Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Before I begin the acknowledgement of Harold Holt, on a personal note I want to acknowledge the previous speaker, the member for Chifley, for his very wise, generous and humane comments in relation to my great friend the member for Kooyong, acknowledging the history that the member for Kooyong's family has faced. I thought it was a sensible and important intervention which brought needed calm to this citizenship debate and dealt with issues relating to the Holocaust in the way they should always have been addressed.

In relation to the great Harold Holt, the 17th Prime Minister of Australia and one of the most humane and effective members of this parliament that we have seen in the period since Federation, it's an honour to speak on behalf of myself, on behalf of my family and on behalf of the people of Flinders. Harold Holt's work was in Canberra and his seat was in Higgins, but his heart was on the peninsula. His family's home, his getaway, was in Portsea, and that was the scene of many of his warmest family moments. The Speaker yesterday gave a very moving tribute and talked about the words of Tony Eggleton and how Tony Eggleton reflected on Harold Holt's love of the Mornington Peninsula. It's a love shared by many, and even to this day many of those on the peninsula remember him, honour him and mourn him.

I really want to make three brief acknowledgements about his social contribution, about his economic contribution and about the 50th anniversary celebration of his life—a commemoration of his passing but a celebration of his life, which will be this Sunday morning at Point Nepean. Much has been written about Harold Holt in terms of his passing, but his work as a minister and as Prime Minister was of great social moment. In a way, there's a tremendous synergy with today's events in this House.

Firstly, he was an enormous contributor to the rights of children and of parents. The child endowment was paid for the first time on his watch, to the mother, and that was a decision which was taken whilst he was the Minister for Labour and National Service. This was a breakthrough for children and for women. Equally, he was responsible for appointing the first woman to administer a government department, Dame Annabelle Rankin as the Minister for Housing from Australia Day 1966 going forward. That was Harold Holt's appointment.

Then, perhaps most significantly, he was, as much as any person in Australia's history, the architect of the end of the White Australia policy. In particular, he ended the dictation test, a test that was able to be used selectively and was a stain on Australia's history—let there be no doubt about that—and used selectively to exclude from this country those whom officials at any time or place thought didn't make it on grounds of race, religion, ethnicity or culture, or simply did not conform to a certain idea. As the minister for immigration he oversaw the intake of 900,000 immigrants. This was a period that changed the face of Australia and outlined the contemporary multiethnic, multifaith, multicultural Australia in a way more pronounced than in any other period in Australia's history. He was a great believer in this process of ending the White Australia policy, in bringing Indigenous Australia into the fold and out of the shadows. So, again, it was on his watch, at his urging and with his leadership that the referendum for full recognition of Indigenous Australians was carried with the highest 'yes' vote of any referendum in Australia's history. That is a social legacy of which to be proud. It has helped shape the great contemporary Australian nation.

But Harold Holt was also an extraordinary economic minister. Whilst he was responsible for tremendous fiscal management and economic growth, there were two actions in particular that shaped the contemporary Australian economic landscape. Firstly, he was the minister responsible for the establishment of the Reserve Bank, an august body that has created much of the stability in Australia's monetary and currency systems that have together helped underpin our capacity to be the only nation in the developed world with 27 years of consistent economic growth. Secondly, he oversaw the case for and transition to decimal currency. This has been a very important part of our ability to trade, our ability to be independent and our ability to engage with the world. Many people have prospered as a result of the economic reforms he led.

This Sunday at Point Nepean on the Mornington Peninsula I will be privileged to attend and play a small role in the commemoration of his passing 50 years ago and in the celebration of his great life and service to this nation. I honour his family. To Sam and all of those other members of the Holt family who will be there on Sunday: you should be proud of your father. We are proud of his work. I'm especially proud that he was a great leader of the Liberal Party of Australia and a great exemplar of all its values. We wish you the best and we hope that on this day, which is a bittersweet day, you can reflect with pride, love and a sense of warmth on the best of lives.

Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is my great pleasure to follow speeches by the Prime Minister, the member for Higgins and the member for Flinders honouring the legacy, the achievements and the man: Harold Holt. On my desk in Melbourne sits a wonderful framed photo of the then Treasurer, Harold Holt, and the President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, deep in conversation, on the sofa of the Oval Office. In black and white and showing an ashtray by the side of the President, it's a timeless picture that I was so generously given by Mr Sam Holt. Sam and his family have been good friends and have continued the Liberal tradition exemplified by Sam's father.

We in the Liberal Party are sometimes too reluctant to champion our achievements and our proud history. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the disappearance of Australia's 17th Prime Minister, Harold Holt, it's timely to remember Holt's outstanding record and his significant contribution to our country. Appointed to the ministry in 1939—at that point the youngest ever to hold such a role—he held a number of portfolios, including Science and Industry, Immigration, and Treasury. It would take him 30 years in the parliament, 10 of which he spent as Menzies' deputy, before he rose to the prime ministership on Australia Day 1966. It was on his watch in 1967 that the historic referendum which would see Aboriginal people counted for the first time in the national census was carried with an unprecedented majority. So too during his time, in 1966, Australia moved to a decimal currency, leaving behind the pounds, the shillings and the pence.

Holt introduced universal child endowment, the first Commonwealth payment to be paid directly to mothers, which in turn led to our family payments system. He also continued Menzies' legacy, cementing Australia's place in Asia and welcoming migrants from near and far. He helped dismantle the White Australia policy, and migrants came in record numbers from non-European countries, including Vietnam. He was a constant traveller to the region, visiting Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Saigon and a number of other places. He was fiercely anti-communist. As the British pulled out of Malaya, he strengthened Australia's relationship with the US President LBJ, epitomised by the slogan 'All the way with LBJ'.

But it was Holt's decency, his values and his outlook for which he will be most remembered. Indeed, in his first policy speech as Prime Minister, in 1966, he made a defining statement about the Liberal Party's philosophy and his personal views:

We Australians regard our personal freedom, liberty, and opportunities for enterprise as essential to our way of life. Yet these things are under constant challenge, chiefly by those, whether at home or abroad, who believe in an all-powerful state. Our political creed places the highest value upon human personality; to encourage it, not to suppress; to strengthen it, not to weaken.

In that stanza, Holt summed up what we in the Liberal Party believe in: personal freedom; the role of the individual; a small, not a big, state; and, of course, liberty and opportunities to be the best that we can be. He went on to say:

The socialist basis of the Labor Party is reactionary, its doctrines are musty and its vision blurred by lingering bitterness from battles of the past.

Holt, like Menzies, understood that politics was a battle of ideas, not a clash of warring personalities. He was 59, and he had spent 32 years in the parliament, when he was taken from us way too early.

I finish where I began. There on my desk is a picture of Holt and Kennedy—two towering political figures from their generation, two bold people who had a vision for their country, and two men who were taken from their families and from their nation too early. But, in saying so, Harold Holt left a profound legacy of achievement and one which we in the Liberal Party and his family, and indeed the whole country, can be proud of.

Anthony Byrne (Holt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

For 18 years I have been representing a seat that is named after Prime Minister Holt. I was very generously invited by the Speaker to a luncheon held in his offices yesterday afternoon with Holt family members and the Hon. Peter Costello and his former press secretary Tony Eggleton. Unfortunately, I couldn't make it. I passed on my regards and condolences to them when I saw them on the floor of the chamber yesterday. I specifically wanted to mark the 50th anniversary of the loss of Prime Minister Holt, particularly given, as I said, I hold the seat named after him in this place today. This will be my last opportunity to do so in this manner before parliament rises.

Cheviot Beach is a very interesting place. I did reflect on the passing of Prime Minister Holt some number of years ago and decided to take the walk—it is in a national park—from Point Nepean around Portsea to the actual beach itself. Even on a calm day, you can see that it is a challenging place in which to swim, even for an experienced swimmer. On the day that I was there observing the place where the Prime Minister was taken, I found it to be a forbidding and challenging place in many ways; there was a lot of tumult and roiling of the water. When you read the Victoria Police and Federal Police report on the disappearance of Prime Minister Holt—which is challenging reading for anybody—you can see how dangerous the place was. It was like an encapsulation of the tumult of the times.

The other day I read a very good article by Tony Wright from The Age. When people reflect on the Prime Minister, they see that it was such a turbulent time. Some would say the period of time that we are in at present is turbulent. But that time was particularly turbulent in Australia, with the cultural eddies and flows that occurred as a consequence of the Vietnam War and the increasing public opposition to that war. There were so many societal and social changes that were occurring that Prime Minister Holt was part of. To some extent, the transition from former Prime Minister Menzies to Prime Minister Holt marked an epoch of change in Australia's political and cultural history, very much leading, I think, to the elevation of Prime Minister Whitlam in 1972, after narrowly failing to win the 1969 election. If anybody opened the door for someone like Gough Whitlam, it was Prime Minister Holt.

When you read details of his political history, you see that he was a very young man when he entered politics. From reading biographies of, for example, Paul Keating, you see how young men were treated. In 1935, to be 27 when you were elected to parliament was phenomenally young. Twenty-seven is not so young to come into this place these days, but in those days, when the average age could well have been late 40s or early 50s, he was a very young man. He was obviously a man of great talent. To be promoted to the cabinet in 1939 on the doorstep of the Second World War at age 30 says a lot about his capabilities. He was elected deputy leader in 1956, and after the '58 election he replaced Arthur Fadden as Treasurer.

The contribution that he made has significance for the constituency of Holt. According to the National Archives, when he was Minister for Immigration, between 1949 and 1956, he expanded the postwar immigration scheme and relaxed the White Australia policy for the first time. Forty-two per cent of people in my constituency speak a language other than English. I wonder what Harold Holt, if he were alive today, would make of that in a seat named after him, given he'd done so much in his work as Minister for Immigration, and as Prime Minister, to make something like that possible. We in Victoria often take for granted the magnificent multicultural fabric that makes up Melbourne and Victoria. I suspect that had Prime Minister Holt been alive today he would have had great satisfaction in seeing an outer suburban area, not far away from the Mornington Peninsula, with such incredible diversity and cultures from all over the world living in harmony.

The other thing I would refer to in particular is his role as Treasurer, when he oversaw the creation of decimal currency and the Australian dollar. I recall that that met with some resistance, particularly from Prime Minister Menzies, who wanted to call it the 'royal'. As I said, he was such a pivotal figure in moving away from the Menzies era to a more progressive, open and enlightened Australia, part of that arc of trajectory in Australian political history from the Menzies era to the era of Gough and the substantial and profound social changes that happened. As I was saying, the gradual dismantling of the White Australia policy culminated in the 1967 referendum, so that the Commonwealth parliament was empowered to legislate for Indigenous people for the first time.

Others have spoken about the involvement in the Vietnam War. I would just note that these times were troublesome for Australian policymakers, who were reflecting on challenges in Asia and how they might impact on Australia. I would note, in relation to some of the comments that have been made about Prime Minister Holt, that it would have been a challenging set of circumstances for any Prime Minister at that period of time, with the pressures that he would have faced in making decisions about Australia's role in the war in Vietnam. I make no comment about that.

It is a great tragedy that Harold Holt was lost at such a young age—59. I'm 55 at the moment, so he was only four years older than I am. We lost someone who was effectively still in the prime of his life and still had a great contribution to make to public life. To his family, particularly those who were here yesterday—his son Sam and Sam's wife, Xenia, and his son Robert—to Tony Eggleton and in particular to Peter Costello, who was a friend of the family, I pass on my condolences and reassure them that on the anniversary of the passing of Prime Minister Holt we will certainly be making sure that the constituency remembers the person and the contribution he made to the seat that's named after him.

Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There being no further statements, I call on the member for Mackellar to move that the Federation Chamber adjourn.