Page 2043 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 28 May 1991
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I want to stress, as you have heard those names, that they were not all from Melbourne, although Melbourne was very much a spiritual home for Manning, and they did not all barrack for Carlton. It was an exciting and liberating experience to be in Manning's department. What is more, we loved him and we love him still.
But there was more to it than the internal affairs of one department. Manning embraced the Soviet Union, the United States, Shakespeare, the Book of Common Prayer, Dostoevsky, and a range of European literature, apart of course from his magisterial command of the history of Australia. For those of us who are immigrants, and in a way can never truly be fully Australian, much as we may want to be, it is Manning who has helped us to see our new nation.
Manning also helped us to see the human condition. The last time I heard him speak was in Goulburn. He was opening an art exhibit of the works of Robin Wallace-Crabbe. Strangely, at that exhibit, he talked about Dostoevsky, and Dostoevsky's short story or novella The Gambler. Manning understood a great range of things about the human condition.
Today, as has already been mentioned, and I very much agree with this, I especially want to remember him as a resident of Canberra devoted to this city. This morning Ian Hirst and I were remembering his involvement with Hazel Hawke and Sir Geoffrey Yeend in a planning proposal for Civic Square. A reference to the National Capital Planning Authority has already been made. I remember him in Civic Square on 13 November 1987, standing with a large group of residents who eventually became the Residents Rally. It was not a political group at that time and he was standing there on behalf of our city. His own Robin Boyd house is itself an ornament to this city. He loved the bush and the ambience of this city; and he loved the poets of Canberra and this part of Australia, including the south coast. It was magnificent to hear Glenn Tomasetti singing that David Campbell poem yesterday. It was absolutely stunning.
To Dymphna and those six extraordinary children, who surely reflect what Manning was, we offer the very greatest sympathy, and I hope that we will all forever remember him.
MR COLLAERY (Deputy Chief Minister): Mr Speaker, I rise briefly to add to the comments made. I last spoke to Manning Clark on Thursday, 9 May, in Manuka. He was a local resident and I knew him. As Dr Kinloch has so eloquently put, he did not belong to anyone; he sought a new order through a study of the old world, or the new old world of Australia. He did have a vision for Canberra and he never let me not know that he expected that vision to be delivered. On 9 May he again sought to ensure that the Rally stuck to what it set out to achieve. That was Manning Clark. I mourn his passing and I join with other members of the house in passing condolences to his wife and children.
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