Kristina Keneally (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I rise on behalf of the opposition to acknowledge the passing of former New South Wales Senator Colin Victor James Mason, one of the founding members of the Australian Democrats. He passed away in July at the age of 93.

From the outset, I wish to convey the opposition's condolences to the relatives and friends of Mr Mason. He started his life across the ditch, born in Auckland, New Zealand, on 28 October 1926. Having studied journalism in Wellington he established a career as a journalist before moving to Australia in 1950. He married his wife, Nancy Williamson, in 1952, with whom he had three children.

In 1956, almost 65 years ago, the ABC set up its first foreign bureau in Singapore, to cover South-East Asia. The man responsible for the establishment of the bureau and the ABC's first permanent foreign correspondent was Colin Mason. Armed with a large 16mm, spring-wound Bell and Howell movie camera and what he described as a 'horrendously big and unreliable' tape recorder, he was the first of many ABC foreign correspondents. Mason said that the newly founded bureau, spreading from Burma to Japan, was 'always interesting and, because of the tumult of change, always newsworthy'. On a good day it would take 24 hours by air mail to return the footage captured by Mason to Australian newsrooms. Mason remarked, 'We became quite a big deal in television,' when they began syndicating vision across the globe to the ABC, the BBC and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

As the demand for news, particularly TV news, expanded, the South-East Asian bureau staff grew from just Mason to upwards of 16 people. In 2006, to mark the 50th anniversary of the ABC's first overseas bureau, Mason told Fran Kelly on ABC Radio National:

The great thing about 1956 was … it was tremendous goodwill toward Australia. Everywhere that I went, I found friends and people willing to help me and everybody was interested in Australia. And it was interesting that the biggest radio audience the ABC had at that time was actually not in Australia, but in Asia, and that would be people who listened to Radio Australia, it had tremendous influence.

Regrettably, these short-wave services have since ceased, along with Australia's reach into the region.

Mason covered the defeat of the French at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954. It was the first time that a European army had ever been defeated by a guerilla army and was the forerunner to the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War. He described his experiences in South-East Asia as 'fairly hairy from time to time, particularly during the Malayan Emergency'. He shared a story with Fran Kelly about that too. He said:

They had a situation where you drove around Malaya by car, you weren't allowed to carry food, money, even typing paper with you in case a communist terrorist got it. You weren't allowed to stop your car, except within the village perimeters which had barbed wire right around them.

So I was approaching the barbed wire one evening of a village called Sungai Siput and just in front of me was an army jeep—an open jeep with a guy driving it, an English one. And just as we started to approach, I was right behind him, his windscreen just disappeared from machine gun fire from the roadside. And I thought, 'Well, this is it.' I could see he was bleeding and the jeep slowed down. We could see the gate to the village about a hundred metres ahead and it was just a matter of pushing on … And I think he could see in his mirror that I was behind him and those seconds went very, very slowly—I can tell you—until I finally got inside that base.

Following his 14-year career at the ABC Mason moved on to politics, becoming a founding member of the Australian Democrats. He was pivotal in getting the Australia Party to ally with the newly founded Democrats, taking the lead on party structure, rules and policies behind the scenes. He was elected to parliament as a senator for New South Wales alongside the party's first leader, Don Chipp, in 1977. He was re-elected in 1983 and, just a year later, in 1984, thanks to the double dissolution in 1983. During his time in the Senate, the power of the Australian Democrats rose from two senators in 1977 to five in 1981 and then seven in 1985. Mason was there as the party gained an influence over the legislative agenda and, eventually, the balance of power in the Senate in their own right. Mason was the Deputy Leader of the Australian Democrats from 1978 to 1985, before becoming their spokesperson on foreign affairs from 1985 to the end of his term. In 1982, Mason formed the parliamentary nuclear disarmament group, acknowledging the enormous difficulties in achieving this objective but that all people of good will must at least exert their efforts in that direction.

It was during the 1980s that Mason became one of the main agitators for and supporters of Lindy Chamberlain. He raised concerns about how the process had and had not been followed by the courts. He pushed to establish a commission of inquiry into the Chamberlain case, and he did this out of a sense of justice, compassion and a fair go. Of course, Chamberlain's case was ultimately reviewed.

Colin Mason will be most likely known for his efforts to fight for and protect the environment. Of the nine private senators' bills Mason introduced, a majority dealt with environmental issues. He was a staunch advocate for renewable energy industries. His private senators' bill the World Heritage Properties Protection Bill 1982 was the only one of his bills to pass the Senate, with the support of the then Labor opposition. It was easily the most influential. The bill would have prevented the Tasmanian state government from constructing the Franklin River dam but it never progressed through the then Liberal controlled House of Representatives. It did, however, pave the way for the newly elected Hawke government to pass legislation in 1983 which had the same intent as Mason's bill and ultimately prevented the construction of the dam.

Having never met Colin Mason myself, I take this opportunity to share the condolences of those he did work alongside, support and share political allegiance with. I spoke with the former Leader of the Australian Democrats, Natasha Stott Despoja, and she said: 'I won't forget his support of me and other Democrats he considered upheld the party's traditional role of listening to their membership. I remember him as a kind man, a clever and worldly man. He was a pioneering environmentalist. He is one of the reasons we have World Heritage legislation and a protected Franklin River. He was ahead of his time in his understanding of the dangers of climate change.'

I also spoke with another former leader of the Australian Democrats, now turned Greens, and former Senator, Andrew Bartlett. He said, 'Mason showed people that the Democrats were more than just Don Chipp'. According to Andrew Bartlett: 'Mason was the calm, kind and considered balance to Chipp's energy and enthusiasm. He was direction, compared to Chipp who went 10 directions at once.' Mason showed Australians that the Australian Democrats were broader than just one person in Don Chipp. Don Chipp of course was a remarkable parliamentarian. After he retired as the first Leader of the Australian Democrats, Mason could have run for leader himself. Instead, he looked for the opportunity to encourage and support Janine Haines, who then became the first female federal parliamentarian leader of an Australian political party, in 1986. Mason retired from the Senate in 1987 when yet another double dissolution election was called.

Post politics, he returned to be a full-time writer. Before and after politics, Mason wrote a total of 11 books, including A Short History of Asia, The 2030 Spike: Countdown to Global Catastrophe, and the novels Hostage, Copperhead Creek and Northern Approaches. While I'm sure Mason may have been at times surprised about the reach of his authorship, I'm certain he would have been particularly astounded to discover that his book The 2030 Spike: Countdown to Global Catastrophe was one of the 39 English language books found in the Pakistan compound where Osama bin Laden was killed in 2011.

I will finish with the words that Colin Mason himself shared in his final speech to the Senate on 28 May 1987, some 33 years ago:

I would like to begin by placing on record my sincere appreciation of the friendships and the education that the last nine years in this place have given me. Being in this place is a very educational process and I am sure that all of us here find that to be the case. I will leave this Parliament not with any spirit of cynicism but rather a feeling that the issues and the problems that this Parliament encounters are difficult. Nothing in the world is simple.

We today acknowledge the service of Colin Mason to our parliament and to our country, as well as to the Australian Democrats. As we farewell Mr Mason I again express the opposition's condolences to his family and his friends, including those at the ABC.

Question agreed to, honourable senators standing in their places.