Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the condolence motion on the death of the Honourable Robert George—otherwise known as Bob—Halverson OBE. Like the member for Berowra, I too was a great friend of Bob Halverson. Indeed, I might mention a couple of things as we go through the course of this small contribution I make in recording his life. He was, in many senses of the word, a giant of a man. He had, as we know, served in the Royal Australian Air Force from 1956 to 1981. He had enlisted as an officer cadet and topped his class in 1957. We heard that he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1978 for his work with Britain's Royal Air Force during the Queen's Silver Jubilee, and of course he received the Centenary Medal in 2001. Those things are formal notations of what had shaped much of his life. He was a man who was about service. When he came to the parliament, it was to serve the people of Australia—a country he loved.

I came to the parliament in 1987, after he had already become a member, but over the course of time we became strong friends. Indeed, that friendship included the period when there was much discussion as to whether I was to become the leader of the Liberal Party and whether I would go on, as the pundits were saying at the time, to be the first woman Prime Minister. He was a great supporter of me in that period, and I would like to place on record my thanks for the work that he did and the encouragement that he certainly gave me at that time. As the member for Casey, he worked hard in that seat. There were many occasions when I would join him at events that were important, talking about the parliament or whatever else we were doing at the time.

In opposition, as I said, it was a fast and furious time. When John Howard succeeded Alexander Downer as the Leader of the Opposition, we settled into a pattern of being determined to win that election. Upon winning that election and during the lead-up period, Bob had been the whip. When we won the election, Bob decided that he would run for the office of Speaker. I have to say that he was a very popular member among those of us in the Liberal Party, in the coalition. Bob was successful in winning the ballot to be the preselected candidate, if you like, for the position of speaker, which is the way it is done, and then, when he was put forth in the chamber, he was duly elected to that role.

Traditionally, conservative speakers had worn the ancient garb and, as the member for Berowra mentioned, Bob refused to wear the wig, but he did wear other parts of the apparel, although slightly toned down. But that acknowledged the tradition in his mind. I think it was a very wise decision that he made, showing that the office of Speaker was transitioning. The office of Speaker, as we know, is one of the most ancient in the parliament, dating back to 1377. The only other office within the parliament which is older is that of the Clerk. The reason that the Clerk always does the first readings and so on is that he was probably, in those times, the only person who could read and the members of those early parliaments needed to be told what was in the bills. In the office of Speaker we see the traditional struggle to go up to the chair. In its history, it is an office that is strewn with people who lost their heads or lost office for one reason or another. In changing the garb, he was flagging that there was to be a transition. The way he saw it was that he wanted to change the way that question time, in particular, was conducted. As I had come from the Senate, I understood what supplementary questions were about, but it was something that was rather frowned upon when he introduced it into the House of Representatives, although there were many who enjoyed the opportunity of using the supplementary questions. There was, shall we say, a tense relationship between the government of the day and Speaker Halverson, but he held his ground. He, in my view, marked out the important position of the Speaker's independence from the government and the opposition—in the sense that the office is one of the parliament. He made that a firm position. Others have interpreted that differently, but his speakership was, I think, a turning point—and one that should be marked.

He subsequently became the Australian Ambassador to Ireland and the Holy See and he received a papal knighthood for his services to the Vatican. He was a man who was able to transition from military life to life as a stockbroker, to life in the parliament, to life as the Speaker and to life as a diplomat. He was a fine friend and an excellent servant of this wonderful country, Australia.

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