State funeral held for former federal minister Kevin Andrews

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Former federal liberal MP Kevin Andrews has been farewelled at a state funeral in Melbourne. Mr Andrews died earlier this month at 69, after battling with cancer. The service was held at Melbourne’s St Patrick's Cathedral.

Transcript

00:00Well, Kevin Andrews was a senior minister in both the governments of John Howard and

00:07Tony Abbott, and both those former Prime Ministers were at the service today, as well as a large

00:12contingent of former and current federal and state Liberal MPs.

00:18Peter Dutton was here for the opposition, the opposition leader, and Bill Shorten appeared

00:23on behalf of the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese.

00:27He was also the Archbishops of Melbourne and Sydney.

00:31Mr Andrews was a devout Catholic and made a large contribution to the Church until the

00:36end of his life.

00:38Mr Abbott gave the eulogy on behalf of the Andrews family.

00:42He spoke of Mr Andrews' conviction as a politician and his work in the high-profile ministries

00:48of immigration, defence, social services and aged care.

00:52He highlighted Mr Andrews' introduction of a private members bill in 1997 in the Northern

00:58Territory which successfully overturned voluntary euthanasia.

01:02He also spoke of Mr Andrews' backing of the citizenship test for new migrants.

01:08Kevin Andrews was also a prolific writer and published five books on a number of topics

01:13and was working on his memoirs until the very day of his death.

01:19This is some more of what Mr Abbott had to say.

01:22Kevin was a man of character, conviction and courage, a man of honour in the bare pit

01:27of public life, for whom politics was a calling, not a career, and who never put personal preferment

01:34ahead of principle.

01:37Above all, he was a gentleman who never stooped to the dark arts of politics.

01:43Many members of Kevin Andrews' large family was at the service today, including his 99-year-old

01:49mother, Sheila, and his wife of 45 years, Margaret.

01:53He had five children and seven grandchildren.

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