There’s incredible sorrow at the passing of Wal Fife, an old-school Liberal politician who was highly regarded by many in the community. For 36 years, he served the Wagga electorate and was a minister in the Askin and Lewis state governments before moving to federal politics in 1975, first as the Member for Farrer and later as the Member for Hume.
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It was a turbulent time in Australian politics when Mr Fife first took his seat in Canberra. Long-time friend Gough Whitlam had been thrown out of power just weeks earlier, at the height of the 1975 constitutional crisis. But it’s a testament to the character of Mr Fife that he remained friends with someone on “the other side of the aisle” like Whitlam, a man who was worlds apart from the post-Menzies Liberal Party.
These cross-party relationships still exist today, but the 24-hour news cycle and social media commentators mean there’s a nastiness in politics that never used to exist. Sure, there was plenty of argy-bargy and carrying on like children, but there was also a respect for your peers. Today, the cheap point-scoring at every opportunity diminishes not only our politicians but also the offices they hold and respect for the parliament they serve.
An avid collector of political history, Mr Fife kept about 500 boxes full of documents that crossed his desk throughout his career, giving future researchers a valuable insight into the workings of state and federal governments.
He would go on to become a minister in the Fraser government, until the Labor Party returned to power under Bob Hawke in 1983.
Towards the end of his political career, Mr Fife was instrumental in the creation of Charles Sturt University, one of his final gifts to his hometown and the people of regional NSW.
Nowadays, when prominent people pass, it’s common to see negative comments among the positive, especially when the dearly departed is a politician. But there’s been none of that with Wal, a gentleman statesman who once told The Daily Advertiser that there used to be a “friendlier atmosphere in the chamber, on both sides of the aisle”.
In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Marc Antony eulogises his friend and says: “The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.” But that’s not the case with Wal Fife, a true statesman whose legacy in Wagga lives on.