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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 7 Hansard (28 June) . . Page.. 2104 ..
MR HIRD
(continuing):Gordon John Walsh grace our lives and we are the worse for his passing. Mr Speaker, in the immortal words of Henry Lawson:
The night too quickly passes
And we are growing old
So let us fill our glasses
And toast the Days of Gold
When finds of wondrous treasure
Set all the South ablaze
And you and I were faithful mates
All through the roaring days.
Gordon John Walsh found his roaring days in the development of Canberra's political system, and I was proud to share them with him. Our sincere sympathy goes to his wife, Naomi, and his family.
MR KAINE
: Mr Speaker, as has already been observed, Gordon Walsh served this community well over quite a long time. He was an elected member of preceded bodies of this place for 20 years and he served, as has already been indicated, on a number of important community organisations. He was absolutely committed to the service of this community. Mr Speaker, you and I know, from having worked closely with him over a good part of those 20 years, just how committed he was to the service of this community.One of the things that were a characteristic of Gordon was his absolute commitment to the concept of self-government. He worked assiduously towards that aim, as well as serving as an elected representative and on those community organisations.
It has been mentioned that he was a member of the old Assembly committee on transition to self-government, but there is a little-known organisation of which Gordon Walsh was a member and through which he contributed to the outcome of self-government as we now know it. It is an organisation called the Movement for Home Rule which was established after the old House of Assembly was dissolved in 1986. There were a very limited number of members of it, including me and Mr Speaker and Gordon Walsh. That organisation, after the House of Assembly was dissolved, became in a way a sounding board for the Commonwealth Parliament because there was nobody else that could speak for this community. Very few people know that such an organisation existed, but it made, I believe, a very important contribution to the form of self-government when it was finally granted in 1989. Gordon Walsh was a very active member of that organisation, even though he had ceased by then to have any affiliation with any organised political party.
Gordon was a great guy to work with. He was straightforward. You always understood exactly where you stood with Gordon. There was not a devious bone in his body. He was cooperative. He had a very pleasant personality and a dry sense of humour that perhaps a lot of people did not appreciate because it was quite subtle. You sometimes did not realise that he was being humorous and having a shot at you until you sat down and thought about it later. I always found it a great pleasure to work with Gordon Walsh in those years of his involvement in public life during which I knew him, and knew him well.
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