Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

On indulgence, I wish to inform the House that our nation has lost a great champion of civil rights with the passing of Faith Bandler AC on 13 February. Faith Bandler spent her long and illustrious life pointing the way to a better and fairer Australia. She once said that, 'Human rights for those who have been deprived of them is what my life has been all about.'

She experienced in her early days the worst excesses of the White Australia era. Her father, Peter Mussing, was born on a small island in Vanuatu but at just 13 years of age was brought to Australia and put to work in the cane fields of North Queensland. He got away eventually, and Faith was born in Tumbulgum in northern New South Wales. As a young woman, she moved to Sydney. During the Second World War she joined the Women's Land Army. It was at a concert in the town hall that she met her future husband, Hans Bandler, a Jewish refugee engineer, who shared not only her love of classical music but also her politics. Faith credited Hans with being her greatest supporter of her pursuit of civil rights. She said that she simply could not have done it without him.

As her father's story and as her own experiences of discrimination and of being paid less than her white colleagues taught her, she lived a life arguing for the rights of Indigenous Australians. She helped form the Aboriginal-Australian Fellowship, she served as General Secretary of the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders and she formed the national council of islanders. She received the Human Rights Medal and was appointed a member of the Order of Australia in 1984 and a Companion of the Order of Australia in 2009. She received honorary degrees and she was named one of the 100 inaugural Australian Living National Treasures by the National Trust. But her crowning achievement was the 1967 referendum.

Faith spoke at literally hundreds and hundreds of meetings right around our country and collected thousands of signatures on petitions. She helped to inspire the highest yes vote ever recorded in a federal referendum. You might remember, Madam Speaker, that over 90 per cent of Australian voters voted yes to change. Many of Faith's petitions were presented to this House. They were often the first business of the House at the start of the parliamentary day. Sir Robert Menzies once said to Faith that her petitions had joined the prayers of the House as regular features of the day. In fact, he presented one of those petitions, and I understand this was the first time a Prime Minister had ever presented a petition to the parliament.

She was modest about her achievements, but she did accept a high profile because of the doors it opened to her to promote the message that she so believed in. I do offer the sincere condolences of the parliament to Faith's daughter, Lilon, who carries on her mother's legacy through her work on Indigenous health education at the University of Sydney. I say to Lilon: we sympathise with you and with your extended family. Our nation's loss is great; your loss is greater. She was a great Australian, who should long be remembered by our country and by this parliament.

See this speech in context