Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I rise also to speak, on behalf of the opposition, on this motion of condolence on the passing of the Hon. James Joseph Carlton AO. At the outset I convey the opposition's thoughts for his wife, family and friends at this time.

Mr President, today we remember Jim Carlton, and we acknowledge his service as a member of the parliament from 1977 to 1994, as Minister for Health and Minister Assisting the Minister for National Development and Energy in the Fraser government from 1982 to 1983, and as Secretary General of the Australian Red Cross from 1994 to 2001. And we also recall the role—as my colleague the Leader of the Government has extensively outlined—that Mr Carlton played as a thinker and agitator inside the Liberal Party for changes to its approach to economic policy.

Jim Carlton grew up in suburban Sydney in a household that felt the effects of the Depression in the 1930s. After completing a science degree and working in business and industry for a decade, he came to the other place by a pathway that is often maligned in public discourse: he was a party official. He served as the general secretary of the New South Wales division of the Liberal Party for six years before his election as the member for Mackellar in 1977. In making his first speech, he was given the honour of moving the address in reply to the speech of the Governor-General, and he spoke principally on issues of economic management, on the importance of motivating investment and on lowering unemployment. He sought to balance the challenges of industry restructuring with a call for policy settings that would stimulate employment growth, including the development of local skills. Exploring new answers and charting a new course on economic policy would be a continuing theme throughout his career.

It was Jim Carlton's role as a leading economic dry within the Liberal Party that is perhaps his greatest political legacy. With others, he successfully gained the political ascendancy as the Liberal Party moved from government to opposition, seeking to—and I quote him—'put intellectual spine into Liberalism in Australia'. He described his mission as shifting Australia from—and I again quote—'an essentially inward looking and somewhat protectionist society into a liberal market economy that was capable of standing in the world as an equal with anybody else'. He sought efficiency in public administration and containment of spending, and in this he found increasing levels of agreement on both sides of politics.

In many ways, his social views were more progressive than many of his colleagues who shared his opinions on economic policy. He said in his valedictory speech that he was worried he had been characterised as being solely concerned with economic issues but that he had only ever regarded these as a means to achieving social outcomes. Mr Carlton took his inspiration from a West German economist and politician, the architect of that country's postwar recovery, Ludwig Erhard, and in him saw the benefit of the combination of market based economic policies with active government-led social policies, creating a compassionate framework for the use of market forces for social good.

Paradoxically, it was probably in social policy more than economics that Jim Carlton was to get his opportunity to be a member of the executive as Minister for Health for 10 months before the Fraser government lost office in the 1983 election. A couple of months after his appointment The Sydney Morning Herald proclaimed, 'Jim Carlton is a dry who suddenly found himself in a lush and boggy wetland when he was made Minister for Health last May.' Certainly, receiving the Health portfolio may have been a surprise but it was certainly suited to his management and administrative abilities. He sought improvements in consumer choice and in the standard of care for the aged and chronically ill in a system that still provided assistance to those least able to care for themselves. Concurrently he served as Minister assisting the Minister for National Development and Energy, with his ministerial career coming to a premature end as the Fraser government lost office.

Jim Carlton was not to serve in government again but he held a number of shadow portfolios in opposition, most notably Treasury, between 1985 and 1987, putting him up against Treasurer Paul Keating, who was at the height of his powers. Mr Keating, unsurprisingly, found a number of colourful things to say about Mr Carlton over the course of their time in parliament together, but his attendance at Mr Carlton's state funeral was a demonstration of the respect the former Prime Minister held for his one-time sparring partner. In his remarks on his valedictory in 1993, Mr Keating said of Mr Carlton:

Jim Carlton has enjoyed a tremendous friendship with most members of this parliament. He is an exceptionally likeable person. As a consequence, most people like him.

Mr Carlton also had responsibility at various times in opposition for Health, Education, Defence and Environment, and later he was to have a key role in policy coordination between 1990 and 1993, including in the development and promotion of the Fightback package and, later, in its review.

Of interest to those in this place might be Jim Carlton's views about the role of the other place in the legislative process. In his valedictory speech, he decried the lack of consideration given to legislation in the other place, observing that:

In this sense this chamber is almost worthless and the Senate is having to do a double job of both primary and secondary treatment. It is important that this House becomes a primary treatment area for legislation and that issues are properly aired and legislation cleaned up, including with public hearings, before it goes across to the Senate.

He felt that the Senate would be easier to deal with if this chamber received legislation which had been the subject of more comprehensive scrutiny. Regrettably, I am not sure his suggestions have yet been acceded to.

Jim Carlton did not leave public service when he left public office. As my colleague Senator Brandis has said, he took up the position of Secretary General of the Australian Red Cross, retaining this until 2001. He relished the opportunity to work for a wonderful humanitarian organisation with responsibility both for national and international operations. Amongst his various achievements was the combination of the eight separate blood banks run by the states and territories into the unified service.

Speaking on the occasion of Jim Carlton's retirement from parliament, the then Leader of the Opposition, Dr Hewson, accurately reflected on the quality of his contribution. He said:

He concentrates a lot more on ideas than on the personalities of the business. In that sense he has made his greatest contribution. Jim will be remembered for the ideas he has generated in a policy sense and the contribution he has made to the development of ideas, much more broadly than just on our side of politics.

Jim Carlton will be remembered as a politician who pursued ideas he thought were right, and that is a fine legacy.