Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

On indulgence, I join the Prime Minister in the remarks he has just made about Allan Taylor. Allan was a public servant of the old school. He was rigorously independent and fearless in his advice. He was respected across the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, as the Minister for Foreign Affairs would agree. Allan was my first branch head when I first joined the department a long time ago. He was a person who also took time with junior officers to assist them in their professional development. In his posting to Jakarta, he was a first-class representative of this country in what is always a challenging diplomatic appointment. Also, as the head of ASIS he discharged those responsibilities effectively and well in what we all in this place know to be a highly sensitive area of work.

For the Public Service at large, his death is a genuine loss because he was regarded with such admiration across the service, not just within the foreign policy and security communities. On behalf of the opposition, I join with the Prime Minister in extending condolences to his family.

See this speech in context