This was published 3 months ago
That’s where we’ll end our live coverage of Graham Richardson’s state funeral. Thank you for reading.
We’ll leave you with CBD columnist Kishor Napier-Raman’s dispatch from the event, which brought together politicians from across state borders and battle lines.
Graham Richardson’s coffin has been carried out by pallbearers including former Socceroo Mark Bosnich and ex-Labor defence minister Joel Fitzgibbon.
Alan Jones was pictured comforting Richardson’s wife Amanda following the ceremony.
“I know that you know, but you’ll never be able to prove it,” Graham Richardson once told Kate McClymont more than 20 years ago.
For a reporter whose career has been spent uncovering crime and corruption, Richo was the one who got away, the Herald’s chief investigative reporter wrote shortly after his death:
It’s hard to know where to start when talking about Graham Frederick Richardson: bagman, political fixer and bon vivant.
There were the bribes paid to him by way of prostitutes, Offset Alpine, Swiss bank accounts, taking a cut of the political donations he collected, accepting a hefty payment from Eddie Obeid in return for getting Obeid into parliament, having a major property developer build the extension on his home, being on the payroll of developers, and so much more.
An “Antipodean Machiavelli”, was how Richardson’s former cabinet colleague Neal Blewett once described him, offering that he was “the arch proponent of vested interests”.
Former foreign minister Gareth Evans once said Richo’s inclination for doing “whatever it takes … was not always a recipe for good, principled government”.
Read the full story for an unvarnished account of Richardson’s life and work.
The state funeral for Graham Richardson is now concluding after speeches from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, Richardson’s wife Amanda, son D’Arcy and many former colleagues in politics and media.
Richardson’s pallbearers are:
Former prime minister Tony Abbott said he got his first sense of Richardson through the Labor giant’s memoir, Whatever It Takes, which Abbott joked was regarded as “an instruction manual in Machiavellian bastardry”.
“I thought it was a passionate man’s honest account of how best to reconcile the often conflicting duties to country, to party and to colleagues,” Abbott said.
“In it, he wrote, something happens to the men we make prime minister. A few years in the job, and they change, always for the worse … so Anthony, there is something to be said for having only two years on top,” he said to laughs from the crowd.
“Graham was the ultimate happy warrior of our public life, a rough diamond, to be sure, but a gem,” Abbott added.
“Those who knew Dad, no matter their background, shared a deep admiration for his wit, humour, principles and policy achievements,” Graham Richardson’s son D’Arcy, who just finished his HSC, has told those gathered.
“Mum and I had the immense honour of being invited by the Prime Minister and the Speaker of the House to sit on the floor of Parliament to hear the testimonies from his condolence motion during Parliament’s last sitting week.
“What struck me most was the number of MPs who came up to talk about the ways dad helped them in their careers. I had no idea the different ways dad touched those in Parliament throughout their lives, contributing to the great work they’re doing representing their communities.”
He said being a great dad was Richardson’s greatest legacy.
While several speakers spoke highly of D’Arcy, there has been scant mention of Richardson’s two children from his previous marriage to Cheryl Gardner, Matthew and Kate.
Graham Richardson’s son D’Arcy has thanked the medical staff who cared for his father and shared his favourite story from Richardson’s past: a lunch with Margaret Thatcher.
It goes without saying that dad and Thatcher were on opposite sides of the political spectrum, but during the Brisbane Expo, they sat next to each other.
At lunch, Thatcher had just delivered a speech and came down to take her seat next to dad. She turned to him and said, ‘What do you think of my speech, Senator?’
‘I thought it was terrible, Prime Minister,’ Dad replied, ‘because you obviously didn’t write it.’
‘Yes, I suppose you’re right,’ she said. And then she paused for a moment and said, ‘I have to deliver the same speech again tonight. What do you think I should do?’
‘Simple,’ Dad said. ‘Just get up there and tell them what you believe in. Tell them what makes you get out of bed every morning.’
Graham Richardson’s wife Amanda, son D’Arcy by her side, has addressed the gathered mourners.
“He loved you all,” she told the crowd. “Or most of you all. OK, let’s be honest, not all of you, but thank you for turning up anyway.”
She added, “everything he did in his work life was for the Labor Party”. She thanked the church, speakers and the prime minister’s protocol office for organising the state funeral.
“If you all knew how hard the Prime Minister Protocol Office have worked to give Graham the most beautiful send off with the most dreadful of starts [in the] most beautiful church here today ...” she said, a possible reference to the last-minute venue change from St Mary’s.
Sky News boss Paul Whittaker has recalled Graham Richardson’s contribution to the 2016 election night even as he recovered from a mammoth surgery.
“Less than three months after his infamous 18 or 20-hour marathon surgery, during which Graham’s heart stopped three times on the operating table, he made a remarkable comeback to appear on Sky’s election night coverage.
“While his recovery meant he couldn’t appear on the panel as he usually did, he was wheeled into our newsroom so Sky’s then political editor, David Speers, could break away from the set and walk over to Richo for his analysis.
“Physically, mentally, he was sharper than ever, correctly calling it early that Bill Shorten wouldn’t win.”