Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

The Senate records its deep regret at the death on 31 July 2011, of the Honourable Allan Clyde Holding, former minister and member for Melbourne Ports, and places on record its appreciation of his long and meritorious public service and tenders its profound sympathy to his family.

Allan Clyde Holding was born in Melbourne on 27 April 1931. After being educated at Hawthorn West Central School and Trinity Grammar School in Kew, he studied for a bachelor of laws degree at the University of Melbourne, graduating in 1955. As John Cain recalls, it was Clyde and he who promoted the activities of the Melbourne University Labor Club and the Victorian Young Labor association into strong and effective student and policy organisations which produced a number of future Victorian Labor politicians and activists. Clyde's early career was as a solicitor specialising in industrial law, particularly industrial accidents. He co-founded the law firm which today is known as Holding Redlich. In 1962 he was elected as the member for Richmond to the Victorian parliament. In 1967 Clyde became leader of the parliamentary Labor Party and Leader of the Opposition, a position which he held until 1977. His 10 years of party leadership were a tumultuous time in which Labor lost two state elections, saw factional fighting which led to federal intervention and a leadership challenge from Barry Jones, which Clyde remarked as being unsuccessful on the grounds that 'Quiz kids can't count'. After the second election loss, he resigned the leadership. He successfully won the seat of Melbourne Ports at the 1977 federal election, and held the seat at the following seven elections, finally retiring in 1998 after 21 years in the Commonwealth parliament.

As an authentic and influential Labor politician, Clyde was loved and hated—often at the same time. He bore the scars of his upbringing between the Great Depression and the Second World War and the exper­iences of a political party under stress during the 1950s. For some, he was a 'cynic with decency', others described him as 'an old style' Labor numbers man who was prepared to promote Bob Hawke's leadership aspira­tions, but for many he is remembered as a competent and conscientious adminis­trator who took on vested interests after he became the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs in the first Hawke government in 1983.

Clyde strongly pushed for uniform national Aboriginal land rights, which at the time were not fully supported within the Labor leadership, or by the mining industry or state governments. As the history of his time shows, there was intense lobbying against land rights and, without the direct support of his ministerial colleagues, he was unable to prevail. In 1987, after nearly four years, he was removed from Aboriginal Affairs to have his responsibilities focused on the lesser portfolio of Employment Services and Youth Affairs. Within 12 months, his main portfolio was switched to Transport and Communications Support, and finally to cabinet in the portfolio of Immigration, Local Government and Ethnic Affairs. Not many ministers would have enjoyed the experiences of having three such disparate portfolios in such a short period. As part of a wider reshuffle in 1989, Prime Minister Hawke demoted Clyde to the Arts and Territories portfolio. By the accounts of the time, this was a messy, widely leaked demotion, which Clyde resisted. In 1990 he went to the backbench and remained there until he retired in 1998.

It would be misleading to define a person's achievements in one paragraph. Yet there were a number that I am sure he would have been enormously proud of: the handing back of Uluru to its Indigenous owners; the appointment of Charles Perkins as Secretary of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs; the appointment of Betty Churcher to the directorship of the National Gallery of Australia; his direct support to the National Film and Sound Archives and to Film Australia; and his push to establish the National Museum of Australia, which now dominates the northern edge of the western basin of Lake Burley Griffin. Clyde's passion for justice, the arts and Aboriginal issues continued after his retirement from the parliament. Put simply by Bob Hawke, Clyde 'was pre-eminently a good, decent and remarkably brave man'.

On behalf of the government and, in particular, Victorian senators, we mark his passing on 31 July 2011 with respect. We offer our sympathies to his surviving family: his second wife, Judy, and their daughter, Isabella, and his first wife, Margaret, and their children, Peter, Jenny and Danny, and the four grandchildren.

I was lucky enough to be able to attend the memorial this morning in Melbourne, along with those from both sides of parliament, in recognition of his work. It was a very fond recollection of Clyde's life, with many very funny stories told. There were many stories about his determination to stand up to the worst of the elements of the Victorian socialist Left—the Bill Hartleys and the George Crawfords—who pushed such divisive policies. Clyde was remembered fondly for being part of those who made the success of the Victorian Labor Party their mission. His leadership in standing up to those elements and his willingness to take risks in pursuit of sound public policies, at the expense of support from the likes of Crawford and Hartley, were remembered fondly. The intervention that became the foundation for the success of the Victorian Labor Party governments of John Cain, Steve Bracks and John Brumby goes back to that period when Clyde Holding was one of the key figures who democratised the Victorian branch of the Labor Party. This was fondly remarked on by some who were more directly involved than myself.

I am lucky enough to have inherited the benefits of Clyde Holding's work. I doubt that I and a number of people in this chamber today would be able to stand up in a federal Labor government if it had not been for the courage and determination of Clyde Holding in overturning those who sought to put warped ideology ahead of the needs of the Victorian and Australian public. I, like many others in this chamber, will miss Clyde Holding.