Graham Richardson state funeral: NSW celebrates life of Labor power player

A cast of political heavyweights and Sydney identities farewelled the man Prime Minister Anthony Albanese dubbed “a giant of the Labor Party”.

The state funeral for Graham Richardson was held at St James’ church in the Sydney CBD. Picture Thomas Lisson

Labor powerbroker Graham Richardson always knew how to stack a room but it was his wife Amanda and son D’Arcy who brought the congregation at his state funeral to laughter and tears.

The man who loved to lunch simply did not want to leave the party.

“When Graham passed away, he was sitting across from me and he said ‘I’m not ready to go yet’. And I said ‘I know’,” Amanda told the congregation containing some of Australia’s most powerful and recognisable people in St James’ Anglican Church in Sydney.

“He said: ‘It’s not my time’. I said: ‘I know’, but it was his time,” she said through tears.

The former Labor senator who was known as “the minister for kneecaps” pulled a powerful crowd including cabinet ministers Tanya Plibersek, Tony Burke and Michelle Rowland, NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey, embattled shock jock Alan Jones, philanthropist Ros Packer and brain surgeon Charlie Teo.

“He loved you all … Or most of you all. OK, let’s be honest, not all of you, but thank you for turning up anyway,” Amanda said to laughter.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese delivered the eulogy to the son of a postie who never forgot his roots or the political lessons he learnt in a home that was “a political academy with fibro walls”.

Graham Richardson, who died aged 76 after a long battle with bone cancer, was the political numbers man and stalwart of the Labor right who helped forge the careers of former Prime Ministers Bob Hawke and Paul Keating before becoming a media pundit universally known as Richo. He also honoured his promise to see son D’Arcy 18 finish his HSC.

Graham Richardson and his family.

“He was nearly as much a Sydney landmark as the Harbour Bridge,” Mr Albanese said.

Mr Hawke’s widow Blanche D’Alpuget attended but Mr Keating was a notable absentee.

“There is no escaping the fact that Graham’s life was colourful,” Mr Albanese said. “He had that rogue’s charm, an instinctive capacity to disarm.

“He was a master of forging unlikely friendships,” he said. ”He was as comfortable in the circles of the powerful, the famous and the wealthy as he was in the front bar.”

An emblem of Mr Richardson’s favourite NRL team, the St George Illawarra Dragons, was one of the items on display at the funeral. Picture: NewsWire

That was as close as anyone came to mentioning the allegations of sex scandals and dodgy deals that saw him investigated but never formally charged over the colourful allegations that dogged his career.

Mr Albanese said Richo’s “greatest impact” was as environment minister where he secured the preservation of the Daintree rainforest. “As he once put it, “My memory won’t be around for very long, but the rainforests of north Queensland will be around forever.”

The Australian flag flew at half mast on the Harbour Bridge and at Parliament House as the Cranbrook school Chamber and Boys Vocal Ensemble performed You Raise Me Up. Their inclusion had been part of a difficult dispute with the Catholic Archdiocese that prompted the service to be moved from St Mary’s Cathedral with just three days to go.

Alan Jones paid his respects. Picture: Gaye Gerard / NewsWire

The inclusion of seven “vignettes” recalling different parts of Richo’s life had also been a bone of contention. In them Chris Willis and Lee Jeloscek recalled the “baptism of wine” at The Golden Century that heralded his joining Channel 7.

His former chief of staff David Tierney confirmed Richo was “a master of the dark art of soy sauce diplomacy” whose weapon of choice was always chopsticks.

They only had one fight in 42 years. “I rightly apologised to Graham even though I was right and we moved on,” he said.

Sky News boss Paul Whittaker saluted Richo’s contribution to the 2016 election coverage just 100 days after he underwent massive surgery.

“Less than three months after his infamous 18 or 20-hour marathon surgery, during which Graham’s heart stopped three times on the operating table, he made a remarkable comeback to appear on Sky’s election night coverage,” he said.

“Physically, mentally, he was sharper than ever, correctly calling it early that Bill Shorten wouldn’t win.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese delivered the eulogy.

Mourners included former Queensland Premier Anastasia Paluszek, former NSW Premier Morris Iemma, former deputy premier John Barilaro and Olympic supremo’s Mark Arbib and John Coates, who credited Richo for the advice that secured the Sydney Olympics.

Sitting together were 2GB host Ben Fordham and presenter Richard Wilkins. Absent however were Richo’s estranged first wife Cheryl Gardner and their grown-up children Matthew Richardson and Kate Ausden.

The funeral program. Picture: NewsWire

Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott said he was “thrilled to add a bipartisan note” to the proceedings and quipped “there is only one NSW right, most of it is in the Labor Party but some in the Liberal Party as well.”

He said Richo’s memoir Whatever It Takes was considered “an instruction manual in Machiavellian bastardry”.

“I thought it was a passionate man’s honest account of how best to reconcile the often conflicting duties to country, to party and to colleagues,” he said.

Richo’s son D’Arcy said: “For me, ‘Whatever It Takes’ meant something else, it meant climbing two flights of steep stairs to attend the father-son graduation dinner earlier this year, a feat that had him throwing up in the bathroom once he had reached the top of the steep climb.

“Despite feeling exhausted, he stayed for the whole night.”

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Originally published as Graham Richardson state funeral: NSW celebrates life of Labor power player