John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is with deep regret that I inform the Senate of the death, on 13 July 2008, of Hon. Peter Drew Durack, a former minister and senator for the state of Western Australia from 1971 to 1993.

Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

That the Senate records its deep regret at the death, on 13 July 2008, of the Honourable Peter Drew Durack, former senator for Western Australia, and places on record its appreciation of his long and meritorious public service and tenders its profound sympathy to his family in their bereavement.

Peter Durack was one of Western Australia’s longest serving senators, retiring from the Commonwealth parliament after 22 years in federal politics and a political career that spanned almost three decades. He was highly respected across the political divide and was known as a kind, mild-mannered man of great integrity who made a remarkable contribution to law reform in this country.

Peter was born in Perth in 1926 into one of Western Australia’s pioneering families, the Duracks. He was educated at Christian Brothers College and Aquinas College in Perth and went on to study law at the University of Western Australia. It was during his time at UWA that Peter first became politically active. Peter was very quick to nail his political colours to the mast. In 1944, at the age of 18, Peter co-founded the UWA Liberal Club, just a few months after Sir Robert Menzies established the Liberal Party. Widely acknowledged as a great debater and a brilliant student, Peter was awarded the 1949 Rhodes Scholarship for Western Australia and completed a Bachelor of Civil Law degree at Oxford. After graduating he practised law in London and then continued working as a lawyer upon his return to Perth. He had a highly successful legal career which culminated in his appointment as QC in 1978. However, by then his career as a lawyer had already given way to his passion for politics. Peter was elected to the Western Australian Legislative Assembly in 1965 as the Liberal member for the seat of Perth in the WA Legislative Assembly. He served in state parliament only until 1968, which is when he was elected President of the Western Australian Liberal Party, a position he held until he entered the Senate in 1971.

Peter’s early years in the Senate coincided with the period of the Whitlam Labor government. Peter was part of the block of coalition senators that caused the Whitlam government so much agony and eventually he formed part of the new Fraser government that came to power in the wake of the 1975 dismissal. After just four years in the Senate, Peter was appointed to the ministry of the new Fraser government. He was initially made Minister for Repatriation in 1976, which was renamed Veterans’ Affairs three months later. Peter served in this position for another year until Bob Ellicott resigned as Attorney-General in 1977. He held that position until the election of the Hawke Labor government in 1983.

As Attorney-General, Peter Durack steered one of the most significant periods of law reform in Australian history, particularly in the area of human rights and civil rights. His best known achievement was the introduction of the Commonwealth freedom of information legislation in 1981, which for the first time gave Australians legally enforceable rights to access information held by government. The legislation represented a significant expansion of civil liberties for Australians.

As well as being heralded as the father of FOI, as Attorney-General, Peter was involved in preparing the two-airline agreement and the broadcasting and television legislation. He brought changes to copyright law, administrative appeals and the powers of Federal Police and ASIO and he was involved in the settlement with the states on offshore sovereignty. He worked on the Acts Interpretation Act aimed at instructing the judiciary to take into account the purpose of legislation when interpreting it, and played an important role in the ending of appeals to the Privy Council. Peter also oversaw the appointment to the High Court of Sir Ronald Wilson, former Governor-General Sir William Deane, and Sir Gerard Brennan, who went on to become Chief Justice.

During his time as a senator Peter also served as Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate from 1978 to 1983 and as Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate from 1983 to 1987 and again from 1990 to 1992. He was also a member of a long list of parliamentary committees which included Regulations and Ordinances, Publications, Scrutiny of Bills, Privileges, Constitutional and Legal Affairs, Industry and Trade, National Resources, Finance and Public Administration, Securities and Exchange, Civil Rights of Migrant Australians, and Foreign Ownership and Control. Peter retired from the Senate in 1993, but he continued to play an important role in mentoring the next generation of Liberal politicians.

Peter passed away on 13 July this year. He leaves a long legacy of public service. In tributes to Peter Durack from former political colleagues he has been remembered for his central role in one of the most constructive periods of law reform and human rights protections in Australian history. On behalf of the government I offer condolences to his family, in particular his wife, Isabel, their children, Anne and Philip, and their grandchildren.

Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the coalition, I join with Senator Conroy and the government in extending our sincere sympathies to the family of Peter Durack upon his death on 30 July at the age of 81. Regrettably, I did not have the opportunity to actually serve with Peter in this place—his term ceased on 30 June 1993 and mine started on 1 July that year—but I certainly knew Peter personally and held him in extraordinarily high regard. He was one of the most accomplished senators the Liberal Party has produced and I think was held in the utmost respect right across the political divide. His contribution to Australian politics and the Senate are significant, are valued and should be honoured today.

He made a very big contribution, as Senator Conroy has noted, to the Liberal Party in his home state of Western Australia and was a member of one of the most significant and well-known families in that state. He co-founded the University of Western Australia Liberal Club while studying law in the middle of 1945, stemming from his strong and understandable admiration for Robert Menzies. He contested and won the seat of Perth in the WA Legislative Assembly in 1965 and held that seat until 1968, when he became President of the Liberal Party in Western Australia until entering this place in 1971. So he is one of those few Australians who have served at both state and federal parliamentary levels. He was, as Senator Conroy noted, a very successful barrister and was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1978. He did make a huge contribution to the Liberal Party in Western Australia, both in his service to the organisation and as a mentor to party members in that state, and to Liberal parliamentarians right across the country. Indeed, I knew him in my capacity as an official of the party’s federal secretariat and knew well of his mentoring role.

As has been noted, he entered the Senate in July 1971, having been elected in 1970 at one of those very rare things, a separate half-Senate election. He was to become one of the most outstanding Western Australian Liberal senators, serving for the lengthy period of 22 years in this place. He held numerous frontbench positions for our party, in both government and opposition, and was one of the most senior figures for much of his time in the Senate. He saw the change of government in 1975 and then, of course, opposition in 1983. But in both opposition and government he was a very senior figure. He was a member of the opposition shadow ministry from only three years after he came here, in 1974, until we came into government in 1975. He served as Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate from 1978 to 1983, as deputy to the great John Carrick. Then after the defeat of the Fraser government he continued as deputy leader—in this case in opposition—from 1983 to 1987, under the great leadership of Fred Chaney, his colleague from Western Australia: a rare double act from the state of Western Australia. Then, with an interregnum, he again became the deputy leader, from 1990 to 1992, under the leadership of then Senator Robert Hill.

I certainly remember well the occasion on which, after the 1990 election, it was widely expected that Peter Durack would become the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate. But, to everyone’s surprise, my South Australian friend and colleague Robert Hill won that leadership, and Peter was elected the deputy. Fred Chaney, his friend and colleague from Western Australia, has described Peter as having ‘a wonderful combination of a great depth of legal knowledge with a terrific understanding of the political system’.

Peter Durack was a Senate man: he really understood and respected the role of this place. In particular, having entered the Senate when the committee system was in its infancy, he was a strong advocate of the importance of estimates committees and the very thorough examination by this place of government legislation. He did have many achievements in the Senate as a minister. He held, in all, four ministerial positions in the Fraser government. But, as Senator Conroy has noted, he is most particularly remembered for his service for six years, no less, as Attorney-General from 1977 until our defeat in 1983. He will be remembered, I think, as one of the most accomplished Attorneys-General and the most significant in our nation’s history, particularly, as Senator Conroy has noted, for his record and his historic act of introducing the Freedom of Information Act in 1981. Former Prime Minister John Howard has said of Peter Durack, his former cabinet colleague in the Fraser government, that he was ‘a terrifically thoughtful contributor’ in cabinet meetings and in shadow cabinet meetings. Anyone who knew Peter would understand exactly what former Prime Minister John Howard meant when he said that.

Peter’s contribution to parliament and public life was significant. All those who encountered him in the chamber speak of his strong intellect and his great integrity. He was indeed a great asset to the Senate and to the Liberal Party in Western Australia. I am pleased to extend to his wife, Isabel, and their children, Anne and Philip, and their families, our great appreciation of his long and meritorious public service. We tender our sympathy to the family in their bereavement.

David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Resources and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

With the death of former senator Peter Durack, the Liberal Party in Western Australia has lost one of its most influential parliamentarians. Peter Durack was an outstanding Western Australian senator whose 23 years of dedicated service included more than six years as Attorney-General and almost a decade as a senior opposition figure. For those of us from Western Australia, that carries with it an enormous amount of commitment not just to the parliament but to the party in Western Australia.

Peter Durack was a brilliant student. He was a Rhodes scholar in 1949. He completed a Bachelor of Civil Law at Oxford University before practising in London. Peter Durack participated in many national debates during his time in the Senate and since his retirement from parliament. I should pause to say that his contribution to our party in Western Australia was enormous, beyond the days of his service in this place. He is one of the few parliamentarians to have also held the state seat of Perth—from 1965 to 1968. He was state president of the Liberal Party in Western Australia from 1968 to 1971. He was one of Australia’s longest serving senators, as I have said, with more than 22 years to his credit. He was shadow minister for defence from 1990 to 1992 as well as shadow minister for resources and energy—a job that I am reasonably familiar with—between 1984 and 1987.

Peter Durack will be remembered as one of Australia’s most accomplished attorneys-general. He was a reformist. One of his first tasks as Attorney-General was to support the freedom of information bill. It was a new concept then, one that has evolved and developed but which commenced under his stewardship. When enacted, it gave a legal enforceable right for Australians to access information held by government, a concept which we all very much take for granted to a great extent today. That legislation was one of the biggest changes to civil liberties and was a foundation stone of civil liberties in this country.

Peter Durack mentored a generation, me included, of Liberal parliamentarians throughout Australia and was widely regarded as a person of great integrity and intellect. I can certainly affirm that. Peter Durack is survived by his wife, Isabel, who is a historian, their two children, Anne and Philip, who are both lawyers, and four grandchildren. His wise counsel, I must say, will be greatly missed, but his positive influence over the Liberal Party and this parliament will survive.

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My congratulations to you, Mr President, on your election. I guess that little more can be said about Peter Durack than has already been said by the previous speakers, all of whom have gone through his very long and distinguished record. I just wanted to associate myself with the condolence motion for the late Peter Durack on the basis that I was here when Peter was our deputy leader on the second occasion in the Senate. I remember Peter when I first came here. He seemed to a 44-year-old a rather old man at the time. I suspect, looking back now, that he was only a young fellow! He was a very kindly man, although clearly he had a very quick mind and decisive wit that was able to be used by all of his then colleagues when they needed some information, a good thought or some wise counsel on a particular matter. He nurtured me and others in our early stages in this Senate. It was clear to see then why he had had such a distinguished career in law and in the service of the Liberal Party over many years.

I, like others, want to mention his contribution to the freedom of information laws, which, as has been said, he introduced. I had heard of him well before I came to the Senate because of the work he had done on freedom of information. His long and distinguished career is justifiably recognised today in the Senate. As I said, I want to be associated with the comments about him and to extend my condolences to his wife, Isabel, and family.

Chris Ellison (WA, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Congratulations, Mr President. This is my first opportunity to congratulate you and I do so. It was a very good result. I associate myself with the comments made by the previous speakers in relation to Peter Durack. Peter Durack was a senator who I succeeded in this place and who I paid tribute to in my first speech when I came to this place. In my maiden speech I recorded then the great contribution that Peter Durack had made to the parliament and to Australia, and I do so again on his passing.

Peter Durack was an outstanding lawyer. He came from a family that was well respected in Western Australia and, indeed, in politics. As Senator Johnston previously indicated, he made an outstanding contribution to the Liberal Party in Western Australia. In fact, it is quite significant that he was a member for the state seat of Perth. I do not think we have ever held the seat since. We held it for one term. When you look at the demographics of Perth, it was no mean feat that he won that seat. He then went on to excel in the Senate and as Attorney-General. Mention has been made of the freedom of information legislation which he championed, but I think that he was also regarded as an extremely safe pair of hands for the government of the day. That was due to his judgement, wisdom and sound legal intellect.

I mentioned his contribution to the Liberal Party in Western Australia. I saw firsthand that contribution at our state council as a younger member of the Liberal Party. I can say that when there was a great deal of turmoil, debate and controversy Peter Durack always came through with a calm, cool head to provide wise advice to those who were there. I certainly think that on more than one occasion he provided sound direction for the party at its meetings. Of course, he was state president, as Senator Johnston mentioned, and he had extensive involvement in the party as such.

He was a great Western Australian and a great credit to his family. They can all be very proud of him. I know both his son and his daughter, Pip and Anne. To them and the wider family I convey my condolences and say to them on his passing that they can be very proud of his achievements.

Alan Ferguson (SA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak briefly to associate myself with this condolence motion for former Senator Durack. Strange as it may seem, my very first day in this place was the day he resigned as Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party in the Senate. So, on my very first day here I was involved in the ballot for the deputy leadership. I did not have a clue who I was voting for because I did not know any of the people that were standing.

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You would have been given some guidance.

Alan Ferguson (SA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, Senator Brandis, I was given some good guidance.

Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Minchin interjecting—

Alan Ferguson (SA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

He wasn’t here either, then.

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Richard Alston won.

Alan Ferguson (SA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No, Jim Short won it. Peter Durack was a very good mentor in that first year and a bit that I was here in the parliament. He was regarded, along with Brian Archer, as a father of the party. They were the two people who had been here from 1975 onwards—and I think in the case of Senator Durack it was even earlier than that. The whole family life of Senator Durack, coming as he did from that great Western Australian family, meant that he was held in some awe by some people here not only because of his contribution to the Senate and to the government of the day but because he was a very thoughtful person as I—a young senator coming into this place—remember him.

Peter Durack’s contributions have been well documented here today, so I am not going to go over those again. An enormous number of new senators have entered this place today—and in the past three years there has been, I think, something like 37 new senators—but to new senators coming into this place I would say that the amount of experience that you can get by talking to people who have been in this place for some time is invaluable. I counted Peter Durack as a very wise mentor. He only ever offered advice when you asked for it. He was not one who thrust his views or opinions on you. He was indeed a gentleman. Certainly the people I remember most from my early days in the Senate were those who had been in this place for a long time and who were prepared to share their experiences both in government and in opposition with those of us who were new. Who could forget Shirley Walters, Brian Archer, Peter Durack and a whole range of people who were finishing their Senate careers? I think they all finished in 1993 or thereabouts. But I do want to associate myself with this condolence motion because senators who make the sort of contribution that Senator Peter Durack made do not come past every day. I certainly offer my sympathy to his family; they can be sure in the knowledge that Peter Durack will be well remembered for his contribution to the Senate.

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I commence my remarks by joining others in congratulating you, Mr President, upon your election to the very high office which you have achieved today. I think there would not be a dissenting voice in the Senate to the proposition that you are eminently equipped for this task and have earned great respect and deep personal affection among all of us.

I wanted to make a few remarks on the passing of the late Peter Durack. Unlike other Liberal senators who have spoken on this condolence motion, I did not particularly know Peter Durack, although I had the pleasure of meeting him a couple of times, albeit briefly, when I was very young. Peter Durack will be remembered in particular for three things. First of all, he represented a very old-fashioned ethic of public service. He was a person who chose to devote the prime years of his life to service in parliament and to involvement in politics—three years, as we have heard, in the Western Australian state parliament; 22 years in the Senate and, in between those two terms of parliamentary service, as a party officer as the state president of the Western Australian Liberal Party. It is a theme I have elaborated upon several times, but I think it is very sad—particularly, if I may say so, for my side of politics—that that ethic of public service, of which the late Peter Durack was so obviously an exemplar, seems to be lacking from the professions today. Too few people turn away from professional life, whether as lawyers, doctors or whatever among the learned professions, to give their lives to public service as Peter Durack did. I think that the professions have been the poorer for it and I think that the parliament has been the poorer for it. The ethic of public service represented by Peter Durack is something that I hope we have not completely lost but it is certainly more a feature of an earlier age than it is of the current age. An aspect of that ethic of public service, as we have heard from all the Liberal senators who have spoken so far in this debate, was the role of Peter Durack as a mentor to younger senators. I remember my old friend former senator Chris Puplick telling me once about how Peter Durack had mentored him when he was a firebrand young Liberal senator in the 1980s.

The second thing for which Peter Durack should be remembered and celebrated, particularly on my side of politics, is that he was a Menzies Liberal. He was a representative, an exemplar and a champion of what I have always considered to be the mainstream position of the Liberal Party—the Menzian tradition. In fact, his first involvement in the Liberal Party came in 1944, the year in which Sir Robert Menzies—Mr Menzies as he then was—founded the Liberal Party. Peter Durack, then a student at the University of Western Australia, co-founded the University of Western Australia Liberal Club. The year in which he was first elected to parliament as the state member for Perth in 1965 coincided with the last year of Sir Robert Menzies’ second prime ministership. He was a Menzies Liberal in the sense that he represented the liberal values which have always been the pride of the Liberal Party. In an obituary of Peter Durack that appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald last month, the observation was made:

He said on his retirement: “I accept the fact that I’m a fairly conservative lawyer, I guess.” Yet, at least with hindsight from beyond the Howard government years, much of his work was in the liberal, rather than conservative, tradition.

This was a view corroborated by Mr Howard himself, who, in another obituary, described Peter Durack as probably being ‘on the small ‘l’ liberal side of politics on social issues, but an economic rationalist’. So, from my point of view as a small ‘l’ liberal on social issues and as a rationalist on economic issues, the late Peter Durack represented the best of both of the traditions of the Liberal Party.

Thirdly, he will be remembered for his service with distinction as a minister in the Fraser government. As others have said, he was Minister for Repatriation for about a year and then, after the resignation of Bob Ellicott, was Attorney-General for more than six years. The historical reputation of the Fraser government has in recent years suffered something of a devaluation, but I think that, like all reputations, as we achieve greater historical perspective, many of the great achievements of the Fraser government will come to be reconsidered and re-evaluated and perhaps appreciated more both by historians and by people in my own party than they have been more recently.

Peter Durack was associated with many of those achievements. He was, in particular, one of Australia’s most illustrious and longest serving attorneys-general. Others have spoken of the many beneficial law reforms with which he was associated, most particularly as the pioneer of the Freedom of Information Act, although I might point out that he was an opponent of the notion that Australia should have a statutory bill of rights. So his liberalism was leavened by a wise and sceptical conservatism as well, which is a very attractive combination. He was in fact the last Liberal Attorney-General to serve in the Senate.

I conclude my tribute to and appreciation of Peter Durack by saying that the more that Australia’s parliaments, both state and federal, attract people of that calibre and with that ethic of public service and dedication to public life the better we will be. We remember today an exemplary figure in that tradition and we mourn his passing.

Question agreed to, honourable senators standing in their places.