Robert McClelland (Barton, Australian Labor Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the motion. Senator Ken Wriedt and my father were good mates, going back to their careers as senators. They continued their friendship long after their Senate careers, and indeed until very recent times made regular phone calls to each other. When the political history of the 1960s through to the 1990s is written, Ken Wriedt’s name is going to be up there with the best of them. He was a big man, in every sense of the word. He was well-built, he was fine looking and indeed it was reported that Senator Ron McAuliffe, in those days, dubbed him ‘Cary Grant without the horse’. That followed him throughout his career. But despite his presence he was an unpretentious man. As we have heard, he was quiet, unassuming, polite and courteous—and, present company excepted, I would think we would like those qualities to be among those of modern politicians, which those present have.

My father says of him that he was strong and persuasive in the presentation of his own case, but he was always tolerant and understanding of another person’s view. He was a deeply spiritual man, as we have all heard, but in a very self-contained and thoughtful way, without the piousness or self-righteousness that that can often involve. He was good humoured and appreciated the humour of others. He learnt his values from his parents. His mother, as we have heard, was a teacher, who taught him the importance of education and learning; and his father was a fitter and turner, who taught him the importance of industry and people having a job but also the protection that organised labour could give workers. In that context he was brought up during the period of the Depression in Melbourne and saw what devastation unemployment could bring.

Ken won his Senate seat for the state of Tasmania in 1967. He took up that position on 1 July 1968 and he remained in the Senate until September 1980, until he went into state politics—and we have heard the former speakers speak of that. We have also heard of his maiden speech, which I will not recount, but the member for Lyons aptly referred to a passage that spoke about his values and the obligations on members to represent the values of their constituents.

He was a keen sportsman. He loved cricket. Indeed, my father said that Senator Wriedt carried him in a regular match that he played, the Senate against the House of Representatives—invariably, Ken Wriedt and my father against Bill Hayden and Manfred Cross. Ken usually carried the day.

He became, as we heard, the Minister for Primary Industry in the Whitlam government. Despite the challenges of the period he was respected for the difficult issues that were in his portfolio at the time. After Lionel Murphy was appointed to the High Court in February 1975 he became Leader of the Government in the Senate, and indeed for a time my father served as his deputy leader.

Mention is made of the fact that Ken Wriedt, and indeed my father, as Manager of Government Business in the Senate at the time, were not advised of the fact that the Whitlam government had been dismissed, resulting in the Senate moving a resolution to guarantee supply to the Fraser government. As has been speculated, if notice of that dismissal had come through to Senator Wriedt and my father then perhaps that bill would not have been introduced, meaning that the then caretaker Prime Minister would conceivably have had to return to the Governor-General to advise that he was not able to guarantee supply, which had been a request, as history shows, of the Governor-General. But that is history, and history has of course moved on.

As has been mentioned, Ken Wriedt maintained a strong interest in politics even after his state career. I recall receiving a phone call from him shortly before the 2007 election. I had created some controversy, as one does from time to time, making comments with respect to capital punishment. I received a call, which I appreciated, from Ken, who in his very calm and analytical way went through the issues and persuaded me to proceed with my values and goals, and indeed in the last parliament the parliament unanimously supported legislation to prevent capital punishment from being reintroduced in a state or territory. I would like to think that Ken Wriedt, who encouraged me to do that, had some credit for that occurring.

My father has said—and I think he is absolutely right—that Senator Ken Wriedt made an enormous contribution to the Australian parliament and to the political life of the nation. He had an enormous wealth of natural experience: the horrors of Depression, his long service in the merchant marine as a seaman and also an officer—as we have heard—and his experiences as a sportsman and as a lover of fine music. He also had an amazing knowledge and understanding of humanity. As a people we are certainly lucky that Australia has had the benefit of that vast worldly experience in this parliament. On behalf of those who served him in Canberra, and on behalf of the present generation of parliamentarians, I express our admiration and gratitude for his immeasurable contribution to the political life of our country. I would also like to convey my deepest sympathy, and that of my father, Doug, and my mother, Lorna, to his two daughters and their families and to his close friends.

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