Philip Ruddock (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this condolence motion as perhaps the only member of the House of Representatives and also the Senate who served contemporaneously with Reg Withers. He was born in 1924. He served in the Australian Navy. He was a former lawyer and barrister.

He entered the Senate in 1966 and served until 1987. He was a minister—Special Minister of State, Capital Territory, Media, and Tourism and Recreation, and Minister for Administrative Services. The circumstances under which he left the ministry were of some note, and I will come back to those.

He retired from politics in 1987 and was elected Lord Mayor of Perth in 1991 and served in that role until 1994. Mr Reg Withers was a very special sort of individual. When I look back at his background, there were some similarities to the Ruddocks. He may not have recognised that himself. The Ruddock family, when it looked at its war service, found that it was primarily in the Navy. He was a lawyer. The Ruddocks are lawyers. He served in public life over 20 years, and saw that as a very significant public duty. He continued to demonstrate that in the later tasks that he undertook.

I can remember him being a character. That would be true. Sometimes he would take the micky out of you. He did that of me. Members may not recognise the character I am about to describe but in the 1970s, when I arrived in this place, I had black hair and long sideburns, and I was often seen to be somewhat like the Beatles with the length of my hair. Reg Withers was quick to take the micky out of me in relation to that—as he did, no doubt, with many others.

Today I want to draw to your attention some comments about Reg and how he was treated in public life. He was leader of the Senate for the coalition at the time of the dismissal. He obviously had a very significant role to play at that time. However you saw those events, maintaining the discipline in the Senate was of fundamental importance. I do not say he was the architect of the dismissal. I think that many would claim that title. I think it is hard to go past people like Bob Ellicott, who gave advice, and Malcolm Fraser and John Howard, who were very much on the scene at that time. Maintaining Senate support from amongst the coalition supporters was of fundamental importance for that successful outcome.

He became a minister, and he had responsibility for electoral matters at a time when the arrangements for redistributions of electoral boundaries were in flux—were changing. There was a major redistribution in 1977. The first was proposed, I think, in 1974 by Fred Daly. It was disallowed in the Senate, which was the procedure that was then in place, and a redistribution was undertaken again in 1977.

In the context of that redistribution some significant changes occurred. The changes where I was the member was that the seat that I held—Parramatta—fundamentally changed and the seat of Dundas was created. I can remember Reg Withers asking me whether I was happy to lose the name Parramatta—that maybe Dundas should be named Parramatta. I said that because the major commercial centre of Parramatta was no longer in the seat that the name should remain with the new seat.

He took an interest in the naming of seats in Queensland. There was some controversy about the seat of McPherson, as I recall. Yes, it was the case that members were vitally interested in the way in which the seats were named, and there was an inquiry set up by a judge. Somebody said to me later that they chose, for that inquiry, one of the most legalistic judges you could find, and that judge made some observations about a minister offering advice about the names of seats. I do not think that was of great moment—and I do not think I am alone in thinking that. I read where Fred Chaney, who was the Leader of the Government in the Senate at the time when Reg left, said at the time he was campaigning about the Dismissal that he thought Reg Withers had been treated harshly.

I was interested that, at the time Reg retired, John Button also spoke in the Senate. He remarked upon Reg's many ministerial and parliamentary roles—that he had been Chairman of Committees, Government Whip and Leader of the Government in the Senate. He said:

I suppose that I will remember Reg Withers best because he was a tough, shrewd politician—a professional politician, in a sense.

He went on to talk about the way Reg Withers was removed. He said:

… Reg Withers is a politician who was most unfairly treated when he was removed from the Fraser Ministry.

I take that point—that there seems to be a bipartisan view that that was in fact the case.

I think it is appropriate for this House to note that those views are held. He was not somebody who failed; he was somebody who contributed to public life over 20 years. He continued his interest in service of the community after he left parliament. I think we are entitled to remember him in a very positive way as somebody who contributed significantly to this nation. I extend to his widow Shirley the condolences of the Ruddock family. To his son Simon, whom I know, and his other children and grandchildren, I extend our condolences as well. I think it is appropriate that we will all remember Reg Withers positively.

Debate adjourned.