For Ernie Page: 'Ernie Page was Labor to his core', Celebration of Life, by Edwin Plummer - 2018

30 May 2018, Ted Whittle Auditorium, Kingsford, Sydney, NSW, Australia

My sincere condolences to Barbara, to Ernie’s children Harry, Therese, Matthew, Janemaree and Rebecca and to Ernie’s wider family.

It’s an honour to be asked to say a few words here today.

Ernie Page was Labor to his core.

His belief in the values that underpin, and the people who are members of, the great Australian Labor Party was, I think, part of his very being.

It is with that in mind that I want to share with you some of what I believe to be Ernie’s most important public policy achievements,

·       as an Alderman,

·       as a Mayor,

·       as a Member of the NSW Parliament, and

·       as a Minister in the NSW Government.

First, as a member of Waverley Council for a phenomenal 25 years.

One of his lasting, and I believe most significant achievements was to broaden the horizons of local government.

He always believed there was more to local government than just roads, rates and rubbish …. much more.

His vision was clear.

He saw local government as an instrument progressive Labor should use to improve the lives of working people, of ordinary people, and of those who were disadvantaged in our society.

It was one way – and in a local community a very effective way – to promote social justice and equality.

So in Waverley from the 1960s and well into the 1970s – the age of Gough Whitlam and Don Dunstan – he broadened the horizon of local government and in so doing, inspired many activists and future local councillors.

…I know that, because I was one of those inspired.

·       He opened Waverley’s first public library … more on that in a moment.

·       Waverley implemented local government’s first ever affordable housing strategy, to protect the rental housing in which low income residents lived from developers, a first for NSW and a policy future Labor administrations under Barbara Armitage and Paul Pearce were to continue and expand.

·       Council became involved in the provision of child care, its first centre opening in 1976 in Gardiners Road Bondi Junction:

… and I know our former Member for Phillip, Jeannette McHugh, and former Waverly Deputy Mayor and Member of the NSW Legislative Council, Ann Symonds, were leaders in what was then a controversial but now widely accepted and unambiguously necessary area of government activity.

·       Council began directly providing services to support older residents, particularly the frail aged, and children and youth

·       A Community Services Department was established in the council to drive implementation of the community and social agenda within the council administration

·       And Waverley Council started supporting and nurturing the arts, a newfound belief in local government’s role in promoting and celebrating cultural diversity.

And, while he was Member for Waverley, Bondi Beach was saved, quite literally, from the wrecking ball.

A magnificent community-based campaign in the mid-1980s led by Waverley Labor – including Ernie and local councillors – and working with the local Bondi community – repulsed the push by the then Liberal Council to bulldoze the beach front and create, in their words, a high rise “Camelot by the Sea”.

That’s a segue to the Bondi Pavilion, which Ernie passionately supported.

I went down to Bondi on the weekend, and saw that stone tablet in the pavilion foyer, on which is inscribed:

This tablet commemorates the official opening of the Bondi Pavilion Community Centre on 25th June 1978, being the 50th Anniversary of the Pavilion.

Then appear the names:

·       The Honourable Neville Wran QC MP, and

·       Alderman E T Page, BE BComm, Mayor of Waverley

That was 40 years ago, almost to the day.

And as we know, twice since, the community and Waverley Labor have fought to protect the pavilion from privatisation or wholesale commercialisation, and on each occasion successfully.

Turning to Ernie’s time as Minister for Local Government, during Bob Carr’s first Labor Government.

It is my firm belief that Ernie was not only “one of the best” but the best Local Government Minister – and certainly the most popular –this state has ever seen, certainly in my lifetime.

Working then in his ministerial office, along with Paul Tracey and Freda Backes, we saw the local government reform agenda being rolled out.

And if you flick through today’s local government statute book, you will see Ernie’s fingerprints throughout its several hundred pages.

In those four years we saw:

·       Laws to use the rating system to encourage the retention of affordable housing and the protection of high conservation value private land.

·       Laws to require local government to apply the principles of ecologically sustainable development and prepare annual state of the environment reports.

·       Stronger freedom of information laws to ensure residents had open access to council information and council meetings.

·       New laws to significantly strengthen the protection of community land, including public parks and community buildings.

·       New laws to recognise, for the first time, the benefits of local government cooperating and sharing resources regionally.

·       Laws to require councils to exercise their functions consistent with the principles of cultural diversity.

·       Reformed and strengthened companion animals laws

·       New laws to democratise voting in the City of Sydney.

And so on…

I’ll close with what I believe to be perhaps Ernie’s greatest legacy to his local community … Waverley Library.

What he did greatly benefitted the people of Waverley

…of that there is no doubt.

But, more broadly, he showed that public library services and providing free access to books and knowledge was core business for local government.

…and that benefitted the people of NSW.

With his great friend and future Chief Librarian Ron Lander, Ernie bought an old bowling alley in Bondi Junction and turned it into a public library, one that I started visiting as a five year old in 1969 and which, for me, became a window to a wider world.

It was only ever intended it to be a temporary site, so it was a memorable moment when, under Barbara Armitage’s mayoralty, we opened the new purpose-built library in 1999 almost next door, with both Ernie and Ron present as guests of honour.

To give you an idea why Ernie believed so passionately in the social worth of public libraries, I can do no better than quote his own words.

Speaking in the NSW Legislative Assembly on a bill that Ernie argued would dilute guaranteed free access to library resources he said, and I quote:

“Freedom of equity of access to the public library is essential to the democratic process and to the social and economic welfare of the community.  This freedom can be inhibited as much by poverty as by censorship.”

Fine words indeed. He knew well that free access to knowledge promotes equality.

I’ll end where I began….

Ernie Page was Labor to his core

During his long political career, he changed the lives of many in our local community and he changed them for the better.

…we will miss him greatly.