elected to this Parliament as the member for Frankston in 1976 with 60 per cent of the primary vote and a swing of more than 7 per cent. In his maiden speech to Parliament Graeme highlighted the difficulties for small business at the time, the impact of drug use within the community and alcohol as statistically the most serious and dangerous drug of all. Graeme was re-elected as the member for Frankston in 1979 and became the Minister for Tourism and Assistant Minister of Health in 1981. At the 1982 election he lost by a mere 76 votes, but he did not give up. He fought back and returned to the Victorian Parliament in 1985 as the member for the rezoned seat of Frankston South, a seat he won again in both 1988 and 1992. In 1987 he became an inaugural parliamentary member of the board of VicHealth. Graeme also went on to chair the important parliamentary Public Accounts and Estimates Committee from 1992 to 1996. He retired at the 1996 state election at 62 years of age but continued to be very active in his community. In all Graeme served 17 years as a member of this place – a very good innings by any stretch.

But with the sadness that comes from Graeme’s passing, so too come our appreciation and gratitude for his contribution to making Victoria a better place. Graeme was a supportive and loving family man to his wife of 63 years, Barbara; father to Prue, Caroline and Nicholas; father-in-law to Andrew, Zoran and Melissa; grandfather to Isabella, Jesse, Sarah, Ned, Scarlett, Milla and Harriet; and great-grandfather to George. At his funeral late last month Graeme’s family spoke of a great family and community man and a life so well lived. On behalf of this side of the house, I convey our great appreciation for the Honourable Graeme Weideman’s distinguished and honourable service to this Parliament and to the community he so loved, and we extend our sincere condolences to his family and friends. May he rest in peace.

Paul EDBROOKE (Frankston) (12:16): I appreciate the opportunity to contribute to this condolence motion for Graeme Weideman, who passed away peacefully at age 88. Graeme was a devoted husband to Barbara for 63 years, and he led a life dedicated to serving Victoria – as a politician, a pharmacist and a community leader. He was a kind and well-respected gentleman who was much loved and will be sadly missed.

I did not meet Graeme. I had to do a bit of research, and I asked around – some of our old political heads in Frankston on both sides of the major parties – and he was definitely well respected. I find it curious that he was part of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, which is kind of in the territory of the current member for Frankston, being a trade unionist, I guess, but I think we would have got along. He was elected in 1976 as the member for Frankston, and he went through some changes in the election boundaries through that time. He was still in as the member for Frankston in 1982, then lost to Jane Hill from the ALP, as we have heard, by 76 votes, but he was re-elected in 1985 as the member for Frankston South and then in 1992 as the member for Frankston. He served as Minister for Tourism and Assistant Minister of Health from 1981 until the fall of the Liberal government in 1982.

I have absolutely no doubt that despite our political alignments or the different political alignments, Graeme and I would have got along over a cup of coffee through our shared passion for Frankston and moving Frankston and Victorians forward through our custodianship as state members. I was in the car this morning, and it raised a question in my mind that perhaps a blind spot of new members is not searching out members from the other side and other parties to have a discussion about their passion and their vision for their state and their communities as well, because we certainly have much more in common with our passion for our communities than what actually divides us at times.

And on this point I got onto Hansard, as we all love to do, and I had a look at some of the adjournments that Graeme brought up. On 30 November 1994 Graeme raised the issue of asbestos in schools in an adjournment. On 27 October 1992 Graeme raised an adjournment matter on supporting Frankston TAFE’s expansion, via some land on Ballarto Road, for agricultural apprenticeships. On 15 September 1993 Graeme spoke on an adjournment concerning a lack of affordable kindergarten places for four-year-olds and a need for kinder for three-year-olds, and on 15 November 1994 Graeme raised an adjournment and asked for more public transport parking and bus services around the Frankston station. So I think it is safe to say that Graeme and I would have got along pretty well. He would be pleased, I think, that some of these issues have been carried on into the future despite the politics and the political nature of Parliament.

By all accounts all of the people, bar none, I have spoken to in the community of Frankston held Graeme in high regard as a good friend and a loyal colleague, and those who served with Graeme in Parliament say the same thing. So my deepest sympathy from the Frankston community to Barbara and her family. On behalf of an appreciative and grieving Frankston community, who are grateful for his contribution and a life well lived, we say thank you. Vale, Graeme Weideman.

Peter WALSH (Murray Plains) (12:19): I rise to join the condolence motion for Graeme Weideman. If you read about Graeme’s career, he had the perfect community involvement to be a good member of Parliament. When you go through the things that he did both in his parliamentary time and in his career before Parliament there was involvement in school councils – the Toorak College council and the Baxter Technical School council – and involvement in community health in Frankston, the peninsula unemployment action group, the peninsula road trauma and safety committee and the peninsula drug and alcohol committee. He had a real involvement in his community, which brought him to this place with a very good understanding of his community and the needs that needed to be served by the Victorian government.

People would wonder why there are so many Weidemans in the Wimmera. I read the history of the family. The Weideman family came to Australia through Adelaide in 1847 and then some of them moved to the Wimmera in 1850.

Daniel Andrews interjected.

Peter WALSH: No, you can’t. If you look at when they set up at Rupanyup, Graeme’s grandfather was one of 15 children, his own father was one of 13 children and an uncle was one of 11 children, so I think we understand why there are so many Weidemans either in the Wimmera or who have moved out of the Wimmera. If you think about the Wimmera soil and Andrew Weidemann, who is still farming there, people would have seen the ads where it does not grow barley for beer, it actually grows Crown Lager stubbies – it is that good in the Wimmera.

Graeme came to this place, as I said, with a proud history. I look through the fact that he had time as a minister, but the thing that intrigued me was that he had time on the Public Bodies Review Committee. If you go to the Public Bodies Review Committee under the Cain and Kirner governments, that is probably what brought me to this place and my involvement in politics and the long debates I used to have with Ian Baker, who was then the Minister for Agriculture, about the things that he wanted to do or undo to the tomato industry, which I was involved in in that time. The Public Bodies Review Committee did a lot of work in simplifying legislation here in Victoria.

If you go through his maiden speech, as has already been mentioned, Graeme had a great interest in small business and the fact that small business actually drives the economy with the employment that small business creates. The figures he used were that 42 per cent of the state’s workforce is small business, and in regional areas 90 per cent of the workforce is employed by small business. He spoke about the woes of small business at that time, with increasing costs and small margins. I think that is no different to what we see today, particularly post COVID.

The other thing that he talked about obviously was the scourge of drugs, the impact that had on people and the need to do more, and I think that is still the case. He spoke about the Premier’s policy speech at that particular time, when he was elected, about examining ways of simplifying the existing legislation and lessening restrictions on the community. I think we can all take lessons from that as to what we can do to help small business prosper by reducing the red tape. He spoke about the fact that it was good to be elected as a pharmacist and that it was the first time that there were two pharmacists in the house since the 1890s – there were actually five pharmacists in the Parliament at that particular time. So he was very proud of the fact that there were pharmacists in there.

Graeme Weideman was a very passionate Collingwood supporter, as we have talked about. His brother was captain of Collingwood. So if you look at his inaugural speech, I am sure he would have been thrilled to bits that that great son of Geelong Neil Trezise was actually the member that spoke after him.

Members interjecting.

Peter WALSH: Here we go. Neil Trezise was a champion and a great person, a great politician, and I am sure a Collingwood supporter –

A member interjected.

Peter WALSH: So was his son, but he did not quite have the same football ability. I am sure Graeme would have been proud to be followed by a proud son of Geelong after his inaugural speech.

It is also an interesting fact that he was part of the Tilley Soaps business. So apart from being a pharmacist and running a small business, he also invested in and was part of the Tilley Soaps business that makes specialty soaps. For those that go to museums in our electorates, you will see the tins that Tilley soap came in at that particular time. He was someone that actually practised what he preached – he not only talked about supporting small business but was actually involved in small business. So I think the community of Frankston and the peninsula in general is much the richer for having had Graeme as a member of Parliament for 17 years with the things that he fought through. As we know from the current member for Frankston’s contribution, the work is never done for any of our communities. There are always things to fight for, but Graeme did his community proud and we congratulate him for that. Vale, Graeme Weideman.

Chris CREWTHER (Mornington) (12:25): I rise to also join my parliamentary colleagues in paying respects to the former member of this place Graeme Weideman, who represented Frankston for the Liberal Party from 1976 to 1982 and 1992 to 96, as well as Frankston South from 1985 to 1992. On 13 April 2023 the world lost Graeme, a dedicated statesman, a distinguished businessman, an enthusiastic and empathetic representative of his community and a devoted husband and father.

Graeme and I actually shared quite a lot. As the former federal member for Dunkley I covered the areas of both Frankston and Frankston South, the same areas that Graeme covered. As was noted before, I grew up in the Wimmera – I have that connection with Graeme – and I also have that farming background in the Wimmera in my blood. I also have the situation of having lost a seat and having re-won a seat, so that is yet another thing in common. And importantly of course I am a fellow supporter of the Collingwood Football Club – I should say the great Collingwood Football Club; I am sure many of you will agree. Graeme and I shared that in common, along with having relations in the Collingwood Football Club. His brother Murray Weideman was a club great. I myself have both players and presidents in my family, including Tom Sherrin, Norm Crewther and Bill Proudfoot, so we shared that love of Collingwood.

Prior to becoming a member of this place, Graeme had an esteemed career in pharmacy, serving as a member of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia Victoria state branch committee from 1966 to 72, the director of Protos Chemicals from 1968 to 72, the managing director of Weideman Tilley Soaps from 1974 to 76 and a partner of Tilley Soaps in 1977.

As a pharmacist and businessman Weideman had to be meticulous, dedicated and efficient, and it is perhaps these values that made him such an esteemed and dedicated member of Parliament, as the member for Frankston noted before. In his time as the member for Frankston he also recognised that there are problems unique to the region and dedicated his life in public office to trying to have them resolved, highlighting the impacts, for example, of alcohol and drug use in his local community and the struggles of small businesses. I note that some issues have been resolved, but as the member for Frankston noted, there are still many more issues that both the member for Frankston and I have fought for in the past and we continue to fight for in our region that Graeme fought very hard for.

In his time in Parliament he served as the Minister for Tourism and Assistant Minister of Health from 1981 to 82, on the Public Accounts Committee from 1979 to 80 and on the Public Bodies Review Committee from 1980 onwards. He also served on the first board of VicHealth when it was established in 1987. Rhonda Galbally, former CEO of VicHealth, said that:

The ebullient Graeme Weideman … was so enthusiastic a Board member that we had to assign a staff member to respond to his multitude of suggestions and ideas.

And that was noted in the speech just before. On being a politician and VicHealth board member Graeme said:

We had the opportunity to do things that had never been done before. We had to use the money available with the greatest amount of respect and get value for our money. I believe we did.

Indeed Graeme was inherently innovative. When Weideman took over as chairman of the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee during the Kennett government in the early 1990s he met with Ches Baragwanath, Victoria’s former Auditor-General, and agreed that a central function of the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee was to work closely with the Auditor-General and to represent his office in Parliament. Over the next four years Graeme helped put this philosophy into action, carrying out in-depth investigations on issues that were raised by the Auditor-General and developing a close collaborative relationship with the government and bureaucracy to resolve these issues. The output of this committee was indeed formidable – a system of public accountability that Graeme Weideman saw as being ‘the envy of the world’ and ‘setting the standard for others to follow’. Following Graeme’s retirement from politics in the 1996 state election Ches Baragwanath noted this as a tragedy, and it was after this time that relations between the government and the Auditor-General began to deteriorate.

In his time as the member for Frankston and member for Frankston South Graeme was also known as ‘Mr Frankston’, and I note that the former member for Dunkley, who my office and I have spoken to, appreciated Graeme’s mentorship and guidance at the time when he commenced his role as the member for Dunkley as well. I would like to finish by noting my sincere condolences to Barbara and to Prue, Caroline and Nicholas, his children, his grandchildren and great-grandchild and all his family and friends. Vale, Graeme Weideman.

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

Daniel ANDREWS (Mulgrave – Premier) (12:31): I move:

That, as a further mark of respect to the memory of the late Honourable Graeme Weideman, the house now adjourns until 2 pm today.

Motion agreed to.

House adjourned 12:31 pm.

The SPEAKER took the chair at 2:01 pm.