Bert Kelly - Political Career

Political Career

Kelly was elected as the Liberal Party member for the House of Representatives seat of Wakefield at the 1958 election. He was a passionate supporter of free trade, when this was very much a minority opinion in Australia. Kelly was Minister for Works from February 1967 to February 1968 in the Holt and Gorton ministries and then Minister for the Navy until November 1969. His period as minister may have been limited by his free trade views.

After Kelly's departure from the ministry, he wrote a column in the Australian Financial Review, Modest Member, supporting free trade. When the seat of Angas was abolished in 1977, its member Geoffrey Giles beat Kelly for preselection for Wakefield.

Kelly renamed his column "Modest Farmer" and it was published successively in the Australian Financial Review, The Bulletin and The Australian. He was made Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in 1980. Survived by his wife, Lorna and three sons, Kelly's funeral was attended by former Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and Ray Evans, the former head of Western Mining Corporation and president of the right-wing H. R. Nicholls Society.

Bert was opposed to protectionism … because it created a situation in which governments, in the person of ministers or officials, granted arbitrary and capricious favours to some, who were thus greatly enriched, at the expense of others, who were at best impoverished and at worst, ruined. —Ray Evans No private member has had as much influence in changing a major policy of the major parties. —Gough Whitlam