Edward Morrissey Australian Labor Party Life Membership

The Hon. CHRISTINE ROBERTSON [5.54 p.m.]: Last weekend's New South Wales State Conference of the Australian Labor Party was fascinating for a number of reasons. Not only were there a number of important policy debates, which went unreported—for example, those covering health and Country Labor—but, in keeping with tradition, a group of party members who have served for more than 40 years and made an outstanding contribution were awarded life membership.

The Hon. Trevor Khan: Joe Horan.

The Hon. CHRISTINE ROBERTSON: For more than 25 years I have been a delegate to the New South Wales Australian Labor Party conference, one of the most important parts of which is the celebration of life membership. I have been reminded that one of the people who was awarded life membership was Joe Horan from Tamworth, who has been a very important part of Country Labor in that area for a long time.

Edward—or Ted—Morrissey of Coonabarabran is one of those outstanding members. He joined the Coonabarabran Branch of the party aged 19 in 1933—that is 75 years ago—when his uncle Joe Maguire took him along to meetings. Ted has been a member of that branch ever since. Ted is approaching 94 years of age and he is now unable to attend meetings in person. It is interesting for social history to note that Uncle Joe was a returned First World War soldier, as were many of the party members in the area. He was a council worker and an SP bookie on weekends.

Ted Morrissey was one of six children raised on a property called La Perouse near Coonabarabran. He continued the family business Morrissey Seed and joined the horticulturalists and fruit growers union. Ted was interested in the Australian Labor Party because he could see the hardships people were going through as the Great Depression took hold and he always had a strong commitment to social justice from his family life and schooling. Ted was also outraged that his widowed grandmother's pension was cut because she was living in her own home.

During the Second World War there was a desperate shortage of vegetable seeds. Morrissey Seed was one of the few producers of seeds in Australia at the time. The situation was so grave that the Army ordered more seeds to be produced, which required more labour. The Army sent four Italian prisoners of war to the Morrissey farm to help grow more vegetable seeds. Ted was put in charge of the Italians to get them to work, which he said was not a problem because they were all very well disciplined. Ted always took the view that he would never ask anybody to do something that he would not do himself. He treated the Italians with respect, learnt to speak some Italian, taught them some English and had some good laughs with them—especially at the expense of the staff sergeant sent to supervise them. Together they grew thousands of pounds of seeds and built a road, now called Jack Morrissey Road, from the Morrissey property to the Baradine Road.

The years hosting the Italian prisoners of war were clearly an important time in Ted's life. It was again with these men that his dealings with the Army came up. Ted tells a story from late 1944 when he was playing piano in a concert party and an army recruiter was present. The recruiter was so keen to get Ted into the army that he told him he was conscripting him on the spot! Ted asked him who would look after the prisoners. To this day, Ted is still waiting to receive his conscription notice.

Ted has a sharp memory and a keen interest in history, and he enjoys writing down some of his experiences. He has written a history of the Catholic Church in Coonabarabran and has kept a journal for the past 28 years. In a historical context, he is also encouraged by the actions of the new Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, particularly by the apology to the Aboriginal people for the stolen generations. Ted has had involvement with Aboriginal people in both his working and his musical life.

Ever since Ted learned to sing and play piano in school music has been a very important part of his life. Family gatherings have always involved sing-alongs around the piano, even at a recent gathering of 65 descendants of Ted's parents, Jack and Jessie Morrissey. Ted has recorded some of his music as part of a folk music collection in the National Library of Australia, which is also an important historical resource relating to the Coonabarabran area. Ted is a most impressive person and his interests cannot be fully explored in this brief speech. However, he is clearly a lover of life and a humble man who is willing to admit his mistakes. He is also a true lover of the environment. He has helped protect local rock wallabies in the Warrumbungle area by working with the National Parks and Wildlife Service. He was an appointee to the Warrumbungle National Park Trust through the 1970s, and in 1972 he established a flora and fauna reserve on Baradine Road north of Coonabarabran. His own property is a wildlife refuge. Ted Morrissey is living history. His knowledge of his beloved Warrumbungle region, which has been his home all his life, is quite amazing. It makes me very proud to be a part of a political party that has as its members such important and, in their special way, influential people such as Ted Morrissey.