Page 3322 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 24 November 1992
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Bill Mason was a man whose vision for an equitable community was founded on a concrete system of redistributing wealth. As members of this Assembly, we should recognise the contribution that Bill Mason made to our thinking about social justice. We should take this opportunity to offer our condolences to his wife, Roma, and to his children, Christopher, Robert and Jennifer.
MS FOLLETT (Chief Minister and Treasurer): Madam Speaker, in supporting the motion of condolence which Mr Moore has moved to Mr Bill Mason's wife, Roma, and their children, I think that I speak for all members of this house when I say that Canberra has lost a respected citizen of the ACT. Bill Mason served his country well in war as well as in peace. His service in finance areas of public administration spanned government departments in the ACT and the Northern Territory.
Through the pages of the Canberra Times, he was well known for his views on taxation policies and other matters. I should say that over the years I have enjoyed a great deal of correspondence and debate with Mr Mason on taxation matters, and in fact I will miss that ongoing debate. Mr Mason was a prolific letter writer to the press. Hardly a week went by that the letters to the editor column did not contain a succinct expression of his opinion on quite a range of subjects.
Mr Mason always took an active interest in the world around him and, as Michael Moore has noted, he had strong political views. We all recall that he was a candidate for the Australian Democrats in the first ACT government elections in 1989. Bill Mason will be mourned also by the community groups in which he took an active interest. I join with others in this place in expressing the sympathy of the Government to his wife and to his family and friends, who all mourn his passing.
MR CORNWELL: Madam Speaker, on behalf of the Liberal Party I rise to support the motion moved by Mr Moore. I think I first met Bill Mason in the 1980s in the old Legislative Assembly, but I really got to know him when we were both fellow members of the Self-government Campaign Committee, which came into being shortly after 1986 with the abolition of the old Assembly.
Bill certainly felt very strongly about taxation measures, as Mr Moore has indicated. It was not a view that I shared; but I did share with him another commitment, and that was his very strong support for the whole concept of self-government for this Territory. He served with Trevor Kaine and me on the Self-government Campaign Committee. Although I do not think that we can claim to have enabled self-government to come to this Territory, I would like to think that some assistance was provided by that committee of which Bill was a very senior member.
I repeat that, as the Chief Minister has said, he was a very regular letter writer to the Canberra Times - sometimes successfully, sometimes not. I am sure that, with other members of this chamber, we received on occasions copies of some of his unsuccessful correspondence to the Canberra Times. He was also a fairly regular visitor to this building, with his representations in relation to the ideas and theories of Henry George. On behalf of the Liberal Party, I would like to reiterate that we join in the motion of condolence to his widow and family.
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