Bill Hughes - 'a truly wonderful man'

Member for Gosford, Mr Chris Hartcher, has spoken in honour of Sir Davis Hughes, a long-time Hardys Bay resident until a couple of years ago, who died on March 11. The following is an extract from the NSW State Parliament Hansard of April 30.

I had the honour of knowing Sir Davis Hughes, or Bill Hughes, for many years.

He was a truly wonderful man.

I first met him in 1986 when he retired to the Central Coast.

At that stage I was only a young person with aspirations of entering into politics, I was not elected until 1988.

I recall that Bill Hughes came to the Terrigal branch of the Liberal Party to talk to me and give me some advice as to how best to prepare myself and present myself for standing for a seat which was then held by the late Brian McGowan for the Australian Labor Party.

In 1988, on the night before the polling day when I was elected to this parliament I went out doorknocking, on a pub-crawl, with Sir Davis Hughes.

At the age of 78 he was still a vigorous, energetic, determined and wonderful man.

We went to the liquor shop in the village of Hardys Bay, which functioned as a sort of pub.

We went around the car park outside the liquor store and shook hands with everybody.

Bill Hughes and I were a fairly odd team but, as it turned out the next day, we were a fairly effective team because, for the first time ever, we nearly carded the village of Hardys Bay.

Since then the demographics of Hardys Bay have changed and people there now vote largely for the Liberal Party.

In those days it was fairly solid Labor Party country.

Bill Hughes, a man of very humble beginnings, was the son of an engine driver in Tasmania.

He was never able to complete his university course but he became a school teacher and then a politician.

He was always very conscious of his humble origins.

He was a humble man who had no pretensions of becoming anything great or famous.

He viewed the title of "sir" with disdain.

When I introduced him to people, he told me not to call him Sir Davis Hughes, just Bill Hughes.

Bill Hughes was a friendly and approachable man, a man of great dignity and presence as would befit a person who held the fine offices of Mayor of Armidale and deputy headmaster of Armidale school.

Nonetheless, in his personal life, he was a man of considerable humility.

He is well remembered for his role in the Sydney Opera House controversy of the late 1960s.

He was a man who was determined to see the interior of the Opera House finished within budget and according to the wishes of the New South Wales community.

It is not without significance that no less a person than Joern Utzon paid tribute to him.

Only recently Joern Utzon acknowledged in a statement to the media that Sir Davis Hughes had an important job.

Obviously they had a difference of opinion about how the interior of the Opera House should be finished.

Joern Utzon made the point that Sir Davis Hughes insisted on the completion of the Opera House.

People forget that there was considerable argument about whether the project should be completed.

An article in The Australian of 17 October 2002 states: "Utzon harboured no ill feeling towards Davis Hughes, the Coalition Minister who forced him off the Opera House."

Utzon acknowledged that it was because of Sir Davis Hughes that the Opera House was completed within budgetary controls.

The project's budget, which, had blown out, was a major issue at the 1965 election which brought the Coalition to power. Much anger was felt in country New South Wales because of the millions of pounds that were being squandered on the Opera House and were not being recouped by the public relations gesture of the Opera House lottery.

It was to the credit of Sir Davis Hughes that the project was finished. As the Premier said earlier, it was the building of the century.

Sydney, once known worldwide for its Harbour Bridge, is now known worldwide for the magnificence of its Opera House.

That is a great legacy to Sir Davis Hughes, as it is to Joern Utzon and many other people.

Sir Davis Hughes always defended his role.

Whenever the Opera House issue came up - even in his 80s and his 90s - he always wrote to the media and made sure that his view was properly put.

He had a mission to finish this great masterpiece within budget.

He achieved that mission.

Sir Davis Hughes represented the old Country Party.

The great traditions of the old Country Party changed as the years went by, but Sir Davis Hughes always observed those traditions.

On one occasion when a Liberal Party candidate made an address to a Probus club meeting which was attended by about 80 or 90 people, Bill was asked whether he would give a vote of thanks as he was from the Liberal Party.

He said: "No, I will not give a vote of thanks.

"I support the Liberal Party but I am from the Country Party.

"You should never assume that the two parties are the same.

"We are separate identities.

"It is more appropriate that you ask Chris Hartcher, who is a Liberal, to move the vote of thanks."

He did not say that in any way disparagingly of the Liberal Party.

He emphasised the point that he represented the great tradition of the Country Party.

On behalf of my friend and colleague, the Hon Michael Gallacher, I acknowledge that during the 1993 election, when Sir Davis Hughes was 83 years old, in the heat of the summer months, he took Mike Gallacher out doorknocking around Hardys Bay - a quite hilly area of the Federal electorate of Robertson, in my electorate of Gosford.

Very few people at that age would have shown the stamina and the commitment to the Coalition cause that Sir Davis Hughes showed.

Mike Gallacher always comments to me just how remarkable it was to be out with this wonderful man doorknocking in the electorate for the 1993 Federal election campaign.

Lady Hughes telephoned me a few days before Bill died and told me that Bill was very sick.

She conveyed to me on Bill's behalf his good wishes and her good wishes for the election on March 22.

Bill retained a keen interest in politics right to the end.

He loved politics and he was a great supporter of the Coalition.

He thought that Nick Greiner and Wal Murray were a most wonderful team.

He told me something that I took to the cabinet room.

He said: "In the eight years that I was a Minister in the Askin-Cutler Government from 1965 to 1973 not once did the Cabinet divide on Liberal-Country party lines.

"There were divisions in the Cabinet but the two parties functioned as one."

When I went into Cabinet in 1992, I wondered whether that precept still held true, and it did.

Sir Davis Hughes was pleased to know that we had followed in that great tradition; that as a Cabinet we worked as one unit and were never two separate political parties, I convey my deep regrets to Lady Phillippa Hughes.

She is the wonderful widow to a wonderful man.

She often used to attend Liberal Party election functions.

In his final years Bill loved fishing.

He would go out with Jack Davey, a member of the Liberal Party Empire Bay branch.

They would often go out fishing on Brisbane Water and, on occasions - quite adventurously for two guys both in their late 80s - they would go out on the high seas.

I always thought that that was quite remarkable.

The world is much richer because of people like Bill Hughes.

I convey my condolences to Lady Phillippa and to Bill's family.

Parliamentary Hansard, April 30