Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I rise briefly to support the remarks of the Prime Minister in support of the condolence motion for the late Ken Wriedt, a former minister in the Whitlam government and a former Leader of the Government in the Senate. He was obviously a highly talented man and a highly talented politician who became a minister after just four years in the parliament and became the leader of his party in the Senate after just seven years in the parliament. He was by all accounts an extremely effective Minister for Agriculture who was widely well regarded by the agricultural sector, notwithstanding his government’s removal of the superphosphate bounty and of the reserve price for wool, two initiatives which caused great consternation at the time, and notwithstanding his rueful comment on appointment that in fact he did not know a merino from a Corriedale.

It is my understanding that, along with John Wheeldon, he would have preferred the Whitlam government to have gone to a double-dissolution election when supply was blocked, as members would recollect, in this parliament back in 1975. I understand that it was in fact Ken Wriedt as government leader in the Senate who ultimately secured supply for the then Fraser caretaker government because he had not been warned by the recently dismissed Prime Minister of the events at Yarralumla. So I suppose we on this side can rejoice in his role securing supply for the Fraser caretaker government.

He was, as I understand it, a man of great principle and high integrity. I am indebted to press gallery journalist Don Walford, who is in the gallery today, for the reminder that he was deeply disillusioned with his party, in part because of the then party leader’s desire to obtain campaign funding from the Iraqi Baathist Party in the aftermath of the 1975 election. Nevertheless, any unhappiness with his party could not have lasted, because when he left this parliament he served with distinction for many years as a Labor MP in the Tasmanian parliament and was in fact the leader of the Labor Party in the Tasmanian parliament for some years.

He was a fine man. He served his country, his state and his party with distinction. We honour his memory, we respect his work and we send our condolences to his family and friends.

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