Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

It probably would not please Don Chipp, but I will start my speech on this condolence motion by giving a quote from Malcolm Fraser, who described the service on Sunday as ‘a great send-off’ and remarked that Don Chipp led a very productive life. I think he is right on both counts. It was a great send-off. It was one that Don Chipp had a hand in designing and perhaps it is therefore no surprise that it was a marvellous occasion, filled with grief, of course, but also filled with great insight and recognition of an amazing life. I would like to put on record my appreciation to both Mr Fraser and former Prime Minister Keating for making the effort to go along.

I also put up front my condolences to Don’s family: his wife, Idun; his first wife, Monica; all of his children; and his brother, Alan Chipp, who gave a wonderful speech at the service. As the last remaining of four brothers brought up in Northcote in Melbourne in the twenties and thirties, it would be a difficult time for him as well. The key message that came forth from Don Chipp’s life—and it was so appropriate that it was reflected in the state service in the cathedral in Melbourne on Saturday—was the message of love. Not surprisingly, that came forth in the contributions from all of his children. Each in their own way spoke of their memories, their feelings and their impressions of Don Chipp the man, the father and the great Australian. His children, Melissa, Debbie, John and Greg, gave different contributions, but each had the theme of love running through them.

I will always remember his two youngest daughters, Juliet and Laura, reading in tandem chapter 13 from the first letter to the Corinthians—a reading that is normally used at weddings rather than funerals. They read in duet style and then read the final words together: ‘Faith, hope and love remain, but the greatest of these is love.’ Throughout all of that was the enormous pride that they all felt. As was pointed out in the homily—which was also excellent, I might say—you cannot actually experience grief without love. Perhaps some might see that as the downside of love, but it is also an example of the power of it, the importance of it and the key part in the role it plays. The pride that shone forth from all of the Chipp family during the service could not fail to make an impression on everybody who was there. It was not just from a family and their private experiences, it was because of the enormous contributions that Don Chipp made in so many ways throughout his life.

Not surprisingly, we are focusing here on his contribution in the parliament and to parliamentary life. As Senator Minchin pointed out, Don Chipp spent longer in the Liberal Party than in the Democrats—indeed, almost twice as long. He made significant contributions to the Liberal Party, but there is no doubt that he will be remembered first and foremost for his role as a Democrat, in the Democrats and as a tireless promoter of the Democrat vision. Don Chipp was essential in setting up and founding the Democrats, but, as he acknowledged himself, there were many thousands of men and women from all ranks of society and all parts of the community who over the years contributed to not only building up the Democrats as a political party but building up and promoting that vision.

It is an appropriate time to also acknowledge the legacy of those who came before, from parties such as the Australia Party, the Liberal Movement, other parties from that time and groupings of people. Don Chipp’s great gift and ability was to be able to bring people together and provide a figurehead, but he also had the passion to fire people up to do what is an incredibly difficult thing to do: establish a successful third party in one of the more rigid two-party systems in global politics. It is an amazing achievement—one that very few people have successfully done—to successfully set up a minor party in Australian politics. It was not, despite the way it was sometimes painted, a breakaway or a splinter from a major party; it was a party in its own right, pulled together from the community. The fact that Don Chipp came from the Liberal Party to be a key catalyst in setting up the Democrats was sometimes used as a way to mistakenly portray the Democrats as a breakaway party rather than a genuine party generated from the community.

It is no secret, of course, that Don Chipp was quite ill in his final years. Indeed, he made sure that it was not a secret. As with almost everything, he was quite open about his ill health, feelings, views and experiences, but, above all else, his determination not to let his physical ailments hold him back. Certainly, the thought that sprung to mind when I heard that he had finally succumbed a week ago was that it was hard to believe that such an amazing spark and passion for life could be put out. But, as has been pointed out, that spark has not been put out; it has been passed on to thousands and thousands of other people. I note the comments from the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Beazley—comments for which I thank him—about the ability of the Democrats to draw strength from people like Don Chipp in the same way that the Labor Party draw strength from their icons—people like Ben Chifley or John Curtin—even though they may never have met them. He is right: the Democrats are able to and do draw similar strength and sustenance from the life, the example and the passion of Don Chipp, and we will continue to do so. But it is not just the Democrats who have the opportunity to draw on that strength and that passion; frankly, it is for any Australian who wants to take the opportunity to do so.

The key thing that was distinctive about Don Chipp and his ethos was what he consistently wanted injected into the Democrats: democracy, first and foremost. It was about calling on people of all ages and all backgrounds to get involved and to be passionate and concerned about their country, their environment, their world, their future and their children’s future. It was not just a political party for people to have tribal loyalties to like a football team, where you cheer your team on rather than the other team—although that was part of it because that is what any party does. It was more than that and that was the great dream and the great vision that I believe makes the Democrats different. It is not about a particular group of policies on their own; it is about, as the name suggests, democracy—and democracy in its truest sense which is encouraging people, whatever their views, to just get involved. To borrow another election slogan—perhaps not as well known as ‘Keep the bastards honest’—just ‘give a damn’.

In the lead-up to the start of the service when people were sitting in the cathedral, pictures were shown of Don’s life and various portrayals of his different roles in different situations. It ended with the video vision, which I have seen in a few news bulletins in the last week, of a passionate speech by him from, I think, the 1984 election, when he called on all men and women of goodwill to realise that they can change the world. That probably sounds naive these days, but Don Chipp was not scared to sound naive. He was interested in doing what was right rather than being concerned about what was perceived to be naive. As his brother Alan said at the service on the weekend, he had the courage to dare to do right and to risk unpopularity regardless. To quote his words: ‘The legacy Don Chipp leaves for each of us is to be honest to yourself and others, to listen to hurt, to be compassionate, to look to solve problems by consensus rather than contest, by cooperation rather than conflict.’ Again, that may seem naive to some, but it is a core value and a starting point in trying to determine the best way forward, whether it is in regard to a piece of legislation being negotiated in the Senate, or in regard to the way forward for the planet and the people on it, where we face some difficult challenges.

One of the few things I did find unfortunate amongst some very wonderful and generous tributes from so many people in the Australian community over the last week was in regard to a few pieces in the mainstream media, from so-called political analysts. They continue to revisit the very tired, shallow and, frankly, false debate about whether the Democrats shifted to the Left after Don Chipp left—whether the party should have been in the Centre, the Right or the Left; whether we should have moved up, down, sideways or around and around. All of that missed the point. Perhaps those easy pigeon holes suit the lazy journalist, but they missed the point about what was different about the Democrats and they missed the point about Don Chipp.

Not surprisingly, I spent a lot of the last week rereading some of his books, reading some of his speeches from the Senate on various issues and other speeches he gave, rereading his resignation speech from the Liberal Party in 1977 and rereading what he said in his final speech to the Democrats national conference in May this year. After going through all of those, it appeared to me that Don Chipp was a lot more left-wing on most issues than I am. Commentators missed the point by trying that shallow approach of pigeon-holing people into a particular place. How ridiculous to try and pin down a person like Don Chipp and say that he was Centre Left or that he moved to the Right or any of these things! To try and reduce the amazing diversity of democracy to a singular point on a two-dimensional line is ridiculous. It was that diversity, the love of the complexity and the endless dynamism of life, that I think Don Chipp personified. Who would want it any other way? Who would not want the complexity of life with its contradictions and its imperfections? It is little short of intellectual dishonesty to keep trying to reduce that amazing diversity to a shallow analysis. It is a shame that that is all we get served up sometimes from the so-called commentators. The core principle for Don Chipp was democracy and that is why the name of the party is so appropriate.

Another comment of Don Chipp’s was reported reasonably widely in the last week, perhaps because it was so apt. While the slogan ‘Keep the bastards honest’ will unavoidably be an instant point of recollection for many people, he said himself that he got that promise wrong, not only because he failed to keep the bastards honest but because it misrepresented who the bastards were. The slogan tapped into the natural human reaction to assume that politicians are a pack of bastards—and there are a lot of reasons to assume that is right across the political spectrum.

But, as he said, the real bastards were those who just reacted to the problem with another beer, tossing out the comment, ‘She’ll be right, mate’—the people who did not care, the people who were prepared to just let it all happen and not have any concern or compassion or interest in their fellow humans, in the ones who were struggling and in those who were less well-off. The real bastards had no interest in trying to understand the other person’s point of view. They did not have any interest in or ability to perceive the hurt that people feel or the difficulties that other people have. It does not mean that you will always end up just agreeing with everyone else but that people who are not even prepared to bother being concerned with their fellow humans are the real bastards.

He would often say that there are many men and women of goodwill across all political parties. Every single time I saw him give a speech—and I did see a number over the years, although not as many as I would have liked—one of the things he mentioned every time I think was how distressing he found it to witness genuinely good men and women in political parties voting for laws and policies that they believed in their hearts were wrong, bad and damaging, and how wrong it is that our political system forces them to do that. It is not so much a reflection or an attack on the people in the major political parties for doing that; it is a reflection on our system that forces them to do that. It is a reflection on the fact that this practice is a major attack on a core aspect of democracy itself. I would like to think that we could take the opportunity, in reflecting on the life and achievements of Don Chipp and in considering the nature and health of our democracy at the moment, to reconsider whether we should change our approach in Australia towards such rigid party discipline and such an absurd insistence on forcing people to vote for things that they believe in their own hearts are wrong.

We all see in this place the really positive response from the general community when they know that politicians are saying what they genuinely believe. We saw that in the RU486 debate. It was not so much whether they agreed with what people had said; it was the fact that they at least knew that this time politicians were saying what they genuinely thought and that they thought enough about an issue to have some knowledge of what they were talking about. We need more democracy in our democracy.

So I make that point by way of re-emphasising that this is a legacy available for everybody. Of course the Democrats will draw strength from Don Chipp’s contribution but it is something that everybody can draw strength from. He was not just a successful politician in the technical sense of getting a lot of votes or being around for 25 years or being able to be a minister or getting lots of things on his resume or even getting an Order of Australia. All of those are things to be proud of, but he was not just successful in that more narrow sense of the word. He was successful in the much wider sense of the word, in clearly leaving the world a better place and making a very significant and positive difference in the political process. As was obvious from the service on Saturday, he received wide respect from across the political spectrum. That category of successful politician, I would suggest, is a much smaller group, sadly, and it is something for us all to aspire to.

The role that Don Chipp and the Democrats played at the time in significant policy and legislative reforms should not be forgotten. I had the good fortune to bump into former Prime Minister Keating in the airport lounge on the way out of Melbourne after the service. He spoke incredibly affectionately and very positively of the professionalism of Don Chipp, the fact that you could trust his word and that he would stick to an agreement not just because he was a man of his word but because he had sufficient courage not to get cold feet when the going got tough. There is no doubt that some of the things that the Democrats supported in those days, such as the implementation of the capital gains tax and the fringe benefits tax, would have lost us votes at the time. That is beyond dispute. But it is also beyond dispute 20 years on that they were undoubtedly the right things to do. Even the modifications that the Democrats forced on the government of the day and on the then Treasurer, Mr Keating, to exempt the family home, for example, were also clearly the right decisions.

I would like to give one example, and it is a random example. It is a comment that I received from Lisa, a member of the public writing in response to some of the tributes to Don Chipp. She spoke of her experience of Don Chipp, who first inspired her as a young 18-year-old to enrol to vote, and of receiving a handwritten letter from him 20 years ago. This was the small gesture that at 18 sparked her lifelong passion for politics. She believed that, if a leader of a political party would listen to her, she really could make a difference. I do not know whether that person is still a Democrat voter or not—there is quite a reasonable statistical probability that she is not—but the key point is not who she votes for but that she still gives a damn and has passion. I know there would be thousands of other people like Lisa, who have that passion and the extra spark and who will be just that bit stronger because of Don Chipp.

I think the appropriate point to end on is to remind people not just to look back and think that that was a life well lived and we now move on, but to recognise that there is so much from that life that we can draw on. It was clear from the service on Saturday that so much of Don Chipp will live on in his children and his family. There are many other people, of course, for whom he has made a difference. The one key thing I guess that he would urge them to do is not to be one of the bastards who do not give a damn but to take hold of that passion, wherever it might take them, and to care about their fellow human beings and the environment.

I have to note that Don Chipp was one of the strongest advocates in the parliament for caring more about and showing more compassion towards animals. I want to pass that on because I received specific comments from people involved in the animal welfare movement recognising and wanting to acknowledge the role of Don Chipp in that area and in trying to ensure that compassion, concern and appreciation of suffering be applied as widely as possible. If that is something that anybody wants to take from Don Chipp’s life then I think it is a pretty good thing for them to do. The main thing is to show concern, be intellectually honest and remember that core message of love. If you do that, you will make a difference for the better, wherever you might go and whatever you might do.