Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

Today I want to pay tribute to the admired and much-loved author Bryce Courtenay. He died last week at home in Canberra aged 79. Bryce Courtenay was a master storyteller. He left an indelible mark through his writing on Australia and, for that matter, on the world. He was forever endearing, continually animated and always passionate about writing and a good yarn. He was a mentor, a friend and a true advocate for storytelling, the importance of reading and the importance of literacy. Above all, Bryce Courtenay's writing encouraged countless people to discover or rediscover the joy of books and reading.

Bryce Courtenay always wanted to be a storyteller. That, according to his publisher and friend Bob Sessions, was his calling from the age of seven, when he wrote his first story. Despite growing up in a small village in the Lebombo Mountains in the Limpopo Province of South Africa, Bryce fell in love with words when he learnt English after his mother tongue of Afrikaans. This love of words would take him to the London School of Journalism, where he then met Benita Solomon, whom he followed to Australia. Clearly, growing up with the backdrop of World War II and the beginning of the apartheid era had a huge impact; it showed through his first and bestselling book The Power of One.

He was always good with words and he developed his craft as a copywriter and a creative director. He in fact was also an advertising man. There is no question that he was creative and talented. In marketing he is associated with Louie the Fly, still an advertising icon—I saw one the other day—and the Milkybar Kid, another long-time icon. But these were everlasting marketing concepts. But, whatever the call of marketing, storytelling was his real calling. He loved to entwine a yarn.

He wrote more than books; in many cases they are tomes! But they are such engaging, intertwined stories. He worked 12 hours a day writing them, publishing a book every year after The Power of One was first published. He loved to tell the story, the history and the characters and stretch it through the eras, and that is what made him so endearing to his Australian fans. He wrote about his adopted home of Australia, including the Australian Trilogy: The Potato Factory, Tommo & Hawk and Solomon's Song. He ignited an interest in Australian history in people who had never had one before. And he wrote about personal tragedy. In 1993 April Fool's Day was published, telling the story of his youngest son, Damon, who was born with haemophilia and later contracted HIV/AIDS from a blood transfusion. From the ripping yarns to the heart-wrenching stories, his books adorned the Christmas trees and bookshelves of millions in Australia and the world. The annual report of the Australian government's Public Lending Right Committee shows that, of the 100 highest-scoring Australian books since 1974, 15 are by Bryce Courtenay, with four in the top 10.

As a wordsmith Bryce Courtenay developed his craft as a copywriter and director first with George Patterson and, later, his own firm. I was delighted to see Bryce Courtenay together with his wife, Christine, at the Prime Minister's Literary Awards in July, supporting new and established Australian authors. He was there at the awards the year previously, and it was there that, in discussions with him, he offered his services.

As it turned out, we were embarking on the National Year of Reading campaign, which is run all through this year. I asked him to become a national ambassador for that campaign. He agreed immediately and was, as always, an enthusiastic ambassador to his love of story telling. Not so long ago, we celebrated the success of the Year of Reading, which started with an ambition of 1,000 events to be run nationwide through the year. In fact, it achieved 3,700 nationwide. No doubt, that growth in numbers was in part due to Bryce Courtenay's ambassadorship. The ongoing legacy means that there will be a new national campaign to promote early literacy and reading skills, with the Love to Read campaign and the Let's Read national campaign coming together to include literacy and promote libraries across the country.

He was honoured with an Order of Australia in 1995 and was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Canberra in October 2012. It was Peekay in the Power of One who said:

Man is a romantic at heart and will always put aside dull, plodding reason for the excitement of an enigma…mystery, not logic, is what gives us hope and keeps us believing in a force greater than our own insignificance.

Bryce Courtenay will be remembered for the excitement he brought with his books, with their romanticism, with their mystery and with their hope. My thoughts are with Bryce's wife Christine, his family and friends at this very difficult time. We salute a great Australian storyteller, a great Australian icon.

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