Reg Withers

Withers was born on 26 October 1924 in Bunbury, Western Australia. He was the sixth of seven children born to Isabelle Louisa (née Grieve) and Frederick James Withers. His father was a former locomotive driver who had been elected to the Western Australian Legislative Assembly earlier in 1924 and served for over 20 years as a Labor MP.^[1]

Withers was educated at Bunbury Senior High School. He enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy in June 1942, aged 17, where he received training as a coder.^[1] He was subsequently attached to HMAS Gawler, serving in the Mediterranean, Indian Ocean and Pacific. He was discharged from the military in April 1946.^[2]

Withers settled in Perth after the war's end, completing his leaving certificate at Perth Technical College and going on to study law at the University of Western Australia on a scholarship for ex-servicemen. He graduated Bachelor of Laws in 1952 and undertook his articles of clerkship with Howard Solomon. After being admitted to the bar in 1953 he returned to Bunbury where he practised as a solicitor.^[1]

Returning to Bunbury to practise law, first as a solicitor and, from 1953, a barrister, Withers was elected to Bunbury Municipal Council and began to involve himself in Liberal Party affairs, serving at various times as Liberal Party State President and Vice-President and Federal Vice-President.^[3]

Withers entered the Senate on 17 February 1966 to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Senator Sir Shane Paltridge, but lost his seat at the special Senate election later that year, before being re-elected in 1967, returning to the Senate in 1968.^[1]

Described as having a "jovial manner and perpetual grin", Withers quickly gained a reputation as the Liberal numbers man and served as Senate Government Whip from 1969–71. After the defeat of the McMahon government in 1972, Withers became Opposition Leader in the Senate, where he retained a thin majority and acted to block much of the Whitlam Government's legislation. Withers was widely known as "The Toecutter" for his alleged approach to enforcing party loyalty and his role in the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis.

After the dismissal of the Whitlam government on 11 November 1975, Withers was appointed to Malcolm Fraser's first (caretaker) ministry, becoming Vice-President of the Executive Council as well as briefly holding the portfolios of Special Minister of State, Capital Territory, Media, and Tourism and Recreation during the period leading up to the December election. After the election, Withers became Minister for Administrative Services, and continued as Vice-President of the Executive Council until 7 August 1978.^[4] He was dismissed by Fraser in the wake of the findings of a Royal Commission into aspects of a redistribution of certain federal electorates in Queensland. The royal commission found that Withers had exercised his ministerial influence in an inappropriate way.^[5] At the time he commented about Fraser that "When the man who's carried the biggest knife in this country for the last ten years starts giving you a lecture about propriety, integrity and the need to resign, then he's either making a sick joke or playing you for a mug".^[6]

Withers was appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1977. He retired from federal politics at the 1987 double dissolution, and was subsequently elected Lord Mayor of Perth, in which role he served from 1991 until the council's dissolution in 1994. He was also a monarchist delegate to the 1998 Constitutional Convention.^[7]

Having served as President of the WA Liberal Party from 1961 to 1965, Withers made an unsuccessful attempt to return to this position in 1995^[8] when he challenged incumbent and future state Liberal leader David Honey.

In 1953, Withers married Shirley Jones, with whom he had three children.^[1]

Withers died in Perth, Western Australia, on 15 November 2014, aged 90.^[9]