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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 4 Hansard (1 April) . . Page.. 1109 ..

Tuesday, 1 April 2003

MR SPEAKER (Mr Berry) took the chair at 10.30 am, made a formal recognition that the Assembly was meeting on the lands of the traditional owners, and asked members to stand in silence and pray or reflect on their responsibilities to the people of the Australian Capital Territory.

Death of Mr Barry Reid

MR STANHOPE (Chief Minister, Attorney-General, Minister for Community Affairs and Minister for the Environment) (10.32): I move:

Mr Speaker, like many of our citizens, and perhaps in particular many members of the ACT branch of the Australian Labor Party, I was deeply saddened to hear of Barry Reid's death. I think it most fitting that I clearly acknowledge the sorrow felt by many Canberra residents and citizens upon last week's news. It was, indeed, the citizens of our territory, of the ACT and Canberra, to whom Barry Reid gave enduring, noble and very significant service.

Barry played a unique role in Canberra's modern development. He served in the ACT House of Assembly from 1982 to 1986 during the tumultuous years prior to self-government. But these were also times when Canberra was certainly finding a renewed sense of identity beyond its place as the national capital. I think that those years in the lead-up to the granting of self-government in the ACT are a period in the history of the ACT where the involvement of many Canberrans who fought quite significantly for self-government for the territory has not been truly or appropriately rewarded. I remember quite clearly the role that members of my party, the Australian Labor Party, played in the community debate in the years leading up to the granting of self-government for Canberra, and certainly Barry Reid played a very significant and unique role in that debate and in those developments.

As a senior political figure in Canberra during the 1980s, Barry was well known and regarded in the Australian Labor Party, the Assembly and the ACT community for the endeavours that took him to what we might term the coalface of public life. Barry was certainly a politician that valued responsibility to the community over the sometimes harsh realities of political affairs. I think it is only fair to acknowledge that it was perhaps this noble sentiment, obligation to community first, and a deep desire to serve the Canberra community, that ultimately brought about a separation between Barry Reid and the Australian Labor Party. I have no desire to dwell on that. I regret, indeed, that unfortunate development. Barry had long served the Australian Labor Party and was a devoted member. I feel, perhaps with a particular nostalgia, that the rift between Barry and the party led to his separating from it.

I knew Barry particularly well and personally. He was the president of the Mount Rogers branch of the Australian Labor Party when I joined the party in 1976. So I got to know

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