Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Labor opposition, I would like to support the motion of condolence moved by Senator Minchin following the recent deaths of Sir Robert Cotton and Sir James Killen. On behalf of all Labor senators, I would like to recognise the distinguished public service of both Sir Robert and Sir James and to send our sincere condolences to their families and friends.

Robert Cotton was born in Broken Hill in November 1915 and educated at St Peter’s College in Adelaide. He went into business with his father during the Depression and qualified as an accountant. During the Second World War he trained as a bomber pilot with the RAAF before being seconded to the Department of Supply in Melbourne. He was sent with his family to establish a timber firm in New South Wales that was charged with the supply of timber to the mines of Broken Hill. He continued his work after the war, developing the business into a significant regional enterprise. At the same time he and his wife, the late Lady Cotton, established a mixed farming business.

As Senator Minchin pointed out, Sir Robert was a foundation member of the Liberal Party of Australia and was very active inside the party organisation. He ran for the New South Wales seat of Macquarie against the then Labor Prime Minister, Ben Chifley. I am happy to say that he lost on that occasion. In August 1965 Sir Robert went one better than winning a seat of the House of Representatives and was chosen under section 15 of the Constitution to fill a casual vacancy following the resignation of the former Leader of the Government in the Senate, Sir William Spooner. Sir Robert was to remain in the Senate until his resignation in 1978.

Even in his early days in the Senate he enjoyed considerable influence in the Liberal-Country Party government. Following the death of Prime Minister Holt he was instrumental in defeating internal moves to have Jack McEwen remain as Prime Minister and amalgamate the Liberal and Country parties—a proposition that did not go well in Queensland again recently. They do not seem to learn from history.

His considerable ability was reflected in the range of ministerial, party and parliamentary positions he held during his 13 years in parliament. He had a good grounding as Senate Government Whip in early 1968, and his ministerial career began in November of 1969 when he became Minister for Civil Aviation, a position he held for a little over three years, until the fall of the McMahon government.

In opposition from 1972 until 1974 he served as the opposition spokesperson on the Postmaster-General’s Department, and on work, services and property. In June 1974 he took on responsibility as shadow minister for the manufacturing industry, a portfolio which later included industrial development. During the period of the Fraser caretaker ministry, Sir Robert served as Minister for Science and Consumer Affairs and from December 1975 he was Minister for Industry and Commerce. He also served as Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate.

Sir Robert Cotton served on a number of Senate committees. He was a member and later Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Offshore Petroleum Resources, which was an influential committee at a time when the Senate was asserting itself and defining its role through its committee activities. These inquiries helped lay the groundwork for the establishment of the formal standing committee system of today.

Sir Robert resigned from the Senate in July 1978 and took up the first of two significant diplomatic postings as consul general in New York. In his three years as Australia’s representative in New York he worked to promote Australian interests and business with the financial and investment community and developed strong US links. In 1981 he returned to Australia and was appointed to the board of the Reserve Bank. A year later, in 1982, he and Lady Cotton returned to the US, where Sir Robert took up the position of Australian ambassador in Washington. The respect he enjoyed across party lines was reflected in the fact that he remained in that key diplomatic post for the first two years of the Hawke Labor government. He and Lady Cotton returned to Australia in 1985.

In 1992 Sir Robert became Chairman of the Australian Photonics Cooperative Research Centre. In addition, he was deeply involved in the establishment of the Australian Centre for American Studies at the University of Sydney and was for 10 years Chairman of the Australian Political Exchange Council. He also served as Chair of the National Gallery Foundation Board. Sir Robert was knighted in 1978 and was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1993. He received an honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Sydney in 1995.

In retirement he continued to pursue his love of photography and held a joint exhibition with his daughter, Judy, in Sydney in 2005. Sir Robert’s first wife, Eve, passed away in 2000 and in 2003 he married Betty Krummel. Sir Robert passed away on Christmas Eve last year. On behalf of all opposition senators I send our sincere condolences to Sir Robert’s wife and family. He was clearly a very significant political figure in Australia’s history, a very significant Liberal, and someone who enjoyed wide respect on both sides of the parliament.

I would also like to make some remarks about the sad death of Sir James Killen, probably one of the most famous political figures in Australian public life. Sir James Killen was born in Dalby in Queensland in 1925. As a teenager he worked as a jackaroo on Portland Downs station and in 1943, at the age of 18, he joined the Royal Australian Air Force. He was discharged from the Air Force in October 1945 at the rank of flight sergeant air gunner. I suspect his irreverent nature made rising higher in the Air Force a bit problematic, if his later career is anything to go by.