Kim Beazley (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

She was a brilliant teacher. When I knew her in Western Australia she was the vice principal of John Curtin High School. When she went to Sydney she shifted to the private sector. I think she was principal of a prominent Jewish school in Sydney for some time before she took up the appointment at Abbotsleigh. She is a marvellous woman. She and John were a wonderful, witty and enormously capable couple together. I extend on behalf of the Australian Labor Party our deepest condolences to Judith; their son, James; and the son and daughter from John’s first marriage, Andrew and Miriam. I will conclude with something which was said in one of his obituaries, which I think puts it far better than I could conceivably do here:

Wheeldon was a man of almost limitless erudition … original … witty … fluent, sagacious … Although originally a man of the Left, and never one for modern economic reform, he wouldn’t sentimentalise the Left or any of its causes … Wheeldon’s brilliance and wit and moral courage will be missed by all who knew him.

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