John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the House record its deep regret at the deaths of the Honourable Sir Robert Carrington Cotton KCMG AO, former Federal Minister and Senator for New South Wales and Ambassador to the United States of America and the Honourable Sir James Denis Killen AC KCMG, former Federal Minister and Member for Moreton, Queensland; and place on record its appreciation of their long and meritorious service and tender its profound sympathy to their families in their bereavement.

In addressing this condolence motion I do so with an additional degree of personal feeling and fervour because of my long personal association with both of these remarkable men, who belonged to that remarkable generation that served Australia during World War II and then went on in public service to give so much to their country.

Sir Robert Cotton was born on 29 November 1915 at Broken Hill, New South Wales. He was the eldest of six children. He was educated at St Peter’s College in Adelaide and went on to qualify as an accountant. Throughout his entire public life he retained a deep interest in financial matters. After training as an RAAF bomber pilot during World War II, Bob and his family built successful regional business interests and established the pastoral company at Oberon known as Carrington Park.

Sir Robert Cotton was a foundation member of the Liberal Party. In 1947, in the first chapter of his political life, he ran against the then Prime Minister, Joseph Benedict Chifley, in the seat of Macquarie. He later held a range of senior positions in the Liberal Party, including president of the New South Wales division and federal vice-president. Between 1947 and 1950 he served as a councillor and as president of the Oberon Shire Council. When I joined the New South Wales division of the Liberal Party in the late 1950s, Bob Cotton was the president. Later, Senator Sir John Carrick was the general secretary, and both of them in different ways taught me a great deal about politics.

Bob Cotton was a person of immense personal charm. He had a very deep commitment to the welfare and the interests of this country. He had a capacity to engage people of different generations, and he was a splendid example of that injunction to all of us—that is, to grow old gracefully. Bob was appointed as a senator for New South Wales in 1966, and he held that position until 1978. He was appointed as the Minister for Civil Aviation in the Gorton and McMahon governments. In the Fraser government he served for two years as Minister for Manufacturing Industry, as Minister for Science and Consumer Affairs and as Minister for Industry and Commerce. In 1968 and 1969 he was the Government Whip in the Senate. Between 1976 and 1978 he was Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate. He also served on a large number of Senate committees. In the lead-up to 11 November 1975, in the intense debates that occurred in the Senate on the then government’s supply and appropriation bills, Bob Cotton led the debate on behalf of the opposition parties. His very considerable understanding of public finances, gleaned from a lifetime of study, came very much to the fore during those debates.

In 1978, on retirement from representative political life, he was made a Knight Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George for his services to government. In that year, he was appointed as Consul-General to New York. It marked something of a departure in the profile of those appointments and, with his business background and enthusiasm, he helped to boost Australia’s profile among financial and investment houses in the United States.

When he returned to Australia after serving in New York, he was appointed as a director on the board of the Reserve Bank for some two years. He was then appointed by the Fraser government as Australia’s Ambassador to the United States in 1982. It is worth noting that, when the Fraser government lost office in 1983, Bob Cotton remained as ambassador and was highly regarded therefore by both the Fraser and Hawke governments. In 1993 he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for service to international relations. In his later life, Bob Cotton pursued photography and he held several exhibitions in the United States and in Australia, including a joint exhibition with his daughter Judy, a painter and writer, in Sydney in 2005.

Bob Cotton was a person of immense personal charm and decency. He took a great hands-on approach to life. He was warmly regarded on both sides of politics. And it is noteworthy that the wonderful funeral service held at St Peter’s Anglican Church in Cremorne on 2 January was attended by several prominent members of the Australian Labor Party, including the father of the member for Barton, the former High Commissioner for Australia in the United Kingdom, Mr Doug McClelland, and Mr Barrie Unsworth, the former Labor Premier of New South Wales, with whom Bob Cotton had formed a close friendship in earlier years.

Bob was blessed with a wonderfully close family. My wife, Janette, and I had the great privilege of attending Bob and Eve’s 50th and 60th wedding anniversary celebrations. Their long life partnership ended after some 63 years with Eve’s death some seven years ago. It was a source of very great pleasure to so many of us that Bob remarried some five years ago and, in the last years of his life, received the love and support of his second wife, Betty, whose family, along with Bob’s family from his first marriage, participated in the wonderful tribute to him in Sydney early in January.

I want to record my own deep, personal gratitude to Bob Cotton for the friendship, support, counsel and encouragement that he provided to me through my political career. When I joined the Liberal Party in the late 1950s, one of the things that struck me then and has stayed with me forever was the great personal integrity and optimistic view of life adopted by its organisational leaders such as Bob Cotton. I thank you, Bob, for your contribution to our party, and I record my deep gratitude and affection for the help that you have extended to me. To your three children—Bob, whom many of us know as a very distinguished diplomat and very distinguished member of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and your two daughters, Judy Cotton and Anne Ferguson—and their extended families and your widow, Betty, we extend our very deep sympathy. You have every reason to be immensely proud of 91 wonderfully lived years of a wonderful life.

I turn now to address some remarks to one of the great characters of this parliament. Along with Bob Cotton, I also served for the full duration of the Fraser government with Jim Killen as a ministerial colleague. Jim Killen, of course, is widely known throughout the Australian community not only for his great service to this great country but also for his remarkable wit, his great powers of oratory, his capacity to engage people on both sides of politics and the basic Australian humour and laconic style that he brought to his life.

He was born on 23 November 1925 in Dalby, Queensland. He left school at an early age to become a jackeroo and in 1943, at the age of 18, joined the RAAF, reaching the rank of Flight Sergeant Air Gunner. After the war, he completed a diploma course and became a wool classer.

Three years after joining the Liberal Party in 1946, Sir James became the Foundation President of the Young Liberal Movement of Queensland and a member of the state executive of the Liberal Party. From 1953 to 1956 he served as vice-president of the Queensland division. He was first elected to parliament in 1955—the same election that brought into this parliament such significant figures as Malcolm Fraser and Jim Cairns. He became the member for Moreton and he represented that electorate for 28 years, until his resignation in August 1983.

He served as Minister for the Navy in the Gorton government from 1969 to 1971, Minister for Defence in the Fraser government between 1975 and 1982 and Vice-President of the Executive Council and Leader of the House between 1982 and 1983. He was also Government Whip in the House of Representatives in 1967. He was knighted in 1982 and in 2004 was made a Companion of the Order of Australia.

It is fair to say of Jim Killen that he waited a significant period of time to be made a minister and his first stint as a member of a ministry was short-lived. I would not be doing his political memory proper service if I did not record the fact that he was a strong supporter and close friend of the late John Gorton. When Gorton was removed as leader of the Liberal Party or ceased to be leader of the Liberal Party—it is not quite historically accurate to say that Gorton was removed as leader of the Liberal Party—Jim Killen went with him. Jim’s famous ‘non telegram’ is, of course, part of Australia’s political folklore. Both Gough Whitlam and I, at the state funeral in Brisbane, recorded the fact that, whether or not that telegram had been sent, Killen truly had been magnificent.

Jim had a boisterous, engaging personality and he made friends on both sides of politics. He was a compelling orator. His friendships with Fred Daley and Gough Whitlam, which bridged the political divide in this country, engaged many Australians. They liked it and they warmed to the fact that people with different political views could become such good friends.

Jim’s personal life was touched by great tragedy in the early 1980s when his daughter Rosemary suffered a very long illness and finally succumbed to cancer, leaving two very young children in the care of Jim and his first wife, Joy. Those of us who worked with him and tried, in our very inadequate ways, to help Jim through that very difficult period will remember the terrible impact it had on him and the way in which it changed his life.

After the death of his wife Joy, the mother of his three daughters, Jim was able to find great happiness in his second marriage, to Benise. It was a source of very great comfort and happiness to his friends that he was able, later in life, after the death of his first wife, the mother of his three children, to find that happiness. Many of us on this side of the House and on the other side attended the state funeral held at the beautiful St John’s Cathedral in Brisbane. It was a remarkable tribute to somebody who had many circles of friends and influence. He never forgot his background in the Queensland bush, and he never lost his great love of horseracing. I suppose that he was at his happiest at Eagle Farm, as were many of his contemporaries.

Jim gave great service to the Liberal Party, and I remarked in my contribution at his state funeral that if he had not won the seat of Moreton—whether there was a telegram sent or not—the course of Australian political history in 1961 would have been radically altered. That particular victory, finally sealing a narrow win for the Menzies government, meant a great deal in the political history of this country. For that reason, Jim Killen will always be regarded as a hero in the annals of not only the Queensland Liberal Party but also the Liberal Party throughout Australia.

Jim was very kind to me during some of the more difficult periods the Liberal Party had in opposition in the 1980s. He would ring frequently with advice. It was always well meant, it was always very properly targeted and it was always very deeply appreciated. On behalf of all of my colleagues in the government and throughout the broader Australian Liberal family, I extend our deep sympathy to Lady Benise Killen and to Jim’s daughters, Diana and Heather, and to his grandchildren, Dana and Amanda.

In closing these remarks, I note that these two remarkable contributors to Australian public life gave a lot to the Liberal Party, and it is a party that will always be indebted to them. Their broader service and commitment, in both war and in peace, was to the Australian nation. Both of them belonged to that quite remarkable generation that came to adulthood during World War II and endured a different life. Because of what they endured, they bequeathed to all of us the peace, stability, cohesion and prosperity which is ours today in 2007. In that way, they represent the contribution of a generation that has meant so much to this country. All of us, individually and collectively, are in their debt.

See this speech in context