Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to offer my condolences and those of the Labor Party on the deaths of Sir Robert Cotton and Sir James Killen. We have heard in the House today about the lives of these two fine Australians. Both Sir Robert Cotton and Sir James Killen were contemporaries. Each fought for this nation in World War II. Each managed to forge friendships across the political divide. Each lived long and full lives with many accomplishments, and we have heard about those today.

In recent tributes to the life of Sir Robert Cotton we heard seen him described as a Renaissance man—and I think it is a great description of a man whose life started in a mining town, took him through the Depression, through World War II, into political and public service and into serving this nation overseas. But the Renaissance man’s life did not end there. As the Prime Minister has indicated, he had a life beyond his work in public life, as an artist. He was an accomplished photographer who exhibited his work in this country and overseas.

Robert Cotton was apparently inspired to take up photography by his second cousin, who was perhaps a more famous artist in her own right, Olive Cotton. It has been reported that Sir Robert’s interest in photography came after meeting Olive during a 1932 holiday at Avalon, during which she encouraged him to experiment with black and white photography as a hobby. At that time, Sir Robert was only 17 years old, and there started something that ran alongside his public life, increasingly became a passion and got him considerable public accolades in its own right.

In recent years Sir Robert admitted that he did not see much of his cousin after she spurred his original interest in photography, but he did visit her many exhibitions. At one of these Olive gave her cousin—by this time an accomplished ambassador, minister, senator, grazier and businessman—a copy of her famous image Teacup Ballet. In a recent article Sir Robert admitted to having lost the famous 1935 still life, and I trust it was of some comfort to Sir Robert and to members of his family to know that a copy of this very famous work rests in the Australian parliament’s distinguished collection of artworks.

The family’s artistic qualities did not end there. Sir Robert’s daughter Judy Cotton was also an accomplished painter and writer who exhibited works in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Getty Trust of Los Angeles, the New Orleans Museum of Art, the San Francisco museum of art, the Phillips Collection of Washington and, of course, our own National Gallery. The exhibition that Sir Robert participated in captured the scope of his work from his Broken Hill origins to his travels in North America. His photographs of the Australian landscape spanned six decades from 1939. He followed in the footsteps of explorers such as Burke and Wills and Charles Stuart and took images.

I am sure that Sir Robert’s sense of self-accomplishment and pride in his own achievements and his daughter’s achievements were at a peak when the two were brought together in a special exhibition at the Wagner Gallery in New South Wales, which is of course home to Australia’s masters: Boyd, Blackman and Nolan. That exhibition was open as recently as March 2005. Those are the hallmarks of a life well lived and a life of rich diversity.

My sincere sympathies go to Sir Robert Cotton’s wife, his three children, his stepchildren, his grandchildren and his great-grandchildren. Sir Robert Cotton passed away on Christmas Day after a lengthy illness. Even after a long life well lived, it is obviously a tragedy to lose a member of your family on Christmas Day itself, so my very sincere condolences go to all members of his family.

I also offer my condolences to the family of Sir James Killen on his death. I first learned of the death of Jim Killen when I was over in America. I was informed by the Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs that Sir James Killen had died. I think it is a mark of the man and of what a big and legendary figure he was in Australian politics that the two of us were immediately able to recall a number of the more famous parts of his life, some of the humorous moments from his life, and to share those reflections.

Sir James Killen was indeed truly a giant of the Australian political stage. His wit, his larrikinism, his sense of mateship and his command of the theatre of the parliament have all been referred to by speakers today. Of course, as has been noted, Jim Killen served in the intimacy of the old parliament, where contact with one’s colleagues was not really avoidable—even if one chose to do so. He was certainly a master of that old parliament and he is remembered for his wit and his warmth.

We know, of course, from the incidents that have been talked about today that Jim Killen was a political double act with Fred Daly, and their shared humour is going to be the stuff of legend for a long time to come. Can I briefly take the House to one incident which displays the bond between the two of them. On 19 March 1969, a former member for Hunter, behaving perhaps a little bit badly—something that, of course, would not happen in the modern age—decided that he would raise his concerns in the House; he had read that an article written by Liza Minnelli outlining her experiences with an Australian leading political figure was to be published in the Private Eye and that strenuous efforts were being made to prevent its publication. Of course, these references by Bert James were not really out of concern regarding the allegations being made, but a very thinly disguised way of making sure that the allegations could be raised in the federal parliament and, consequently, get more currency. He spoke to these matters and, of course, Jim Killen rose to accuse Mr James of attempting to smear another member of the House and criticised him for using a journalist who he said was notorious for scandal and had a widely-read newsletter which was heavily political and gratuitously offensive.

Jim Killen called on members of the Labor Party to distance themselves from the allegations that had been made. Fred Daly then sought leave to get the call to reply, having been challenged by James Killen, as a member of the Labor Party. The Speaker, in fact, said that Mr Daly did not need leave in order to get the call. Sometimes, Mr Speaker, members in the parliament can be right about these matters and very occasionally Speakers are wrong. Mr Daly pointed out that he did need leave because it was during the adjournment debate and he had already spoken. It was consequently necessary for a motion to be moved that so much of standing orders be suspended as would prevent the honourable member for Grayndler, Fred Daly, from making a second speech on the motion for the adjournment of the House.

Jim Killen voted in favour of that motion to give Fred Daly the right to speak. Indeed, so many government members crossed the floor to vote for that motion that it was only ruled lost because it was tied. It is not something that one would anticipate happening in the House today, but an indication, I think, of a gentler age in which members of the House forged bonds that went beyond the cut and thrust of daily politics. We will never know whether the speech to be given by Fred Daly would have been the speech of apology that Sir James Killen sought or a speech of witticisms. One suspects it would probably have been a bit of both.

Sir James Killen was, of course, well known for all of his wit and larrikinism, but that cannot overshadow a career that was full of accomplishments: his ministerial roles, his length of service and his achievement in 1955 of being one of the youngest people—at the age of 29—elected to this parliament. He was a knockabout Australian and, because of his character, he was able to forge connections and friendships which transcended political boundaries. He did the reputation of Australia’s parliament good. He will be missed. My sympathies and best wishes go to Lady Benise and his family.

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