Alan Ferguson (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the motion moved by Senator Minchin in relation to the death of Sir Harold Young last week in Adelaide. I have known Sir Harold Young for the last 20-odd years since he left the parliament, although he was born at Port Broughton, which is only 40 miles from where I live. He was a well-known farmer—both a wheat farmer and a grazier—on the northern Yorke Peninsula not far from my home.

Sir Harold Young’s involvement in primary industry has been well recorded by those who have spoken today. It was his association with the farming organisations of South Australia that helped lead him to become one of South Australia’s rural senators in the mid-sixties. He came almost at the same time as Sir Condor Laucke, who preceded him as President of the Senate, and both men were elected as rural senators from South Australia. As the only senator from South Australia who resides anywhere outside the metropolitan area, I feel some sympathy for those two gentlemen, particularly Sir Harold, as they tried to cover the state of South Australia when it was not as easy as it is today to visit the far-flung parts of the state.

Sir Harold Young was a senator at the time when the Liberal Party had some 60,000 members—or the LCL had 60,000 members, because at that stage we were known as the Liberal and Country League. Senator Young was well known to most of those rural members of the party as he sought to serve them in the federal parliament representing their interests, and represent them he did. His talents were obviously recognised at an early stage because, having come here in 1968, he was Government Whip a couple of years later, and was later Opposition Whip in the Senate before he became the Deputy President in 1976 while Sir Condor Laucke was the President.

I note that Senator Evans mentioned that Sir Harold Young was the first President to appoint a female to the chamber, which showed you the type of person he was. I am not suggesting he was a ladies man! But he was someone who appreciated the role of women in society and felt that this place needed female attendants as well as male attendants, which there had only been for the first 80 years of the Senate. I know that Senator Watson, who knew Senator Harold Young well, would appreciate the fact that that would be something that he would have been proud of.

I was also very proud to be part of what I might loosely term the old boys lunches, which Senator Minchin referred to in his speech, when a number of us new chums and youngsters used to go and regularly have meals with Sir Harold Young, the Hon. Jim Forbes, the late Hon. Bert Kelly and the late Jack McLeay. Those four gentlemen, who were the old-timers, we might say, from the party, used to delight at lunches in giving us young turks a little bit of free advice. It was free advice that we would have been very wise to take note of because, in their retirements, each of these gentlemen—sadly, Bert Kelly and Jack McLeay passed on before Sir Harold Young—had time to reflect on their time in parliament and to put to good use the time that they had in reading the events of the day and giving us their interpretations. I enjoyed Sir Harold Young’s company. He was a wonderful raconteur, great company, and I know that he left a lot of friends in this place when he left the parliament. I join with others in extending my sympathy to Lady Young and to the family.

Question agreed to, honourable senators standing in their places.