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President, 21 April 1983 to 23 January 1987
Australian Labor Party
Douglas McClelland (b.1926) was born in Wentworthville, NSW, into a staunchly Labor family. Before entering politics, he worked as a clerk at the NSW Department of Agriculture and as a court reporter, in addition to serving in the AIF in World War II. He married Lorna Belva McNeill in 1950, with whom he had three children.
Joining the ALP in 1947, McClelland worked closely with Labor leader Herbert Vere Evatt, as both secretary of the federal electorate council in Evatt’s seat of Barton (1953-58) and Evatt’s campaign secretary.1 Elected to the Senate in 1961, he was outspoken in his opposition to the Vietnam War, and pressed for action on a range of issues including health costs, housing, media monopolies and censorship.
Appointed Minister for the Media in the newly-elected Whitlam Government in 1972, he later became Special Minister of State in June 1975 before the Government’s dismissal five months later. In Opposition, he served briefly as spokesperson on Administrative Services and Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate (1976-77) and then Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate (1977).
McClelland became Deputy President and Chair of Committees in the Senate in 1981. His election marked the beginning of a convention that the office of Deputy President is held by a member of the major opposition party in the Senate rather than a government senator.2 Elected President following Labor’s victory at the 1983 election, he was widely regarded as fair, courteous and inclusive.3
McClelland was President during the first and only Senate committee inquiries into the conduct of a judge under section 72 of the Constitution, concerning the actions of High Court Justice and former Senator Lionel Murphy.4 His biggest test as President came during the consequent criminal trials of Justice Murphy in the NSW Supreme Court for attempting to pervert the course of justice.5 Concerned by the court’s ruling that witnesses could be examined on evidence given to senate inquiries, McClelland introduced what became the Parliamentary Privileges Act 1987 (Cth) to strengthen and clarify the right of freedom of speech in parliament.6 It was the first Bill introduced by a presiding officer in federal Parliament and McClelland also took the rare step of participating in the debate.7
McClelland resigned from the Senate on 23 January 1987. Having served as a chairman of the Joint Standing Committee on the New Parliament House from 1983, one of his last official duties as President was to unfurl the Australian flag at the new Parliament House. After leaving the Senate, McClelland was appointed an AC in June 1987 for service to the Parliament and government, and served as Australian High Commissioner to the UK (1987-91).
Reginald Earl Campbell
Australian portraitist, Reginald Campbell (1923-2008), was a self-taught artist whose masterful technique earned him many commissions of prominent figures. Born in Gladesville, NSW, he enlisted in the AIF in 1941, serving as a private in the General Transport company in New Guinea until discharged in 1945. In the years following his military service, Campbell moved to Bathurst in regional NSW, where he worked as a signwriter. He later settled in the countryside near Bathurst, where he set up a gallery and studio. Campbell was commissioned to paint the portraits of many prominent figures including Don Bradman, Albert Namatjira, Evonne Goolagong and John Laws. He also painted numerous portraits of prominent academics from Charles Sturt University and its precursor institutions. He was 25 times an Archibald finalist and won the Archibald Prize People’s Choice Award for his self-portrait in 1990.
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Douglas McClelland
by Reginald Earl Campbell
1985
Oil on canvas
111 x 89 cm
Historic Memorials Collection, Parliament House Art Collection
References
1. Unless otherwise noted, information sourced from B Stevenson, ‘McClelland, Douglas (1926– )’,
The Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate Online Edition, Department of the Senate, Parliament of Australia, published first in hardcopy, 2017; Parliamentary Library, ‘McClelland, the Hon. Douglas’,
Parliamentary Handbook Online. Websites accessed 8 June 2021.
2. R Laing, ed,
Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 14th edn, Department of the Senate, Canberra, 2016, p. 150, accessed 8 August 2021.
3. J Button, ‘Election of the President’, Senate, Debates, 17 February 1987, p. 52; F Chaney, ibid., p. 53; J Haines, ibid.; D Jessop, ibid.; B Harradine, ibid., p. 54.
4. Laing,
Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, op. cit., pp. 693–705.
5. R v Murphy (Supreme Court of New South Wales, Cantor J, 5 June 1985); R v Murphy (1986) 5 NSWLR 18.
6. Laing, Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, op. cit., pp. 47–51.
7. Ibid., pp. 42, 145.
8. ‘Gifted portrait artist dies’, Western Advocate, 8 June 2008; ‘Reg Campbell’, 2018, National Portrait Gallery; ‘Vice-Chancellor portraits’, Charles Sturt University. Websites accessed 27 April 2021.