Page 1342 - Week 05 - Thursday, 26 April 1990
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Mr Speaker, I personally regret very greatly that Paul has found it necessary to resign in order to seek that financial security that we all seek in our own way. I believe that the Assembly and the community will be the poorer for his going. I am grateful that our friendship has survived this experience. Mr Speaker, I wish Paul every success in his future endeavours.
DR KINLOCH, by leave: I very much honour Paul Whalan for a particular facet of his career. I understand he was once a history teacher in the New South Wales Education Department. We are jointly historians, therefore. I want to come to that point. It is a very strange change coming to this Assembly from another kind of life and finding the particular tensions and struggles that go on here. We have all learned to adjust to that, one way or another.
I came from a department and a university which is particularly concerned about the history of Australia. One of my colleagues, Dr John Ritchie, is now the editor of the Australian Dictionary of Biography. Others of my colleagues in the Australian National University have been very concerned about Australian political history. I believe there is no doubt whatsoever that Paul Whalan deserves to be recognised and honoured in due course by the Australian Dictionary of Biography, although I hope not for a long time, because they tend to deal with people who are in the total past. May you not be there for many years. I do hope that the people in the political science and history departments at the Australian National University will recognise that here in our own city, in our own Assembly, we have had a very considerable historical event occurring over the past one, two, three years.
Paul Whalan has made references to a number of things that preceded the fact that we were here. I hope - and I will be saying this formally in a letter to Ian Hancock, the head of the history department - that the department will pay special attention to the history of this Assembly as we gather our records in our first year of operation. There is no doubt whatsoever that Paul Whalan has played a most significant part in that year and in the preparations to it and deserves to be honoured historically for that role.
He would think it strange if I did not respond to one small matter. I, of course, never at any time wished to defame him or planned to defame him or did defame him or intended to defame him or will ever defame him. Indeed, today I wish to say again that we do recognise the very considerable role he has played in this Assembly, we honour that and we wish him well in his future career. We hope too that the particular reason for his leaving will find a remedy. It could be that his very leaving will help to lead to that remedy. I agree with him that it would be a very sad thing if this Assembly consisted only of people like me who can afford to be in it because we are retired. I believe we ought to be able to say to young, able men and women, "Look, here is a vital and important career for you. Come and join us".
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