I was reflecting on Kathy Sullivan's story just a little while ago about what she described as the James Wood dinner, from 1996 involving Queensland parliamentary Liberals. I now know how Wal managed to minimise his expense account because if he had such a dinner with Labor members at the time it would have Wal and Arch Bevis. Mind you, Arch can knock a few back.
But these were thin pickings in those days. And I actually was a candidate for the 96 election hoping to be here. But those of us who remember the events of 1996, running for Labor in those years was a bit like going over the top in the Somme in 1916. You could hear the whistling sound of shrapnel and then discover a few minutes later that it was actually targeted at you.
David just mentioned before the impact which Wal's journalism had on a generation of Queenslanders, a couple of generations of Queenslanders growing up with an interest in politics. My father died when I was quite young. My father used to read me, in fact he taught me how to read, reading from the bush Bible, Country Life. And I would sit - members of the Country Party in here just relax - and I would be sitting on his knee at his farm, he'd actually read me the headlines from the bush Bible.
And then he said one day, “And son, this is The Courier-Mail'. This was like this arrival of this exotic new journal and that's when I first heard, as a very young kid, of someone who my father used to read, which was Wallace Brown. That was quite some time ago.
So the radical journal in our household was The Courier-Mail, the orthodox delivery of news was of course Queensland Country Life. And that's shaped of course my own political world view ever since.
Part of the reason I'm here today is because I regarded Wal in the short number of years that I knew him here, as a friend. And I listened carefully to what Kathy said before about what is the first word which comes to your mind when you describe Wallace Brown. And the word without any further reflection is the one she used; a gentleman.
He had about him a certain other-worldliness. It was as if he came from a different age and there was a civility about the way in which he conducted himself with politicians of whichever hue. And I think Kathy is absolutely right, I wouldn't have had a clue which way Wal voted but he had about him a way of dealing with people which left a lasting impression with those of us on this side of the political divide, that is the practitioners as opposed to those who write on what the practitioners are doing.
The other thing that affects you about someone like Wal is he had this, he had the enormous gift of time. And you might say reflecting on what was often described as an earlier and gentler age where of course people would have a greater gift of time then - I'm not sure that's necessarily so. People of every generation have been busy. People engaged in reporting the national political life have been busy people. But whenever I sat down with Wal in that cubicle of his up there, in the parliamentary press gallery, whatever he was doing, whatever time of day it was, he always, even to the lowliest form of backbencher as I was, he'd always have the gift of time. Sit, talk, chat, reflect.
And I think if there is one great malady in our current political life it is the absence of time, the absence of conversation and the absence therefore of the reflection which arises from considered conversation. He had that gift as well.
He had a wicked sense of humour and with, most of which is unrepeatable so I won't. He - but it was enormously endearing. He had an enormous institutional knowledge. There is a great gift reflected among so many here today but thinning in number, who place how we strut and fret our hour upon the stage - and I've heard no more - in the context of the tide and time and times of events past.
It always seems as if what we do today is the single most important thing in the world. The virtue of those of greyer hair and greyer beard, is that they know that not to be the case. And there is a capacity and there was a capacity in Wal's case to actually reflect on where today sat in its importance relative to what Menzies and what Evatt may have been doing decades previous. And that was part of the gift of conversation that I valued with Wal.
I did not benefit from Black Velvets. I'm not even sure what a Black Velvet was but I've just been told by his son that a Black Velvet was a combination of Guinness and champagne. Guinness and champagne? This is a unique Queensland cultural contribution to our nation. I cannot begin to imagine how that tastes.
Mention was also made of the fact that with Wal we had a passionate environmentalist. It's true. Those of you who know from your own experience in conversations with him and his passionate commitment for the preservation of national parks, particularly those of which he was personally and directly engaged, know that this was not some fleeting interest, it was not some latter day conversion to forms of political correctness or anything like that, just a deep passion for the environment, a deep passion for nature, a deep passion to do something about it. And he did.
And the other thing that stands the starkest in our recollection of Wal is that he was equally passionate about the great State of Queensland. For him it went without saying that this was the most important place on God's earth. And you're smirking from The West Australian there. I just regard that as an ex cathedra pronouncement not worthy of cynical reflection from some on the other side of the continent.
And for him even in those days when Queensland had certain oddities attached to it - I'm referring to those interesting and challenging days of Johannes Bjelke-Petersen - and he had a big sense of Queensland identity. And also a big sense of not just Queensland being different, as Menzies famously said, but of Queensland being an essential part of our national fabric and a great contributor for the nation as well.
Wal Brown was all these things but for those of you who were his colleagues in the parliamentary press gallery, he was most importantly a pre-eminent journalist and he exhibited both the skill craft and the professionalism which rank at the highest levels of work that is done in this place.
I like one story about Wal's journalism which has a particular Queensland touch. One of his first rounds as reporter was as the weather roundsman for The Courier-Mail. My father would regard that as the most important round. You read the bush bible, understand what the crop prices are doing and what the weather is likely to be.
And so Wal had this duty at The Courier-Mail, and he had the bad luck of reporting during a severe drought. One day he got a weather bureau forecast that rain was on the way so with his offsider Jack Lunn, later editor of The Courier-Mail, Wal decided to give the drought breaking news a sharper angle.
And after getting the necessary background facts from the CSIRO - are they ever wrong?- he opened the article with the following stunning statement, quote: “Thousands of tonnes of water were poised in the clouds west of Brisbane last night ready to break the drought today” unquote.
We in public administration describe that as courageous. His editor loved it and it led page one. I imagine you have that slightly tremulous fear sometimes when a story of yours which you think is almost right but not quite there is suddenly plonked on page one. Maybe not. The problem was, there was no rain.
The rain depression headed sharply south down the coast and this was the moment when Wally and his mate Jack Lunn had to dig themselves out of a very large hole that they'd dug for themselves. And after being greeted by a very sombre editor the next morning, they asked “well Mr Brown”, as people were addressed in those days at The Courier-Mail, I'm advised, “how are you going to get us out of this one?”
Jack Lunn and Wal then had a brainstorm which also ran on page one the next day. The following, I think, objective headline. “NSW steals our rain”. Fair. Balanced. Insightful. Objective. And it got a run most importantly. At the end of the day, a true Queensland patriot.
And that's the sort of bloke we're here today to honour and he's still part and parcel of the fabric of who we all are. His conversations are alive in our minds, that wicked and winning smile of his and that marvellously piratical beard that he wore later in life. And so we are here today to honour him through this important award.
And the idea that we have a Wallace Brown Young Achiever Award for journalism is an important one.
As Kathy said, because of his gift of time, because of his interest in other people, he was always in the business of bringing the next generation on. And that's why those who have come up with this idea have got Wal absolutely right because it's all about how you encourage new people coming along in what is a critical profession for the nation and our conversation as a people.
For that reason I am delighted to present the Wallace Brown Young Achiever Award for Journalism for 2009. I am pleased to announce that the runner-up, I am pleased to announce the runner-up and winner for the 2009 Wallace Brown Young Achiever Award for Journalism.
The runners-up are Yuko Narushima and Sharri Markson.
The winner of the Wally Brown Award for 2009, Daniel Street from the Nine Network.