He was someone who gave everything. He gave his entire life to this political process. He mastered it. He wasn't afraid of strong colleagues. He had, for an insecure man, an enormous self-assurance. He wasn't brilliant -- as Charles Stacey has said, probably a "second rate mind." But it was a first class "second rate" mind and he wasn't afraid to get into the detail, to study the proposals of a Minister, to do the hard work that is necessary. I have no doubt that I would dislike him enormously -- people did -- but I can't help respecting what he was and what he stood for.
