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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-07-06 Daily Xml
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Condolence

KING, HON. L.J.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Public Sector Management, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Government Enterprises, Minister for Gambling) (14:21): I move:

That the Legislative Council expresses its deep regret at the recent death of the Hon. Leonard James King AC QC, former minister of the Crown, member of the House of Assembly and chief justice of South Australia, and places on record its appreciation of his distinguished and meritorious public services, and that as a mark of respect to his memory the sitting of the council be suspended until the ringing of the bells.

Today it is my great privilege to pay tribute to the Hon. Leonard King AC QC who passed away on 23 June after a long and distinguished career in law and politics in South Australia. Len King was one of the very small number of people who can rightfully claim to have played a major part in setting the foundations of modern South Australian life. His brilliant term as attorney-general during the early years of the Dunstan government saw the introduction of legislation rights, protections and progressive social change that were the hallmark of the Dunstan era. That would have been sufficient for any of us but he then followed his political career with an equally stellar performance as chief justice of South Australia.

He was a true reformer who played a central role in turning South Australia from a closed, class-structured society into the far more open and tolerant society that we still enjoy today. To understand what drove Len King we need to go back to the 1930s Depression-era Norwood. His parents went through very hard times, surviving for five years on rations and the occasional odd job. These experiences gave Len a passion for egalitarianism and the need to defend the rights of everyday citizens.

It was not all grim: with his father he would have gone to the races at Victoria Park where he developed a lifelong appreciation for horseracing, and I understand not so much for betting but definitely for the drama and the sport of it all. Len attended Marist Brothers College in Norwood where he was a brilliant student. However, in those days going to university needed ready money and his parents were far too poor to send him to university, so he left school and became a clerk for Shell Oil while studying at night and gaining further secondary qualifications.

Then the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and at the very early age of 18 Len joined the RAAF to become a radio telegraph operator. Even while he was stationed in New Guinea, apparently he kept up his studies. As a returned serviceman, Len was able to get into the University of Adelaide and pursue his pre-war dream, which was to study law. To complete his studies he needed to be articled to an existing law firm to be fully qualified.

It says a lot about the impervious class-ridden nature of law in those days that he did not have the social contacts that usually made articles possible. After some considerable time, it was only through a very distant family friendship that he succeeded by being eventually articled to none less than Roma Mitchell. After completing his articles he obtained work as a lawyer in Whyalla, where he practised his profession in often trying circumstances, sharpening his considerable legal skills.

In the early 1950s he moved back to Adelaide and set up his own chambers. He also married Sheila Keane in 1953, a lifelong partner with whom he had five children. I understand from tributes to Len King at his funeral that, unfortunately, Sheila died a number of years ago and in her latter years suffered severely from Alzheimer's. Apparently Len provided devoted care and attention to Sheila until the day she died.

About the time he met Sheila he met another reform-minded lawyer, Don Dunstan. Len got involved in Labor politics, helping Don in his successful election campaign for the seat of Norwood in 1952. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Len's legal career prospered, becoming a Queen's Counsel in 1967. Despite this improvement in his own circumstances, Len was always a strong defender of the rights of ordinary people. He was extremely conscious of the role money played in the justice system. Money was crucial to obtaining background material, doing legal research and mounting a well thought-out and thorough, well-resourced case. Of course, without money your chances of winning were much slimmer.

Politically, Len's moment of truth came in 1970 when Don Dunstan asked him to run in the state seat of Coles, which is pretty much the seat of Morialta at the moment. Dunstan did this with the view to making Len attorney-general should Labor win and form government. Len won the seat and Dunstan won government, and together they set about introducing a series of reforms that utterly changed South Australia.

Through Len King's energetic advocacy as attorney-general, South Australia enjoyed a transformation that pulled South Australia into the modern era in terms of rights and protections: consumer affairs, social welfare, the abolition of corporal and capital punishment, the progressive erasure of sexual and racial discrimination, and a host of other changes. Len was also minister for social welfare, Aboriginal affairs, community welfare, and prices and consumer affairs—all portfolios in which he made great and lasting contributions.

After a brief but brilliant parliamentary career, Len resigned in 1975 to be appointed as a Supreme Court judge, returning to law. In 1978 he was appointed chief justice of South Australia. If anything, his service as chief justice of South Australia had even more far-reaching consequences. In his 15 years of determined leadership, he streamlined and improved administration of the law, improved accountability and created the circumstances for faster delivery of justice and gave it genuine autonomy. As John Emerson said of Len King in his book First Among Equals:

He believed that it was not enough for judges just to judge—they had to oversee the justice system in its totality. They had to strengthen and defend the very independence of the judiciary itself and protect it from any interference from the other arms of government. Under King, the office of Chief Justice of South Australia would undergo the greatest transformation in its history.

When Len King stepped down as chief justice of South Australia, the first to retire under the new compulsory retiring age of 70, he left behind a court system massively improved and modernised. The passing of Len King marks a significant point in South Australian history. He was a man who modestly but very resolutely made this state a far better place, without fanfare but always in a scrupulously principled and humane way. He is a fine model for all of us as lawmakers. I extend my condolences to his family and commend his memory to this house.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (14:30): I rise on behalf of the opposition to second and endorse the Leader of the Government's condolence motion and to make a few comments on behalf of the opposition. I also indicate that my colleague the Hon. Stephen Wade will also make a contribution.

Len King was a distinguished member of this parliament, a distinguished lawyer and later a distinguished jurist. He made history by stepping into cabinet without previous parliamentary experience. As the attorney-general in the Dunstan government, he steered South Australia's mid-1970s social reforms through the parliament. He also helped South Australians to accept those changes, which were not easy but were somewhat controversial at the time: the homosexual law reform, consumer and welfare laws reform and liberalised drinking and censorship laws. It was also Len King who persuaded South Australia to end the barbaric practice of human executions, and he abolished the death penalty.

In 1975, he was appointed to the Supreme Court and later, in 1978, he became the chief justice. Don Dunstan called him a man of great humanity and conscience. On behalf of the opposition, I offer condolences to his family.

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:31): I rise as shadow attorney-general to associate myself with the comments of the two leaders in acknowledging the passing of Len King. As the leaders have referred to, Len King was born on 30 April 1925, when the world was still recovering from World War I. He grew up in a working-class family and endured the deprivations of the Great Depression.

In 1943, at the age of 18, he joined the RAAF and served three years in both Australia and New Zealand. When he returned, he took advantage of resettlement schemes to take the opportunity to study law. He was admitted to practise in 1950 and was a Queens Counsel in 1967.

Mr King was one of the most respected legal minds this state has ever seen, so much so that former premier Don Dunstan specifically approached him to enter the parliament in order to be his attorney-general. This is a rare example in the Westminster system of a person being recruited to a particular role. In fact, Mr King gained the distinction of being only the second person to enter cabinet in this state with no prior parliamentary experience.

A pre-eminent legislative reformer, Mr King was the attorney-general and the member for Coles (now Morialta) from 1970 to 1975. In his maiden speech on 15 July 1970, Mr King foreshadowed his interest in law reform when he said:

Human dignity in society is protected by the rule of law. Respect for the law, like respect for conscience, is vital to the well-being of society.

In his time as attorney-general, Mr King was instrumental in implementing significant legal and social reform. Social reforms implemented on his watch include legislation to decriminalise homosexuality and to liberalise drinking laws. In terms of his work as the chief law officer of the state, he took the opportunity to restructure the justice system by separating magistrates from the Public Service and by creating the Courts Administration Authority. Former premier Don Dunstan described him as the greatest attorney-general this state has seen.

Mr King was a regular churchgoer; he attended St Ignatius, Norwood for virtually his whole life. I suspect that his sense of justice was invigorated by his association with the Jesuits. I share Mr King's abhorrence for the death penalty. He once said:

When the State, as a deliberate act of policy, lays aside its power to punish by inflicting death, it demonstrates in a practical and striking way its conviction of the value of human life.

Mr King was elevated to the Supreme Court bench following his retirement from politics in 1975 and became chief justice just three years later, in 1978.

His career on the bench was illustrious but, from our point of view, it is a particularly significant contribution because he had the rare perspective of both a person who had served in this place as a politician and as a chief law officer of the state and who was then serving as the chief justice of the state. It was from that perspective that he wrote an article which was published in Volume 74 of the Australian Law Journal. As the then chief justice, reflecting on the role of an attorney-general, he said:

The Attorney-General as a law minister has, beyond the political responsibilities of a ministerial portfolio of the same nature as the responsibilities of other ministers, a special responsibility for the rule of law and the integrity of the legal system which transcends, and may at times be in conflict with, political exigencies.

The Attorney-General has the unique role in government of being the political guardian of the administration of justice. It is the special role of the Attorney-General to be the voice within government and to the public which articulates, and insists upon observance of, the enduring principles of legal justice, and upon respect for the judicial and other institutions through which they are applied.

In reflecting upon the life of a great attorney-general, a great chief justice, I think it is incumbent on those of us who hold the position of attorney-general and those of us who aspire to the position of attorney-general to reflect on those words. Mr King died peacefully on Thursday 23 June aged 86. Mr King was a family man, and I join other members of this council in offering my sincere condolences to his wife and to his five children. I commend the motion to the council.

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO (14:36): I add my condolences to the family and friends of the late Len King AC QC. As we have heard, Len King became the first member for the then newly-created electorate of Coles in 1970 and held it until his retirement from parliament in 1975. He served in a number of portfolios during those years but in particular as attorney-general. Such was the respect for his capabilities, he was appointed directly to the cabinet upon winning his seat. He was already a QC upon his election.

He was a reformist and a man of exceptional ability and compassion and devoted to the ideals and tenets of the Labor Party. Len King knew he had an important job to do and did it well. Whilst there are always variations after every election, the electorate of Coles is equivalent to the now seat of Morialta where I live. I moved into the electorate of Coles when I got married and started getting more involved in the party at that time. People like Len King were one of the reasons why my husband and I became more passionate about politics and worked for many years on campaigns in Coles and Sturt.

I recently read comments in relation to voter composition and voter behaviour in the seat of Coles in a clipping from the library from the time that Mr King was standing, and I have to note that, in some areas, nothing really changes in politics. Needless to say, the King name is one that has been respected for very many years, not just in politics but also in the wider community.

Following Len King's parliamentary career, he was appointed to the Supreme Court and subsequently appointed chief justice of the Supreme Court in October 1978. He had a distinguished career—the law—but did not stop giving back to his community. My husband worked for a period of time for the Health Consumers Alliance of South Australia. Mr King was then patron of the association, and he freely gave his time and expertise. My husband remembers how genuine and giving he was with the association, even chairing the AGM. Needless to say, it was not the only community group he was generous with.

Along the years, as part of the Labor Party, my husband and I have had the opportunity to know and work with two of the King children, Sue and Cathy King, as well as his son-in-law, David Bamford, who is now Dean of the Law School at Flinders University. Whether the occasion is work or social, they do their father and the King name proud.

Along with other members, I attended the state funeral last Friday at St Ignatius Church Norwood where we heard that Len King had been an active member of the parish right until the end of his life. I do remember Father Paul Mullins saying to me afterwards that he had a particular spot in the middle of the church near a saint and never shifted from his particular spot every Sunday.

We all saw and heard for ourselves how proud the family justly were of their father and grandfather both on a personal level and in his important contribution to public life in South Australia. Again, I add my condolences to the family and friends of the late Mr Len King.

Motion carried by members standing in their places in silence.


[Sitting suspended from 14:40 to 15:00]


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