Page 2250 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 17 August 1993
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I will draw attention to what he eventually said about himself. He had spoken about Rosemary Follett, who apparently was not present at the time of the speech. There were some members that he did not refer to. He said:
Finally, I come to myself and I do ask friends, despite my advanced age and the initials "R.R.", -
he was referring to the Residents Rally -
not to refer to me as the Ronald Reagan of this house.
He was very keen not to be associated that way. He said:
If it is not too arrogant, I humbly accept the middle name, Jefferson.
Madam Speaker, I can imagine lots of reasons why that would be the case. In some ways I think back on Dr Kinloch much more as the Benjamin Franklin of the Assembly and of public life, not only for his involvement in politics but also for his contribution, as an educated man, to this Assembly.
The second speech that I remember well, Madam Speaker, was a speech he gave when the Bill dealing with restricting guns went through this Assembly. It was, I think, one of the best speeches ever delivered in the Assembly. He talked about the concept of the right to bear arms, not only in the sense of a Bill of Rights that could be considered for Australia. With reference to the American Constitution, he debunked in that speech the concept that Americans ought be able to interpret their Constitution in terms of a right to bear arms and then drew conclusions about applying that to Australia. On these occasions in particular, Madam Speaker, Dr Kinloch held the attention of the members of the Assembly and people in the gallery. In the first speech there was great humour and joy. On the occasion of the second speech we were attentive because of the message that Dr Kinloch was delivering, because of its importance.
His sense of humour, as I remember it, came through best of all, Madam Speaker, the last time that I dealt with Dr Kinloch publicly. That was in a debate - I think Mr Humphries was involved in it as well - on whether Canberra should be renamed "Sinberra". I had prepared very carefully. I knew that Dr Kinloch was going to make the first speech and I had prepared all the arguments to counter what he was going to say. Unfortunately it was going to make it a very serious situation. I had all the answers prepared and, as far as I was concerned, I had the advantage because my speech was going to be delivered well after his. Of course, in his usual style, he did the totally unexpected. He turned the whole thing into a laugh and went the opposite way from what was expected. He did it all with tongue in cheek and Mr Humphries and I simply threw away our speeches. There was simply no point in delivering the speeches we had prepared because Dr Kinloch, in his initial statement, had undermined everything we were going to do. It was that side of Hector that most of us admired. We saw it not only in public statements like that. Those of us who knew him personally saw that also in the way he dealt with people personally, giving advice with sincerity and a well-developed sense of humour.
Madam Speaker, it is with great regret that I support this motion on the death of Dr Kinloch, but at least we have this opportunity to reflect on the contributions that he made to our community.
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