Andrew McLachlan (SA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is with deep regret that I inform the Senate of the death on 16 March 2023 of Ronald Charles Elstob, a senator for the state of South Australia from 1978 to 1987.

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

That the Senate records its sorrow at the death, on 16 March 2023, of Mr Ronald Charles Elstob, former senator for South Australia, places on record its gratitude of his service to the Parliament and the nation and tenders its sympathy to his family in their bereavement.

I rise on behalf of the government to express our condolences following the passing of former Australian Labor Party senator—from my home state of South Australia—Ronald Charles Elstob at the age of 98. I convey, at the outset, the Albanese Labor government's condolences to his family and his friends. I especially extend our sympathies to his partner, Fay; his daughters, Wendy and Christine; his three grandchildren; and his three great-grandchildren.

I'm grateful to Wendy for sharing memories of her father prior to this motion being moved so that we could incorporate these into my remarks and the recollections of the very political family environment in which he grew up. I understand Wendy and Christine are listening to us as we remember their father today. I also know they are rightly very proud of their father and his place in this Senate and in Australian politics.

Politics was central to the life of Ron Elstob. It consumed him, and in turn he involved everyone around him, regardless of whether they shared his ideological position. Ron Elstob was Labor through and through, shaped by experiences of poverty, employment insecurity and war, both learned and personal. He became South Australian by choice, through marriage. He embraced politics on the waterfront and in the suburbs. After active involvement in the trade union movement and as a local party organiser, he was convinced to run for the Senate, and he embraced the role and the opportunity to advance policies to the benefit of veterans and in the area of social welfare.

But I start first with his early life. Ron Elstob was born in Toowoomba in Queensland in 1924, and his early years were spent on his family's farming property handling cattle and other stock. He later said the experience was that of a child doing a man's job. The effects of the Depression in the 1930s became one of the formational experiences of his early life. In his early teenage years, his family moved to Sydney and became part-managers of the Marlborough Hotel in Newtown, an establishment that still exists in the electorate of the member for Sydney. This exposed him to a completely different environment from that of his childhood. As he helped in the business after school, as he was expected to do, he heard patrons talk about their experiences at work and, too often, out of work. Getting to understand the lives of these men and women galvanised a determination to fight for social justice, a passion that would remain for the rest of his life. He gave expression to this resolve by joining the Australian Labor Party and soon found himself supporting the member for East Sydney, the irrepressible Eddie Ward.

The outbreak of World War II also had a profound impact on his life and became a bitter memory. Too young to enlist in the regular Army in 1942, he instead joined the US Army Small Ships Section. A year into his service, Ron Elstob was aboard a ship struck by a Japanese fighter, and he was subsequently deployed as a coastwatcher. It was an unenviable task as he and his four comrades faced constant jeopardy, taking drastic and violent actions to stay alive. Only two of the group remained when his mission concluded. He lost an eye and was shot in the ankle. Years later, as a senator, he convinced the Minister for Veterans' Affairs, another South Australian, Tony Messner, to extend the service pension to merchant seafarers. This was a particular source of personal pride for him.

Following the war, Ron Elstob took up work selling industrial equipment, including forklifts and cranes, across the country. On a trip to Adelaide, he met Angela, who became his wife—and Adelaide his home. They were married until Angela's passing in 2008. He found work on the waterfront as a crane driver, and he joined the Waterside Workers' Federation of Australia, a forerunner of the famous MUA, the Maritime Union of Australia. He witnessed appalling accidents in the workplace, which resulted in injury or even death, and the distress this caused him he channelled into advocacy for improvements to health and safety. Alongside his union involvement, and with Angela, he became a key organiser in the Hindmarsh Federal Electorate Council, where he became close to power broker and Whitlam government minister Clyde Cameron. He helped Clyde Cameron maintain his grip on the party in South Australia with his well-regarded organisational skills. He used these to advance the cause of Labor within the state, most notably to achieve the election of Don Dunstan as Premier against several severely malapportioned electoral boundaries. It was Don Dunstan who would ultimately convince Ron Elstob to stand for preselection, and in 1977—the year I arrived in this country—he was elected to the Senate for the first time, from second place on the Australian Labor Party ticket. He would be re-elected in 1983, this time from first place.

He made Senate contributions on a wide range of issues. The two subjects in which he took a particular interest were defence procurement and social welfare, and the former was a vital part of his role as a seven-year member of the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence. It complimented his previous advocacy for a strong Australian shipbuilding industry as necessary for national defence—something this government and this Prime Minister advocate and have taken forward today. He was also a member of the Senate Standing Committee on Social Welfare for the majority of his parliamentary service and the majority of its existence, including as chair from 1983 to 1987. This committee conducted landmark inquiries into drug and alcohol issues and the administration of the government's social services program. It also inquired into social matters, including a national superannuation scheme, children and institutional care, homeless youth, and income support for the retired and aged. Looking at that list, it was a committee ahead of its time. This work gave a voice to some of society's most vulnerable and sought to fund policy solutions that might enable such people to lead better lives.

Ron Elstob was ineligible to seek re-election at the 1987 simultaneous dissolution as a result of the age limit the South Australian branch of the Australian Labor Party placed on candidates at that time. During retirement, he lived on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. He always maintained his optimism and lived by his mantra—every day is a good day; some days are just better than others. We can be grateful for the service of Ron Elstob in this Senate. He represents a generation that gave so much to this country, a generation that knew the Depression and a generation that served in World War II. Once again, on behalf of his family, I express condolences following his passing to his friends and family, especially to Faye, Wendy and Christine, his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

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

I rise to associate the opposition with the remarks of Senator Wong in relation to the motion marking and honouring the life of Ronald Charles Elstob. On 29 November 1924, in Toowoomba, Rob Elstob was born, son of Charles and Ann. With his two sisters, Ron attended Toowoomba East State School before the family moved to Sydney when Ron was 14. As Senator Wong indicated, Ron's parents became part managers of the Marlborough Hotel in Newtown. After completing his education, Ron helped behind the bar and in the cellar. This was where he gained his education in many ways. Also, at this time, Ron joined the east Sydney branch of the Labor Party.

In 1942, Ron joined the United States Army Small Ships Section. He had been too young to join the Australian Imperial Force at the outbreak of the war. The US Army Small Ships Section instead provided a collection of trawlers, sailing craft and freight vessels crewed by men and boys considered too young or too old for the regular forces. In shallow vessels, they were able to land on small beaches, carrying ammunition and supplies, in this case for the New Guinea campaign. It was tough and dangerous work, carried out under the cover of darkness and often in rough weather. Ron and his company continued this work for a year before their ship was sunk by a Japanese Zero fighter. They were then dropped onto an uninhabited island to be coast watchers reporting on the movements of enemy aircraft by radio. Sadly, though, Ron was one of only two in his company to survive. He himself, as Senator Wong acknowledged, was shot in the ankle and lost an eye during the war.

Recounting his wartime experiences, he made clear he believed the allies knew of Japanese movements long before the war ended. He believed many more lives could have been saved. He had strong views in this regard. His reactions and approach are a reminder of the different emotions and reactions that many returning service people have to the traumas and challenges of war. Ron, like some, chose never to join his local RSL or march in Anzac Day parades, but, as Senator Wong acknowledged, he worked hard in different ways to uphold the rights of those who had served in all forms, including those serving in a non-military capacity.

Post war, Ron worked selling industrial equipment, travelling much of Australia. It was through this that, in 1949, he settled in Allenby Gardens in Adelaide, having met and married South Australian Angela Smerlac after first meeting her during one of his work trips. Ron found work as a crane driver and joined the Waterside Workers' Federation and the Port Adelaide Labor branch, later joining the subbranch in Hindmarsh, as Senator Wong has touched on. Ronald still believed he'd left his run for politics too late, but I understand it was South Australian Premier Don Dunstan who helped convince Ron to run for the Senate, and in 1977 he was elected.

Ron served with great enthusiasm as a senator. His interests spanned across industry, transport, social welfare, defence procurement and foreign affairs. As well as making time for his constituents, Ron also acknowledged that he had a vital interest in his committee work. Notably, Ron was a member of the foreign affairs and defence committee for nearly seven years. He sat on the publications committee for eight years, four as chair, and for eight years on the social welfare committee, of which, again, he was chair for four years.

In Ron's early years in the parliament he had a quick but perhaps unwelcome claim to fame. As the National Times described it in 1984, he made 'a notable oratorical flourish that the Parliament House tucker was "fit to kill a brown dog"'. Ron probably wouldn't have predicted that such remarks would result in the then Parliament House chef in the old building announcing his resignation and the building's catering staff staging a 24-hour strike.

Indeed, different times, Senator Wong. The report suggests that the matter was perhaps settled in good humour, with Ron giving an apology in the Senate and the Parliament House chef constructing a metre-high sculpture made entirely of butter and margarine in his honour.

More seriously, Ron's committee work saw him navigate inquiries into income support for the retired and elderly as well as into institutional care for children and youth. His time as chair of the publications committee also led him to oversee the production of the fourth edition of the Commonwealth Style Manual, which I gather was jokingly referred to as 'an eagerly awaited tome'. He did the hard yards in many different ways that are necessary for the operation of this place, and effectively so.

But Ron also took strong and principled approaches. In 1986 Ron was one of three Labor member of the foreign affairs and defence committee to call for the then Hawke government to take a stronger stance in response to sanctions imposed by Indonesia against Australia at the time as a result of Australian media reports on President Suharto. Ron's stance was informed in part by a delegation visit he made with the committee to Papua New Guinea, where he saw firsthand refugee camps and people fleeing Indonesia. He was in agreement with those recommending that Australia take some of those refugees.

A double dissolution election was called in 1987, as Senator Wong said, and, due to the South Australian Labor Party's then age rule, Ron did not recontest, after serving for nine years in the Senate. At the age of 63 Ron retired to Mountain Creek in Queensland but continued to be an active member of the Labor Party. Reflecting on his time in parliament and his engagement in the Labor Party and politics more broadly, Ron was quoted as saying: 'If you can't count numbers in politics, don't go into it. It doesn't matter whether you've got the best idea in the world, unless you can count on the numbers to support that. You've got to be able to count and count accurately.' In this, as in life, Ron Elstob showed the pragmatism and practicality that appear to have been a hallmark of his life and contributions in politics, in parliament, in the Labor Party and more broadly. We acknowledge and thank Ronald Charles Elstob for his service to our parliament, and we pay respects and send condolences to his family and loved ones.

Question agreed to, honourable senators joining in a moment of silence.