CLYDE PACKER.(memorial tribute)(Brief Article)

BACK IN THE 1960s, when Clyde began his campaign for election to the Legislative Council, one of his principal mentors, his campaign director, was the late Sir Asher Joel MLC. Asher told Clyde that there were three stages in the parliamentary life. In this order. First: Get In. Then: Get Honest. Then: Get Honoured. That was the order. You had to get in before you got honest, or honoured.

Well, Clyde did not have much trouble getting in. There was, he liked to pretend, not much competition. But he had always been fascinated by politics--since he was ten years old running round his local electorate of Wentworth defacing the Labor candidate's posters.

Nor was there any problem about getting honest--he was honest to begin with. It was his honesty that fuelled his hilarious if often Swiftian sense of humour, enlivened his parliamentary speeches on everything from free trade to police corruption, led him more than once to cross the floor--and made him quite a few political enemies.

Clyde used to say that you should not live out your parliamentary term (in his day it was twelve years in the Legislative Council) as if the main idea was to make sure you were elected for another term. Not for Clyde the life of the seat-warmer or the premier's yes-man. That may be why he did not reach Asher Joel's third stage--being formally honoured or appointed to the ministry.

When the time came to think about another twelve-year term, Clyde did the calculations--in the traditional way, listing his supporters on a scrap of paper. Then he applied the Milton Morris Law of Elections. Milton--another of Clyde's mentors--devised a rule to calculate what your vote will actually be in Upper House elections. (In those days the Upper House was elected exclusively by existing Members of Parliament.) You take the number of those who have solemnly promised, hand on heart, to vote for you. Then halve it, and subtract five. That's what you'll get. It was clear Clyde did not have the numbers. He finished his term and cheerfully resumed private life. One of his parting japes was to drop some marijuana seedlings in the Speaker's Garden--and then advise the Police Commissioner of his suspicions! (He was not on good terms with the Speaker.)

He was a loss to parliament--as an independent spirit and as a potential minister. But his public life was not limited to parliament. As a publisher his portfolio included ...