Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Reconciliation and the Arts) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I had the opportunity to meet and get to know the late Don Chipp prior to the time of my entering the parliament. Even though it was an intermittent relationship, it was one that I valued. Upon coming into the parliament as the member for Kingsford Smith, I was again fortunate enough to be able to have occasional phone conversations with Don as he reflected on the state of politics in the world, and I consider myself very fortunate to have been able to do that. We mark the passing of an outstanding Australian political character as we speak to the condolence motion moved in the parliament to recognise Don Chipp’s life and his life’s work, expressing our condolences to his family: his wife, Idun, and to his two daughters by her and also his two sons and two daughters from his first marriage.

I am sure all members would agree that Don Chipp’s parliamentary career was a distinguished and long one. He was elected to the House of Representatives, to the seat of Higinbotham, in Victoria, at a by-election in 1960 and was re-elected in 1961, 1963 and 1966. There was then redistribution, with the seat of Higinbotham becoming the seat of Hotham, and he was again re-elected in 1968, 1969, 1972, 1974 and 1975. He very clearly had the capacity to reach out to his constituents and be elected. He resigned in 1977 from the House of Representatives and was elected to the Senate in 1977 and 1983 and resigned in 1986, after having performed what I think was an outstanding and extraordinary feat in forming from start-up a third party on the Australian political landscape, the Australian Democrats, which he led and retained a close involvement with and provided much commentary for up until the time of his death.

Don Chipp struck me as being—amongst many other things but most notably—a very compassionate person. He was someone whose politics evolved to the Left from the Right as he matured over time. He retained a great interest in the political process. He was concerned at the direction of Liberal politics and he was concerned at the prospects of the party that he founded, the Democrats.

Some commentators have remarked that the passing of Don Chipp is the passing of liberalism in Australian politics. I do not know whether that is the case or not. It is probably too soon to say, but it is fair to note the significant contribution he made, particularly in his period of time as a Liberal government minister, in freeing up the bounds of censorship in Australia and in the way he communicated the policies and the views that he believed in strongly to the public at large. I think there was a residual public affection for Chipp’s craggy face and for his heartfelt views whenever they were expressed.

It is a mark of the contribution that Donald Leslie Chipp made to this country that he was awarded an Order of Australia, that he was afforded a state funeral upon his passing and that there were many eminent and distinguished people from public life who attended it. I think it is also a mark of the man that he ultimately knew no favours in expressing his views. He spoke strongly for and against members of this political party, as he did for and against members of the party of which he was once a member. He strongly endorsed the prime ministership of Bob Hawke and the treasurership of Paul Keating, and he was equally strong in his views about other significant political figures of his day. Chipp wanted to be remembered as a good old honest bastard and as someone who gave it his best shot. I think that he most definitely did that, and he will be remembered well in this House and at large for his great contribution.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I first came across Don Chipp the man, as opposed to Don Chipp the public figure, when I invited him to join the Victorian council of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy. It was 1993 and I confess that I was more than a little anxious that the apparent tide of public opinion might have weakened Don’s longstanding commitment to the Crown. But I need not have worried. It turned out that his only concern was about joining an organisation which also included, at that time, Malcolm Fraser. This concern subsequently evaporated when Malcolm, without any warning whatsoever, defected to the republican side.

Don was a passionate man, as many people have remarked. He was impatient with stuffiness and formality, but he was also, in his own way, a conservative man. He was passionate about those things which he thought were enduring values, and he had a strong sense of the need for continuity as well as change. I well recall his speech to the Constitutional Convention held in 1998 in Old Parliament House. In the opening of that speech, Don said:

It has been an awesome week for me. The place is littered with ghosts of the past. … Ghosts like Billy McMahon keep appearing. I remember once he was about there and he was clowning around and saying, ‘I am my own worst enemy,’ to which the unmistakable interjection of Sir James Killen came: ‘Not while I’m alive you’re not.’ … Those are the sorts of memories that this place evokes: a wonderful place and you could not possibly find a better location for a convention of this kind.

The last time I saw Don was to discuss Parkinson’s disease, from which he was then suffering. Up to 100,000 Australians have Parkinson’s disease and up to 1,000 Australians a year die from the complications of Parkinson’s disease. There is no cure, but there is some treatment.

Through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, the government spends about $36 million a year on Parkinson’s disease drugs. Over the past six years the National Health and Medical Research Council has spent $14 million on Parkinson’s disease research. As a result of that meeting with Don, the government gave $100,000 to the Mental Health Council to encourage better coordination of those bodies dealing with diseases of the brain.

There certainly are few politicians whose legacy is felt 20 years after they formally leave this place. Don was famously dropped from Malcolm Fraser’s cabinet, but as things turned out he was a much bigger man than most of those who remained. He will be missed and he certainly will not be forgotten, and he deserves to be commemorated by this House.

Petro Georgiou (Kooyong, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I wish to support the condolence motion for the Hon. Don Leslie Chipp. I first met Don Chipp some 30 years ago, when he was shadow minister for social security, and I was privileged to work with him on the social security policy that he took to the 1975 election. I recollect that he was very gratified at the positive response to that policy at that stage, despite the fact that 1975 was not really an election fought on policy grounds. Despite his progressive estrangement and eventual departure from the Liberal Party to form the Australian Democrats, we did keep in touch over the years on a variety of issues, and I particularly appreciated the very moving comments Don’s daughter Debbie Reid passed on to me earlier this week.

The diversity and depth of Don Chipp’s contribution to Australian politics is quite remarkable. He was a backbencher, a minister in the Holt, Gorton, McMahon and Fraser governments, a backbencher again and then a senator and the founder and leader of a new political party. In this last role Don achieved what is rare in Australian politics; not to put too fine a point on it, it was almost unique. I do not think that anyone who has been involved in the business of managing a well-established political party can fully appreciate the demands of setting up a new one from scratch: the motivation of people to join a new party, the need to put the nuts and bolts into place, and the effort to imbue a new body with a sense of ethos and mission. Don Chipp attended to all that and, to the surprise of many people, he did it superlatively. He formed the Democrats just after he left the Liberal Party in 1977. In November of that year the Democrats fought their first election, winning two Senate positions, which increased to seven by 1985. That was the year before Don Chipp retired from the Senate.

This is not a time for an analysis of the Australian Democrats or of their current standing, but it is worth noting that the party he founded held the balance of power in the Senate for 15 years from 1981. Don Chipp was a man of many talents and of passion and commitment. He was not a conventional politician; he was a reformer and a traditionalist, a rebel and a creator. He made a difference to the causes he advanced—to civil liberties, the environment and Indigenous affairs, to name just a few. He made a significant contribution to Australia. Don endured the vicissitudes of politics and a debilitating disease and still managed to maintain his passion, his enthusiasm, his humanity and his sense of humour. He will be missed by people of all political persuasions.

On a personal note, having worked with both Don Chipp and Malcolm Fraser, whose relationship was sometimes, to put it diplomatically, attenuated, I am glad that Malcolm and Tamie Fraser were at Don’s service last Saturday to be part of what Malcolm quite properly described as ‘a great send-off for Don’. I wish to put on the record my appreciation of Don’s contribution to Australian politics and give my condolences to his wife, Idun, his brother, Frank, and his children, Debbie, John, Greg, Melissa, Juliet and Laura. I commend the motion to the House.

Russell Broadbent (McMillan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am probably one representative in this House who was more distant from Mr Chipp than the federal member for Kooyong—with his intimate relationship with him and his memories of and history with him—and also than the member for Kingsford Smith, who spoke so eloquently in regard to Don Chipp. However, I know that Don Chipp was a man who worked hard and played hard. He was a rascal to a degree, a great family man, a lover of life and a lover of the environment.

I came across Mr Chipp, as he was at the time, in his retirement. As a candidate for the seat of Streeton, long since departed, I met Don Chipp, who was a constituent in that area. Because of his long association and friendship with many Liberals, whom he held as close friends for many years after his departure from politics, I was invited to the family home to meet with Don to talk about the issues that affected the particular area in which I was a candidate and where I might head in my future political activity. It was because of his relationship at that time with Barry Simon, the previous member for McMillan, and his wife, Ruth, who remained firm friends over the years.

Of course, my condolences go to his family. This death occurred in difficult circumstances, as can happen as people grow older. However, to the end he was a fighter, and the public that I know would remember Don Chipp fighting to the last moment about the issues that were important to the broader community. He was a politician who never lost sight of those battlers out in the broader community, particularly in Victoria. He was a great lover of people.

So I come to this debate not with an intimacy that others have enjoyed with the man, but looking from the perspective of the broader public. We are grateful for the life and times of Don Chipp. We are grateful for the contribution he made not only in the House but in the Senate. We are particularly grateful, as the member for Kingsford Smith agreed, for the changes that he was prepared to make that set Australia up for the future, particularly with regard to the issues that affected him directly, being, in my opinion, censorship, the environment and proper governance of the nation. Australia will be a lesser place for the loss of Don Chipp.

Harry Jenkins (Scullin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

From the chair, I would like to associate myself with this motion. Whilst I observed Don Chipp the public figure, I am very heartened that in recognising his life we have recognised his formative years as a product of the northern suburbs of Melbourne and as a supporter of the Fitzroy Football Club—the fact that he was a ‘Roy Boy’. I acknowledge that not only in his lifetime as a member of the Liberal Party was he a true liberal but in his creation of a third force in Australian politics he understood that our politics is about the discussion of ideas, that we are as a nation a broad church and that everyone should be able to pursue their opinions with the freedoms that our system allows. I join with other members who have spoken in this debate in expressing my condolences to Don’s family and all who admired and loved his life. I know that it will not be forgotten.

I understand that it is the wish of honourable members to signify at this stage their respect and sympathy by rising in their places.

Question agreed to, honourable members standing in their places.