Sue Lines (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is with deep regret that I inform the Senate of the death on 17 November 2019 of the Hon. Benjamin Charles Humphreys AM, a former minister and member of the House of Representatives for the division of Griffith, Queensland, from 1977 to 1996.

Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

That the Senate records its deep regret at the death, on 17 November 2019, of Benjamin Charles Humphreys AM, former Member of the House of Representatives, Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Minister assisting the Minister for Northern Australia in the Hawke and Keating governments, places on record its appreciation for his service to the Parliament and the nation, and tenders its sympathy to his family in their bereavement.

When Ben Humphreys was first elected to represent the people of the Queensland seat of Griffith in 1977, I'm advised that he thought he would only last for one term. That he retired from parliament almost 20 years later, in 1996, was testament to his hard work, dedication and commitment to the people of his electorate and, indeed, Australia. In that time, the Labor Party member for Griffith served as a cabinet minister in the Hawke and Keating governments. He was Minister for Veterans' Affairs for six years and also spent 10 months as Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Northern Australia.

Ben Humphreys was born in Brisbane in 1934. He grew up in the riverside suburb of Bulimba in the thirties and forties. After marrying Beryl, they settled in the Brisbane suburb of Hawthorne, where they raised five children. He worked as a mechanic and also travelled and worked extensively across rural Queensland and the Northern Territory as a salesman, where he became affectionately known as 'the bushman's friend'.

Ben Humphreys' path to the Australian Labor Party, and ultimately parliament, started with his involvement in the union movement. He was a member of the Amalgamated Metal Workers and Shipwrights Union and from 1965 to 1966 was the branch secretary of the Amalgamated Engineering Union. In his famous speech to parliament, Ben Humphreys told the House, when he was elected to parliament in 1977, that he had never been to Canberra before and had never been to Parliament House, and he thought all would be rosy with all the great members of the Labor Party being 'as one'. I quoted him there and I continue to quote. He said: 'My baptism of fire was my first caucus meeting.'

Following Gough Whitlam's resignation as Labor leader after the 1977 election, Ben Humphreys backed Lionel Bowen in the ballot against Bill Hayden, which he freely admitted did not go down well in Queensland at the time. After Bowen's loss to Hayden, Ben was recruited to the New South Wales Right faction by Doug McClelland and John Johnston. Ben said that, while there was a lot of hard work done behind the scenes to get him into the New South Wales Right, it was not hard for him to stay, because 'I found them to be a very decent group of people, even though we hear some stories from time to time.' He went on to say, 'But you do not want to believe all the stories you hear around Parliament House,' which I suggest to colleagues is very sage advice indeed!

Apart from his ministerial positions, Ben Humphreys was the Deputy Opposition Whip in the House of Representatives from 1980 to 1983 and Government Whip from 1983 to 1987. He worked hard during his six years as Minister for Veterans' Affairs, seeing it as his duty to do his very best for our veteran community. His connection to and understanding of veterans came partly through his own military service. As a 19-year-old he completed National Service in the Navy from 1953 to 1954 with the Fleet Air Arm. He was also in the Navy Reserves from 1954 to 1961.

His eldest sister married an American soldier after World War II, and his nephew was a medic in the United States Army during the Vietnam War. Ben Humphreys told parliament that his nephew had told him stories of the realities of treating wounded soldiers on the battlefield. As the second-longest-serving Minister for Veterans' Affairs he was a particularly strong advocate for Vietnam veterans, encouraging all Australians to honour and commemorate their service. He acknowledged that there were mixed feelings in Australia during the Vietnam war, but was adamant that Vietnam veterans were entitled to the respect and admiration of their fellow Australians for the way they did their duty and the sacrifices they made for their country. Ben Humphreys strongly supported the 1987 national 'Welcome Home' parade of Vietnam veterans of Australia and urged all Australians to support the event.

In 1990, he travelled with a group of World War I veterans to Gallipoli for the 75th anniversary of Anzac Day and was deeply moved by the anniversary event. Speaking in parliament on his return, he said:

… having travelled the full distance with those Gallipoli and World War I veterans, I will never know another 10 such days. I can say that by observing and getting close to those men I have broadened my understanding of my own character and what it means to be an Australian.

After leaving parliament, Ben Humphreys maintained close contact with Australia's South Pacific neighbours, and in August 2001 he was part of a Commonwealth observer group sent to oversee the 2001 election in Fiji. He also served on the board of the Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame.

Tributes have flowed since Benjamin Humphreys's passing. Invariably he's been described as a people's politician with strong values and as someone who possessed a sense of decency and authenticity. Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who replaced Ben Humphreys as Labor's candidate for Griffith after his retirement, said he was a mentor for how to be a good local MP. Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said:

… Ben was a kind, gentle and good man. He began life as a local mechanic and saw every person he met as his equal. He would go out of his way to help people in need.

Further:

Without Ben, I could never have later become Prime Minister of Australia.

On behalf of the Australian government, I offer our sincere condolences to Ben Humphreys's family: to his wife, Beryl, and their children, Sharon, Jude, Brenda, Ben and Jason, as well as their grandchildren, Beth, Hannah, Amy, Claire, Hunter and Lola. May Ben Humphreys rest in peace.

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise on behalf of the opposition to express our condolences following the passing of a former member of the House of Representatives and a minister, Benjamin Charles Humphreys AM, at the age of 85, and commence by conveying the Labor Party's condolences to his family and friends and, in particular, our sympathies to Beryl, his wife, and to their children and grandchildren. In addition—and I note my colleague Senator Watt will make some remarks after me—our thoughts are with our comrades in the Queensland branch of the Australian Labor Party.

Ben Humphreys was a decent man, an authentic figure who rose from being a mechanic on Brisbane's south side to being a member of the federal cabinet—someone who saw all he met as his equal. He served with both humility and dedication for nearly 20 years in the House of Representatives, including six as a minister. One of his successors as the member for Griffith, my colleague in the other place Ms Butler, said:

Ben was an amazing and loyal servant of our community and the Labor cause, and he will be missed by all.

His love for Queensland and northern Australia extended well beyond his period of parliamentary service.

Ben Humphreys was one of that generation born in the midst of the Depression and growing up during World War II. Born in Brisbane in 1934, he commenced a year of national service in 1953 with the Fleet Air Arm of the RAN and would remain in the Navy Reserve until 1961. He was a member of the Amalgamated Metal Workers and Shipwrights Union and became branch secretary from '65 to '66. He was also an auto engineer and a small business man. As Senator Cormann has pointed out, he earned the nickname 'the Bushman's Friend' as a result of his extensive travels throughout Queensland and also his amiable nature. On the advice of Lionel Bowen, he maintained ownership of his business after entering parliament, both of them apparently concerned his parliamentary career might be short lived. Obviously that was not to be the case—in fact, he was re-elected six times after first being elected to the House of Representatives in the division of Griffith in 1977.

His parliamentary service began at the beginning of the Fraser government's second term. If you read his first speech, you see that he took up the argument against the Fraser government and what he described as the coalition's administrative heartlessness. Also battling the corrupt Bjelke-Petersen regime in his home state of Queensland, he described his electorate as 'one of the first to feel the chill of a government which puts social justice at the tail end of its priorities'. He lamented the way in which the coalition fomented social disorder by throwing compassion and decency to the wind in its implementation of welfare policies. One wonders what he might have thought of robodebt.

Appealing to those on the government benches to awaken their social consciences, he identified the challenges faced by young people, families and pensioners alike in his inner suburban electorate, which at the time included a large industrial area. He spoke of facilities being built to assist people with disability and noted the impetus that the Whitlam government had provided for their construction. He noted that the development of rehabilitation centres was not limited to Brisbane, with another facility being built in Townsville. He would continue to look beyond the banks of the Brisbane River throughout his career.

In the late seventies, unemployment was a scourge in the inner suburbs. Griffith contained one-third of all unemployed in Brisbane. Mr Humphreys noted the devastating human effects of this fact, including family breakdown, mental and physical illness, alcoholism and crime. In keeping with his attitude, which saw him maintain throughout his career a perspective of those who suffer disadvantage, he invoked Ben Chifley's words, recalling:

… the duty and responsibility of the community … to see that our less fortunate fellow citizens are protected from those shafts of fate which leave them helpless and without hope.

That was, and remains, at the core of the Labor mission. In fact, just as the Fisher Labor government introduced invalid pensions for incapacitated and blind Australians, the age pension for women at 60 and a means-test-free maternity allowance, 100 years later the Rudd Labor government would raise the age pension and lift a million Australians out of poverty.

Mr Humphreys chronicled the failures of conservative governments and did not limit his withering attack to social and economic policy. He also criticised the inertia of the coalition when it came to building and maintaining infrastructure required adequately to service Far North Queensland and the NT. At the same time as conservatives were squandering the chance to foster opportunity for the people of Brisbane, so too they were turning their backs on the needs of those in remote Australia, including Indigenous Australians, who confronted multiple challenges including impassable roads and inadequate communications infrastructure. Mr Humphreys gave the Fraser government no quarter and continued a tradition of strong and vocal representation by Labor members and senators from Queensland.

However, as I think the parliamentary entry shows, he didn't remain completely loyal to his home state and found a factional home in the New South Wales Right. That's an unusual experience for a Queenslander. It is fair to say that the politics of the FPLP was an eye-opening experience for Mr Humphreys, who recounted his experience of his first caucus and a stoush between Labor senators Doug McClelland and Diamond Jim McClelland, saying, 'God, I thought all these blokes were mates down here.' He was a member of caucus through both the Hayden-Hawke and the Hawke-Keating leadership challenges, backing Hawke against fellow Queensland Hayden and, despite Hawke's best persuasive efforts, eventually Paul Keating the second time round.

Ben Humphreys became Minister for Veterans' Affairs in 1987 in Bob Hawke's government and continued to hold this role until 1993 under Paul Keating. He was the second-longest-serving minister in this portfolio and had great affinity for the work and responsibility of being the representative of veterans. Northern Australia was added to his responsibilities in 1992, and he also entered cabinet. In his final speech in the House of Representatives, he reflected on the fine colleagues he'd been fortunate to serve with, who included Paul Keating, Brian Howe, Kim Beazley and Michael Duffy. He also noted the importance of a highly skilled and professional Public Service. As a minister, he remarked that he was fortunate to have worked with some secretaries of a high standard, and we are reminded today that the work of the APS is so important to the lives of Australians, and the enduring and apolitical nature of the Public Service means that it can play an essential role in maintaining public trust in democratic institutions.

This was especially important in Veterans' Affairs. It was a portfolio that held special significance for Mr Humphreys, given his own military service, and a particular feature of his work was to build acknowledgement and recognition for the efforts of Australians who had served in the Vietnam War. This, as we all know, was a divisive conflict in Australia. Ben Humphreys went about supporting commemorations and initiatives that built respect and admiration for the people who did the duty that was asked of them but who did not receive adequate appreciation and support on their return. He moved a motion in the House in 1987 to acknowledge the national welcome home parade of Vietnam veterans and expressing the appreciation of the House and the Australian people for their individual and collective commitment, effort and sacrifice. He also directed policies to remedy deficiencies in the repatriation system, which included extending full medical and hospital treatment entitlement to World War II returned servicewomen in 1988 and a counselling service for Vietnam veterans. He oversaw the 75th anniversary pilgrimage to Gallipoli in 1990, ensuring World War I veterans and widows, as well as junior legatees, could attend the Anzac Cove dawn service. Ben Humphreys reflected on the personal impact the pilgrimage had, saying he returned a humbler person and even more determined as to what he could do as the responsible minister to support veterans and their families.

Ben Humphreys retired from parliament at the 1996 election. He was a mentor and supporter of the Labor candidate who succeeded him in that seat, Kevin Rudd. In a difficult election for Labor, Mr Rudd failed to win Griffith on the first attempt, but he persevered and returned in 1998 before going on to become a Labor prime minister. Of course, you have to be an MP before you can be a PM, and Kevin described Mr Humphreys as a mentor for how to be a good MP.

Mr Humphreys had the opportunity to represent Australia overseas in 2001. He was appointed as a member of the UN electoral observer mission to Fiji to oversee the elections in 2001. Closer to home, he was a board member of the Stockman's Hall of Fame in Longreach, which wasn't a bad feat for a Labor politician from the inner suburbs of Brisbane, an indication of the esteem in which he was held throughout his home state. Of course, on Australia Day 2000, he was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia. The following year, he was also awarded the Centenary Medal.

Kevin Rudd also described Ben Humphreys as a kind, gentle, good man who would go out of his way to help people in need. As a parliamentarian, from the outset Mr Humphreys forcefully advocated for those less fortunate than himself. Never did he blame those in situations of despair for their predicament. He took up the cause in the same way that so many have done within Labor and sought out ways to improve opportunities in their lives. He was a minister under two great Labor prime ministers. He brought about reforms that benefited veterans and ensured they were appropriately honoured and respected for their service. So too, today, we should acknowledge the service of Ben Humphreys to our parliament and to our country. In closing, I express again Labor's deepest sympathy to his family and friends.

Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Northern Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise on behalf of particularly my Queensland colleagues to express our condolences on the passing of former member for Griffith and Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Northern Australia Benjamin 'Ben' Charles Humphreys. I wish to pay tribute to Ben's significant contribution to our party, our state and the country. I also wish to echo the comments of both Senator Wong and Senator Cormann in extending our sympathies to Ben's family and friends.

I must admit I didn't really know Ben personally, but I do count his daughter Sharon, his son Jason and his granddaughter Claire as friends, and I trust that their pain in losing their father and grandfather is balanced with loving memories and pride in his achievements. Ben was a lifetime member of our party and a Labor man through and through. From starting out as a mechanic on Brisbane's south side to being a minister in the Hawke and Keating governments, Ben's passion for and commitment to social justice remained constant. A member of the great Australian Labor movement, Ben was a member of the Amalgamated Metal Workers and Shipwrights Union as well as branch secretary of the Amalgamated Engineering Union in 1965.

Ben was a strong advocate for workers' rights and, indeed, dedicated much of his first speech to parliament to highlighting the achievements of Labor governments in this space. When you think about it, he was quite ahead of his time in arguing in his first speech for things like age pensions for women at 60, means tested free maternity allowances, vocational training for those with disabilities and the need for government to continue striving to make improvements for workers and those who are disadvantaged within our community.

Ben served the people of Griffith diligently for almost 20 years. Listening to Senator Wong and hearing those statistics about unemployment, I was reflecting on the fact that, in Ben's time as the member for Griffith, that was a very working-class part of Brisbane. I remembered that that area of Brisbane, not far from where I grew up, used to be a very working-class part of Brisbane, populated by wharfies, painters, dockers and all sorts of other characters. Of course, that area, being an inner-city area, has changed markedly in recent years. But in the time that Ben served as the member for Griffith, as I say, it was a very working-class area and particularly in need of a Labor representative of the quality of Ben.

To quote former Prime Minister and member for Griffith Mr Kevin Rudd: 'Ben was a kind, gentle, and good man who saw every person he met as his equal. He would go out of his way to help people in need, making him a much-loved member to his constituents.' He may have been the member for Griffith, but that didn't stop him railing against what he described as the harsh policies of the Bjelke-Petersen state government in Queensland at the time.

As Minister for Veterans' Affairs in the Hawke and Keating governments, Ben fought hard for the rights and recognition of our veterans and, most notably, for the recognition of Vietnam veterans—that they should receive medical treatment and counselling, and have the right to participate in Anzac Day ceremonies. Ben later added to his responsibilities with the portfolio for northern Australia, a privilege which I now share, although he managed to do it in government. He travelled far and wide across Queensland and the Northern Territory—something I've also come to experience—earning him the moniker of 'the bushman's friend' and, later, even having the honour of being appointed to the board of the Stockman's Hall of Fame in Longreach.

In 1996, Ben retired from parliament, but that didn't mean that he slowed down. In his tribute, Kevin Rudd described Ben as a mentor and thanked Ben for all the support he gave during his election campaigns, and to him and his family. And I know that the now member for Griffith, Terri Butler, has also paid tribute to Ben's efforts as a strong community representative. In 2000, on Australia Day, Ben was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia and, the following year, awarded a Centenary Medal for his service to parliament. In 2001 he was appointed to represent Australia as a member of the United Nations Fijian Electoral Observer Mission which oversaw the elections in Fiji that year.

In Ben's final speech to parliament, he used much of it to thank those around him—his family, his staff, his colleagues, the opposition and the Public Service. Today is our chance to remember Ben and to thank him for never giving up on those who were less fortunate, on the rights of working people and our veterans, and on social justice more broadly. The labour movement, the Labor Party, Queensland and indeed the country are better for the service of Ben Humphreys. He will be missed.

Question agreed to, honourable senators standing in their places.