Llew O'Brien (Wide Bay, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's an honour to rise and speak to this motion put forward by the member for Berowra, and I acknowledge the fine contributions before me. In July this year, Australia lost a great statesman with the passing of John Owen Stone OAM. Born in regional Western Australia in 1929, John was the oldest son of a farmer and a schoolteacher, and his early life on the farm during the Great Depression taught him the value of hard work and the importance of good education. John's early schooling was in a small, one-teacher school and then via correspondence, but his intelligence and drive to succeed did not go unnoticed. At the age of 12, his life changed when he earned one of 50 scholarships, which enabled him to attend any state Western Australian high school of his choice. This was just the first of John's many outstanding academic and career achievements.

John moved to Perth with his mother and brother and went to the Perth Modern School, where he was a member of the school's first XI cricket team, captained the hockey team and was a member of the state representative hockey team that won the 1948 and 1949 national championships. Although he loved history and languages, John chose to study science and mathematics, achieving high marks and seven distinctions—the maximum number possible—in his leaving certificate examination. After high school, John studied at the University of Western Australia, majoring in mathematical physics and serving as president of the students' association before graduating in 1950 with first-class honours.

John continued to excel, winning one of Western Australia's select exhibition prizes, the physics and mathematics exhibition, and became the 1951 Rhodes Scholar for Western Australia. He studied economics at Oxford, winning the James Webb Medley Scholarship in economics, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in politics, philosophy and economics. In 1954 John went to work at the Australian Treasury and married a biochemical researcher, Nancy Hardwick. John and Nancy had five children.

John held several pivotal Treasury roles before becoming Secretary of the Australian Treasury in 1979 under the Fraser government, a position he held until his departure in 1984. After Treasury, John held a number of positions, including as: professor in the Centre of Policy Studies at Monash University; senior fellowship at the Institute of Public Affairs; national paper columnist; public speaker; and founding member of the Council for the National Interest and of the HR Nicholls Society. In 1987 John was elected as a senator for Queensland and became Leader of the National Party in the Senate and shadow minister for finance before resigning from the Senate in 1990 to run for the House of Representatives.

John's campaign for the House of Representatives was unsuccessful; however, he continued to contribute to the nation, becoming a member of the committee to inquire into the efficiency and effectiveness of the Australian Defence Force in 1996 and 1997. He founded the Samuel Griffiths Society and contributed to newspapers and periodicals like the Quadrant and the National Observer. He held firm opinions about government, having too much power in society, about the public service becoming too politicised to give independent advice, and about trade unions having too much power over government. But he felt these concerns could be exposed and combatted by vigorous debate, which he saw as the lifeblood of democracy.

In 2022 John's contribution to the parliament and public administration were recognised when he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia, and he has been described as a man of total integrity and considerable wit and mastery of the language. He made an enormous contribution to our nation. John passed away in July at the age of 96. May he rest in peace.

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