Peter Reith ‘wrote the playbook’ on the brutal game of politics

On Tuesday, Peter Reith lost a long battle against Alzheimer’s disease. He was 72. One long-time observer of the passing parade in Canberra’s federal parliament on Wednesday recalled Reith as “an old-style politician,” someone who “met fire with fire”.

Early years

Born in Melbourne on July 15, 1950, Reith was educated at Brighton Grammar School and Monash University, where he obtained bachelors’ degrees in law and economics. For a time, he practised as a solicitor in Melbourne, but then opened his own practice in Cowes, the main town in Phillip Island, about 140 kilometres east of Melbourne.

The Reith family’s ties to Phillip Island ran deep. His father, Dr Alec Reith, was a much loved figure in the local community, and earned a reputation for compassion and understanding among job-starved locals during the Great Depression.

Along with brother Sandy, Peter Reith was elected to the Phillip Island Shire Council in 1976 and became Shire President five years later. During the ’70s he was also a key figure behind the establishment of the Newhaven Christian College on Phillip Island.

In 1982, Reith was elected to the federal parliament as the Liberal member for Flinders in a byelection. The seat covers most of the Mornington Peninsula, Melbourne’s south-eastern fringes, and Phillip Island.

One earlier MP for Flinders was former Nationalist rime minister Stanley Melbourne Bruce. He was the first sitting prime minister to lose his seat in the 1929 federal election (the other was Liberal prime minister John Howard who lost his seat of Bennelong in 2007).

Reith lost Flinders at the March 1983 election, even before he had managed to sit in parliament, before re-taking it again at the 1984 federal election.

‘Leadership baton in my knapsack’

Rising quickly to the shadow cabinet, he also established early fame by announcing “I have a leadership baton in my knapsack”. He, in fact, became the Liberal Party deputy leader after the 1990 election, under John (“Fightback”) Hewson.

Reith lost out to as deputy Liberal leader, initially to Michael Woodridge and later to Peter Costello (the current chairman of Nine Entertainment which publishes The Australian Financial Review). The latter change took place after Alexander Downer replaced Hewson as Liberal Leader.

However, Reith was never far from the centre of power in non-Labor politics. John Howard returned to the leadership in 1995, and Reith was awarded the plum job of industrial relations minister after the Coalition returned to power with a crushing 1996 election win.

Reith was tasked with drafting and implementing the Howard government’s industrial relations policy. He is best known for securing the significant productivity reforms which followed the 1998 waterfront dispute.

His handling of the dispute included an aborted attempt to use Australian armed forces personnel, trained in high secrecy in Dubai, and balaclava-clad hired security guards with dogs, as replacements for union members.

Reith vehemently backed Chris Corrigan’s Patrick Corporation in its plan to man the docks with non-union labour, generating bitter opposition from the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA). The dispute was eventually settled by court decisions favouring the retention of union members on the docks. But for Patrick, Peter Costello and the Howard government, the critical reward was major improvements in work practices.

Peter Reith was industrial relations minister during the controversial waterfront dispute in Sydney. Dean Sewell

After Reith’s passing, Howard said he had lost a “dear friend” who played a “major role” in the success of his government’s reforms. In particular, Howard pointed to what he said was the need for “long-overdue reform of the Australian waterfront” with the “crucial assistance” of Chris Corrigan of Patrick Stevedores.

“However contested the outcome of the 1998 waterfront dispute may have been, it was undeniable that world-ranking productivity replaced ruinous behaviour which severely damaged some of the most productive businesses in Australia,” Howard said.

Reith’s “efforts in leading the reform of the waterfront mark him down as one of the best cabinet ministers of all time,” according to Richard Alston, a former Howard government colleague.

“He was peerless in pursuit of the reform objective, despite having a 24-hour security guard. He never wavered, even when under enormous pressure.”

“I always considered him the most impressive contributor in the cabinet among his ministerial colleagues – quick, creative, consistent, thoughtful, and well-informed.”

Reith “loved the game of politics, and he was very good at it. He had a wicked sense of humour and was much loved and admired by many,” Alston said.

Phillip Coorey, The Australian Financial Review’s national political editor, recalls: “I was cutting my teeth as a federal political reporter when Peter was at his peak. I do remember he had a wicked sense of humour.

“The only time I ever recall him ‘leaking’ to me was one day when he rang out of the blue to let me know Howard had just read the riot act to the party room about leaks from the party room. He thought it might make a fun story.”

Structural changes

As part of his IR portfolio, Reith also introduced changes to the structure of the Commonwealth Public Service, a significant reform package for small business, and an innovative, targeted program for the employment of Indigenous Australians.

In 2000, Howard appointed an exhausted Reith to the defence portfolio. At the same time, he became embroiled in an investigation over the use of his phone card. He admitted about $1000 of phone calls were the result of one family member’s access to the PIN associated with the card.

The following year, Reith announced his retirement from politics, but he still played an active role in the 2001 election. Late in the campaign, he became embroiled in the “children overboard” affair. The government falsely claimed asylum seekers had thrown children overboard in a ploy to secure passage to Australia. Further, it failed to correct the record when advised there was no evidence supporting the claims.

After he retired as MP for Flinders, Reith was succeeded by Greg Hunt, who later became health minister, and held Flinders until this year’s election. Hunt recalled on Wednesday that Peter Reith was “a real local member. He was very avuncular, and he would laugh a lot. He had a seriousness of intent and purpose, but he never took himself too seriously, and that was why he was widely liked by his colleagues.”

Hunt says parliament can be a “brutal place” but Peter Reith was “universally supportive of me during my time as his successor. Peter gave me a velvet transition. He was supportive, gave guidance, but he was never interfering. He wrote the playbook.”

Life after parliament

After leaving parliament, Reith had a number of part-time interests, including advising a Sydney government relations firm and Tenix, a major defence supplier. In 2003, he was appointed an executive director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development based in London, and held the position for six years.

Reith wrote a critical report on the Liberal Party’s performance in the closely fought 2010 election, and later narrowly lost the vote to become federal president of the Liberal Party to onetime Victorian state treasurer, Alan Stockdale. He later appeared as a commentator for various commercial TV outlets and was a onetime columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald.

In March 2017, Reith was hospitalised after suspected bleeding on the brain and was unable to proceed with his professed intention to compete against Michael Kroger for the Liberal party presidency. From that point, he was beset with health problems, including Alzheimer’s, which led to his passing.

Peter Reith is survived by his second wife, Kerrie, four sons and 13 grandchildren. Funeral arrangements are being finalised by the Reith family. Greg Hunt understands he will be buried on his beloved Phillip Island. “He was much loved on Phillip Island,” Hunt says.

Ian Hanke, one of Reith’s former ministerial staffers, says: “We are proud of his many achievements and his lifelong commitment to public service. A beloved grandfather, father, husband, brother, friend and respected colleague. He will be dearly missed and always cherished.”