Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to pay my respects and to pay tribute to the Hon. John Norman Button. I do so because I think it is appropriate that someone from Ipswich should do so. Bill Hayden is a life member in a branch in my electorate and a personal friend and I thought it appropriate for someone to say something in parliament to pay tribute to John Button, who was a good friend of Bill and Dallas Hayden for many years.

The Hon. John Button was the Minister for Industry, Technology and Commerce from 1984 to 1993, the only member, as I understand it, of the Hawke-Keating government to serve in the same capacity for that period of time; the Minister for Industry and Commerce from 1983 to 1984; the Minister Assisting the Minister for Communications from 1983 to 1984; Leader of the Government in the Senate from 1983 to 1993; Leader of the Opposition in the Senate from 1980 to 1983; Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate from 1977 to 1980; and a senator for Victoria from 1974 to 1993.

John Button was the son of a Presbyterian minister from Ballarat. Many great Labor politicians have been sons or daughters of ministers of religion; the number in the history of the Labor Party who have made a contribution to this parliament is quite extraordinary. He went to Geelong College and studied law at Melbourne university. It is interesting to note that he campaigned against the Menzies government referendum to ban the Communist Party. He was a great civil libertarian. After a brief sojourn to Europe, he joined the labour law firm of Maurice Blackburn and Co. and was a partner in that firm from 1959 to 1974.

He was a great Labor figure, small in stature but large in contribution. I have talked to Bill Hayden about John Button. Words like quixotic, loner, whimsical, intellectual, wit and grace came to Bill’s lips. John Button was a man of honesty and integrity. His long service to this parliament is evidence of his contribution.

It must have been lonely as a participant in the Victorian branch of the ALP, but he backed Gough Whitlam’s efforts during the 1960s to reform the dysfunctional Victorian branch, which had made Labor almost unelectable because of its left-wing extremism. It was very happy and willing to argue over the spoils of defeat rather than the fruits of victory. That was best evident in 1969, when the Whitlam Labor Party won 18 seats to cut the coalition majority to seven, but in Victoria Labor picked up only three seats, leaving it with 11 out of 34. The federal takeover was necessary and acceptable to the party, and John Button should be thanked for the contribution he made which led to the victory of the Whitlam Labor Party in December 1972.

The Button car plan was extraordinary. His contribution, his great skill and courage in negotiating with the unions and business, was long and arduous and must be respected. It resulted in the reduction of tariffs, of import quotas and in the number of locally manufactured models, but it provided tremendous assistance to R&D and to retrenched workers. We would not have a car industry without John Button.

What he did is amazing, and I mentioned it before. As someone in the Queensland branch of the ALP, in what has often been described as a factional menage a trois—as a member of a minority group—I find it extraordinary that Button survived with a five per cent contribution to the Victorian branch of the ALP. My group, which is often derisively called the ‘old guard’ in Queensland, has about four times that and I know, as one of the leaders of that group, how difficult it is with the colossus of the big Left and Right unions. But Button managed to negotiate great deals. He was often hated by both the Left and Right, but he survived for a generation. The contribution he made is quite extraordinary. Paul Keating talked about this and said of John Button:

A lawyer who inhabited the centre ground of Victorian Labor politics, he was material in returning the pendulum of Labor politics from the left, where it had stuck fast for a quarter of a century, to the political centre.

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In his prime, he was more or less despised by the left and the right. In the swing position, he played corner politics with cunning and elan.

It is quite extraordinary.

I want to pay tribute because my former role in life was as a partner of a law firm, and I know how much that helped me in coming into this parliament. Bill Hayden was a great friend of John Button, and John is often most remembered for a certain letter he wrote to Bill. He sent this to Bill in March 1983:

I have been consistently loyal to you in every major difficulty you have faced. I am still loyal to you as a person ... My ultimate loyalty, however, must be to the ALP.

The letter tipped the balance. Bill moved aside six days after that letter, and 4½ weeks later Bob Hawke became Prime Minister of this country.

I know, as someone who has lived in Ipswich all my life, how Bill’s failure to become the Prime Minister affected the people locally. I remember a great story that Bill told me once: someone came up to him and said, ‘Bill, the Labor Party did the dirty on you and I’m never going to vote Labor again,’ and Bill said, ‘If you don’t vote Labor, you won’t be voting for me at this election.’ But Bill and John went on to remain friends despite it all and worked together as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Industry and Commerce. Bill has paid tribute to John, the friendship and the contribution he made. It must have been hard to overcome the disappointment and it must have been hard for John Button to write that letter, but Bill said years later about that letter and about what John did that day, ‘One cannot seriously quibble about the quality of a good friend who delivers bad personal news with honesty and courage and, I think, added grace.’

On behalf of my seat, Blair, on behalf of Bill and his wife, Dallas, and on behalf of the people of Ipswich, I pay tribute to John and the immense contribution he made. We have no hard feelings, John. We thank you for what you did for the people of Ipswich. We thank you for what you did for the people of Australia and the part that you played in the Whitlam resurgence, in the Hawke ascendancy and in the Keating victory. Thank you, John, on behalf of the people of Ipswich.

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