PM - the 'Toecutter' Reg Withers Dies Aged 90 18/11/2014

PM - The 'Toecutter' Reg Withers dies aged 90 18/11/2014

Radio TV Shop News Sport Local Children Science Environment more Topics help

Listen to Tuesday's program

PM covers a broad spectrum of issues relevant to all sections of Australia's geographically and culturally diverse community. WITH MARK COLVIN .

Monday to Friday from 6:10pm on ABC Local Radio and 5:00pm on Radio National. HOME ABOUT ARCHIVES CONTACT

27th February 2003

A liberated Iraq will be an inspiration to other Arab The 'Toecutter' Reg Withers dies aged 90 nations, and bring peace and security to the Middle East: Anna Vidot reported this story on Tuesday, November 18, 2014 18:50:00 George W. Bush, 2003

MARK COLVIN: He was a dominant figure in West Australian politics for decades and a key player in the crisis that led to the dismissal of | MP3 DOWNLOAD Gough Whitlam, and now Reg Withers has died at the age of 90.

Senator Withers cultivated a hard man political image reflected in his MONDAY DOWNLOAD MP3 FRIDAY DOWNLOAD MP3 MORE TO ADD? ALERT US » nickname - 'The Toecutter'. THURSDAY DOWNLOAD MP3 WEDNESDAY DOWNLOAD MP3 PRINT THIS STORY » He led the Coalition throughout the 1975 crisis over the blocking of TUESDAY DOWNLOAD MP3 supply. His family has revealed that he died at the weekend. EMAIL A FRIEND »

SHARE ON FACEBOOK » From Perth, Anna Vidot reports.

SHARE ON TWITTER » ANNA VIDOT: The man they called the 'Toecutter' played politics hard.

REG WITHERS: Politics is about getting power and keeping power. Images We're not indulging in some afternoon tea party, for goodness sake.

Click an image to enlarge ANNA VIDOT: Reg Withers was a key figure through the tumultuous Subscribe to our Daily or years of the Whitlam government as the Liberal Party's Senate leader. Story podcast. West Australian political commentator Peter Kennedy says Reg Withers ALL ABOUT PODCASTING . was more than up to that fight.

PETER KENNEDY: Reg withers earned the nickname 'Toecutter' because he was very, very tough. He made sure that Liberal senators in AM 1975 held the line in failing to pass the budget. Labor people disliked

PM him intensely, but as far as the Liberals were concerned at that stage, he THE WORLD TODAY was a hero. CORRESPONDENTS REPORT ANNA VIDOT: Born the son of a Labor parliamentarian in Bunbury in Program Websites 1924, Reginald Greive Withers served with the Navy from 1942 to '46 before becoming a barrister.

He first entered the Federal Senate in 1966, losing that seat before returning in 1968. He became the opposition senate leader when Gough

http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2014/s4130930.htm[19/11/2014 11:48:26 AM] PM - The 'Toecutter' Reg Withers dies aged 90 18/11/2014

Whitlam was swept to victory in 1972.

Reg Withers was one of the architects of the Liberals' strategy to block supply, and it was his job to keep the Coalition's senate alliance and its slender senate majority in one piece.

His son, Simon Withers.

SIMON WITHERS: Dad had to hold them together for many, many months while Whitlam stormed round the country saying he'd let the country go broke before he called an election, and there were many waverers at that time who wanted to cross the floor and vote for supply.

So dad held them in line right to the end, until the government was dismissed.

ANNA VIDOT: Fred Chaney was the opposition's whip in the senate under Reg Withers in the lead-up to the dismissal.

FRED CHANEY: I don't think there's any doubt that he played an extraordinarily important role in affecting the outcome the Opposition wanted, and he showed very steady and very great leadership at the time. He took the view that if you were to be a leader, you decided what you should do and you did it. And if people didn't like it then they should replace you.

ANNA VIDOT: Reg Withers became a minister in Malcolm Fraser's government but his ministerial career was not without controversy, as AM's Jeff Duncan reported in August 1978.

JEFF DUNCAN: The report itself, which will be released later today, is believed to be critical of Senator Withers for his actions during the federal redistribution in Queensland last year. It's believed that Mr Justice McGregor concluded that Senator Withers acted improperly in intervening to get the proposed name of an electorate changed.

ANNA VIDOT: Fraser dismissed Reg Withers from cabinet over the so- called 'Withers Affair' in 1978, but some Liberal backbenchers, including Fred Chaney, felt their senate leader had been badly treated.

FRED CHANEY: It's something that I said at the time was wrong and I still believe was wrong.

ANNA VIDOT: Reg Withers retired from federal parliament at another double dissolution election in 1987, after two decades in the upper house.

But his was not a quiet retirement. He also served as Lord Mayor of Perth in early 90s. His son Simon says it wasn't a role he enjoyed.

SIMON WITHERS: He basically said he couldn't stand it any longer. He didn't want to go ahead with the council that he had at the time, he asked other prominent people around the town to run for council and make a better council and not one of them put their hand up, so he said I'm out of here. He found it very frustrating.

ANNA VIDOT: West Australian Premier Colin Barnett today said Reg Withers was a great Lord Mayor, and that he was a "tough and cunning politician" with a great sense of humour.

Foreign Minister and fellow West Australian Julie Bishop said he'll "be remembered as a stalwart of the Liberal Party, a strong advocate for the West, and a mentor to younger politicians" who will "long be remembered for his commitment to, and passion for, public service."

In an interview with the ABC's Sunday Supplement program in 1983, Reg Withers was told that a Labor senator, asked for a character assessment, had answered that as a Christian, if they couldn't say

http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2014/s4130930.htm[19/11/2014 11:48:26 AM] PM - The 'Toecutter' Reg Withers dies aged 90 18/11/2014

anything nice, they'd best say nothing.

REG WITHERS: If he can't find anything good about me, that's while I'm alive. You know, there's a great story of mine: I was sitting the senate chamber 12 months ago and we had a condolence motion on about some deceased person or other, and my old friend and sparring partner Fred Daly from the Labor Party was sitting in the gallery.

And Freddy and I looked at each other in a rather bemused way and he grabbed hold of a sheet of paper and sent me a note, and it said "I'm terribly sorry I won't live another 50 years, because I'd love to be here when they speak on your condolence motion and every hypocrite will get up and say, 'and he was loved by all'..."

Reg Withers died on Saturday, surrounded by his family. He was 90 years old.

MARK COLVIN: Anna Vidot.

http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2014/s4130930.htm[19/11/2014 11:48:26 AM]