E&OE …………………………………………………………………………………
Mrs Margaret McIntosh, and other members of the McIntosh family, my parliamentary colleagues, particularly the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Beazley, ladies and gentlemen.
Malcolm McIntosh’s life and the contribution that he made to the Australian people and the Australian community was a very eloquent demonstration of the capacity of the Australian public service to attract and to produce to use that old, but no less appropriate cliché, the brightest and the best.
He served successive Australian Governments in a range of portfolios and as is well known he occupied a very senior post in the British Ministry of Defence.
My personal contact with him was most intense in relation to his contribution as a member of the Prime Minister’s Science Council. As someone not skilled and not versed in the areas of science and technology by dint of my professional and other backgrounds, the work of that Council has been a particular learning experience and journey for me. And none contributed more to my understanding than did Malcolm.
His capacity to explain in simple, lucid and passionate terms the relevance of science and technology to the workings of modern government and to the future of our community was quite remarkable. And whenever he made an intervention or a contribution, it was an intervention or contribution of a remarkable mind, a very dedicated Australian and someone who was not only highly intelligent but was extremely patriotic and extremely committed to the service of his country.
Like all of us in this vast gathering of people whose lives have been touched by him, like all of us I admired the tenacity and courage of his struggle with cancer. His death at the very early age of fifty-four has taken a great servant of the Commonwealth of Australia. A fine mind, a lovely person, a dedicated family man.
And on behalf of the Government, on behalf of many ministers on the Government side of politics who have worked with him, I express our thanks for his life, our sympathy and love to his family and we mark and admire the courage and contribution of his life to the people of Australia.
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