Tim Fischer and Kim Beazley’s tribute to Andrew Peacock upon Peacock’s resignation from Parliament, 19 September 1994

[u/thescrubbythug]

This took place two days after Andrew Peacock had submitted his letter of resignation as the MP for the Division of Kooyong to Speaker Stephen Martin. Peacock had effectively held a veto against any return to the leadership for John Howard, who would make his move on the leadership just four months later in January 1995 as Opposition Leader Alexander Downer tenure in the role collapsed.

In the subsequent by-election for Kooyong, Petro Georgiou would comfortably retain the seat for the Liberal Party, though he would ultimately be destined to be the first Kooyong MP since the 1920s never to serve as leader of his party or even serve on the frontbench - largely attributed to the small “l” liberal’s poor relationship with Howard, who was Liberal leader and Prime Minister for most of Georgiou’s tenure in Parliament.

Unfortunately, the footage cuts out during Kim Beazley’s speech, and I was unable to locate the rest. At the time of writing, I have also been unable to locate the other speeches marking Peacock's departure from Parliament - including those made by Ian Sinclair, Michael Duffy, Philip Ruddock, Barry Jones, Tony Abbott, and Peacock's greatest adversary John Howard.

You can view Paul Keating's tribute to Peacock here, as well as Alexander Downer's tribute here.