On this day 150 years ago, Tasmania’s bicameral Parliament sat for the first time.

Today, we celebrate the sesquicentenary of parliamentary democracy in Tasmania.

At this State Dinner to commemorate this historic day we respect and remember that people in our history fought for the independence, the identity and the institutions of responsible government that we enjoy today.

From movements for the cessation of transportation to advance self-government in Tasmania, to the framing of a Constitution for a wholly elected bi-cameral Parliament in Tasmania, it is the actions of many people combined that have built our system of responsible government.

It’s people that make systems work.

In any system, it’s the people that count.

My address to the ceremonial joint sitting of Parliament yesterday honoured a selection of Tasmanian people who have advanced the democratic systems of government for our state and our nation:

· Our first Tasmanian born Premier and first Tasmanian to be Knighted, Sir Richard Dry;
· Andrew Inglis Clark, the principal architect of the Australian Constitution and champion of our Hare Clark system of proportional representation;
· Joseph (Joe) Lyons, Premier of Tasmania (from 1923-1928) and the only Tasmanian (and the only post-Federation state premier) to be Prime Minister;
· His wife Enid Lyons one of the first two women to be elected to the Australian Parliament in 1943;
· Margaret McIntyre, the first woman to be elected to the Tasmanian Parliament in 1948;
· Sir Walter Angus Bethune as the first Liberal Premier to break 35 years of continuous Labor Government (1969-1972); and
· Eric Reece from 1958-69 and 1972-1975 as one of Tasmania’s longest serving Premiers with 28 years on the front bench.

But there have been many other people that have all played a part in our parliamentary system and our history of responsible government.

A little girl asked her father, “Daddy” do all fairy tales begin with ‘once upon a time’. He replied, “No, there are many volumes that begin with – If elected I promise”.

Tonight we honour the achievements of five Premier’s who were responsible for some of those volumes.

As we unveil their images tonight to endure throughout time, I will reveal a little of their contribution to the legacy that is 150 years of responsible government in Tasmania.

William Edward (Ted) Brooker
Ted Brooker was an English migrant who took a free ex-serviceman’s passage to Australia with 100 pounds in his pocket. When elected to the House of Assembly in 1934 he represented the people of Franklin for 14 years, until his death in 1948. From December 1947 Brooker was Premier but resigned in February 1948 following Cosgrove’s acquittal. Almost four months later, Brooker died suddenly (of acute pulmonary oedema) at his Montrose home.

Although Ted Brooker served as Premier for only two months, he made a significant contribution to Tasmania during his long and distinguished political career. His most recognisable legacy to Tasmania is the Brooker Highway. He thought of and sketched the concept of a major traffic outlet to bypass the Main Road through the Northern Suburbs. Towards the end of his career, in 1946 he turned the first sod for ‘the Brooker’.

Although Ted never got to see his vision become a reality, his legacy lives on.

I now invite Mrs Eileen Brooker, the artist of the portrait as well as daughter and his grandson Peter Brooker to unveil the portrait.

Harold Norman (Harry) Holgate
Harry Holgate was another adopted Tasmanian. Born in New South Wales, he became a journalist employed by the Examiner in 1963. From 1973-1974 he was the press secretary to the Deputy Prime Minister, the Hon Lance Barnard AO MHR. In July 1974 Harry Holgate was elected to the House of Assembly as a Labor member for Bass and continued as a member for 18 years until 1992. He became Premier of Tasmania in December 1981 for seven months until June 1982.

Story about sitting days.

Given his background in journalism and ability to talk the language of the media Harry was dubbed “Headline Harry”. Tony Rundle once said that “we always joked on our side of politics that Harry could announce things four of five times…he was perhaps even better at it than Peter Hodgman” (Peter Hodgman similarly was known as ‘Polaroid Pete’ or ‘Hanimex Hodgman’).

Harry Holgate was a great promoter of Tasmania’s tourism industry. He was also a great friend of 25 years of the current Speaker of the Parliament of Tasmania the Hon Michael Polley MHA. I know that he was hit hard by Harry’s passing in 1997 after a long battle with cancer.

Michael Polley and Harry Holgate were a duo in the ‘Bonnie and Clyde’, and ‘Batman and Robin’ example of all great partnerships in history. They were affectionately known as ‘the Shark and the Piranha’ for their ability to get things done in the Australian Labor Party. Harry Holgate once said:

“I’m not sure who was the piranha and who was the shark. Sometimes I took a big bite, and Polley picked the bones clean. We worked well together as a team lobbying people late into the night. At the end of the day, we took over Caucus”.

I now invite Kate Gray, Harry Holgate’s daughter and the artist Kristen Headlam to unveil the portrait.

Michael Walter Field
Another Labor leader, this time Tasmanian born, Railton bred and Devonport High School educated, Michael Field was the early architect of Tasmania’s economic renaissance.

Michael Field entered the House of Assembly for Braddon in 1976. As his wife Jan told Steve Leiberman on national TV when co-hosting the Today Show in 1991, Michael Field was married in a denim suit and after the wedding, he had it dyed dark blue because it was his only suit, and it was this suit that he wore on his first day of Parliament. It is indeed appropriate that in Michael Field’s portrait he is wearing blue.

Michael Field was a new generation of politician, one of the young Turks and he governed Tasmania as leader of a minority Labor Government between 1989-1992.
Economist Bruce Felmingham has described Michael Field as a great achiever who sacrificed his political career to achieve financial stability for the state and carry through a substantial collection of environmental and financial reforms.

But perhaps one of the best quotes I have read regarding Michael Field is from an article that appeared in the Sunday Tasmanian in 1997 – (the journalists Danielle Wood and Lindsay Tuffin wrote):

“There’s quite a lot to Michael Field. More than you could grasp in a 30-second snippet of Television. Field is a thinker. The kind of person who actively develops his character, who analyses his beliefs, who believes in the potential of human beings to prosper in the right structures”

In response to the rise of economic rationalism, Michael Field himself once wrote that:

“government is the community acting on its own behalf. It is not acting on behalf of shareholders or some other interest group. The values of the community should be reflected in the actions of their representatives” (Sunday Tasmanian Opinion 16 August 1998).

As we celebrate the sesquicentenary of responsible government and parliamentary democracy tonight, it is important to reflect on the meaning of those words and their sanctity.

I now invite Michael Field’s daughter Claire and the artist Alin Skaw to unveil the portrait.

Raymond John (Ray) Groom
Another equally reflective and accomplished political leader was Liberal politician and former VFL footballer Ray Groom. Victorian born Ray Groom was a State football player at age 16 who went on to play 98 VFL games in Melbourne. Ray Groom spent 9 years as a federal Member for Braddon (1975-1984) before being enticed into State politics in 1986. He became Premier of Tasmania from 1992-1996.

It was the Groom government that pioneered the handing back of key land to Tasmanian Aboriginal people (Oyster Cove and Risdon Cove) and Ray Groom’s promotion of reconciliation began much earlier indeed from 1986 on. His legacy was continued by the Labor Government’s sponsored legislation for the transfer of land and most recently with our legislation to compensate the Stolen Generations.

Ray Groom is a quiet achiever. He was a Premier of integrity. His mother Eileen once noted that before every football game he played, she’d tell him to ‘play the ball and not the man’ (Sunday Examiner March 1992). He listened to his mother, and applied her lessons in football and in politics.

Ray Groom is a man of many talents. Not only is he an accomplished sportsperson, lawyer and Premier, he is a poet and a painter, who enjoys painting in a range of mediums, oils, watercolour and sketching.

I hope that the process of the painter becoming the painted was a productive and enjoyable one. The result is certainly captures the essence of Premier Groom.

I now invite Ray Groom’s son Ben and the artist, Jenny Young to unveil the portrait.

Anthony Maxwell (Tony) Rundle.
Of the five Premier’s honoured tonight, only two were Tasmanian born - Michael Field and Tony Rundle.

Tony Rundle, born in Scottsdale, was a former television journalist and real estate agent who was elected to Parliament in 1986 in the seat of Braddon. As Premier from 1996-1998 Tony Rundle pushed Tasmania towards the new millennium with a vast reform agenda. His ‘Directions Statement’ was the precursor to many changes to the Tasmanian political landscape.

Tony Rundle was results focused and an action driven Premier who, as journalist Barry Prismall put it, “was a minority government Premier trying to achieve what even a majority government Premier would find hard to achieve”.
In the words of Tony Rundle himself, “we had an exciting agenda…………... We probably set the bar too high and in the end, we couldn’t jump it. But I think what we did was right” (The Mercury December 2001).

I now invite Tony Rundle’s daughter Helen Burrows and artist Geoff Dyer to unveil the portrait.

On this, the very day that Tasmania’s bicameral Parliament sat for the first time 150 years ago, it’s important that we pause to reflect on the actions of the parliament over that time.

For over 150 years, Tasmanian parliamentarians, like the five Premiers we’ve honoured tonight, have been the custodians of our systems of responsible government and parliamentary democracy.

They have all played their role in continuing and upholding the principles of good government by making decisions to advance the welfare of the people of Tasmania for current and future generations.

I invite you to be upstanding as I propose a toast.

To 150 years of responsible government and parliamentary democracy – may those who gather together in 50 years time on the occasion of the bicentenary be able to reflect with the same re-assurance that we have on the strength of our parliamentary institutions.

Thank You.

On Thursday in response to my question to Michael Hodgman QC MP Her Majesty’s Shadow Attorney General whether rumours of his impending retirement were true he replied by saying that just as Mark Twain was able to dismiss news that he had died – he too could dismiss this rumour.

Michael, I offer the following in response.

I read recently where Mark Twain was invited, as a guest of honour, to a dinner at which all of the great leaders of the American Civil War were present. When it came to the speeches the military leaders made their rather lengthy and somewhat heavy remarks. In due course, Mark Twain was called on to speak and he rose – a shade unsteady – to his feet.

“Gentlemen” he said “Caesar is dead; Hannibal is no longer with us: Napoleon has long since passed away; and Wellington is under the sod. And – to tell you the truth – I am not feeling too good myself – and with that, he sat down.

Finally, can I remind you of the immortal words of Groucho Marx.

“I not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead: Tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I’m going to be happy in it’.

Please be happy and enjoy what’s left of today.

Thank You.