John Watson (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

In achieving 30 years in the Senate, one has to balance Canberra duties with electorate responsibilities such as delivering much-needed programs to the community, befriending the elderly and those in need, upholding the law and encouraging youth to aspire to greater things.

In the words of my friend the late John Button, I arrived in this place as a ‘refugee from the textile industry’. Yes, I was a casualty of the tariff policy of the Whitlam government which caused much devastation to my home town of Launceston and led to Kevin Newman winning the famous 1974 Bass by-election. The following year saw the election of the Fraser government, in what some opposite might describe as controversial circumstances.

Prior to coming here, I had qualified professionally quite early in life and at the same time had attained business success. Then the Kelsall and Kemp mill closed—and grown men and women openly wept at the closure announcement; not surprising, since many of these folk had parents, grandparents or children working at the mill—in an environment where the company was lending millions of dollars to associated companies.

Kelsall and Kemp had an enviable reputation of quality for a diversified range of woollen production. Kelsall and Kemp were the last of the fine spinners in Australia. Doctor blankets were a brand name across the nation. At one time we had 70 per cent of the school-wear trade, with skirts and blazers with the famous 80-20 wool-nylon blend. Australian and Tasmanian cricket teams wore blazers made from our fabric. Billiard and snooker games were played on Kelsall cloth, and Cathay Pacific Airways female staff wore our distinctive red uniforms. How could such a decision be made? We will never know. I doubt that the story will ever be written.

Unlike in the other chamber, one does not really have to aspire to high ministerial status to achieve results in the Senate, but it does help to specialise. In my case it was through the public accounts committee, where I served 27 years. The high point there for me was the Auditor-General becoming an officer of the parliament and not the executive arm of government. Changes through the Senate finance and public administration committee since the 1990s, though significant, were not monumental.

I chaired the Senate Select Committee on Superannuation for 10 years, under both Labor and Liberal governments, presenting in that time 58 high-quality reports, thanks to the support from the Australian Democrats Cheryl Kernot and Lyn Allison. Senator Nick Sherry provided great input, as did Sue West and Bruce Childs from the ALP. The committee worked for great retirement outcomes, generally on a non-partisan basis. Certainly Prime Minister Rudd did the right thing in appointing my Tasmanian colleague Senator Sherry as Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law in the new government. To my friend Nick, I now urge you to work on short selling and scrip lending.

My first responsibility as chair was to convince the Liberal Party leader of the time, John Hewson, whose intellect I still admire, and the Liberal Party to accept the concept of universal superannuation promoted by the then Prime Minister, Paul Keating. We now have a first-class system, affirmed by the World Bank.

Following each hearing of the super committee, we met briefly with the bureaucrats to discuss the significance of the proposals of each of the witnesses. One of the most significant inclusions was the need for a custodian to protect the super. ComSuper was certainly saved from a major fraud over the Christmas period a few years back because of the speedy action of the custodian. Another hallmark was a halfway house in weaning Australians off lump sums to introduce the concept of an allocated pension.

Peter Costello’s generational change report followed much of our superannuation report two to three years earlier; the Productivity Commission picked up the thrust of that report in its presentation to the Treasurer.

The committee also fought hard to lift standards across the industry and recover moneys lost by innocent investors.

For those who were here during the 1980s and early 1990s, I apologise for some of my long and technical speeches on income tax.

The chamber was a very different place 30 years ago to what it is now. Then there were no lecterns and no reading of speeches. I remember the late night stoushes between Justin O’Byrne and some of his older colleagues attacking Senator Harradine. Senator Harradine was a colleague whose courage I always respected and whose views I also respected. He gave me a phone call of support from New York when I first received preselection.

The service that senators receive around this place is really second to none, and I thank all the staff. In particular, I give special recognition to the Clerk, Harry Evans, who, while not always the flavour of the month with the government of the day, upholds the principles and virtues of the Australian Senate and is a strong advocate for parliamentary transparency and the ideals of democracy with his fearless writings.

My most traumatic event occurred when my colourful predecessor, the late Hon. Sir Reginald Wright, almost involved me in a bar room brawl during election campaigning, urging me to stand up and fight at Bridgewater pub in 1977, a situation that could have swiftly brought to a close my future parliamentary career. A sawmiller by the name of Cameron and his staff stepped in to bring peace and order. The Hon. Reg was a fine, robust speaker but was probably better known for the number of times he and his Queensland colleague Senator Wood crossed the floor. The Hon. Reg crossed on 150 occasions and Senator Wood crossed 130 times. My modest total of four to five really pales into insignificance compared with that.

The Senate no longer has its great orators, unfortunately—although I recognise some of the good ones here at the moment. In particular I think of the late Hon. John Wheeldon, who gave a most impressive hour-long dissertation on foreign challenges around the world, speaking in the old house without notes. On the other side, we had the great Sir John Carrick, well known for his involvement in the Second World War. He gave a most inspiring address to a local school speech night. My colleague Reg Withers, my first Senate seating companion, had the most incisive mind and made frequent, forthright and cryptic comments. Nor does the Senate have characters such as Tony Mulvihill, with his passionate speeches about such issues as the booby bird. On the other hand, three of the finest, outstanding minds ever to grace this place were elected to the Senate from Queensland in 2004. I am referring to George Brandis, Brett Mason and Russell Trood. What is surprising is that we had a record four senators with that sort of talent elected from Queensland.

In terms of compassion, Senator Fred Chaney really had no equal, and Robert Hill was a fine senator who really should have headed foreign affairs rather than defence. I also wish to acknowledge the work of my Tasmanian colleague Senator Peter Rae, who achieved so much with his quango reports—quasi-autonomous non-government organisation reports—through the Senate finance and public administration committee. Peter, on retirement, went into state politics as minister for education and later reached his zenith as Chair of the Tasmanian Hydro-Electric Commission, with his passion for renewable energy, and chairing several international committees.

I still recall an incident with Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser when I was called away from a formal dinner in New Zealand expecting to be reprimanded having made the local New Zealand press that morning condemning aspects of the closer economic relations agreement because of Tasmania’s special interests affecting dairying, apples and other issues. Fortunately, Malcolm said that he was granting $30,000 for the world ploughing championship just out of Longford. My wife conveyed the much awaited message to the organisers, who rang back at 12 o’clock worried that it might have been an April Fool’s Day joke! But the real challenge with Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser was that he was unhappy about driving the sponsor’s tractor to open the event; however, we solved that problem by substituting two horses, with Malcolm managing a single-furrow plough. The picture event was so successful that the photo appeared on the front pages of almost every newspaper around Australia the following day.

My thanks go to the late Senator John Button for saving the poppy industry in Tasmania in its infancy when it faced overseas and internal abandonment. It showed that we can work with members from the other side to benefit our state. I also acknowledge his help on another occasion in getting Reserve Bank of Australia assurance for the depositors at the Trust Bank of Tasmania, when large queues of depositors, very visible from my room in St John Street, were lining up wanting to withdraw their money. That action was an instant success and stopped the run on the bank.

My special thanks go to Senator Ron Boswell—a politician who, during the Bjelke-Petersen era, had no equal in terms of predicting election results. Senator Boswell was a great friend of Tasmania, and I frequently called on him for funding of the east and west overpasses on each side of Devonport, the port access road from Devonport, and the Bass Highway upgrades, especially the overpass at Westbury to provide access to the important processing plant of Tasmanian Alkaloids. Unfortunately, his and our support for the Southern roadworks and a bridge crossing the Derwent had to be switched to Penguin through local government and state government intransigence and procrastination. Ron’s comment to me was, ‘Any more roads, Watto, and Tasmania will sink!’

While speaking of roads, I would also like to acknowledge my friend Professor Dr Coleman O’Flaherty, an expert here in Canberra on road construction before he moved to Tasmania to head the State Institute of Technology, and later the Launceston campus of the University of Tasmania. He gave great technical advice, which was vital in upgrading from two to four lanes the road from Launceston to the Breadalbane turn-off near the airport. He also did great work in establishing the fine school of nursing at the Newman campus.

Aboriginal Senator Neville Bonner was a great friend and I was appalled that he lost preselection—a fate that also befell another great friend Senator Tsebin Tchen, who was a great thinker and rationalist. Senator Tchen was the first Chinese-born senator to grace this upper house. Then there was the remarkable Misha Lajovic, whose death we mourned just the other day. He survived severe military and intellectual battles in Slovenia, his country of birth, before arriving in Australia as a refugee and accepting a lowly job as a simple labourer. He was the first non-Anglo Saxon elected to this Senate. In fact, he was a great pioneer. During his time, Senator Misha Lajovic spoke of the evils of totalitarianism.

Don Chipp from the Democrats identified another side of Senator Misha Lajovic’s character, saying ‘he had a delightful European sense of humour which enchanted us all’. Fred Chaney recalled that the most remarkable thing about Misha was that he even survived to reach Australia!

I have been a lifelong member of the Parliamentary Christian Fellowship. With Harry Edwards as president and me as secretary, together we pioneered the first national prayer breakfast in Old Parliament House, which still continues on an annual basis. This was a great challenge, but it was made easier by World Vision agreeing to financially underwrite the event. So successful was the breakfast that we ended up not needing any financial support whatsoever for that event. The prayer breakfast had the largest number of people for a sit-down breakfast to ever grace the Old Parliament House dining room—about 700 people. The function was addressed by Cardinal Sin, Archbishop of the Philippines, and Senator Kim Beazley, renowned for his leadership of the moral rearmament movement.

John Howard, I acknowledge, is one of Australia’s greatest Prime Ministers, leading the Liberal Party for 13 years after 1996, and introducing some great reforms. I do thank him for conveying his kind remarks, through Senator Parry, at the Winkleigh Hall farewell last weekend.

While I am about to exit the Senate, I remind my colleagues that Tim Kellar, my daughter’s brother-in-law, is a highly talented member of our wider family. He lives in the United States of America and has just been elected as a senator to the parliament of New Mexico. I offer him my congratulations. In fact, so great was the win that he won in each of the 23 electoral precincts around Albuquerque. Maybe some of my Australian electoral advice helped in the final result! I certainly hope so. Further success in due time may well see him in the US federal senate, and I wish him well.

Assisting migrants has always been a part of my work and it really would not have been possible without the assistance of ministers such as Amanda Vanstone and departmental representatives including David Foulkes and others. In other portfolios, I would like to salute the officers from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, who I have worked closely with over time, and in particular the people at Social Security, which is now Centrelink. If I have to name them, locally there is Mike Bennett, who I rang up constantly on behalf of constituents, and the recently retired head of Centrelink, Jeff Whalan.  Jeff Whalan, I believe, ran one of Australia’s most efficient agencies with a high degree of professionalism and in an environment of people often in very great need and sometimes in very difficult circumstances. In recent times we have heard very little criticism of Centrelink. To Treasury and tax officials I offer my thanks for suffering me on taxation issues so frequently and with such professionalism. Many of these dedicated personnel I have discovered are committed Christians with a great sense of professionalism, which is something that a lot of people do not know.

From the very beginning I would like to thank my preselectors, who were responsible for my being here. We recently enjoyed a very happy farewell from the Hobart women’s group, where many of the original loyal preselectors from my election in 1977 were present. To my family in the gallery, I offer my support and apologise for the long time away from home during the children’s formative years. While not alone in this situation, I am really conscious of the sacrifices other groups apart from politicians, such as defence personnel, make and the impact it has on family life.

To all my Liberal Party Senate colleagues past and present, I give thanks—some for the challenges, others for their deep friendship over many years. Over my 30 years I have been fortunate in being part of many delegations where I have left my footprint, I believe, in terms of benefiting a number of people, particularly in the wider Asia-Pacific region. The calibre of our representatives in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is extraordinarily high, and their help has been appreciated. I must highlight two occasions that spring to mind: one when my wife, with her dignity and great charm, proposed a vote of thanks at the final dinner concluding the Commonwealth Conference in Dakar, Bangladesh, which was attended by over 800 people. My thanks also go to the ambassador, who helped with that significant address. The other honour was leading the Australian delegation to the 28th Association of South East Asian Nations Inter-Parliamentary Assembly, AIPA, General Assembly in Kuala Lumpur last year where the delegates’ feeling towards Australia was so genuine and heartfelt. I will share one experience from a woman parliamentarian who told everybody that she was denied the opportunity of coming to Australia many decades ago under the Colombo plan because of the atrocious activities of the Pol Pot regime. She was now a politician and was so deeply appreciative of Australia’s support. I think she said that we ranked something like fourth in the world for aid given to Cambodia. The nature of the aid and the people who delivered the aid really resonate well with the Cambodian people. She was not alone, but that was just typical of the sorts of remarks about Australia. So I say: keep it that way; keep us as an observer nation. In particular I wish to acknowledge AusAID for their tremendous work.

I have also sought to be easily accessible to all my constituents, irrespective of their origin or party beliefs. Taking to heart Senator Lajovic’s concern that the party needs to embrace migrant communities, I really had a great rapport with so many new arrivals—initially those from Central Europe, Italy and Greece and then in helping people from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, the Philippines, China, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Sierra Leone and Russia. I helped them in maintaining their place in Australia, placing them in jobs and getting some genuine cases out of the Baxter Detention Centre in South Australia—not an easy job. They are now making great citizens. Another delightful couple from Argentina, which a lot of people do not believe is a problem country, I saved from imminent deportation and they have now established themselves in Australia as fine professionals and citizens.

Much of my time has been filled with resolving the concerns of those with personal problems or difficulties. This has not always been easy but in hindsight has been one of the most satisfying parts of my work as a Senator. The tragedy of the Kelsall and Kemp closure changed my attitude to life and refocused my priorities when I reached Canberra. Those on low incomes, the disadvantaged and refugees, in fact all those who have had difficulty in getting their voice heard, have been high on my agenda. This has been reflected through my close association with community organisations such as refugee groups, churches and City Mission—with the establishment of breakfasts so no-one need go hungry—and in the later years with Australia’s oldest benevolent institution, the Launceston Benevolent Society.

Tasmania is indeed a great place. Mainlanders are increasingly finding it a wonderful place in which to live, but the challenge is to provide meaningful opportunities for our children. To the people of Australia, my thanks for 30 years of support and for providing me with such a great opportunity to serve their interest. To the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Tasmania, I thank you for your enthusiasm and support. Together we got over $200 million for the university campus in Launceston. I also thank him for the work that he did with the maritime college. To my colleagues in this place, thank you for your friendship, advice and support. I trust that this institution maintains its strength and integrity in supporting our amazing Australian nation. I thank you all.