Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to have the opportunity to rise briefly to make a statement of condolence in relation to the death of the former senator Brian Harradine. I had the opportunity to meet Senator Harradine and deal with him and members of his staff during the period between 1996 and 2000 when I served on the staff of then coalition minister for communications in the Howard government, Senator Richard Alston. Senator Brian Harradine was a wily and effective negotiator, as has been noted in many of the tributes given to him and given about him since his recent death.

I would like to focus my remarks particularly on the important role Senator Harradine played in the very important policy area of the privatisation of Telstra, a critical step in the path towards deregulating and opening up to greater competition the telecommunications sector in Australia. In 1996 the Howard government had come to power with a promise to privatise one-third of Telstra, with the proceeds to be spent on, amongst other things, the Natural Heritage Trust. The legislation went through the House of Representatives because the coalition of course had a majority in the House. It then fell to the minister with carriage of the legislation, Senator Alston, to see if he could get the legislation through the Senate. This was a daunting challenge, and I just want to quote something I wrote about this in my book Wired Brown Land? Telstra's Battle for Broadband a few years ago. When I spoke with Senator Alston to get his recollections of that period, he said that in essence he was not optimistic that the Senate would pass the legislation but that 'it was such a major policy we were determined to at least show that we had done everything possible to get it through'.

It turned out that the key figure in that negotiating process was Senator Harradine, because if the legislation were to pass the Senate it would require his support and also the support of another Independent, Senator Mal Colston. The Labor Party had made it clear that they were opposed to this privatisation, although when in government they had privatised the Commonwealth Bank, they had privatised Qantas and they had privatised Commonwealth Serum Laboratories, or CSL, and a range of other government business enterprises. But apparently the privatisation of Telstra was anathema; it was poor policy.

But Senator Harradine had a more open mind. Senator Harradine approached the question with a willingness to engage. He did not hold himself out to be an authority or an expert on telecommunications policy, but he was certainly ready to engage and he was, of course, prepared to conscientiously carry out his duty as a senator for Tasmania. So a key question for Senator Harradine was: what would the implications of the arrangements be for Tasmania? That was the question, amongst others, which very properly he sought to answer as he deliberated on the question of whether he would support the government's bill to authorise the privatisation of one-third of Telstra.

During that period in late 1996 there were extensive discussions with Senator Harradine by Senator Alston and members of his staff got involved, as did members of Senator Harradine's staff. I can certainly say from my own personal experience that the tributes that have been offered to Senator Harradine by many, which have noted his ability as a negotiator, his clever and determined and a shrewd style, are observations which certainly gel with my own experience.

I am pretty sure it was on the day that the bill was to be voted upon in the Senate there was an announcement that the government would establish what was to be called the Regional Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund. This announcement provoked a response from New South Wales Senator John Faulkner, who had this to say in a direct attack upon Senator Harradine:

I do not think it is a coincidence, Senator Harradine, that Senator Alston put out a media release headed 'Telstra presence in Tasmania and Queensland'. For you to be so naive to come in here and suggest that we did not see a political deal or suggest that this media release and the government's announcement on the regional telecommunications infrastructure fund was just a coincidence, I think is the most extraordinary flight of fancy on your part.

This illustrates, I think, another important theme in Senator Harradine's career. He started as a Labor man but he was expelled from the Labor Party in 1975 in the culmination of a vicious factional dispute. He carried out his duties as an Independent senator for Tasmania in accordance with what he saw as his obligations and in accordance with his conscience, and he was required to deal with the kind of hostility that I have just exemplified in the quote from some comments by Senator Faulkner from time to time—perhaps, more than from time to time. But throughout all his period as a senator he conducted himself in accordance with his principles and in accordance with what he felt was in the interests of his constituents.

He was, as I have said, a wily and effective negotiator. No less a commentator than former Prime Minister John Howard has remarked upon that. He certainly did not see eye to eye with the coalition on many issues, but when it came to the privatisation of Telstra, after deliberating very carefully, he did support the 1996 bill to privatise one-third of Telstra. The other Independent, Mal Colston, also supported it and, as a result, the legislation received the requisite 39 votes in the Senate so as to pass into law.

I thought it was important to reflect just for a moment on, of the many important things that Senator Harradine deed, his role in contributing to an important outcome in telecommunications policy in Australia. I found it instructive and educational to have the opportunity as an adviser to then Senator Alston to have some dealings with Senator Harradine and I want to note my sadness at his passing and express my condolences to his family and friends.

Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a privilege this morning to speak on the condolence motion for Senator Brian Harradine, who died, aged 79, on 14 April. In all respects it was a life well lived. I would like to associate myself with the remarks from the member for Bradfield and also the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition in the House yesterday.

Although I never knew him personally, what I learned about Senator Harradine I learned from his public persona. Those of us who share a public life in this place recognise the risk of making assumptions about people based on publicity or what we see in the media. But with Senator Harradine I think what you saw was what you got. As I was looking from afar, he struck me as a passionate man, a man of strong personal beliefs and convictions. He also struck me as a wily politician. As the member for Bradfield indicated, he was someone who knew who had voted for him, and he was determined to represent their interests in the Senate to the absolute best of his ability. He was a very significant figure in Australian political life over three decades. He represented Tasmania with an enormous amount of integrity.

I was struck by the comments from others in relation to Senator Harradine on his passing, including former Prime Minister John Howard, who said:

He was a just man, and he identified with principles and stuck with them.

He never deviated. If he gave his word on something, he stuck to it. When he would not give his word on something, you knew you had no hope of getting it.

The Prime Minister in the House yesterday said:

In a long and distinguished career, Brian Harradine was deeply respected for his values and for his principles. He was deeply respected as a man of honour and integrity. He engaged in many fights, but it was never about him; it was always about the cause.

For Brian Harradine, faith and family were everything. So I say to Brian's family, on behalf of the government, to his wife, Marian, to their 13 children, to their 38 grandchildren and to their family and friends: he was a good man. He made a contribution to this country and will be missed.

Most of all I get the sense that Senator Harradine had a very strong sense himself of family and community. So I extend my condolences, on behalf of the people of Gippsland, on his passing. His 13 children, who I know miss him dearly, would have a deep sense of family pride in the way Senator Harradine served our community. To Bede, Anthony, Gemma, Paul, Fiona, Richard, Phillip, Nicola, Cushla, David, Ben, Ann and Mary, I extend my condolences, and to his wife, Marianne. Only they know the sacrifices that a family member makes for a life lived so publicly. I think it was Prime Minister Abbott himself who said on several occasions that members of this place are volunteers when it comes to public life but their families are conscripts to the cause. Our families are so important to us in this place. I recognise Senator Harradine's family in that regard.

As I said, I never had the opportunity to meet Senator Harradine personally, but I do know his daughter Mary and regard her as a very close family friend. Mary actually lives in the same street as I live in in Lakes Entrance. I asked Mary if the family would like to put anything on the public record in relation to Senator Harradine's career. Bede has provided me with some words of remembrance, which I will take the opportunity to read into the Hansard now:

Brian Harradine was a humble man. Throughout life he never sought the praise of others. For some he was a parliamentary colleague: fearless, determined, formidable. For others, he was the perfect gentleman. For countless others, he was the man who assisted them with an immigration problem here, or stopped to help a stranger fix a puncture there, and always with warmth, gentleness and a genuine smile.

For family, he was far more than a man with a three song piano repertoire, who loved a game of cards, and who once had a fifth share in a sixth-rate racehorse. He was a practical witness to self-giving love.

Brian Harradine spoke often about two main themes.

The first was "values and organisation". One without the other: what can one really achieve? The second was the International Labour Organisation's aim "to contribute to the development of an economic and social order in which people can live with freedom and dignity and pursue both their spiritual development and material well-being in conditions of economic security and equal opportunity". This echoed for him the essence of Catholic social teaching, and it was an aspiration he made his own.

Brian always knew the limits of the public life. He himself once spoke whimsically of being a rooster one day, and ending up a feather duster the next. Over the years, many tried to stereotype and pigeon-hole Brian. Yet Brian Harradine—the statesman in the tradition of Thomas Moore—was always far deeper, his vision far broader, than they could ever fathom.

Brian Harradine lived well his 79 years on this earth, his own delicate hold on life ending on 14 April. He was blessed with Marian his wife, an ardent supporter, a confidant who gave wise counsel, a loving wife and mother, and a careful steward of the household. Theirs was a faithful, loving union, sustained by a shared faith, and a love of bushwalking in the Tasmanian wilderness. Their union endured the pressure of public life, the challenges of raising a large family and, in recent years, the cross of Brian's growing infirmity.

It was supremely fitting that the drama of Brian's final struggle took place in the week of Christianity's central drama. How frequently his family heard him recall the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary. He reflected upon this often, telling his family how it renewed his own commitment to follow Christ in his personal and public life.

Brian Harradine remained to the very end a faithful servant to family, to friends, to society, and to God. May he rest in peace.

It is a great privilege to read those comments from the Harradine family. It is only fitting that a man who served this place with enormous integrity and left this place with that integrity intact should be recognised through this condolence motion. I thank the House.

Eric Hutchinson (Lyons, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise as a fellow Tasmanian to join with others—and I associate my remarks with those of the members who have already contributed to this debate—in paying my respects to a good man and to a life well lived. Brian Harradine was a giant in Tasmanian politics who delivered real benefits for my state and the people thereof. He stands as the longest-serving independent senator in the history of Australia's federation. He made every minute of his 30 years as a senator for Tasmania count. Respected journalist Tony Wright wrote in The Sydney Morning Herald recently, a few days after Mr Harradine passed away last month, that fellow politicians and prime ministers soon discovered that the senator from Tasmania was one of the toughest and wiliest in their midst. When modern politicians are patting themselves on the back for what they see as the new age of Independents and minor parties, Senator Harradine remains the man who wrote the rules for the 'effective power of one', as Tony Wright called it.

His mightiest achievement for his beloved home state was securing massive amounts of funding for Tasmanian telecommunications and the environment that he loved so much. Even in today's terms, the $350 million he negotiated with the Howard government, in exchange for his support in the Senate for the sale of one-third of Telstra, was extraordinary.

He came from humble stock and, to the end of his life, was unashamedly a conservative Catholic who publicly upheld the values that he believed so dearly in. He was born in Quorn, South Australia in 1935 and moved to Tasmania in 1959. He served as an official for the Federated Clerks Union from 1964 to 1976 and as Secretary-General of the Tasmanian Trades and Labour Council. In 1968, the federal executive of the Australian Labor Party refused to let Mr Harradine take his seat on the body as a member of the executive of the Australian Council of Trade Unions. The vote was put again after the former Labor leader Gough Whitlam resigned and demanded a new ballot. He was eventually expelled by the federal executive in 1975 by a majority of one vote. He contested the 1975 election as an independent for the Senate and won comfortably. He remained a senator until deciding not to contest the 2004 election.

Mr Harradine's behaviour could rarely be predicted. He once discarded his shoes and danced with the Indigenous Wik people outside the High Court in Canberra when they won a long-running land rights case that he had helped broker. He was a familiar sight for years around the streets of Tasmanian towns, campaigning in a tiny Fiat car loaded with children. He and his first wife, Barbara, who died in 1980, had six children. He is survived by his second wife, Marian, who was a widow when they married with seven children.

Some of my earliest memories of politics include Brian Harradine. As a young man growing up in Tasmania, he was one of the most identifiable personalities in my formative years. Certainly in this business, we can never please everyone; that is the business of politics. But, indeed, respect comes for standing for something—in Brian Harradine's case, for principles that were based in his strong Christian faith. My condolences go to his wife and to his broader family. May he rest in peace.