Ivor Henry Thomas Hele (1912-1993), Condor Louis Laucke (detail), 1978, Historic Memorials Collection, Parliament House Art Collection. View full image
President, 17 February 1976 to 30 June 1981
Liberal Party of Australia
A flour miller, wine maker, and company director, Condor Laucke (1914-1993) was born in Greenock in SA’s Barossa Valley. He attended local primary schools and Immanuel College, a Lutheran school in Adelaide, where he became head prefect, before studying at the SA School of Mines and Industries. Joining the family milling and grain business in the early 1930s, he was general manager and a director of the company by 1947. His family also owned a vineyard, Bunawunda, and Laucke later played a pivotal role in promoting the SA wine industry.1
At the age of 19, Laucke became inaugural secretary of the Greenock branch of the Liberal and Country League. In 1956, he was elected unopposed to the newly-established seat of Barossa in the SA House of Assembly, a seat he held for nearly a decade.2
After his defeat at the 1965 state election, Laucke filled a casual vacancy in the Senate in 1967. In both state and federal parliaments, he focused on the needs of the rural community in SA and pushed for measures to address drought and water conservation, particularly the management of the Murray River. Active in Senate committees, he chaired the Standing Committee on Social Environment (1971-73) and was deputy chair of the Select Committee on Air Pollution (1968-69).3
Known for his commitment to Parliament and its procedures, Laucke served as Temporary Chair of Committees from 1969 to 1972. In February 1976, following the election of the Fraser Liberal Government, he became President of the Senate. Though he considered himself a ‘progressive conservative’, he was also a traditionalist and resumed wearing the President’s wig and gown (discarded by Turley in 1910), including lace jabot and cuffs, arguing that this lent authority to the office.4
When asked in 1976 to investigate whether the Clerk had provided political advice to two senators, Laucke defended the Clerk’s impartiality and the confidentiality of advice given to senators.5 He made a number of rulings about Question Time, including that questions must relate to ministers’ areas of responsibility. He also allowed senators to ask questions about matters under investigation by a committee, unless they referred to private committee proceedings.6
Laucke’s presidency included the joint parliamentary sitting of 5 May 1981 to fill a casual Senate vacancy for the ACT, the first joint sitting following the Whitlam Government’s dismissal in 1975.7
Laucke was knighted in 1978 and retired at the end of his Senate term in June 1981, returning to his vineyard in SA. Soon after he was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of SA (1982-92). He died in 1993, survived by his wife Rose and their two children.8
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
Condor Louis Laucke
by Ivor Henry Thomas Hele
1978
Oil on board
113 x 90.5 cm
Historic Memorials Collection, Parliament House Art Collection
References
1. S Marchant, ‘Laucke, Sir Condor Louis (1914–1993)’, The Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate Online Edition, Department of the Senate, Parliament of Australia, published first in hardcopy, 2010; Parliamentary Library, ‘Laucke, the Hon. Sir Condor Louis, KCMG’, Parliamentary Handbook Online; S Marchant, ‘Laucke, Sir Condor Louis (1914–1993)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Websites accessed 8 June 2021.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Marchant, Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate, op. cit.
5. Ibid.
6. C Laucke, ‘Questions without notice’, Senate, Debates, 18 March 1976, p. 621; C Laucke, ‘Questions without notice’, Senate, Debates, 26 August 1976, p. 354.
7. Senate, ‘Journals’, 29, 5 May 1981, p. 227.
8. Marchant, Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate, 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.