Mr Leeser said on the night before his father drove to the Gap at Watson's Bay 20 years ago this month, "he asked if I could help him polish his shoes before he left for a dinner at my brother's school".

"I remember, as a self-absorbed 20-year-old, the petulance and rudeness with which I waived away the opportunity to help my father, a man who so often helped me, and not a day goes by that I don't regret it."

Mr Leeser recounted "the great emptiness ripping at my stomach" the next morning as he sought to comfort his mother.

His father had left a note on the hall table:

"I am sorry Sylvia, I just can't cope, love John."

Mr Leeser said despite the millions that have been spent on mental health and suicide prevention over the years, "it is a fight we are losing".

"Treating depression as a medical issue is not working," he said.

"Rather, we need to rebuild caring communities where people know and notice the signs and acknowledge the people around them," he said.


"In a society where people are more tense, more pressured, more isolated than ever before, active engagement in community also fosters civility and virtues of courtesy and understanding that are too often undervalued and supplanted by anger towards others."

Mr Leeser said he would draw from the positive examples set by his father - the professionalism, trust and care he showed his clients - to guide him in how he would work for his constituents.

"When I think of my father, mostly I think not of the way that he died, but rather of the example set by the way that he lived," he said.

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