Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

It gives me great pleasure, despite the sadness of the occasion, to rise to speak in tribute to Clyde Holding, a colleague and a friend, and to follow his successor in the seat of Melbourne Ports who has just spoken so eloquently about Clyde's contribution. I want to do something of that, too, and to acknowledge at the outset that Clyde made a great contribution to this country in the world of politics.

He was the member for Richmond from '62 to '77 and member for Melbourne Ports from '77 to '98, so that is a long stint in a representative collection of parliaments. He was the leader of the Labor Party in Victoria from '67 to '77, and he was also, as has been noted, the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs. But some of the issues I want to touch on today go to those areas that he always also had ministerial responsibility for that overlap with some of my responsibilities—those of local government, the arts and the territories. But he was Minister for Aboriginal Affairs from '83 to '87 and subsequently minister for local government and then Minister for the Arts and Territories.

I first became aware of Clyde Holding and his passion for social justice and for taking action in terms of causes and seeking to change things around the demonstrations associated with the hanging of Ronald Ryan, the last man hanged in Victoria. Clyde was leader of the Labor Party at the time. He was passionately against capital punishment, and there were many demonstrations around those issues. In one, which was referred to in a humorous way yesterday by another former colleague, Gareth Evans, Clyde actually got himself arrested. But I first really met Clyde during 1970, and that, again, was associated with other causes for social change driven by activism, and they were the Vietnam War moratoriums. In many ways, these were the first awakening for me of the importance of activism and determination in fighting for change. Clyde was up there at the front of the marchers with Jim Cairns and others. I was a university student in the day, but actively involved, and I got to know Clyde from that day onwards.

It was, of course, a different circumstance, not long after that, where the party, led by people, including Clyde Holding, understood the need for fundamental reform in the Victorian branch of the Labor Party. This came about on the back of the bandwagon of Gough Whitlam's rise to popularity and support within the community, and the winning of the Geelong by-election in '67 and the Bendigo by-election in '68. But what we did not do was to win the swing to Labor election in '69 and, fundamentally, what dragged us back was our failure in Victoria. In many ways, our problem as a Labor Party in winning support translated to both the federal and state level: our disasters at the state level when Clyde Holding, who was a supporter of support for schools, not just state schools—this was the state aid debate—had his position changed by the then party secretary, Bill Hartley. This was a fundamental challenge in terms of the relationships between party administrations and parliamentary representation. Clyde, as a democrat, was not only furious at the circumstances he was put in around the issue, but also at the circumstances. That, amongst other things—like the loss in 1969—led to federal intervention in the state of Victoria. It did not stop Bill Hartley as party secretary making pronouncements completely contrary to whatever the Labor Party was pursuing at the time. We had many important rallies and mass meetings of party membership, incensed with where the party was going, including at Festival Hall in Victoria. There were some 3,000 people at conferences, talking about the reconstitution of the branch and the way forward.

Clyde was a determined leader in that, and he did it not just because of his anger at the circumstances he found himself in but also because of the realisation that, if Labor was to have a chance, it needed to reform itself. That said a lot about his determination to pursue issues that were unpopular. Clyde did not make many friends within the Victorian branch of the Labor Party in the day, backing Whitlam on the one hand and ousting the state secretary on the other, but he was prepared to do it because he understood it was the right thing to do.

I also note that that really was the turning point for Labor in Victoria, both federally and at the state level. Not only did it pave the way for John Cain's victory in 1982—and Labor has dominated government in Victoria since that time, something that eluded Clyde as opposition leader; he could not take the party to victory for a whole lot of internal reasons—but it also laid the foundations for what was the jewel in the Liberal crown, Victoria, becoming a Labor stronghold at the federal level as well. Not only did the party continue to win in the Victorian parliament; it also provided huge ballast in terms of the numbers that constitute this parliament. At the last election, for example, the strength of Labor's vote in Victoria was instrumental to our winning government.

Since that intervention, there have not been many periods in which, at the federal level, Labor has not held the majority of federal seats in Victoria. I think that attests to the importance of the need for reform and the importance of the party fundamentally understanding its democratic roots and engaging more actively with the broader community.

At the end of 1977, my father resigned from Melbourne Ports, which the current member for Melbourne Ports has referred to. I remember it well because I contested the preselection! I contested it against Clyde. We both came from the same faction. The faction in those days was incapable of making the call because, obviously, we were both excellent candidates! So we went to a rank-and-file ballot, and Clyde won—but he won by one vote.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 12:04 to 12:27

Before the suspension I was talking about the circumstances in which Clyde Holding won the preselection for Melbourne Ports in 1977. Whilst I was disappointed with the result, I was the FEA secretary and it was my duty to run his campaign. We became very close in terms of the local area, because it was the area in which I lived and an area that I knew well, and he represented the area with distinction from 1977 through to 1998. He was an asset to this parliament and I served in the parliament with him when I was elected in 1990 to the seat of Hotham. He was a great orator. He obviously had a store of corporate knowledge around a whole series of issues.

As the current member for Melbourne Ports previously said, Clyde was also instrumental in agitating for and getting the numbers for Bob Hawke to become Labor's leader and go on to victory in 1983. Clyde went into the ministry after that as Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and in that portfolio showed his strong commitment to social conscience and social justice. He sought the portfolio and approached it with intensity. He appointed Charlie Perkins as Secretary of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, and together they did important work, including protecting much of Kakadu as a national park, handing over Uluru to the traditional owners and also, importantly, laying the foundations for land rights and the Mabo judgment. He also oversaw the importance and significance of the repatriation of Indigenous remains from overseas museums.

Clyde was also Minister for the Arts and had a number of major achievements in this field. Yesterday I had the honour to attend his memorial service, along with the member for Melbourne Ports, the Prime Minister and a number of former and present colleagues. We held it in the National Gallery of Victoria, in the Great Hall under the Leonard French ceiling. It was an appropriate circumstance to farewell and recognise his important contribution. He was Minister for the Arts and Territories from 1989 to 90 and he fought for the national cultural institutions at a time in which the arts were under severe pressure for cutbacks. He argued the value of the arts, particularly the national collecting institutions, and he was also instrumental in seeing the National Film and Sound Archive established on a much sounder footing. I will be doing a function in relation to that this afternoon, Sounds of Australia, but Clyde was important in securing their base, because he understood the importance of recording in film and audio the great works of this nation.

He was also a champion of the then new Australian Film Finance Corporation, which invested in a new wave of production of major film and TV projects, and he was active in supporting leadership change for our national institutions, including the appointment of Betty Churcher at the National Gallery of Australia. He was also a champion of Arthur Boyd's gift of his property on the Shoalhaven, the Bundanon Trust, to the Australian people. He helped Arthur Boyd and his wife approach the government in 1992 and supported the proposal with cabinet ministers. He was one of the founding members of that Bundanon Trust in 1993. In terms of cross-fertilisation—joining the dots, so to speak, given the nature of Indigenous art—he was also really important in understanding the significance of Indigenous art in the power of its message and its creativity. When he was Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, he was instrumental in making the country more aware of the significance and power of this art form.

It is a sad occasion when we speak on this motion, but it is a rich and proud history and a great contribution that Clyde Holding made. I will just conclude by saying he was a person of courage, a person of compassion and certainly a person of determination. He made a massive contribution not just to the life of the Labor Party but also to the betterment of the nation. My condolences again are expressed to Judy, his wife; his former wife, Margaret; and their children, Peter, Danny, Jenny and Isabella.

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