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Abbott leads Randall tributes

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has led parliamentary tributes to Liberal MP Don Randall, who died in July.

“There’s a shock and a poignancy when we remember someone who was actually sitting among us just six weeks ago,” he told the lower house on Monday.

He remembered Mr Randall as a man of varied interests, who kept bees, tended roses, caught rabbits and trained racehorses.

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The member for Canning had been fearless and utterly impervious to political correctness, Mr Abbott said.

“Don’s motto in the electorate was, you talk, I listen.

“Over here, especially in the party room, there was sometimes a case of, `I’ll talk, you listen’ – at least to leaders.”

Some Liberal MPs were in tears during Mr Abbott’s tribute.

Earlier, Queenslander Warren Entsch tied a white rose to the microphone at Mr Randall’s empty desk.

The prime minister also noted that it was thanks to Mr Randall that parliament didn’t sit on Fridays.

The West Australian was responsible for bringing a life-size cardboard cut-out of Kevin Rudd to highlight the disconnect between the former prime minister insisting parliament sit but not attending himself.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said while there was much that Labor and Mr Randall disagreed about, he never doubted the strengths of Mr Randall’s convictions or advocacy.

“A man with such a strong sense of local identity and pride still believed the best way to serve his community was in this place,” he told parliament.

“He believed to his final day that our democracy mattered, that parliament counted for something, that the measure of political life was the difference you made to the lives of the people you served.”

Newly-elected Speaker Tony Smith also paid tribute to his lower chamber desk-mate for three years.

“He called it as he saw it and to the former Speakers, I can tell you, you didn’t hear every interjection – thankfully,” he said.

Mr Randall’s family was in parliament to hear the condolence motion.

Parliamentary business, including question time, was largely suspended on Monday as a mark of respect.

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