Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was 14 when Les Johnson resigned as the member for Hughes to take up the post of Australian High Commissioner to New Zealand. Until that time in late 1983, Les had been my local member. Of course, I knew him because I was already interested and active in the Labor Party at that time. But my first knowledge and experience of Les was at the many school events that he had attended throughout my childhood. He was the very nice man who used to turn up at speech days. I discovered much later that he was also the man that my parents voted for at election times. My family lived in Oyster Bay in the Sutherland shire. Les Johnson and his wife, Peg, and their three children, Grant, Sally—who is sadly now deceased—and Jenny, lived not far away in Jannali. Grant, Sally and Jenny attended the same high school as I and my brothers did.

Les Johnson saw both the hardest and the best of times in his political career. He was first elected in 1955, the year of the great split in the Labor Party, when the electorate was first hived off from the electorate of Werriwa, represented by Gough Whitlam. Les had been Gough's campaign director when Gough entered parliament in 1952. Les's first stint as member for Hughes from 1955 until 1966 was in the days when the infrastructure crisis was very real. Very few streets in the Sutherland shire were sealed or sewered, and waiting times for telephone connections exceeded two years. These were the issues which Les, as a first-class local member, took up with gusto.

The member for Berowra and I were very honoured to be at Les Johnson's funeral yesterday. We heard very loving tributes from his family and former colleagues about just what a great local member Les Johnson was—out every night of the week, when he was not in Canberra, at branch meetings, at community meetings. He was a patron of 60 organisations, to which he sent a guinea a year as his tribute. He was indeed a very active local member. He was the 'member's member', as I think they described him yesterday.

After 11 years in opposition federally, Les lost his seat in the Vietnam election of 1966, as did many of Labor's best and brightest. Les was a passionate articulator of the horror of the Vietnam War. Les was tough though. He grew up during the Great Depression. He had left school at 14 to help support his family, and it took more than an election defeat to knock him down. After a redistribution, he won Hughes again in the 1969 election with a large swing, so he was part of the Labor caucus that went into that great, historical 1972 'It's time' campaign. He became the Minister for Housing. The Commonwealth-State Housing Agreement he negotiated was one of the early achievements of the Whitlam government and saw a very substantial increase in Commonwealth support for affordable housing. He later took on the public works portfolio, becoming the Minister for Housing and Construction in late 1973.

The portfolio that gave him the most satisfaction, however, was Aboriginal affairs, an area in which he had a long involvement, including the establishment of the Kirinari Hostel for Aboriginal students—which he was largely responsible for establishing, with Hazel Wilson—in the Sutherland shire in the 1960s. He was the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs at the time of Gough Whitlam's historic returning of red soil into the hands of Vincent Lingiari, symbolically handing the Wave Hill station to the Gurindji people. Les, as minister, attended that ceremony, as did a large number of journalists, officials and other dignitaries, so many in fact that two VIP jets were needed to transport them—the Whitlam plane and the Johnson plane. When Les returned to his plane after the ceremony he saw an angry Prime Minister standing on the steps of the prime ministerial plane. 'What is wrong?' Les asked. 'What is wrong?' Whitlam fumed—I will not use the word that Gough used—'Your plane just blew the door off mine,' which it had when its engines had been started. Whitlam, who had an engagement in Western Australia, then commandeered Les Johnson's plane, and Les and his passengers had to cool their heels until a replacement plane arrived from Canberra.

More than 30 years after his retirement, Les is still fondly remembered throughout the Sutherland Shire and the Hughes electorate. During the 1950s and 1960s the personnel and resources Les had as a local member were one electorate secretary, one telephone and one typewriter. That was all Les needed to carve out a reputation that exists to this day of a first-class champion of his constituents. His slogan was 'always available', and, indeed, from the reports yesterday of his work, I think that must have been the case.

He served our party and our country well, over many decades, always firm in his belief in Labor values and the importance of Labor governments to make real change in people's lives. Our thoughts and sympathies are with his wife, Marion, his son, Grant, and his daughter, Jenny, their families, his friends and the many people whose lives he touched.

Philip Ruddock (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to take this opportunity to thank the chamber for allowing us today to be able to continue this condolence motion, because when it was being debated yesterday his state funeral was being held and I had the honour to represent the Prime Minister of Australia at that service. But, for me, I think it was particularly important that I do so, having served with him in the parliament—in my case, from 1973, when I was first elected, until 1983, when he left the parliament and later became the High Commissioner to New Zealand. So I speak of somebody I know.

I had the privilege of seeing him on another sad occasion: the death of Margaret Whitlam. I remember well the conversations I was having with Les in the New South Wales library, after the service, when we were able to reflect on some of our times together. I will not regale all of the activities I know him to have been involved in, save to say that he was an extraordinarily effective federal member for Hughes. When you heard about the way in which he linked with that electorate, I think he would be a very important role model for so many members of parliament today to examine and see what you need to do if you want a long career in this place.

I do know the Deputy Leader of the Opposition was right when she observed that yesterday there was a lot of reflection on the way in which Les Johnson undertook his activities in the seat of Hughes. It is not the part of Sydney I am from. I often talk of Sydney as being a city of tribes, and those from the shire are often seen to be very different! I represent the hill tribes of Sydney—I tell people that frequently! But I am familiar with those southern areas of Sydney. For him to be able to build the linkages he did I think demonstrates the extraordinary individual he was, because he covered the field. He was seen to represent the whole of the community in a very positive way. But I was particularly gratified that he had this continuing interest in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs. It is reflected in some other roles he undertook that I too have filled at one time or another. He was a member of the council of the then Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, he was the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and he had an engagement in relation to our First Australians that predated his election to parliament. That has been brought out in the eulogies that have been written.

For my own part, I very fondly remember that, when I came into parliament after a by-election, I was approached by a whip who said to me, 'You will have to get on a parliamentary committee.' I said, 'That is very interesting—what committee do you recommend?' He said, 'We will wait until we find a vacancy.' The first vacancy was on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs committee. I can remember, when we were doing an inquiry in relation to Yirrkala, walking around with the late Professor Stanner and becoming familiar with issues I knew very little about. I had had some engagement with Indigenous people at the University of Sydney, including with people like Charlie Perkins, but I really did not know a great deal. For me it was an education.

There was a change of government in 1975. Billy Wentworth came to me and said, 'I think you had better be the chairman of the Aboriginal Affairs committee—I am going to propose you.' I was appointed chairman of a committee that had three former ministers for Aboriginal affairs on it: Billy Wentworth, Gordon Bryant and Les Johnson. So my early induction around the Northern Territory and Western Australia was kept in line by three former ministers for Aboriginal affairs.

Honourable Member:

An honourable member interjecting—

Philip Ruddock (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No, not a liability—I was very privileged. I wanted to make that known because it added, as everybody in this place knows, something special to the relationship.

I could go on and talk about his many roles, but I will not. I will mention a couple of matters that I do not think have been focused on by other contributors. One was his leadership in the movement to get 18-year-olds the vote—something that the Labor Party did in the early 1970s. I think that was of some note. I also observe that he was, for a time, a whip. I think, for the sake of those who take an interest in these matters, that it was quite interesting that he was reported to have said that he did not like the title. He wanted something with an Australian flair. He said that the title of 'whip' dated back to the 18th century fox hunt, referring to the whipper-in of those who job it was to ensure the hounds did not stray far from the pack. He thought that terms like 'boundary rider' or 'jackaroo' might be more appropriate. He was an interesting man and I thought, given that I had that role myself for a small amount of time, that those comments were particularly perspicacious.

There were two matters that those who contributed to his service yesterday wanted noted about his service to the nation and this parliament. If you go through it, you will see in the Parliamentary Handbookthat he was a leader of a parliamentary delegation to India, Pakistan and Iran in 1974 and a delegate to the international conference on Bangladesh in 1971. It was a very propitious time for him to be involved in that conference, because it was a question of the development of that separate new nation. I am told that not only did he go as a delegate and take these issues up forcibly as an Australian participant; he in fact went across the border—putting himself and the others who went with him at risk—to advocate very strongly for that cause. He was the sort of individual who passionately believed in those causes that he took up and I think it ought to be remembered in that way.

Finally, for those of us who one day will take an interest in these matters, I am told he was also the founder of the former members society. We may all think about that some time. I am not in any hurry to do so, I might say. But he, along with another dear friend of mine Dr Malcolm Mackay, were the two former members who put in place the foundations for the society of former members that we have now. I think he was very pleased to be able to have that continuing involvement.

As I said, it was a great privilege to be able to represent the Prime Minister at his funeral. Les was formerly a widower, but his new partner was one I was able to speak to, Marion, and offer my condolences personally. I think she said, and it pleased me, that Les had observed, as he thought about what the arrangements might be, that he hoped I might be there at that time. It was a wonderful event to recall the life of a very significant contributor and I did want to be associated with the condolence motion. I thank the chamber for allowing the debate to be extended to enable this contribution to be made.

Debate adjourned.