Page 1516 - Week 04 - Thursday, 7 April 2011
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member of the federal parliamentary press gallery. He was elected President of the National Press Club for two terms, in 1969 and 1970.
Like many of those who are passionate about not only the media but the intersection it has with politics, Mr Fitzgerald could not resist the opportunity to be involved in the political process. In 1967, he was elected to the ACT Advisory Council as a True Whig on a joke platform of promising to do nothing. The election in 1970 saw him re-elected, with 21 per cent of the vote.
Mr Fitzgerald made a more serious foray into politics when he ran on the Australia Party ticket in the 1970 by-election for the seat of Canberra. Although an enthusiastic campaign saw him achieve the highest vote for the Australia Party of any candidate in any election, he was ultimately unsuccessful in his bid for the seat.
A prolific writer, Mr Fitzgerald was the author of many works and had in fact nearly finished another book on the history of the Irish in Australia when he passed away on 31 March.
We are a young territory, a young city; yet the passing of Alan Fitzgerald reminds us that, although we have not been here long, we have already lost many of those who played such a key role in establishing and defining the territory.
Alan Fitzgerald will be remembered not only as one who came to Canberra and made it his home, working here and raising his family here, but as one of those very few who in future should and will be remembered as great contributors to Canberra.
Mr Doszpot, who will speak to this condolence motion, reminded me of the quote from the autobiography of Mr Fitzgerald. The quote reads:
… my life had been shaped by living in the national capital in ways that I could not have imagined possible had I lived elsewhere.
I would suggest that his life was not only shaped by living in the national capital but helped to shape our national capital.
On behalf of the Canberra Liberals, I express my sincere condolences to wife, Maria, to son Julian, and daughter in law, Jacqueline, to grandson, Patrick, and to all family and friends of Alan Fitzgerald.
MS HUNTER (Ginninderra—Parliamentary Convenor, ACT Greens) (10.13): The ACT Greens will of course be supporting this important condolence motion this morning. Alan John Fitzgerald was a proud, passionate and active Canberran. As a resident of Canberra for 47 years, he certainly took part in shaping the capital. Mr Fitzgerald witnessed the real boom in Canberra’s population in the 1960s and 1970s. Mr Fitzgerald worked across all journalistic mediums, writing columns for both the Sydney Morning Herald and the Canberra Times. He satirised and documented the shaping of our capital.
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