‘Pretty effective’ to the end: Conservative giants gather to farewell Ron Boswell

Former prime minister John Howard said, like him, Boswell was a firm believer in the Liberal-National Coalition – an alliance that became a merger in Boswell’s home state.

“He was also a very serious thinker, and probably, in retrospect, one of the greatest contributions Ron Boswell made to Australian political life – and it’s almost more obvious in retrospect than it was at the time,” he said.

“In April of 1988, Ron Boswell made a very careful, very well-researched speech to the Australian Senate about the dangers of the extremist group the League of Rights.

“It was a body that was trying to infiltrate, with malice, parties of the right and centre, including the National Party, and of course one of its principal clarion calls was anti-semitism.

“In the context of today, where all the parties of Australia are concerned about anti-semitism – all Australians should be concerned, because it’s an evil that has to be identified and stamped out.

“The League of Rights no longer formally exists, although its nostrums are still held to and uttered by people who parade under different names – the denial of the Holocaust, denial that Jesus of Nazareth was Jewish.

“Extraordinary propositions, yet they were held. Ron saw through all of that and he preached against it with passion, and continued to do so.”

As at most funerals, there were moments of levity. Boswell’s daughter, Catherine Boswell, elicited some chuckles.

“The best days of Boz’s life was the day he met my beautiful mother, Leita,” she said.

“In so many ways, they were opposites. Mum was beautiful, gentle, patient and gracious, and Dad was often referred to as looking like an unmade bed.

“But he was relentless, task-focused and uncompromising. Together, they showed us that opposites don’t just attract, they balance.”

Catherine Boswell described a devoted family man who was determined to remain connected with those he loved.

“Boz loved his friends just as deeply [as his family], trusting them implicitly, and always showing up for them,” she said.

“He rang often, and he never accepted that you might not be available. If you didn’t answer, he rang again and again and again. Friendship to Dad was not optional. It was one of life’s great joys.”

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It was a common theme.

“I was a recipient, along with many in this audience, of phone calls from Ron,” Howard said.

“And of course, you could never escape the Boswell phone call, because if you didn’t return it that day or the following day, he’d ring you the next day.

“So we worked out a routine in our office that it was better to get back to him in a hurry, and he knew, exactly, that was the effect.”

Father Michael Twigg, who knew the Boswell family well and presided over the ceremony, quipped that his personal record was nine missed calls during a Mass.

Prior to attending the funeral, Albanese said Boswell was a proud Queenslander who served the state well.

“He took a very principled stand against One Nation, and he’s someone who, whilst I would have differences with many of his views, he had the courage of his conviction, and he was respected across the parliament,” he said.

His state funeral was held at the same cathedral at which he farewelled his beloved son, Stephen, in 1999. Leita Boswell died in 2021.

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