Queen’s birthday honours: Daintree saviour Graham Richardson ‘chuffed’ with well-deserved gong

Graham Richardson titled his autobiography Whatever it Takes, and there’s no better description of his inexhaustible drive.

Graham Richardson has been made an Officer of the Order of Australia in the Queen’s birthday honours. Picture: Ryan Osland

Graham Richardson titled his autobiography Whatever it Takes, and there’s no better description of his drive as an ALP factional war lord, senior minister, media commentator and cancer survivor.

The day in 2016 he returned to his home in Sydney from eight months in hospital, having had several internal organs cut out and a couple of near-death experiences, Mr Richardson told The Australian he would recover and “do everything I did before”.

On Sunday, Mr Richardson, 70, said that on top of resuming his busy television host and newspaper column agenda, he had “taken on even more”. But because of the mobility issue, “the only thing I couldn’t do was play golf, which I love”.

The man known as “Richo” has been appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for distinguished service to the people and parliament of Australia, to the media, and to philanthropy.

He said he had been offered a gong not too long after he left parliament in 1994, but turned it down at that point because he felt not enough time had elapsed since moving on from politics.

Receiving the honour now, he said: “I’m chuffed.”

Asked what he regarded as his greatest achievement as a senior minister in the Hawke government, he said: “I don’t think I’ll ever top the rainforests in far north Queensland.”

In one of his first acts as environment minister, he championed the listing of the Daintree Rainforest and the banning of logging, and was physically attacked by loggers during the campaign.

Mr Richardson said he did not blame the protesters then or now — they were fighting for their jobs and tradition — but said the survival of the Daintree to this day is something of which he remains proud.

Before entering the Senate in 1983, Mr Richardson was the personification of what was then known as the all-powerful NSW ALP Right “machine” as the state party’s general secretary.