Former politician and Australian ambassador to France John Spender KC has died aged 86.
Mr Spender’s daughter and Independent Member for Wentworth Allegra Spender penned a heartfelt tribute to her father announcing he died on Thursday night at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney.
“He was someone who reflected on the world, always questioned it, loved good conversation, and was gracious to the end,” she wrote on social media.
“He was warm and generous, amusing and a good friend.
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“When he knew he only had a couple of days left he said: ‘The coffee better be good today’.”
Mr Spender was born on December 2, 1985 and was educated at Cranbrook School in Bellevue Hill – which lies within Ms Spender’s electorate of Wentworth – before completing his studies at Yale University when his father was the ambassador to the United States.
He worked as a barrister and became a Queen’s Council in 1974 before he turned his energy towards a political career with the Liberal Party when he became the member for North Sydney in 1980.
Ms Spender recounted his individualist approach to politics when he crossed the floor during his first term in Parliament.
“There was an amendment that would stop witnesses in the National Crimes Commission being reimbursed for legal costs,” she wrote.
“He felt reimbursement was needed for equal access to justice, so he voted with his feet. He was proud of it.”
The Wentworth MP also remembered his work to give the media greater freedom with political commentaries.
“He successfully drove reforms to parliamentary privileges to allow journalists to call politicians ‘drunks and bludgers’ (as Laurie Oakes did in the 1980s) and other unflattering names, which previously came under defamatory content,” Ms Spender recalled.
Throughout his political career Mr Spender worked in the offices of shadow foreign affairs minister and shadow attorney-general and was a strong ally of John Howard’s before he lost his seat at the 1990 election.
Mr Howard appointed Mr Spender as Australia’s ambassador to France in 1996 when relations were strained due to the France’s nuclear testing in the Pacific but he was successful in rebuilding relations and was awarded a Legion d’Honneur in 2013.
Mr Spender was married to Ms Zampatti for over three decades and is survived by his wife Catherine and daughters Bianca and Allegra.
His funeral will be held at St Mark’s Church in Darling Point on Monday October 24.
Source: Sky News
