Richard Di Natale (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

On behalf of all of my parliamentary colleagues in the Greens—and, indeed, the entire Australian Greens family—I'd like to offer our deepest condolence to the family of Sir Ninian Stephen, including to Lady Stephen, their daughters and their respective families. I won't spend too long, as most of the contribution that I wanted to make has been covered by both the Attorney-General and Senator Wong. We've heard of Sir Ninian's incredibly distinguished legal career with the Supreme Court of Victoria before moving to the High Court of Australia, where he brought a moderating influence to the bench. He was often a voice of reason. Among many things Sir Ninian will be remembered for is providing the deciding opinion in the case of Koowarta v Bjelke-Petersen, effectively to uphold the legitimacy of the Commonwealth government to make the Racial Discrimination Act and to give effect within Australia to the United Nations International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. The effect of that decision was that the Wik traditional owners of the Aurukun region of the Cape York Peninsula were able to purchase land, a right that one might think today is unquestionable, but it wasn't; it was a hard-fought right, and Sir Ninian played a pivotal role in that outcome.

He was held with regard while Justice of the High Court. His calm and measured style well explains his appointment to the role of Governor-General, where he contributed to the restoration of trust and confidence in that office following the events of 1975. Sir Ninian went on to become Australia's first ambassador for the environment and in that capacity he worked to ban mining in Antarctica. He headed up peace talks in Northern Ireland. He was a judge for the international criminal tribunal investigating war crimes in the former Yugoslavia, and he helped draft a constitution for Afghanistan. Sir Ninian was a statesman, he was a humanitarian and he was a devoted family man. On behalf of the Australian Greens, we would like to thank and honour him for his service.