Ivor Henry Thomas Hele (1912-1993), Alister Maxwell McMullin (detail), 1955, Historic Memorials Collection, Parliament House Art Collection. View full image
President, 8 September 1953 to 30 June 1971
Liberal Party of Australia
The longest-serving President of the Senate, Alister McMullin (1900-1984) was born in the Hunter Valley, NSW, and on leaving school became a grazier like his father.1 Before entering the Senate, he was a member of the Upper Hunter Pastures Protection Board and Upper Hunter Shire Council and served in the RAAF during World War II.2 Demobilised in February 1946, McMullin married Thelma Louise Smith in November of the same year.
In 1948, McMullin formed the Scone branch of the Liberal Party, later serving as branch president. Elected to the Senate in 1951, he became President two years later, the first from NSW since President Gould in 1910. He reflected that over nearly 18 years as President, he ‘tried to interpret Standing Orders with a good deal of liberality’, believing that a strict adherence to rules of procedure stifled debate.3
Several of McMullin’s rulings as President remain significant today, including that senators should not reflect on the conduct of members of either House when asking questions, and that it was disorderly to state or imply that a minister or senator had lied.4 In addition, he ruled that the matter of dress be left to the judgement of senators, individually and collectively, subject to any ruling by the President. McMullin also ruled that senators could not refer to matters before the court if such references might prejudice proceedings, and that it was out of order to refer to a senator’s religion in debate.5
In 1956, McMullin survived the first and only censure motion against a President.6 It was moved by the Labor Leader of the Opposition, Senator Nicholas McKenna, after McMullin failed to inform the Senate of his decision to recognise Senator George Cole as the leader of the ‘Australian Labor Party (Anti-Communist)’, of which Cole was the sole parliamentary representative.
As President, McMullin supported the establishment of the Senate standing committee system (1970), which significantly enhanced the Senate’s ability to examine matters in detail.7 He chaired the Parliamentary Library Committee and worked closely with the Parliamentary Librarian to develop a specialised information service, which he felt lifted the standard of debate in the Senate.8 McMullin also chaired the joint committee tasked with planning a permanent Parliament House in Canberra (1965-70).
Knighted in 1957, McMullin was active in the establishment of the National Library of Australia and served as chair of its council immediately after his retirement from the Senate (1971-73). He died in 1984, survived by Thelma and one of their two children.
Sir Ivor Henry Thomas Hele CBE
South Australian artist Ivor Hele (1912-1993) was known for his exceptional draughtsmanship and talent for portraiture and figure compositions. He studied art in Adelaide and later in Europe and began exhibiting during his teenage years. By 1939, he had become a regular exhibitor with the Royal South Australian Society of Arts, highly regarded for his prize-winning portraits. In 1940, Hele enlisted in the Army and in 1941 was appointed as an official war artist. He would go on to become Australia’s longest serving and most prolific war artist, producing over 500 works. Although he also painted many landscapes, Hele was best known for his portraits, winning the SA Melrose Prize for Portraiture three times and the Archibald Prize five times, notably with his portrait of Prime Minister Robert Menzies. In 1969 he was made a CBE, and in 1982 was knighted for his services to art. Hele was a trustee to the board of what was then known as the National Gallery of SA 1956-69. His work is represented in all major Australian national, state and regional galleries.
9
Alister Maxwell McMullin
by Ivor Henry Thomas Hele
1955
Oil on canvas
89.2 xx 74.5 cm
Historic Memorials Collection, Parliament House Art Collection
References
1. ‘Upper Hunter Shire Council asking community to support renaming of Junction Bridge to McMullin Bridge, to honour significant Rouchel family’, The Scone Advocate, 21 July 2020; D Connolly, ‘McMullin, Sir Alister (1900–1984)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 2012. Websites accessed 7 June 2021.
2. Unless otherwise noted, information sourced from S Marshall, ‘McMullin, Sir Alister Maxwell (1900–1984)’, The Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate Online Edition, Department of the Senate, Parliament of Australia, published first in hardcopy 2010; Connolly, op. cit.; Parliamentary Library, ‘McMullin, the Hon. Sir Alister Maxwell, KCMG’, Parliamentary Handbook Online. Websites accessed 7 June 2021.
3. A McMullin, ‘Retirement of Senators: Valedictory’, Senate, Debates, 12 May 1971, p. 1707.
4. A McMullin, ‘Drought Relief: Questions’, Senate, Debates, 12 November 1968, p. 1865; A McMullin, ‘Unparliamentary Expressions’, Senate, Debates, 31 October 1967, p. 1891; Marshall, op. cit.
5. R Laing, ed, Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 14th edn, Department of the Senate, Canberra, 2016, pp. 260, 269.
6. N McKenna, ‘The President’, Senate, Debates, 29 May 1956, pp. 1015–62.
7. See Department of the Senate, ‘Standing Orders Committee’, Navigate Senate Committees, accessed 3 August 2021.
8. Marshall, op. cit.
9. ‘Sir Ivor Henry Thomas Hele CBE (1912–1993)’, Virtual War Memorial Australia; Ivor Hele 1912–1993‘, National Portrait Gallery; ‘Ivor Hele: the heroic figure’, Australian War Memorial; J Hylton, ‘Hele, Sir Ivor Henry (1912–1993)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 2021; ‘Hele, (Sir) Ivor Henry Thomas’, A McCulloch, S McCulloch and E McCulloch Childs, eds, The New McCulloch’s Encyclopedia of Australian Art, Aus Art Editions in association with The Miegunyah Press, 2006, p. 509. Websites accessed 26 March 2021.