Paul Newton (b.1961), Paul Henry Calvert (detail), 2004, Historic Memorials Collection, Parliament House Art Collection. View full image
President, 19 August 2002 to 14 August 2007
Liberal Party of Australia
The 21st President of the Senate and the third Tasmanian to hold the office, Paul Calvert (b.1940) was respected by Senate colleagues for his fair, collegial and down-to-earth approach to the presidency.1 Born in Hobart in 1940, Calvert came from an established farming family in Tasmania and was passionate about his home state.2
After finishing school, Calvert worked for his father as an orchardist before becoming a wool grower on a property he purchased with his wife, Jill, outside Hobart. Frustrated by the response of his local council, Clarence Municipality, to the challenges facing farmers, he successfully stood for the council in 1976.3 Calvert remained on the council until he entered the Senate, serving as Deputy Warden (1981-83) and Warden (1983-87). He also became president of the Tasmanian Royal Agricultural Society (1987-90).
Discovering that he liked to ‘help one’s fellow human beings and … witness the satisfying results of such efforts’, Calvert switched to federal politics, standing on the Tasmanian Liberal Party ticket for the Senate in 1987.4 It was the start of a 20-year career that saw him continue to champion rural issues, including as a member of the Senate Rural and Regional Affairs Committee, and advocate tirelessly on behalf of Tasmania.5 Calvert was particularly proud of his involvement in establishing the travelling school for children of people working on and following the annual agricultural shows.6
Calvert filled several positions, including Government Whip (1997-2002) and Temporary Chair of Committees (1989-2002), before becoming President in 2002. His presidency included the period in which the Howard Government held a majority in the Senate (2005-07).7
As President, Calvert made a number of rulings on matters including the conduct of debate, the display of slogans in the chamber, and the constitutional restrictions relating to financial legislation.8 Regarded as a ‘force of stability’ in the Senate,9 he later said of his presidency:
When I was warden of Clarence, I decided that the best way to run any meeting is to let everyone have a fair hearing. I have tried to apply the same standard to the Senate, and I have been pleased to have the cooperation of almost every senator.10
Deciding it was ‘time to make way for new blood’, Calvert resigned as President and retired from the Senate in August 2007 to return to farming.11 In his valedictory statement, Calvert reflected that despite visiting parliaments around the world, he had ‘never found any legislature that matches the effectiveness of the Australian Senate’.12
Paul Newton
Sydney-based portraitist Paul Newton (b.1961) studied science at the University of Sydney before forging a career as an artist. Since graduating from the Julian Ashton Art School in 1987, Newton has produced portraits of various prominent figures in Australia and around the world. He has been an Archibald Prize finalist 12 times with portraits of many notable figures. He was also a finalist in the American Society of Portrait Artists 2001 International Portrait Competition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and has twice won the Portrait Society of America International Portrait Competition. In 2010 Newton was commissioned to paint 32 pictures for the interior of the Domus Australia Chapel in Rome, Italy. Among the works is a portrait of Australia’s first canonised saint,
St Mary of the Cross, MacKillop, 2010, and a new depiction of
Our Lady of the Southern Cross #2, 2011. An earlier painting of Our Lady of the Southern Cross was commissioned for World Youth Day and it hangs in St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney.
13
Paul Henry Calvert
by Paul Newton
2004
Oil on canvas
152.4 x 101 cm
Historic Memorials Collection, Parliament House Art Collection
References
1. N Minchin, ‘Valedictory: Paul Calvert’, Senate, Debates, 15 August 2007, pp. 117–18; C Evans, ibid., pp. 118–19; K O’Brien, ibid., pp. 127–28; N Minchin, ‘Senator Paul Calvert an outstanding Senate President’, Media Release, 7 August 2007, accessed 8 August 2021; P Calvert, ‘President election’, Senate, Debates, 19 August 2002, p. 3051.
2. Information sourced from Parliamentary Library, ‘Calvert, the Hon. Paul Henry’, Parliamentary Handbook Online, accessed 8 June 2021.
3. P Calvert, ‘First speech’, Senate, Debates, 28 October 1987, pp. 1418–23; N Scullion, ‘Valedictory: Paul Calvert, Senate, Debates, 15 August 2007, pp. 120–21.
4. Calvert, ‘First speech’, op. cit.
5. E Abetz, ‘Valedictory: Paul Calvert’, op. cit., pp. 123–25; R Colbeck, ibid., p. 126.
6. P Calvert, ‘Valedictory: Paul Calvert’, ibid., pp. 114–17; C Ellison, ibid., p. 130; P Calvert, ‘Matters of Public Importance: Rural and Regional Australia: Services’, Senate, Debates, 28 February 2001, pp. 22235–37.
7. 176 R Laing, ed, Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 14th edn, Department of the Senate, Canberra, 2016, p. 13, accessed 8 August 2021.
8. 177 P Calvert, ‘Speakers List’, Senate, Debates, 15 November 2002, p. 6475; P Calvert, ‘Iraq’, Senate, Debates, 19 March 2003, p. 9664; P Calvert, ‘Customs Tariff Amendment (ACIS) Legislation’, Senate, Debates, 16 September 2003, p. 15275.
9. A Bartlett, ‘Valedictory: Paul Calvert’, op. cit., p. 125.
10. Calvert, ‘Valedictory: Paul Calvert’, op. cit., p. 116
11. ‘Calvert quits as senator, president’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 7 August 2007.
12. Calvert, ‘Valedictory: Paul Calvert’, op. cit., p. 115
13. ‘Paul Newton’, National Portrait Gallery, 2018; ‘Paul Newton: Portrait Artist: about the artist’. Websites accessed 16 April 2021.