Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senators, it is with deep regret that I inform the Senate of the death on 24 December last year of the Hon. James (Jim) Joseph Carlton AO, a former minister and member of the House of Representatives for the division of Mackellar, New South Wales, from 1977 until 1994.

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

by leave—I move:

That the Senate records its deep regret at the death, on 24 December 2015, of the Honourable James (Jim) Joseph Carlton AO, former minister and member for Mackellar, places on record its appreciation of his long and highly distinguished service to the nation and tenders its profound sympathy to his family in their bereavement.

Jim Carlton was born in Sydney on 13 May 1935 and educated at state schools and then at Marist Brothers Kogarah—the same school where he befriended his younger pal former senator Graham Richardson—and at the University of Sydney, where he studied science and engineering and led both the student representative council and the University Liberal Club. After graduation he worked as a manager in a manufacturing company in Britain for several years before joining the global management consulting firm McKinsey. In 1971 back in Australia he succeeded Sir John Carrick as the general secretary of the New South Wales division of the Liberal Party when Sir John entered this chamber. In 1977 Jim Carlton succeeded WC Wentworth as then only the second member for Mackellar, serving in the House of Representatives until 1994 when he was succeeded by a member of this chamber—the Hon. Bronwyn Bishop.

Jim Carlton served as Minister for Health and Minister Assisting the Minister for National Development and Energy in the last year of the Fraser government in 1982-83. Subsequently he held a variety of shadow ministerial posts, including health, Treasury, education and defence, and key positions in opposition policy formulation and coordination until his retirement from the House of Representatives in 1994 to become the secretary-general of the Australian Red Cross. It was thus Jim Carlton's misfortune that his most fertile years in the Australian parliament were years which coincided with the Liberal Party's period in opposition during the period of the Hawke and Keating governments. Nevertheless, his career also demonstrates the weight and impact of a contribution of a sharp public policy mind from the opposition benches.

In his valedictory speech to the House of Representatives Jim Carlton said that he would often ask himself the question: what have I done for Australia?

The answer, although Jim Carlton would have been far too modest to have given it, is that he did an immense amount for Australia and, in a variety of ways, for the wider world. His place in the history of this country is far greater than a mere recitation of the positions he held, impressive though that list might be, for he was one of the most influential thinkers and activists in one of the most important intellectual and political movements of recent generations—those who, in the 1970s and 1980s, led the public policy agenda in the direction of freer markets; more limited, yet more efficient and effective government; and facing up to the need for Australia to compete in an intensifying global economic competition. Without this intellectual and political development, the liberalisation of the Australian economy under the prime ministerships of Bob Hawke, Paul Keating and John Howard would not have happened. That liberalisation contributed to Australia, remarkably, being spared a recession for a quarter of a century now, and to countless Australians having better jobs and higher living standards than would otherwise have been the case.

Jim Carlton worked in the tradition of Bert Kelly, and along with some other dry colleagues such as John Hyde and Peter Shack, through the Crossroads Group and the Society of Modest Members. That band, initially backbenchers, stood up to Prime Minister Fraser and, later in their careers, supported the liberalisation by the Hawke and Keating governments of Australian economic policy. Through painstaking policy preparation, through long years of opposition, they were important contributors to the economic policy developments of those years, which were carried largely in a bipartisan manner—a notable feature of those times—and which would not have been achieved had it not been for the wise bipartisanship that the Liberal opposition in those days, under the influence of men like Jim Carlton, offered.

Jim Carlton's work and its profoundly positive impact show, above all, the power of ideas, especially when those ideas are combined with the hard slog of careful organisation and tireless advocacy. Among his political generation, Jim Carlton was seen as very much of the front rank of our political leaders on the non-Labor side of politics. Indeed, his status in the Liberal Party of that generation was such that on one occasion he was a candidate for the leadership of the Liberal Party.

At the state memorial celebration of Jim Carlton's life, held recently at the University of Melbourne, and attended notably by both John Howard and Paul Keating, Professor Ross Garnaut spoke of Jim Carlton's assistance to him when he, Garnaut, had been Bob Hawke's economic adviser—a great example to us all of the benefits of cross-party cooperation and support for good public policy in the nation's interest, leaving aside mere partisan considerations. Of that, Jim Carlton was a very fine exemplar.

His business experience in Britain and the United States, as well as in Australia, convinced him that Australia not only must but also could compete strongly in the increasingly globalised and competitive economy. He was much influenced by the ideas that underpinned Germany's postwar economic miracle. He saw economic policy as a means to better social outcomes, using market forces for social good. He denied the false antithesis between rational economic policy and compassionate social policy. Indeed, he believed, and in a sense this is the emblem of his career, that a good society depends upon a good economy, a compassionate society depends upon a prosperous economy, and a prosperous economy is underwritten by the economic reforms and liberalisation which were trademarks of his career.

He was, all his life, guided by strong, compassionate, humanitarian convictions; a career bookended by his active opposition, as a Liberal student leader in the 1950s, to the White Australia policy and, at the end, by his occupancy of the position as chairman of the Red Cross. But throughout all this his commitment to a freer market, precisely because it created more and better opportunities, was his hallmark. He contributed to Australia's international reputation in his post-parliamentary life, through his work with the Red Cross, for which he was awarded the highest international honour that that distinguished body can confer: the Henry Dunant Medal. Jim Carlton argued for the government to focus on opportunities for young people with youth orientation, as he put it, and for gender equality. So he was both an economic and social liberal, committed to the idea of freedom. He was the embodiment of the cool head and the warm heart.

Jim's interest in the wider world and Australia's place in it reflected in extensive work of foreign and defence policy and on foreign aid, including work to promote democracy internationally. In 1985 he helped to establish an Australian branch of the international committee for a Community of Democracies, and later served as an international vice president of that body. He was a Commonwealth observer at the 1991 elections in Zambia, which saw a return to multiparty democracy in that nation.

Jim Carlton was a politician with a hinterland; with broad cultural, intellectual and indeed culinary interests. He was, for example, a passionate devotee of opera—particularly German opera, from Beethoven to Wagner to Richard Strauss.

Alongside his humanitarian motivation, his focus on long-term strategy and his broad interests, Jim brought to all that he did the emphasis on the value of operational efficiency that he learnt as an industrial manager and as an adviser to the private sector. This reformist impulse was evident, for example, in his work as general secretary of the New South Wales division of the Liberal Party in the early 1970s in promoting national rather than state based federal election campaigns, in his promotion of efficiency, accountability and integrity in public administration, in his work with the Red Cross to combine eight separate blood banks into a national Red Cross Blood Service and in his advocacy of digitisation of archives when he chaired the advisory council of the National Archives of Australia.

In his retirement, as many warm tributes since his death reflect, Jim's expertise and active, probing mind were widely sought and deeply valued by government, business, the not-for-profit sector and academia. For example, with Ross Garnaut and Tricia Caswell, he was nominated by BHP to serve on the board of the Papua New Guinea sustainable development program to ensure the proceeds of the Ok Tedi mine best served the needs of Papua New Guinea. He was a senior adviser to the Boston Consulting Group. He served on boards such as the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and the Cranlana Program. He was active in the Accountability Round Table, helped to found the Australia and New Zealand School of Government and held adjunct professorships with the National Institute for Governance at the University of Canberra and the Centre for Public Policy at the University of Melbourne.

He was a man of parts, a person of enormous intellectual substance and depth. But, as well as a sharp mind, Jim Carlton always had a ready smile, a twinkle in his eyes, an amusing story and an encouraging word. Many present and former members of this parliament, including the present Prime Minister, Mr Turnbull, and my colleague Senator Fierravanti-Wells, regarded him as both a mentor and a friend. I remember him fondly. He was very kind to me and always had an encouraging word for me in my political career, including until the time I most recently saw him, at a function in this city last year. His friendliness to all and the work of his wife, Diana, in promoting friendship between the partners of members and senators across parties contributed greatly to the respect and warmth with which Jim and Di were regarded throughout the parliament. Which of his colleagues were the subjects of his greatest gift for mimicry we might never fully know!

Above all, of course, Jim Carlton was a loving husband to Di and a loving father to Alex, Freya, his late son Richard and Rob, and an adored grandfather to Ned, Angus, Rosie, Claudia, Tom, Leo and Jim. Our hearts go out to them in their loss as we share their pride in the remarkable life of Jim Carlton. Those of us who had the privilege to know him are the richer for his friendship and his encouragement, and our nation is truly the richer for the powerful impact which he had on this parliament and on Australian public policy, for his pioneering intellect and for his profound commitment to public service for the good of the people of Australia.

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to 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.

Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise on behalf of the National Party to support the motion of condolence. It is always hard to hear of the passing of a good man. The Hon. Jim Carlton AO was certainly that: a good and decent man who has left a positive, lasting legacy. Mr Carlton lived by his principles, and the nation is a better place for his life.

Mr Carlton was born in Sydney on 13 May 1935 and completed his tertiary education at Sydney university. Perhaps it was the completion of a science degree that started the spark of his reputation as a strategic and innovative thinker. A decade working in business and industry sectors gave Jim those practical skills and that life experience that would stay with him for the remainder of his life.

In 1971 Mr Carlton became the General Secretary of the New South Wales Liberal Party, and it was during this time he demonstrated his unifying reputation in building a national campaign effort for the Liberal Party, which until then had been sort of state-isolated. Elected to federal parliament in 1977, he diligently represented the seat of Mackellar in the House of Representatives until his retirement in 1994. During that time he held a variety of positions, including shadow Treasurer, shadow minister for health and a number of other shadow ministry positions. Jim Carlton was a role model for all politicians, demonstrably and strategically emphasising long-term prosperity for our nation over short-term politics.

I want to take time to talk briefly about Mr Carlton's efforts following his time in politics, including his role as Secretary General for the Australian Red Cross. I think his most notable achievement was the establishment of the National Australian Red Cross Blood Service from what were then separate—and some would argue disparate—state and territory services. In referencing this commendable service that saves the lives of so many every year, I know that Jim would never want me to miss an opportunity to encourage all those listening to take the time to visit donateblood.com.au and make an appointment. It would be a very fitting way to honour his legacy.

Mr Carlton's achievements were acknowledged by the Red Cross in 2007 when he was awarded the highest, most prestigious, honour available to the Red Cross, the Henry Dunant Medal. This award followed earlier awards, including the Order of Australia and the Centenary Medal in 2001. The Prime Minister recently described Mr Carlton as 'a particularly warm-hearted and likeable man'. I would like to think Mr Carlton's nickname—provided by the opposition in that day, I think somewhat fondly—'Old Rosie' can now be used to describe and recall his warmth of character.

Mr Carlton's great mind and his lifelong commitment to humanity are tragically now lost to this nation. National thoughts and prayers go out to Jim's wife, Diana, and to their children, Alex, Freya and Rob, in what would have been a very difficult Christmas. Even in passing, Mr Carlton is helping others: he most generously donated an organ to another person in need. His legacy lives on. Vale, Jim Carlton.

Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am honoured to be afforded the opportunity to speak on this condolence motion and say a few words in memory of my former boss and mentor, the Hon. Jim Carlton AO.

I attended Jim's state memorial service on 14 January 2016 in Wilson Hall, at the University of Melbourne. The word most used by those who spoke about Jim was 'gentleman'. Jim truly was a gentleman. You have only to look at the various press reports of the service to see that—for example, The Australian Financial Review talked about a 'Bipartisan flavour to Jim Carlton farewell'. Present there were, as has been indicated, former prime ministers John Howard and Paul Keating, former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer, former ministers Fred Chaney and Gareth Evans and of course my own colleagues Andrew Robb, Josh Frydenberg and Kevin Andrews. The Financial Review report refers to the very lively relationship that Jim had with Mr Keating, who, as Minister Scullion mentioned, referred to him as 'Old Rosie' in reference to Jim's rather pinkish complexion, not of course to his politics. As the Attorney correctly said, Jim combined not just the economic dry but the small 'l', socially progressive liberal in the political spectrum.

On the same day as his memorial service, there was a very moving piece titled 'Jim Carlton: a gentleman reformer who led the dry argument' by Peter Shack, who was one of Jim's longstanding friends and parliamentary colleagues. The article recalls various anecdotes about their time together but most importantly their time together during the Fraser years pushing for and adopting more market based and competitive policies—the article talks about how they used to meet in Jim's cramped little office—and that is how the dries were formed. It then goes on to talk about Bert Kelly and the work that they did, the work that Jim, Phil Lynch, John Hyde and others did and, instrumentally, the forming of the Society of Modest Members and the Crossroads Group.

I met Jim in 1990, when I approached him for a job. At that time, I was an acting principal legal officer with the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service on secondment from the Australian Government Solicitor. I wrote to Jim and said, 'I would like a job with you.' At that time I was on the princely salary of $70,000, but I took a salary cut of half my salary to go and work with Jim. The rewards of working with Jim were greater. They were, indeed, the beginning of my political career. At the time, Jim was responsible for policy coordination and development. Together with David Kemp he was responsible for transition to government. Jim gave me a wonderful opportunity as a government lawyer. I had a good understanding of the public sector, having had the opportunity to act for many government departments and statutory authorities. Having had that experience, he afforded me a great chance to work very closely with him.

The first thing that he did was to give me a paper on vertical fiscal imbalance. Jim adhered to the Freiburg school of thought, which had influenced the reconstruction of Germany after the Second World War. I learnt a lot about Ludwig Erhard, famed for leading the German postwar recovery. Jim would organise gatherings where like-minded dries would come together to discuss important economic issues. The passion and debate at these gatherings was wonderful to witness, certainly to a budding politician. We also supported the Modest Members and their activities at Parliament House. I still recall Bert Kelly coming into the office with his little old school case and the wonderful discussions that would ensue. The work that Jim did as a minister was fantastic, but I actually think that the work he did while we were in opposition is truly what he will be remembered for.

At that time our shadow ministers were in various policy groups. It enabled them routinely to discuss their policy proposals but, more importantly, it enabled them to ensure that the broad policy agendas aligned with each other. Jim chaired the social policy group, but in his shadow role as policy coordinator he also coordinated policy right across the opposition. It was the time of Fightback, so our work was intense, detailed and very complex. My job was to take Fightback and translate that into the public sector changes necessary. I acquired copious quantities of butcher's paper. The office had two charts, on opposite walls—we were of course on the House of Reps side. One wall had a long sheet with the Public Service as it was then, down to the assistant secretary level, and on the other side was the Public Service under Fightback, down to the same level. My job was to look after the paper on the wall, but there was a lot of work that went into it. The thing about Jim that was wonderful was that he always welcomed discussion. He challenged me to be my best, to think clearly and to contribute always to the discussion. I saw that process of policy and politics firsthand. I learnt from a good man, a man who respected the process and who respected others. Indeed, our corridor on the first floor on the Reps side had all these former ministers, both Liberal and Labor, and the friendship across the political divide spoke of the great respect that Jim was held in. It was a good way to learn the fundamentals of political life.

At the 1993 election, Jim ensured that we were ready for government. We even had the administrative arrangements drawn up. Regrettably, the suitcase of work to transition to day 1 was never opened. It went back to Canberra and into the bowels of coalition history. After the election, I was seconded to be senior private secretary to then Premier John Fahey and I became involved in the division in New South Wales. I stood for preselection a number of times, until coming to this place in 2005. For me there were difficult times along the road, but Jim was always there with me. He supported me, he advised me and he was always there to offer counsel.

After resigning as the member for Mackellar in 1994, Jim went on to run the Red Cross in Australia and, as the Attorney correctly said, he was awarded the Centenary Medal for service to Australian society through parliament and the Australian Red Cross, receiving its highest honour. Later that year, Jim was inducted as an Officer of the Order of Australia for service to the community, particularly through the Red Cross in the areas of international humanitarian relief, international law, peace and disarmament, and to the Australia parliament.

His contribution to public life continued, virtually, until his death. Jim never really retired. His mind was sharp and agile. Indeed, just a few days before he passed away, I called Jim and Di and we had a long chat on a whole range of different issues as I drove down to Wollongong. We had organised for John and me to catch up with Jim and Di in the new year; sadly, this is not to be. Indeed, so many of his former staff attended his service. We were his wider family. I can recall, vividly, lunches that we used to have at his home in Avalon. He always made a point of inviting his staff and former staff to join him at Christmas lunch with Di at his home.

Jim died, as he had lived his life, amongst his beloved family. At the memorial service, his son Rob recounted how Jim had passed away on Christmas eve. Jim loved to cook. The family had gathered at the New South Wales central home of Rob and his wife. Jim was not well and the ambulance was called. As Jim was taken away, he duly reminded Di, as he was carted off, about the preparations for the Christmas roast for the next day—I am recounting the story that his son Rob told at the memorial; but that was Jim to a tee. On Christmas day, his family celebrated his life and the wonderful contribution he had made.

To Di, his wife and partner of many years, to his children—Alex, Freya and Rob—to his grandchildren and to his brothers and sisters, John and I offer our heartfelt condolences on the death of this wonderful man.

On behalf of the Liberal Party of New South Wales, where Jim was the former secretary-general, I record its gratitude for the service that Jim gave. I live in Mackellar; indeed, I live close to the old Wentworth Estate where his predecessor resided. The people of Mackellar still remember Jim Carlton.

Jim Carlton AO was highly regarded, respected and very well liked. He made a great contribution to public policy and debate as a minister and in other fields of endeavour. To me, he was a friend and a mentor. Vale Jim Carlton.

Bob Day (SA, Family First Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Others have noted the late Jim Carlton's distinguished service for the voters of Mackellar in Sydney; his term as health minister; his service to the Red Cross, receiving their highest honour; later academic contributions; and the Order of Australia recognition.

As chair of the Bert Kelly Research Centre and someone familiar with the group within the Liberal Party known as 'the dries', I met Jim regularly at Ray Evans's lunch meetings in Melbourne. Jim participated forcefully in the many debates at those lunches. I do not recall Jim ever missing a meeting.

Jim was a true liberal and in economic matters supported market based competitive policies. Jim, John Hyde and others got together to press on with the cause that Bert Kelly had started but that had been cut short by the end of Bert's parliamentary career. Jim and Bert's parliamentary terms did not intersect. Bert concluded his service prior to the 1977 election that saw Jim enter parliament.

The former member for Tangney Peter Shack observed in The Australian just before Jim's mid-January funeral that the remaining dries realised after the 1977 election that there was 'much which needed to be done to drag Australia out of the protected mercantilism of the 1950s and sixties in order to ensure a more internationally competitive nation and greater prosperity for all its citizens'.

Whilst John Hyde took a leading role in the dries, Jim provided the opportunity to sharpen their arguments, posing the wet side of the debates. Jim realised the importance of winning not just the economic arguments but also the moral arguments. Protectionism, for example, had to be exposed as not only economically foolish but also morally wrong. It had to be discredited and Jim was very good at this because he never played the man, only the ball, and was respected by all sides of politics for his gentlemanly conduct. Jim Carlton contributed to the style, tactics and strategies that the dries adopted to win a decades-long campaign of shifting public opinion and economic policy change.

On a personal note, Jim supported me becoming a member of the Society of Modest Members, which continues here today in honour of the late Bert Kelly, the original modest member. I thank the Senate for the time to mark Jim's passing and, like many here, I am happy to carry the torch of reform that Bert, Jim and others have passed to us.

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Day. I ask honourable senators to stand with me in silence to give assent to the motion.

Question agreed to, honourable senators standing in their places.