Alan Tudge (Aston, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the condolence motion for my friend Jim Carlton, who passed away on Christmas Eve last year. The Prime Minister and the opposition leader both spoke eloquently and compassionately in relation to Jim, and I would like to associate myself with their comments. I was unfortunately unable to be at Jim's funeral due to being away at the time, but I understand that it was a great celebration of Jim's life. I regret not being able to be there.

I got to know Jim well over the last 20 years through the Liberal Party, the Red Cross and his employment with the Boston Consulting Group. I greatly admired what he achieved across all three of those areas but, more importantly, I admired his integrity and his intellect and valued his friendship and counsel.

Jim was one of the great contributors to the Liberal Party and to Australian parliamentary life. He was President of the Sydney University Liberal Club. He was general secretary of the New South Wales division of the Liberal Party. He was a member of parliament in the seat of Mackellar for 17 years. He was the shadow Treasurer for many years during the Hawke and Keating era. He was the health minister in the Fraser government. It was Liberal pedigree.

But in many ways the offices that he held were less important than the influence that he had through the ideas he espoused. Jim was an intellect. He had a very clear sense of how Australia and particularly our economic system had to change. He used this clarity to great effect as one of the leading 'dries' in pushing for more free market economics, rooted in the Austrian School's teachings.

Today, within the Liberal Party, we all accept that free, open markets are the best way of organising the economy and generating wealth and freedom. But it was not always like this. Back in the 1970s this was a matter of debate around the world and within the Liberal Party itself. Jim was on the right side of history, pushing for liberalisation. He maintained these views his whole life, including when he was shadow Treasurer during the Hawke and Keating era. In fact, I recall Jim reflecting to me that he used to have Liberal colleagues in the 1980s and 1990s berating him for supporting the Hawke economic reforms which, in many regards, took our template and liberalised the economy. As Jim related to me, colleagues would ask, 'Why are you supporting the Hawke and Keating agenda when we as Liberal party members could make great political mileage out of opposing these difficult reforms, such as floating of the dollar and reducing tariffs?' 'Because they are doing the right thing,' was his response to them. If only members of the Labor Party today would adopt such an approach.

He left parliament in 1994, having served only a short time as a minister, just a couple of years before our long term in government under John Howard's prime ministership. As he said at the time, 'I am disappointed in not having another opportunity to be a minister. I felt I could be more useful elsewhere.' Jim took up a position as the head of the Australian Red Cross, where he again had an enormous impact in his seven years there. He played a large role in the formation of the Australian Red Cross Blood Service, creating one national organisation where there had previously been eight separate blood banks. He received the Red Cross movement's highest honour—the Henry Dunant Medal—in 2007, the medal which recognises and rewards outstanding services and acts of great devotion, mainly of international significance, to the cause of the Red Cross. He was also incredibly influential in supporting the greater fundraising efforts on a national basis, and trying to have one greater national brand around the Australian Red Cross, rather than the state divisions at that time.

I got to know Jim particularly well at that time because I sought him out to go and do a secondment at the Red Cross when I was working at the Boston Consulting Group. While there, I would like to think I had a small contribution to make in helping with Jim's agenda in what he was doing at the Red Cross. Certainly, we not only discussed the activities of the Red Cross domestically and internationally, but that time is really when I started to get his mentorship across my broader career, and perhaps influencing some of my thinking in relation to politics and where I might go. He was certainly a great encourager for me in terms of thinking about politics and what I should be doing in relation to positioning myself; always providing me with the articles to read, to bring myself up to speed, particularly in relation to economics. He was certainly an encourager of me standing for parliament when I eventually did. I would say that his wife Di was maybe less encouraging of me going into politics! Perhaps that was from having supported Jim for so long in that role and realising that it can be pretty tough on family life being a member of parliament.

At the end of Jim's time at the Red Cross, he reverted to a corporate career. When he started his career, he, of course, had spent many years at McKinsey, a very influential firm, and he was one of the very first members of McKinsey in Australia and, subsequently, joined Boston Consulting Group, the arch-rival of McKinsey and my old firm. He helped support Boston Consulting Group with an enormous array of projects, particularly those concerning the public sector. Through that he helped the firm, but, more importantly, I think, he made another terrific contribution on the public administration of this country, both nationally and within state governments.

I had great admiration for Jim. I always enjoyed catching up with him, as I did on a very regular basis. In fact, I was due to catch up with him for coffee again in January. I will very much miss him as I know that many people in this House will do so. He was a humanitarian. He was a very decent man. He was an intellect, and a great encourager of younger people who wanted to follow in his footsteps.

I pass my condolences, of course, to his wife Di and his children. Maybe I will finish with a very nice comment from his son Rob which he apparently made at his funeral, where he said, after his passing: 'I don't know the meaning of life, but I can tell you my dad died happy, surrounded by family, and loved by all who knew him.'

May he rest in peace.

Kelly O'Dwyer (Higgins, Liberal Party, Minister for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As a former member of this place for 17 years, and a mentor to many after he retired, the Hon. James Joseph Carlton AO has a special place in our hearts.

Jim's dedication and service to his country is something that many try to emulate. After serving as the member for Mackellar and the Minister for Health in the Fraser Government, Jim became the Secretary of the Australian Red Cross where he dedicated his time to humanitarian efforts and the relief of suffering in the world. He continued to support many charitable causes, particularly the Red Cross, throughout his life.

Jim's encouragement, advice and support was always very much appreciated. Jim was intensely loyal to his friends.

Jim was indeed an elder statesman. He has left a lasting legacy in this place, not only in the health portfolio, but particularly in regards to economic policy. When a number of my colleagues decided it was time that we relaunched the Society of Modest Members, Jim was instrumental in the rejuvenation of the group. Many people in this place would be aware of the history of the Society of Modest Members, of which Jim was a founding member.

The society aims to promote the use of the competitive market as the best means of providing for human wellbeing. Towards this end, it advocates the progressive removal of anticompetitive regulations and protection and supports effective measures to prevent restrictive trade practices on the part of individuals, businesses, trade unions or governments.

The society has a commitment to an open economy and ensuring that state patronage does not grant favouritism. Membership of the society is open to members or former members of the parliaments of the Commonwealth of Australia, the states or territories, who subscribe to the objectives of the society and pay an annual membership fee. The society promotes public understanding of the benefits of the competitive market competition and facilitates discussion between its members and others of a similar mind.

Jim realised that, while the society had not been active for a number of years, it was opportune to make sure that there was an opportunity for people in this place to have a forum in which to gather and to debate and to discuss these critical ideas. He not only provided the history in the background to the society for those of us who were very keen to see it reform but he also attended the inaugural event in launching the society not that long ago. We are very grateful for his continual commitment and dedication to these ideas and to the mentorship and inspiration that he provided to many of us.

In his later years Jim and his wife Di moved from Sydney to Melbourne and lived in the inner city suburb of Carlton. Jim became known as the 'Carlton of Carlton'. He was an integral part of a regular coffee club, known as the 'Carlton Gathering', which met once and sometimes twice a week. This group of intelligent, eclectic and one could say influential individuals shared discussions on a wide range of topics from politics to economics and cooking.

Many may not be aware that Jim came from an Irish-Australian Catholic family where the value of hard work and education was of paramount importance. Throughout his life he never forgot the debt of gratitude which he owed to his teachers. Jim was a great man, a great contributor and an intelligent friend. He will be greatly missed. To his wife Diana and their children, Alex, Freia and Rob, I extend my heartfelt sympathy on the loss of a truly wonderful man. May he rest in peace.

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

I very much want to be associated with this condolence motion. I suspect I am the first who will speak on this matter who actually served with Jim between 1977 and 1994 while he was a member of the House of Representatives. He was a very dear and close colleague whom I knew well, and I was particularly pleased to be able to be in Melbourne for the memorial service, because it was truly a wonderful occasion to celebrate a life. I had a chance to talk to Di. I had spoken to her before that service and she knows how much she and he have meant to my wife Heather and me over such a long period of time.

But, interestingly, if you go back and look at Jim's career, his involvement with politics was much before he became a member of the House of Representatives. You will find in his valedictory speech the observations that I knew that he was involved in student politics. Being some eight years older than me when he passed away, he was a student politician long before I was involved at university. He was the president of the SRC at Sydney. He was the president of the Liberal Club, but I know that his engagement was with the Liberal Party under perhaps the greatest mentor that any of us could ever have—Sir John Carrick. Sir John Carrick was, I think, a great admirer of Jim and what he was able to do.

In 1956 he got elected to the Liberal Party state council and, in his own speech he made it clear that even then he was a person with very strong views about the nature of Australia. He recalls that he was, in 1956, before Harold Holt did it, instrumental in obtaining a vote within a dozen of overturning the White Australia policy—somewhat courageous at that time. He said, 'They were the kinds of issues I was interested in.' Many of us have heard about his views in relation to the economy but, before I come to that, I wanted to say that this engagement with the Liberal Party in New South Wales led to his appointment in 1971 as the party's general secretary, a title we no longer keep. We now talk about 'state directors'. He was the general secretary of the Liberal Party. He played a very important role in reforming the Liberal Party's campaigning structures, and it may be said that it was probably important to do so, because he was conducting a campaign in 1972 in which the McMahon government lost and Whitlam came to office.

I am pleased that our path crossed in 1973. As the general secretary he was the person who was able to organise the campaign for the federal division of Parramatta when Sir Nigel Bowen retired and I was first elected to this place. I do not know that it was an adornment in every respect that I was elected, but I have to say that, to achieve a very large majority in Parramatta at that time—moving from a 368 that Nigel Bowen had held in the election in 1972—I think looked pretty good on his CV. Billy Snedden was the then leader. Jim Carlton's campaign on my behalf was particularly meaningful to me. I have to say that what it may have cost him was the most expensive by-election that the Liberal Party had ever had to conduct up to that time. There may have been others that have exceeded it since.

It was only natural that somebody like Jim Carlton, who had played such a significant role from his university days in the Liberal Party organisation and who had demonstrated his very considerable achievements in the private sector, particularly in the management organisation, McKinsey, was able to play a role in public life. When I read through his maiden speech—we now call it a First Speech but I am sure it was then called a maiden speech—I found a comment he made towards the end of his address, and I think it is as relevant today as it was then. He said:

Overall, I believe it is necessary for us to have an absolutely creative approach to the new structure of our economy over the next 20 or 30 years—

he might have extended it—

and not to assume that we must necessarily be a totally tributary economy of overseas economies. It is necessary for us to look at our own skills. We have in Australia the necessary skills to look at the problem with creativity and imagination. I certainly do not accept that overseas is best. I have worked in places overseas where people did not have anywhere overseas to look and they had to sit down and do things themselves. This is something that some of our best people have done. It is something that nationally more of us should do. Certainly in what is a world problem of youth unemployment and unemployment on a general scale we should have an Australianmade solution which may well lead the world.

He was thinking about these issues very strongly at that time, but it is interesting that when he came to make his own valedictory speech he made this observation:

Since I have been in parliament, I have had to become more concerned with the shift that needed to be brought about in Australia from an essentially inward looking and somewhat protectionist society into a liberal market economy—

I would hear a lot of hear, hears in relation to that—

that was capable of standing in the world as an equal with anybody else.

But interestingly, he moved on to conclude in this way:

Over this period it has worried me that I have been characterised as being solely concerned with economic issues, but I have only ever regarded these economic issues as a means to achieving social outcomes.

I think those are particularly poignant remarks and, when you look at his life after politics, you can see it working its way through. I am not going to repeat all that has been said about his work for the Red Cross, restructuring that organisation in the way that he did and enabling it to do its task even more effectively as a result. I do not want to talk—as my colleagues have—about his considerable managerial skills that were sought by the Boston corporation. I want to note some of the matters he raised with me as he talked about the way in which better benefits could be delivered for the people of Papua New Guinea, about which I am sure my colleague will speak.

There is not a great deal that I want to add. I think his record speaks for itself. He was a great Australian whom we will all miss because we kept in touch with him, we saw him and we admired him. I would say to Di that I know the way in which she was revered by him but I know the way in which she supported him in his role, and I thank her for that. I was particularly impressed with the way in which his son Rob conducted the memorial service. His children have each made significant contributions through their own lives and it says much of the family that Alex, Freya and Rob have distinguished themselves in the way in which they have. I am so pleased to be associated with this motion, having served so long with my friend Jim Carlton.

Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to pay tribute to Jim Carlton—or, as we called him, 'JJ call me Jim', as he was fond of saying to us. I first met him back in 1971, when I was a very young Young Liberal and he took over from the great Sir John Carrick as General Secretary of the Liberal Party. As the member for Berowra has said, they were fairly busy times. He moved straight into running the 1972 federal election. In those days, election campaigning was done individually by the states, so there was no coordinated national campaign. As he said in his farewell speech in this place, he had come out of McKinsey and Co., a world competitive consulting firm, and was running the 1972 federal campaign with a separate advertising agency to the ones used by all other states, with almost no communication with any other parts of the organisation and not too sure about the role he had in front of him. Also, as the member for Berowra and former member for Parramatta said, he then went on to lead us in the great victory in the Parramatta by-election.

I remember quite well the great influence Jim Carlton had in the party in those days. He had an excellent relationship with the Young Liberal Movement, to the extent that at one of our annual revues, which was staged publicly at the Phillip Street Theatre and ran for three or four nights, there was a skit called 'The importance of being JC' that was directed fairly at Jim Carlton and John Carrick. In those days we also had the Young Liberal president, Jim Carey, and a fairly influential state member, Jim Cameron, so the JCs in the Liberal Party in New South Wales in the seventies were quite prominent. Of course, the person who enjoyed that skit more than most was Jim himself.

As he said in this place in his valedictory speech when he retired:

When I first came into parliament both parties were essentially protectionist, both supporting the classic, original Deakin labour movement compact of the early 1900s—which was a great social compact but it had become outdated. To us it was a question of how soon that would be understood and how soon the parties would be shifted away from that. Both parties have now moved away from it—both major political groupings—in quite a dramatic way. This change has been tremendous. We did not get much understanding or support from the Labor Party in those early days. I think Peter Walsh, John Kerin and John Button were three who were very sympathetic but, fortunately, when the Labor government came into office a band of people seemed to become converted to the necessity of moving Australia into a more competitive mode. A lot has been done.

More tellingly, particularly given the legislation in the chamber today, he went on to say:

It has been very frustrating to be in opposition during this period. It has been good to welcome changes as they have occurred. The big single change that still has to occur is in the labour market. Until we have freedom of contract in the labour market, until we break the monopoly position of the unions with coverage assured by somebody else on their behalf, we have not got to the heart of the matter.

In 1977 Jim Carlton joined this place as the member for Mackellar and I moved to Queensland, so I had a lot less contact with him. But on his retirement he became the new chief executive officer of the Australian Red Cross. I had become very involved in the Red Cross in Queensland, so our paths were to meet again. It was wonderful to have him in that role, where he brought so much organisational change and also—I think because of some of his background in the Liberal Party—understood the importance of the volunteer network. Our branches and members in the Red Cross in Queensland appreciated his recognition of the key role that they had to play in the Red Cross.

More recently Jim moved into other areas, as the member for Berowra noted, and I next had contact with him in his role in Papua New Guinea. His work seemingly never ceased. Even when he retired from one role, he would take on another, usually with even more demands on his time. He also found time late in life to serve on the board of PNG Sustainable Development Program, which was born out of BHP's departure from Ok Tedi.

The PNG SDP's long-term presence and investment in the Western Province sought to provide an alternative economy after the closure of the Ok Tedi mine. Jim brought all of his skills from politics, life and the Red Cross to this role—and he needed them all. He genuinely enjoyed this role, even though it was incredibly challenging from time to time. His contribution to the main board and the microfinance arm was considerable. He was genuinely concerned to find a way to resolve recent differences between the government of PNG and PNG Sustainable—differences that remain today and would have benefited from his ongoing contribution. This was a role where Jim made yet another contribution to the world around him. My sympathies to Di and the extended Carlton family. May he rest in peace.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is an honour to follow my colleagues the member for Berowra and the member for Ryan in this tribute to the late, great Jim Carlton. I should also note that it is a pleasure to be back in the Federation Chamber after quite a long absence. Jim Carlton had a glittering career. He excelled at everything he did. He was successively the president of the Students' Representative Council at Sydney University—the first Liberal to hold the position—general secretary of the New South Wales Liberal Party, a Minister for Health in the Fraser government, shadow Treasurer in the Howard-led opposition of the mid-eighties, a leader of the economic dries in the federal parliament from the late seventies to the early nineties, a supporter of the free market tempered by compassion and ideals, and also the member for Mackellar on the Warringah peninsula between 1977 and 1994.

As everyone in this chamber knows, the period from the mid-eighties to the late nineties was the golden age of reform in this country, first under the Hawke government, which floated the Australian dollar, deregulated the financial markets and began the process of privatisation of government-owned enterprise—and it did all this with the active support of the coalition—and then under the Howard government which deregulated labour markets, reformed the tax system and reformed the welfare system through policies such as Work for the Dole. This was done despite the bitter opposition of the Australian Labor Party. The reforming instincts, the liberal instincts, of the coalition from the early eighties through until the nineties, in opposition and in government, have indeed helped to shape the Australian economy, which by 2007 per capita was as strong as any in the developed world.

Jim Carlton was one of the key figures in the Liberal Party, one of the people who converted our party from regulating to deregulating. He was a critical figure in the evolution of our party from an old-fashioned protectionist party that built walls against the world to a party which welcomed the world to Australia, economically and in most other respects. He was John Howard's shadow Treasurer at a critical time in the reform process. He was a friend of John Hyde and Peter Shack, his brother parliamentary leaders of the dry movement. Between 1990 and 1993, along with David Kemp, he was a key architect of John Hewson's 'Fightback!' policy, which in a humble way I helped to draft as a political adviser in the Hewson office. The 'Fightback!' policy was a magnificent political failure but it was a monumental policy success. Nearly everything put forward in the 'Fightback!' policy was eventually implemented: first, sotto voce, by the Keating government and then, with much more obvious pride and determination, by the Howard government. Jim Carlton's spirit breathed through the 'Fightback!' policy. Indeed, Jim Carlton's whole public life is a testament to the power of ideas. He was a minister for less than a year but his ideas still shape our polity and our economy, more than 30 years after that time.

Jim was always friendly, cheerful and he was never bitter despite the vicissitudes of his own public life. He was a happy warrior, ambitious not for himself but for our country. There are too few like him and our parliament is the worse for it. Members of Jim's family, particularly his wife Di, can be incredibly proud of the life of Jim Carlton.

Peter Hendy (Eden-Monaro, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Productivity) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to pay my respects for the life of the Hon. James Joseph Carlton AO and offer my deepest sympathies to his wife Di and their children and their families.

Jim dedicated his life to public service and began his political career as a student politician at University of Sydney where he was president of the Liberal Club and Student Representative Council. After a successful business career in Britain, Jim served as the General Secretary of the New South Wales Liberal Party from 1971 until his election to parliament in 1977 as the member for Mackellar. Jim was one of the fortunate few parliamentarians to exit at the time of their choosing at his retirement from parliament in 1994.

During his 17 years in this House, Jim served as the Minister for Health and Minister Assisting the Minister for National Development and Energy in the Fraser government. Jim was very influential at a turning point in our party's history. He was one of the economic rationalists, leading the argument for pro-market economic reform during the Fraser government. While the Fraser government lost the 1983 election, Jim had captured the temper of the times, and the move to liberalise the Australian economy was taken up by the Hawke, Keating and Howard governments which followed.

I knew Jim personally from 1987 onwards, shortly after he had been the shadow Treasurer. I had started work with the then deputy leader of the Liberal Party, Andrew Peacock, and had many conversations with Jim to discuss economic and taxation policies of the coalition. From then until 1993, when I departed Parliament House, those conversations continued.

Jim was a deep thinker about policy issues. At the time he had a strong interest in following the lessons of the postwar Germany economic miracle and the influence of the Freiburg School of economists, who helped guide the pro-market policies of that country. In a very practical sense, I learnt from Jim a lot about the hard work of formulating economic policy in a tough political environment. And yet he did all that with a great sense of humour and fun. While he might not have been aware of it, I regarded him as an important mentor of mine.

Following his retirement from federal politics in 1994, Jim gave generously of his time and energy to humanitarian aid efforts in Australia and overseas. Jim served as the Secretary-General of the Australian Red Cross from 1994 to 2000, and in 2007 he was awarded the Henry Dunant Medal, the highest honour of the International Red Cross. I kept in contact with him over this time and I last spoke to Jim late last year at the funeral of his younger sister Vonnie, whom I also knew and was one of my constituents in Tathra.

Jim will be remembered on both sides of this House as a decent warm-hearted and generous person. He was a genuine contributor to Australia's economic development. Australians may not know it but they owe a lot to Jim Carlton. May he rest in peace.

Michael Sukkar (Deakin, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Eden-Monaro and indeed I thank all the members. At this stage I understand it is the wish of honourable members to signify their respect and sympathy by rising in their places.

Honourable members having stood in their places—

I thank all members.

Peter Hendy (Eden-Monaro, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Productivity) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That further proceedings be conducted in the House.

Question agreed to.