Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House record its deep regret at the passing, on 20 November last year, of the Hon. Dr Donald James (Don) Grimes AO, a former senator for Tasmania, Minister for Social Security, Minister for Community Services and ambassador to the Netherlands, and place on record its appreciation of his service to Australia, and offer its heartfelt sympathy to his family in their bereavement.

All of us would recall the wonder, awe and trepidation of the first time we came in here to speak in this place. It's a moment that we would never forget, but none of us may have had the experience of Don Grimes. Arriving in the chamber for his first speech, he was greeted by the Labor leader in the Senate, Lionel Murphy, who deftly took the speech off him and said, 'You'll perform better thinking on your feet.' Without notes, Don Grimes gave a word-perfect first speech. Maybe that was because he knew what he wanted to say and knew what he wanted to do in public life. Maybe that's why the man with less than four years in the cabinet can be remembered as a minister of real consequence.

Don Grimes grew up in Albury. He was the son of a railway fitter and turner and a nurse. After his mother died during his teenage years, Don and his sister moved to Sydney to live with their aunty. In Sydney, attending Fort Street, he thrived. He played all three football codes and was accepted to study medicine at the University of Sydney. It was there that serendipity intervened, and he studied under Dr Peter Baume. In ways neither imagined, Australia would benefit from the trust that developed between the two. Don completed his internship at the Royal Hobart and then became a general practice locum throughout Tasmania. He felt comfortable, if not called, to work in communities right across Tasmania, and he ultimately settled in Launceston.

Don Grimes's path to parliament was unlikely. In 1974 he was chosen to be third on the Labor ticket for a half-Senate election—in those days there were five seats up for grabs in total. But that year there was a double dissolution election instead, and another candidate on the ticket pulled out. He then became fifth on the party ticket for the full Senate and he won. He entered parliament at the start of the second term of the Whitlam government, and it was at this time that he hardened his political credentials. As Senator John Button later put it, 'Don Grimes found the political processes of the Whitlam government very unusual. He didn't believe in what he called the utopian Left or in symbolism and noisy issues, to quote him. He saw this as "the means by which you turn your ideas into realities and your visions into practicalities", he said.'

In the 7½ years of the Fraser government, Don Grimes was the shadow minister for social security. It was a portfolio that accounted for one-third of the budget and, without the computing power of today, was a monumental paper-driven bureaucracy. He used that time to absorb the details and nuances of that complex portfolio.

On election to government, Don Grimes was the deputy Senate leader, part of Bob Hawke's leadership group in a cabinet of just 13. It was there he drove three profound changes that live on today. The first was the implementation of the assets test for the pension. Don Grimes believed in equity and a strong safety net that was sustainable. He met very heavy opposition, but it is to his credit that, even today, the foundations he laid still remain. As the social services minister who reformed those asset tests parameters six years ago, I understand the importance and complexity as well as the risk associated with what he achieved. I thank him for his legacy, as well as the significance of the foundation.

The second was in disability services. He established the Disability Advisory Council, because people with disabilities were not part of the policy conversations that were shaping their lives. All too often, it was institutions who spoke for them, and sometimes not with their interests at heart. He was responsible for the Disability Services Act, which, for the first time, linked government funding of organisations to outcomes for people with a disability.

His third most significant achievement related to Australia's response to the AIDS epidemic. As a physician, Don Grimes understood epidemiology. He knew Australia had to move quickly on AIDS, but he was also aware of the fear and prejudice that could hinder Australia's response. With the health minister not part of the cabinet, it fell to him, working with the health minister, Neal Blewett, to convince the cabinet to act. It helped immensely that he was a doctor. And they had an ally in Dr Peter Baume, who was on the opposition front bench, who said, 'You take care of Labor and you leave the Libs to me.'

Don Grimes was the first minister to answer a question in parliament on AIDS and the first minister to raise AIDS in cabinet. As he later told Troy Bramston: 'I had lots of conversations about AIDS. Hawke and Keating and some others initially were very suspicious about the seriousness of AIDS and HIV. We talked it over and, as a government, we handled that issue very well.' True that is. It is to the everlasting credit of Don Grimes, Neal Blewett and Peter Baume that Australia did handle it so well. Untold thousands of lives were saved.

For Don Grimes, life spectacularly intervened in the second term of the Hawke government when he had a massive heart attack. To use the vernacular of that time, he had 'an appointment with the Black+Decker'—open heart surgery, a triple bypass—and it did change him. He quit the cigarettes, cut back on the alcohol and became a daily walker, and he kept it up and lived another 36 years—a lesson to us all. It was possibly during one of those walks that he had an epiphany. He said, 'If you stand up on Black Mountain, you'll see all these roads leading to Canberra, but it's an illusion. In fact, all these roads are leading away from Canberra, and that is the more important direction to go.' Fair point.

On leaving the parliament, Don Grimes served as the Australian Ambassador to the Netherlands, and as ambassador he chaired the WHO's committee on AIDS in prisons. In keeping with his outward-looking ethos, Don Grimes returned to Australia and chaired the Australian National Council on AIDS. His deputy chair was Dr Peter Baume, continuing a long bipartisan partnership between the two doctors.

Don Grimes was a very practical man, a man of great consequence, of whom we in this place, on both sides of the House, can be very proud that he served here and achieved all the things that he has. His family and his party can be proud of his contribution, and we particularly thank his family for his great service to our country. On behalf of the government, I extend to his children, Roger, Jan, Jenny, Sally and Ben, and his wider family the condolences of the government and the parliament and the gratitude of the Australian people. May he rest in peace.

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