Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On 1 May at the Sydney Town Hall, well over a thousand people gathered to farewell a great man and a great Australian. It was a fitting day—1 May, May Day—the day that Labor movements around the world commemorate the struggles that working people have fought to build a better society. It was a fitting venue—the Sydney Town Hall—the town hall where Neville Wran had dominated party conferences for so many years, alternately charming and, you would have to say, sometimes forcing through his views, and the place where he shocked Labor Party members by announcing his retirement well before any of us were ready to see him go. It was a fitting day, it was a fitting venue and there were many fitting tributes on the day from former colleagues, from Labor greats and, most importantly of all, from his family.

I was pretty young in 1978, the year that the 'Wranslide' election happened, but I cannot forget—and I do not think any of us could forget—the feeling of optimism that that Wranslide brought with it and that incredibly catchy jingle, 'Wran's the man'. They had some footage at the service at the town hall of that advertising campaign and kids from different schools singing the words, because it got right into your head and it stayed there—and it stayed there for many decades.

Neville Wran was the outstanding political figure of his time. Bob Ellis said that Neville Wran saved Labor, because he showed New South Wales and he showed the country that Labor governments were responsible, centrist governments; that Labor inhabited the sensible centre and that we could run a strong economy, a decent transport system and a strong health and education system. He made those reforms that recognised the growing population of Sydney's west by moving hospital beds to the west. He was able to manage the state, manage the state economy and manage services professionally in a way that gave people enormous confidence.

But he was also, at the same time, able to push the bounds of what we previously thought possible in politics. His moves on antidiscrimination, gazetting national parks, Aboriginal land rights, consumer protection and decriminalising homosexuality—all of these progressive values were brought into our daily lives in New South Wales by a man who absolutely had the pulse of the people that he represented and governed on behalf of.

Neville Wran was a great leader of the state and he was a great leader of New South Wales Labor. It is said that you could have sold tickets to caucus meetings when Neville Wran was premier. You never knew whether he was going to charm you or dump a bucket on you, but either way it would be effective and it would be entertaining. He absolutely dominated his caucus, and yet he had the ability to say when an issue was going wrong, 'Okay, well this is something we have to reconsider.' He was a great leader because he was able to set a direction that the party followed and that the state progressed along, at the same time as taking people with him.

As well as having that discipline that he insisted on from the Cabinet and from the party, he was also able to capture the public imagination—and I have spoken about the ability he had to both govern in the sensible centre and to progress us and take us forward. He could talk to anyone. He had a connection with voters that was truly extraordinary, and I suppose in some ways—although many of the speakers at the service at the town hall spoke about the enigma of Neville Wran—his ability to connect across the board probably represents something about his own journey in life.

He grew up in very difficult circumstances in Balmain. Famously, he said that Balmain boys do not cry. When you know a little bit about his history, as his very good friend the member for Wentworth does and as people, particularly Rodney Cavalier, spoke about at the Sydney Town Hall, you see the toughness that comes with growing up in difficult circumstances but surrounded by love and the advantages that the support of his siblings and family gave him, despite the difficult economic circumstances that he started with.

Through his intelligence, application and hard work he was able to succeed professionally. He could have done literally anything. His very successful business career after politics shows that too. That journey through his life really gave him the opportunity and the ability to talk to anyone and to relate to anyone. It also I think made him absolutely determined to inhabit the sensible centre of politics. He was asked about capital punishment after a particularly terrible crime and he said, 'Hanging is too good for the bastards,' or something similar. I think that story shows both his ability to understand the impulse that we have after a particularly terrible crime to wreak vengeance but also the intellect he brought to the question of capital punishment. It is a terrific example of how he dealt with many of the controversial issues in public life.

He did not give up on trying to change the country for the better after he retired from politics. He stayed involved and was a sounding-board and very wise captain on the journey towards an Australian republic. His contribution there will continue to have an influence well beyond his life.

I want to finish by saying that his state, New South Wales, and the nation will miss him terribly and owe him a deep debt of gratitude. His friends of course will miss him more and his family most of all. I want to particularly give my condolences to his wife, Jill; his daughter Kim; his son Glenn; his daughter Harriet Wran; and Hugo Wran, his son. They were magnificently brave at the send-off for their father and were magnificently brave during the last years of his life that were very difficult for Neville and took a toll on his family too. We will miss him. He made a great impact on us. He was a great man.

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Neville Wran was my best friend. I certainly never had a better friend than Neville. I was in business with him for over a decade and we spent pretty much every working day together for well over a decade. He always used to say that he knew me before I knew him because he was a university friend of my mother's. He would regularly assert that he knew me when I was still en ventre ma mere, a legal term he was very fond of. I got to know him when we were two adults, although I was only barely an adult, when I was a young journalist in the press gallery in New South Wales starting in 1975 when Neville was the opposition leader. He was clearly the coming man. He had an urbanity, a wit and eloquence that had no parallel on either side of the house.

The Labor Party in those days was very different to what it is today. It is a much more tertiary educated, sophisticated group of people, albeit from a pretty narrow caste, I suppose—the apparatchik class. In those days the trade union officials in the parliament were horny-handed sons of toil—people who had worked with their hands, like Jack Ferguson, who was Neville's great friend. Neville was this extraordinarily urbane, beautifully dressed, extremely handsome man. Neville was a great heartthrob at university, my mother always told me, and he was a very handsome guy—an actor—and I suppose he could have been a movie star if he had turned his mind to it. So, he was quite remarkable.

Needless to say, it did not take long, despite the family connection, before we were coming to blows with each other. As the member for Sydney intimated, Neville had a take no prisoners approach to opponents. He was scathing—though always funny—in his attacks on his political opponents or opponents in the press. The Abbott government is accused of being critical of the ABC, but nobody could have been more scathing of the ABC than Neville Wran. I got to know him and we got on well, although in a fairly confrontational way sometimes. Towards the end of his premiership I was chatting to him and I said, 'What are you going to do—are you going to get out of politics?' He was quite bored with state politics by that stage. In fact, Neville told me 18 months after he became Premier that he was bored. The tragedy is that he never came to Canberra. It was one of those dreadful accidents of history and timing. He had had an operation on his throat—he had lost his voice and that would have made it difficult. Then Hawke came onto the scene, and the opportunity was no longer there.

I asked him what he was going to do and he mentioned a very good friend of his, Peter Valkenburg. He said he thought he might go into business with Peter. I asked, 'Neville, why would you want to go into business with someone as old as you?' When I was talking to Neville about this, he was exactly the same age I am today. I often think to myself that I was 31 years of age and I thought this bloke was just about knocked up—he was so old. I said to him that we should do something together. Bruce McWilliam and I had just set up our own law firm. I was in the middle of the Spycatcher case and we had a good practice, and I said that maybe there was something we could do together. Anyway, I told him, 'Don't hang around with people your own age, hang around with younger people.' That was definitely good advice.

Anyway, time went on and we worked together and then we set up an investment banking business called Whitlam Turnbull, with me, Nick Whitlam and Neville. Neville used to say it was one of those rare occasions when he was the smallest ego in the room. Nick left us in 1990 but Neville and I continued right through to 1997, and in fact some time after that, and it was a terrific partnership. It was very successful financially, but we had so much fun together. He was the best of men, such a wonderful friend. He was completely and utterly loyal. I have never known anybody whom you could count on more than Neville Wran. If I had to pull anybody out to stick with me in a tight corner, Neville was the most solid. Look at the way he stood by Lionel Murphy when Murphy was going through all of his travails. At one point Neville observed that he thought Murphy was innocent. To my great surprise, he was charged with contempt of court. To this day I do not know how you can be in contempt of court by saying you think somebody is innocent, because everyone is innocent until they are proven guilty. In any event, Neville was convicted in a decision that I must say I thought at the time was clearly wrong in law. It was after Neville was Premier, and he was fined $5,000 or something like that. I asked whether he was going to appeal to the High Court, and he said, 'No, no, son; the Labor Party loves a martyr.' He knew he would win on appeal.

He suffered dreadfully when he was in government because of accusations of corruption, which were baseless. I say they were baseless because the Liberal government that succeeded Labor in 1988 set up ICAC. Again, I must say I urged Nick Greiner not to do that; I had very strong views about star chambers, having represented Packer in the Costigan royal commission. And anyway, Nick set that up and it brought him down. But they certainly did not succeed in even making a coherent allegation against Wran.

Neville was very hurt by all of those allegations, really deeply hurt—that wounded him. He went through the royal commission over the Kevin Humphries rugby league allegations, and it hurt him. I can just say this about Wran: I knew him better. I would say there would be no man outside of his family that would have known Neville better than I did and, certainly, no-one who would have known his affairs better than I did. Neville Wran, when he got out of politics, had a pension and he had a house, and that was it. So all of those allegations about Wran being corrupt were simply baseless. But it is a rough business and I guess one cannot overdo the sympathy for him in that regard because he was a very tough partisan politician himself; he was playing in a rough game.

We had some amazing adventures together. At one point we were involved in a gold project in Siberia. We were financing a gold project in Siberia. Neville came on one trip to Siberia, and at the same time we had another gold project in Ghana. He took me aside after meeting all these bizarre people we encountered in Siberia—large men with guns and all this stuff. I thought it was pretty frightening. He took me aside and said, 'Son, here is the deal: you do Russia, I will do Africa.' So I commuted to Siberia and Neville commuted to Ghana!

We had some success in both of those emerging markets. But where we had a lot of success, frankly, was in China, where we worked together. It was something Neville and I were both very proud of. We got started and set up the first Sino-Western mining project, which is still extant, but was sold a long time ago. It was a big zinc mine in Hebei province. It was back more than 20 years ago, quite an achievement at that time.

He was, as the member for Sydney said, a leading member of the republican movement. In fact, the Australian Republican Movement was founded following a lunch between him and Tom Keneally over a bottle of chardonnay. I just wish they had not said that, because we were always accused of being chardonnay-swilling elitists as a consequence. But he was a key member of the ARM. He recognised that for the republican movement to be successful it could not be seen to be a Labor Party campaign in and of itself. So he was delighted when I became—in fact he encouraged me to become—the chairman of the ARM because, obviously, I had a background in the Liberal Party but at that time was not a member of any political party.

He was a source of extraordinary wisdom, always, in all of our years in the republican campaign. I have to say—and this is a matter of public record—that the ARM was largely funded by Neville and me for years. We were by far the largest financial supporters of it, and kept that campaign going for a very long time. Those people among us who have raised money for political parties know how hard that is; try raising money for something like that, where there is absolutely no power—it is just a constitutional reform agenda.

Neville has often been described as an enigma. I am not quite sure what people mean by that. I would say he was just very circumspect about himself. He did not open his heart generally or widely, but when you got to know him he had a generosity of intimacy that was quite remarkable. His close friends recognised that—and obviously Jill and his children were foremost in that regard. Many of his close friends are no longer with us, Jim McClelland and Lionel Murphy being two obvious examples. But for so many others, he was always the barrister. He always had that legal sheen, that legal shell that he put around himself.

We had an extraordinary time together. I think he was a role model in politics. The member for Sydney said that he made an enormous contribution to the Labor Party, winning in 1976 after Whitlam's catastrophic immolation in 1975. What Wran was able to do was restore Labor's reputation for management. Whatever people may say about Gough Whitlam's government, its passions and its reforms and so forth, it was a hopeless administration—it was mismanagement on an appropriately magnificent Whitlam-esque scale.

Wran was an extremely good manager. He ran a very competent government and he ran surpluses. When he left office the state Treasury was in surplus. Indeed, when Labor was finally defeated after his successor Unsworth was defeated in 1988, they had money in the bank. So it was a very responsible approach to government. He was also totally focused on doing things—and this is a big distinction between him and a number of the Labor governments that succeeded him. Neville was not a professional politician. He did not go into politics because he wanted a job. He was not an apparatchik. He had huge reservations about the way the Labor Party was being taken over by a sort of professional, apparatchik political class, as many of the Labor people of his generation have said elsewhere. He saw his job as being to get in and do things whereas so many of his successors saw the business of politics as simply staying in government. Wran had none of that. He was an absolute activist, whether it was on law reform or on building things, and Darling Harbour has obviously been mentioned. He had a massive commitment to action in government. I think that is a good example for all of us, whatever our politics might be.

It is very sad to say farewell to Neville Wran, but I have to say his last few years were very, very tough. As another old friend of mine once observed, old age is not for sissies, and Neville did it very, very hard. He hated getting old. He hated getting old even before he became ill. He showed great courage in those final years. His fortitude in that time is an example to all of us, although I do not think any of us would want to spend the last few years of our lives in the way Neville did. There is something rather sad of course when great men or great women die at such great ages. We wish everyone a long life. But, of course, Neville Wran ceased to be Premier in 1986, nearly 30 years ago. He became Premier in 1976, nearly 40 years ago. So, so much of what he did, so much of what he stood for and so much of the impact that he had is only remembered. I was reflecting yesterday in the House when the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition both spoke very well about him that neither of them really knew him as a contemporary.

Even though we were not contemporaries—he was the same age as my father—I only got to know him closely by an accident of having worked with him for so long.

Farewell Neville Wran. He made an extraordinary contribution to this country. He was a great patriot. I am very sorry that we are not a republic, not least because Neville always said to me that he was worried we would not become a republic in his lifetime. But who knows, we may be able to fulfil his ambition at a later date. At the Constitutional Convention in 1998, Wran was part of the ARM's delegation—one of the elected delegates. Boy, that was a fractious arena. That made the Senate look like child's play with all the different agendas and groups, and people running around. Neville's charm and ability to pull people together was in full force. We would not have got an outcome out of the Constitutional Convention without him. There would not have been a republican movement without him. Sydney would not be the great city it is without him. He was one of the great men of our times, but he was also one of the best of men and he is sadly missed.

Like the member for Sydney, speaking on my own behalf and on Lucy's, who was also a very close friend of Neville's, Neville was family, basically, we pass on our condolences, as we have already, to his children: Kim, his daughter from his first marriage to Marcia; Glenn Wran, Marcia's son; and, of course, Harriet and Hugo, his children with Jill, his widow. All of them have wonderful memories of Neville—we all do.

In closing, I just say this about Neville Wran. It is hard for those of us who saw him in his last years not to have our minds seared by the sheer sadness of his predicament. But we really have to put that aside and we have to remember Neville, as he would want us to remember him—hair full of boot polish, eyes flashing, eloquent, savage, witty, magnificent in his formidable, forensic power. That is the Neville Wran we should always remember. He was such a great man and I miss him terribly.

Gary Gray (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Resources) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I acknowledge the words of the member for Wentworth, a great personal friend of former Premier Wran and also the words of the member for Sydney. I knew Neville as the president of the Labor Party from the time I became a national official of the Labor Party in 1986, which was of course towards the end of Neville's term as Premier of New South Wales. Frankly, I cannot imagine a modern Labor Party without Neville Wran. It was my view, and I said this to Neville many times, that Neville was single amongst any of the premiers that I ever knew in any state ever. He is the only one who could have been the Prime Minister of Australia. Beyond any doubt, his personal work ethic, his character, his remarkable urbanity, his ability to speak to the most ordinary Australian in the most ordinary circumstances and yet still be a respectful friend of business and princes. He was a truly remarkable man.

As a Labor figure, his ferocious forensic support of the institution of the Labor Party impressed me very early on. He was the President of the Labor Party at the time when we dealt with the expulsion of John Halfpenny. Neville wasn't simply a stickler for natural justice. He could see that to remove something as valuable as a party membership from a person of substantial Labor Party standing such as John Halfpenny would be something that would require a lot of thought.

When the national executive convened over several days to debate the matter of whether or not John Halfpenny should be expelled, it was done by Neville ensuring that John Halfpenny was given legal representation. It was done by ensuring that present at the national executive was legal advice. It was done so that at that national executive meeting the proceedings were not simply recorded, they were transcribed. It was done in a way so as to supply the most magnificent natural justice to John Halfpenny.

The hearings at the national executive carried an immortal passage of debate where it was alleged that John Halfpenny's consistent attacks on the then Prime Minister in the view of Mr Halfpenny and his legal defence did not constitute an attack on the Labor Party. Neville, with his QC's intellect and his Labor heart, turned on John Halfpenny and he said to John Halfpenny: 'You have here described on the whatever date it was in the 1980s the Prime Minister as being an unfit person for the office of the Prime Minister. Was that an attack on the Prime Minister?' John Halfpenny's defence was: 'No, that is not an attack on the Prime Minister; that is an opinion.'

It was then put to Mr Halfpenny that on other occasions when he had questioned government policy in the early 1980s whether that was also an attack on the government or on the Prime Minister. Halfpenny's defence was: 'No, that also was merely an opinion and an interpretation of government policy.' Wran then rounded on Halfpenny and asked a very simple question: 'What about Pearl Harbor? Was that an attack?'

Neville had the ability to level his opponents with one blow that was always clean but you never saw it coming. Neville's ability to sum up the right and the wrong of a situation was uncanny. His attractive nature—the member for Wentworth has described him as I never have heard him described before: he could have been a movie star.

I saw Neville at a farewell function for Graham Richardson nearly 25 years ago in 1994. Neville was one of the star guests, welcoming people into the room. A young woman at that time, Cathi, came into the room, a beautiful young blonde. Neville gave her a wonderful embrace, a kiss, another embrace and another cuddle. Then, after what seemed to me like five minutes, Cathi came over to me and said, 'Isn't he wonderful? He gave me a cuddle.'

Neville had the most attractive personal style but also an eye for beauty, which was quite extraordinary in many different ways. He almost single-handedly ensured that Labor fundraisers provided excellent quality wine and excellent quality food. Those of us who had to attend those fundraisers will be forever in his debt for ensuring that fundraisers became a pleasurable dining experience.

Neville also had an ability as a personal politician to not only turn a room but an ability that quite probably in the business of politics is very akin to what is described as Lyndon Johnson's personal ability as a politician to win you over by affection, by intellect and by knowing you—knowing you better than you even knew yourself.

It was said, in the latter years of the Wran government, that the Wran government had an air of corruption about it. Those allegations deeply hurt Neville Wran. I am so pleased to hear the member for Wentworth describe the way in which Neville Wran departed the premiership of New South Wales—not just with dignity and integrity but with, simply, his house, his pension and a heart of gold.

Neville's mentoring, not just of individuals but of the politics of reform, is extremely important. The personal contributions that the member for Wentworth and Neville made to supporting the republican movement and the referendum in the late 1990s is simply astonishing—quite probably the largest ever single financial contribution to a political process that we have seen in this country, or probably will ever see. And that contribution was made entirely for good purpose. If I had to put a figure on that number today I would guess it to be something substantially in excess of $10 million.

I hope that we see the likes of Neville Wran again. My party needs that. Our country needs that. The great state of New South Wales needs that. To Neville's family, I offer my condolences. To Neville's memory, I thank him from the bottom of my heart for his enduring contribution to public policy and public administration.

Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to join the throng of many who express praise and pay tribute for Neville Wran. I do so not as a contemporary, obviously, and not as someone who had the high honour of being a friend, but as someone who, when he was very young, had political consciousness start to emerge very early. In that period Neville Wran loomed large. He was someone who dominated politics at that point in time.

I think it is important that in this place, where we tend to be clouded by the minutiae and the focus on daily skirmish, that we take the time to also regard, respect, acknowledge and celebrate the achievements of those people who have fundamentally changed the lives of others. Neville Wran can certainly, in all those ways, be recognised for that.

It is clearly an understatement to say that he was a giant and that he was a visionary. Born in 1926, he left us on 20 April this year after a battle, which, as the member for Wentworth reflected, was cruel when one considers the history of the contributions, the intellect, and the wit of the person who was forced to succumb to dementia. It is truly cruel.

He spent four terms—16 years—in New South Wales politics, with 10 as premier. He left an unforgettable legacy. He was fittingly described by one eulogist as the architect of modern Sydney. Those of us who had the privilege of living in New South Wales are the beneficiaries of his foresight and tenacity.

As we were reflecting earlier, we in this House would love to end our political careers having made a mark for the betterment of our constituencies. We all hope, in some way, that we will. But Neville Wran would have absolutely no difficulty in seeing the mark he left on his home state. You can easily see the wide evidence of the things he did to make life better in New South Wales. He achieved this by demonstrating the power of a simple agenda—getting transport working better, shifting hospital beds and resources to where they were needed most, balancing the tension between cities and the regions. These types of programs would proudly be described as bread and butter. They improved the quality of life for people across the state, but especially in the part of the world that I grew up in, in western Sydney.

It was not always easy, and the breadth of his leadership talents had to be applied in bringing in contentious, long-lasting reform—the introduction of random breath testing and the phasing out of wood-chipping and sand mining while also increasing the number of national parks, which caused grief to many in the labour movement. He championed race and gender equality. He pushed for the development of Darling Harbour and built the Sydney Entertainment Centre, transforming run-down land into a magnet for tourists and for civic life.

It is almost impossible now to think of Sydney without that massive entertainment quarter, and all those achievements took courage and leadership; qualities that Neville Wran had in spades.

A critical ingredient in his success flowed from his ability to relate—something that was reflected upon by the member for Brand. He revealed through his focus on improving community life and opportunity that ability to relate. From the regions of New South Wales to an emerging metropolis from boardrooms to bus shelters, Neville Wran not only brought his words but he brought his ears, taking stock of diverse views and melding those views into a compelling vision. Not only could he relate to the people he represented but they also could relate to him, because it was his tenacity that attracted and the way he applied that tenacity to improve the quality of his own life.

A Queen's Counsel prior to entering the political sphere, Neville Wran was able to use his obvious sharp intellect to be a political strategist without peer—the Balmain boy done good. Before the label became politically passe, Neville Wran showed us what it meant to be aspirational. Yet, having achieved this, he remained faithful to his past, never forgetting where he came from or his own working-class background. It shaped his policy platform, making sure that people who might not be wealthy themselves would have a richer quality of life. For instance, it was Neville Wran who in 1982 was present with Queen Elizabeth opening Mount Druitt Hospital, a facility that has helped provide people with quality health care for generations, delivering better services to people who needed it most.

As much as Neville Wran had, as I said, a compelling agenda, he also had raw political talent to bring that agenda to life. He was tough. He never took a backwards step, quipping, 'Confession is good for the soul, but it is bad for the reputation.

Wran pioneered changes to the way in which politicians conducted themselves mediawise. For example, he was a master of using the power of media at key points in time—and never a better example than that day in March 1976 when then coalition premier Eric Willis went to announce an early election. Both were campaigning in Monaro, and it was Neville Wran who seized the moment, racing to Canberra to try and steal Willis's thunder via the media. But there was a problem: Neville Wran was not a federal politician and was not entitled to use the television studios inside parliament, and those were the rules of the day. Enter the late, great Peter Harvey who, according to former Wran advisor and author Brian Dale, masterminded a plan to have Wran's message broadcast back to Sydney. It was Peter Harvey who figured that, if you could not get the New South Wales opposition leader in Parliament House, he would broadcast him on the roof of Parliament House—and that was exactly what he did, perching Neville Wran on the beams of the roof of the now Old Parliament House.

If he was not talking politics from the roof of federal parliament, he would be holding press conferences on New South Wales trains, in hospitals—wherever he would have the chance to get his message out. He refashioned the way politics intersected with the media.

Another interesting story I picked up from Brian Dale's memory carries as much weight today as it did back then. According to Dale, almost 40 years to the month, it was another conservative leader proposing a measure that would put pressure on families, particularly those in New South Wales, by introducing a state based fuel tax. It took all of a nanosecond for Wran to knock that idea on the head, vowing Labor would oppose any plans that would impact on New South Wales families in that way. Not surprisingly those plans became an election issue raising anger amongst voters, particularly those who had a high dependency on private transport. The rest, as they say, is history.

It was the combination of all those factors that I have mentioned that propelled Neville Wran into a position to dominate three state elections, most notably being referred to as the 'Wranslides'. In 13 years of leading New South Wales Labor, he never lost an election, he never lost a seat at a by-election. All of those things merged at a critical focus point: the powerfully simple agenda shaped by a vision of what was needed to be done for New South Wales; a desire to shake off the lethargy gripping the state after yawning periods of conservative government melded by a common experience; and a premier relating to his community and they being able to relate to him.

Neville Wran is survived by his wife, Jill, and his five children. New South Wales has survived and prospered largely because of Neville Wran and his Labor values, and we thank him for that.

Chris Hayes (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am very pleased that we have the opportunity to speak on this condolence motion. I rise today to pay my respects to one of the most important and popular figures in the history of NSW politics, the Hon. Neville Kenneth Wran. His contribution to the New South Wales political landscape throughout the 1970s and 1980s, particularly during his decade as the Premier, has left a lasting influence on the state. His time as the Premier represented a time of great reform, change and challenge for New South Wales, with a very strong focus on job creation, improving public transport and the environment. The late Neville Wran was also responsible for initiating significant electoral institutional reform, including four-year electoral terms, public funding and disclosure laws, and pecuniary interests for MPs.

It took Neville Wran four attempts to gain a seat in the New South Wales Legislative Council, but from that time forward he never lost an election or a seat at a by-election. After winning the 1976 election by a single seat, he achieved unprecedented popularity and a string of very strong electorate wins. Winning this election after Labor's crushing federal loss in 1975 gave the party much needed renewed energy and hope, with a view to engaging in reform in the future. Then followed two astonishing 'Wranslide' elections in 1978 and 1981, where the ALP captured around 60 per cent of the two-party preferred vote and a succession of seats which had been dominated by the coalition, particularly in various rural areas. From that point on, things certainly changed rapidly in New South Wales. At that point the Liberal Party was no longer represented in the seats of its previous five leaders. However in 1984, while Labor under Neville Wran won again, it was a more traditional win.

Neville Wran and his deputy at the time, Jack Ferguson, whose son remains in the parliament today, epitomised the grand Labor tradition of pragmatic idealism: while governments must show the courage to tackle reform, they need to bring the people along with them. While the pace of reform often seemed pedestrian at times, particularly to activists outside the parliamentary party, this was maybe an illusion, as any reading of the government's achievements conclusively demonstrates. For starters, consider the Anti-Discrimination Act; public funding of election campaigns; democratic elections for the upper house; fixed four-year parliamentary terms; one vote one value; the XPT trains; the Powerhouse Museum; the University of Western Sydney; and the Eastern Suburbs Railway. New South Wales also led much of Australia, and the world, in liberalising various laws, particularly in respect of same-sex relationships.

Wran governed for the entire state, not just for the inner city elite. One of his early and most controversial actions was to instruct his then health minister, Laurie Brereton, to redistribute hospital beds from the well-supplied and well-maintained inner city and eastern suburbs to the more resource constrained outer suburbs and rural areas, a move that certainly did not endear him to the medical profession or to many in the media; but for those who reside in the outer suburbs of Sydney or in remote and rural areas it was something that will always be appreciated.

He was cultured, charismatic, urbane—he may have been those things to many—but I have got to say he will be remembered as a highly colourful person. As someone who had the wrath of his colourful language bestowed on me once or twice I can say that you remember the conversations.

In those days I worked for an organisation called the Professional Officers Association and we covered many of the professional categories employed in the Public Service. One of the things we always wanted for our people was, obviously, to have the best terms and conditions, as you would rightly expect. But when Neville did not agree with you, you did not walk outside thinking 'Maybe he is just hedging his bets here.' You knew precisely what this man stood for. For a person who grew up in Balmain, was very well educated and excelled at law, in terms of use of abusive language I have never seen anyone better. He may have been cultured and urbane and will be remembered as such, but he was a very forceful, very feisty engager of any conversation, particularly when it was between warring parties. It is a testament to his greatness that he is still fondly remembered in his old seat of Bass Hill. In the words of another famous entity from this place, Diamond Jim McClelland, Neville was 'both smart and lucky' but he will be remembered as a person of courage, daring and a great vision.

With respect to all those who occupy the benches in this house and others, I do not think we should expect to see the likes of Neville Wran again any time soon. On behalf of my local community and those in the south-west of Sydney who were the beneficiaries of many of the decisions that Neville Wran made—from redistributing hospital beds to the creation of and access to Western Sydney University and encouraging young people, particularly those from western Sydney, to go to university to graduate and become a part of the professions—I express my condolences to Neville Wran's wife, Jill, and the other members of his family. I conclude by simply saying that, in losing Neville Wran, we really have lost one of our greats. May he rest in peace.

Stephen Jones (Throsby, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Development and Infrastructure) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to express my condolences on the passing of the late, great Neville Wran and pass those condolences on to his surviving family. It is true to say, as others have said before me, that New South Wales was indeed a very different place before Neville Wran. We often look back at history, particularly political history, and think that the things that have flowed were in some sense inevitable. Thirty-eight years ago, on 1 May 1976, Neville Wran led Labor to victory in New South Wales. It seems inevitable from the vantage point of history but nothing could have been further from the truth.

Students of Labor history will recall that Neville Wran's election in 1976 came only seven months after the dismissal of the Whitlam Labor government federally—an event that sent reverberations throughout the country. For a Labor leader in our most populous state to stand up not nine months later to become the first Labor premier in that great state after many years in opposition was no mean feat at all.

He showed a way forward for the Labor Party during what were very dark days for us. He galvanised Labor supporters right around the country, heralding one of the most legendary Labor governments in Australian history. I say that he was one of our finest premiers, if not our greatest.

Neville came from pretty humble beginnings. He was one of eight children born to Joseph and Lillian in Paddington in Sydney's inner west. They were very different places, Balmain and Paddington, from what they are today. In the early Wran years, it was a place where locals laboured in the local mine or at the soap factory down at Mort's Dock, now a highly prized residential establishment and a tourist attraction.

Neville was the one who famously quipped, 'Balmain boys don't cry,' referring to the toughness that you needed to grow up in a rough-and-tumble working class area, as it was in those days. This was well before the organic cafes, the designer boutiques and the million-dollar properties that are typical of the place today. This is where Neville Wran began his life. It is where he was instilled with a sense of social democracy that resonated through his famous 10-year term. That term began on 14 May 1976 and ended on 4 July 1986.

It was a decade of sound economic management and progressive social reform, which should be the hallmarks of a modern Labor government. There were significant policy achievements in a raft of areas, from health, as the member for Werriwa has spoken about, through to education, transport, conservation, consumer affairs, Indigenous affairs, the status of women, industrial relations, antidiscrimination, equal opportunity and law reform, arts and heritage protection, the Public Service, and electoral and institutional reform. Neville led a government that forever changed the everyday life of New South Wales.

One of his biggest legacies was new infrastructure spending. Expenditure on capital works exceeded or was equal to the rate of inflation in nine out of ten years during his time in office. The Wran government doubled the land conserved in national parks and secured World Heritage listing for the north-east rainforests. He facilitated outdoor dining, reformed the sale of alcohol and permitted Sunday trading. He oversaw the construction of the Sydney Entertainment Centre, the Powerhouse Museum and the Wharf Theatre and he approved extensions for the State Library, the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Australian Museum. These are all things that we take for granted today as a part of our state's enviable cultural identity.

The health and wellbeing of the people of New South Wales was always at the front and centre of the Wran government's reform agenda. There were public health initiatives, such as banning smoking on public transport—something we just take for granted today, but in Neville's day this was a very controversial reform—and introducing lead-free petrol and random breath testing for motorists. These latter two were also very controversial issues but were critical public health reforms introduced by Neville Wran and his Labor government.

He achieved many great things for Sydney, but his presence was always felt very strongly in regions right across New South Wales. He understood what many governments today take for granted—that is, that you cannot win government, particularly in New South Wales, without winning seats in the regions. He understood that there was a Sydney beyond Burwood. He understood that there was a Sydney south of Sutherland and north of North Sydney.

He was very kind to, and a good friend of, my region, the Illawarra of New South Wales, which saw unsurpassed growth and rejuvenation during the Wran era. Steel production at BHP, now BlueScope, was saved by the joint efforts of Bob Hawke and Neville Wran in 1984, when the world and domestic steel industry went through free fall. He ensured there was construction of a new hospital at Shellharbour, which is now a rapid growth area—one of the fastest growing urban areas in New South Wales. He established the State Government Office Block in Wollongong, creating hundreds more jobs, Public Service jobs, outside the Sydney CBD. He ensured there were local workers involved in building components for the Sydney Harbour Tunnel—much of it was constructed at Port Kembla and in Wollongong and was then shipped up to Sydney.

He also left an enormous legacy for the Illawarra in public transport, particularly in my electorate of Throsby. We saw the electrification of the South Coast rail line. Gone were the red rattlers of my childhood—we saw an electrified line between Kiama and the CBD of Sydney. We saw the building of the Dapto bypass, connecting Berkeley to Yallah, opening up new areas for residential development; expanding development at Port Kembla by building a multipurpose berth, coal and grain terminals, kick-starting the economic development of that part of my electorate.

He was the guy who started the Maldon-Dombarton rail link—tragically, it was ended by Nick Greiner, advised by Barry O'Farrell at the time and still at the forefront of one of the infrastructure projects we campaigned for the completion of in our region. Neville started it and he saw the importance of it to the Illawarra and to the economy of New South Wales, opening up the ports of New South Wales to the grain, the coal and the freight terminals of western New South Wales and the rest of the country.

No government—state or federal—has matched Neville Wran's vision. None could be a more reforming government in those tumultuous 10 years. He did a lot more than just balancing the budget and running the trains on time. He was a good man, a successful man, a well-loved Labor premier. New South Wales is truly a different place because of his turn at the helm. He will be deeply missed. Vale, Neville Wran.

Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

'Neville Wran, he's our man. He's got this great state moving.' That catchy, punchy election jingle was one of my earliest memories of politics in Australia. I was only four years old when the first Wran government was elected and, through my early years of schooling, I recall Neville Wran as this giant of New South Wales politics, this leader of our state that I, my family and my friends looked up to.

That jingle perfectly described Neville Wran as the leader of New South Wales. Neville was an archetypal Labor leader: born in poverty in Balmain in Sydney, educated at the local Nicholson Street primary school, receiving a scholarship to Fort Street High School with the opportunity to study Shakespeare and Donne. These opportunities of education that had in the past been restricted to the sons and daughters of working-class people were opened up to Neville Wran, and he excelled.

Neville was the personification of that great Labor value of educational opportunity. After finishing high school, he was accepted into the University of Sydney where he studied law. He graduated, became a solicitor and eventually a barrister and was admitted as a Queen's Counsel.

Neville was a hard worker. His street cunning and wit ensured that he always had his Tory adversaries' measure. Neville was a person who never forgot where he came from. His physical presence was felt in the Supreme Court in Phillip Street and the bear pit in Macquarie Street, but his mind was always on the streets of Balmain or Blacktown, Campbelltown or in the homes of those families that lived in Western Sydney.

His understanding, indeed his affinity for the struggles of the workers and they families made him a reformer—but a cautious reformer—a steady-as-she-goes pilot of change, able to read the play like no other, to know when to push change, to push for reform and always when to wait for the right moment, for the right time, to ask the people of New South Wales to accept progress in their state.

His common touch made him one of the most successful leaders of our time, and he changed New South Wales for the better. He made the people of New South Wales feel proud. He lifted the spirit of the state of New South Wales and he did that by his remarkable achievements as a leader of a reforming Labor government. He changed the way the people of New South Wales related to each other. He broke down some of those barriers. He was a great uniter in bringing together the people of New South Wales and lifting their spirits—appealing to a greater humanity, if you like. He did that by improving the rights of the marginalised, migrants, workers, women and people who were gay. He introduced the Anti-Discrimination Act. The first antidiscrimination board in Australia was established by his government. The Ethnic Affairs Commission was established by the Wran government. He created the first office for women. The first female solicitor-general and QC was appointed under the Wran government in Mary Gaudron. He appointed the state's first female minister of the crown. He undertook gay law reform to ensure that homosexuality was decriminalised in New South Wales, and his government introduced the Aboriginal Land Rights Act.

These social reforms, which we see as part and parcel of a civilised Australia today, were bold reforms at the time, but Neville had the understanding of the Australian people and knew how to lead them down the path to a better New South Wales by introducing these reforms. He showed the people of New South Wales how to be better people and how we could work together for a greater humanity.

Neville understood the value of education. Being a scholarship student, he never forgot the fact that he had the opportunities in life that were provided by his foundation in education. In doing so, he founded the University of Western Sydney and established the Premier's Literary Awards. In health, he understood the value of ensuring that resources were available to population growth centres, throughout Sydney in particular, through his Beds to the West program. He had a great affinity for protection and conservation of our nation's natural environment and heritage, creating numerous national parks throughout New South Wales and establishing the Environment Planning and Assessment Act, the Land and Environment Court, the Heritage Act, the Coastal Protection Act and the Historic Houses Trust.

His main aim was to create good well-paid jobs for the citizens of New South Wales. He understood the importance of a strong growing economy and its value in creating jobs for the people of his state. He modernised the railways. His government reformed the coal industry and introduced changes to energy generation in New South Wales that sustained the industry for decades to come. He understood the value of arts and culture to enriching people's lives and in that respect he did not believe that culture and the arts were something that should be confined to the higher echelons of New South Wales society. He took arts to the people—to the masses—by establishing the Riverside Theatre in Parramatta, the Campbelltown Gallery and the Powerhouse Museum. He extended the Art Gallery of New South Wales. His government extended the Australian Museum and the State Library, ensuring that the masses of people in New South Wales had access to arts and culture to enrich their lives.

As the member for Wentworth pointed out earlier, Neville Wran was a founding member of the Australian Republican Movement and a proud advocate for an Australian becoming our head of state. He understood the value of one of us being appointed as our head of state and the value that that would bring to Australian society and Australia's future. He worked hard as a founding member of the Australian Republican Movement and was a generous donor to the cause of an Australian republic.

I have very fond memories of Neville Wran as Premier of New South Wales. For me, he was an icon, a great leader and someone who will be sadly missed by the Labor community throughout Australia. I offer my condolences to Jill and his family. May he rest in peace.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to join with the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and other members on this condolence motion to a great Australian and a champion of the Australian Labor Party, Mr Neville Wran. Neville Wran was educated at Nicholson Street Public School and Fort Street High School, in my electorate. He went on to study law at the University of Sydney and became a prominent lawyer prior to entering the upper house of the New South Wales parliament in 1970. In 1973 he moved to the electorate of Bass Hill. He became leader of the Australian Labor Party and was elected premier in 1976. That was just after the very significant defeat of the Whitlam Labor government in 1975. It was a time when the Australian Labor Party was going through considerable difficulties. Neville Wran mobilised public support. Neville Wran understood that it was vital that politicians be aware of issues such as costs of living and the concerns of people in their local communities.

At Neville Wran's quite extraordinary send-off at Sydney Town Hall just a month ago, the contributions of former Prime Minister Paul Keating, former Premier Bob Carr, Justice Michael Kirby, Labor historian Rodney Cavalier and members of Neville's family—his wife, Jill, and children, Kim, Harriet and Hugo—were quite remarkable. In addition to those family members, I also give my condolences to Glen Wran, his son, who was the president of the Ashfield branch, in my electorate, of longstanding note, during the time in which I have had the honour of serving in this House as the member for Grayndler. I well recall the extraordinary state conference of the New South Wales ALP at Sydney Town Hall when Neville Wran announced his resignation in June 1986. As I entered the magnificent Sydney Town Hall that morning, the loyal deputy to Neville Wran, Jack Ferguson, pulled me aside and said, 'Take a seat, son; you're about to see history.' I did not know at that time what was coming.

We all know in this place that there are very few secrets in politics. It is indeed remarkable that Neville Wran was able to resign from that high office after serving for a decade as premier of the largest state in Australia and it was kept a secret. The gasps from delegates at that conference were an emotional reaction that will stay with me for as long as I live. It was fitting that Neville Wran chose the floor of a New South Wales ALP conference to announce his resignation. He was of the view that no individual is greater than the movement of which they are a part. From time to time you hear that individuals might like to think that they get here on their own. They do not; they get here because of the support of their family, their community and the political party they represent.

Neville Wran, a giant of the labour movement, never put himself above that movement. His achievements were quite remarkable: the economic transformation of New South Wales into a modern economy, the new railway infrastructure out to the Eastern Suburbs, the electrification of the rail lines to Wollongong and Newcastle, new infrastructure in Sydney's western suburbs and support in regional New South Wales. Those achievements led to the remarkable 'Wran slides' in 1978 and in 1981. This was a time when Labor won seats like Manly and Willoughby, and many seats in regional New South Wales. A two-party preferred vote of higher than 60 per cent is something I suspect might never be seen again.

It was a remarkable performance, which did not come about by doing nothing. It was an endorsement of a reforming, forward-thinking government. It was reforming in terms of the great achievements in infrastructure and economic development and also in the environment whereby, thanks to Neville Wran, the great national parks of the North Coast of New South Wales were saved and protected. He created the Land and Environment Court. He understood that development needed to be balanced with appropriate outcomes in environmental protection. He rebuilt the inner areas of Sydney through the Darling Harbour project and the Sydney Entertainment Centre. The Darling Harbour project on the old Pyrmont sites was very controversial. It was a dilapidated area, which he subjected to urban renewal. As someone who was born during and lived through Neville Wran's premiership, living on Pyrmont Bridge Road, Camperdown, I am very familiar with that area.

Neville Wran established the Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs and the most significant land rights legislation anywhere in Australia up to that point. He introduced the Anti-Discrimination Act. He removed the criminalisation of homosexuality. In our time, when there is a modern debate about marriage equality, it is remarkable that just those few years ago to be gay was to risk being jailed because of your sexuality. Neville Wran had the courage to take that on and to lead the nation, to make a real difference to people's lives.

Neville Wran was ahead of the nation on women's rights when he introduced legislation concerning the appointment of women. Before Neville Wran's government, the idea of a woman being appointed to a court was seen to be remarkable and not really appropriate. Neville Wran made sure that women were appointed to all of the highest offices in the New South Wales regime.

Before Neville Wran, the Legislative Council of New South Wales was a bit like the House of Lords in the UK, where the Lords were not elected by the people; they were appointed by each other. Neville Wran went to a referendum and won it to transform, more than a century after the New South Wales parliament was formed, the legislative council into a democratic body. Neville Wran introduced public funding and disclosure laws. Pecuniary interest registers for members of parliament did not exist before Neville Wran in New South Wales.

Regarding some of the laws that were still present in New South Wales before his premiership, the death penalty was still in place in New South Wales prior to it being abolished. The Summary Offences Act, whereby people were picked up and put into jail for the crime of being homeless or for other issues of poverty, essentially, was removed. He was, of course, the longest serving Premier of New South Wales until Bob Carr broke that record.

Neville Wran was someone whom I had the honour of having contact with as the president of Young Labor. At the time, Young Labor was not always compliant with the government of the day. Neville Wran had a wit but also a very sharp way of taking a young fellow, as I was in the Labor Party in those days, and giving him the benefits of his wisdom in a very direct fashion about the need to support his government. He was someone who was larger than life. He was someone who went on to have an extraordinary career in business. He was someone who was prepared to take a young fellow like me aside and give him good advice about the Labor Party.

I am very honoured to be a member of the Australian Labor Party like Neville Wran. Because of my membership of the Labor Party I have enjoyed a better life and privileges that I could not have dreamed of when I was growing up just a few kilometres from where Neville Wran grew up and went to school in our local community. I pay tribute to him and I honour him in this parliament today. I conclude by once again giving my condolences to Jill, who gave such as remarkable eulogy at his farewell, and to his children and all of his friends, colleagues and comrades.

Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I associate myself with the fine words of the member for Grayndler and all the speakers who have spoken before about the passing of such an extraordinary human being and amazing man, Neville Wran. Of course, it was a sad day for Jill and for the kids when Australia lost Neville Wran. It was also a sad day for the country and for his state of New South Wales. From my point of view, it is a sad day for anyone who has a Labor heart, because Neville Wran really was in lots of ways the gold standard for people who care about what Labor can do for our community.

I had the honour and the privilege of working with Neville for six months in 2002. Neville Wran had agreed to write the blueprint for some party reform that we were doing at the time, with Bob Hawke and also Tim Gartrell, who was then the Assistant National Secretary of the Labor Party. The four of us together wrote the party reform blueprint of 2002. The reason I signed up for that as a young PhD student—a young Labor kid, basically—was that I wanted to spend some time going around the country with Neville and Bob, learning from them and helping them come up with some recommendations for how the party conducted itself.

It is a little known fact that this day could have come about 12 years ago. We almost lost Neville one day about 12 years ago when I drove right through a roundabout with Neville in the passenger seat and we narrowly escaped tragedy. It was just outside this building, actually, on one of the many roundabouts in Canberra. I was a young fellow and I was petrified that he would be very angry about it. He looked at me after this car whizzed past, centimetres from us, and just gave me a wink. He gave me a wink to let me know it was all right that I had almost taken him out. I would have been a real villain in the Labor Party if I was responsible for that.

That was the day that the report that Bob and Neville had written was released. My enduring memory of that day, apart from almost taking Neville out on the roundabout, is of later in the day, about one minute before we went out to do our press conference, when we were having some sort of morning tea. Just as Neville was walking out, Jenny Macklin noticed that he had a big dob of cream from the bun that he was eating on his tie. My enduring memory is of Jenny Macklin licking a tissue and cleaning up Neville's tie for him before he went out and gave a press conference on that day, late in 2002.

When I met Neville, I was really struck by two things—and other speakers have spoken about these two sides of his personality. Neville was really the best mix; he had a commanding side and he had a caring side. Those two things were not inconsistent, but they were rare in their intensity in one human being. He was, of course, a commanding presence; he was a huge deal in New South Wales and right around the country because he was so commanding and charismatic. But, at the same time, he never forgot who he cared for and why he was in politics. In many ways, that was the most impressive thing about him.

He was also brutally funny, as other people have spoken about. I remember one time he told me that he was getting a rough time as Premier in the New South Wales parliament. He walked around to the shadow minister who was giving him all this grief and said, 'If you keep this up, I'll tell the whole parliament what you got up to last night.' When he got back to his seat, his colleague said, 'What did he get up to last night?' Neville said, 'I don't know, but he's an awful bastard and so he probably got up to something.' The shadow minister shut up from that point on, which was a funny story. I was also really impressed by what Paul Keating said in his eulogy at the state funeral, that Neville 'had a PhD in poetic profanity', which is something I can recall as well. He was a very creative, ingenious speaker when it came to some of the language that he used.

Another thing to appreciate about Neville Wran is that he did not luxuriate in the past. When he was Premier, it was not a case of the older he got the better he was. He was always a forward-looking guy, in my experience. He cared deeply about an Australian republic, for example. He cared deeply about issues beyond his premiership. The fact that he put his hand up to help the Labor Party out in the early 2000s is another example that he was not a guy who rested on his laurels. He had interests that endured and he cared about the future of the country.

Labor history has a whole lot of heroes, and we celebrate our heroes probably better than any political party in the world. From Neville Wran we get the model for long-term reforming state governments, a model that others have picked up. In my own state of Queensland, I know that Wayne Goss is really a bit of a Neville Wran type. A lot of the same legal reform, for example, that Neville did in the eighties in New South Wales was done by Wayne Goss in the late eighties and early nineties in Queensland. Whether it is Wayne Goss or any kind of leader, there has not been a leader of the Labor Party who does not in some way owe something of their style and experience to that model that Neville Wran created in the seventies and eighties in New South Wales. In that sense, his influence extends well beyond New South Wales, and I think that his influence will extend well beyond his sad passing quite recently.

Bruce Scott (Maranoa, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As a mark of respect, I invite honourable members to rise in their places.

Honourable members having stood in their places—

I thank honourable members.