Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd like this afternoon to reflect on the great contribution of two very good Western Australian Liberals who, unfortunately, have passed away in recent months. I single out Mr Neil Oliver and Mr Richard Lewis AM for their distinguished careers as active members of our community in Western Australia, as active members of the Western Australian Liberal party and, importantly, as significant and important parliamentarians who made a great contribution to the growth and prosperity of Western Australia.

I'd like to begin by sharing with the Senate comments that Anthony McAdam made—Anthony McAdam being a lifelong friend of Mr Neil Oliver—and which were reported in TheWest Australian on 22 July this year. I'd like to talk about Neil Oliver's contribution, reflecting on those remarks by Mr McAdam, in three parts: the early life of Neil Oliver, the parliamentary and political life of Neil Oliver and Neil Oliver as more than just a parliamentarian but a man committed to his community.

Anthony McAdam starts:

We have just lost a proud and valued citizen of WA, and Australia generally, known to all simply as Neil Oliver, former army officer, respected member of the WA Parliament and, not least, a stalwart defender of the public interest, notably during the whole WA Inc. imbroglio of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Although born in the Melbourne suburb of Caulfield, on August 16, 1933, Neil and his lifelong loving partner, Margaret "Joy" Oliver—

Joy, as she was known—

made their home in Perth in 1963.

He was educated at Caulfield Grammar and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and was a keen sailor in his youth with the Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron (in St Kilda).

Initially he was a wool broker with the family business and handled its dealings in New Zealand and throughout Asia.

He was an officer cadet in the Australian Army from 1952 to 1954, and served in the Citizens Military (now the Army Reserve) from 1954 to 1977; he was the youngest major in the army and reached the rank of lieutenant-colonel.

He saw active service in the Malayan Emergency and the Vietnam War. He ended his formal army association as honorary colonel of his regiment for more than a decade. For many years he was also vice-president of the Army Museum of WA.

But Neil Oliver's parliamentary and political life is the lens through which I got to know Neil Oliver. Anthony McAdam writes:

On the encouragement of Sir Charles Court, he successfully stood for the Legislative Council in the election of 1977 and was re-elected in the 1983 election.

He will be remembered as a valiant and independent-minded Member of Parliament, attentive to his constituents and the wider issues facing the State.

He was particularly concerned with the improprieties of the Burke government. As the chairman of the Council's select committee—

The WA legislative council's select committee, that is—

into the Midland Brick scandal, he almost single-handedly opened up the many outrageous abuses of State power orchestrated by the Labor government, which eventually led to the collapse of Burke's government.

During this period Oliver was often in the news, not least when it was revealed that his phone had been tapped. It was a lonely fight. The full story of that dramatic parliamentary enquiry and its consequences is chronicled in the 1987 book Burke's Shambles: Parliamentary Contempt in the Wild West (authored by … the late UWA Professor of Politics, Paddy O'Brien).

Of course Professor O'Brien was also one of my tutors and lecturers at the University of Western Australia.

Colonel Oliver was more than a parliamentarian. He was a man who was committed to his community. Anthony McAdams writes:

Colonel Oliver's other contributions to public life include his service as vice-president of the Multiple Sclerosis Society of WA, as a founding member of the Edith Cowan University Foundation and, for some 40 years, as a justice of the peace.

In later years he was instrumental in ensuring passage of the US-Australia Free Trade Agreement. Long interested in vibrant public debate, he arranged speaking tours for prominent thinkers in the "Putting Australia Right" movement in the 1980s and later helped organise the influential "Achievements of Democratic Capitalism" conferences in Sydney and Melbourne (with such speakers as the historian Geoffrey Blainey and the British journalists Paul Johnson and Bernard Levin).

Neil's health had been fragile for some years and he only finally reconciled himself to going into care a few weeks before his peaceful death in the late evening of July 9.

He passed away in the same nursing home, St Luke's in Shenton Park, where Joy had been resident for some months. It was fitting as they have long been an inseparable couple.

Colonel the Honourable Oscar Neil Blackburne Oliver JP ED RFD did peacefully in his sleep. Neil was 85 years of old.

The second Western Australian parliamentarian that I want to honour this afternoon is none other than Mr Richard Lewis AM, a distinguished member of the Western Australian parliament, a distinguished member of the Court government and a man whose legacy you can see around you when you travel across Perth and its various metropolitan communities. I'd like to share some comments, again reported in The West Australian newspaper on 19 March this year.

Beginning with 'Richard Lewis AM, cabinet minister and surveyor, born in East Fremantle in 1939, died in Perth aged 79', it continues:

Chopping down trees, bashing pegs into the ground, taking measurements … and then spending four-hour evenings at Perth Technical College checking calculations and measurements. Cadet cartographers/surveyors like Richard Lewis needed stamina and patience throughout a work day.

While still in his teens he embraced the world of maps, statistics, numbers, angles and distances. He could have stayed on this reasonably straightforward path, but realised that life offered more.

Within months of obtaining his certificate of competency in 1969 he stood as council candidate in Melville, entering the less measurable environment of suburban democracy. Over the next 14 years he was to serve three terms as deputy mayor, proving himself in the sometimes difficult, always changeable, field of local affairs. This proved to be the launchpad for the next level of government. In 1986 he was elected Liberal MLA for East Melville.

…   …   …

Kennan Richard Lewis—

as he was properly known—

was born on September 4, 1939—the day after World War II began—the second of four sons of Marjorie … and Kennon Lewis, an engineer. Richard, always known by his middle name, attended Richmond Primary School, East Fremantle, Fremantle Boys' and ended secondary education with two years at Scotch College …

Richard Lewis's contribution to public life is outstanding. I came to know Richard Lewis as a minister in the Court government when I had the privilege of working with Richard Court when he was the Premier of Western Australia. Richard Lewis's legacies to Western Australia are many. He will be fondly remembered by all of those people who got to know him in his local community, who came to work with him as a minister in the Court government, who came to know him through his active involvement and regular attendance at The 500 Club events in Western Australia, and who came to know him as a generous man, a family man, a man who was committed to many things, not least his great faith in the West Coast Eagles.

I might end with this particular story from the same article in The West Australian:

Many attest to Richard's capacity to countenance views different from his. He went so far as to accept free kicks being given against his beloved West Coast Eagles, including while attending all their four victorious grand finals. Surveying profession colleagues enjoyed his company at social functions for decades.

Richard Lewis died on March 3. He is survived by Helen, their daughter Morgen, son Lachlan and three grandchildren and his three brothers, Don, Roger and Lyndon.

Fremantle Rowing Club's tableau of triumph includes a photograph of the eight that in March 1959 won the inaugural Fremantle-to-Perth race. At bow is R. Lewis. This position on boats is for the one who, rowing authorities assert, is technically correct and keeps the boat balanced.

That crew 60 years ago clearly had the right man in the right seat.

I'm delighted to be able to share some comments with the Senate this afternoon about another outstanding Western Australian Liberal—another outstanding Western Australian state Liberal parliamentarian. I'm sure many of my Senate colleagues who know Richard and who know his family will extend to them their deepest sympathies on the loss of an outstanding Western Australian.