Tuesday, 17 June 2025

Hon Dr Race Mathews

Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (12:05): I move:

That this house expresses its sincere sorrow at the death of the Honourable Dr Race Mathews and places on record its acknowledgement of the valuable services rendered by him to the Parliament, the labour movement and the people of Victoria as member of the Legislative Assembly for the district of Oakleigh from 1979 to 1992, Minister for Community Services from 1987 to 1988, Minister for Police and Emergency Services from 1982 to 1987 and Minister for the Arts from 1982 to 1987.

Race Mathews believed in the power of government to make a difference, and he dedicated his life to proving that it could. He served the Victorian community across all three levels of government – local, state and federal – and in every role he brought with him that deep belief in fairness, a sharp and searching mind and a steady, lifelong commitment to public service. Race Mathews grew up in Melbourne in a working-class family, part of a long line of dedicated Labor supporters. However, it was reading some left-wing books in the library of Melbourne Grammar School that sparked Race’s political calling, and the irony of course was not lost on Race. In one of the country’s most elite educational institutions he found the radical ideas that would inspire his lifelong commitment to social justice. In 1956 he cemented that commitment by joining the great Australian Labor Party and jumping in with both feet as an organiser on a number of local, state and federal campaigns.

In 1963 he put his own hand up, getting himself elected as a local councillor for the people of Croydon. Then between 1967 and 1972 Race had that great opportunity of serving as principal private secretary to Gough Whitlam, an honour he would later describe as one of the greatest privileges of his life. There Race helped sow the early architecture of Medibank, what we now know today as Medicare. The system that Race helped create would become the bedrock of health care in our nation, a system that ensures that every Australian can see a doctor no matter where they live or their bank balance, a tremendous Labor government legacy.

Following that watershed federal election of 1972 Race was elected as the federal member for Casey, one of just two Labor members in the history of the seat of Casey. Then in 1979 Race was elected to the Victorian Parliament and to this place as the member for Oakleigh. In this Parliament Race served for over a decade, holding senior portfolios in the ministries of police and emergency services, community services and the arts.

As the member for Oakleigh Race would often freely hand out his card with his private home phone number on it to constituents. Locals would then of course call him directly, day or night, and he or perhaps his wife Iola would answer that phone at all hours, because to him that is what representation meant – not just holding the office but being available, being there for people, and we saw that as he served in that role of Minister for Community Services. He strengthened child protection and helped lead the closure of institutions housing people with intellectual disabilities. This shift to community-based care was one of the great social reforms of that time, and its impact echoes across to today in the lives, the dignity and the freedoms of thousands of Victorians living with an intellectual disability.

As Minister for Police and Emergency services Race modernised the force, helped shape the state’s emergency response after those devastating Ash Wednesday fires and also introduced tighter gun controls. Then as Minister for the Arts Race opened the Arts Centre at Southbank and helped to also establish the Melbourne Writers Festival. Notable too is it may well be the first and only time in Victoria’s history that those portfolios that he held at the same time, of police and the arts, would collide so directly, in the infamous story from 1986 when Picasso’s Weeping Woman was stolen from the National Gallery of Victoria by a group called the Australian Cultural Terrorists, demanding more money for youth arts.

Now, as the minister that was responsible for both law enforcement and the arts, Race found himself facing a rather unique crisis. But thankfully, as all of those who are aware of this chapter of our state’s history will know, the painting was eventually returned unharmed, a little unceremoniously left in a locker at Spencer Street station.

The real measure of Race Mathews’s legacy was found far from the headlines. He remained a deep thinker throughout his life. That same scholar who as a schoolboy poured over his ideas amongst the quiet shelves of the Melbourne Grammar library wrote books. He wrote policy. He remained a committed Fabian for more than 40 years and a fierce believer in the ideal that a more equal society was not just possible but absolutely necessary. Race Mathews was thoughtful and principled. He was deeply respected and widely admired across our great Australian Labor Party, and he also helped shape some of the most important reforms in this country’s social history.

In the final days of Race’s life, as his health declined, Race managed to make it to a pre-poll centre and cast his final vote for Labor. He knew the party that he had given so much of his life to was ahead in the polls, and on election night Iola said it felt as if he was right there watching on. Just two days later Race passed away surrounded by those who loved him and with the quiet comfort of knowing that the ideals he had spent a lifetime fighting for were being carried forward.

Race Mathews helped to build a fairer, better Victoria and a more decent Australia. On behalf of the government and the people of Victoria I extend our heartfelt condolences to Race’s wife of 52 years Iola. And Iola, I thank you for your partnership with Race in supporting him and therefore for the support you gave to our community as well. To Race’s children Sean, Jane, Vanessa, Keir and Talya, to his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and to his friends and comrades and all who were touched by Race’s work and his example, vale, Race Mathews.

Brad BATTIN (Berwick – Leader of the Opposition) (12:12): I rise today on behalf of the opposition to pay tribute to the life of the Honourable Charles Mathews, known simply as Race, as we have heard, and offer our deepest condolences to his family and friends. Public life is a demanding call. It is a life of conviction, of service and often of great personal sacrifice. It is a life that Race Mathews lived to the fullest, leaving an indelible mark on the political and cultural landscape of not only this state but our nation. I also extend deepest sympathies from this side of the house to his beloved wife Iola, to his children Sean, Jane, Vanessa, Keir and Talya and to his many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Race Mathews was one of many of us in this place, a political opponent, but he was never simply that. He was a man of intellect, conviction and integrity. He was in the truest and most honourable sense of the word a servant of the people, not guided by personal ambition but by a deep, unshakeable belief in the power of public policy to change lives for the better. His career was one of remarkable breadth, spanning local, state and federal government. He began just prior to the current member for Croydon in the former Croydon Shire Council, entered the federal Parliament as the member for Casey and later served 13 years in the Legislative Assembly as the member for Oakleigh.

It is worth pausing on his time as a federal member for Casey. In his maiden speech to the Commonwealth Parliament in the 1970s, he described Casey as being on the doorstep of Victoria’s Dandenong Ranges, encompassing communities like Ringwood, Warrandyte and the outer suburban centres. That description is as true today as it was then, a blend of bushland, beauty and suburban aspiration. While the electorate of Casey is not directly adjacent to my own, I too have the privilege of serving communities of Melbourne’s outer edge, and like Race Mathews, I see everyday the challenges and hopes of the families in these growing suburbs in the need for infrastructure, jobs, good schools and safe streets. We may have sat on opposite sides of politics, but we have both knew the importance of listening to our communities and advocating for them relentlessly and without reserve. Like me, Race Mathews believed that politics starts with people, that policy is not abstract but personal, and that good government is about being present, being responsive and being accountable.

Before he was elected, Race was a teacher and speech therapist, roles that gave him insight into the daily struggles and quiet triumphs of ordinary Victorians. It was this grounding that shaped his political world view and which led him to serve as the principal private secretary to Gough Whitlam. In that role, Race helped shape some of the most consequential reforms in Australian history, and none more significant than Medibank, the forerunner of Medicare.

He was elected to federal Parliament in 1972, at a time of national transformation. The clippings from that era speak of a man with a young family, a mobile electorate office in a converted van and a boundless commitment to public service. But it was here in this chamber where Race left his most enduring mark when he delivered his maiden speech in the Victorian Parliament in June 1979. He did so with a disarming wit and self-awareness. He said:

The Leader of the House has been quoted as saying that maiden speeches should be non-controversial and limited to a quarter of an hour … Luckily, my maiden speech was made in another place some time ago. A lot of things can be done by a majority vote in the democratic process, but restoring lost innocence is not one of them.

It was pure Race: astute, ironic and always attuned to the bigger picture.

As a minister in the Cain government, he held two seemingly disparate portfolios: police and emergency services and the arts. It earned him an affectionate nickname at the time, which I will not say here today – they were different times then – but it was a title that he accepted with good humour, which he believed showed the seriousness with which he actually approached both roles.

In the arts, his impact was transformative. He opened the Melbourne Arts Centre on Southbank, established the Spoleto Festival Melbourne, now the Melbourne International Arts Festival, and helped launch the Melbourne Writers Festival. These are cultural institutions that continue to shape Melbourne’s identity today. And of course it was during his tenure that Picasso’s The Weeping Woman was stolen from the NGV – one of the more colourful chapters in our state’s history. Race’s steady handling of that saga, despite being mocked in ransom notes as a ‘tiresome old bag of swamp gas’, showed his resilience and poise under pressure.

In his police and emergency services portfolio, his leadership came to the fore in the wake of the Ash Wednesday bushfires in 1983, one of the most devastating disasters in our state’s history. He helped lead Victoria’s recovery, strengthened our emergency response system and pushed for the modernisation of the Victorian police force and tighter firearm laws. These are not small achievements. They are enduring legacies. As someone who understands the responsibilities that come with public safety, I feel a particular affinity to Race Mathews’s service as minister for police and emergency services. Like Race, I work closely with the communities of outer suburban Melbourne, which expect their representatives to take their public safety seriously. His tenure came at a time of great challenge, particularly in the wake of the Ash Wednesday bushfires, and he rose to meet that challenge with calm leadership and clear resolve. He led reforms to modernise Victoria Police, tightened gun laws at a time when this was no small task and improved our state’s disaster readiness in ways that saved lives. It is no exaggeration to say that his reform laid the foundation for much of the capability of the emergency services that we rely on today. He understood that the first duty of government was to keep its citizens safe. That was his mission then, and it remains ours now.

But Race Mathews was more than a minister. He was, above all, a man of ideas. His association with Fabianism reflects his long-term interest in policy, cooperative economics and reforming capitalism through inclusive stakeholder-based models. His work with the Fabian Society and his books like Jobs of Our Own underline that commitment.

Importantly, he was also a family man. The stories of his life, of losing his first wife Jill at a young age, of raising his children with strength and tenderness and of 52 years marriage to Iola are reminders of the personal cost and quiet heroism that accompanied public service. In his final years, as he battled Alzheimer’s, Race’s voice may have dimmed, but his influence did not, and his legacy remains etched in this state, its institutions, its policies and its people.

His wife quoted in her eulogy of him from Terminator 2, of all places – probably words that we would not have come up with:

The future is not set. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves.

Race Mathews made his own fate, and in doing so he helped shape a more caring, creative and compassionate Victoria. On behalf of the opposition and on behalf of all Victorians who value integrity in public life, we offer our profound thanks and deepest condolences to his family. May he rest in peace.

Ben CARROLL (Niddrie – Minister for Education, Minister for WorkSafe and the TAC) (12:20): It is a pleasure to rise and speak on this condolence motion. We extend our condolences to his wife of 52 years Iola. Race, when he married Iola, said to the Age newspaper he had:

… deprived ‘The Age’ of the best education correspondent it ever had.

If you read Iola’s biography of her late husband and if you read her contribution in the Age more recently, you can see what a wonderful person she is. To be joined here today by Iola, Sean and Talya – we thank you very much.

Race believed in the possibilities of progressive politics. His legacy is deeply entwined with that of Gough Whitlam. You can only imagine what it must have been like to be at Gough Whitlam’s side during those big reforms. On 28 February he gave his inaugural speech to the Commonwealth Parliament, and he said:

A nation is as sound as its education system.

…

The most conspicuous characterstic of Australian education is the unfair way in which it is distributed.

As the Premier said, he will always be remembered for his landmark reforms around Medicare and education, and in my contribution I just want to touch on his contribution to education. Gough Whitlam said in his biography the most intense political debate in Australia in the 1960s was not about Vietnam, it was about education. He said:

No country with our resources should tolerate the present standard of our schools; no socialist party should tolerate the present inequality of opportunity for our children.

When Gough Whitlam came together with Race Mathews, they were an incredible force that changed the future of so many children across our wonderful country.

In 1969 Malcolm Fraser was the education minister, and of course there was the policy that non-government schools should only receive funding from the Commonwealth. Race Mathews and Gough Whitlam took this to the 1969 ALP national conference, and they had a lot of fierce opposition as well. But they were very concerned that they needed to change the way schools were funded. Their view was that both private and non-government schools and all government schools should be funded and that there were disadvantaged areas and postcodes right across our nation. They made sure that every child, no matter their background, got that great transition to a wonderful education.

Race, with Gough, in May 1973 set up Schools in Australia, which for the very first time introduced a needs-based funding system to a common resource standard – and the shadow minister will know that language as well. We talk about Gonski now, but if you go back 50 years, it was Race Mathews and Gough Whitlam that did the original Gonski with the Karmel report, four decades earlier than David Gonski. Race Mathews and Gough Whitlam were ahead of their time and very forward thinking.

Why was it education for Race? Because he studied at Toorak Teachers’ College, where he met his first wife Geraldine, who was also undertaking teaching. He could have studied and gone and worked anywhere, but he went to Yinnar South Primary School near Morwell, one of the most disadvantaged communities in our state. He spent his weekends travelling to Moe to regularly meet his new fiancée Jill, where she was also teaching. He said the reason he joined the Labor Party in 1956 in Moe was because of what he experienced at Yinnar primary school. Indeed he told the Herald’s Doug Aiton the story of a Morwell family he had known when he was working in Latrobe Valley. He was only 19 and was a teacher, but one of the children in his class had a major speech impediment. Race could not believe that he could not get treatment for this young boy. He said:

That’s why I joined the ALP. I couldn’t get help. I thought someone should help them.

The reason we are here today is for a better life for ordinary people. It is said often that you should not meet your heroes, but there is no doubt that when Race met Gough Whitlam he summed up everything he wanted to be as a human person. He said:

The chance to work with someone like Whitlam crops up once in a hundred years.

and it is:

… a privilege that perhaps a handful of people get once in a century.

He said:

It was akin to living right next to a power house, the constant throb of the energy, the scintillating creativity of the mind.

Working for Gough was endlessly stimulating. He lived at full stretch and everyone expected you to catch up with him. He said:

To become Prime Minister myself would not be half as rewarding as that was.

Race did not become Prime Minister, but he did get elected to the federal Parliament, representing the division of Casey. But he also then transitioned successfully to state Parliament. He said:

[QUOTE AWAITING VERIFICATION]

After the dismissal of the Whitlam government, federal politics never seemed real to me.

As the member for Oakleigh, as has been said, he represented the portfolios of police and emergency services and the arts. As the Premier highlighted and as the opposition highlighted too, there was that infamous stealing of the painting.

What many people will not realise is that when Race was Minister for the Arts, the government paid $1.6 million for Weeping Woman. That today is valued at more than $150 million – not bad for a member of the socialist left. We should always be very careful of how we treat money. It might not have been insured at the time, but he was the police minister and ensured it was safely returned.

He grew up in a home where the arts were valued. He wanted to make the arts more easily and widely acceptable. It would be remiss not to mention what he did as the minister, following, in the arts, the great work of Evan Walker. Many people will be appreciative of the great work that Evan Walker did in creating the arts precinct down at Southbank. It says a lot about the character of Race that when he was the minister with John Cain, they actually requested the former Premier Rupert Hamer come and open the Arts Centre, because they knew about the bipartisan nature of politics, and they also knew what they needed to do to make sure that centre could be a success for both sides of politics going forward. Today, whether it be the Playbox at the Malthouse, the Melbourne Theatre Company or the Victorian State Opera, these all have Race’s DNA running right through them.

There was that scandal, and Picasso’s Weeping Woman was safely returned. Can I say, though, there was a reshuffle as well, and he became the Minister for Community Services. Many people said this was a demotion for Race Mathews, but he said no, this was not a demotion. This is what every Labor Party man wants: he wants to make sure people are more conscious of their consciences than their hip pockets. He said:

The areas I will be dealing with are the pivot of our social justice strategy.

As private secretary to Gough, he considered this finishing where he started in social policy, and there he oversaw the deinstitutionalisation of the intellectually disabled and the wholesale strengthening of the child protection act. What a legacy to be proud of.

I send my heartfelt condolences to his wife of 52 years Iola; his children Sean, Jane, Vanessa, Keir and Tayla; his eight grandchildren as well – I will put it on Hansard – Hagan, Georgia, Nyx, Seth, Rebecca, Felix, Caleb, Arnau; and his four great grandchildren Cedar, Ember, Hazel and Cora. Victoria is a better place for Race’s service, and the labour movement is stronger for his belief.

Danny O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (12:27): I am pleased to rise on behalf of the Nationals to pay our condolences to the family and friends of Race Mathews and to the wider labour movement and to acknowledge his period of service. I am indebted to the Minister for Education, because in my biographical information I was not aware that Race had spent time at Yinnar South Primary School. Whilst it would be completely wrong of me to rely on Race’s memory, I have just recently written to the minister about an issue at Yinnar South Primary School. I will not seek to do the wrong thing and suggest that this would help, but perhaps when the minister is responding on the infrastructure needs of Yinnar South Primary School he might recall that Race Mathews did time there. It is a recognition, though, of the commitment that Race obviously had.

Growing up, I remember the Weeping Woman saga, but I also remember, as a kid, the name Race Mathews, partly because of the name and partly because my own father was as passionate about politics as Race Mathews was, but in a very, very different way – in fact the exact opposite. I remember Dad railing against the Fabian Society and many others. But I do remember Race Mathews and that name at the time. He obviously served as the member for Casey in the federal Parliament from 1972 to 1975, having had the time prior to that working for Gough Whitlam, and as the Minister for Education indicated, that would have been a time. As Iola said – and I am going to be quoting a little bit from her obituary on her husband – she quoted him as saying that it was ‘the most tumultuous, and by far the most rewarding’ time of his career. I can imagine that would have been the case as he moved on from time as a teacher and as a speech therapist into the heady world of federal politics at that time. Obviously he came back to Victoria and to the Victorian Parliament, serving as the member for Oakleigh from 1979 to 1992.

His inaugural speeches, having had a brief look at them, reflect an eloquence and a conviction that really sets him apart. You can read the passion for his commitment to social justice in those speeches.

I also noticed a couple of things – how much times have changed since his contribution. In 1979 he lamented the introduction of the word processor and how it was costing 20,000 jobs for typists, girls in their first year out of school, which is not something that we would say now – that girls are just looking for that. I also noted how much things have changed but how much they have stayed the same, because in his inaugural speech, which was then called a maiden speech, in 1973 in the federal Parliament he talked about patients waiting at Box Hill Hospital. He talked about the roads. I note the contribution in respect of the typists was about the threat of technology, and we are still facing those issues today with AI and the threat to jobs. It is interesting how much things change and how much they stay the same.

I think others have made comments about Race’s career in the ministry and some of those challenges. The Weeping Woman was high profile but probably not the most important thing. Imagine having to deal with the aftermath of Ash Wednesday as the Minister for Police and Emergency Services. That would have been a difficult time for anyone in government and indeed the Parliament at the time.

I mentioned his commitment, and I think there was a commitment to the labour movement and to the socialist cause. I think the book titles alone tell us who Race Mathews was. The book titles were Australia’s First Fabians: Middle-Class Radicals, Labour Activists and the Early Labour Movement in 1993; Jobs of Our Own: Building a Stakeholder Society in 1999; and Of Labour and Liberty: Distributism in Victoria, 1891–1966. They tell a story of his commitment, and I am sure the member for Essendon has read all of those and will be giving us quotes from them at some stage.

As Iola said in her obituary in the Age:

… he was driven by a passion for fairness and justice, and a commitment to equality, democracy and empowerment.

I extend on behalf of the Nationals our condolences to Iola; their five children Sean, Jane, Vanessa, Keir and Talya; and the memory of a leader as well to his eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Vale, Race Mathews.

Steve DIMOPOULOS (Oakleigh – Minister for Environment, Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events, Minister for Outdoor Recreation) (12:32): Very few individuals within the labour and progressive movements have reached the level of influence that Race Mathews had in shaping our nation. He was a true giant of our movement, an unwavering Labor man in every sense of the word, and he will be deeply missed. During his long tenure as secretary and president of the Australian Fabian Society from 1960 to 2006, Race championed bold and visionary policies. He consistently pushed Labor governments to think big about the transformational change only Labor can deliver and worked to make sure those ideas were acted on.

As principal private secretary to then opposition leader Gough Whitlam, Race played a key role in shaping policy on education and health, as has been mentioned. He worked on the foundations of what would become Medibank, the forerunner to Medicare, which others in the chamber, including the Premier, have mentioned, a game changer which now sits imprinted on the soul of our nation and a legacy that will transcend generations.

Race continued his service to the country as the federal member for Casey during the second Whitlam government and would later serve as a state member for Oakleigh. As the member for Oakleigh, he would go on to serve in the Cain government in multiple ministries – as Minister for the Arts, Minister for Police and Emergency Services and Minister for Community Services. I was a bit concerned when the Premier told the story about him giving out his phone number; it is a standard that I do not think any others will keep beyond Race’s tenure.

In that time, though, he oversaw the enrichment of the arts, with the opening of the Arts Centre in Southbank and the establishment of the Melbourne Writers Festival and the Melbourne festival of the arts, things that we take for granted today. He faced up to keeping our community safe by overseeing comprehensive reforms to Victoria Police and being there for Victorians when they needed it most during the Ash Wednesday bushfires in 1983. He was a jack of all trades and a master of them all as well.

Race was also remembered by his colleagues as the most well-read man in Parliament, and as the saying goes, ‘Knowledge is power.’ In today’s world, where facts are scarce and misinformation is rife, knowledge has never been more important, and the world would be a better place with more people like Race, who could dismantle arguments with well-researched facts and dry wit, not with bluster and theatrical displays. He did the groundwork, even if it was not in the limelight and where everybody else wanted to be. He did the groundwork.

The Minister for Consumer Affairs tells the story that one night in the later years, when Race was involved with party reform in the Labor Party, he attended a Moorabbin branch meeting. He quipped that he liked branch meetings and in fact went further and said he was a connoisseur of branch meetings. No-one ever said that other than Race, I am sure, but that shows how grounded and how decent and what a collectivist he was.

To represent the community of Oakleigh is an incredible privilege, one that comes with the weight of following in the footsteps of giants like Race Mathews – and he was a giant. I am reminded of this every time I sit in this chamber in this chair. It is a sentiment I believe every member of Parliament shares: the responsibility to uphold the work of those who came before us in representing our communities. That is no small task, but I draw strength and inspiration from Race’s example and his enduring commitment to public service.

As we reflect on his legacy, my thoughts are with his beloved wife of 52 years Iola Mathews; his five children Keir, Talya, Jane, Vanessa and Sean; and the extended Mathews family and clan. I know they will be feeling this immense loss most deeply, and I extend to them my best wishes and thoughts at this time. My thoughts are also, though, with those in the labour movement and the Australian Fabian Society, who loved him as well and will miss him. Vale, Race Mathews.

Danny PEARSON (Essendon – Minister for Economic Growth and Jobs, Minister for Finance) (12:36): I think all of us in this place would agree that in our respective parties there are two types of people: there are those who are passing through the party, and there are those who are of the party, and Race was definitely the latter. I had the great privilege of first meeting Race in about 1995. By that stage we had lost government at federal and state level, and they were lean years; they were tough years. I would go and see Race because at that stage he was working for the Graduate School of Government at Monash University. His offices were at the top end of Collins Street. I will always remember those times. He was always so inquisitive, but he was always so generous with his time.

I know he was a member of this place, but his most profound influence, I think it will be showed, was when he was the principal private secretary to Gough Whitlam for those years between 1967 and 1972. Gough had a really simple mantra at that stage: it was about the party, the policy and the people. We can talk at length about party reform and the appalling behaviour of the central executive and their inability to deliver a win at the 1969 federal election because of the appalling state of the Victorian branch of the party, which became a great backdrop for the generation-defining play Don’s Party, but I do want my contribution today to be an uplifting reflection as opposed to an unrelenting rant. But I could say that one of the great tragedies is that a win in 1969 would have provided a new government that had not been in power for 20 years and three years of an expanding economy as opposed to dealing with the fallout of the OPEC oil crisis as well as stagflation within moments of arrival.

I think in many respects the apogee of Race’s great contribution to Gough’s work was the policy speech that Gough delivered on 13 November 1972 at the Blacktown Civic Centre. If you do get the chance, the Whitlam Institute has a copy of that speech available. It is just so striking, the way in which that speech redefined modern Australia and how in many cases it was almost like a calling for the fact that the war continues and that the fight will always be there to advance these issues. But I think it comes down to the work of the program, and the program was Labor’s Way: A Summary of Information on the Policy of the Australian Labor Party, June 1972, which was a 55-page election manifesto. What is extraordinary about this work was the fact that this policy was developed from opposition. I will give a case in point. Gough had a meeting with John Deeble and Dick Scotton in July 1967. Deeble was an interesting guy. He did a bachelor of commerce at Melbourne University. While he was studying part time, he was working as a manager at Peter Mac. He was convinced to join the Melbourne Institute to do health economics, and Dick Scotton joined him. They published an analysis in the Australian Economic Review, which talked about the fact that:

… most of the 20 per cent of the population who were uninsured –

in the existing health system –

… were relatively young and healthy …

Excluding them from the risk pool raised the premiums for others, some of whom faced serious cost burdens.

They spent some time over the next 12 months refining their work. They sent a note to Whitlam that said their concepts were ‘interesting but totally impractical’. According to Deeble, nothing happened for some months until Whitlam announced a program that was exactly what they had recommended. Think about that for a moment. You are in opposition. You have got no resources. You are trying to deal with complex policy matters like health. You are trying to deal with a complex insurance model like what is now the foundation stone of Medicare, and you come up with that and you deliver that from opposition.

If you look at what the party took to the 1972 election in relation to education, the It’s Time education policy was that the Australian Labor Party ‘will abolish fees at universities and colleges of advanced education’. This was to support the principle that tertiary education should be provided on the basis of merit rather than private financial means. Again, think about that for a moment. How many members of this place – and I am one of them – got to experience university and were the first in their families to do so? We were able to experience that because of these reforms that Race championed while leading Gough’s office. Finally, on that point, in the same speech Gough said:

We will legislate to give aborigines land rights – not just because their case is beyond argument, but because all of us as Australians are diminished while the aborigines are denied their rightful place in this nation.

All of this is work that Race was intimately involved with and championed, and it changed so much about the way in which we govern. I sometimes say it is not so much about why I am here or why we are here or what the things are we want to do. It all comes down to the how. I sometimes say that Gough Whitlam and Abigail did not have many things in common but they both relied upon the number 96 for their careers – in Abigail’s case, the show; in Gough’s case, section 96 of the constitution, which enabled for the very first time a federal government to tie federal funding to achieve its policies by working in harmony with the states. Again, if it was not for that, we would not have those profound national policies which we have all benefited from.

Race was elected to this place at a time when the opposition had a significant swing to them, and if you talk to people like David White, who were members of the other place at that time, they knew that they were coming. They picked up 11 seats, and there was apparently a caucus election for the shadow cabinet at that stage because everyone knew if you were in shadow cabinet you had every chance of being a minister. Race was the Shadow Minister for Economic Development. It is true, I think, that the portfolios, in a substantive sense, of arts and police have not been united since Race held those portfolios, though I would say I was the acting Minister for Police for six months while I was also the Minister for Creative Industries, and I have got to say it is a joy to sprint from force command to the water wall. What I would say too is that when Race opened up the arts centre he described it as an arts city within a city – a vibrant, living part of a great metropolis.

I think it is important to note some of the things that Race did in that portfolio as well. He introduced concessional ticket prices for the arts. He had a focus on providing arts access to people with a disability. He committed funding, and again he built off the great work of Hamer. Hamer was a fantastic arts minister, and I seem to recall – I could have this wrong – that when the arts centre was opened the Cain government asked Sir Rupert to officiate at the opening because they recognised his leadership in the space. Race built off that work. They provided funding for regional art galleries. He opened the children’s museum at the Melbourne Museum, and anyone who goes to the museum now knows the focus on having a safe space for young children to go at the museum is extraordinary. Again, he established the Premier’s Literary Awards and the Melbourne Writers Festival in 1985 and 86. The last time I met Race, he came and saw me at the Essendon electorate office, and he talked about the importance of trying to preserve the W-class trams, some of which were those art trams. Clifton Pugh had done some of that work.

I think the wonderful thing about Race is that he was always inquiring. He was always inquisitive. He was a great servant of this great party. He was a fantastic minister of the Crown. He was an outstanding member of Parliament. But leading an office like Gough’s at that time, those five years, completely redefined this nation, completely changed the way in which we view ourselves and view our role in the world and completely changed the way in which public administration is delivered in this nation. That is something that is just awe-inspiring. To Iola and to his family: you should just be so incredibly proud of his legacy and his achievement. Vale, Race Mathews.

Ella GEORGE (Lara) (12:45): I rise today to acknowledge the passing of the Honourable Dr Race Mathews, former federal member for Casey and state member for Oakleigh. In Victoria Race held ministerial portfolios of community services, police and emergency services and the arts. However, it is Race’s years after holding these roles that I want to touch on today.

In the 2000s Race became active in local Labor branches and in the Higgins federal electorate. Race believed in active and well-functioning branches. He believed in Labor members who championed progressive politics, and he led the development of policy ideas. And it was this belief in the power of Labor members that led him to establish Local Labor, a network of Labor activists across the state that led policy development and policy reform. Race proudly supported candidates in the Higgins federal electorate and surrounding state electorates, and after years and years of hard work and persistence, Labor won Higgins in 2022. I acknowledge Race for his role in laying the foundations for that successful campaign many years prior.

I think it is admirable that Race dedicated much of his time in later years to policy development and encouraging the next generation of activists to step up. I admired Race deeply. This was a man who walked alongside my heroes Gough Whitlam and Jim Cairns. And as I came to know Race, I quickly realised that he too was a hero of our labour movement. As a young university student I remember attending many local Labor forums and events that Race organised. He encouraged young people to speak up and have their say, and he valued our contributions. He was patient with our questions and gently steered us along the right pathway. He was so incredibly generous with his time and always, always had time for a chat. Race inspired a generation of young Labor members and set an example for us to follow.

Race has many legacies that we have heard from members about today. I will never forget his selflessness, patience and kindness and his dedication and deep commitment to our labour movement. I extend my deepest condolences to Iola and the Mathews family. Vale, Race Mathews.

Motion agreed to in silence, members showing unanimous agreement by standing in their places.

Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (12:48): I move:

That, as a further mark of respect to the memory of the late Honourable Dr Race Mathews, the house now adjourns until 2 pm today.

Motion agreed to.

House adjourned 12:48 pm.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER took the chair at 2:02 pm.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I would like to acknowledge in the gallery a delegation from the Republic of Fiji: Speaker of the Fiji House of Representatives the Honourable Filimone Jitoko, the Honourable Kalaveti Ravu, the Honourable Sachida Nand and the Honourable Vijay Nath, as well as staff of the Fijian Parliament. Welcome, everyone.