Page 30 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 7 December 2004
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I would like also to use this occasion to acknowledge the opportunity extended to me by the Liberal Party of Australia and acknowledge the outstanding efforts during the recent election campaign of both the Liberal Party’s divisional director, Andrew Wilsmore, who is a friend of many years standing as well as being a professional colleague, and also our divisional president, Mr Gary Kent. I must also express my thanks to my campaign committee and the campaign director, Mrs Dawn Crosby, who has recently left with her husband, Lynton, who has been appointed as the campaign director for the UK Conservatives.
My road to this Assembly was influenced by events some 40 years ago. As a very young person, I took great exception to the decision to conscript people to fight the Vietnam War. I was opposed to compulsory military service then and I continue to be opposed to it today. This obviously led me to the other side of politics, where I believe I made significant contributions; but I did lose confidence in the party, especially at state parliamentary level. Despite my decision to leave the ALP, some of those friendships on the other side of politics have strangely endured throughout all of this time.
Following my disillusionment and reflecting on my own philosophy, I ultimately joined the Liberal Party some 30 years ago, where I felt my views and general philosophy were most appropriately aligned. I think I hold the longest continuous membership of any political party by any person in the Assembly at the present time. My political activities brought me into contact with most major political figures in the past 36 years, ranging from Whitlam, Murphy, Carr and Cairns to Fraser, Howard and Kennett, to mention a few.
I have held a number of appointments over the years as an advisor to a range of political figures and this has provided me with some insight into the parliamentary process and enabled me to continue my interest in politics and achieving just outcomes. It is a matter of public record that I have held a range of appointments in industry—some of them have been controversial—and government, dealing with contentious issues either locally or internationally.
One of the more controversial roles was as Chief Executive of the Confectionery Manufacturers of Australia in which I became heavily involved in the Dollar Sweets dispute, an industrial dispute that extended for some 143 days. During that dispute we saw industrial precedents established. We also saw the emergence of a young Melbourne barrister at that time by the name of Peter Costello, who is now the Treasurer of Australia. Despite the efforts of some history revisionists that this was simply an exercise in attacking a union, it is worth noting that the Labor Prime Minister at that time, Bob Hawke, and a senior official of the ACTU provided some support for that company through that terrible industrial dispute. I am proud to say that Fred Stauder, the former owner of that firm, who has now retired, recently came to Canberra to campaign full time for my candidature as an expression of his ongoing appreciation of those efforts almost 20 years ago.
I believe that the experience gleaned from working for a number of governments, serving internationally as a senior executive with one of the world’s more successful companies—the William Wrigley Jr Company—and representing various industry associations and interests will assist me in better representing my electorate in this
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