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 26 January 2015 of the Honourable Thomas (Tom) Uren, AC, former minister and Member for Reid, places on record its appreciation of his long and meritorious public service and tenders its profound sympathy to his family in their bereavement.

The honourable Thomas, or Tom, Uren, AC, was a minister in the Whitlam and Hawke governments and a member of the House of Representatives from 1958 to 1990—some 32 years. Mr Uren was born on 28 May 1921 in Balmain and was educated at Harbord Primary School and at Manly Intermediate High School. He left school, like so many others during the time of the depression, to help support his family. Interestingly, he later in life became a lifesaver, played rugby league and trained to be a boxer. The good news is that somebody else who has those talents, Mr President, is still with us! Mr Uren had all those qualities and he contested the heavyweight boxing championship of Australia in 1941.

Tom Uren enlisted in the Royal Australian Artillery in September 1939, days after the war broke out, and transferred to the 2nd AIF in 1941. He served as a bombardier in Timor but he was captured by Japanese forces in early 1942. Like many others, he was put to work on the infamous Burma-Thai railway and was held at the Konyu river camp, where the Australian commanding officer was that great Australian Weary Dunlop. Later he was transported to Japan and worked at two smelting plants. From his prisoner of war camp he witnessed the sky on 9 August 1945 after the atomic bomb was dropped over Nagasaki. After discharge Mr Uren worked first in the building industry and then in 1949 joined Woolworths as a trainee executive. He was manager at Merrylands and Lithgow before opening his own store at Guildford.

Mr Uren's first ministry was in the newly elected Whitlam government. He was appointed Minister for Urban and Regional Development, and he established new national parks and founded the Australian Heritage Commission and the Register of the National Estate. He oversaw the regeneration and restoration of the inner-Sydney suburbs of Glebe and Woolloomooloo, the decentralisation to Albury-Wodonga, the reclamation of Duck Creek and the creation of the Chipping Norton Lakes Scheme. Mr Uren also opened Australia's first bike path, right here in Canberra, and enjoyed riding to parliament by bicycle, or sometimes by bus. He was a strong champion of public transport.

Mr Uren was one of the few who survived the voter backlash of the 1975 election and he was elected Deputy Leader of the Opposition, holding office from 1976 to 1977. He returned to the ministry in the 1983 Hawke government, serving as Minister for Territories and Local Government from March 1983 until December 1984. He was then appointed as Minister for Local Government and Administrative Services from December 1984 to July 1987. After he left politics in 1990 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1993, was awarded a Centenary Medal in 2001 and, in 2013, was advanced to a Companion of the Order of Australian for his work helping veterans and preserving sites of historic and environmental significance.

There are only a handful of members of parliament who served in World War II who are still living—six members and three senators. The last two to serve both retired on the same day in 1990—Clarrie Miller and Tom Uren. I noted that another distinguished parliamentarian who also endured time as a prisoner of war, Sir John Carrick, though well into his 90s, attended Mr Uren's state funeral last week. They disagreed on almost every area of public policy but they shared an experience that perhaps none of us who did not can fully understand.

I recall being at Hellfire Pass a few years ago—a great privilege and also a very sombre occasion—and being provided with the earpieces and all of the equipment, which I do not know how to describe, but you walk to particular points and you press a button to hear somebody talking you through the various aspects, the historical record et cetera. Then, all of a sudden, along came that rasping voice that I thought sounded familiar. What a great thing it is that in that war memorial the Australians who helped put that together have been able to get a voice recording of the honourable Tom Uren and, a little bit later on, a voice recording of Sir John Carrick—people who served their nation superbly in this place on opposite sides but united in relation to their experience of great depravity as prisoners of war of the Japanese.

The strength of that bond and feeling between these two gentlemen I recall being exemplified by a particular senator making a jibe at a Liberal senator about certain things at the prisoner of war camp. I will not identify but simply say it was a bit of an untidy interjection. When the honourable Tom Uren got to hear about it he marched himself to the offending senator's office. I do not know whether it was his verbal prowess or whether it was his prowess at something else and a potential threat that made that senator come into this place very compliantly and apologise unequivocally. The fact that those two members of parliament from different sides had such a strong bond and that Mr Uren was willing to acknowledge the deprivations that were experienced by both, who were serving on different sides of politics in this nation, I thought was an indication of his great humanity, despite the political conflicts that were engaged in.

Mr Uren was a true warrior in wartime and for his party, the Australian Labor Party. In 1994 Random House published his memoir about his war experience and political activism. It was entitled Straight Left, a suitable pun on his pugilistic days but also an accurate description of his politics and his values. He ended his service in parliament as Father of the House. The length of his term and indeed the length of his long and productive life were remarkable, given the privations of those years as a prisoner of war. On behalf of government senators, I offer sincere condolences to his wife and children.