Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Barry Humphries was many things: a satirist, a raconteur, an actor, a force of nature. His rise to fame in the 1960s came at a time when Australian cultural identity was changing on a fundamental level. There was a growing realisation that Britishness was no longer a viable basis for our identity and that there was an urgent need to reformulate our national image. It was the era of new nationalism and the cultural cringe. Many artists and creatives felt a kind of shame based on the cultural cringe, but Barry Humphries was unwilling to let a crisis of national cultural identity go to waste, so he doubled down on it. He gave the cultural cringe a human form in Bazza McKenzie, Sir Les Patterson and, of course, Dame Edna Everage. Dame Edna was the product of Australia's need to recast its place in the world and its image of itself. Barry himself said:

In Edna I created a satiric portrait of my hometown of Melbourne, a large provincial English city paradoxically in far Southeast Asia.

Overseas, these characters acted as self-appointed envoys for the new Australia, while being unapologetic relics of the old. Barry and his alter egos endeared themselves to audiences in the UK and the United States, finding extraordinary success on stage and screen across several decades. In these settings his satire took on an Australian sensibility, often needling at classism, prudishness and the cult of celebrity. He never indulged the self-importance of others because who could be more important than Dame Edna? Gough Whitlam commented that the only Imperial honour he ever bestowed was upon Dame Edna, a moment immortalised in the final scenes of Barry McKenzie Holds His Own.

Barry's characters helped to create a distinctly Australian genre of satire based on self-deprecation and caricature that has enriched our culture for decades. Each of his characters is iconic in their own way, yet each is very different to the other. You felt that you'd met them all before because, in a sense, you had. They were the product of Barry's keen observations of human nature and mannerisms.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 10 : 42 to 10 : 55

I'll pick up where I left off in celebrating Barry Humphries. We did love Bazza. All these characters and Barry Humphries's satire were an important part of the evolution of Australia's cultural identity, and their cultural impact will long outlast him. Rather than resile from ockerisms as an embarrassing relic of the past, Barry hammed them up. He repopularised outdated slang terms and coined new euphemisms. There was, of course, the liquid laugh and the technicolour yawn. Many of his contributions to the Australian lexicon could be considered unparliamentary, so I'll resist the temptation to provide a few further examples. He took great glee in repopularising Australian idioms and slang that had long fallen out of common usage. In doing so, he pioneered a kind of performative Australianness that I think many of us are familiar with and indulge in—the kind of humour that tends to emerge only when foreign audiences are watching.

Those who knew Barry Humphries privately talk of a charming, generous, witty and warm-hearted man. Their feeling of loss at this time must be profound, and I extend my deepest sympathies to his family and his many friends around the world. Notwithstanding his success across seven decades, and notwithstanding the position he held in the constellation of Australian fame, Barry Humphries believed that you should never exempt yourself from ridicule. He said:

I can laugh at myself, I think it's one of the precious things Dame Nature gave me … I think if you can't laugh at yourself you might be missing the joke of the century.

In the passing of one man we have lost a host of colourful and very often ridiculous characters. We've lost a mirror to ourselves, a reflection that we've cringed at and laughed at. More importantly, we've lost one of the finest satirists of a generation, a national treasure and a cultural icon. It's very appropriate that there will be a state memorial for Barry Humphries AO CBE held at the Sydney Opera House in December. His family have accepted the offer, and it will be co-hosted by the Australian and New South Wales governments. We hope that Barry Humphries rests in peace, and we also hope that his legendary words and mannerisms long live on.

James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I too rise to speak on this condolence motion on the passing of Barry Humphries, a great cultural icon—perhaps the cultural icon of Australia and for all Australians. It is a totemic, epochal moment that he has passed. For almost everyone in this chamber he was a living, breathing embodiment of the Australian character for the entirety of our lives. My first reflection on Barry Humphries is: thank God so much of his career was in an era when we had the technology to record and preserve it, because how could you possibly explain Barry Humphries—what he was about, who he was and how brilliant his comedy was—to anyone in the future without them being able to see it firsthand, as we can. I'm sure I'm one of the millions of Australians that's taken the opportunity to reacquaint myself with so many of his great performances on YouTube in the last few weeks since his passing.

I say Barry Humphries is the great cultural icon of Australia and for Australians because I do think that what we know and describe as the Australian character, particularly in the modern era, really, frankly, is thanks to Barry Humphries more than anyone. Some of those great Australian attributes in our egalitarian society include those of self-deprecation and, perhaps even more controversially at times, tall poppy syndrome and the other elements of Australians' liking to exist on a level playing field and exist in a society where we can laugh at ourselves and laugh at each other. One of the great legacies of Barry Humphries is that he made sure, through his brilliance, that everyone understood the value of poking fun at ourselves, at those in our society, at, sometimes, our leaders and at some of the stereotypes in our society, and that it made us more comfortable and at ease with our society, because what is better than laughter when it comes to considering and weighing up the society that we live in and the culture that we live in?

Of course, he also grew up and rose to prominence and then fame in a period of Australia doing a similar thing, really. The post Second World War period, again, was an epochal moment, and I think, probably, the Melbourne Olympics was also one of those defining points in time when Australia, in the early days of the great Menzies era, was understanding its significance in the world. Hosting the Olympics is obviously a pretty good example of being centrestage in global affairs for a period of time, and it was in that era and in that city of Melbourne that Barry Humphries moved from his adolescence and university days into his early days of performance and fame.

Of course, that was just the very beginning of a career that saw him conquer the great comedy capitals of the world, particularly London, Los Angeles and New York, and to have an Australian with a very, very unquestionably Australian sense of humour and Australian comedic technique conquer audiences of non-Australians is one of the great examples of him not being a funny comedian—an excellent comedian—but an unbelievable comedian that fellow comedians around the world, since his passing, have acknowledged as being, some say, one of the greats, and I would say: the absolute great. Apart from Sir Donald Bradman, I can't think of an Australian that had such an unquestionable dominance of their particular pursuit and talent in life. I don't think any Australian comedian would be offended at Barry Humphries being described as the greatest Australian comedian, and, of course, being an Australian, I would say: the greatest comedian of all time, not just in this country but across the globe.

He leaves a great legacy in my home city of Adelaide. He very honestly and openly always described Her Majesty's Theatre on Grote Street in the Adelaide CBD as his favourite performance venue in the world, and in the last few years we were particularly honoured to have his significant contribution in fronting the fundraising efforts to completely redevelop Her Majesty's Theatre, which was a $60 million undertaking. It's the last remaining Tivoli theatre. It was renamed Her Majesty's Theatre. It has been completely redeveloped, and Barry was, of course, there throughout that journey—both the fundraising journey and then the first performances in that finished product—and that's one of the great legacies he'll leave in my home city of Adelaide. Very early in his career, he travelled to Adelaide and performed in Adelaide, and just in the last few years, of course, he was the artistic director of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Right through his career, from beginning to end, Adelaide was a very big part of it.

We will never have another Barry Humphries. Many might say, 'That's a good thing,' in both a complimentary and derogatory sense—and I say that statement with both of those elements—but the legacy and impact he leaves on our nation and on our culture, I think, is immeasurable and in many ways will never be eclipsed. As Australia has become the nation that we have, some of the greatest attributes within our society and within our culture were certainly empowered, emboldened and brought to life by Barry Humphries. His contribution in those ways will never be forgotten. Vale Barry Humphries.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Just to pick up on a couple of points that the member for Sturt made about Sir Donald Bradman and Barry Humphries AO CBE, both are from the Riverina—both greats. And, in tribute to Les Patterson I probably should—not that I've ever done this before—do the speech!

Michelle Ananda-Rajah (Higgins, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Just be careful, Member for Riverina!

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

So we pay tribute to Barry Humphries and his alter egos—what a great Australian. He died on 22 April, aged 89, following complications from hip surgery at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney, having suffered a fall in February. A state memorial service will be held at the Sydney Opera House on Friday 15 December, and we will mourn him again then. And we have indeed mourned his passing—people from all walks of life, from prime ministers past and present to everyday Australians. Barry Humphries's alter egos, and some of the things that he did and said, you wouldn't get away with these days. The comedy was typical of the seventies and eighties.

Wagga Wagga, my home town, has a unique link to Barry Humphries. While Wagga Wagga may be known as the city of good sports—and we've produced any number of good sportspeople—it is also the birthplace of one Dame Edna Everage. Not a lot of people know that, but Dame Edna hailed from Wagga. She was born there, according to Dame Edna's autobiography, My Gorgeous LifeI'll just fix my jacket!—and statements made by Edna over the years. She was born Edna May Beazley in Wagga with a sibling who would give birth to the lovable Barry McKenzie. Wagga Wagga recognises and revels in its association with the lovable Dame Edna. Images of her can be found in the city. A large Dame Edna mural graces a building in Cadell Place. It was created for the Lost Lanes winter festival in 2018. So many people go to that. They go and have a coffee at Meccanico and then go round the corner and just marvel at this amazing mural.

The good thing about murals, whether they're in Cadell Place or on silos throughout regional Australia, is that they remain almost vandal-free. Even vandals have the respect to leave them alone. They'll put their daub over every other fence and telegraph pole et cetera, but they leave these sorts of murals alone. Even they have respect for them.

This particular mural was created by Melbourne based street artist Ling, who painted a friend wearing the iconic purple wig and cat-eye glasses of Dame Edna Everage as a playful nod to Dame Edna's place of birth. It's fantastic. If you ever go to Wagga Wagga—and put it on your bucket list at any rate—have a look at this beautiful mural. And it is beautiful. There is also a Dame Edna mural painted under the Wollundry Lagoon Bridge. It's a few footsteps from my Wagga Wagga electorate office. I know some Wagga Wagga residents visited that mural after Barry Humphries's death to pay tribute to his unique brand of humour, which delighted millions and outraged some for more than half a century, not just here but certainly abroad and certainly in England. He had that ability to make you laugh out loud and squirm uncomfortably at the same time. Wagga Wagga has had to share the limelight of Dame Edna with Moonee Ponds, represented by the Hon. Bill Shorten, the member for Maribyrnong. So, that's something that Bill and I certainly have in common.

Sadly, however, when all Australians should have been celebrating Barry Humphries's contribution to Australian culture in his dying days, he fell victim to another type of culture, and that's the cancel culture—and such a shame. The Melbourne International Comedy Festival failed to pay official tribute to this comic legend, despite his pivotal role in establishing the event. I think that's such a shame. There was no official tribute to Humphries on the closing day of this year's festival. It ran from 29 March to 23 April. Of course, relations had soured in recent years following a number of comments made by Barry Humphries.

But culture cancellers can't dim or take away his contribution to Australian life, to our unique Australian culture, whether it's larrikin or whether it's irreverent—it's all of those, and so much more. We should ensure that his legacy and that of Dame Edna lives on. I would like to encourage Wagga Wagga to honour and perpetuate Barry Humphries and Dame Edna in some other way, perhaps by the city council placing a walk-of-honour plaque in Baylis Street, our main street, perhaps by organising a Dame Edna exhibition in the Museum of the Riverina or by naming an award after Barry Humphries at one of the growing number of comedy shows in Wagga. I think this would be a fitting tribute. Farewell, possums.