Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Wielangta State Forest on the east coast of Tasmania is a very special 10,000 to 15,000 hectares of forest which contains a great range of ecosystems and wildlife. Seeing it being rapidly eroded and targeted for logging, and because the local residents did not have the wherewithal to take legal action, I took legal action against Forestry Tasmania because of the absurdity of rare and endangered species like the giant Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle, the swift parrot and the Wielangta stag beetle being pushed towards extinction. I took that action in 2006.

In the event, the arguments before Justice Marshall in the court over 35 days led to him banning logging and effectively ruling that logging was impacting upon these species, which are nationally listed as rare and vulnerable and should have a management plan in place to improve, not worsen, their plight. But subsequently the then Prime Minister, John Howard, and the then Premier of Tasmania, Paul Lennon, signed a change to the Regional Forest Agreement to say that the logging was not impacting on these species.

In a consequent appeal by Forestry Tasmania to the full bench of the Federal Court and the High Court, Justice Marshall’s ruling preventing logging—but not his findings on the impact of the logging—was reversed and costs were awarded against me. As you would know, Madam Acting Deputy President, I went to the public. Very rapidly, two weeks ago, thanks to an amazing and very inspiring response from the public, I was able to pay the $240,000 costs, and Forestry Tasmania has now been paid.

In this place the other night, Senator Abetz, the then minister for forests through most of that court action, criticised that response from the public and my process in appealing to the public. What he did not say was that he and the former minister for forests in the Howard government, Senator Macdonald, joined in that case without, I think, cogent warrant or reason and without effect on the case. They employed very costly barristers for what was, I think, a politically determined intervention one which in no way threatened costs for Senator Abetz, Senator Macdonald or, indeed, the forest industries that they were backing. In the event, that cost the taxpayers of Australia $436,000.

The Senate and the government need to have a look at the licence for ministers to intervene in such cases in the courts, with political advantage in mind, at the expense of taxpayers. My belief is that Senator Abetz and Senator Macdonald, who were then ministers, owe that $436,000 to the Australian public, who paid for their unnecessary intervention. If they do not have it, they might seek a public appeal and see how they get on in a response from the Australian public to that intervention they took. I think the result might be different.

The more important matter that I want to speak on today, with a great deal of warm recollection, is the passing of the former Deputy Clerk of the Senate, Anne Lynch. She was here from when I arrived in 1996 until she retired in July 2005. She died on 24 April this year. There was a very moving memorial service for her, which I could not attend but which many senators and members of this and other parliaments and members of the public did attend.

I am indebted to the current Deputy Clerk of the Senate, Rosemary Laing, for letting me quote from a homily to Anne Lynch which she had printed in the Department of the Senate Procedural information bulletin. I might preface this by saying that Deputy Clerk Lynch had a very feisty and strong regard for probity and the dignity of the Senate. She defended that in every way that she could, with great logic and great power of argument. But there was one thing that particularly worried her in this place, and that was bogong moths. She had an extraordinary phobia of them. I do not think I will ever see bogong moths in their annual intrusion into this parliament, attracted by the lights of this parliament, without my mind flying immediately to Anne Lynch and the very warm regard in which I and all senators held her and in which I reflect upon her great service to the Senate.

Returning to Deputy Clerk Rosemary Laing’s recollections, she said:

Anne joined the Senate in early 1973 as a research officer to the then Clerk, J.R. Odgers. She became a Clerk Assistant in 1984 and Deputy Clerk in 1988. She was known throughout the parliamentary world as secretary of the ‘powerful Senate Privileges Committee’ and faithfully attended presiding officers’ and clerks’ conferences in the most remote Pacific locations to show solidarity and support. Anne’s heart was probably always in Old Parliament House but she exercised her networking skills in the new building to bring people together. Her sense of commitment to the institution of Parliament, and to the Senate in particular, was infectious. Her door was always open to senators and staff alike, and there she would sit, ensconced behind Odgers’ old desk, usually with a fan-heater going at full blast, ready to lend a sympathetic ear and offer well-informed, realistic and always wise advice. More often than not in the late afternoons, her counsel would be lubricated by gin and tonic (medicinal of course), in recognition of which, a former senator placed a miniature bottle of gin on her coffin, alongside Anne’s Order of Australia (AM) medal.

Anne was of the old school, and there is nothing wrong with that. I learned so much from her about the Senate, both arcane and fundamental, and her tutelage of novice clerks at the table may have been brutal but it was effective. We learned never to make the same mistake twice! Above all, I valued her support, encouragement and friendship. To me and, I suspect, to many others, she remains the ‘real’ Deputy Clerk. May she rest in peace, knowing that she will not be forgotten.

Rosemary Laing

I want to add two more two things. First, I capitalised ‘Indigenous’ in the Hansard of a speech I gave. She was quite taken aback by this innovation; it was not how the dictionary rendered it. I think I did not concede, but we had a very useful talk about whether it should be capitalised or lower case. Second, on another occasion in this chamber—in the morning and in summer—that occasional beam of sunlight that comes through the roof was highlighting Deputy Clerk Anne Lynch at the table. I went across to her and noted how fitting it was that she had a halo above her head and that it was lighting up her presence in the chamber. She loved that, and a number of times afterwards she mentioned that comment being made.

Further on Anne Lynch, Rosemary Laing noted:

Both musically and professionally, she saw her role as that of an accompanist, supporting the main event but not in the limelight.

True. But Anne Lynch was a very great champion of the Senate, and in that she was no accompanist; she was a virtuoso.