Address by Senator John Faulkner
Cabinet Secretary
Special Minister of State
Press Conference, Perth Conference Unit
22 May 2009
ENZO SIRNA: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and in particular a very warm welcome to Western Australia for a lot of you that have travelled from interstate. And in particular, we would like to acknowledge the presence of the Prime Minister; thank you for coming along, and to all our distinguished guests that will be introduced by Senator Faulkner in a moment.
But my name is Enzo Sirna and I'm here as deputy CEO. I would like to put in the apologies of our CEO, Tom Perrigo, but thrilled to have you all here today on this very special day and in particular for the announcement that is going to be made with reference to this very special place, John Curtin House.
Without further ado, I'd like to introduce to you Senator John Faulkner, who's Special Minister of State.
Senator Faulkner. [Applause]
JOHN FAULKNER: Well, thanks very much and first, let me acknowledge the traditional owners of this land and pay my respects to their elders, past and present.
I'd also, of course, like to acknowledge Prime Minister Kevin Rudd; Premier Colin Barnett; my former leader, Kim Beazley; the Deputy Leader of the Federal Opposition, Julie Bishop; Leader of the Opposition in Western Australia, Eric Ripper; Foreign Minister Stephen Smith; my colleague in the Federal Parliament, Gary Gray, who's been such a supporter of this project; the Mayor of Cottesloe, Kevin Morgan; John Cowdell, of course, the president of the National Trust; and many other distinguished guests.
But particularly, let me also acknowledge on your behalf, ladies and gentlemen, John Curtin's granddaughter, Barbara Davidson, and grandson, John Curtin, who are with us.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, it is indeed a pleasure to officiate at this function. John Curtin was one of our greatest Australians. He led this country through some of its darkest days. His unstinting labours during World War II were the final stage of a lifetime of devotion to the Australian nation and the Australian people, to their security, to their welfare, to their opportunities.
He was a very public figure; as a journalist, a trade union organiser, a Member of Parliament, an activist in the labour movement, and as our Prime Minister.
He was also the man who came home to this very ordinary brick bungalow, to his wife, Elsie, and their two children; to walks on Cottesloe Beach with the dog, and to cricket matches with the local cricket club of which he was vice-president.
This house - ooh [unrelated items - issue with microphone; laughter]. The house is doing better than the microphone, which may or may not survive.
But ladies and gentlemen, this house was a very important part of John Curtin's life, and it's also a very important part of our understanding of John Curtin's life. It's an important part, a very important part of Australia's heritage.
The Curtin family first bought a block - a vacant block of land here in Jarrad Street in 1923, having moved west from the Melbourne suburb of Brunswick in 1919. The Curtins followed the population drift to the south of Perth and Fremantle.
Inside this house, as you can see, there was little decoration. A few ceiling roses, no cornices, plain skirting boards and picture rails and dark stained doors. Out the back, Elsie Curtin tended a vegetable patch and a lemon tree in the yard.
During the first 10 years of residence, the Curtins started a family. John Curtin was working hard for the labour movement and battling his alcoholism.
In 1928, he became a member for the seat of Fremantle and then served in the one-term Scullin Government, shuttling backwards and forwards from Canberra.
This house was also his electorate office and study. And of course, constituents held meetings with him right here in the front study.
In 1931, John Curtin suffered the ignominy of losing his seat. He returned to this house and lived here for three years, returned to journalism and activism, kept well in touch with federal and party politics at a time when the Labor Party was fractious and divided, and then in 1934 renominated for Fremantle. Curtin won with a majority of around 2000 votes, and he returned to the business of being a politician.
From then on, he spent more time in Parliament House than he did in his own home. But ladies and gentlemen, over the next decade he returned when he could, when his duties to his party and the nation allowed. He returned home here.
This home was politically important to John Curtin. In 1940 he nearly lost his seat. Keeping this house as his residence, with Elsie living here when she was not visiting him in Canberra, let his constituents know that he had not abandoned his electorate even as he moved into the Lodge.
To put it quite simply, because it was quite simply, his family home.
Ladies and gentlemen, John Curtin was asked to run as leader of the opposition in 1935, took the Labor Party into the early stages of the war in opposition and then snatched Government from a United Australia Party in disarray.
As our wartime Prime Minister, he guided Australia through the global conflict and died on 5 July 1945, after victory in Europe on 8 May but just before victory in the Pacific on 15 August of that year.
In those gruelling years, much of his time was spent in Canberra, but it was here he came to recover from the arduous 1937 election campaign for example, or to find brief solace in this domestic oasis during the dark days of 1944.
We have so much to thank John Curtin for, but over many years - many years we've let his family home, his Prime Ministerial home, deteriorate. And it's appropriate to acknowledge the contribution of both the previous Federal Government and the Court Government here in Western Australia, who bought the house for the nation in 1999, and the Gallop Government, who found funds for urgent restoration.
Prime Minister, Premier, the historical significance of this house to both the state of Western Australia and the nation has been recognised by governments and leaders of all political persuasions, and the presence of you both and so many of your senior party colleagues here today, I think, very richly symbolises that commitment.
Of course, it's still not difficult to notice the old water stains in the plaster ceilings above us and the walls, and that the back veranda is bowed in parallel, I might say, with its roof line as you'll see, and it's held up by temporary stumps.
But there are two groups in particular that haven't forgotten this house. The members and volunteers of the National Trust have maintained the building to the best of their capacity and they've fought tooth and nail for funding over the years, and Curtin University of course has documented its significance.
But the house does need care and attention, and that's why the Federal Government today is also stumping up, so to speak, $580,000 to restore and help protect it.
This money will be provided to the National Trust through the Government's $60 million for heritage projects under the Jobs Fund, which is one of the largest investments in heritage conservation ever to be undertaken in Australia. And the works will include restumping of the rear veranda, repairing original limestone footings and brickwork, repainting, archaeological investigation and conserving and documenting the original furnishings.
And funding is also going to be used to develop web-based education programs and on-site interpretation so visitors can learn more about the man that led Australia through the Second World War.
Ladies and gentlemen, this ordinary Australian home is, I think, part of an extraordinary Australian story. It tells us about the private life of a very public figure. After making a speech, after meeting electors, after campaign meetings, this is the place John Curtin came back to for a cuppa or a sing-along or to read the newspaper or listen to the wireless.
John and Elsie Curtin were remarkable, even to their contemporaries, their ability to remain the same unaffected, unpretentious, normal Australians regardless of the ebbs and flows of life that occurs in a politician's household.
This house tells us a great deal about why. It is part of our national story. Its preservation will allow many more Australians to know and understand more about one of our greatest leaders.
[Applause]
ENZO SIRNA: Thank you very much to Senator Faulkner and for the wonderful words that I'm sure John Curtin, wherever he is, would be very, very proud to hear. And to see so many people here to be able to understand how important not only his role but the role of a very ordinary house in an extraordinary lifetime and also the recognition of the family in that is so important.
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