11 True Survivor – Peter Nixon A.O

Peter Nixon Minister for Shipping & Transport

TRUE SURVIVOR

ON THE CUSP OF HIS 94TH BIRTHDAY, RETIRED NATIONAL PARTY STATESMAN, BUSINESSMAN AND GRAZIER, PETER NIXON AO, REFLECTS ON A REMARKABLE LIFE.

WORDS: CHRIS WEST

Peter Nixon on the farm Peter Nixon as a young politician

Like anyone who has experienced life on the land, Peter Nixon has faced the perils of Mother Nature that conspire to challenge all farmers over time – drought, flood and fire.

Memories of these experiences extend back to his childhood. He still vividly recalls as a young boy of 11 in 1939 spending part of one night standing in the waters of the Snowy River at Orbost with his family to seek refuge from threatening fires in the area.

Numerous other subsequent blazes, including the recent East Gippsland fires two summers ago have caused varying degrees of impact upon his family’s substantial cattle farm holdings in the region. Many other events over the course of his life have tested Peter’s resolve. There is little, if anything, he hasn’t seen and lived through.

Survival instincts and resilience are also necessary weapons for longevity in the sphere of politics, where Peter spent more than two decades of his working life from 1961 to 1983.

It is both poignant and significant from a historical sense that he and National Party colleague, Ian Sinclair, are the only two former politicians still alive today who served under revered ex-Australian Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies.

“Ian was a minister in the Menzies Government, whereas I was only a back-bencher at that time,” Peter notes.

“All the others from the Menzies era are gone now,” he adds.

Peter went on to serve as a minister under five different Prime Ministers – Harold Holt, John McEwen, John Gorton, William McMahon and Malcolm Fraser – and was entrusted with responsibility for a variety of portfolios across his career. He held ministerial office as Minister for the Interior (1967 – 1971), Shipping and Transport (1971-1972), Postmaster-General (1975), Transport (1975-1979) and Primary Industry (1979-1983).

Entwined with those ministerial responsibilities was more than 21 years of dedicated service as the Member for Gippsland in Federal Parliament from December 1961 to February 1983.

Not only was Peter a political survivor, he also recovered from a horrific accident on his farm near Orbost in the 1990s.

“I had come home from a board meeting in Melbourne. My wife Sally had gone to Bairnsdale for dinner with friends, I thought I would take the opportunity to spray a few blackberries on the property,” he recalls.

Peter was carrying a tank with 100 litres of spray on his back as he drove around on a quad bike.

“The bike flipped over backwards and dragged me down a hill with my foot jammed between the brake pedal and the frame. I could hear bones breaking,” he remembers.

“What worried me more when I came to a stop was that I was upside down with the engine still running and petrol pouring out from the tank. The ignition key was out of my reach, but somehow I managed to get to it and turn the engine off.”

Peter lost consciousness for an unknown length of time but came to and extricated himself from the upturned vehicle. His mobile phone wouldn’t work in the gully, so he had to walk up to the top of the hill to get a signal.

“It was sheer agony,” he says.

“I rang my son Chris who came to get me. He took me to hospital and I was then flown by helicopter to Sale.” The extent of Peter’s injuries was no less than twenty breaks in his ribcage, a lost kidney, spinal damage, a broken sternum and partially collapsed lung. He was battered, but far from beaten. Peter James Nixon was born in Orbost on 22nd March, 1928, continuing the family’s deep-rooted presence in East Gippsland.

“My great grandparents were the first Nixons to settle in Orbost in 1865,” he reveals.

Peter left home to be educated at Wesley College in Melbourne as a boarding student. He found the experience a broadening one that would help shape his eventual future.

After leaving school, Peter took an interest in the issues of the day but concentrated his focus on becoming the fourth generation of his family to farm in Gippsland.

His introduction to politics came through driving his father to Country Party district Council meetings and State Conferences, and later handing out ‘how to vote’ cards at State and Federal elections for the Country Party (which later became the National Party).

In 1954 he married his wife Sally, a member of the prominent Dahlsen family from East Gippsland, and she became his rock of support across almost sixty years together.

It wasn’t until the beginning of the 1960s that Peter took the step into politics when he nominated as a candidate to succeed the retiring George Bowden, who had spent close to two decades in office as the Federal Member for Gippsland in the House of Representatives.

A somewhat reluctant candidate at first, Peter nominated mainly at the behest of his father.

He remembers wife Sally’s words of advice.

“I think you should stand,” she said.

“You can’t win, but I don’t want you complaining that you didn’t at least try as your father has done all his life.”

Peter didn’t expect to win pre-selection, but prevail he did, and then went on to win the seat at the 1961 Federal Election.

He would become accustomed to the Liberal-Country/National Coalition being in power. Of his 22 years in Canberra, 19 of those were with his party in office.

Peter successfully combined the responsibilities handed to him in his various ministerial portfolios whilst never losing sight of the importance of his ongoing duties as the Member for Gippsland.

“If I said I would attend a function in the capacity as the Member for Gippsland I would always honour that commitment,” he states.

“I once turned down an invitation to dine with the Queen on one of her Australian visits to instead present a flag at a sports meeting in Club Terrace, which has a population of less than a hundred people.”

Peter made many enduring friendships on all sides of politics during his time in Canberra.

“I was actually great friends with about half a dozen of the Labor blokes. We used to play a billiard game called Russian Pool together on Thursday nights,” he says.

Peter remembers his robust verbal jousts with Labor’s Fred Daly with particular fondness.

“We both enjoyed the banter and would often cook some of the stuff up between us,” he recalls.

Peter & Sally Nixon

“One time we had to debate the respective merits of wool versus man-made fibre. I spoke first in support of wool. Fred then got up and said: ‘The Member for Gippsland has just spoken about wool. Look at him! The suit he is wearing is artificial! The shirt he is wearing is artificial! The socks he is wearing are artificial! The tie he has got on is artificial and the smile on his face is artificial!”

Peter cherishes many proud moments from his time in politics. “In each portfolio I was given, there was something that I can look back upon with pride,” he says.

One achievement that springs immediately to Peter’s mind was his instigation of a cheap international airfare regime in the late 1970s after Aviation became part of his Transport portfolio.

“I struck a deal with British Airways for the introduction of an off-peak fare, which really threw a spanner in the works in the industry at the time, but ultimately led to other airlines around the world following suit despite a lot of resistance at first,” he says.

Peter also worked hard to assist farmers, especially through the terrible nationwide drought during his period as Minister for Primary Industry in the Fraser Government.

“Bob Hawke later abolished certain funding arrangements I had put in place to help farmers,” he recalls. “I was disgusted and told him he was making a serious mistake.”

In 1983, Peter bowed out of politics on his own terms.

“I had tried to retire earlier but was persuaded to stay,” he remarks.

Following his retirement from politics, Peter then devoted his attention and expertise to the business world. He received invitations to join a number of boards, which required spending considerable time in Melbourne, prompting him to purchase a small and unobtrusive townhouse in the leafy inner eastern suburbs as his city base.

Peter Nixon and young family in Canberra

In the same vein as his political career, Peter made an extremely significant contribution to the corporate sector. He served with distinction on the boards of numerous companies and organisations for many years, including being the Founding Chairman of Southern Cross Broadcasting and a Foundation Commissioner of the AFL. The honour roll of his board service is far too long to mention in full and continued on until he was aged in his eighties.

In January 1993, Peter was deservedly made an Officer of the Order of Australia for his service to the Australian parliament and to the community.

Peter & Sally Nixon with their sons

Peter & Sally Nixon

The Nixon family at Christmas time Alongside Peter across all his time in politics and business was his wife Sally. It was a devastating blow to him when she passed away in 2013 and her presence in his life continues to be sadly missed.

“Sally was an absolute gem,” he says.

“She would accompany me on many political trips and to various functions and was always a superb ambassadress. She was highly regarded and respected around Gippsland and the same applied wherever we went.”

The focus of Peter’s life today is on his family, farms and friends. He and Sally raised three children – Joanne, Mark and Chris. Joanne lives in Sydney, whilst Mark runs a boarding establishment in Marlo and Chris manages the farming properties. Collectively, the three children have provided him with seven grandchildren and two great grandchildren.

Peter continues to divide his time between Melbourne and East Gippsland. When in Orbost, rather than staying on the nearby farm, he instead resides in town.

“I’ve had the house in Orbost since 1974. I had it moved into town from one of our former farms after the property was flooded out. The house wouldn’t have survived another flood,” he comments.

Peter spent the Covid lockdown period in Orbost and had no difficulty with the isolation. Gippsland has always occupied a special place in his heart, although he is saddened by certain changes that have occurred within the region in his lifetime.

“We had thirty sawmills in Gippsland when I was first elected and now we’ve had the last three closed,” he laments.

Peter is similarly concerned by the steep decline in numbers of dairy farmers.

Although his days in politics are long behind him, he still follows the political scene in the news.

“You can’t avoid it,” he notes.

On rare occasions, Peter even steps back into the limelight. As recently as last year he was calling for reform in the dairy industry.

“There’s no dairy co-ops anymore. They’re all gone now unfortunately,” he says.

“The supermarkets are screwing the production companies down on price and the farmers have no voice. I was calling for the introduction of a levy which would be passed on directly to the farmers, but so far it has fallen on deaf ears.”

Peter says there will be no fuss around his 94th birthday in March. “It will be very low key,” he promises.

A true survivor in every sense of the word, Peter will be perfectly content with just bringing up another year without any great fanfare.

Images kindly supplied by the Nixon Famijly