The honorable Michael Kirby AC CMG — 05.09.2011
JOHN BUTTON AND AN OPTIMISTIC SPIRIT OF REFORM IN AUSTRALIA
I cannot abide memorial lecturers who are so obsessed with their own message that they forget the person whose name is supposed to inspire a memorial lecture. Death and its shadows are so long enduring and quickly embracing that we do not need to hasten the process. And John Button is one of those characters, who walked the stage of Australian politics and public life for a time and who is not so easily forgotten.
The basic facts are well known. He was born in Ballarat in 1933. He qualified in law and became an accomplished advocate, mainly in industrial relations cases. He joined the Australian Labor Party in the late 1950s when things were looking grim because of “the Great Split” over communism and the influence of church-led anti-communism (especially in Victoria). With John Cain, Barry Jones, Frank Costigan and others, he established the independent group of social democrats known as “the Participants”.
One-time Justice of the High Court of Australia. Inaugural Chairman of the Australian Law Reform Commission. President of the International Commission of Jurists (1995-8). Member of the Eminent Persons Group on the Future of the Commonwealth of Nations (2010-11). with Gough Whitlam and Bob Hawke that changed the landscape of Australian politics.
The Honorable Michael Kirby gave an edited version of this speech at the John Button Oration, as it wasn’t delivered word-for-word.