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

I want to talk about two great Australians, two long-term residents of my electorate. We mentioned Les McMahon today at question time. As the current Member for Sydney, I want to pay my respects to that former member for Sydney, Les McMahon. He was a man of strong convictions. On some issues perhaps we would not have agreed, but I wholeheartedly endorse his words in his first speech when he said that the difference between us in the Labor Party and our opponents is this:

We in the Labor Party have an enduring commitment to a view about society. It is this: in modern countries opportunities are for all citizens, opportunities for a complete education, opportunities for dignity in retirement, opportunities for proper medical treatment, opportunities to share in the nation's wealth and resources, the opportunities for decent housing, the opportunities for civilised conditions in our cities and in our towns and the opportunities to preserve and promote the natural beauty of the land. These opportunities can be provided only if governments and the community itself acting through its selected representatives will provide them.

Les McMahon's loyalty remained always to the Labor Party. It is a measure of the man that, when he was defeated as a sitting member in a preselection, he handed out for the winning candidate on election day. He was a dedicated and committed local member. He was accessible and proud of the urban renewal legacy left by the Whitlam government. The people of Sydney owe a great deal to Les McMahon's enthusiastic and energetic championing of their interests. Our sympathies are with his family and friends.

I want to also mention my friend Kep Enderby. I first met Kep and his wife Dot during my preselection for the seat of Sydney. At a time and of an age when many people might have decided they deserved a well-earned break, especially after a life crowded with achievements, Kep was still active, still working and advocating for the causes he believed in, still engaged in the fortunes and affairs of his beloved Labor Party. He and Dot were generous with their time, supportive and encouraging, both during my preselection and in the years since. I will always be grateful for that.

But my gratitude goes well beyond the personal kindness they showed me. We are all profoundly grateful for the work Kep did as a minister in the Whitlam government when for three short years he had the opportunity to change our nation and indeed he put his deep-held and abiding beliefs in the equal rights and equal dignity of all people—male and female, gay and straight, of all ethnicities and creeds. As a federal minister, Kep was an unfailing champion of a fair, progressive, and tolerant Australia on matters which were among the most challenging of the period.

As minister for secondary industry and minister for supply, he introduced Public Service Bill (No. 4) in 1973, which, in his words, would have ensured that 'all positions in the Australian Public Service are to be open equally to men and women applicants who can perform the full range of duties required.' It seems unremarkable today but it was remarkable at the time—as was his work as Attorney-General from February 1975. During this period, he introduced the Anti-Discrimination Act. He introduced the Family Law Act, which included no-fault divorce. His contributions to a more just, more humane society included the abolition of the federal death penalty and the decriminalisation of both homosexuality and abortion in the ACT.

His belief in the importance of human rights and civil liberties in upholding the fundamental dignity of all men and women was deep and profound, and it informed everything he did, during and after politics, including being one of the founders of the New South Wales Council of Civil Liberties and becoming the head of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society of New South Wales. I must say that, in both of those roles, he lobbied me very convincingly.

Like so many members of the Whitlam government, he had served in World War II—like Gough, in the RAAF, although, being 10 years younger than his leader, Kep only reached service age in the final years of the war. And his commitment to Esperanto, including teaching himself the language and becoming President of the World Esperanto Association—which may seem a little eccentric today—was part of his deep commitment to the cause of peace and international understanding. Having come of age in the midst of a conflict which consumed the world, he understood, better than many of us from more fortunate generations, how high the stakes are in the pursuit of peace, how sharp the cost of failure.

He was a great correspondent with my office. I saw him only very shortly before his death. He will be greatly missed.