Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to pay tribute to the late the Honourable Sir John Carrick AC KCMG. I never met Sir John Carrick and I did not know him personally. Nonetheless, I know him by his reputation for his contribution to our great party, the Liberal Party, the movement and the cause of liberalism in Australia and also his service to our great nation. Sir John Carrick was elected to the Senate in 1970 and served until his retirement in 1987. He had a long and illustrious political career, including rising to the level of Minister for Housing and Construction, Minister for Urban and Regional Development, Minister for Education and the Minister assisting the Prime Minister on Federal Affairs, National Development and Energy.

The interest I have in Sir John Carrick is not just about his roles and professional capacity, but the values and philosophy that sit at the heart of his liberalism. Liberalism is the greatest political philosophy the world has ever known. It has endured over every type of 'ism' and extremism that has ever reared its head in competition. Over time, through the process of understanding of the human condition and our aspiration, it has endured against incredible difficulties at times. Sir John Carrick represented the best of that tradition. He understood that the foundations of liberalism were to aspire to a society where people are free to choose their life and their circumstances, free to be able to change their circumstances if they found them undesirable, and free to live their lives as they want, understanding not just the primacy of the rights of the individual but, importantly, the foundational building block of our country, which is the family, towards community and, ultimately, nationhood.

Critically, Sir John Carrick understood that the foundation of liberalism was also anchored in a sense of justice—not just respect towards the individual but our collective bond and sharing responsibility to each other. He recognised on so many occasions the importance of a sense of national unity, particularly around rejecting a lot of sectarian elements that existed within Australian society at the time. There was no better demonstration of that than his advocacy for public funding for faith based schools, particularly the Catholic system. He recognised that, no matter who you are, if you want to live an enlivened life of freedom and choice, you have to have choice about where you go to school and, equally, where you seek to have your children go to school.

In his first speech, Sir John Carrick made remarks along these lines: 'I do not stand for any section of the community. The people I represent are not represented by the size of their pay packets, by colour or shirt collar, or by the nature of their religious devotion. Divisiveness is the evil of politics, and I hope to do something to reduce it.' Throughout his political career, Sir John Carrick did just that—by focusing on that sense of unity and purpose, national identity and freedom of choice. He was a man of his times. When I read his history and some of his contributions, I did raise my eyebrows. In particular, there was his advocacy for the virtues of the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission. But, as I said, he was a man of his times.

Critically, though, he was a man who understood that the heart of any successful political career and the heart of the pursuit of what the Liberal Party should stand for was anchored in values and philosophy. He wrote extensively about this, particularly for the public, in various contributions. It struck me in David Clune's review of a more recent book titled Carrick: Principles, Politics and Polity. Clune wrote of Carrick that 'his definition of Liberal philosophy placed much emphasis on "the potential of the individual"' but it 'rejected both laissez-faire and collectivism as threats to "the development of individual dignity"'. He understood that the Liberal Party must be a party for every Australian.

More than anything else, when you read through his history and his contribution to public life, Carrick represented the foundations of great Liberal philosophy and then sought to put it into practice. He understood that the foundation of liberalism is a cultural and institutional conservatism. In fact, I found an article from 1973 where he was arguing that, in the choice of a new national anthem, God Save the Queen should at least be part of the selection choices. He understood the power of symbols and of the institutions that we have inherited and the importance of their roles continuing on into the future.

But, critically, he also understood the power of economic and social liberalism to chart a course for the future of the country. He understood that the future of this country was not bound solely by its past but that there are alternative choices about whether we seek to be a liberal democracy or a social democracy and that the Liberal Party and its values are enlivened best when we extol the virtues of liberalism and a forward-looking vision for our country. To quote his first speech again in my closing remarks:

I have one great hope. I believe that in the vision of the future to meet the challenges of the future, the great solutions and the great motivations not being created by economic instruments will be created by a new philosophy of education. … in rethinking our education research, in studying as our main subject not material science but man, we will come some way towards the solutions. It is high time man was less preoccupied with material science and more preoccupied with the only study that matters—man.

That is to say that we should always have a vision of how we can shape the future. May he rest in peace.

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