Paul Neville (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As I did not have the opportunity to speak on the Sir Zelman Cowen condolence motion in the Federation Chamber, I thought that I would reflect briefly on it tonight. I am a devotee of Sir Thomas More. I think Robert Bolt got it right when he called him the man for all seasons. So it is not an accolade I throw around easily but if there were an Australian who met that qualification it would mostly likely be Sir Zelman Cowen.

He had very modest beginnings. Early in life he attended St Kilda Park state school, Scotch College and the University of Melbourne. He went into the Royal Australian Navy as an intelligence officer during the war and, on coming out of that, took up his Rhodes scholarship. So he must have been a very distinguished student as well as being loyal in the service of his country. As a Rhodes scholar he attended New College and later he was a fellow of Oriel College at Oxford. Interestingly he went back to Oriel College from 1982 to 1990 as its provost.

He had a similarly distinguished career at Melbourne University as a student, dean of law and, later in life, emeritus professor. I think the Australian university community was well served by him as vice-chancellor of New England University in Armidale and also seven years as vice-chancellor of the University of Queensland in Brisbane. That was at a very tumultuous time in Queensland history, I might add.

He was distinguished around the world. He advised the British government on German wartime law. He advised Indian states and Hong Kong. He was accredited to many distinguished universities including in Washington, Illinois, Calcutta and numerous Australian cities. He had an extraordinary academic career.

But Sir Zelman Cowen's greatest contribution—we all know it—was in the healing he provided in the wake of the Whitlam dismissal. I do not intend to canvass the rights and wrongs of the dismissal but it would be true to say that it left Australia a very wounded and fractious place. With people on both sides of the argument in heavily entrenched positions you would have said that this was going to last in Australia for decades. But fortunately for all our sakes it did not. Largely the healing influence was Zelman Cowen because in that distinguished career he never played partisan politics, so he was the ideal person. In 4½ short years he knitted the country back together, so to speak, in a very humble and sensitive way. We will be always grateful to him, I am sure, for that.

It is interesting that in the dying days of the old imperial honours system he was probably our most distinguished awardee. He was a Knight of the Order of Australia; he received the Grand Cross of St Michael and St George and the Royal Victorian Order; he was a Queen's Counsel; he was a Privy Counsellor. On top of all his university accolades, you could not get a more distinguished Australian. He loved football. He was an author. He was, literally, a man for all seasons.

As a boy, when I started to get interested in politics, I can remember him. He used to broadcast on the ABC just before the midday news and at night on what was called Notes on the News. Zelman Cowen was always one of the greatest exponents of explaining the news.

On behalf of my electorate, Hinkler, I extend condolences to his wife and his four children. He was a great and very distinguished Australian.

Peter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Hinkler is right: Sir Zelman was a truly wonderful person.