David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to commence my remarks in this condolence motion by thanking Senator Abetz for his very detailed traverse over the life of a great Western Australian Liberal. Of course, I want to adopt all those remarks as my own and so I will try and be as brief as I can.

Reg died at home the Saturday before last surrounded by his family, his wife of 61 years, Shirley; and his children, Simon, Nigel and Rowena. Reg was a mentor of mine and during my parliamentary career our paths crossed many trajectories. Indeed, he was present at my preselection way back in 2001.

His early life saw him serve, as many senators have acknowledged, in the Royal Australian Navy from 1942 to 1946, before returning to Australia to study law at my old alma mater, the University of Western Australia, later working as a barrister and solicitor in the then relatively small town of Bunbury in the south-west of Western Australia.

As was my experience, Reg became politically aware at the University of Western Australia and joined the Liberal party there. He was President of the WA Liberal Party for four years from 1961 to 1965 before filling a Senate vacancy in 1966. He represented our home state of Western Australia from 1966 to 1987, when he retired from the Senate at the double dissolution election. He served as Senate Government Whip from 1969 to 1971 and became a key member of Malcolm Fraser's caretaker government after the Dismissal in 1975. Many senators have traversed his fabulous parliamentary career as a minister, as whip, as Leader of the Opposition in the Senate and Leader of the Government in the Senate. Again, of course, I adopt those words.

He went on to become, as many people may not know, the Lord Mayor of Perth in 1991 and for a further four years. He had great vision and insight as to where he saw Perth going. He wanted to sink Perth's CBD railway line and build more apartments in the city. Today that is precisely what is happening. It was a man, as I say, of great foresight. These plans are currently eventuating and Perth is much the better, more vibrant and livable because of it. Notwithstanding his capacity for common sense and wisdom, he was an extremely humble man. As a country lawyer turned Liberal Party president and then a senator for my home state of Western Australia, I felt a close affinity to him. He was, as I say, very kind and generous with his advice and his very wise counsel. He had an outstanding commitment to public service and, of course, to our Liberal Party, its values and its beliefs.

Reg was and will continue to be greatly admired by all Western Australians, particularly Western Australian Liberals. I seek to pass on, and I will pass on, my condolences to the Withers family and to the wider family, of which there are many. Not only have you lost a loving husband, a father and a grandfather but the nation has lost a great statesman who will continue to be both missed and admired. I am battling to think of a greater contribution to Western Australia of recent times because the dark years of the early seventies were when Western Australia was at its most politically active. Having Reg Withers in this place served my state particularly well, and I thank him for that.