Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to pay tribute to Dennis Richardson, who retired recently from the Australian Public Service after a career spanning almost 50 years. I had the great privilege of serving with Dennis when I was Minister for Defence and he was—as he had been until recently—the secretary of the Department of Defence.

Some 48 years ago, Dennis Richardson came to Canberra as a trainee for the Australian Public Service from Albury on the border of New South Wales and Victoria. Amongst others who he joined at the Kurrajong hostel, as it then was—the now Hotel Kurrajong—was Ric Smith, another person who has become a senior and distinguished public servant in Australia. In recent years, Dennis has served this country not only as Secretary of the Department of Defence but as the director-general of ASIO and also as our distinguished ambassador to the United States in Washington DC.

Dennis Richardson is a person who has genuinely served the public of Australia through his service. It is common these days to refer to public servants as 'bureaucrats'. There are some public servants who are bureaucrats; there are probably some in our profession, Deputy Speaker—politicians who are bureaucrats—and in other walks of life as well. But a genuine public servant is something different, and I have had the great privilege, over the years, to have worked with many great public servants in Australia.

It is a mark of the respect that people have for Dennis Richardson to relate his background, because he worked at one stage for Gough Whitlam, the Labor Prime Minister of Australia, and indeed he was the senior adviser—probably, in today's nomenclature, the chief of staff—to Bob Hawke in the years before he lost the Prime Ministership of this country. So Dennis is someone who has served both sides of politics. But it is a tribute to his impartiality and his service of the Australian public that, at the farewell function tonight, hosted by the current secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Dr Martin Parkinson, there were present the former prime ministers John Howard and Tony Abbott, both of whom spoke, as well as the defence minister and I. And this, as I said, is a tribute to the service of the public which Dennis has provided.

As parliamentarians and, indeed, as ministers, we always claim that we want frank and fearless advice—to use that well-worn cliche—from the Public Service. But can I say, as someone who has been responsible for a number of portfolios, nothing is more valuable to a minister than genuine frank and fearless advice, and, with Dennis, it was always frank and fearless, and was always put pretty bluntly. He served as a very senior diplomat for Australia, but, on occasions, he could be nigh on undiplomatic. I recall the occasion when the whole program for the tender of the new submarines for Australia was the topic of a conversation at which there were a number of countries bidding: France, the ultimate successful bidder; Germany; and Japan. And when the Japanese suggested that, in order to aid their bid, they could sail a submarine to Australia, Dennis's response was: 'Well, you know the way'—a reference, of course, to what happened during the Second World War when mini submarines from Japan found their way to Australia, indeed to Sydney Harbour, and caused damage at that particular time. It was an example of what I call not only frank and fearless advice but pretty blunt comment about that. But it is something which, as I said, is valued by ministers in government.

I wish Dennis, and his wife, Betty, every enjoyment and every blessing in their retirement. I am sure, in his support for the Demons, but more so his beloved Canberra Raiders, he will find many occasions on which to be frustrated, as he was with ministers on occasions in the past. But he has served Australia well. He is a great public servant, and we wish him well in the future.

Question agreed to.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 19 : 31