Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the sad passing and also the very significant life contributions of a great Australian, Sir David Smith. Sir David died in August at the age of 89. For many, both here in Australia and around the world, he will most often be remembered as the man on the steps at Old Parliament House on Remembrance Day in 1975. He was there in his role as the Official Secretary to the Governor-General.

From that occasion, many people's image of the Whitlam dismissal is now part of the Australian folklore. Sir David read the Governor-General's proclamation dissolving parliament. He was immediately followed by Gough Whitlam, who delivered the famous line:

Well may we say, 'God save the Queen', because nothing will save the Governor-General.

While the events of 1975 would immortalise Malcolm Fraser, Sir John Kerr and Gough Whitlam—each in very different ways—Sir David Smith would go on to outlast them all.

He was born in Melbourne in 1933, and educated at Princes Hill State School and Scotch College. He later attended Melbourne university and the Australian National University. He began his career as a public servant in 1953, becoming private secretary to the Minister for Interior and Works in 1958, and remaining until 1963. Sir David was then appointed secretary to the Federal Executive Council and, subsequently, secretary to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, serving between 1971 and 1973. It was in this year that he was made official secretary to the then Governor-General, his Excellency Sir Paul Hasluck, who hailed from my home state of Western Australia. What is remarkable is that Sir David continued in the role until 1990. In that time he served five governors-general of Australia, being Sir Paul Hasluck, Sir John Kerr, Sir Zelman Cowan, Sir Ninian Stephen and Bill Hayden. His was an outstanding record, and one of consummate discrete and unfailing service.

Sir David went on living here in Canberra, where, in a voluntary capacity, he often led guided tours at Old Parliament House. This symbolised his deep appreciation of and respect for Australia's institutions. He was later appointed a visiting fellow in the Faculty of Law at the Australian National University for 1998 and 1999, and was a member of the 1998 Constitutional Convention. An avowed monarchist and constitutionalist, Sir David never entertained any doubt about the actions taken in 1975. Significantly, he also refused to be defined by those events, despite the personal abuse he sometimes endured following them. According to the ABC, in his diary entry regarding the dismissal it simply read, 'Phew, what a day.'

But he never wavered from his beliefs. He argued the Governor-General was Australia's de facto head of state and was not required to involve the Queen in his decisions but merely inform her. This view would be vindicated. The smoking gun long sought by republicans, that of the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, and the late Queen allegedly colluding to sack Gough Whitlam, failed to materialise when the National Archives handed over correspondence between them. Sir David became a leading voice for the constitutional monarchist cause during the republic debates of the 1990s. Many of his intellectual arguments for monarchy have still not received any serious response from those that advocate a republic.

I was greatly honoured to have attended the memorial service for Sir David and all that he represented last month. There were many other great Australians who attended, among them former Prime Minister John Howard. 'Simple and profound' is a fitting tribute to someone who meant a great deal to me personally and to the causes I hold dearly. Sir David is survived by Lady Smith and their three sons, Richard, Michael and Phillip, to whom I again pay my respects and offer my sympathy on the passing of a remarkably great man, a man whose contributions will last for a very long time yet.