Mr DUTTON (Dickson—Leader of the Opposition) (14:03): I thank the Prime Minister for his fine words and associate the opposition with this motion. I acknowledge the presence in the gallery today, and in the chamber, of members of John Spender's family. John was born in 1935, the son of Jean and Percy Spender—a mother who was a crime fiction writer and a father who was, among many accomplishments, the principal architect of the ANZUS treaty. It's no wonder that John would become a man of words and deeds. Like his father, John's life would traverse the fields of law, politics and diplomacy. After completing studies at Yale whilst his father was Australia's ambassador to the United States, John returned home. In 1961 he became a barrister in Sydney. Highly respected and successful, he was appointed QC in 1974. Yet throughout the 1970s John had a political itch which needed to be scratched. Politics tugged at John as it did his father. He had two unsuccessful spells at seeking office, later stating that preselection is one of the hardest things that one gets through—at least successfully. The door opened with the 1980 federal election and his winning the seat of North Sydney. John would join Malcolm Fraser's government in its last term and go on to serve under opposition leaders Andrew Peacock and John Howard. He was a politician of principle from the start. Having seen economy-wide strikes and been involved in the legal work associated with the unions, John focused on industrial relations in his maiden speech. He expressed his profound sense of disquiet as to the whole system, and he described Australia's then industrial record as 'one of the worst in the industrialised world', especially for strikes, stoppages, bans and other forms of unrest. In opposition, John held several shadow ministries, most notably those of aviation and defence support under Andrew Peacock and those of the Attorney-General and foreign affairs under John Howard. A newspaper profile in 1986 noted that John's idea of a successful Liberal performance was 'a radical lowering of the income tax base, radical cuts in government expenditure and a rolling back of trade union power'. More humorously, the same piece said: 'He is both flamboyant and conservative enough to get up the collective noses of the Labor Party, fair-minded and fun-loving enough to laugh uproariously at a joke by political rival Paul Keating and perhaps intelligent enough to be resident philosopher in a John Howard led government.' John's political accomplishments were many, but he's remembered by most Australians for being a champion of press freedom, leading the charge on reforms to parliamentary privilege to abolish the offence of defamatory content. In testimony to his direct way with words—and a mind to match—John, as the Prime Minister pointed out, was appointed as Australia's ambassador to France in 1996. There, he set about what he described as repair work. That he did, re-weaving links, re-establishing connections and restoring trust, being awarded the French Legion of Honour for his efforts. On the death of his father, Percy, John would say: The loss of a great man is not simply an occasion for sadness, although grief is inseparable from the event; it is a time for public remembrance and thanks and for rejoicing in a life which has been richly spent. Just as the son said that of his father, we can say the same of the father's son. In summing up John's life, we need only turn to the touching words of the Spender who has followed in her family's footsteps. The member for Wentworth described her father as a man 'who reflected on the world, always questioned it, loved good conversation and was gracious to the end'. On behalf of the coalition, I offer my heartfelt condolences to John's colleagues and to his family and friends, especially his wife, Catherine; stepson, Alexander; and daughters, Bianca and Allegra. May he rest in peace.