Page 2248 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 17 August 1993
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Dr Kinloch took a very great interest in the cultural life of his community. Indeed, extracurricular activities were an important part of his commitment to life. He was an avid film reviewer in all branches of the media - radio, television and print. Hector Kinloch also had a very strong religious commitment, having become a Quaker in the early 1970s. Through this commitment he became an adjunct member of the faculty at St Mark's Institute of Theology and a member of its council as well.
Hector campaigned very strongly on social issues which concerned him, most notably gambling, and he subsequently co-founded the National Association for Gambling Studies. Of course, many of us will also remember Hector's fervent opposition to the plans for a casino in our community. Indeed, this concern with social issues led Hector to joining the Residents Rally and standing as a candidate at the March 1989 election. It is a matter of history, of course, that the complex count meant that Hector was not finally declared elected as the seventeenth member of the First ACT Legislative Assembly for some two months.
As a Rally member and at one stage Deputy Leader, Hector served as Executive Deputy to the Minister for Education and the Arts in the Alliance Government from 1989 to 1991. During this time Dr Kinloch also served as chairman of the Standing Committee on Conservation, Heritage and Environment and the Select Committee on the Amalgamation of Tertiary Institutions. He was a member of the Standing Committee on Social Policy, the Select Committee on Cultural Activities and Facilities, and the Select Committee on Estimates.
Hector Kinloch will be remembered as a man with strongly held beliefs. His approach at times frustrated some colleagues. He was thoughtful and independent, however, and I believe that his approach indicated the depth of the academic's inquiring mind - always open, always ready to learn and always ready to share his knowledge. During the discussion of a matter of public importance raised by Dr Kinloch in the Assembly on 17 December 1991 he identified six challenges which he considered would face the Second Assembly in 1992. He identified them by category, and they were institutional, social economy, naturalness, education and research, a complex culture, and a place of pilgrimage. These challenges reflect, more than anything, the very passionate interest which Hector took in the life of our community.
Madam Speaker, Dr Kinloch was a respected member of the first parliament of the ACT, a parliament which gave a voice to the people of the ACT in matters affecting our community and our community's development. At the close of that First Assembly, on 17 December 1991, when all members gave their valedictory speeches, Hector's speech was also his swan song. He had chosen not to continue with local politics. His involvement in our First Assembly was a great thrill for Hector. He commented then that 50 years or 100 years from that day all members would be "cosily enclosed in some computer edition of the Australian Dictionary of Biography" or would have had streets named after them. I am sure that Hector's family will see that come to fruition.
Madam Speaker, Hector's participation in the First Assembly will always be a very special part of the Territory's history of self-government. For a man who was so passionate about his study of the course of human affairs to be so intimately involved in that slice of our history must have been very satisfying. I would like to pass on my sincere condolences to Hector's wife, Lucy, and their three children, Robert, Elizabeth and Eleanor. They can always be very proud of the contribution made by their father to the people of the ACT.
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