Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

That the Senate record its deep regret at the death, on 2 February 2006, of the Hon. Sir Reginald William Colin Swartz, KBE, ED, former federal minister, Leader of the House of Representatives and member for Darling Downs, Queensland, places on record its appreciation of his long and meritorious public service and tenders its profound sympathy to his family in their bereavement.

Sir Reginald was widely respected for his service as a member of the Australian military, as a member of parliament and in his business career. Reg Swartz was born on 14 April 1911 in Brisbane, Queensland. He was educated at Toowoomba Grammar. At the age of 17, he joined the Citizens Military Forces and later enlisted in the 2nd AIF. He served with the 2/26 Infantry Battalion 8th Division in the Malayan campaign. After being captured by the Japanese, he was a prisoner of war for 3½ years, spending time in Changi and a period working on the Burma-Thailand railway. He returned to Australia in 1945. He re-enlisted in the CMF in 1947. He was Lieutenant Colonel and Assistant Quartermaster-General of Northern Command and he was made an honorary colonel of the Australian Army Aviation Corps in 1969.

Before entering parliament Sir Reginald had worked as an oil company executive. He was elected to federal parliament as the member for Darling Downs in 1949. He was the first member of the Liberal Party to hold that seat, winning it comfortably in the election which saw the coalition returned to office under Sir Robert Menzies. He held the seat for 23 years and served as a minister in a number of portfolios in the Menzies, Holt, McEwen and Gorton governments.

During his time in parliament he also led or participated in a number of overseas delegations and missions, including to India in 1957, the United Kingdom in 1965, South-East Asia in 1968 and New Zealand in 1971. Curly Swartz—which I gather was an acknowledgment of his baldness—was Leader of the House in his last two years in parliament. He was described by a journalist as the government’s ‘most unflappable character and its best diffuser of contentious issues’. Prime Minister McMahon described him as a master of tactics.

He was among 200 Australian former prisoners of war who accompanied Prime Minister Howard to Thailand in 1998 when he opened the Hellfire Pass Memorial Museum. The museum is a memorial to the 2,700 Australians who died building the Burma-Thailand railway in World War II.

Reg Swartz was created a Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in June 1972 and had earlier been appointed Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 1948 for distinguished service in the south-west Pacific. In retirement, Sir Reginald pursued his many and varied interests, living a full life until his passing last week at the remarkable age of 94.

On behalf of the government, I extend to his wife, Lady Muriel Swartz, and children, Barbara, Graham and Rodney, and to other family members and friends our most sincere sympathy in their bereavement.