Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to make some very brief remarks in commemoration of an extraordinary life and a life of extraordinary service. Leonard Gordon Darling was a Companion of the Order of Australia and lived a life that traversed Australia's 20th century and, in many ways, prefaced our entry into the 21st century. His contributions predominantly were to industry, but I think it is also important to acknowledge that his was a life of service much more broadly. That includes his service to his country in the Second World War, but the matter I would like to touch on very briefly is his service to the arts, in particular the visual arts.

Having retired from an extraordinary career with 'The Big Australian', including shaping that company to a very great extent, he turned his attention to service to the broader community as the first chair of the National Gallery of Australia, as a philanthropist and, most importantly for me, as the driving force behind the establishment of the National Portrait Gallery, an extraordinary feature of our cultural patrimony and something that I think has played a critical role in telling Australia's story to Australians through images of Australians. Vale, Leonard Gordon Darling.

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