Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise this morning to commemorate the passing of a great union man and great Labor man. Charles Frederick Van Buren passed away this week. He was a friend of mine and, indeed, a friend of the member for Calwell, who is with us this morning. He was a long-serving member of the Australian Labor Party, a great unionist and also, of course, the upper house member for Eumemmerring in the Victorian parliament from April 1985 to August 1992. Freddie, as we knew him, was a very passionate person: he cared about people and he cared about the things that matter. Even well after his union and parliamentary careers, he was always concerned about the plight of working people and working families.

The last time I spoke to him was when I was the federal member for Burke and he was a local member of the Sunbury branch, which is now incorporated into the member for Calwell’s electorate. Even though he was in his late 60s, he forever came into my office, which was then located in Sunbury, giving me ideas. He read speeches from Hansard, gave me tips about the best way I should take up industrial relations with the government, explained to me what I should be doing in local matters in Sunbury and how I should look after and attend to the problems of street kids in Sunbury. Effectively, he had concerns for people across the spectrum.

He was an organiser for the ALP for 11 years. That was probably the time when I first met him, in the period between 1974 and 1985. I was just a very young Labor member. I remember him counselling me about the way in which to doorknock and all sorts of other things. He was also a member of the PKIU, but people probably knew him best—in the latter part of his life, at least—as a unionist, as the industrial officer of the NUW. He spent some time in Tasmania and inspired people there. He will be much missed. I pass on my best wishes to his family.