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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 8 Hansard (31 August) . . Page.. 2705 ..

MR STANHOPE (continuing):

Sir Mark acted as a scientific adviser to Australia's Foreign Minister, HV Evatt, at the initial meeting of the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission in 1946. He returned to Australia in 1950 to become the first director of the Research School of Physical Sciences at the Australian National University. He was for that time, of course, a resident of the ACT, a Canberra citizen. He was instrumental in establishing the Australian Academy of Science and became its first president in 1954. He retired from the ANU in 1967 and became the Governor of South Australia in 1971.

Throughout his life, Sir Mark Oliphant enthusiastically promoted science and technology and showed great dedication to fostering the growth and development of Australian science. Sir Mark, a resident of the ACT for 20 years, will be remembered by all Australians, especially by those who knew him here in Canberra, as a brilliant scientist and a man of impeccable principle and conscience.

MS TUCKER: The Greens also join in this condolence motion for Sir Mark Oliphant. Sir Mark Oliphant had a very long and very distinguished life. He was a great scientist, including his work on nuclear physics at the Cavendish Laboratory in England and as director of the Research School of Physical Sciences at the ANU in the 1950s and 1960s. He was also Governor of South Australia after his retirement from science.

However, what attracted my attention about Sir mark was his passionate opposition to the insanity of the nuclear arms race, based on personal experience in working on the development of the atomic bomb during the Second World War. It has been said that the atomic bomb that devastated Hiroshima would not have been developed without his contribution as part of the British scientific contingent in the Manhattan Project.

Therefore, it must have taken much courage for Sir Mark to realise that the development of nuclear weapons had opened a Pandora's box of horror and to renounce this work at personal cost. I understand that he was labelled a security threat after the war and denied a visa to the United States and observer status at the British nuclear tests in Australia.

Sir Mark's deeply-felt and persistent commitment to nuclear disarmament for the rest of his life was quite inspiring to me and inspired many people within the Australian peace movement. Sir Mark must have been one of the longest living of the persons who had an integral involvement in the development of nuclear weapons and saw at first hand the incredible destruction caused by these weapons. He certainly could not be accused of not knowing what he was talking about.

I hope that the memory of Sir Mark's life will stay with us for many more years as a reminder that, while we may not be able to put nuclear weapons back into Pandora's box, governments must take collective responsibility for keeping on working towards nuclear disarmament for the sake of humanity's future.

MR MOORE (Minister for Health and Community Care): Mr Speaker, other members have spoken generally about the contribution Sir Mark Oliphant made to society. Whilst I support those things, I would like to add a few words. Many of us met Sir Mark over the last few years and realised what a warm and interesting human being he was. I was fortunate enough to meet him first when he was Governor of South Australia, albeit briefly at that time, and then a number of times over the last 10 years.

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