Duncan Kerr (Denison, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Might I add a couple of remarks. I only met John Wheeldon on a couple of occasions, but one will live in my mind forever. It occurred at a time when I was standing for the Labor Party in 1977, a failed venture into politics as a very young man. I attended a meeting at which Wheeldon was a speaker. He was a small man, who sat curled up with a cigarette smoking between his fingers, in the days when that was possible in public halls. He looked quite insignificant until he rose. He spoke without notes, and he spoke in such a manner that it captivated everybody in that room. And although we only saw him for a short phase in public life as a minister, he also had carriage of one of those great issues of public policy that the Whitlam government put forward and sadly was not implemented—a national compensation scheme, which Whitlam, in his later book recounting his political triumphs and failures, says was his greatest sadness that he was not able to see come into effect. It remains unfinished business for us, when we contemplate the fact that we still have circumstances where persons injured in various different walks of life find themselves without adequate recourse or compensation.

A life like John Wheeldon’s is one that touches many people in many different ways, which has been evidenced by the tributes that have been paid from both sides of this House. As someone who had a tangential relationship with John, difficult though he is said to have been, I remember the speech that he gave on that occasion as probably the most vivid explanation of the agenda of the Whitlam government that I was ever privileged to have heard. Those who were fortunate enough—and, sadly, now as I reflect, old enough—to have been part of that generation and to have seen any aspect of it will never forget his like.

Question agreed to, honourable members standing in their places.

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