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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-08-24 Daily Xml
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Condolence

McKee, Hon. C.D.T.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (14:20): By leave, I move:

That the Legislative Council expresses its deep regret at the recent death of Mr Colin David Thomas McKee, former member of the House of Assembly, and places on record its appreciation of his distinguished public service and that, as a mark of respect to his memory, the sitting of the council be suspended until the ringing of the bells.

I suspect I might be one of the few members in the chamber who knew Colin McKee, but I perhaps stand corrected in relation to that particular issue. I certainly, in my long time in this place, knew Colin and indeed knew, in a passing fashion, his father, Dave McKee, who was a legendary member of the Australian Labor Party.

The stories of Dave McKee used to rebound around the corridors of parliament. He was known as a boxer and a fighter. The stories were legendary. In the old days of the boxing tents at the country shows, he performed very well in a number of those bouts and made a little bit of money for himself, as I understand it, over the years. He had a long and distinguished career representing his union and the Australian Labor Party and a long period of time in parliament.

Colin McKee was elected as the Labor member for Gilles between 1989 and 1993. Prior to that, he had had 10 years, I think, officially as a Labor organiser or a similar position to that within the Labor organisation. I am not sure whether he was actually the state organiser for all of that period, but certainly for good parts of that particular period. Prior to that, or around about that time, he was also an organiser for the Musicians' Union and was the founding secretary of the Actors and Announcers Equity Association SA division, as it was then known.

The seat of Gilles, which is in and around our current seat of Torrens, during that period of the seventies and eighties oscillated between being a very marginal seat and then gradually over a period of time, with boundary movements, becoming a safe seat for the Australian Labor Party. Jack Slater had been the member prior to Colin being the Australian Labor Party member for Gilles.

During one of the famous Dunstan era elections, in 1975, the seat of Gilles was the seat that Labor held on to by a couple of hundred votes to give it the slimmest of majorities in the House of Assembly. I recall the Liberal Party candidate was Lou Ravesi, a pharmacist of some public standing in the South Australian community and, I think, a state handball champion. It was a fearsome battle, but ultimately the Australian Labor Party prevailed and the Dunstan government continued for another term, and another term again after that.

After a long period of service, both to the union movement and to the Australian Labor Party, Colin was preselected for that particular seat in 1989 but, as with many other members, the landslide of the State Bank election of 1993 meant that all Labor members—virtually all Labor members, I should say; not all, but a significant number of Labor members—no matter the quality of their work in terms of the individual's work within the electorate, were swept aside by the State Bank landslide of 1993 and Colin lost his seat at that particular time.

He went on to do a number of things but he had interests in the hospitality industry, and in my various roles as shadow treasurer and occasionally with responsibility for the gambling industry our paths would cross. When in government our paths would cross occasionally at various industry functions with the Australian Hotels Association.

Colin McKee would be there and he sometimes stood out a little bit, given his background and the background of other members of the hotel industry who might have been involved in particular functions that I attended, but he was always well accepted by his colleagues within the hotel industry. They accepted with good humour the different path that he had followed to become a hotelier, a publican, and to arrive at a similar position as many of them had.

I also occasionally would see him at the Hagar Club with Chris Schacht, Ralph Clarke and a variety of others who met not infrequently in a popular restaurant near the Chinatown district where they continued an involvement in political issues. They claimed to me they were raising funds through their lunches to support nominated candidates that they individually or collectively as a club supported within the Australian Labor Party. They helped direct funding towards those nominated candidates. I would occasionally, by happenstance, wander past full meetings of the club and say g'day to Colin and a variety of others.

I had a degree of involvement and engagement with Colin over the years, both during his brief parliamentary career but more particularly in his latter-day pursuits as a member of the hotel industry. My dealings with Colin were always straightforward, in particular in relation to the interests of the hotel industry. He unashamedly put the views, not only of himself but of his colleagues, in relation to what the hotel industry believed they needed from government, whether it be a Labor government or a Liberal government, in relation to either liquor licensing issues or, more particularly during the last 20 years or so, gambling issues. He obviously had, given his background, an ongoing interest in the music industry and in particular live music and he maintained that ongoing interest through the years.

On behalf of my colleagues—most of whom probably did not know Colin, although one or two of my colleagues would have met Colin at hotel industry functions—we express our condolences at his sad passing and we pass our condolences on to his family, friends and acquaintances. We acknowledge his service to his union, to his party and, for a brief period, through his parliamentary service in this parliament.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (14:28): I rise to second the motion put forward by the Treasurer and to speak on the condolence motion for the late Colin McKee. Originally coming from Port Pirie, Colin brought that country sensibility that is sometimes missing in this parliament. He was elected to the seat of Gilles in the lower house, serving for a term in the north-east suburbs before that seat was abolished at the 1993 election.

Colin was the son of Dunstan era minister for labour and industry David McKee. He was an organiser for the Musicians' Union. He served as secretary for the Actors and Announcers Equity Association, the union for performers in radio, television, theatre and dance, before working in ALP head office as a party official and state organiser. Party officials who go into parliament are some of the best people I know, quite frankly. I suspect that during his time in ALP head office in the 1980s he probably would have received—if they were in fact at all true—some of those anonymous faxes that the Treasurer over the years has been so fond of quoting in this chamber.

He was particularly successful as an ALP organiser, serving in party office with then secretary Chris Schacht; successful in three federal elections, I think, two state elections and a number of by-elections. Not all the by-elections were successful, but some of the losses were such as the once blue ribbon seat of Mitcham, which was won by the Democrats at the time in a by-election, so hardly a devastating result for Labor.

Colin railed against the Liberal Party's attempts to abolish compulsory voting in the late 1980s, calling it out for what it was—a self-interested and undemocratic move. He was a strong believer in the preservation of our environment. In Colin's first speech in parliament in 1990 he outlined the need to explore the differences between demand and need.

In the lead-up to the 1993 election, I can imagine that it was not an easy time to be a Labor member of parliament, facing what turned out to be a devastating wipeout in 1993. Certainly, some members who were not preselected for where they thought they ought to be walked out on the party. Although there were media reports and musings at the time, Colin was not one of them, he remained true to his Labor principles to the core and stayed with the Labor Party, despite not being preselected for the seat for the 1993 election, and I think that is a great tribute to him. Our condolences are with Colin's family and his friends at this difficult time, and we thank him for his service to the Labor Party, the parliament and the state.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (14:31): I, too, rise to lend my voice to this condolence motion on Colin McKee. Colin was born and bred a Labor man and stayed true to his principles all the way through his life. It must be difficult for someone who is the son of such a famous father, and who achieved so much in government, in the Dunstan government, to find that when he finally did, after doing his time and a lot of work for the party, gain entry into the parliament on behalf of the ALP he was unceremoniously dumped one election later, which really was the closing of what could have been a brilliant career in politics.

Colin was very unique in the way that he operated as an organiser in party office; in fact, he was working with Terry Cameron in party office for many of those years. He had a unique campaigning style, which occasionally I would have to remonstrate with him about. He was very fond of cars, particularly Jags, and one of his campaigning techniques was to drive through his electorate in his Jaguar, through Holden Hill, Gilles Plains or Hillcrest, and jump out on street corners and talk to people.

I remarked to him several times that that might not be the best campaigning method for that electorate, that he might want to get a banged up Mazda and try to do it in that car instead. But, no, he said, 'You underestimate the aspirational votes in this electorate, and many people use the car, the Jag that I'm driving, as a talking point in opening our discussions.' I had a bit of a win, though, when I persuaded him to leave the boat and trailer off the Jag as he went around the electorate.

He was a character and did things his own way, and when his friend Terry Cameron went off and did the dastardly deed in this chamber and voted against the ALP, he stayed true, and I think that speaks very highly of the man. My condolences to his family as well.

The PRESIDENT: I ask honourable members to stand in their places and carry the motion in silence.

Motion carried by members standing in their places in silence.

Sitting suspended from 14:34 to 14:47.

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