David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Resources and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

With the death of former senator Peter Durack, the Liberal Party in Western Australia has lost one of its most influential parliamentarians. Peter Durack was an outstanding Western Australian senator whose 23 years of dedicated service included more than six years as Attorney-General and almost a decade as a senior opposition figure. For those of us from Western Australia, that carries with it an enormous amount of commitment not just to the parliament but to the party in Western Australia.

Peter Durack was a brilliant student. He was a Rhodes scholar in 1949. He completed a Bachelor of Civil Law at Oxford University before practising in London. Peter Durack participated in many national debates during his time in the Senate and since his retirement from parliament. I should pause to say that his contribution to our party in Western Australia was enormous, beyond the days of his service in this place. He is one of the few parliamentarians to have also held the state seat of Perth—from 1965 to 1968. He was state president of the Liberal Party in Western Australia from 1968 to 1971. He was one of Australia’s longest serving senators, as I have said, with more than 22 years to his credit. He was shadow minister for defence from 1990 to 1992 as well as shadow minister for resources and energy—a job that I am reasonably familiar with—between 1984 and 1987.

Peter Durack will be remembered as one of Australia’s most accomplished attorneys-general. He was a reformist. One of his first tasks as Attorney-General was to support the freedom of information bill. It was a new concept then, one that has evolved and developed but which commenced under his stewardship. When enacted, it gave a legal enforceable right for Australians to access information held by government, a concept which we all very much take for granted to a great extent today. That legislation was one of the biggest changes to civil liberties and was a foundation stone of civil liberties in this country.

Peter Durack mentored a generation, me included, of Liberal parliamentarians throughout Australia and was widely regarded as a person of great integrity and intellect. I can certainly affirm that. Peter Durack is survived by his wife, Isabel, who is a historian, their two children, Anne and Philip, who are both lawyers, and four grandchildren. His wise counsel, I must say, will be greatly missed, but his positive influence over the Liberal Party and this parliament will survive.