JK was a Big Man.
He had a Big Life.
And through that life he had an enormous impact on his family, his friends, and those who worked with him.
That classification is too simple.
For through his personality and behaviours, JK made his staffers feel like family. And many staffers became close friends.
As well as being family, June could justifiably claim to be JK’s intellectual friend and moderator. And when working with JK on his magnum opus, June was in the position of a good staffer.
As a Minister there was a fourth class of person whose life intersected with JK’s: those who were affected by the decisions he led. He never forgot them or took them for granted.
His political work was undertaken within two contexts. One was a search for the national interest. The other was the effect the work he was leading would have on the lives of people and communities.
In today’s parlance JK practised The Politics of Nice. The Politics of Common Sense. The Politics of Truth and Proven Fact.
Not for him the politics of ideology, faction, vested interest or personal gain.
Proven Fact was a Holy Grail for JK. He said that once he had read philosophy he began to doubt everything.
The very title of his great volume, The Way I Saw It; The Way It Was, betrays his modest acceptance that the way he saw it may not have reflected the way it actually was.
He never gave up the pleasure of reading, thinking and talking about what might and might not be true.
We should all read or re-read that great written achievement of his.[i]
Working with JK was a privilege. It was rewarding. It was often good fun.
His work as Minister for Primary Industries and the Bush made a significant contribution to the stability and success of the Hawke-Keating governments. Farmers, fishers and foresters, researchers and scientists, his Parliamentary colleagues and the interested public soon had faith in JK’s management of the industries and the people of rural areas.
More should be made of his legacy in this regard.
He was seen as a safe pair of hands – and what hands they were!
All of us here have been greatly affected by your work.
We will always be grateful for the unique contribution you made to our lives.
We are thankful for the inspiration and leadership you provided us and so many others.
And we will never forget you.
i The way I saw it; the way it was – the making of national agricultural and natural resource management policy, John C. Kerin, Analysis & Policy Observatory, 2017.
