TRIBUTES have flowed in from all sides of the political spectrum for Charles Wilson "Ironbar" Tuckey; honouring his 30 years as the member for O'Connor.
The outspoken 75-year-old was defeated by WA National Tony Crook at the recent Federal election, despite polling a significantly higher percentage of the primary votes.
Mr Tuckey maintained a silent vigil for almost three weeks after the election waiting for the polls to be declared before speaking about his defeat and answer questions about his enigmatic life in the public spotlight.
Farm Weekly spoke to a number of Mr Tuckey's former political allies and foes with each giving a colourful and typically honest account of the Liberal powerbroker's feats.
Australia's greatest and longest-serving Treasurer Peter Costello who worked closely with Mr Tuckey during the John Howard Government, spoke openly about his former Liberal Party colleague.
Mr Costello said Mr Tuckey would be remembered for 30 years of "tireless service to the people of O'Connor and Australians generally".
He described Mr Tuckey as being highly intelligent.
"He had a consistent policy position in favour of free enterprise and individual initiative," he said.
"Unlike others he believed it and acted on it.
"My favourite recollection of him in the House was of amusing and quick interjections; somehow things were a lot duller when he was not around.
"And the Parliament will be more colourless without Wilson.
"They don't make characters like him any more."
Agricultural Region MLC and former O'Connor electorate president Jim Chown said Mr Tuckey always remembered who elected him and who he was representing.
Mr Chown said Mr Tuckey's greatest attribute was his ability to step in "where even angels feared to tread" to represent the interests of the O'Connor electors.
"I cannot think of a greater example of this than his solitary and successful endeavour to stop his party's misguided support of a carbon tax," he said.
"Wilson's ability to achieve numerous beneficial outcomes for the O'Connor electorate through his in-depth knowledge of parliamentary procedures is well recorded in the history of Australian politics.
"The benchmark that Wilson set in representing the interests of the people in the O'Connor electorate is one that many politicians will aspire to but few will ever surpass."
WA Liberal Party president Barry Court was at Mr Tuckey's parting press conference showing his support.
He said he had worked with the former O'Connor MHR on many issues, including during his eight years as president of the Pastoralists and Graziers' Association.
"I remember the wool stockpile very well and the deregulation of the wheat market," he said to Farm Weekly.
"I regularly corresponded and spoke with Wilson about all of the rural issues in WA and he was a great deal of assistance to me at that time.
He has also been a great help to me in my time as WA Liberal Party president and overall just a tremendous help over 30 years."
Mr Court said Mr Tuckey's record was as good as any Federal Liberal.
"His performance for O'Connor was great, for WA it was fantastic and for all of Australia they just did not recognise what he was doing for the country," he said.
Mr Court said he was disappointed Mr Tuckey was not re-elected, despite being the more popular candidate.
"The campaign was disappointing because we were planning to get Wilson back in," he said.
"When you get the most votes and the most popular bloke in the district doesn't win, it's of some concern.
"But as Wilson said he is still going to be participating in politics so I guess that means he is still going to be talking to me as president of the party on a regular basis."
Mr Court said current O'Connor division president Rick Wilson was a chance to take on Mr Crook at the next election.
"Rick is certainly the current president of the Liberal Party's O'Connor division," he said.
"It will be a tough pre-selection like they all are but Rick I'm sure will certainly be putting his name up to tackle the next election."
Mr Court said one of Mr Tuckey's greatest achievements was deregulation of the AWB monopoly for wheat export marketing.
"It wasn't a decision that was unanimous by the growers of WA but certainly from the PGA point of view it was the way to go and it has proved to be that way," he said.
"As the PGA president for eight years we were right on virtually all the big decisions; the wool stockpile stopped the reserve price scheme and Wilson helped us with all that."
Mr Court said Mr Tuckey was always a popular speaker.
"Living close to the PGA as he did, Wilson was quite often in the office and we enjoyed what he did; it was part of the flare and political image of Wilson," he said.
"He got the best deal for people of O'Connor on regular occasion.
"He was worried about their interests firstly, the people of WA second and Australia did not realise what a good deal they had."
Former rural journalist and current National Party Moore MLA and Legislative Assembly speaker Grant Woodhams also heaped praise on Mr Tuckey, saying he was one of a kind.
"I have known Wilson Tuckey for a long time and I wouldn't say I know him really well but I've had a few dealings with him previous to my political career," he said.
"I admire someone who can believe as strongly as he did in what he stood for and what he was endeavouring to do.
"A lot of things will be said and have been said over a long period of time that are very unkind about Wilson Tuckey.
"But I think he endeavoured to stand up for those who elected him in the best possible way.
"I don't think he bent to anyone's will apart from his own and I don't think he was easily persuaded by the pure politics of the day.
"He certainly was a unique character and people like Wilson Tuckey will be missed from the Australian political scene."
Mr Woodhams said Mr Crook performed "tremendously" in defeating Mr Tuckey but believed the iconic politician still had plenty to offer.
"I'm glad Tony Crook has defeated Wilson Tuckey," he said.
"In many senses and many people might say, Wilson's use by date was up and he should have moved on.
"But I don't think you can say that because the decision is really your own and I wish him all the best.
"I was very critical of him politically because I don't think in recent times he has performed up to scratch.
"But if the majority of Australian politicians had the longevity he had or if they were able to stay in their positions for as long as he did, we would certainly have a better parliament for it."
Mr Woodhams was asked if we would get 30 years out of Tony Crook.
"That's Tony's call but it would be great to get 30 years out of the seat of O'Connor as a National seat," he said.
"Asking anybody to stand and remain in a seat for 30 years is probably not unreasonable to ask but I think society has changed and I think we have different expectations of ourselves and different realities attached to what people are able to do."
In his parting conference, Mr Tuckey said he was most proud of the individual successes he achieved including freezing the wool stockpile, deregulating the wheat market, the Geraldton university, the creation of the Regional Partnerships Program, and his role in ministering public opinion to oppose the Gillard changes to the Youth Allowance.
Shire of Cranbrook president Douglas Forrest was also at Mr Tuckey's parting conference.
He said Regional Partnerships was a wonderful regional funding scheme that delivered a lot of money on the ground within O'Connor and throughout the rest of regional Australia.
Mr Forrest said Regional Partnerships was abandoned by the Gillard government but "we have not seen a replacement yet" and would suffer without Mr Tuckey's input.
"We have been sitting back waiting for Regional Development Australia to be funded to some extent but the money has not flowed," he said.
"We are now waiting to see if the $10 billion that's supposed to be going to regional Australia is going to come through some vehicle that's capable of delivering benefits to us.
"We have seen nothing since the election of the Rudd government.
"But that certainly was not the case when we had Wilson being a key figure among Regional Partnerships.
"It was possible for local government to access that money."
Mr Forrest said Mr Tuckey's 30-year career in the federal arena was "typified by excellent staff who have done an excellent job".
"Their ability to get important community help was fantastic," he said.
"Wilson has always gone into bat for individual businesses and constituents over time.
"He has always gone way beyond what he needed to do to help them out.
"He felt strongly enough to take on people's causes and has been a very effective MP on the ground and at parliamentary level.
"We will miss him standing up early and strongly on the real key ideological issues like emissions trading and work place reforms, like he did recently and in the Howard government.
"He certainly had a big input into the wheat market deregulation through AWB and even though his time was marred with controversy his time as the Forestry and Conservation Minister was actually very good as was his work with Regional Partnerships."
