Dick Adams (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the Leader of the National Party for his good words. Ken Shaw Wriedt died peacefully on 18 October 2010 at a Hobart private hospital with his daughters by his side. His wife of 51 years, Helga, died a month previously, which saddened him greatly, as they had been close all their married lives. Helga was a very large, outgoing lady who was always joyful as I remember her. He is survived by his two daughters, Paula and Sonja; his son-in-law Damien; and his grandchildren, Jack, Ella, Damien and Amy. He was 83 years old.

Ken was born 11 July 1927 in Fitzroy in Melbourne. He joined the merchant navy after leaving school at the age of 16. His father was a fitter and turner on the left-wing side of politics. As an apprentice seaman and later ship’s officer he worked on iron ore and phosphate carriers—which is a bit ironic—among others, travelling the world as well as serving coastal routes. He learnt a lot in his travels and that prepared him well for his turbulent life in politics. He enjoyed the sea and sailing all through his life and was passionate about maritime history. He spent time contributing to the Tasmanian and Sydney maritime museums. He was a life member of the Sydney Maritime Museum and a life member of the Maritime Museum of Tasmania. He was also a life member of the Vintage Boat Club of Tasmania and vice-president of the Bellerive Regatta Association. I remember his fishing boat, which was converted to a river boat in which he sailed the Derwent. He enjoyed his boats and the sea. He did all sorts of sailing in boats.

I remember great debates at Labor Party conferences between him and Justin O’Byrne, another senator from Tasmania who went on to become President of the Senate and who was a great friend of a mentor of mine, Leo Brown. It was two sides of the Labor conference tit-for-tatting, with Ken on one side and Justin on the other, with the young members of the Labor Party such as me listening intently to the great battles of minds as they tried to win arguments at Labor conferences—that usually comes down to the numbers.

He met his good wife, Helga, in Hobart. She was a migrant who had endured Hitler’s Germany. Ken had established himself as an insurance inspector in Hobart. The couple married on 26 December 1959 and settled on the eastern shore at Howrah.

Ken’s political life was long and eventful. He joined the ALP in 1959 and soon became secretary of his local branch. He attempted to gain preselection in 1963 and 1964 for the seat of Franklin in the House of Assembly. He was finally preselected for the Senate elections in 1967 and when the Whitlam government was elected in December in 1972, Ken was appointed Minister for Primary Industry, later renamed Minister for Agriculture.

He was a good minister. I remember him opening the Longford Show, my local agricultural show in my hometown, where it had rained the week before, after a dry period. Ken claimed to be a good agricultural minister and that the rain had come when he was coming to open the show. Those were good times. Ken was well respected in agriculture in Tasmania because he listened and he tried to achieve things. In his first speech, Ken declaimed:

We cannot achieve perfection, we cannot change the course of history just as we would like, but we must constantly be mindful of the ideals and the hopes of those who have sent us here.

That can still be a timely reminder for us all as we try and do our best in this place because we have the responsibility of representing our constituents. Ken was a very decent and fair man.

On 14 October 1975, Rex Connor was obliged to resign as Minister for Minerals and Energy as a result of the loans affair, and Ken Wriedt was appointed in his place. Later he was elected as Leader of the Government in the Senate during the Whitlam term of government, and he was in that position in the Senate, attempting to pass appropriation bills for the government, when Prime Minister Gough Whitlam was sacked. He was to play a part in that historical event. If he had been aware of what was going on in the other house he may have been in a position to delay the bills when the Liberal senators came back and supported those appropriation bills through the Senate. But that was not to be. So he lost his position as Leader of the Government in the Senate and became Leader of the Opposition in the Senate within a few minutes.

Then, of course, there was a disastrous election for the Labor Party. The whole media in this country turned against the Whitlam government very unfairly after the government was dismissed on 11 November 1975. Ken was returned and won the position of Leader of the Opposition in the Senate. Really he was against Whitlam’s preferred candidate. By that time, he was having some differences of opinion with Gough. Wriedt remained in the Senate until his resignation in September 1980.

Politics were still very much a part of his life, and, although he became Chairman of the State Grants Commission and was a member of the state executive of the Bicentennial Authority, he decided to contest Franklin after losing a stint at the federal seat of Denison. In the 1982 state election, he won a seat. That was the election in which I lost a seat in the state parliament. It was a pretty turbulent time in Tasmanian politics, with the Franklin River decisions about. It was a time of great change in Tasmania. The environment was becoming a big issue and, while Labor had attempted to take the middle line, the conservatives under Robin Gray beat Labor by taking a strong line in supporting the Hydro-Electric Commission to build another dam on either the Gordon River or the Franklin River.

Wriedt won a seat representing Franklin in the Tasmanian House of Assembly. While he polled strongly, Labor lost government and he became Leader of the Opposition from 1982 to 1986, when he lost the leadership because of internal issues within the party and took on the position of a member of the front bench. However, in 1989 he was part of the more incredible events of Tasmanian politics when Michael Field took government after an election and formed government with an accord with the Greens. Ken then became Minister for Roads and Transport from 1989 to 1990 in the minority government led by Michael Field. He resigned from parliament in October 1990 due to ill health. Ken continued to take a keen interest in politics and was always there to support his daughter Paula, who was elected to state parliament in 1996 and went on to serve as a minister in the Lennon government and then the Bartlett government.

He was well liked in the Senate and was held in high esteem, especially by new senators, whom he mentored through many sessions. Tasmanian Senator Michael Tate said of Ken during a speech he made at Ken’s valedictory:

Wriedt is held in the very highest regard within the walls of this Parliament. His quality of calmness and his grasp of many subjects are also known to many outside; what is not known is how that calmness and that confidence are constantly put at the disposal of other Senators and in particular, as I say, at the disposal of those fledgling senators who look to his leadership for the guidance he so generously gives.

I think that summed up Ken very well. He was keen. He was seen as a gentle, kind man by most who knew him, and it was only when he believed that an injustice was being done that he could become very scathing and very loud and earthy in his vocabulary. Ken was very approachable and was happy to help new members and new branch members in the ALP to understand the whys and wherefores of public office, and I know he mentored many in Tasmania.

In his later years, he suffered from Parkinson’s disease but still liked to keep in touch with politics, and he still had a great love of the sea and anything maritime—and, of course, his beloved wife, Helga. I think her death hastened Ken’s end. He led a full and eventful life and is still seen as very much a part of Tasmanian political history. He will be sadly missed by his family, his old colleagues and many others in the community and by those of us who knew him for a long period of time. I am sorry that the opposition has disallowed my pair for me to attend his funeral. I think it is a sign of ugliness and is very disrespectful to people. I do not think there are any political gains in it, just bloody-minded nonsense, and I think it reflects badly on the conservative parties of the House and the parliament. I would like to offer my deep sympathies to both Sonja and Paula and their families and say to them: your father was a truly good man. I will miss him and I know many Tasmanians will do so too.

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