Condolence Motion - Joy McKean OAM

I'm pleased to rise on behalf of the opposition to acknowledge and express our sadness at the passing of Joy McKean, the musician and multi-award-winning songwriter Joy McKean OAM. Her loss will be felt not only through the music world but by countless people who've appreciated and listened to her songs over the years. She has rightly been described as a national treasure by Troy Cassar-Daley and as the backbone of so much of the Australian country music industry by Kasey Chambers.

She was born in Singleton, New South Wales, in 1930. She loved her music as a child, learning to play a range of instruments, including accordion, piano and steel guitar. As we've heard from the Minister for the Arts in his remarks, she won the first Golden Guitar, in 1973, for her song 'Lights On the Hill'. That song was inspired by an authentically Aussie experience, towing a heavy caravan up the then notorious Devils Pinch near Guyra on the New South Wales Northern Tablelands.

She married Slim Dusty in 1951. Together they became a powerhouse in country music, a musical partnership producing more than 100 albums and selling more than eight million albums. She was dedicated to making a difference to the lives of others. She helped create the Country Music Association of Australia and was chairwoman of the Slim Dusty Foundation, which built the Slim Dusty Centre in the singer's hometown of Kempsey. She is survived by her children, Anne Kirkpatrick and David Kirkpatrick; four grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren. Australia may have lost an icon, but her legacy will inspire future musicians and live on for generations.