Sunshine and Shade: A Diplomatic and Political Memoir

By David Connolly

Book Overview

This book is an immensely readable account of the life and activities of a man who has served Australia so well in many ways. David Connolly and I entered Parliament at the same election on the 18th of May 1974 and in the neighbouring electorates of Bradfield and Bennelong. This book traces David's career, which had numerous iterations, all highly successful. From the Foreword by John Howard OM AC, Prime Minister of Australia 1996 to 2007. Rarely diplomats enter the rough and tumble of politics and return successfully to diplomacy. David Miles Connolly did so with success. Sunshine and Shade is the story of his fascinating childhood in Sri Lanka and as a political researcher for the Liberal Party during the Menzies era and as a diplomat in Sri Lanka, the UN in New York and Israel. Elected to the Australian Parliament in 1974, he witnessed the fall of the Whitlam Government. During the Fraser Government he was chairman of the Public Accounts committee and Foreign Affairs and Defence committee. On the front bench in Opposition (1983-1996), he had a range of portfolios, notably superannuation. After retirement, he went to South Africa as a Commonwealth adviser to the first post-apartheid parliament and was appointed Australia's High Commissioner (1998-2002). He developed a warm friendship with Nelson Mandela and accompanied him on a visit to Australia at the time of the Sydney Olympics. He admired the efforts of Mandela's government of National Unity to combat disadvantage stemming from apartheid and was saddened by the failure of his successors for allowing corruption and greed to destroy the hopes of millions who shared Mandela's dream of a 'Rainbow Nation'. Returning to Australia, David was a trustee director of the Commonwealth's superannuation funds, chairman of Rice Warner Actuaries and a member of the Refugee and Administrative Appeals Tribunals. David was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2002 for services to parliament, foreign relations, superannuation and the community. Monique and David now live on a cattle property near Canberra. Book jacket.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1922582735
• ISBN13: 9781922582737
• Release Date: July 2022
• Publisher: ATF Press
• Length: 460 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.9" x 9.0"