Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

That the Senate records its deep regret at the death on 7 January 2015 of the Honourable Keppel (Kep) Earl Enderby QC, former minister and member for the Australian Capital Territory and Canberra, places on record its appreciation of his long and meritorious public service and tenders its profound sympathy to his family in their bereavement.

The Hon. Keppel Earl Enderby QC, or Kep Enderby, was a member of the House of Representatives from 1970 to 1975 and a minister of the Crown from 1972 to 1975. He lived a long and full life. Although his parliamentary service was brief, his public service was lengthy.

Mr Enderby was born on 25 June 1926 in Dubbo and was educated at Dubbo high school. Among other things he was an exceptionally gifted golfer from a young age; remarkably, he became captain of the Dubbo Golf Club aged only 14. He later went on to be the New South Wales men's amateur golf champion in 1946 and played in the British amateur and open championships in 1951 and 1952, ranking No. 17 in a very talented field. In 1944 Mr Enderby enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force as a trainee pilot, being discharged when peace came the following year. He continued a lifelong interest in aviation, including piloting helicopters into his 60s.

After the war, he studied law at the University of Sydney and was admitted to the New South Wales bar in 1950. He then moved to London to work as a barrister and undertook further study at the University of London, graduating in Master of Laws. In 1955 Mr Enderby returned to Australia, resuming the practice of law, and lectured first at Sydney Technical College and, from 1962, at the Australian National University. From 1966 he practised as a barrister in Canberra and was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1973. In 1970 he won the seat of the Australian Capital Territory at the by-election caused by the death of the then long-serving member, Mr Jim Fraser. He held the seat in 1972 and in 1974. He became the first member for Canberra when the ACT was divided into two seats. He lost his seat at the general election in December 1975.

With the election of the Whitlam government in December 1972, Kep Enderby was first appointed Minister for the Capital Territory and was the inaugural Minister for the Northern Territory. It was not easy for the local MP to also be the ACT minister and in 1973, in a reshuffle, he was appointed Minister for Secondary Industry and Minister for Supply. As an aside, I noted in one of the articles in the newspapers when he was minister: 'General Motors Holden will sack up to 5,000 workers next month.' It seems, no matter how far back we go, the same sort of vicious issues keep confronting this parliament.

In 1975, when Lionel Murphy was appointed to the High Court, Mr Enderby became Attorney General of the Commonwealth and Minister for Customs and Excise—later to be changed to Minister for Police and Customs, following the Whitlam government's announcement of a new Australia Police force. Following his defeat in the coalition landslide at the end of 1975, Kep Enderby moved to Sydney and returned to the bar. In 1982 he was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, serving on the bench of that court for 10 years. In 1997 he was appointed head of the New South Wales Serious Offenders Review Council. He continued a wide involvement in community life, especially with the New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties and as President of the Australian Esperanto Association and then president of the world body, the Universal Esperanto Association.

Kep Enderby had a good-natured and engaging personality and generally avoided the rancour of political debate, preferring the barrister's approach of reasoned argument. To his wife, Dot, and his two children—his son, Keir, and daughter, Jo—I offer deepest sympathies on behalf of the government, and I also extend those to his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I express the deepest sympathy at the passing of Kip Enderby after a full and productive life in the service of Australia; I also thank the extended family for lending him to the nation throughout his distinguished career.