ADDRESS (OBITUARY)

Clement John Lloyd (14.01.1939 - 31.12.2001)

John Faulkner¹

On New Year's Eve at Gympie, in Queensland, the great Labor loyalist Clem Lloyd died. He was in Gympie working on a biography of Andrew Fisher. It was to be his twelfth book. Clem was a journalist, political staffer, historian, academic, teacher and writer. At 15 he joined the Daily Telegraph as a police rounds copy boy. He took his cadetship on the Daily Mirror working again on the police rounds. For 12 years, Clem worked in Sydney and Canberra, with the Sydney Daily Mirror, Sydney Sun, Sydney Morning Herald, Consolidated Press, the Australian Financial Review and the Melbourne Truth. He studied at university part time, first completing a degree in economics, then an arts degree. By the end of his life he had completed bachelors, masters, and doctoral degrees in political science and bachelors degrees in law and economics.	1
In 1966, he began working for the federal Labor Party when he was offered the position of principal private secretary to Labor's Senate leader, Don Willesee. When Willesee lost the leadership a few months later, Clem joined Lance Barnard, the opposition's deputy leader and spokesman on defence. He worked with Lance Barnard until 1973. In the lead-up to the 1972 election, Clem played a key role in formulating Labor's defence policy. The policy included bringing an end to conscription and developing a well-equipped, decently paid volunteer army, as well as restructuring Australia's defence establishment—a massive job which meant reorganisation and integration of five defence departments.	2
Richard Hall was right when he said that Clem was 'the brains behind a credible alternative Labor defence policy' in the lead-up to the election of the Whitlam government. Clem resigned from Barnard's staff when Sir Arthur Tange, the permanent Secretary of the Department of Defence, refused to allow Clem to attend a briefing by British Defence Secretary Lord Carrrington. As Graham Freudenberg wrote in A Certain Grandeur, 'his resignation was a deep blow to Barnard and the whole government'.2 On three more occasions in the ensuing 10 years he was to work at Parliament House: twice with Tom Uren as press secretary and then as principal private secretary to Bill Hayden. By the 1980s, his attention had turned to academia. He spent eight years at the Australian National University, and then from 1989 to 2001 he was professor of journalism at the University of Wollongong's Graduate School of Journalism. Late last year he moved to the University of Canberra after being appointed research professor. His was an extraordinary career.	3
Given Clem's legendary capacity for food and drink, it seemed appropriate that a memorial gathering for him last month would be held at the Members Dining Room at Old Parliament House. As Andrew Clark said then, 'Boldness and bigness were hallmarks of Clem Lloyd. He was a man of big appetites in food, political argument, imbibing, public policy, racing, teaching, music, history, reading and writing'. We heard then of a man who once said, 'We may not have the best governments in the world but we sure have the funniest'. We heard of a man who put his lounge furniture out on the nature strip to air, only to be aggrieved when he thought it had been stolen. No so—just permanently removed because he had managed this exercise on the local rubbish collection day.	4
I had a lot to do with Clem last year when we celebrated the centenary of the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party. In fact, Clem Lloyd was the only person to contribute to both the Liberal and Labor Centenary of Federation publications. Clem was one of 26 contributors to our caucus history True Believers.3 I have got to say that I became very agitated when Clem's chapter was the last to arrive. But wasn't it worth waiting for! It was very Clem. He found fascinating new material to open up and explain how caucus and the press gallery interact. At the time of the True Believers launch, Clem's research on the relationship between Ben Chifley and the Murdochs—both Sir Keith and Rupert—received much attention. The insights and sharp asides on some familiar national figures included in this chapter were enjoyed by many. Professor Stuart Macintyre said to me recently that Clem had a closer familiarity with the archives than most historians do and a shrewd understanding of the secrets they would tell as well as those they would withhold. All this, and so much more, will be missed.	5
At this difficult time we think of Clem's family: his sister Genevieve, his daughter Frances and his wife Beverley, who are in the chamber this evening. Beverley herself has made such a significant contribution to the Labor Party, not least her work with Pat Weller in editing and publishing our caucus minutes from 1901 to 1949 and our Federal Executive minutes from 1915 to 1955. To them goes our very deep and sincere sympathy. So, vale, Clem. Your work in the cause of Labor will never be forgotten.	6
Endnotes 1 Senator John Faulkner, Leader of the Opposition ALP in the Senate, address to the Senate on 12 February 2002. 2 G. Freudenberg, A Certain Grandeur: Gough Whitlam and Politics, Sun Books, Melbourne, 1978, p. 3 J. Faulkner and S. Macintyre (eds.), True Believers: the Story of the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 2001.

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