Paul Calvert (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is with deep regret that I inform the Senate of the deaths of two former ministers: (a) on 25 December 2006, of the Hon. Sir Robert Carrington Cotton, a senator for the state of New South Wales from 1965 to 1978; and (b) on 12 January 2007, of the Hon. Sir Denis James Killen AC, KCMG, a member of the House of Representatives for the division of Moreton, Queensland, from 1955 to 1983. I call the Leader of the Government in the Senate.

Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

That the Senate records its deep regret at the death of the Honourable Sir Robert Carrington Cotton, KCMG, AO, former federal minister, senator for New South Wales and Ambassador to the United States of America, and of the Honourable Sir Denis James Killen, AC, KCMG, former federal minister and member for Moreton, Queensland, and places on record its appreciation of their long and meritorious public service and tenders its profound sympathy to their families in their bereavement.

Robert Cotton was born on 29 November 1915 at Broken Hill, the eldest of six children. He was educated at St Peter’s College in Adelaide—where my oldest son was educated—and went on to qualify as an accountant before entering into business with his father. In 1937 he married his childhood sweetheart, Eve, who remained his constant companion until her passing in 2000. During World War II, Bob Cotton trained as an RAAF bomber pilot. He was later seconded to the Department of Supply, first in Melbourne and then in Oberon in New South Wales. His family built successful regional business interests and established the pastoral property Carrington Park.

Robert Cotton was a foundation member of the Liberal Party and, in the first chapter of his political life, he ran against the then Prime Minister, Ben Chifley, in the seat of Macquarie in 1947 and again in 1951. He later held a range of senior positions in the Liberal Party, including federal vice-president. Between 1947 and 1950 he also served as a councillor and president of the Oberon Shire Council. He was a strong and influential member of our great party, the Liberal Party.

After filling the vacancy created by the legendary Sir William Spooner, Bob Cotton entered the Senate. He was the first senator to receive more than one million votes. Bob Cotton was appointed as a senator for New South Wales in 1966 and held that position until 1978. He served in the shadow ministry and then as a minister under three Liberal prime ministers. He was appointed Minister for Civil Aviation in the Gorton and McMahon governments and, in the Fraser government, he served as Minister for Manufacturing Industries, Minister for Science and Consumer Affairs and Minister for Industry and Commerce. He was the Government Whip in the Senate in 1968 and 1969 and Deputy Leader of the Government between 1976 and 1978, when he left the Senate. He also served on a number of Senate committees. He was a very active participant in the work of the Senate. He once said: ‘I don’t believe in government by vested interests. You exist to serve the public interest of the greatest number of people.’ Fine sentiments, indeed.

Personally, I had great respect for Sir Robert Cotton. We shared a number of common interests, particularly across the industry portfolio, and leadership positions in this chamber, and of course there was our active involvement in the Liberal Party organisation. Indeed, when I was the Minister for Industry, Science and Resources, I did consult him from time to time on industry matters. He was a very senior Liberal whom I personally greatly admired. I think his political views were uniquely shaped by his upbringing in Broken Hill, and it is remarkable how many great Australians were brought up in Broken Hill. His knowledge and experience were well suited to the industry portfolio. He also had a very keen interest in the economy generally and in the important relationship that it has to industry productivity. He was a pretty popular senator. I am advised that he once moved a motion on the national significance of the lamington, and I am sure he did it in all great seriousness.

On retirement from representative political life in 1978, he was made a Knight Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George. As Senator Evans and I were remarking, those were the good old days when those things happened. He was properly recognised with a knighthood for his long service to public life in this country. That year he was appointed consul general to New York, where another good friend of mine, John Olsen, is currently serving so well, and with his business background and enthusiasm Sir Robert helped to boost Australia’s profile among financial and investment houses in the United States.

When he came back from working in New York, he served as a director on the Reserve Bank of Australia board and then, because of his success in New York, he was appointed in 1982 to the very significant position of our ambassador to the United States. I think it is noteworthy that, although obviously he was appointed by the Fraser government, the Hawke government quite properly kept him on as ambassador. There was a bipartisan view that Sir Robert was a very good ambassador for Australia in probably our most significant post, that of ambassador to the US. In 1993 he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for his service to international relations.

In later life Sir Robert married again, to Betty Krummel, and pursued photography, holding exhibitions in the US and Australia, including a joint exhibition in Sydney in 2005 with his daughter Judy, who is a painter and writer. He took a real hands-on approach to life. He was a strong advocate of the role that government can play in developing stronger communities. Bob was a very great Liberal and a great Australian, so on behalf of the government I offer condolences to his wife, Lady Cotton, his children, his stepchildren and his extended family.

Mr Deputy President, your fellow Queenslander James Killen was born on 23 November 1925 in Dalby, Queensland. He left school at an early age to become a jackaroo. In 1943, at the age of 18, he joined the RAAF, reaching the rank of flight sergeant air gunner. After the war he completed a diploma course and became a wool classer. In 1949 he married Joy, a union that lasted until her passing in 2000—coincidentally, the same year as Sir Robert Cotton’s wife passed away. After joining the Liberal Party in 1946, just after its founding, Jim Killen became the Foundation President of the Young Liberal Movement of Queensland, an important development for the party in Queensland that was to shape the political careers of future ministers. He was also a member of the state executive of the Liberal Party, and from 1953 to 1956 he served as Vice-President of the Queensland Liberal Party.

Jim was first elected to federal parliament in 1955, at the age of 29, as the member for Moreton in Queensland. He represented that electorate for 28 years until his resignation in August of 1983. He served as Minister for the Navy in the Gorton government, from 1969 to 1971; Minister for Defence for virtually the whole of the Fraser government’s term, from 1975 to 1982; and Vice-President of the Executive Council—a position I now occupy—and Leader of the House, between 1982 and 1983. He was Government Whip in the House of Representatives in 1967 and served on a number of House and joint committees. In 1982 he was also made a Knight Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George for his services to the Parliament of Australia. In 2004 Sir James was appointed as a Companion of the Order of Australia for distinguished contributions to public life as a federal parliamentarian, barrister, author, orator and advocate for social justice and the rights of underprivileged members of the community.

Few members of this place have enjoyed such affection from both sides of political life. It was because of his larger than life approach, his wit, his warmth, his no-nonsense approach and his great oratory. He was of course a renowned raconteur and storyteller. He was a quite remarkable Australian figure.

He also married again in later life, to Benise Atherton, and continued to have many interests in life, particularly his love of horse racing, and he and Andrew Peacock shared many times together at the horses. He was never happier, I am advised, than at Eagle Farm, laying a bet and watching his horses run. On behalf of the government, I do offer sincere condolences to his wife, Lady Killen, his daughters, Diana and Heather, his grandchildren, Dana and Amanda, and his extended family.

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Labor opposition, I would like to support the motion of condolence moved by Senator Minchin following the recent deaths of Sir Robert Cotton and Sir James Killen. On behalf of all Labor senators, I would like to recognise the distinguished public service of both Sir Robert and Sir James and to send our sincere condolences to their families and friends.

Robert Cotton was born in Broken Hill in November 1915 and educated at St Peter’s College in Adelaide. He went into business with his father during the Depression and qualified as an accountant. During the Second World War he trained as a bomber pilot with the RAAF before being seconded to the Department of Supply in Melbourne. He was sent with his family to establish a timber firm in New South Wales that was charged with the supply of timber to the mines of Broken Hill. He continued his work after the war, developing the business into a significant regional enterprise. At the same time he and his wife, the late Lady Cotton, established a mixed farming business.

As Senator Minchin pointed out, Sir Robert was a foundation member of the Liberal Party of Australia and was very active inside the party organisation. He ran for the New South Wales seat of Macquarie against the then Labor Prime Minister, Ben Chifley. I am happy to say that he lost on that occasion. In August 1965 Sir Robert went one better than winning a seat of the House of Representatives and was chosen under section 15 of the Constitution to fill a casual vacancy following the resignation of the former Leader of the Government in the Senate, Sir William Spooner. Sir Robert was to remain in the Senate until his resignation in 1978.

Even in his early days in the Senate he enjoyed considerable influence in the Liberal-Country Party government. Following the death of Prime Minister Holt he was instrumental in defeating internal moves to have Jack McEwen remain as Prime Minister and amalgamate the Liberal and Country parties—a proposition that did not go well in Queensland again recently. They do not seem to learn from history.

His considerable ability was reflected in the range of ministerial, party and parliamentary positions he held during his 13 years in parliament. He had a good grounding as Senate Government Whip in early 1968, and his ministerial career began in November of 1969 when he became Minister for Civil Aviation, a position he held for a little over three years, until the fall of the McMahon government.

In opposition from 1972 until 1974 he served as the opposition spokesperson on the Postmaster-General’s Department, and on work, services and property. In June 1974 he took on responsibility as shadow minister for the manufacturing industry, a portfolio which later included industrial development. During the period of the Fraser caretaker ministry, Sir Robert served as Minister for Science and Consumer Affairs and from December 1975 he was Minister for Industry and Commerce. He also served as Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate.

Sir Robert Cotton served on a number of Senate committees. He was a member and later Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Offshore Petroleum Resources, which was an influential committee at a time when the Senate was asserting itself and defining its role through its committee activities. These inquiries helped lay the groundwork for the establishment of the formal standing committee system of today.

Sir Robert resigned from the Senate in July 1978 and took up the first of two significant diplomatic postings as consul general in New York. In his three years as Australia’s representative in New York he worked to promote Australian interests and business with the financial and investment community and developed strong US links. In 1981 he returned to Australia and was appointed to the board of the Reserve Bank. A year later, in 1982, he and Lady Cotton returned to the US, where Sir Robert took up the position of Australian ambassador in Washington. The respect he enjoyed across party lines was reflected in the fact that he remained in that key diplomatic post for the first two years of the Hawke Labor government. He and Lady Cotton returned to Australia in 1985.

In 1992 Sir Robert became Chairman of the Australian Photonics Cooperative Research Centre. In addition, he was deeply involved in the establishment of the Australian Centre for American Studies at the University of Sydney and was for 10 years Chairman of the Australian Political Exchange Council. He also served as Chair of the National Gallery Foundation Board. Sir Robert was knighted in 1978 and was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1993. He received an honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Sydney in 1995.

In retirement he continued to pursue his love of photography and held a joint exhibition with his daughter, Judy, in Sydney in 2005. Sir Robert’s first wife, Eve, passed away in 2000 and in 2003 he married Betty Krummel. Sir Robert passed away on Christmas Eve last year. On behalf of all opposition senators I send our sincere condolences to Sir Robert’s wife and family. He was clearly a very significant political figure in Australia’s history, a very significant Liberal, and someone who enjoyed wide respect on both sides of the parliament.

I would also like to make some remarks about the sad death of Sir James Killen, probably one of the most famous political figures in Australian public life. Sir James Killen was born in Dalby in Queensland in 1925. As a teenager he worked as a jackaroo on Portland Downs station and in 1943, at the age of 18, he joined the Royal Australian Air Force. He was discharged from the Air Force in October 1945 at the rank of flight sergeant air gunner. I suspect his irreverent nature made rising higher in the Air Force a bit problematic, if his later career is anything to go by.

Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Minchin interjecting—

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, as Senator Minchin points out, he then became Minister for Defence, so I am not sure how that would have gone down. After the war he returned to the bush and completed a Diploma of Sheep and Wool. In 1949 he married Joyce Buley.

James Killen was involved with the Liberal Party from a very early age. He was Foundation President of the Young Liberal Movement of Queensland in 1949—so he does have a bit to answer for!—and was also a member of his party’s state executive. From 1953 until 1956 he was Vice-President of the Queensland Division of the Liberal Party. In 1955, at the very tender age of 29, he was elected to the seat of Moreton, beating his ALP opponent by a little over 2,000 votes. He then retained his seat at 11 subsequent elections, famously winning by just 130 votes in 1961.

Sir James was known as a strident anticommunist. In his first speech to the parliament in 1956 he addressed his considerable rhetorical skill to a scathing critique of the then Soviet Union. During his time in parliament Sir James also worked to complete a degree in law. However, it was some years before he gained his first ministerial position. Sir James was made Minister for the Navy by Prime Minister Gorton in November 1969 and held the post until William McMahon became Prime Minister in 1971.

In opposition between 1972 and 1975 he served first as shadow minister for education and later held the shadow Defence portfolio. It is probably for his time as Minister for Defence in the Fraser government that Sir James is best known. He held that position for nearly seven years, which made him one of Australia’s longest serving defence ministers. In his time as minister he oversaw much of the work to establish the Australian Defence Force Academy as well as the development of the joint operational doctrine. Sir James moved from the Defence portfolio in 1982 and for the last 10 months of the Fraser government served as Leader of the House and Vice-President of the Executive Council. He resigned from parliament in August 1983.

In addition to his long service as Minister for Defence, Sir James was well known for his distinctive personal style. He was formidable in debate and his famous wit and rhetorical skill helped him to thrive in the environment of parliament and to leave such an enduring impression on Australian public life. Sir James was a committed conservative, but his beliefs did not isolate him from those who did not share his political views. He is fondly remembered by many from across the political spectrum. He had close friends from all sides of politics.

The guests at his 80th birthday celebration in 2005 included Barry Jones and the late Don Chipp, with whom he had served as a minister before Chipp left the Liberal Party to lead the Australian Democrats. He was also very close to Fred Daly and Gough Whitlam. I think it is fair to say that all of the political figures I have mentioned could not be described as ‘white bread politicians’, as some of us are so unfairly described these days; all of them are characters. His friendship with Gough Whitlam continued, and I understand they spoke on the phone on nearly a weekly basis. When in parliament, the two were known to pass to each other across the chamber notes peppered with classical references.

At the request of the Killen family, Gough Whitlam read the eulogy at Sir James’s state funeral service on 19 January in Brisbane. Whitlam spoke of Sir James’s love of the parliament, saying:

In his career, parliament was as significant as the ministerial offices he held with distinction. His influence, his abiding interest in the great affairs of our country, his fascination with the intricate interplay of the political machinery, his knowledge of and respect for the Constitution all came from his love of parliament.

Outside parliament, Sir James was passionate about horse racing. He made the headlines in 1981 when he argued for the Queensland Turf Club to relax its restrictions on female members, saying that the club’s refusal to do so would amount to ‘an exquisite form of absurdity’.

He had a great love of words, literature and reading. His distinctive rhetorical style was said to have been influenced by Sheridan and Edmund Burke. Sir James was knighted in 1982 and made a Companion of the Order of Australia in 2004. He continued to practise law during his retirement in Brisbane. Sir James’s first wife, Lady Joy, passed away in 2000 and Sir James himself passed away on 12 January this year. He is survived by his second wife, Lady Benise Killen, his daughters, Diana and Heather, and his grandchildren. On behalf of all Labor senators, I would like to offer to Lady Killen and his family our most sincere condolences on the loss of a most remarkable Australian—someone who provided great service to this country and to Australian public life. Labor senators all regret his passing.

Ron Boswell (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I join Senator Minchin and the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate in supporting the condolence motion for Sir Robert Cotton and Sir James Killen. I never knew Sir Robert Cotton, but I did know Sir James Killen very well as a former minister in the Fraser government and the conservative governments before that. He was a member of the Tattersalls Club and was seen at the racecourse. He was very up-front around Queensland. We have lost a great political character in Sir James Killen.

He was 29 when he was first elected to parliament as the Liberal member for Moreton in 1955. He was a great speaker, a great debater and a great practical joker. In 1961, one of his most famous quotes was that former Prime Minister Menzies sent him a telegram saying that he was ‘magnificent’ to hold the government at the time. His particular seat, which he won by 130 votes or so in 1961, held the government together by a very slim majority of one. During the 1950s and 1960s, Sir James Killen spoke frequently in the House and was well known for his wit and his oratory. While a member of the House of Representatives, he studied for his law degree and graduated in 1964, and immediately started building a criminal law practice. He actually continued that practice while he was a member of parliament.

Sir James Killen was commissioned as Minister for the Navy in 1969 and took a strong interest in the conditions of ordinary sailors. He was noted as saying that his years as Minister for Defence were an honour but a heavy burden. He was appointed shadow minister for defence in 1975. One of his more famous quotes was: ‘We would not be able to protect Botany Bay against the enemy on a hot Sunday afternoon.’ Sir James Killen got the opportunity to do something about it when he was commissioned as Minister for Defence in the Fraser government, in November. He prepared Australia’s white paper on defence and was the minister responsible for buying the FA18s. He was also responsible for setting up the Australian Defence Force Academy after a long argument with Public Works. These are all important achievements, but Sir James will be remembered above all as a great parliamentarian with a larrikin streak. Today I would also like to offer, on behalf of my colleagues in the National Party, our sincere condolences to the widow, family and friends of Sir Robert Cotton.

Lyn Allison (Victoria, Australian Democrats) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Australian Democrats, I would like to support the condolence motion on the death of Sir James Killen on 12 January this year. On behalf of the Democrats, I would also like to express our sincere sympathy to his family and in particular to his wife, Benise, surviving children, Diana and Heather, and grandchildren, Dana and Amanda. I did not know Sir James personally, but I did hear him speak on numerous occasions—on the radio mostly. It is clear from the recollections of the many people who did know him that he was a man of some talent who is remembered for his sense of humour, fair play and, of course, skill as a public speaker.

I am sure all present would agree that Sir James’s parliamentary career was a long and distinguished one. He came from a tough childhood in Queensland and was well prepared to take on all comers in the political arena—and by all accounts that is just what he did. As many will know, Sir James entered federal parliament in 1955. During his 28 years in the parliament he spoke passionately on the issues he felt strongly about and, indeed, crossed the floor to vote with the opposition on a number of occasions.

Sir James served as Minister for the Navy from 1969 to 1971 and as Minister for Defence from 1975 to 1982. As one of Australia’s longest serving defence ministers, he oversaw the first defence white paper, but he is perhaps best remembered by the public for his comment, which Senator Boswell just mentioned, that the military forces were so run down they would have trouble defending Bondi Beach on a hot Sunday afternoon. As a solution to this, Sir James set up the Australian Defence Force Academy—one of his lasting achievements. But it was during his time as a federal backbencher back in the fifties that Sir James witnessed a series of nuclear tests at Maralinga in South Australia and subsequently became a staunch opponent of nuclear weapons and nuclear conflict. As recently as 2003, Sir James called for all political leaders to avoid nuclear war at all costs.

Although Sir James retired from parliament in 1983, he retained a very strong interest in politics and even attempted a political comeback in 1998—reportedly to try to topple Pauline Hanson. However, he lost preselection, so we will never know how Sir James, who has been described as one of Australia’s most colourful politicians, would have slotted into the modern Liberal Party.

It is a mark of the contribution that Sir James made to this country that he was knighted in 1982 and in 2004 was awarded the Companion of the Order of Australia, in part for his advocacy for the rights of the underprivileged. My colleague Senator Stott Despoja had a number of enjoyable dealings with Sir Jim Killen, including at the Constitutional Convention in 1998 and, she says, more light-hearted ones on Good News Week on the ABC. Sir James will long be remembered in the parliament and at large for his very many contributions to public life.

On behalf of the Australian Democrats, I would also like to support the condolence motion on the death of Sir Robert Cotton on 25 December 2006. I place on record our acknowledgement of his long and meritorious public service and express our most sincere sympathy to his family. As many will know, Sir Robert was a foundation member of the Liberal Party and held many party positions before he entered the Senate in 1966.

From all accounts Sir Robert’s experiences during the Depression and World War II shaped his political beliefs and commitment to bettering the nation. He once said: ‘I don’t believe in government by vested interest. You exist to serve the public interest of the greatest number of people.’ He reportedly strongly supported the view that from time to time governments have to intervene, as market forces alone cannot be relied on to deliver individual and social justice. Sir Robert also believed that federal-state relations were unfinished business. Indeed, that is still so today, as disputes on water, greenhouse emissions, education and health demonstrate.

Sir Robert served as Minister for Civil Aviation from 1969 to 1972 and Minister for Industry and Commerce from 1975 to 1977, retiring from parliament in 1978. Sir Robert’s love of meat pies was well known, as was his great respect for the national significance of the lamington. Following his retirement from parliament Sir Robert continued to contribute to public life. He was appointed consul general to New York for several years, and served on the Reserve Bank board before being appointed Australian ambassador in Washington in 1982. Sir Robert’s ability to work with those on both sides of politics was demonstrated by the fact that, although he was appointed ambassador by the Fraser government, he was kept on by the Hawke government when they won office in 1983.

During his time in the United States, Sir Robert was influential in persuading the US to abstain from the 1984 vote on a comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty rather than vote against it. Upon his return to Australia, Sir Robert pursued photography and held exhibitions in the United States and Australia. He also undertook several board positions and chaired an inquiry into the Australian Medical Association. His contribution to government and his country were marked by his knighthood and subsequent receipt of the Order of Australia in 1993. Again, on behalf of the Democrats I extend my sympathy and condolences to his family and friends.

Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I join in this motion of condolence in relation to the recent deaths of the Hon. Sir Denis James Killen AC, KCMG and the Hon. Sir Robert Carrington Cotton KCMG, AO. In particular, I wish to make some personal remarks in relation to Sir Robert Cotton, who was most aptly described by the Leader of the Government in the Senate, Senator Minchin, at the conclusion of his remarks as a ‘very great Liberal and a great Australian’. He was indeed both of those.

Sir Robert served as a senator for New South Wales from 1966 to 1978, and it is fair to say that those of us in the New South Wales division of the Liberal Party who benefited from Sir Robert’s influence had a great deal to learn from him. He was a man for whom I had enormous respect and great admiration. As—then, at least, if not now—a younger member of the New South Wales division of the Liberal Party and a very active member of its Young Liberal Movement, and even later in my current role as a senator for New South Wales, I was and will always be grateful for his mentorship and his support, which he went out of his way to give young people in the New South Wales division of the Liberal Party, for his interest and even for his very valued attendance at functions and events. It may be that that attendance had more to do with the meat pies and lamingtons to which Senator Allison referred than I had previously realised, but it was very much valued at the time for his company and his wisdom and support.

I speak not just for myself—and I think it is important to note that. I know many of my friends and colleagues who have come through the New South Wales division in the same way, most particularly my very good friend John Brogden, were beneficiaries of Sir Robert’s guidance. They would wish to join with me in this motion of condolence.

In his capacity as a member of the Australian Political Exchange Committee for a decade, I believe, he also played a very great role in the development of Australia’s political relations between parliaments and political parties, most particularly in the region and with the United States of course, given his experience. He regarded the work of the Australian Political Exchange Committee as a very important part of the work of political parties in this country and more broadly and he made a very significant mark in that regard.

I remember very many years ago being taken by my late father to Oberon to visit the Cotton family business. I met Sir Robert’s brother, Monty, and learnt a great deal more about that particular side of their business activities in New South Wales, which gave me another insight into the experiences and contribution to this nation of the Cotton family.

For those of us who developed important personal relationships with Sir Robert during our time in the political process and who benefited enormously from his experience, wisdom and guidance, it is a very sad day but a very important day on which to note that, as Senator Minchin said, he was a very great Liberal and a great Australian.

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to convey my condolences to Lady Benise Killen. Unfortunately I had an international flight to catch after the funeral and I was not able to extend my condolences personally at the time, but I do so now and to Sir James’s children as well.

‘Killen, you’re magnificent’ are almost immortal words alleged to have been said by Menzies on Killen’s retention of his electorate of Moreton on communist preferences and are an appropriate description of Jim Killen to all who knew him. Those words—and there is some conjecture about whether Menzies ever did say them, but certainly they were on the front page of the Courier-Mail the day after the election was declared—are some of the very significant political words spoken in Australian history. It was quite ironic that Killen was elected on communist preferences, because Jim Killen had been a well-known and aggressive opponent of communism right throughout his life.

As has been said, Jim Killen was the inaugural Young Liberal president in Queensland and, as such, I owe him a lot. I started my political career in the Young Liberals as a vice-president, and I note that there are two subsequent presidents of the Young Liberal Movement in Queensland also here to speak about Sir James. He established the Young Liberals well in those very early days and always maintained very active and enthusiastic involvement in and support for the Young Liberal Movement in Queensland.

He was a great Liberal. Some would say he was conservative; he was certainly a royalist. I like to think that he was more liberal than conservative in the Liberal Party. He hated humbug and hypocrisy and liked things to be talked about as they really were. The number of current and past Liberals who were at his funeral service is an indication of how highly he was regarded in the Liberal Party right throughout Australia. It was interesting that almost every living member of the cabinet in which Jim Killen last served would have been at the funeral. Every person who has in any way been involved with the Liberal Party in Queensland in the time that I have been involved seemed to be sitting in St John’s at the funeral service.

It was interesting to me that Gough Whitlam was invited to give the eulogy on behalf of the family. I have never been a great fan of Gough Whitlam, I have to say, but I very much warmed to him on hearing his eulogy. I thought Whitlam’s speech was quite magnificent and caring and showed a relationship between Whitlam and Killen that I was unaware of, although quite obviously many others were not. Whitlam indicated that every Sunday, usually after Killen had returned from church, they would speak to each other on the phone, and this association continued up until just a few weeks before Jim Killen’s death. I thought Whitlam’s eulogy was very apt and appropriate. The Prime Minister also spoke at the funeral and, as usual, delivered an address that was appropriate, correct and in keeping with the high regard in which Jim Killen was held.

I think it was Whitlam who described Killen as a statesman and a larrikin and indicated that if you could be both a statesman or a gentleman and a larrikin then that was all any Australian should ever aspire to. But that was certainly Jim Killen. He always had an eye for the ladies in an appropriate way. If he said it to my wife once, he said it a dozen times; when Jim Killen approached me and my wife he would always say to me, ‘Isn’t it lovely that you have brought your daughter along to this function.’ Every time he said it my wife knew he was going to say it, but nevertheless she was flattered and charmed every time, as were most of the women with whom Sir James came in contact.

Sir Jim Killen campaigned quite a lot in North Queensland. Even after his retirement he helped us out in a couple of elections where few others wanted to make the effort to save a hopeless cause, but Jim Killen was always there. The last I remember him campaigning was standing on the back of a truck, in the old style of campaigning, in the main street of Ayr during one state election campaign when he came along to lend a hand.

What I liked about Jim Killen was that he was bushie, a jackaroo, a self-made man—a man who I think epitomised what the early Liberal Party was all about. He got in there, did the hard work and, through his own initiative, enthusiasm and enterprise, achieved the highest office in the land in a political sense. Indeed, I think we can all say, and certainly I and my wife will always say, ‘Killen, you were magnificent.’

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Minister for the Arts and Sport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It was my great good fortune to know Sir James Killen. Although I would not claim an intimate association with him, I knew him well enough to come to appreciate the measure of the man and to be enchanted by his very distinctive personality. I last saw Sir James Killen some four months ago, on 30 September last year, at the opening of the new Moreton electorate office, which he performed with his customary poise and aplomb. I remember my conversation with him. I was much exercised at the time—and you might remember this, Mr Acting Deputy President Chapman—with the question of sedition laws and the laws concerning the threat of terrorism. As well as being a distinguished parliamentarian, Sir James was a notable barrister. He engaged me for some time about the importance of the rule of law and how liberals and conservatives—because in the different senses of those many-hued words he was both—should never lose sight of the paramountcy of the rule of law and rights of the individual citizen, even in necessitous times.

Prior to that, I had attended a luncheon with Sir James in November 2005. It was a most touching occasion. It was the 50th anniversary of the Upper Cavendish Road branch of the Liberal Party at the Pacific Golf Club. As all of us in political parties know, those whom we value most are the true believers who stay with their party through thick and thin, who seek no political rewards for themselves but only seek to serve the cause and values they believe in. We can all think of such people in our lives. I will never forget that day because there were there, along with Sir James Killen, four of the foundation members of the Upper Cavendish Road branch of the Liberal Party: Ailsa Scurr, Ruth Lines, Peg Organ and Oliver Cowley—all of whom had worked on Sir James’s first campaign in 1955 when he was elected as the member for Moreton. Indeed, the Upper Cavendish Road branch was formed, as I understand it, for the purpose of assisting Sir James to win the seat of Moreton at the 1955 election. Also there was one of Sir James Killen’s great companions in arms, Mr Bill Hewitt—later a distinguished member of the Queensland parliament to whom I will return in a moment.

Others have observed—and one cannot speak of Sir James Killen without making the observation—that he brought to this parliament, as he brought to his daily life, a very distinctive, in many ways anachronistic, but very memorable air. The period of history with which he identified was the great period of English parliamentarianism in the late 18th and early 19th centuries—the days of Edmund Burke, Richard Brinsley Sheridan and the other parliamentarians of the Fox-North-Burke period, and beyond the Napoleonic Wars into the days of the Regency. He seemed to be a displaced essence from that period who walked among us. He adopted its airs and he adopted its generous, formal, courtly and elegant language. He brought to everything he did the qualities which we associate with that period—chivalry, eloquence and a somewhat Rabelaisian approach to life. It was the period appropriately ordained by that rather lush English historian, Sir Arthur Bryant, as The Age of Elegance. It was that age of elegance which Sir James embodied in our more prosaic times.

He loved quoting Edmund Burke and, as we heard from Mr Whitlam in his eulogy to Sir James at St John’s Cathedral two weeks ago, he conceived the idea—how empirically supported I am not sure—that he was a descendant of Richard Brinsley Sheridan on his mother’s side. Although political scientists might say that he was not a deep scholar of Burke in an academic sense, nevertheless he understood the point of Burke’s view of life. Burke was never a Tory; he was a Whig. He always sat with the Whig party. Sir James Killen, like Burke, was sometimes mischaracterised as a conservative but was really a Whig—to the extent to which that antique term has meaning in today’s politics. He was always on the progressive side, always on the side of the individual. Nevertheless, like a true Whig, he maintained a deep reverence for established institutions. He understood that age, he understood its values and he evoked its spirit. Never more so did he do that than in his Alfred Deakin Lecture of 1975 when he spoke of parliament—the role of parliament, the uniqueness of parliament, the spirit of parliament, the changeable moods of parliament. His rhapsody to the parliamentary institution is something which will never be forgotten by those who happened to hear a broadcast of it, as I was fortunate to do, or who have since read the text of it.

Sir James Killen was the subject of many anecdotes—some, it must be said, of his own creation; he certainly was somebody who was fain to nurture his own anecdotes. We have heard the famous story of the apocryphal Menzies telegram after the 1961 election. But there is another anecdote about Sir James Killen, widely believed at the University of Queensland Law School—at least it was while I was a student—which I would like to contribute to the record.

It was widely believed that Sir James, or Jim Killen as he then was, when an external law student was having a bit of trouble with a constitutional law paper which, it was said, he asked the then Attorney-General, Sir Garfield Barwick, to assist him in completing at a parliamentary function. As the legend has it, the then Dr Kevin Ryan, later the sainted professor and Justice Kevin Ryan, who marked the constitutional law paper, was as little impressed by Sir Garfield Barwick’s contribution as he was by Jim Killen’s. Nevertheless, Jim Killen did get his pass in constitutional law and subsequently graduated LLB in the same graduating class as the present Governor of Queensland, Quentin Bryce.

It is also said about Sir James Killen, and rightly so, that he was a person who spanned all walks of life. Never was that more memorably illustrated to me than at a dinner that was held to commemorate his 70th birthday in 1995—appropriately, at the Guineas Room at Eagle Farm Racecourse. There was, as is customary on such occasions, a series of tributes from all manner of people. And there were some who, by reason of distance or by reason of illness, were not able to be present that evening, so they recorded their tributes on videotape which was broadcast to the room.

One of the tributes was by former President George Bush, whom Jim Killen had encountered when George Bush was a Vice-President in the Reagan administration and Sir James Killen was the Minister for Defence in Australia, and with whom he had maintained a correspondence and, obviously, a warm friendship. So we had this tribute from the former President of the United States of America, and then the next video to appear was by a man well known in legal circles in Brisbane as ‘Tom the barber’. Tom the barber cut Sir James’s hair for decades, as he cut the hair of most of the judges and most of the barristers—in fact, he used to cut my hair. Tom the barber was a real character among the legal community—and the racing community, indeed—of Brisbane. The juxtaposition of a message from the former President of the United States and the much-loved Tom the barber to me summed up Sir James’s capacity to embrace people from all walks of life. The funny thing was that they both, George Bush and Tom, evoked almost precisely the same qualities.

As Senator Ian Macdonald has pointed out and as Senator Santoro, who I understand will speak in a moment, will no doubt also advert to, Sir James was the inaugural president of the Young Liberal Movement in Queensland, an office in which both Senator Santoro and I had, many years later, the honour to follow him. I have been provided by Bill Hewitt, whom I mentioned before, who was the fourth president of the Young Liberal Movement, with a document which Sir James authorised and which was published in about 1950, entitled A Manifesto to the Youth of Queensland. This was the foundation document of the Young Liberal Movement of Australia, Queensland Division. It followed the style of that other famous Liberal Party foundational document or testament of beliefs, We Believe. But rather than the rather modest dozen or so declarations of principle in the We Believe document, which became the Liberal Party’s most famous statement of doctrine, Sir James Killen’s ‘We believe’ document contains dozens of affirmations of Liberal faith, which he wrote when he was a very young man. Some of them sound a little antique today, such as:

WE BELIEVE in loyalty to our Queen and Throne, as we believe the institution of Monarchy to be indispensable to the British way of life.

But there are others that sound as contemporary as if they had been written yesterday:

WE BELIEVE that government interference with the lives and liberties of people is not desirable in itself, and should only arise when national and international circumstances demand, and we further believe that the full circumstances should be made quite clear to the people—

the very point he made to me only some four months ago when I last spoke with him. This document, which obviously bears his authorship, says:

WE BELIEVE that the entry of people into Parliament for any other reason than service of the nation is to be deplored, as we also believe that all those who enter Parliament should receive political training before their entry—

one of the principal reasons, of course, why the Young Liberal Movement was founded. The document also says:

WE BELIEVE it right to condemn the fall in the prestige of Parliament, as we believe it right to regard Parliamentary service as a high and noble form of service to one’s fellow men.

WE BELIEVE in a strong and independent judiciary, as we believe in our system of Law which makes all equal before the Law.

And so it goes on. But the document with which I have been furnished by Bill Hewitt is not just a manifesto to the youth of Queensland, not only the original inspiration of Young Liberals in the 1950s, but very much a testament of Jim Killen’s political faith—to which he maintained fidelity through good times and bad, with impressive consistency throughout 28 years in parliament and in the years before and after his parliamentary career.

I want to finish by putting on the public record some reflections about Sir James Killen which I asked Bill Hewitt to write when I heard of Sir James’s death. I asked for some recollections of the times when the Young Liberal Movement was founded, and also of the famous 1961 campaign when the government of Australia hung by a thread and in which Sir James was successful. Bill Hewitt was his campaign director on that memorable occasion. If I may detain the Senate for just a moment, I will read onto the record Bill Hewitt’s reflections on Sir James Killen:

Jim Killen became the Young Liberals’ Foundation President in 1949. I met him when I joined in early 1952. He presided over the Metropolitan Zone that met each Thursday in Edward Street, the City. We marvelled at his depth of knowledge, his oratory skills and his tireless energy. The times were exciting—‘An Iron Curtain has descended over Europe,’ Churchill had said—and Jim attracted to him a galaxy of talent in the young members, many destined to enjoy political or legal careers. Guest speakers from a variety of professions and interests submitted to questions and challenges from members, often led by Jim himself. Debates, sometimes Debating Union fixtures, more often Young Liberal clashes against supporters of opposing causes, were always stimulating. Killen himself often participated in a one on one discussion—memorable among those is the night he debated and comprehensively defeated the President of the Fabian Society.

Even before his election in 1955, succeeding army minister Jos Francis in Moreton, Jim was a regular contributor to the Bulletin and an eager participant in election campaigns. Outside the Alliance Hotel in Spring Hill or the Wharfies’ Tally Room were not places to hold street corner meetings for timorous Liberals. Not Jim! The sites were always prominent on the list and he took the fight to anyone who wanted to take him on.

Jim’s great contribution to the Young Liberals was the organisation of the Young Liberal Winter School of Political Science held annually at Montville on the Queen’s Birthday weekend for most of the 1950s. Barwick, Casey, Latham, Chester Wilmot and many other distinguished persons gave us a greater understanding of current issues. They were wonderful days! Under Jim’s presidency, a manifesto to the Youth of Queensland was printed. These many years later, the principles stated stand firm.

In 1961, as Area Chairman for Moreton, past Young Liberal President and long-time Killen friend and supporter, I accepted the role of Campaign Director in Moreton for the forthcoming federal election. The impact of the 1960 mini-budget had been prolonged and severe. There were fears of some impact on the election results, although overall a feeling of optimism prevailed. Nevertheless, we campaigned hard in Moreton. Street meetings in the early evenings and Saturday mornings, distributions, booth manning, appeals and section voting filled the last three hectic weeks. Voting concluded at 8.00 pm and booth workers proceeded to the Killen Ekibin residence to enjoy a backyard barbecue and follow results. The heavens opened and we retreated into the house. At midnight it was pouring rain. The carpets were ruined and we were 2000 votes behind. As the week progressed and seats around the nation, including seven in Queensland, had fallen, the fate of the government depended on Moreton. The ensuing ten days were tortuous, but with a disciplined flow of QLP preferences and a small leakage of Communist preferences—the ultimate irony—Jim held the seat by 110 votes and he went on to reach impressive heights.

Our friendship prevailed, albeit in different spheres of government. It was my great privilege to propose his Life Membership of the Liberal Party in 1994. I likened his career to the life story of David Lloyd George, Tempestuous Journey. Happily Jim returned to tranquil waters and spent his twilight years in quiet contemplation.

Vale Sir James Killen: a great Liberal, a great Australian, a great Queenslander; a person whose values, standards and beliefs we would do well to emulate.

Santo Santoro (Queensland, Liberal Party, Minister for Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was greatly saddened when I learned, on 12 January this year, of the death of the Hon. Sir James Killen AC, KCMG. Sir James, as others during this condolence motion have amply and very well said, was a longstanding and distinguished member of the Queensland Liberal Party. He made an outstanding contribution to Australian politics and government as the federal member for Moreton between 1955 and 1983, and as a minister in the portfolios of Navy, from 1969 to 1971, and defence, from 1975 to 1982.

As Senator Brandis said and as the Hon. Bill Hewitt said through Senator Brandis’s contribution, Sir James Killen was the Foundation President of the Young Liberal Movement in Queensland in 1949. Like Senator Brandis, I was proud to follow in his footsteps in this position many years later. He continued to support the Young Liberal Movement through his entire political life, which included in the early 1980s his giving permission for the establishment of the Sir James Killen Young Liberal Foundation, which has placed the Queensland Young Liberal Movement on a very sound long-term financial footing.

Senator Brandis mentioned the publication of a manifesto which Sir James wrote in his very early days and I would like to place on the record the fact that Sir James, in the early 1980s, relaunched that manifesto when under the Young Liberal presidency of Allan Pidgeon—if my memory serves me correctly—that document was revived. It was updated, approved by Sir James and republished, which gives a very clear indication of his long-term commitment to the Young Liberal Movement, the Queensland Liberal Party and, indeed, the Australian Liberal Party.

Often when people leave politics, particularly after they have scaled the great political heights that Sir James did, they dissociate themselves from the great profession that they participated in and often move away from the political party that spawned and, indeed, nurtured them. Sir James Killen was certainly not one of those people. He continued to support the Young Liberal Movement, the Queensland Liberal Party and the Australian Liberal Party with great gusto and vigour. His legacy to the Queensland Young Liberals continues to be as strong as ever. Only last Saturday, the Queensland Young Liberal Movement, with the approval of Lady Killen, named the public-speaking competition that the Young Liberal Movement hosts every year the Sir James Killen Young Liberal Speaking Competition. I think that is one of the most significant and thoughtful tributes that the Liberal Party, particularly the youth wing of the Liberal Party in Queensland, could pay to its founding president, a life member and arguably its most distinguished member.

Sir James was also vice-president of the party’s Queensland division between 1953 and 1956. They were tumultuous times, and he served with distinction and with a clear sense of the direction that the Liberal Party had to take at that time. Invariably, his views and his counsel prevailed.

Most of all, as others have said in their contributions to this condolence motion, he was a tremendous orator whose ready wit and extraordinary intellect ensured that he was able to shine in any speaking performance or political debate. Again, Senator Brandis gave strong anecdotal evidence of that. Sir James was also an inspiration to generations of younger members of the Liberal Party, including me. He showed us all that it was possible to engage in serious and meaningful political debate without surrendering dignity, good manners and respect for others.

So much was he revered that, in his later years, it seems to me that everyone wanted to celebrate his life and his legacy. I know of at least three major testimonial dinners that were organised just in the last three or four years alone, and all of those dinners were sell-outs. People came from all over Australia—Liberal Party members, National Party members, Labor Party members and indeed members of other political parties and movements—to celebrate his life and his achievements and, whilst he was alive, to clearly give him a sense of the great appreciation that people had for him. People like me who continue with great pleasure, great pride and a great sense of privilege in the great and noble profession of politics often lament that we only say the great things about great political practitioners and great Australians like Sir James Killen at a funeral or memorial service. But it must have been so very satisfying for Sir James and his family to be able to go to dinner after dinner—and they were not small affairs; they were significant occasions—where his contribution was eulogised, with great appreciation expressed.

Sir James Killen will be sorely missed by thousands of Liberal Party members across Australia who strive to emulate his genuine political achievements and his dignified, intellectual and very witty contribution to public life. The Liberal Party has lost a great hero, and Australia has lost a fine servant and citizen. I extend my most sincere sympathies to Lady Killen and his daughters, Heather and Diana, and their extended family and friends.

Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to incorporate a speech by Senator Helen Coonan on the condolence motion.

Leave granted.

Helen Coonan (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The incorporated speech read as follows—

I rise today to pay tribute to a distinguished Liberal Senator for NSW who played a crucial role in representing the interests of both his constituents and his Party.

Sir Robert entered the Senate in 1966 filling the casual vacancy that arose following the retirement of Sir William Spooner, another faithful servant of the people of New South Wales.

He served as a Senator, a Minister in many portfolios and was highly respected as President of the NSW Liberal Party.

Sir Robert was a firm advocate for the importance of the Australian Senate in the Australian political system. In his maiden speech Sir Robert defended this chamber by quoting Sir George Pearce:

‘The Senate was constituted as it is after long fighting, prolonged discussions, many compromises and many concessions on the part of the various shades of political thought throughout the Commonwealth and it stands therefore, in the Constitution in a position that has no equal in any Legislature throughout the world’.

Sir Robert often thought that the Senate chamber was not sufficiently well appreciated in Australia and made it his life’s work to change that perception.

Born in Broken Hill in 1915 to Les and Muriel Cotton, Sir Robert was the eldest son of six children. The family’s rural existence ensured that Sir Robert was brought up with a strong sense of community and a love of the land. He attended St Peter’s College in Adelaide and went to work with his father soon after leaving school due to the pressures of the Depression years.

In 1937, Sir Robert married Eve McDougal. Eve was a constant in Sir Robert’s life. They were childhood sweethearts and remained together until Eve’s passing in 2000.

Like many of his time, Sir Robert felt compelled to serve his country during World War II. He trained as a Royal Australian Air Force bomber pilot in 1941 and was seconded to the Department of Supply in Melbourne.

As a sign of the Cotton family’s tight bond Sir Robert, together with his brothers Monty and John, worked tirelessly to establish Timber Industries Pty Ltd to supply wood products to coal mines in Broken Hill during the war years.

Sir Robert was a foundation member of the Liberal Party. In his first foray into political life, Sir Robert was a candidate at the 1949 Federal election, standing against former Prime Minister Ben Chifley (PM 13 July 1945 -19 December 1949) in the seat of Macquarie. Sir Robert, not satisfied with his first tilt at political life, was again the Liberal candidate in the 1951 by-election for the seat of Macquarie after former Prime Minister Ben Chifley’s death.

The New South Wales Liberal Party has been served by many impressive State Presidents and Sir Robert definitely fits that bill. I believe Prime Minister John Howard remarked that it was Sir Robert’s calm authority and immense personal charm that provided strong leadership to the Party organisation’. Sir Robert went on to serve in the Gorton, McMahon and Fraser Coalition Governments. In 1969, Sir Robert was appointed Minister for Civil Aviation.

In 1975, he was appointed Minister for Manufacturing Industry, then Minister for Science and Consumer Affairs and finally Minister for Industry and Commerce, which he held until 1977.

Upon his retirement from Federal politics in 1978, Sir Robert was knighted as a Commander of St Michael and St George for services to government. He was appointed as Consul-General to New York in August of that year, where he remained until 1980.

In 1981, Sir Robert again answered the call and served the Australian people as a member of the Reserve Bank Board.

In 1982 he was appointed Australian Ambassador to the United States, replacing Sir Nicholas Parkinson. He served both the Fraser and Hawke Governments in this position and remained Ambassador in Washington for two years after the change of Government, a sign of the respect both sides of politics held for Sir Robert.

On his return to Australia in 1985, Sir Robert served on a number of boards and pursued his interest in photography. On several occasions Sir Robert exhibited his photographs in Sydney and he held an exhibition in Washington in 1986. In 2005 Sir Robert held a joint exhibition with his daughter Judy Cotton, a painter.

I had the pleasure of meeting Sir Robert while I was in Washington, working as an attorney in 1986. I found him to be an intelligent man, he was extremely engaging, he had a great wealth of knowledge, and as the saying goes he was switched on to all the issues of the day. Sir Robert spoke glowingly of Australia as the place of opportunity, untapped beauty and untold potential. He advocated strongly for Australia at every chance and was highly respected as an Ambassador.

In our conversations, Sir Robert spoke of his love for Broken Hill and the spirit and perseverance of the people that have made Broken Hill the place it is today. His other great love was Carrington Park, a large pastoral property that he built from scratch, showing the ingenuity that was a trade mark of his belief in the Australian spirit.

Sir Robert is survived by his second wife and her three daughters, by his two daughters, his son, seven grandchildren and four great grandchildren.

On behalf of the Australian Government, the Senate and the New South Wales Liberal Party, I extend my deepest sympathies to Sir Robert’s family on their sad loss.

Question agreed to, honourable senators standing in their places.