Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I rise on behalf of the opposition to honour the life of the Hon. Anthony Allan Staley, AO. Tony Staley served as the member for Chisholm, a Liberal Party member and a minister. Born in Horsham in 1939, Tony attended Scotch College before going on to university where he became an active member of the Liberal Party. A graduate of law, Tony had two passions dominant in his life at that stage: drama and politics. Both stages were open to him in life, but he pursued the latter after completing a masters degree in politics and working as a senior lecturer at the University of Melbourne. However, Tony never lost the art of bringing a little drama to politics whenever the stage would demand it.

In 1970, he was elected in the seat of Chisholm at a by-election, joining John Gorton's government, and he would go on to serve the people of Chisholm for a decade. In his maiden speech in 1971, a speech that walked across issues of public order, protests, universities and freedom of speech, Tony made an observation of enduring relevance. He said:

In time of peace, wishful thinking and dreaming will not keep institutions alive and well. They must be defended as any human institution must be defended when it is under attack.

Upon being re-elected in 1972, Tony found himself and his party in opposition for the first time in a long time, with Billy Snedden now at the Liberal helm. In 1973, Tony was promoted to shadow parliamentary secretary to the Leader of the Opposition. However, Tony admitted to losing faith in Snedden's ability to lead the Liberals, and, despite his personal regard for the then opposition leader's honesty and decency, Tony joined a growing chorus who threw in their lot with Malcolm Fraser. Tony would later say:

I'm not prepared to be the sort of politician who won't stand up for his beliefs.

Tony was not necessarily a major powerbroker, but his decision, his rule and his actions there were influential. He certainly should not be portrayed as a powerbroker, for, as author and journalist, Paul Kelly, wrote, 'Without Staley's decision, Fraser would not have won the Liberal leadership at the time he did and consequently would probably not have won it before the Liberals were returned to office.' Staley's role helped to divert and change that part of history. But Paul Kelly noted that, unlike some of his party colleagues for whom the blood and thirst of leadership challenges and the like came naturally, Tony was a theorist who enjoyed philosophising, a trait which came naturally to the academically minded and gifted Tony Staley. If Tony was atypical in this regard, he was also exceptional in being someone who did shape Australia's political history—first, as I said, in helping to lift Fraser into the Liberal leadership and, secondly, in helping to bring down Gough Whitlam's Labor government and therefore making Fraser Prime Minister.

In Malcom Fraser's government, Tony Staley proved to be a steady hand and an effective minister, first for the Capital Territory, then assisting the Prime Minister and finally for Post and Telecommunications, where he excelled. Yet, as Senator Farrell has indicated, Tony Staley made the decision to retire from the parliament before the 1980 election, despite then Prime Minister Malcom Fraser's attempts to dissuade him from doing so.

After leaving the parliament and seizing that time with his children, Tony took on a directorship for Ogilvy & Mather and became chairman of Mitsubishi Motors Australia, Geostar Pacific, Reed Stenhouse, Australian Telecommunications Users Group and, for a short while, Ozonyx, a medical equipment company. He turned his attention to being chairman of the Jet Corporation of Australia but also found time for chairmanships relating to his passions, including the Australian Professional Performing Arts Association, the Multiple Sclerosis Society, Film Victoria and the Playbox Theatre.

In 1990, as Senator Farrell alluded to, Tony was involved in a near-death car accident with a drunk driver that left him to endure a long and arduous recovery. Once over the hardest hurdles of his recovery, Tony reflected to the Sunday Herald about taking his first steps in some eight months and sharing the triumph with his family, saying: 'These are big moments in a little life.' None of us who knew Tony would ever describe his life as a little one. Tony had and made a big impact. He also never complained of the injuries caused to him or the calipers that he would use to aid his walking for the years to follow. He instead always reflected on the charmed and privileged life that he felt so fortunate to have.

Following the accident, in the years to come, he continued to contribute. He took great delight in his work as chair of the Cooperative Research Centres Association, acting there in ways aimed to help drive science and research across so many different fields in Australia. Tony also gave back to the Liberal Party at its time of need, becoming federal president between 1993 and 1999. Nineteen ninety-three was a dark, trying and troubling time for the Liberal Party. We had just lost the so-called unlosable election; we were churning through leaders and facing great challenge. But Tony answered the call to step up. He wasn't just a leader who provided great leadership at the highest possible levels of the party. He used that office to connect across the board.

It was at this time that I first met Tony Staley at a Young Liberal conference at Sydney University. I remember Tony Staley not as the person who came with his great deep voice and got to the stage and gave an uplifting speech, though indeed those are the things that he did do. I remember Tony Staley as the person who stayed through the day and into the night—well into the night—and, after the wines were finished, finding a bottle of scotch and continuing to engage with all of the Young Liberals, decades his junior, inexperienced as we were, with plenty of cigarette smoke wafting through the air in those days too. Tony Staley was clearly in his element mentoring and encouraging future generations, challenging our ideas and our thinking, and quizzing us about the policies that were being debated at that conference. From that, I know many who may not have seen or heard much of Tony Staley in the years to come but will, like me, have taken great inspiration from the work of somebody who had been serving in this place—likely at the time that most of us, in fact, were born.

As Tony finished his presidency of the Liberal Party, then Prime Minister John Howard described him as 'a great servant of the Liberal Party' who 'always put the party first'. That is so true. And it was, of course, during Tony's presidency that he saw and oversaw the successful election and re-election of the Howard government, turning the tables on the 13 years of opposition and setting us up for more than a decade in government. Howard highlighted Tony's three great qualities: his immense personal courage, his great sense of humour and his considerable grace and eloquence. I'm sure all of us who met or knew Tony can attest to each of those.

Testimony to Tony's achievements, he was fittingly made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2007 for his service to politics, to the telecommunication and arts sectors and to the development of the Liberal Party. He was generous in sharing his time and insights with new generations of Liberals but also across the art society and world, the scientific realm and all other sectors in which he engaged.

The Hon. Anthony Allan Staley passed away peacefully, surrounded by his family and neighbour, with, as his family reported, books of poetry, Leonard Cohen playing, a glass of Cointreau and a crumpled Age newspaper—his son Sam noting 'a happy end to a long and interesting life'. We can all but hope to go surrounded by such love and so many fitting memories of a life well lived. On behalf of the opposition and the Australian Senate, I thank Tony for his service and offer our heartfelt condolences to his children, Richard, Samuel, Alexandra, Jonathan and Lucinda. And, to all of Tony's loved ones, friends and former colleagues, we extend our deepest sympathies.