2002-05-274012REPS242902002-05-27—————The SPEAKER (Mr Neil Andrew) took the chair at 12.30 p.m., and read prayers.Condolences2429242912:31:002429SPEAKER, TheThe SPEAKER10000PON/A10—I inform the House of the death on Tuesday, 14 May 2002 of Colin Lawrence Carige, a member of this House for the Division of Capricornia from 1975 to 1977. As a mark of respect to the memory of Colin Carige, I invite honourable members to rise in their places.Honourable members having stood in their places—10000SPEAKER, TheThe SPEAKER—I thank the House.242912:32:002429Howard, John, MPMr HOWARDZD4BennelongLPPrime Minister10—I move:That the House records its deep regret at the death on 19 May 2002 of the Right Honourable Sir John Grey Gorton, GCMG, AC, CH, former Senator for Victoria, Member for Higgins, Federal Minister and Prime Minister, and places on record its appreciation of his long and highly distinguished service to the nation and tenders its profound sympathy to his family in their bereavement.In 101 years of federation, Australia has had 25 prime ministers. Three of them served for a brief period; John Gorton was one of the remaining 22. It is appropriate that the House take a few moments to mark a life, to reflect in our different ways on our experiences and recollections of him, and in the presence of a number of members of his family and those who were very close to him during his political career. I particularly welcome in that context, in the gallery, the Hon. Tom Hughes QC—former Attorney-General of Australia, former federal member for Parkes and Berowra, and a very close friend and confidant of the late Prime Minister—and Ainsley Gotto and other members of the Gorton family. I am delighted that they are able to share this parliamentary occasion with us. John Grey Gorton was born on 9 September 1911. He was educated first at Shore School in Sydney, and subsequently at Geelong Grammar School. His father established an orchard at Kangaroo Lake near Kerang in Victoria where the young John spent his holidays. In Ian Hancock's remarkable biography—and I welcome also Ian Hancock to the gallery—he recorded that one of Gorton's memorable experiences when attending school was to visit the homes of people badly affected by the Depression. The experience of seeing returned soldiers from World War I living in circumstances of poverty, and the inevitable poverty inflicted on their children and others, had a lasting impression on the future Prime Minister of Australia and conditioned many of the attitudes that he was to adopt when he became Prime Minister.He attended Oxford University. He married the then 18-year-old American Betty Brown after telling a church rector that she was 21—so it is said. They returned to Australia just prior to the death of Gorton's father and took over the orchard near Kerang. They were observed to be—and I am sure it was an accurate description—`as close as two coats of paint'.John Gorton had a quite remarkable military career. As a RAAF fighter pilot during World War II he survived three plane crashes. His most lucky escape occurred during a dogfight with Japanese Zero fighters in 1942 off Singapore. When the engine of his Hurricane failed, he attempted to glide his aircraft to Bintan Island. On landing, his plane flipped over, and Gorton broke his nose and cheekbones against the gun sight. It was this injury that left him with his trademark looks. But his woes did not end with the crash of his plane. When he was eventually evacuated on an ammunition ship, it was hit by a torpedo and John Gorton spent a further day in a life raft being rescued. One of the touching and very moving sections of Ian Hancock's book was the reference to the reception that John received from his wife, Betty, when he returned home with this considerable facial disfigurement and his sense of emotion when he was received back spontaneously with the great love of his wife. I think it was one of the more touching pieces of the book. After the war, John Gorton became very involved in local politics. He played a major role in the attempt to unite the Liberal and Country parties in Victoria in the late 1940s—some things go on for a long time! For this reason he supported a new organisation, the Liberal Country Party, that would ultimately affiliate with the Liberal Party. John Gorton unsuccessfully stood for the LCP against the Country Party in the state election of 1949, but then won a Victorian Senate seat on a joint LCP-Country Party ticket. Before entering active politics, he was invited in 1946, at a reception for the returned servicemen of the Mystic Park district in Victoria, to speak on their behalf. He delivered a speech of which I was unaware until the celebration of his 90th birthday at the Westin Hotel in Sydney last year. It is one of those speeches that I think has been quite ageless. Its resonance and philosophy, in terms of the statement of the values and the attitudes of a man, are as poignant and resonant now as they were in 1946. Amongst other things, he had this to say:We must remove from the minds of men the fear of poverty as the result of illness or accident or old age. We must turn our skills into institutions which will produce young men and women avid for further education and increased knowledge. We must raise the standard of living so that all children can grow up with sufficient space and light and proper nourishment, so that those scientific inventions which are conducive to a more gracious life may be brought within the means of all. We must raise the spiritual standard of living so that we may get a spirited service to the community and so that we may live together without hate, even though we differ, on the best road to reach our objectives. We must do all this without losing that political freedom which has cost us so dearly and without which these tasks cannot be accomplished.I think the language in that is expressive, it is elegant, and it embraces a set of beliefs to which I guess every man and woman in this chamber would, in their own different way, subscribe. The speech had a great impact when that extract was read at his 90th anniversary dinner, and I think it was a reminder to many people of the power of his expression.John Gorton had to wait eight years before becoming a minister in the Menzies government in 1958. He was the longest-serving minister for the Navy and, in the view of many people, the best Navy minister Australia had. He assisted the Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1960 to 1963; he was minister in charge of the CSIRO from 1962 to 1963; Minister for Works from 1963 to 1967; and Minister for the Interior from 1963 to 1964. He was the first federal minister for education when he became Minister for Education and Science in 1966 to 1968 and was briefly Minister for Defence in the McMahon government in 1971. He left a mark on the education portfolio, as well as a mark on the Navy portfolio. He played a major role in driving through the policies, first enunciated so clearly by Menzies in the 1963 election campaign, providing government assistance to independent schools. Much of the pioneering work that Gorton did in that portfolio laid the groundwork for extensions of that policy under successive governments.It was said by Alan Reid in his book The Gorton Experiment that John Gorton had become Prime Minister by accident. He became Prime Minister upon the tragic disappearance and death of Harold Holt in December 1967. There were two remarkable things about Gorton's coming to the prime ministership—both of which were firsts and both of which were very important in understanding the victory that he won in that leadership ballot. He was the first senator to become Prime Minister of Australia. As Alan Reid reminds us in his book The Power Struggle—which I found absolutely gripping at the time I read it—John Gorton was the first person, arguably, who won the leadership of a political party through the skilful use of television. It is my view—as an active member of the Liberal Party at the time and as somebody who followed that leadership ballot with more than a passing interest, and who talked about its ebbs and flows with a number of my Liberal Party friends at the time—that the impact of the interviews on television of John Gorton, Paul Hasluck and others would ultimately have had an enormous influence on the outcome of that ballot.On an occasion like this, there is no point in hypocrisies. At the time, although I was not a member of parliament, I guess I would have been a Hasluck supporter. A number of my close friends in the parliamentary party had a different view. With the fullness of time, I came to appreciate many of the qualities of John Gorton that they saw at that time and I came to understand why they chose John Gorton to become the leader of the Liberal Party. He became the leader of the Liberal Party in circumstances of very considerable enthusiasm—he was different, he was laconic, he was very direct and he had a very strong sense of the national interest. I want to dwell on that for a moment because of all the things that I believe John Gorton stood for in his time none was more admirable than his determination to assert that Australia was a single economic unit and not a collection of state and provincial units comprising some kind of loose federation of economic interests. We have to take our minds back to when he became Prime Minister. From my recollection it was not long after the actions taken by the Victorian government under Henry Bolte to block the takeover of Ansett—not as I recall it by foreign interests but by interests that were not Victorian.CT4Costello, Peter, MPMr Costello—Sydney interests—worse.ZD4Howard, John, MPMr HOWARD—Indeed. John Gorton railed against that. I think his railing against that was absolutely right. I do not know that I agreed with him about the AIDC or the MLC takeover, but I certainly did agree very strongly with his assertion that Australia had to speak with one economic voice. The label that came to be applied to him, of being Australian to the boot heels, which was an obvious riposte to the description of Menzies as being British to the boot heels, was a description that he revelled in. It was an image that he was able to communicate very effectively. He had a very direct way of dealing with people. I remember being involved in a dinner at the Western Suburbs Leagues Club in Ashfield in the 1969 election campaign. The late Prime Minister was the guest speaker. Characteristically enough, he was a little late. The reason he was a little late was that he had gone into the clubroom to play a game of darts before going upstairs to join the Liberal Party guests. I thought his investment of time was well rewarded, because the next morning, in a story on the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald, he described the policy of the then opposition leader, Gough Whitlam, as meretricious, and there was a photograph of him throwing darts at a board. It was a wonderful juxtaposition. I thought he had made a very good investment of time.John Gorton did quarrel with some of the state based elements of his party. He did challenge the then relative ascendancy of state based influences within the Liberal Party of Australia. All parties change over a period of time. In terms of asserting the broader national interests of this country, his judgments were correct. The passage of time and so forth have demonstrated that to be the case. His removal from the prime ministership—ultimately by his own hand but obviously as a result of criticism and hostility towards him within the parliamentary Liberal Party—has been well documented. There is not a great deal that one can add except to say that, just as he was the first senator to become Prime Minister and he was the first person to effectively use television to win his leadership campaign, to my knowledge he is the first and only Prime Minister to date to have actually voted himself out of office. It was typical that he should go with that kind of style.One of the things that has impressed me immensely about him over the years—and it is a mark of his character as a man—is that he has retained the intense loyalty of people who were with him during his political days. I do not think my friend Tom Hughes will mind my telling the House that, until his death, he would refer to John Gorton as `Boss'. I do not think that people such as Jim Killen, Bill Wentworth and others who remained very close and loyal supporters of his would mind for a moment it being said that they remained so until his death. John Gorton and I served together as members of the parliamentary Liberal Party for just 18 months—between 1974 and 1975, although it is fair to say that John left the parliamentary Liberal Party some time in May 1975. I certainly remember the day that Malcolm Fraser was elected leader. John left the party room, I have to say, with some emphasis. It is well known that he did not support Fraser's election as leader of the party, and it was the cause for his departing the Liberal Party in 1975. That began a long estrangement between John Gorton and the Liberal Party organisation. He stood as an Independent Senate candidate for the Australian Capital Territory in 1975. Subsequently, he adopted policy positions that were very different from that of the Liberal Party on a large number of issues. I have to say that I was delighted when, in 1988, on the evening of Nick Greiner's election as Premier of New South Wales, I first saw John Gorton return to a Liberal Party gathering—the victory celebration at the Hotel Inter-Continental in Sydney. On that occasion he was accompanied by, amongst others, the now late John Atwill, who had been a state and federal president of the Liberal Party. It is interesting, given Gorton's Victorian origins, that two of his closest organisational allies in the Liberal Party—and they were so until their respective deaths— were Jock Pagan, who was both a state and federal president of the party, and John Atwill, who served in both positions as well. John Gorton came to that gathering. He did not indicate to me that he had totally re-embraced the Liberal Party. He agreed with everything that we were on about, but he was particularly supportive of Nick Greiner becoming Premier of New South Wales.A few years later, John Hewson, who had then become the leader of the Liberal Party at the federal level, organised a cocktail party in the party room for John Gorton's 80th birthday party, and a number of my colleagues who were around at that time would have attended that function. I understand that John Hewson had been quite an admirer of John Gorton from earlier days and had at one stage expressed an interest in writing a biography of him.Subsequently, through the good offices of Kate Carnell and others, he returned ever closer to the party of his earlier years. I was particularly delighted that at the federal council meeting in 1999 at Old Parliament House there was a public reconciliation of sorts between our former leader and the Liberal Party organisation. For him, it was a very special occasion. For me, as the then leader of the parliamentary Liberal Party and somebody who believed that that coming together ought to occur, it was an extremely pleasant occasion. Then, of course, many will remember the wonderful occasion of his 90th birthday celebration at the Westin Hotel.A lot has been written about John Gorton in recent times. I do not just say it because he is present in the chamber, but I think that we who follow political history and political science and those who try to make an impact on the affairs of this country are always interested in a good biography of a significant political figure. Ian Hancock's biography of John Gorton is an excellent work and it treats the man fairly. It does not brush over the deficiencies, but it reminds us of his strength and of the contribution he made to this country in both peace and war.One of the interesting things that I found in reading the biography of Gorton and from reflecting on my own recollections of his time as Prime Minister is that he was not somebody that you could easily typecast. It has been said that he had far more small `l' liberal views and far more progressive views—if I can use that term in the sense that it is often perhaps incorrectly used—and that is true. He advocated decriminalisation of marijuana and was in advance of many in advocating homosexual law reform. He took many small `l' liberal positions on issues like that, yet on other issues he would be regarded as taking a more conservative position. He certainly had a very conservative view on Aboriginal land rights and he had very conservative views on uranium mining. On my reckoning, he was the only former Prime Minister who voted no in the republic referendum. He was a mixture of a man. Some people have described him as something of a Tory larrikin. In his own wry way, I think he would have revelled in the fact that, on occasions, people found it very hard to typecast him. As an individual, he won the affection of the Australian people. I did not know a lot of people who expressed a dislike of him. I knew lots of people who disagreed with him and lots of people who criticised his policies. I knew lots of Liberals who thought he was too much of a centralist. I have to say that he was ahead of his time in relation to dealing with the states. If you look now at his statements during his prime ministership, I do not think that you would find, with the possible exception of Malcolm Fraser, any of Gorton's successors who fundamentally disagreed—and I put myself in that category— with his strong assertion of the indivisibility of the Australian national economic interest. Some of the arguments he advanced in relation to the ownership and control of the continental shelf and the seas and submerged lands legislation were ahead of their time and fundamentally correct, and would be regarded in the Australia of 2002 as being completely unexceptionable. His speeches and interviews have been the subject of study, as have been the speeches and interviews of most people who occupy that job. On occasions, like all of us, he could fall victim to some complicated syntax. One that is talked about a lot relates to what is called the common fee in the evolution of health policy in the late 1960s. I remember attending a meeting at the Hurstville Civic Centre during the 1969 election campaign. It was in the dying days of the election campaign and it is fair to say that he had not started as well as he finished in that election campaign. It was an election in which Gough Whitlam won a large number of seats and significantly reduced the very big majority that Harold Holt had won in 1966. At the civic centre in Hurstville, Gorton gave a speech on external security, as we used to broadly call foreign affairs and defence in those days, which has stayed in my mind ever since. It was a powerful, lucid and effective annunciation of the Australian national interest, the importance of allies and also the importance of strong defences. The speech was masterly in its exposition of the Australian national interest.I am pleased to say that I had a number of opportunities to see John Gorton during the final years of his life and I am ever grateful that I was able to visit him very briefly in St Vincent's Hospital about three or four weeks ago, during his second last hospitalisation, and to spend a few moments with him. I found him in very good spirits. I know that he had many happy years after his second marriage, to Nancy, in Sydney. I was delighted to be associated with the launch of his biography and to see so many of his close political friends of earlier years there and also, as many were, to be touched by the bipartisan character of the gathering at the Westin Hotel. To have a function jointly put together by Clyde Cameron, Doug Anthony and Tom Hughes in honour of somebody such as John Gorton was very touching to him and a lesson to all of us.He had a very close family, and I am so pleased that a number of them are here today and that so many of them were able to turn up at his 90th birthday celebration. His daughter, Joanna, was to say of his second wife, Nancy, `She managed to get him to behave in ways that we couldn't.' I think that says a lot. It says a lot about their relationship with him, it says a lot about him as a person and it says a lot about the marriage that he built with Nancy in the later years of his life.It is a rare occasion for this parliament to pause for a moment to honour the life of somebody who has held the nation's highest office—all the more so that that office was held more than a generation ago. Sir John Gorton was a character in his own right. He had his critics, and you could spend plenty of time writing a negative appraisal of his years. You could equally, and I think arguably, spend more time writing a very positive assessment of what he represented to Australia in the late 1960s. He was, after all, a person who believed in the fundamental values and the fundamental principles on which this nation is built. In that sense, he was an Australian traditionalist. He was also a person who realised that this country had to change, and had to change in a way that made it better able to stand on its own feet in the modern world.Sir John Gorton was ahead of his time in sending messages to his own party about the ascendancy of the national interest as against state and provincial interests. He paid a fairly heavy price for that, because it is no secret that the disaffection of two state premiers at the time, both of whom were very influential figures in their own rights—Sir Henry Bolte and Robert Askin—played a role in his defeat. Others, of course, would say that the attitudes of people within his own party played an arguably greater role, and I guess that will not ever be completely resolved. Sir John Gorton made an impact on our nation. He was, to many people, what we think being an Australian is all about: he was a good bloke; he mixed easily; in his own words, he enjoyed the company of women; he enjoyed a drink; he enjoyed the company of his fellow men and women. He did on occasions, I think, have a remarkable capacity to communicate directly to people. He was quite far-sighted, but he could also be very stubborn and determined and quite traditional and conservative in a number of his views. Therefore, it is not possible to typecast him easily, and that was part of his fascination and part of his appeal.As I said a moment ago, I think one of the remarkable things about Sir John Gorton was the way in which he was able to command the affection and loyalty of people with whom he worked and to retain it until his death. That is a measure of the man and a measure of the impact he had on the people with whom he worked. He formed a very close association with not only people in the Liberal Party at the time but also a number of people in the then Country Party.It is no secret that he had in Doug Anthony one of his strongest supporters and somebody who believes that if he had remained the leader of the Liberal Party he might have won the 1972 election. We will never know that. It is one of those fascinating things that you can talk about, you can conjecture about, it is an interesting subject but you will never really know. Certainly the scale of the defeat of the coalition in 1972 was nowhere near as great as many had predicted, and perhaps that would lend some support to the Anthony theory, but then I think there would be one or two people opposite me who would passionately and understandably disagree with that, and I would respect their view as well.I am glad that we have had this opportunity to pay tribute to John Grey Gorton, the 19th Prime Minister of Australia—somebody who in a very real sense put his life on the line for his country. He led a long life. It was an individualistic life. It was a life that might have attracted the criticism of some but I think overwhelmingly attracted the admiration and the affection of the many. When you think about his experiences in Europe before World War II, his war service, his work on the orchard in that very unremitting part of Victoria and then his contribution to public life and his long life after politics, the two wonderful marriages he had, the wonderful family he had, his role as Prime Minister and his role in shaping the attitudes of Australians in the late 1960s and early 1970s, you will find that it is in every sense a very full life.To Nancy and to his children and to others so very close to him, can I convey on behalf of myself, Janette, the members of the federal parliamentary Liberal Party and all of the members of the opposition our very profound sympathy. Sir John Gorton gave a lot to his country and he deserves to be well and affectionately remembered.Honourable members—Hear, hear!13:06:002434Crean, Simon, MPMr CREANDT4HothamALPLeader of the Opposition00—I support the condolence motion moved by the Prime Minister and, on behalf of the federal parliamentary Labor Party, I want to express our deep condolences on the death of Sir John Gorton. He was a great Australian. He was a man who loved his country deeply, and he served the nation magnificently in both peace and war. Sir John did not have the benefit of a close family upbringing. In fact, his background made him tough, it made him independent and it also made him determined to enjoy life. He did it his way.Sir John Gorton excelled in sports and he showed great courage in war. Last Friday, we buried the last Gallipoli ANZAC, Alec Campbell, and on the weekend the oldest of the First World War veterans also died. The life of Sir John Gorton reminds us that the great war—the war that was to end all wars—did not live up to that promise but was followed only a generation later by a second and more terrible conflict. The death of Sir John also reminds us that the old soldiers of that generation are now starting to fade away. Sir John fought with great bravery in the defence of this nation in Britain, in Malaya and in Papua New Guinea, and he suffered terrible injuries when his Hurricane fighter crashed during the defence of Singapore. He then served his nation in the federal parliament for 26 years, most notably as Leader of the Government in the Senate and Minister for Education and Science, culminating in his elevation to Prime Minister in 1968.He was a surprise Prime Minister. Most, including Paul Hasluck, thought that Hasluck would win. Those circumstances followed the tragic drowning of Sir Harold Holt in 1967. Billy McMahon and John McEwen had essentially cancelled each other out. It shows the part that luck can play in politics. It also shows that the contender considered most likely does not always win.Obviously, we on this side of the House like to think of Gough Whitlam as the man who modernised Australia after the conservative Menzies years but Gough himself paid great tribute to Sir John's trailblazing legacy. When Sir John congratulated Gough Whitlam after his win in 1972, Gough replied, `I shall try to advance some of the causes which you were the first Prime Minister to identify.' Sir John later repaid the compliment by advocating a vote for Labor after Whitlam's dismissal in 1975.While John Gorton anticipated some of the directions in which Gough Whitlam was to take Australia, he like all of us was a man of his times. He was radical on many issues and he took his party further than ever before in a reforming direction. He was a nationalist and he was a centraliser. He believed in the federal parliament and the Commonwealth when many of his colleagues wanted more power for the states. He refused to share income taxing powers with state parliaments. He was far-sighted enough to help protect the Great Barrier Reef from mineral exploration and mining. He helped establish the Australian Industry Development Corporation and he helped the revival of the Australian film industry by establishing the Australian Film and Television School and the Arts Council. He helped launch the territory of Papua New Guinea on the road to self-government and to full independence, and when he became foreign affairs minister he would not go all way with LBJ—only part of the way—refusing to commit further troops to Vietnam. He also supported equal pay for equal work.But, as the Prime Minister has noted, he was a conservative on other issues. He was opposed to the watering down of the White Australia policy. He was opposed to Aboriginal land rights and he continued the policy of assimilation of indigenous Australians at a time when Aboriginal self-determination was gaining widespread support. In many ways, he was not the first of the new nationalists but the last of the old, closer perhaps to Chifley than to Whitlam. But for the postwar generation he was a breath of fresh air. Sir John's death robs the nation of a man whose devotion to Australia was unquestioned. I extend my deepest sympathies to Sir John's widow, Nancy; to his sons, Michael and Robin; and to his daughter, Joanna.13:11:002435Anderson, John, MPMr ANDERSON4K4GwydirNPDeputy Prime Minister10—I rise to support the Prime Minister's motion. Sir John Gorton was born on 9 September 1911. He was educated at Shore in Sydney, where he shared a dormitory with Errol Flynn, amongst others; at Geelong Grammar; and at Oxford University, where he also qualified as a pilot. Sir John volunteered for the RAAF in September 1940. He served in England, in Singapore and New Guinea. He was seriously wounded after he was shot down off Singapore by Japanese Zeros.He returned to his farm after the war and was elected to the Kerang Shire Council in 1946 as a member of the Country Party. He later joined the Liberal Party and was elected to the Senate in the great landslide of 1949. Subsequent to that, he held a series of ministries during the fifties and sixties and became—as has been acknowledged here in this place this afternoon—Prime Minister in January 1968 following the disappearance of Harold Holt.At the time, there were three candidates for the Liberal Party leadership: the Treasurer, Bill McMahon; Paul Hasluck; and John Gorton. It is well known of course that my predecessor, Jack McEwen, warned that the Country Party would withdraw from the coalition if McMahon became Prime Minister. He in fact explained to Bill McMahon in very simple language—one very short sentence—that he would not serve under him and McMahon did not answer, as McEwen records in his autobiography, but simply left the room. He was always at liberty, in McEwen's view, to explain what had been said to him but he never did. With McMahon out of the running, the two strongest candidates for the Liberal Party leadership were Paul Hasluck and John Gorton. McEwen indicated a slight preference for Hasluck in his autobiography but in fact also went on to say some quite interesting things about life under Sir John Gorton—as he later became—as Prime Minister. The Gorton government, as has been noted here, was something of a departure in nature and flavour from its predecessors. Sir John was a strident nationalist. He fearlessly protected the national interest. He extended the federal government's role in a range of areas: the environment, health, welfare and the arts. He laid the foundations, too, of Australia's film industry, of which we are now all very proud.In describing Gorton's style, I will quote at some, I hope not excessive, length from McEwen's autobiography, because I think they are interesting remarks and are not generally known. McEwen wrote:Gorton had certain fixations. The development of atomic power was one and the offshore title to submerged land was another. It would have been a waste of anyone's time trying to argue with Gorton on these sorts of things. He just knew that he was right, that these policies were essential and his determination was beyond argument. Apart from these fixations, though, Gorton was amenable to persuasion by me.Whilst there were no critical occasions on which Gorton and I opposed each other, I did need to exert pressure from time to time. This pressure was always political and logical. There were never threats, just force of argument and determination. It would have been quite foreign to my conduct as a coalition partner to have put anyone in a position of `Take it or leave it.' I hope that, in a way I cannot easily explain now, I managed to leave every situation fluid enough to allow for a graceful retreat. This is an art of politics that could do with being more widely practised. I would lay my cards on the table but they would be the cards of argument and policy and politics, not the cards of confrontation. You could not, for example, threaten to withdraw from the coalition on a daily basis. The fellow in the bush often seems to think that the Country Party is in complete control and can win any argument with the Liberals simply by threatening to pull out of the government. That is, of course, quite ridiculous. I do not think that Gorton respected many people in Parliament, but at least he respected me because he took notice of the arguments I put forward on a reasonable basis, so long as they did not touch his fixations.McEwen went on to say:It used to be rumoured during Gorton's term as Prime Minister that he drank too much and did not work hard enough.However, McEwen said that, in terms of his relations with Gorton and in Gorton's conduct of public business, this was not his view. He went on to say:... I would contest the idea that Gorton was not a worker. I do not know of any minister who studied his documents and papers more thoroughly than Gorton did. Keeping up with developments over the whole field of policy is always a problem for the Prime Minister or the Leader of a major political party. Other people have their own limited areas of concern, but the Prime Minister and party leaders have overriding responsibilities. I was surprised, almost amazed, at the grasp that Gorton had of voluminous documents dealing not only with his own particular concerns but with the concerns of other ministers. After the October 1969 federal election, when the government's majority was significantly reduced, it was clear that Gorton had fallen into disfavour and might be challenged for the leadership. When David Fairbairn announced that he would contest the leadership, an election became certain and it looked as if all the top Liberals would be drawn into the contest. At about this time I decided that it would be proper for me to tell McMahon that I would no longer refuse to serve under him if he were the coalition leader.McEwen also commented:Gorton had a view of our relations—that is, the relations between the two coalition parties—that I had never encountered before, though it was consistent with his view of his own position as supreme leader of his party and of the government. Gorton thought that everything he wanted doing had to be done. He also thought that everything I wanted doing should be done, so long as it did not conflict with his views. By taking this attitude I think that Gorton did, in fact, help Country Party interests. On occasions, he took my rights as a coalition partner further than either Menzies or Holt had done, further than I would have expected ... The Gorton government ended in controversy after Malcolm Fraser resigned as Minister for Defence. Sir John, as has been noted in this place today, voted against himself in the Liberal party room and brought his 38-month prime ministership to a brave, stylish but idiosyncratic close. Sir John Gorton was a brave man—I think all have acknowledged that since his death—and that is a characteristic that all Australians admire and respect. He served Australia well in war and in peace. I commend the motion to the House and I join the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition in extending my sympathy to his wife, Lady Nancy Gorton, his three children and his other family members and friends, many of whom are here today.13:19:002437Macklin, Jenny, MPMs MACKLINPG6JagajagaALP00—I would like to add my support to the condolences that have been expressed by the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition on the passing of our former Prime Minister Sir John Gorton and to extend, along with others, my sympathies to all of his family, particularly his wife, his children, his grandchildren and his great grandchildren.As others have noted, he was a bold, flamboyant and unconventional man who certainly broke the mould of previous Liberal prime ministers, a man of uncompromising style, attitude and ideas, and a man with great popular appeal. As his biographer Ian Hancock said of Sir John:Of all the non-Labor prime ministers, he was the one who reached out and touched ordinary Australians.I like to think that some of Sir John's affinity with everyday people, as well as his will and determination, was due in part to the period after his graduation from Oxford when he lived in Kerang managing his father's orchard. Kerang is a Victorian country town not far from Cohuna, where I went to primary school—very tough farming country with a very strong sense of community. I am sure that Sir John felt very lucky, as I do, to have been part of that community, to have found the grounding an enriching experience of country life. The Prime Minister referred to how much this time touched Sir John, and I can see how he came to understand the poverty and difficulties that faced so many country people in that part of Australia and how much it shaped him and shaped his future policies. I gather that it was in Kerang that Sir John's political passions were sparked. In 1946, after serving the country well in the Second World War, he embarked on his political career as a member of the Kerang Shire Council. Not long after that, my father started working for the Cohuna Shire Council; he actually got the water on. These were difficult times in that part of our country. Over 20 years later, when Sir John Gorton became Australia's 19th Prime Minister, he took with him all the down-to-earth qualities of a local country politician and remained a plain-speaking, knockabout larrikin throughout his life.His contributions were substantive as well as stylistic. Many have already commented on his extensive contributions as Prime Minister. It was certainly true that he was a committed nationalist who believed passionately in our independence in foreign and defence policy, but he was also a champion of women's participation in the work force long before it became popular. He believed in environmental protection and was a promoter and supporter of the Australian arts. In each of these areas he broke with his Liberal predecessors and used the Commonwealth as a forum for change and national action.Although his period as Prime Minister was significant, I want to touch on another area, one that was referred to by the Prime Minister a few minutes ago. Sir John did become Australia's first Commonwealth education minister, in 1966. Previously education had been seen as a state responsibility, but he changed that and did make a significant contribution in expanding the Commonwealth's role across the education field. He understood that it was necessary to put education squarely on the Commonwealth agenda—on the national agenda—and he advanced the idea that every Australian should have equal access to good education. He was, above all, a supporter of active rather than passive government, a believer in the Commonwealth being a driver of national policy reform and—this is one of the things that I think we would all hope to leave this place knowing—his contributions still inform much of the policy debate today. What more could any of us ask as we pass on than to leave such a legacy? So with that we pay our due respect. 13:24:002438Costello, Peter, MPMr COSTELLOCT4HigginsLPTreasurer10—I support the motion which has been moved by the Prime Minister and seconded by the Leader of the Opposition. As has been recounted here, when Harold Holt disappeared in the waters off Cheviot Beach back in 1967, a ballot immediately began for the leadership of the Liberal Party. I was a 10-year-old at the time but I can recall the way in which the press reported the various candidates, one, coming from the Senate in particular, being the Leader of the Senate, John Gorton, as he then was, who entered that ballot and eventually, as has been recounted, was elected leader of the Liberal Party. But, of course, to hold the great office of Prime Minister, it was necessary for John Gorton to become a member of the House of Representatives. A vacancy which was obviously available to him was the vacancy caused by the death of Harold Holt and so, after being elected the leader of the Liberal Party, he was required to firstly be preselected and then to run in the by-election for the seat of Higgins in 1968, an extraordinary occurrence where somebody who had already effectively become Prime Minister was running in a by-election to take a seat in the House of Representatives, a by-election in which he did very well and very creditably. You could imagine the opportunity that could have been taken to try to dent his majority and to try to dent the beginning of his prime ministership, and you could imagine what had been riding on that by-election from his point of view and how well and how creditably he did in it.He became the member for Higgins, succeeding Harold Holt in that seat. He held the seat of Higgins until 1975, when he resigned from the Liberal Party and subsequently ran as an Independent Senate candidate here in the ACT. His resignation from the Liberal Party, as you can imagine, caused considerable disquiet at the time, and when I became the member for Higgins in 1990 the locals were still talking about stormy meetings in the Malvern Town Hall after John Gorton's resignation from the Liberal Party in the lead-up to the 1975 election. When I became the member for Higgins, I sought him, as one of my predecessors, out and I found him extremely warm and generous with his time. For me as a young member of the parliament in opposition to have had such an illustrious predecessor was a great honour, and it was a great honour for me that he spent some time with me. He gave me a rundown on those local Liberals that he thought had done a good job and those that he thought had not. He gave me his side of the story about the famous meetings in the Malvern Town Hall. I told him that I had always been a great admirer—as others have spoken—of his many wonderful traits: the fact that he was so colourful, that he was such a character and that above all we saw him as a nationalist.I had an experience just on the weekend when all this came home to me again. I had the honour of speaking at the launch of the Anzac class frigate Ballarat in Williamstown on Saturday. In the program for the launch was a letter written by Sir John Gorton on 1 May 2002, I think, to the men and women who will sail on the new Anzac class frigate. The Ballarat is replacing the corvette Ballarat, which saw service in the Second World War, and it was that corvette that picked up the survivors from the Derrymore after it had been sunk by a Japanese submarine. A picture that was part of the program was of Flying Officer Gorton, as I think he was then, being plucked out of the sea onto the corvette Ballarat after his first air crash then shipwreck. To hear some of the sailors that were on the Ballarat that day talk about plucking the survivors out of the sea was to hear how they were unaware that they were plucking out of the sea a young flying officer who would go on to become Australia's 19th Prime Minister. Unquestionably it was a matter of great honour for them, something that the Ballarat can always be proud of. You could see the crowd at the launch on Saturday remember with fondness the way in which one of Australia's much loved prime ministers had been through the rigours of war. What was it that made John Gorton a nationalist? That has been referred to in many of the speeches and I have often thought about it. On the one hand there was his stand over the Seas and Submerged Lands Act, when he asserted the right of the Commonwealth to the minerals off the coast rather than the right of the states. This became a celebrated stoush between the states and the Commonwealth. A big part of it was his determination to see a leading role for the Commonwealth in areas where it had not exercised leadership previously—the arts and the environment. A big part of it was that he had a view of the role of the Liberal Party as more than the sum of six state organisations. His view was that the Liberal Party was a national organisation that ought to have a national focus. A big part of it was the way in which he endured very hostile attacks from state premiers; always a way to display one's nationalist credentials was to take the wrath of state premiers, in particular Henry Bolte, who had been quite an opponent of John Gorton from very early days. The fact that Gorton was able to assert this primacy for the Commonwealth in the face of very substantial opposition from the state leaders was a big part of the secret of standing up for Australia and having a vision of Australia as being something more and greater than the sum of its individual six states and two territories.I have always thought that there was something of a duality to the Gorton persona. On the one hand, John Gorton was Geelong Grammar and Oxford; on the other hand, the circumstances of his birth—which he did not shy away from—his fondness for a drink and his love of company gave him a sort of raffish aspect. So, on the one hand, there was Geelong Grammar and Oxford and, on the other, the knockabout larrikin. They came together in quite an extraordinary figure. I think that was one of the reasons why the public found him such an endearing character—he crossed the spectrum. He had a certain understanding of where the public was at and an affinity with them. He had the ability to have a drink in the pub and to enjoy the company of men and women.I think that Sir John Gorton was very pleased that, at the end, the Liberal Party reconciled with him. I put it that way because I am not sure that it was Gorton reconciling with the Liberal Party; I think it was the Liberal Party reconciling with Gorton at the end. He had some differences with the Liberal Party, although it is hard to know how many of them were policy differences. I think we can say that he certainly did not get on well with Malcolm Fraser. He certainly had his differences with Malcolm Fraser, particularly from the period that Malcolm took the leadership in 1975. I think that Sir John Gorton will be one of our prime ministers who are remembered with great fondness. He will be remembered as a Prime Minister who had a role, and saw a role, of leadership for the Commonwealth. He will be remembered as somebody who modernised the Liberal Party at a time when Australia was changing—the period through the sixties and into the 1970s. He will be remembered with fondness as the member for Higgins and a senator for Victoria. He will certainly be remembered by the sailors of the Ballarat. My condolences go to his widow, Nancy, and to his children—Joanna, Robin and Michael. He truly was a great servant of the Australian people.13:35:002439Swan, Wayne, MPMr SWAN2V5LilleyALP00—I support this motion of condolence and extend my sympathies to Sir John's family and to his friends. The passing of Sir John Gorton is in many ways the end of an era. He is one of the last of the war generation who have served in this parliament, the same generation as my father—people who fought for their country in war and wanted nothing more than to secure its future in peace. Like many of his generation, he carried the scars, and his passing comes at a time when we also mourn the death of Alec Campbell. These were all men who stood up for Australia and Australians and who never shirked their responsibilities.Sir John had a remarkable political and public life. I think it could be said that Sir John was a modern Liberal—some may say somewhat out of place in today's Liberal Party. In that era, he was the first to stand up to Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen. He stood up to Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen in an era when that was not done in Australian politics, in particular on the issue of mining on the Great Barrier Reef. He recognised the rights of those people in the Torres Strait. He saw the seabed as a Commonwealth responsibility. This was very much to his political detriment at the time. He believed in a much greater role for the Commonwealth in education and in Aboriginal affairs. He had a very close relationship at times with his Aboriginal affairs minister, Billy Wentworth, who was regarded as someone who, for his time, was quite enlightened in his approach. In all of these matters, Sir John incurred considerable opposition in his own party. He showed great political courage in resisting that and ultimately paid the price. That is why, when we talk about Sir John, we pay tribute to a remarkable political life—to a great Australian. We mourn his passing.13:37:002440Downer, Alexander, MPMr DOWNER4G4MayoLPMinister for Foreign Affairs10—I join with the Prime Minister and others in supporting this motion of condolence on the death of Sir John Gorton. I knew Sir John Gorton a little. He was, though, very much a contemporary of my father's. I remember Sir John Gorton coming to visit our home on many occasions, and he sometimes stayed with us. As a child and as a young man, my recollection of him is essentially twofold: first of all, that he was a man of very easy and informal charm. He was always popular around our place. My father had a lot of affection for him, even if he did not always agree with him. The second thing I always remember about Sir John Gorton is that my birthday is on the same day as his, which I have noticed in the Liberal Party in recent times has meant that at the big celebrations he used to get a very big turnout. He was a close friend of my father's. They had actually been at school together. They were contemporaries at school and they attended the same college at Oxford. My sense of Sir John Gorton is that, first of all, he was very much a determined nationalist. He was a man who put enormous emphasis on what nowadays we refer to as the national interest. He was always unequivocal in his support of the national interest. Sometimes he saw it as coinciding with other countries and sometimes he did not. In economic terms, I think at times he was more nationalistic than most of us would be today—more interventionist. Certainly the Treasury was somewhat taken aback on a number of occasions—as was the City of London, I recall—by his nationalistic stance against some aspects of foreign investment. Sir John would have to be described as a very strong individualist. It is often said that a phrase of John Gorton's is that he did it his way—and he certainly did. He had a good deal of apparent self-confidence. Whether he always felt that inside, I am not so sure. But, in any case, he was a man who had very much his own way of doing things. People refer to him as a bit of a larrikin. That is probably a fair comment. He enjoyed socialising and enjoyed the company of other people very much. That got him into some political trouble—I think, entirely unnecessarily, really—from time to time. Once he became the Prime Minister, he also had to put up with an enormous amount of antagonism from not only the Labor Party, who were paid to be antagonistic to him—that was their job, so I do not criticism them for that—but also within some elements of the Liberal Party.I remember my own father feeling very much for John Gorton during those periods when there were so many machinations against him. I will not refer to all the people who were involved in those—that would be ungracious—but I will refer to one particular incident, and that was the attack on him by Edward St John, which could only be described—even from this great distance today—as totally disgraceful. Edward St John met the political fate, as the member for Warringah—dare I remind the current minister and member for Warringah—that he deserved to meet. The bastardry that Edward St John showed towards John Gorton was disgraceful. There were others who certainly worked to undermine Sir John. Some of those people were in the state divisions of the Liberal Party. They objected, as others have said, to John Gorton's centralist tendencies. I agree with the Prime Minister, the Treasurer and others in this. In terms of the relationship between the Commonwealth and the state governments, Sir John Gorton was a man who was ahead of his time. He was courageous in standing up for the Great Barrier Reef against the Queensland government. He was right about the important role that the Commonwealth must play in managing the economy. He opposed the return of state income taxes levied by the states. At the domestic level, he did some very interesting things that have stayed with us to this very day. He was really the father of the Australia Council and Commonwealth involvement in funding of the arts and the establishment of the Film and Television School. I am one of those members who strongly support the arts. I know it is often said that there are not too many votes in the arts and that all people on this side of the House can ever do is win grudging respect but no votes from people in the arts. I do not know if that is entirely true. In any case, it is not an electoral issue; it is an issue of national identity and state craft to ensure that there is adequate promotion of the arts, our national culture and our national identity. It was all tied up with John Gorton's vision of nationhood and nationalism that he thought it was important that our arts as well as our environment were properly protected and properly promoted.John Gorton was, in particular, interested in foreign and defence policy. As others have said, at one stage he was the assistant foreign minister when Menzies combined the roles of Prime Minister and foreign minister. It must have been an extremely onerous task— not one that I would encourage these days. Indeed, it is interesting to reflect on a little known fact about John Gorton—that is, that he was offered, I think by Menzies, the position of ambassador in Washington. He did not contemplate that for very long, because he wanted to continue with his political career. John Gorton focused in his interests in foreign affairs and defence on a number of things. He was particularly focused on the Asia-Pacific region. I heard, particularly during the early 1990s, some politicians claiming that they had discovered Asia, or Australia had discovered Asia. It is worth reflecting that John Gorton was particularly interested in Asia, Australia's relationships with Asia and the problems in Asia. He was deeply concerned about the spread of communism, which was a major issue through much of his political career, after being elected in 1949 during the Cold War. He saw the Korean War, the Malayan Emergency, the Indonesian Confrontation and subsequently the war in Indo-China, and he—rightly, in my view—was deeply concerned in those days about the spread of communism. He saw that as a paramount issue for the Australian government. He strongly supported the American alliance. It is true that, at his first meeting with Lyndon Johnson, they did not get on terribly well. Lyndon Johnson endeavoured to woo John Gorton politically, but I do not think John Gorton found Lyndon Johnson the type of person he particularly liked. Nevertheless, John Gorton, ever the nationalist, ever the man to put the national interest first, understood the great importance of the American alliance and he supported Australia and the United States role in Vietnam, even though I think towards the end he became disillusioned with the conduct of the war, as one could imagine.He detested communism to such an extent that he supported Chiang Kai-Shek in Taiwan and for a long time opposed the recognition of the People's Republic of China, preferring to recognise Taiwan. He worked very strongly to build our ties with Asia. I think it is worth reflecting on this: during the late 1960s when the Wilson government decided that Britain should withdraw from what they used to call in those days `east of Suez', this alarmed John Gorton and it was he who, with others, helped to put together what has become known today as the five power defence pact. Those Five Power Defence Arrangements, as we say nowadays, still form an important component of our security in the region.John Gorton had a strong commitment to the relationship not just with United States but also with Britain and with the Commonwealth more broadly. He developed a very strong rapport, interestingly, with the British Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson to the extent that on one occasion Harold Wilson wrote to Richard Nixon after Nixon had become the President telling Nixon what a great person John Gorton was, what an emerging statesman he was, and that he was somebody to take seriously and to work closely with. Harold Wilson agreed to establish a hotline between Downing Street and Canberra so that they could communicate more freely, which is an illustration of the strength of the relationship that they had. His close commitment to relations with Britain, but always perceived from the national interest perspective, was reflected in the fact that when Edward Heath was the Prime Minister he arranged for John Gorton to be made a Companion of Honour. I have always thought of John Gorton as a man who was of course controversial—perhaps, it would be fair to say, a little undisciplined as the Prime Minister—but nevertheless a man with extraordinarily good and decent instincts. He was a very honourable man, he was a very good man, and he will be missed by many people in Australia. He was after all an extraordinarily popular political leader in this country, and I know that many people will grieve his passing. I extend my condolences to his widow, Nancy, and to his children.13:47:002442McMullan, Bob, MPMr McMULLAN5I4FraserALP00—I have pleasure also in supporting the motion moved by the Prime Minister and supported by the Leader of the Opposition and others. So many people have spoken comprehensively about the career of our 19th Prime Minister, and it seems to me it is only appropriate to speak if you have a particular point to add that has not perhaps been covered as well as you think it should be. I want to refer principally only to one area of Sir John's era as Prime Minister, and I will do that in a moment.It is probably unrecognised that Sir John was a member of two clubs, both of which are quite small and both of which I am also a member. Firstly, he was one of the few who, of course, came from the Senate to the House of Representatives. The size of that club is a matter of no interest to me whatsoever—it cannot shrink but whether it grows or not does not matter. I really grieve that the other one was not much bigger. He was a member of that very small club of people who advocated a vote for the Labor Party in 1975. I remember being part of the process of generating an advertisement which he produced for us on that occasion. I suspect his was the only vote it won for us but I was, nevertheless, grateful for that one. We could almost count all of them individually on the occasion. He also had a significant alternative role which may become part of an interesting historical connection in the near future—we do not know. He was one of that series of members for Higgins who became the Prime Minister of Australia. We do not know how that is going to play out in the future but many people are interested. I wanted particularly to talk about Sir John's role as it relates to the film industry. A number of people have properly said that he had a strong commitment to Commonwealth support for the arts. It is not true by a long way to say he initiated the involvement of the Commonwealth in the arts. That goes way back—in many ways you could say to Federation but at least to 1914 when the Literature Fund was started back in the days of Andrew Fisher. Sir John certainly made a very significant enhancement of it in general, but for film and television he was the initiator. That is something for which he should take the credit. The Holt government had announced the intention to establish an Australian council for the arts, and the Gorton government continued it but, at the then Prime Minister's initiative, added a Film and Television Committee to the structure of the Australia Council for the Arts. It was chaired by someone who subsequently became a member of this parliament, and still has a familial connection with it, Peter Coleman. He chaired that first committee and prepared a film policy for the Gorton government. What was unique, and is perhaps unremembered now, was that two people not renowned for their close connection to the Liberal party were commissioned to look into one particular part of that project when Sir John sent Phillip Adams and Barry Jones—I am not sure that either of them would be commissioned these days—to look into the issue of the establishment of a national film and television school. They came back and made a recommendation which was substantially the basis of the very proper initiative first of all incorporated in the overall 1969 film committee report and then subsequently adopted by the Gorton government and established by it, and it has done tremendous service since that time. That and the Film and Television Development Corporation and the Experimental Film Fund were outlined at that time—although they never really substantially got under way and were incorporated in the Whitlam government's Film Commission. But you could never deny that the origins of that proposition date back to the Gorton initiatives based on the work of Peter Coleman, Phillip Adams and Barry Jones. It was a very significant initiative. It was seeing a potential for a new area of Australian nationalism, identifying it and seeing it not just as an industry—which of course it is, and as an industry it has to fend for itself economically—but as a significant part of our culture. It is as significant to our culture today as literature was when Andrew Fisher took an initiative in 1914. We are reaping the reward of that now. Australians are very proud of the successes of our actors, directors, producers, cinematographers and others. There have been extraordinary numbers of successes and nominations at the Oscars. Members may have seen Tom Hanks say he thought it was all attributable to Vegemite; I suspect it is much more attributable to John Gorton. We need to consider, as contemporary representatives of the Australian national interest, whether we are investing now in such a manner that future generations will be able to see a similar long-term return on our initiative, in this instance particularly in the area of our cultural development and the newly emerging areas of cultural significance but of course in other areas of policy as well. I endorse the remarks made by others but do not repeat them, because that would simply be tedious and would not contribute to hopefully adding that perspective which I think is, firstly, an important recognition of Sir John's contribution but, secondly, a question for us all to examine as we consider our contribution today, whether we are making a contribution in our areas of interest equivalent to that which he made to the film industry. I have pleasure in supporting the motion.13:54:002443Ruddock, Philip, MPMr RUDDOCK0J4BerowraLPMinister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Reconciliation10—I wish to be associated with this condolence motion on my own behalf and on behalf of my wife, Heather. The Prime Minister so ably moved it and it has been well supported by those who have spoken. The Prime Minister mentioned that he served in the same parliament. I think Alan Cadman, the member for Mitchell, and I are the only other remaining members of this parliament who served with Sir John. I remember him well because of his robust character but I remember him more affectionately because of the welcome he extended to me as a new member of parliament and before that, while I was a leader of the Young Liberal movement in Australia, the support and encouragement he gave to me and other young people in our political youth movement. In fact, he challenged us and frequently suggested we were not radical enough. I am not sure how many have the courage to go out there and ask young people to think outside the box in the way in which Sir John did. I greatly admired him because of some of the choices he made for ministers. I am glad the Prime Minister mentioned one of my predecessors as the member for Berowra, Tom Hughes, but there were also Billy Snedden, who served as immigration minister, and, as has already been mentioned, Billy Wentworth, who served I think as minister for Aboriginal affairs and also in the Social Security portfolio. Each of them in their own way was a very memorable minister, as he was a Prime Minister. In this parliament but in the chamber we occupied in 1974, I sat beside Sir John in the joint sittings which were novel to us all. These were the joint sittings of the House of Representatives and the Senate to consider the packages of legislation proposed by Whitlam which became the subject of that first double dissolution election in 1974. I had Tony Staley on one side and John Gorton on the other. I hate to say what Tony Staley was whispering in my ear at the time, but they were very fine company. CT4Costello, Peter, MPMr Costello—Gorton must have been aggrieved.0J4Ruddock, Philip, MPMr RUDDOCK—I am not sure he knew what Tony was saying either.ZD4Howard, John, MPMr Howard—You were a study in diplomacy.0J4Ruddock, Philip, MPMr RUDDOCK—I am sure many recognised that at the time too, but I think I was the only one who had both Snedden and Fraser believing I voted against them. I am very pleased to be able to be associated with this condolence motion. I extend to Lady Gorton and members of the family my condolences and those of Heather. We regarded Sir John very much as a friend. He campaigned for me in my first election, a by-election, so we knew each other well in those circumstances which bring you together.13:58:002444Kemp, Dr David, MPDr KEMPBT4GoldsteinLPMinister for the Environment and Heritage10—I wish to associate myself with the remarks of the Prime Minister and other speakers on this condolence motion. I did not know Sir John Gorton personally. At the time that he became Prime Minister, in what was essentially the first contested election within the party for the leadership of the party since Menzies had founded the party, I was a young student Liberal who watched with fascination these events in Canberra. At the time I was an enthusiastic supporter of the Gorton candidacy. As time went on, I am not so sure that I was comfortable with the direction of many of his policies and the ways in which Sir John Gorton conducted the prime ministership. Having read Ian Hancock's biography, I acknowledge what an excellent book it is. Ian was in fact a tutor of mine at university at the time and I learnt a great deal about Australian history from him. I do not know whether he remembers that but I remember it vividly. Reflecting on the history of John Gorton's life as set out in that excellent biography, I feel that I underestimated the quality of the work that he did as Prime Minister. Looking back now, I see that John Gorton was a man of quite remarkable vision for Australia.That is so particularly in the area of the Australian environment. As Prime Minister he enjoyed, as has been said, a reputation for being a nationalist, a very proud Australian patriot, and somebody who was in touch with the Australian community. When you ask most Australians what they are most proud of in being an Australian, and what they are most proud of about Australia, most Australians will say something about their pride in the Australian countryside, its landscape, its beaches, its seas and its unique wildlife, because they are all part of the Australian identity. It was John Gorton's pride in the uniqueness of the Australian environment—which was an element in his patriotism and nationalism—that led him to place environmental issues decisively on the national agenda.He came to office at a time when there was growing concern among Western nations at the impact of economic development on the environment. During his period as Prime Minister, more and more Australians began to be concerned about protecting our environment for future generations. It was during John Gorton's time as Prime Minister that the first federal environment portfolio, the Office of the Environment, was created in November 1970. The Gorton government also established what is now the Casey Antarctic base to enhance scientific research and protection of the Antarctic environment. He was passionate about the Great Barrier Reef. During his prime ministership the issue of oil drilling and mining on the reef forced its way onto the national agenda. John Gorton believed that there should be an absolute ban on mining and drilling on the reef. Ian Hancock's book entitled John Gorton: He Did it His Way states:Sir John was determined to protect the Great Barrier Reef. Arguably, it was John Gorton who personally orchestrated one of the earliest successes of the emerging environment movement in the events which culminated in the announcement in May 1970 of a royal commission into petroleum drilling on the Great Barrier Reef. The issue of protecting the Great Barrier Reef was played out against the background of an acrimonious debate which has been referred to in this condolence motion as the larger issue of Commonwealth sovereignty over the continental shelf and territorial seas. Since 1983, Commonwealth sovereignty over the oceans over the continental shelf has been taken for granted, but for John Gorton that attempt to establish that cost him considerable political capital. Today what we all now can recognise and see much more clearly as a national vision was then viewed as unnecessary confrontation with the states, and his handling of the issue was commonly seen as one of the factors in his ultimate loss of the prime ministership. But John Gorton did not mind dangerous games. Indeed, sometimes he did not take trouble to reduce the danger when he could have. He did what he believed in and three decades hence the substance of his vision stands out more sharply in the historical perspective. It is appropriate that Sir John's commitment to the environment was acknowledged in 1999 when the Prime Minister, in the presence of Sir John and Lady Gorton, renamed the offices of the Department of the Environment and Heritage as the John Gorton Building. It is significant that the refurbished building has one of the most environmentally friendly designs in Australia—at least internally. The renaming was a happy occasion. The event coincided with the 50th anniversary of Sir John's election to parliament. Family, friends and colleagues surrounded Sir John and Lady Gorton, and the event was witnessed by staff from Environment Australia. It was a unique opportunity for a later generation of public servants to see and hear Sir John and reflect on the history of the environment portfolio.The foyer of the John Gorton Building has a fine bronze casting of Sir John, taken from a work by Victor Greenhalgh in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery. It is an ongoing reminder to visitors and staff of my department of Sir John's contribution to the environment of the nation. I extend my sincere condolences to Lady Gorton and to his family.14:04:002445Hardgrave, Gary, MPMr HARDGRAVECK6MoretonLPMinister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs10—I would like to associate myself with the motion moved by the Prime Minister, and supported by so many others, as John Grey Gorton was Australian to his bootstraps. I first met him some 23½ years ago when I was an announcer at Radio 2CA for several months in late 1978-early 1979, here in Canberra. I will never forget that moment when John Gorton walked through the foyer. He was dressed in a pair of old tracksuit pants with paint splattered all over them. He had been painting at home. He had wandered in to record one of his great opinion speeches for the Macquarie Broadcasting Network, which, I think, were of obvious great stylistic support to the Fraser government at the time. But this man essentially looked like he was homeless when he walked through the foyer. I challenged him to make sure that this person, who was making his way through the foyer—charging through the newsroom to the recording studio—was, in fact, authorised to do so. When he turned around, it was that face that I had grown up with, the face of John Grey Gorton. We had many a conversation during that summer, and I found that he was very encouraging to me. The member for Berowra, my senior colleague Philip Ruddock, has just commented on the sense of encouragement that he gave to young people. My own political views were not obvious but, nevertheless, they were helped along by the conversations I had with John Gorton. I think I have spoken with Malcolm Fraser once or twice since. I had the opportunity just two months ago to reacquaint myself with Sir John at the launch of Ian Hancock's excellent book—to meet with him and to talk to him further. On that particular occasion I remarked that all three Liberal members—in fact, I said `all three members for Moreton'—were in attendance. He quickly corrected me and said, `No, three out of four, because there was a Labor chap between you and Cameron.' So just two months ago he was certainly fully aware of what was going on. His handshake was strong and I know that in his own way there was a tremendous sense of pride in the fact that the Prime Minister kindly launched the book on that particular day. Another reason for speaking to this condolence motion is to note the consistency of support and loyalty that two predecessors in my electorate of Moreton gave to Sir John through the course of his life: Sir James Killen and Don Cameron. They were there on the day of the book launch and I guess it will be their sad duty to be at the state funeral this week. I know that one of the great memories that Don Cameron carries with him is a photo taken at the time of the 1969 declaration of the poll in the seat of Griffith, when he was the then member for Griffith. The photo is of Cameron and Gorton. I think they both have cigarettes in their hands, they are both dressed in their respective kilts, they are on the banks of the river at South Brisbane and they are dancing a jig in excitement of the fact that the poll had been declared and Cameron had been re-elected as the member for Griffith. For Jim Killen, of course his loyalty was rewarded in the sense of his elevation to the ministry during the Gorton time. When Sir William McMahon was elected Prime Minister by the Liberal Party room, Killen was dropped from the ministry, which gave rise to one of those great and famous Killenesque quotes. Billy McMahon was fumbling at the dispatch box, mumbling something about being his own worst enemy sometimes, at which point Killen called out: `Not while I'm alive, you're not.'I want to place on the record a couple of observations of Sir John. The Prime Minister rightly recorded some wonderful words that came out of the Mystic Park hall speech back on 3 April 1946 that are as true for today as they were back then, when he was addressing service personnel returned from the Second World War. As the Leader of the Opposition noted, in a week when Alec Campbell and now, sadly, Jack Lockett—formerly the oldest surviving World War I veteran—died, it is worth remarking on what Sir John Gorton said on that April evening back in 1946. In fact, in some ways, this may serve as part of his own eulogy that we could all reflect upon today. He said:... do not regard this celebration as the last chapter in the book. Look on it rather as half-time! A joyful occasion certainly, but only a break in the continuous task. For tomorrow we must carry on again, and the tasks which lie in front of us are immense and urgent as never before. What can we do? Individually, it may not be much. But we can at least all think on the problems which are in front of us and be ready to act on our thoughts if the opportunity arises. We can try to reason out how we may best take our place in the family of nations, and how we may best provide a full and satisfactory life for all our citizens. We can practise tolerance and understanding. And we can be ready always to defend against attacks, either from within or without, the political freedom, the measure of freedom which we already have.Sir John Grey Gorton's words in 1946 are worth remembering today. If they were part of his motivation for service in this place and, indeed, for Australia, we should be thankful for his wisdom and his insight, and reflect upon them. My condolences go to his family and those closest to him. I thank the House for the opportunity to express my thoughts.14:10:002446Anthony, Larry, MPMr ANTHONYXJ6RichmondNPMinister for Children and Youth Affairs10— I would like to support the motion of condolence moved by the Prime Minister and spoken to by other members of this House. I would like to speak briefly of my memories as a child of Sir John Gorton and then, perhaps more importantly, to put on record some words that my father would like to record in the House of Representatives.When I first met Sir John Gorton, I was a young boy running up the stairs of the Old Parliament House into King's Hall, which was quite an august place. I remember meeting this tall, lanky, craggy, battered-looking face of an individual, and I was rather intimidated until that big grin personified itself. As a child, not really knowing the status of the man, it was certainly the caricature and his friendly face that I recall.It is interesting to note, as the Deputy Prime Minister mentioned, that John Gorton started with the Country Party back in the twenties. I wonder what would have happened if he had remained with the Country Party. But then, perhaps the Country Party assisted Sir John Gorton in his election as Prime Minister for the very strong views that John McEwen had at the time against another Liberal Prime Minister that would proceed him. I note with interest that he was elected Prime Minister when he was in the Senate, which is extraordinary, until he moved, as the Treasurer mentioned, to the seat of Higgins. I suppose history awaits whether the electors of Higgins will produce another Prime Minister. I would like to put on record some views of my father, who spent many years associated with him:I would be very pleased to have placed on the record the warm friendship that I shared with John Gorton and the satisfaction I got through being his deputy. I found him absolutely trustworthy and reliable. The anecdotes of him being a special character are true. He enjoyed fellowship and was good company. In his parliamentary life, he displayed the same character traits that made him a wild and challenging fighter pilot. He showed tremendous courage in standing up for what he believed was in the best interests of his nation, even when such attitudes drew staunch criticism and opposition from elements from within his own party organisation. It was his openness, his absolute transparency, that he displayed that I admired. He did not want to be a hypocrite in avoiding doing what he believed right. He was a good Prime Minister to work with and he was always very much in tune with the issues of the moment, and handled them with immense political adroitness. My association with him was a relatively short period of his life. It was a period of great political colour and excitement. John left his mark like no other Prime Minister—a courageous and dedicated Australian, who would love to be remembered as a fair dinkum Aussie.I would like to support the motion and extend my sympathies—and, more importantly, my father's—to his widow and family. I commend the motion to the House.14:14:002447Georgiou, Petro, MPMr GEORGIOUHM5KooyongLP10—I support the condolence motion moved by the Prime Minister and supported by many others. Sir John Gorton was the first politician ever to write to me in the days when direct mail was not all that common. He wrote to me to advise that I had been awarded a Commonwealth scholarship to continue the two final years of high school, which made an enormous difference not just to me but to a lot of other children going through high school in what were not the most favourable economic conditions. I met him on a number of occasions after the seventies. He always impressed one as being totally unaffected and happy to have a conversation spanning a wide range of areas.I can do no better than to quote two people who knew him well: Tony Eggleton and Malcolm Fraser. Tony Eggleton worked with Sir John Gorton when he was Prime Minister, and he has a number of stories that I will let him tell. But he has publicly said that Sir John was charming, determined, bold, unconventional, imprudent and totally committed to doing things his own way. He never looked for compromise solutions; he did what he wanted to do in the way that he wanted to do it. Malcolm Fraser's relationship with Sir John can be described as turbulent, as has been covered in a couple of speeches. Importantly, Malcolm Fraser saw him as a nationalist who spent much of his life fighting for Australia in war and in politics. As Malcolm says, he should be remembered `as a great Australian who loved his country'. My condolences go to Sir John's family and friends.14:15:002447King, Peter, MPMr KING00AMQWentworthLP10—I wish briefly to associate myself with the remarks in support of the motion, both as a constituent and a friend. Sir John Gorton was a wonderful Australian. It was my honour to attend the launch of Ian Hancock's marvellous book, John Gorton: He Did It His Way, just a couple of months ago, and Sir John Gorton's 90th birthday, which was celebrated at the Wentworth Hotel in Sydney. We had a common background in attending Shore School, although he attended somewhat earlier than I did. Sir John was there between 1924 and 1927. Although the school records do not reveal that Errol Flynn was at the school at the same time—that being a somewhat controversial question, I am told—they reveal that Sir Gordon Freeth and Fred Osborne were colleagues of his at school, although they do not reveal whether there was a close relationship between them, as was later the case. I do not wish to say anything about his wonderful record—I cannot add to what has already been said—other than to acknowledge that he was an outstanding Australian. He was a courageous and forthright warrior and statesman. Of all the admirable qualities that appear to make a good Prime Minister, the most significant in his case was his objective and reasonable passion for and love of Australia. Can xenophobic love ever be reasonable? Dr Johnson, I think, said no, but in the case of John Gorton I think it was manifested.I acknowledge and thank the Prime Minister for his contribution to Sir John Gorton's resurrection in the party. The 1999 conference at Old Parliament House has been mentioned. Shortly after I became chair of the Australian Heritage Commission, the John Grey Gorton Building was named—the old administrative building No. 1—and that was a proud moment. I hope that other buildings will be named after famous Australian contributors.Finally, on behalf of my family and my constituents, I extend my condolences to Lady Nancy Gorton—a wonderful Australian—and to Sir John's children and grandchildren.14:18:002448Jull, David, MPMr JULLMH4FaddenLP10—I briefly associate myself with this motion of condolence. Somewhat similarly to the Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs, my association with Sir John first came about in the days when I served as a young journalist and later in the management of a Brisbane television station, when I had the opportunity on a number of occasions to interview Sir John. In many respects it was not so much the interviews but the cups of tea or something stronger afterwards in the boardroom of that station that helped me to get to know him. In many respects he influenced my decision to finally make a commitment and to join the Liberal Party. That happened with the takeover of the prime ministership by Sir William McMahon. Sir John was an amazing man. I was delighted to hear the Prime Minister refer to his syntax. As usually happens with prime ministerial speeches, transcripts are made afterwards. I remember some years later, when Mike Willesee joined our network, discussing an interview I did with Sir John Gorton and was surprised that the transcript went for 27 lines without any punctuation whatsoever. Some days later, Mike Willesee sent me a copy of a transcript of an interview he did with Sir John which went for about 2½ pages.There was another occasion when indirectly he had an influence on me as well, and that was his decision to back the film and television industry. The network for which I worked was very supportive of that. Something that has not been said here today is that the first major Australian film that resulted from Sir John's commitment was The Adventures of Barry Mackenzie. In many respects it was appropriate to mark the launch of The Adventures of Barry Mackenzie, because all of us could probably see some evidence of Sir John's sense of humour coming through and probably see a number of our own quirks coming through too. When that film was released, I was delighted that our network had some holding in the film and I was involved with the promotion and sale of it throughout Queensland. It gave me some tremendous opportunities, during the weeks that that film was showing, to be involved with people like Barry Humphries and Phillip Adams, who also was very much involved in the film.Sir John Gorton was a remarkable man. As I have said, at the end of the day he was the reason I made the commitment to join the Liberal Party. He was a tremendous Australian. I was glad that the minister for multicultural affairs mentioned his association with the former member for Moreton, Mr Don Cameron, who was also a mentor of mine. The Cameron-Gorton relationship was a very close one indeed. On many occasions we shared the company of Sir John at Don Cameron's home. I know what a tremendous contribution he made to Don's career and, indirectly, to mine, because he was always full of encouragement, especially after I made the first commitment to stand for the Liberal Party in the 1974 election in which I was unsuccessful. His message was that I should continue and stand again, and I am grateful that he gave me that advice and that I took it. We have lost a great Australian. The tributes that we have heard today are quite magnificent. Sir John Gorton is very deserving of all the praise that has been given to him on this occasion.Question agreed to, honourable members standing in their places.14:22:002449Howard, John, MPMr HOWARDZD4BennelongLPPrime Minister10—As a mark of respect to the memory of the late Sir John Grey Gorton, I move:That the House do now adjourn.Question agreed to.14:23:002449House adjourned at 2.23 p.m.Notices2449The following notices were given:83KRoxon, Nicola, MPMs Roxon to move:That this House:(1) notes that members of the Australian-Chilean community who were victims of suffering, torture, expulsion and exile at the hands of the Pinochet regime in Chile now receive a `pension of mercy' from the Chilean Government as a reparation for their suffering;(2) expresses concern that these members of the Australian-Chilean community have their entitlement to an Australian pension affected by the Chilean payments while other people receiving similar payments, such as victims of the Holocaust who receive compensation from Germany or Austria “as victims of National Socialist Persecution”, have these payments exempt for the purposes of income testing;(3) recognises that these Australian-Chileans make a significant social and economic contribution to the Australian community and should be eligible for equal treatment and access to social security payments as other Australians; and (4) calls on the Government to give those members of the Australian-Chilean community fair treatment by introducing legislation to exempt the Chilean `pensions of mercy' from the income test for Australian pensions similar to the exemption for other compensation payments in paragraphs (n) and (p) of subsection 8(8) of the Social Security Act 1991.KL6Andren, Peter, MPMr Andren to move:That this House: (1) recognises that Sunday, 26 May 2002, commemorated `Sorry Day' and the `Journey of Healing' and the week of 27-31 May 2002 commemorated Reconciliation Week;(2) recognises that Australian society is not a reconciled society when indigenous Australians live, on average, 19 years less than non-indigenous Australians;(3) recognises that trust between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians is vital to solve many of our country's problems, such as land degradation;(4) recognises that for trust between indigenous and non-indigenous people to grow, Australians need to look at our history through indigenous eyes;(5) urges all Australian communities to come together, listen to each other, and develop initiatives to overcome prejudice and race-based injustice on a local level; and(6) urges the Parliament to support the struggle for reconciliation by implementing the recommendations of reports such as Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and Bringing Them Home.