Page 2994 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 17 October 2007

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The experience of conflict in some of the most desperate theatres of the Pacific war, such as the infamous Tarakan and Ambon, inevitably exerted a powerful impact on Ken. It was at this time, for example, that he witnessed firsthand the bravery of the East Timorese and their continuing quest for independence and autonomy, and he would not forget.

It was during the war that Ken met Audrey Clibbens, an Army signaller, and they married in 1946—the beginning of a joyous companionship that would thrive over the next 60-odd years and produce three children: Warwick, Kerry and Paula. During the early post-war period Ken was for a time involved in the poultry industry, but it was when he joined the commonwealth public service in Canberra in 1968 that the course of the rest of his life was effectively carved out.

In the late 1960s moral and humanitarian issues such as apartheid and Aboriginal rights stimulated his political consciousness, challenging him to seek a public career where he might have an impact. A member of the ACT Advisory Council from 1970 to 1974, he was elected as the inaugural president of the ACT branch of the Australian Labor Party in 1973. This was the springboard for his election to the federal parliament in 1974, the first member for the new seat of Fraser, a seat that he would hold with increased majorities in 1975, 1977, 1980 and 1983. During his decade in the parliament he reinforced his reputation as both conscientious worker and conscience on a variety of house committees and as a member of a number of influential overseas parliamentary delegations.

Not surprisingly, Ken viewed retirement as a new opportunity, and so it was. In his middle 60s he went to university, eventually gaining a PhD in Manning Clark’s ANU history department with a dissertation that merged three of his enduring interests: early Australian white history, class, and rural development. He focused on the Bathurst area pre 1850, in a distinguished piece of scholarly work. Fortunately, Ken’s quiet achievements have been given permanence, in his own modest voice, in the form of his 2002 memoirs A Humble Backbencher.

Throughout his fine and dignified life, Ken Fry changed for the better all with whom he came in close contact. Perhaps the last words should go to his parliamentary colleague during the later 1970s, John Haslem, the then Liberal member for the seat of Canberra. As John said in the last few days, “Ken was a wonderful, old-fashioned socialist and a great local member, one of the best, a man who would not move any distance from his principles.”

It was a great privilege for me to know Ken personally and to enjoy his company in his stewardship of the Labor Party and as member for Fraser. Ken was the member for Fraser and President of the ACT branch of the Labor Party when I joined it in the early seventies. The government extends its sympathies to Ken’s widow, Audrey, his children Warwick, Kerry and Paula, his grandchildren Zach, Holly and Dylan, to his extended family and friends and, indeed, to all his colleagues within the Australian Labor Party.

MR STEFANIAK (Ginninderra—Leader of the Opposition): Ken Fry was for some 10 years from 1974 a backbencher in the commonwealth parliament, ably


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