Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last Saturday, I had the honour and the privilege to attend with the Prime Minister and the former Prime Minister John Howard and his wife, Janette, the funeral for Sir John Carrick KCMG AC. Sir John survived his wife, Angela, by about four months. He lived to the age of 99. He was one of the finest of his generation. I have not seen a finer generation of Australians. It was a generation that served in the Second World War, a generation that did so much to build the country, and Sir John was a giant amongst those who did all of these things. Sir John's service reminded us all of the impression that one individual can make, and I speak of it as an impression because it is something that lasts. He made an impression on all of those he came in contact with, a lasting one, a firm one and a firming one, a positive one, an encouraging one.

I knew Sir John because I served as the party director in New South Wales for many years and it was my habit then to go and sit in his apartment in Burwood and spend time with Sir John, seek his counsel and his advice. We would sit and talk about many things over hours and I was always so incredibly impressed about not only his command of detail and knowledge but just the graceful wisdom that he was able to impart. There was always a generosity of spirit. There was always a kindness behind every sentiment that he expressed. He was a truly remarkable person, and I was very honoured to have known him in the way that I did. So many others knew him far better but I do consider myself privileged to have had the opportunity to have known him in the way I did. So he did leave an impression. He was not just one of, I would say, the founding fathers of the Liberal Party, having served first as a research assistant and then as the general-secretary of the party of New South Wales for 22 years—a record that I am quite sure no-one would seek to emulate because, in the New South Wales division of the Liberal Party, there is no more significant figure other than of course, John Howard.

As a founding father of the party, he brought the principles, pragmatism and intellectual values and capacity he had to this task, which provided our party with the right framework, the right basis and the right platform to become what it is today. We owe so much to, not just Sir John, but Bob Cotton and of course Robert Menzies and that whole generation of Liberals at that time, who set about creating the party that has become the most successful political organisation in Australia's history.

But Sir John's life before he entered politics was quite different. He served as a young man in Sparrow Force in Indonesia where he was captured and he then went on to Changi, the Thai-Burma railway, Hell Fire Pass. As an officer there, he had special responsibilities to lead his men in the darkest of hours. As the Prime Minister reminded us in the House, they had a practice that no-one died alone and, while they were far from home, their fellow prisoners of war would hold each other as they passed on. Indeed, as Sir John passed on, he was held by his daughters, as the Prime Minister reminded us. This went on for some time. They slept through the night on the floor or in the room—I am assuming—and they stayed there and were with him until the very end. He passed on in the same way that his comrades when he served as a PoW also passed on—in the arms of the people that loved him.

But it is what he said at the end of their time which was recalled at the funeral on the weekend that I found so much of the character of Sir John Carrick and it was this: As they were going to be going home, told the PoWs to put all of this behind them—all of its horror, all of its awfulness, all of its deprivations, all of its pain. He said, 'You are young men. Go back and live your lives in a positive way.' The capacity to say that after having experienced what none of us today can imagine speaks to a quality of a person that runs very, very deep and that we were very blessed to have amongst us.

Sir John went on to be married to Angela for 67 years. To hear his grandchildren speak at the funeral was just tremendous. Noah, Joel and Ben Campbell, and Matthew Woods and Genevieve Woods paid tribute to their 'Pa' with the hair flopping over the front of his face in the pool and his hands clapping together like an alligator as he chased them around the pool. They didn't speak of the war hero or the political titan of the Liberal Party. They spoke of Pa and the love and the joy that he brought to their lives as a family and as a member of this place. It was a great reminder that you can serve here and you can have a wonderful family, provided you continue to commit to it and see it as the most important thing.

Sir John is just an incredibly great reminder, and this is why I talk of the impression that he potentially put on all of us, but particularly those who met him. He was able to achieve a balance in life. Yes, he was away for long stretches and periods of time from his family, but to hear them speak of him and the investment that he made in them—and the songs from the 'song machine' he would often to sing to his grandchildren in the evening when he was looking after them later in life—showed he was able to walk between the great corridors of power, the battlefields of wartime and the simpleness of home and do it all so effortlessly—an extraordinary thing.

But the sad part of all of this is not that Sir John has passed on—we celebrated a man of great faith that afternoon and he is with his lord now—it was the reminder of the 40,000 Australians who didn't come home from the Second World War and the loss to Australia of all the John Carricks that never came home and were never able to make the contribution that Sir John and so many of his generation did. That was the tragedy when I reflected on Sir John's passing. It reminded us of those who didn't come home and what they would have otherwise been able to contribute to our country and, indeed, the 60,000-odd in the First World War and those who have fallen in conflicts since. That is the great loss of war, not just the loss of life, but the loss of contribution that was able to be made.

So, with Sir John, his contribution—it's hard to find a peer. We can only hope to try and serve to the same standard with the same integrity that he served as a father, as a husband, as a member of the Senate, as a leader in politics, as a lieutenant in command, and serving with fellow prisoners of war. We can only hope that we can approach his standard. We also can reflect on the loss of so many others who could have served in the same way, but, sadly, did not come home. His time as a senator, his time as a Leader of the Government in the Senate, his time as a minister in resources and education—he was particularly passionate about education. He would often tell me those stories. We would be sitting in his apartment, talking about how to negotiate coalition agreements or things like this—which he had great wisdom about.

A government member: And success.

And success, true. Then he would change topic and he would be talking about the OPEC oil crisis and the people that he met in the Middle East and how he dealt with those issues. He would often return to his most favourite topic—early childhood education and the duty we owe to those in their early years. His passion for issues of intellectual curiosity, as much as anything else, stayed with him right until the end.

As we left the church on Saturday at the end, 99 bells were struck from the church. For several minutes there, as we listened to them, we had the opportunity to reflect on one of the greatest Australians I've ever known. I hope to meet many more like him, and I hope all of us can seek to aspire to his standard. Thank you, Sir John. You've left an incredible impression.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to join with the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, the Treasurer and other members in paying tribute to a great Australian indeed, Sir John Leslie Carrick. John Carrick was a father, a husband, a veteran, a senator and a champion of the causes to which he devoted his life. He passed away on 18 May aged 99 years, just shortly after his beloved wife, Lady Angela, who died in February of this year. They had three daughters, Diane, Jane and Fiona. I spoke to Jane last week. Jane is married to a former member, Bob Woods. I got to know Sir John through my relationship with my mentor and father figure Tom Uren, who of course served with Sir John.

He grew up the fourth of six children in Sydney, in Woollahra. He moved to Randwick and eventually Bondi. He studied at Sydney Technical High School. He delivered gas bills for AGL while studying economics at the University of Sydney. He lived in a time, though, that was turbulent, and he enlisted in the AIF in December 1940.

He was posted to the 18th Anti-Tank Battery, and his unit was deployed to West Timor as part of Sparrow Force in December 1941, with orders to deny the island to the enemy. There, two months later, he was captured, along with some extraordinary Australians—Tom Uren and 'Bluey' Rutherford. These were giants of Australian history. Lieutenant Carrick was captured, together with other survivors, and was shipped to Java in July 1942. They then moved to Singapore's Changi camp and worked on the railway—as they put it, quite that simply—at the infamous Hellfire Pass.

One of the great opportunities I've had in my life was to visit Hellfire Pass for the opening in 1987. Many of the veterans, of course, since then have passed away. Sir 'Weary' Dunlop was there, along with Sir John Carrick, Tom Uren and other veterans. I saw the extraordinary emotion of these men who went through hell. When you see Hellfire Pass—and I encourage Australians to visit there—you literally see the rock that they cut through, often with no real tools being offered, suffering from malaria, suffering from starvation. The mistreatment that occurred to the prisoners of war would have, I think, understandably broken any human being.

What was remarkable about these men was that they were so stoic about their experience. They had a sense of solidarity and looked after each other at that time. Coming together more than 40 years after the war had ended, they had—my understanding is that it was—the largest gathering of these men that happened in that period in one place. These were tough guys but they cried, they talked, they drank and celebrated life and survival. They were determined to take that experience and cherish life and make the most of it for themselves, their families and their country.

On that visit, Sir John Carrick wanted to go down the River Kwai. We went down on a longboat. I sat next to him for about four hours there and back—and the Treasurer has just spoken about the long chats. He had a chat with me. I was a very young man. I was in my early 20s. We had a chat about our different philosophies. He was absolutely committed to the Liberal Party. He was a giant of the Liberal Party. The three giants of the Liberal Party have been Bob Menzies, Sir John Carrick and John Howard. They are the big three in history. There he was, with a young democratic socialist. It was my first overseas trip; I had never been anywhere. I was overwhelmed by this experience. Tom Uren, in order to develop my life skills I guess, had taken me on this trip. Sir John was very generous in talking about the times that he had had. But Tom Uren only ever spoke to me about his war experiences during that trip; it was the only time in his life. And I would have spoken to Tom at least once a fortnight, for decades. Sir John talked about, in a personal way, his experiences. He told me some things that perhaps he had not told other people. And I certainly kept that confidence. I regarded it as a great honour. He shared his experiences in order to educate me. He talked about his involvement in the Liberal Party, about his philosophy and about his commitment to early childhood education. He was a great thinker. He was an intellectual. I was speaking with Jane last week, and she was aware that we had corresponded over the years. John was always very generous in his comments. The last time I saw him was at To Uren's funeral service at Sydney Town Hall. Despite his ill health, he was determined to be there.

One remarkable thing about all of these people—and one would hope that we would have their character to respond in a similar way—was that they bore the Japanese people no ill will at all. Indeed, Sir John Carrick refused to give testimony to any war crimes tribunal because he regarded that as being about the past and that it was the structures and systems of fascism that had created the problem, not the people; it was the political structures. People had different ways of responding to that. Tom Uren was a collectivist. For his whole life, he believed in the importance of the collective—from that experience of the way the Australian prisoners of war share everything. In his first speech and subsequently, he spoke about the fit looking after the sick, and those who had the most giving it to those who needed it. The officers did not have the same hierarchy as occurred under the British system, which was across the other side of the river. Indeed, in terms of survival rates, the Australians did much better.

For Sir John Carrick, it was the importance of the individual and liberty. He had a very coherent position, and, in spite of the fact that on the surface it was very different to Tom's, there was a great deal of consistency, essentially, about both of them; a consistency that was all about the Australian national interest. Sir John Carrick said it was systems, not people, that caused the sorts of atrocities that happened during that. He said:

… although I had seen many atrocities, I saw the evil compulsion of the system on the individual.

He also said:

It's not people who create the savagery, but the systems of government … Human nature depends upon the political and social environment in which it finds itself.

I thought that the obituary by Troy Bramston in The Australian was very good. He interviewed Sir John Carrick last year. In that interview, Sir John said, 'Good god, I've seen the most horrible things. I saw human beings in terror.' There, he was talking about the Japanese, that the whole structure of that system was one of terror. Today, when terror has a different form—in particular, the rise of Islamic terrorism, a form of fascism that seeks to impose its views on others in the most horrific way; that discards humanity and human rights—that challenge remains for us in a different way.

Sir John came back to Australia, enrolled in a law course at the University of Sydney and took a job as a research officer in the New South Wales division of the Liberal Party. Two years later, he became the general secretary of the New South Wales division, a position he held until 1971. It is remarkable that someone who began as general secretary in the 1940s was still the general secretary in the 1970s. I find that quite extraordinary. Six years in a party office was six years too many for myself, as far as I'm concerned. He went on to become the Minister for Housing and Construction, Minister for Urban and Regional Development, Minister for Education, Minister for National Development and Energy and the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on Federal Affairs. He was appointed the Leader of the Senate in August 1978, and he retired from the Senate in June of 1987.

It was interesting; there were a number of veterans who had at that time a solidarity across the chamber. Think about the turmoil of that time—the election of the Whitlam government, the dismissal in 1975, the period of the Fraser government and then the election of the Hawke government. There were a whole lot of people during that era that served in this place who, compared with our life experiences, we are so much more fortunate than. We literally stand on their shoulders as the result of their sacrifice, and we should always remember that.

In 2008, Sir John was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia for:

… distinguished service in the area of educational reform in Australia, particularly through the advancement of early childhood education and to the development and support of new initiatives in the tertiary sector …

He continued to be an active servant of the community post politics, serving on boards and advisory committees, serving, no doubt, as a mentor to people like the Treasurer and many others in the Liberal Party, and being prepared to give advice to people such as myself whilst being totally loyal to his party. There's no question that there was no more passionate supporter of the Liberal Party than Sir John Carrick. He also understood, and it's something we as parliamentarians should always understand as well, that above all we in this place have one interest to serve, and that is the national interest. Sir John Carrick is someone whose entire life was about serving the national interest.

I pay tribute to him today, and I express my sincere condolences to his family, to his friends and to his comrades who he served with. There are very few of these veterans left now, but we are very humbled, I think, in their presence, because what they did for the country should never ever be forgotten. May he rest in peace.

Trent Zimmerman (North Sydney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support the condolence motion that was moved in the chamber by the Prime Minister and that has been so eloquently supported by the Leader of the Opposition and those that have spoken since. I do so to honour a remarkable Australian and one of the finest servants of the Liberal Party and our ideals, Sir John Carrick. I want to start by thanking the Prime Minister for what I thought was an incredible speech that he gave in the House of Representatives in honour of Sir John's life. I suspect in part that reflects the fact that the Prime Minister's own father-in-law, Tom Hughes, was one of the beneficiaries of Sir John's support and patronage in his own political career.

It's fair to say and reflect on the fact—and no hyperbole—that Sir John is without peer in terms of shaping the success of the Liberal Party in New South Wales and also, I'd argue, nationally. He was our general secretary from 1948 until 1971. He actually began his career with the Liberal Party two years earlier, in 1946, when he accepted what was a temporary job following his return from the horrors of World War II. It was, however, to become a lifetime career, both as a member of the staff of our secretariat and then as a senator in the other place. It was a role that he took, as I mentioned, not long after he'd come back from South-East Asia, where he had served Australia in Sparrow Force but was subsequently to become a prisoner of war in some of those horrific circumstances that have been so well documented. Many Australians reacted differently to that experience, but Sir John was, like many of his peers, one who came back to Australia with an absolute determination to create a more peaceful and more successful world, a world in which the horrors that he had experienced himself would not be ones that future generations would have to endure.

Many of those returned servicemen like himself were to go on to serve in state and federal politics. It's fair to say that the ranks of the Liberal Party in parliament at the time bore many of those returned servicemen, as did of course the Labor Party as well—Tom Uren typifies the service of many returned servicemen to that side of politics. I think it's in fact a fair observation to say that the early Liberal Party of Menzies was founded on the influence of two groups: firstly, those many returned servicemen who were determined to commit their lives to public service and also those women's organisations that Menzies recruited so successfully to join the new party, and which really became its backbone.

Sir John was a formidable general secretary of the Liberal Party in New South Wales. He served in that role for some incredible 23 years. In fact, it was often joked—I have no idea whether it was true—when he was encouraged to move to the Senate it was because the Liberal Party couldn't afford the superannuation he'd racked up at that time. I joined the Liberal Party at the time that Sir John was finishing his public career in the Senate, in the late 1980s, but even as a teenage Young Liberal, the legacy of Sir John Carrick was recognised and lauded across the party. My own understanding of Sir John Carrick's role was aided by the fact that one of my first jobs was working for the late John Booth, the then state member for Wakehurst. John, alongside people like Terry Metherell, had been a member of Sir John Carrick's staff while he was a senator for New South Wales.

Sir John had, at that time and throughout his career, a reputation as one of the Liberal Party's greatest political operators. He was courtly, but he was also tough, and I want to note that The Bulletin described him as 'the grey eminence of Ash Street', Ash street being our then headquarters, but also as the 'smiler with a knife'. Like no other estate director, as we now call it, he shaped the affairs of the division, and his hand was in many preselections. In fact, there was a term used to describe his time as general secretary, and that was head office factionalism. He had little truck for the emergence of other factions in the Liberal Party. In fact, most notably, in the late 19060s he put an end to the ambitions of the now notorious Lyenko Urbanchich in Warringah because he was determined to make sure that if there were to be a faction it would be one controlled by head office and one that squarely served the interests of the party.

It's fair to say that, during those years he was general secretary, whilst we had a very competitive preselection system there was very rarely a candidate who won a preselection who wasn't the candidate preferred or endorsed by Sir John Carrick. That, in part, reflects the fact that Sir John saw himself in the role of general secretary as responsible for the recruitment of candidates. He traversed the state of New South Wales, making sure that the party had the capacity to put forward to parliament candidates of the highest calibre. Many of them were to be fellow returned servicemen, and some of the greats of the Liberal Party in both state and federal politics at the time were people that he recruited from those ranks. He was determined and believed passionately that the success of the Liberal Party depended on the quality of the candidates he put forward. As general secretary, he regarded that as one of the primary obligations he had.

It's hard to fathom the challenge he faced when he first joined the party in the late 1940s. He was there in its infancy. His first role was within months of Menzies founding the party. As general secretary, two years later, at the age of just 30, he had the responsibility of building an entire party organisation effectively from scratch and finding candidates to run immediately for federal and state office. In part, his strength as a general secretary and the influence and success he had was because of the network of field officers he created across the party. Those field officers became his agents, both in electoral politics but also, it's fair to say, in the internal politics of the Liberal Party. When I joined the party, sadly those field officers were in decline, and whilst there were a handful back then, they weren't to last for much longer.

It's also fair to say his time in the Liberal Party was highly personally rewarding. The great love of his life, Lady Angela, was a person he met at those Ash Street headquarters in his early years at the party. She was the party librarian and equally committed to the cause. I'm not sure that that type of relationship would be one that would be permitted today, but it was certainly a very fruitful one for Sir John.

Sir John was far more than simply a machine man for the party. His parliamentary career which followed his retirement as general secretary in the early 1970s is testament to that fact. Throughout both his career in the party organisation and in the Senate, he demonstrated such a deep commitment to the values of our party. My predecessor, Joe Hockey, quoted Sir John in his own maiden speech, and I want to repeat that quote. Joe said:

A true Liberal was described by Sir John Carrick in 1967 as someone who was always concerned about the welfare of the individual, for the creation of opportunities, for the preservation of human dignity and the development of human personality.

It was those values that guided his parliamentary career and perhaps shaped his great passion in public life, which of course was for improving education in Australia. Sir John described the role of education in these terms: 'the real role of education is to stimulate people in mind and spirit for what is a limitless adventure'. That passion for education is reflected in his committee service in the Senate and in his role as the federal education minister during the Fraser government. Importantly, it was a passion that he carried beyond his retirement from the Senate. Most notably, when the Greiner government was elected in 1988, the then education minister, Terry Metherell, and Premier Greiner commissioned Sir John to chair a committee which bore his name, in the form of the Carrick report, which reinvented and reshaped school education in New South Wales. It's a legacy that prevails today.

I also wanted to mention, because it's a passion close to my own heart, the fact that, when was unfashionable to do so, Sir John was one of the earliest advocates to end the death penalty in Australia. In fact, the second speech he gave in the Senate, the very day after he had given his maiden speech, was to support a private members bill introduced by Lionel Murphy to abolish the death penalty in federal jurisdictions. He at the time was just one of three Liberal senators who exercised a conscience vote to support that bill, which passed the Senate at the time but failed in the House of Representatives; however, it was importantly enacted just a couple of years later.

I only had the privilege of meeting Sir John on a couple of occasions during my own involvement in the Liberal Party. I want to reflect on one of those occasions which, I think, typifies the type of person that Sir John was. In 2005, I had the great pleasure of assisting Joe Hockey in organising North Sydney commemorations for the anniversary of Victory in the Pacific Day, what we originally called Victory over Japan. It was a significant commemoration for our veterans. Joe invited Sir John to be the keynote speaker. I vividly remember two things: firstly, his remarks about the values that have been spoken about by other speakers—his commitment to reconciliation, the deep faith he had in human nature, which led him to spend much of his adult life post the Second World War trying to ensure that the horrors of that war did not affect our relationship, not only as individuals but as a nation, with the Japanese people.

Secondly, the thing that struck me about his contribution that day was his extraordinary humility that was reflected in all that he said. It was also reflected in the way he happily spent an hour after the service mingling with schoolchildren who didn't know who Sir John Carrick was. It was the first time in their lives they had met a knight and they were intrigued by that fact and by the impressive medallion he wore as a knight. He happily talked to them and shared his own experiences with those school students for a very long time. It's that humility that we'll most remember Sir John for and it was reflected in his decision to make sure that this family turned down a state funeral—as the Prime Minister pointed out in his speech—because he believed that his life was no more worthy than any of the other veterans who he had served alongside. His humility was reflected when the Liberal Party, over the years, on many occasions discussed whether our own head office should be named in his honour. It was a request or a suggestion that he always turned down because he considered himself a servant of the Liberal Party and no better than any other person who served in that role.

I speak today to honour someone who was a child of the Depression, a soldier for Australia, a survivor of those awful prisoner of war camps that he experienced in South-East Asia, a warrior for the Liberal Party and its values, but, most importantly, someone who was committed to further generations, be they the generations to follow him and his own family, or more broadly across Australia, as his commitment to education was so effectively to demonstrate. We have lost a great Australian, and I extend my sincerest condolences to his family.

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Urban Infrastructure and Cities) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to acknowledge the passing of Sir John Carrick AC, KCMG, an eminent Australian politician, public servant, veteran and leader. Sadly, this comes just weeks after I rose in the chamber to acknowledge the passing of his wife, Lady Angela Carrick AO. Sir John and Lady Angela Carrick were residents of Bradfield for many years, in Bent Street, Lindfield. Sir John was a member of the Killara branch of the Liberal Party for decades. Sir John Carrick was a Liberal senator for New South Wales for many years. He served variously as the Minister for Education, Minister for National Development and Energy, and Leader of the Government in the Senate. He is one of the most distinguished figures in Australian politics over the last 80 years, who was instrumental in working with Sir Robert Menzies to transform the Liberal Party from a fledgling political movement in New South Wales in the 1940s, to the major party it is today. He served for 23 years as the general secretary of the New South Wales Liberal Party and advised countless leaders, including John Howard, Sir Robert Menzies and Malcolm Fraser.

It is worth reflecting on Sir John's remarkable history of service. He served with distinction in the Australian Army in World War II. Enlisting as a lieutenant in the Sydney University Regiment in 1939, he deployed to West Timor in December 1941 with the Australia Army's Sparrow Force. They fought bravely against overwhelming odds before being taken prisoner, and Sir John was a prisoner of war of the Japanese at Changi prison and spent time on the infamous Thai-Burma railway and at Hellfire Pass. Whilst interred as a prisoner of war, Sir John acquired a considerable command of the Japanese language, which assisted in the communication with his captors.

Sir John earned the respect of his fellow prisoners of war through the way that he supported them, and he described his period in captivity subsequently as a 'great and enduring learning experience'. That speaks volumes of his nature as a human being to be so generous and reflective in his observations on what was undoubtedly a traumatising and appalling experience.

After returning to Australia, Sir John worked as a research officer for the New South Wales Liberal Party from 1946. Two years later, having greatly impressed senior figures in the party, he was appointed General Secretary of the New South Wales Division of the Liberal Party, and for the next 23 years he built what is arguably the most effective political organisation in the history of politics in New South Wales. He established the template for political engagement and community advocacy within the Liberal Party, and it's worth reflecting on the scale of mass community engagement with political parties at that time. His work was instrumental in the scale of engagement which the Liberal Party was able to have throughout the community. He worked tirelessly, travelling all across the state and throughout communities across New South Wales, encouraging participation and campaigning on the foundational values of the Liberal Party. For people who have been involved in the New South Wales division of the Liberal Party for many years such as the member for North Sydney, who spoke previously, and such as I and, of course, many other members and senators in this place, it is instructive to observe how much the institutions and the practices and the values of the modern Liberal Party very much reflect the work that Sir John did in those early days as the party was growing and building momentum.

Elected as a senator for New South Wales in 1971, Sir John served in the parliament with the same efficiency, professionalism and commitment to the community that he demonstrated as General Secretary of the New South Wales Division of the Liberal Party for 23 years. Of course, he rose to high ministerial office, serving as Minister for Education, Minister for National Development and Energy and Leader of the Government in the Senate. Although he held a number of portfolios, perhaps it is his time as education minister which speaks most to his passions and the contribution that he sought to make to our nation. It was certainly a policy area for which he had great enthusiasm.

One of Sir John Carrick's characteristics is that he did not seek personal fame or reputation. He served the community and the Liberal Party selflessly and he worked to advance the views that he felt resonated throughout the Australian community at a time when, as a nation, we were very much engaged in a process of nation building, recovering from the traumatic experience of World War II and throwing open the national arms to people from around the world as our population grew, as our confidence grew and as the scale of our nation grew. Sir John was absolutely critical to that process.

He was, in every way, deserving of the title, which is often accorded to his generation, in our country and others—the greatest generation—those who sacrificed so much in World War II and went on to build their nations. His is a life story of experience in extraordinary hardship and privation, including some quite challenging times as a child and teenager during the Depression. He devoted himself to the task of shaping our nation and, particularly, shaping our political life.

As a young man, he fought for Australia's freedom and for our values as a soldier. As a party official and parliamentarian, he spent decades fighting for freedom and fighting for Australian values, and he did so with enormous effectiveness. There is no person who better encapsulates the values for which the Liberal Party stands. He stood for aspiration, he stood for community involvement, and he stood for fairness and equality of opportunity. He believed deeply in the inherent value of individual freedom and the centrality of free enterprise to a successful and fair society.

It is, therefore, with great sadness that I acknowledge the passing of Sir John Carrick AC KCMG and the loss of one of Australia's most distinguished leaders and faithful servants. On behalf of the people of Bradfield, I particularly express our collective sadness at the deaths of Sir John and of Lady Angela Carrick within such a short space of time. They are survived by their daughters, Diane, Jane and Fiona and their extended family, and I express my condolences to the extended family.

Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services and Disability Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to honour and pay tribute to the late Senator Sir John Carrick—as the Prime Minister says, a lion of the New South Wales Liberal Party, an exemplar of dignity and character, a wonderful mentor and, indeed, friend.

When I first joined the New South Wales Liberal Party in 1968, Senator Carrick was then the general secretary of the party. I was pleased to be able to attend his memorial service last Saturday, along with some now not-as-young Young Liberals, Philip and Heather Ruddock, Robyn Kerr, Bruce McCarthy and many others. Former Senator Nick Minchin was also in Sydney but unable to attend the service, so I offered to include his words today: 'It was a great privilege to know John Carrick and be inspired by him to follow in his footsteps as a Liberal state director, senator and government leader in the Senate. John was a true Liberal hero, a humble man and great man who was an inspiration to so many of us.'

As you would expect, it was a moving service with wonderful eulogies and memories from family and friends. From former Prime Minister John Howard and Sir John Carrick's biographer, Graeme Starr, to his grandchildren, all of course Pa's favourite, and all with loving and special childhood memories. I should note that the service was held at one of Sydney's historic churches, St Paul's Burwood, which is just two years shy of being 150 years old and notably still has real bells and bellringers and at the end of the service the bells were rung 99 times, once for each year of Sir John's life.

Senator Carrick, as I knew him, was one of a number World War II veterans on both sides of the House and the Senate who came to politics after the war with a deep and abiding commitment to public service in the very best sense of those words. Then Senator Robert Cotton convinced him to stand for the Senate and I feel honoured and privileged to have worked for him. Indeed, when I joined his staff in 1975 the Senate included Robert Cotton, John Carrick, Ivor Greenwood and Reg Withers, a most formidable team. He was a generous, considerate and inclusive boss. Always proper and always on top of his brief, he was a good friend whose political advice was worth its weight in gold, as was his advice generally. Even after I left his staff and moved to Queensland he was always available whenever I needed advice. He could always find time to talk, even to a junior staffer just starting in politics.

Like my father, a prisoner of war, his character was forged through war, Changi and the Burma railway. He described his captivity as 'a great and enduring learning experience', which through 'the strong amalgam of mateship' disclosed reserves of spirituality and moral strength in his fellow prisoners. I remember how concerned he was when veterans with whom he had served, who like him has survived and come home and rebuilt their lives, had later need to apply for a TPI pension. He always stressed the importance of staying fit, physically and mentally. Every day that I worked for him, he went for either a walk or a swim and every morning he would give the staff a small puzzle or riddle to ensure that we exercised our minds.

I paid tribute to Sir John Carrick in my maiden speech in this place as a special leader, a great mentor and a man of immeasurable compassion. I noted that, when considering new legislation, he always cautioned us to be mindful of our responsibility to assist those in need, and, as we all know, he was passionate about the importance of education. In establishing the Carrick Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, Dr Brendan Nelson, as the then minister for education, said of him:

Sir John Carrick has made an enormous contribution to our country.

…   …   …

He did many things, but one of them was the establishment of the National Tertiary Education Commission, to play for the first time, a serious role in co-ordinating the higher education sector throughout Australia and at arm’s length from Government ... of all of the people that I have met in my adult life there are few that I consider more noble and decent, nor intelligent nor committed to the cause of education ...

The name of the Carrick Institute was immediately accepted throughout the university sector and beyond. Even in political circles there was no express disapproval and the Carrick Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education was an immediate success. I can still recall the day, many years earlier, when we were unable to leave our offices in Chifley Square as a result of a large student protest outside. As staff and security officers rushed around in a panic trying to find ways to get the minister out of the building, we turned and found Senator Carrick calmly cutting out paper dolls for the then very young Melanie Howard.

At the memorial service on Saturday, we were all given a white rose and a copy of a poem that Senator Carrick had handwritten with a notation: 'I've no idea of its origin or author. I doubt that I've ever seen it in print. It is out of my childhood.' Indeed, it exemplifies how Senator Carrick approached his life. Well, Senator Carrick, I will now read it into Hansard so that it is in print with your name for perpetuity. It's known as The Bridge Builder and reads:

An old man going a lone highway,

Came, at the evening cold and gray,

To a chasm vast and deep and wide.

Through which was flowing a sullen tide

The old man crossed in the twilight dim,

The sullen stream had no fear for him;

But he turned when safe on the other side

And built a bridge to span the tide.

“Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim near,

“You are wasting your strength with building here;

Your journey will end with the ending day,

You never again will pass this way;

You’ve crossed the chasm, deep and wide,

Why build this bridge at evening tide?”

The builder lifted his old gray head;

“Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said,

“There followeth after me to-day

A youth whose feet must pass this way.

…   …   …

He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;

Good friend, I am building this bridge for him!”

Sir John Carrick's generation of senators and members set standards that are applicable today because they stand the test of time. Knowing Senator Carrick also included knowing his wonderful family: his wife Lady Angela Carrick, who sadly passed away just a few months ago, and his daughters, Diane, Jane and Fiona. My thoughts are with them and their children and grandchildren. Just as your mother made such an enormous contribution generally and to the Girl Guides movement in particular, your father was a giant of a man whose contribution to our nation should never be underestimated.

I'd like to finish with Sir John Carrick's own profound words. He said:

Man has always shown himself more willing to seek to understand his material environment than to understand himself or his neighbours. Indeed, in recent decades, we have given great prominence to the physicists, the chemists, the engineers, and their kindred scientists, while failing to appreciate that mankind's currently intractable problems are those essentially for the philosopher, the educator, the psychologist and the political scientist.

Senator Carrick, I'm honoured to have known you and your family. May you rest in peace.

Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to pay tribute to the late the Honourable Sir John Carrick AC KCMG. I never met Sir John Carrick and I did not know him personally. Nonetheless, I know him by his reputation for his contribution to our great party, the Liberal Party, the movement and the cause of liberalism in Australia and also his service to our great nation. Sir John Carrick was elected to the Senate in 1970 and served until his retirement in 1987. He had a long and illustrious political career, including rising to the level of Minister for Housing and Construction, Minister for Urban and Regional Development, Minister for Education and the Minister assisting the Prime Minister on Federal Affairs, National Development and Energy.

The interest I have in Sir John Carrick is not just about his roles and professional capacity, but the values and philosophy that sit at the heart of his liberalism. Liberalism is the greatest political philosophy the world has ever known. It has endured over every type of 'ism' and extremism that has ever reared its head in competition. Over time, through the process of understanding of the human condition and our aspiration, it has endured against incredible difficulties at times. Sir John Carrick represented the best of that tradition. He understood that the foundations of liberalism were to aspire to a society where people are free to choose their life and their circumstances, free to be able to change their circumstances if they found them undesirable, and free to live their lives as they want, understanding not just the primacy of the rights of the individual but, importantly, the foundational building block of our country, which is the family, towards community and, ultimately, nationhood.

Critically, Sir John Carrick understood that the foundation of liberalism was also anchored in a sense of justice—not just respect towards the individual but our collective bond and sharing responsibility to each other. He recognised on so many occasions the importance of a sense of national unity, particularly around rejecting a lot of sectarian elements that existed within Australian society at the time. There was no better demonstration of that than his advocacy for public funding for faith based schools, particularly the Catholic system. He recognised that, no matter who you are, if you want to live an enlivened life of freedom and choice, you have to have choice about where you go to school and, equally, where you seek to have your children go to school.

In his first speech, Sir John Carrick made remarks along these lines: 'I do not stand for any section of the community. The people I represent are not represented by the size of their pay packets, by colour or shirt collar, or by the nature of their religious devotion. Divisiveness is the evil of politics, and I hope to do something to reduce it.' Throughout his political career, Sir John Carrick did just that—by focusing on that sense of unity and purpose, national identity and freedom of choice. He was a man of his times. When I read his history and some of his contributions, I did raise my eyebrows. In particular, there was his advocacy for the virtues of the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission. But, as I said, he was a man of his times.

Critically, though, he was a man who understood that the heart of any successful political career and the heart of the pursuit of what the Liberal Party should stand for was anchored in values and philosophy. He wrote extensively about this, particularly for the public, in various contributions. It struck me in David Clune's review of a more recent book titled Carrick: Principles, Politics and Polity. Clune wrote of Carrick that 'his definition of Liberal philosophy placed much emphasis on "the potential of the individual"' but it 'rejected both laissez-faire and collectivism as threats to "the development of individual dignity"'. He understood that the Liberal Party must be a party for every Australian.

More than anything else, when you read through his history and his contribution to public life, Carrick represented the foundations of great Liberal philosophy and then sought to put it into practice. He understood that the foundation of liberalism is a cultural and institutional conservatism. In fact, I found an article from 1973 where he was arguing that, in the choice of a new national anthem, God Save the Queen should at least be part of the selection choices. He understood the power of symbols and of the institutions that we have inherited and the importance of their roles continuing on into the future.

But, critically, he also understood the power of economic and social liberalism to chart a course for the future of the country. He understood that the future of this country was not bound solely by its past but that there are alternative choices about whether we seek to be a liberal democracy or a social democracy and that the Liberal Party and its values are enlivened best when we extol the virtues of liberalism and a forward-looking vision for our country. To quote his first speech again in my closing remarks:

I have one great hope. I believe that in the vision of the future to meet the challenges of the future, the great solutions and the great motivations not being created by economic instruments will be created by a new philosophy of education. … in rethinking our education research, in studying as our main subject not material science but man, we will come some way towards the solutions. It is high time man was less preoccupied with material science and more preoccupied with the only study that matters—man.

That is to say that we should always have a vision of how we can shape the future. May he rest in peace.

Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I stand today to speak on the memory of a great Australian, Sir John Leslie Carrick AC, KCMG. Sir John Carrick was a man who lived a full and rich 99 years of life. He was a father, a husband, a soldier, a politician and a friend of many.

Sir John first heeded the call of patriotism and service to his country in 1940, when he joined the Australian Imperial Force. In 1943 Sir John was captured and taken as a Japanese prisoner of war. He spent more than three years in prison camps, including the infamous Changi prison camp in Singapore. He also worked on the Burma-Thailand railway, where he endured the brutality and cruelty displayed towards Australian prisoners of war. Despite all of this, Sir John's love of his country endured, and when he returned to Australia he did not lose his patriotic resolve.

Sir John is seen by many as one of the people most responsible for developing the Liberal Party from an idea into the most representative and influential political party in Australian politics. Sir John served as a Liberal Party senator for the state of New South Wales between 1971 and 1987. During this time he held multiple ministerial positions in the Fraser government, including Minister for National Development and Energy, Minister for Education, Minister for Urban and Regional Development and Minister for Housing and Construction.

I first met Sir John about 20 years ago, and I only met him twice. He spoke clearly about the importance of Liberal ideals in a modern society but, most critically, about how, when they fall in and out of favour—despite the fact that they are timeless—and when they are forgotten, they too often lead to oppression. I once asked him why he was so strongly supportive of state support for Catholic schools in the 1960s. It was one of the most powerful statements that I've heard in public life. He said, 'When I was a prisoner in Changi they didn't ask you if you were a Catholic or a Protestant, because we were all Australians. We were all there fighting to survive but also fighting to preserve freedom and our country. I was not,' he said, 'fighting for a Catholic Australia or a Protestant Australia. I was fighting for Australia, no more, no less.' So when he returned to Australia and found law firms that were Catholic and law firms that were Protestant—even department stores that only employed Catholics and other department stores that only employed Protestants—he said, 'This is not the Australia I had been fighting for. More importantly, this is not the Australia that many of my comrades had died for, that my comrades in arms had died to protect.' So when the time came, when this issue had reached its pinnacle, he said to Menzies, who was then the Prime Minister: 'This is not the country that I fought and suffered for. I fought for a country where your religion did not matter, and that is what state support meant to me.'

Sir John's memory lives on in the hearts and minds of all those in the Liberal Party. As a titan of the Liberal Party—as one of the great three, as Anthony Albanese described him—his name will be remembered in the league of our two most loyal servants: former prime ministers Sir Robert Menzies and John Howard.

Sir John's beloved wife, Lady Angela Carrick AO, like him dedicated her life to the service of others, including her time spent as Chief Commissioner of Girl Guides Australia in the mid-1980s. She passed away in February of this year. I recognise her and her commitment to this country as well.

On behalf of myself and the people of Mackellar, I offer my most heartfelt condolences to his three daughters—Diane, Jane and Fiona—as well as to the whole Carrick family. To Sir John I say, 'Thank you for your service to your country through your time in the armed services and in the Australian Senate. Thank you for your contribution to the Liberal Party and for the advice and support you provided to me early on in my career.' Lest we forget.

Andrew Gee (Calare, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I understand that it's the wish of honourable members to signify at this stage their respect and sympathy by rising in their places, and I ask all present to do so.

Honourable members having stood in their places—

I thank the Federation Chamber.

Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That further proceedings be conducted in the House.

Question agreed to.

Proceedings suspended from 11:58 to 16 : 01