Steve Hutchins (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise in the adjournment this evening to advise the Senate of the passing last Thursday morning of very good friend to me and many in the labour movement, a man called John Russell. I had known John Russell since I was about 12 years old. He was a resident of Cronulla. He was educated at Cronulla—in fact, at the same school I was, De La Salle Cronulla. He went to the University of Sydney. He was an ABC journalist with Bob Carr. He was an industrial officer with the Storemen and Packers Union and in the Public Service Association, and he ended up being an officer with the Department of Premier and Cabinet in New South Wales. John had a significant impact on my ideas and my life. John introduced me and others into a whole new world of literature, whether fiction or history, that previously we may not have had access to or been opened up to.

John’s father, Frank, was a returned serviceman. He was a councillor on the Sutherland Shire Council. John’s father was probably a member of the industrial groups in the 1950s. I am not sure if he was a member of the Movement or not, but a number of people were members of both, not that they admitted to it—just like a number of people were members of the ALP and members of other organisations and never admitted to it. I never knew his father, but I knew his mother, Ruby, and his aunty, Vera. Many of us who lived and grew up in Cronulla who became active in the Labor Party in that area would spend many occasions in McAlister Avenue, Cronulla, having a cup of tea at the Russell household, where we would discuss politics, films, books and whatever else. We would get the ideas that helped many of us—and I will name a number of them shortly—to proceed within the labour movement.

Cronulla was the original home of Gough Whitlam. Gough was a member of the Cronulla branch before a redistribution got Gough to move further west to make sure, inevitably, that he had a safer seat. I remember one occasion when, at the Cronulla picture show, we celebrated early in 1972 Gough’s 20 years in parliament. Gough was on the stage with a cake. Mrs Russell took a knife to go and cut the cake. But no-one told the police and Mrs Russell got bundled off until we could assure them that Mrs Russell was not going to take the knife to Gough Whitlam.

That was also in the period when there used to be political rallies. We used to go along and disrupt the ones held by the coalition—I know that you might find that unusual. I will never forget one that we went to at Miranda Fair. Billy Snedden was addressing the crowd. That was in the marginal seat of Cook, which we held from 1972 to 1975. We were interjecting on Mr Snedden and a Liberal shouted out to us, ‘You Labor blokes don’t know nothing.’ John corrected him in a very loud voice, saying ‘No, we don’t know anything.’ That put him down, and be assured that John got a bit of a laugh out of that.

John, as I said, introduced me and others—such as Michael Lee, the former communications minister; John Della Bosca, the current Leader of the Government in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly; and many others—into politics. One of my earliest recollections of John taking a number of us under his wing was when he used to take us to meetings of the Association for Cultural Freedom in Sydney, where we got to meet Dr Frank Knopfelmacher and Professor Donald Horne and talk about the evils of the empire in Eastern Europe and what the communist states were doing.

At the same time as John mixed with Knopfelmacher and Donald Horne, he also used to mix quite freely with Bobby Gould, whom a number of us know—I know that Senator Faulkner knows him quite well, as I do—and who runs the Third World Bookshop in Sydney. Through John, we got to meet George Petersen, who was the left member for Illawarra—he got expelled from the Labor Party for crossing the floor on some issue—and his wife, Mairi. John introduced us to a number of other left-wingers, such as Senator Faulkner and Rodney Cavalier—who became a minister in the Wran government—and to many other leading left and right figures who people may be well aware of.

He was a significant figure within the labour movement, as I said. He opened our eyes to various aspects of the policies and machinery of the ALP. John was a member of the executive of the New South Wales branch and was very close to people like John Ducker and Graham Richardson. He was very close to other figures, such as Michael Addison, who ran in Cook in 1983 and Michael Egan at times—and at other times not. As I said, Senator Faulkner and I would always take the opportunity to have a cup of tea and a discussion at McAlister Avenue.

On his retirement from the premier’s department, John was encouraged by Senator Faulkner to think about becoming active in the Fabian Society in New South Wales. At some point John was the treasurer and served on the executive, which he found very stimulating because it was his forte. He would review magazines and books. He was also a commentator on the ABC not only on historical or literature works but also on religion. His last book review, published in the January edition of Quadrant, was a review of The Berlin Wall by Frederick Taylor.

John Russell had many friends outside of that little clique of Labor politicians, some of whom I have already acknowledged, including Michael Addison, a chap called Michael Davis, and Stephen Crittenden, a former Radio National figure. Another good friend Michael Costello has also been deeply upset at John’s sudden passing. In the brief time available I have tried to outline how John was a very significant figure in the Labor movement who has left his mark indelibly etched on many of us.

John was very active in Cronulla. Despite the fact that his Labor credentials were thick, I understand last Friday in the New South Wales state parliament Malcolm Kerr, the member for Cronulla, made a speech detailing the passing of John and his contribution to politics, not just Labor, and also his contribution to the Sutherland shire. There are many people in the Sutherland shire who knew John and who like me were opponents, such as former senator Arthur Gietzelt, whom I know Senator Faulkner has advised of the passing of John Russell. His friends will miss him dearly. His partner Rune will undoubtedly miss him more than any of us will. I commend his soul to God and thank the Senate.