Vew from the chair: Speeches of Richard WL Austin

Foreword Dick Austin served as Chairman of Trustees of the Queensland Art Gallery under seven different Ministers. At various times subsequent to their terms as Ministers for the Arts, five of these found themselves on the backbench. Two of them, one a Deputy Premier, served for only a week each for the duration of a political coup and a counter coup, and both ended their parliamentary careers without Ministerial leather. Two others, both Premiers, were eventually relegated to the back bench by the machinations of their fellow Members of Parliament. One other, a mere Minister, was similarly, but more unceremoniously, dispatched to the back of the Chamber. The other two did even worse than these five. One lost his seat and the other went to jail. Despite these revolutions, the Art Gallery went from strength to strength and, in contrast to his Ministers, Dick Austin himself retired amidst universal and sincere expressions of regret and regard, at a time of his own choosing. To be precise, the time of his retirement was actually his second choice. He had initially sought to step down a year earlier on the grounds of advancing age, and came to see me to submit his resignation. He could have got out simply by putting it in writing, but he chose to observe the formal courtesies even with a politician, and this was his undoing. I told him that his resignation was a ridiculous proposition, that he was practically irreplaceable, and Iwouldn't take it to Cabinet. In case the argumentum ad baculum didn't work, I followed it up with an argument that I knew would get him– a quote from one of his favourite poems: Old age hath yet his honour and his toil; Death closes all; but something ere the end Some work of noble note, may yet be done Not unbecoming men that strove with gods. 1 Dick strove and extracted from whatever gods have these gifts in their possession the time and strength not to yield until the last three great blockbuster exhibitions– Renoir, Fairweather and Matisse-had been successfully concluded. The truth is that you couldn't get a better chairman for an art gallery than Dick. He . has been a soldier, a barrister, a businessman, and an author; but I have always seen him as pre-eminently the diplomat that he indeed was for many years of his career.2 He pressed the art of diplomacy into the service of the Arts of the Muse. This is no small part of the explanation why he and Gallery Director Doug Hall, Deputy Director Caroline Turner and, indeed, the Board and staff of the Gallery generally were able 7