Reflections on a life of service … and the road not travelled
David Muir thought he was destined for a life in politics but instead he chose the law and a life of service, which he chronicles in his memoir.
When he was a young man David Muir considered a life in politics … of the Liberal persuasion. The way things are in that field, he seems to have dodged a bullet.
The revelation of his political aspirations is made in his book, The Long Reach of Service: From Longreach to Legacy, published by Boolarong Press and launched in Brisbane this week.
David Muir AM is a man of many hats who, after a long career in the law, now focusses on other matters. He is chair of Real Republic Australia, co-founder of Foodbank Queensland (with the late Clem Jones), founder of Crime Stoppers Queensland and former state president of Amnesty International, among other things.
“I left the law six years ago,” he tells me when we meet over morning tea at the Royal on the Park Hotel and Suites Brisbane. The venue is carefully chosen since his friend and Lions Club associate Jan Schutt is GM and the hotel was officially opened in 1969 by former Lord Mayor Clem Jones, Muir’s friend, associate and sometime mentor.
Muir happens to be chair of the Clem Jones Trust and the Clem Jones Group of Companies, leading the philanthropic legacy of the former Brisbane Lord Mayor.
“The law gave me a good living and enabled me to retire,” he says. “Everything I do now is on a voluntary or philanthropic basis.”
His book is a reflection on life in the law and of serving the community. In the hands of a different person that could result in something that was potentially self-serving and potentially dull. Not a bit of it, though, because Muir does not have tickets on himself. He merely tells us the story of his life and his work and it just happens to span an incredibly interesting period in Australian social and political history.
You might like
It helps that he has a cavalcade of colourful characters throughout with some funny and interesting stories along the way. The index alone will give you an idea of some of those who cross his path (or does he cross theirs?) including Dame Quentin Bryce, Gough Whitlam, Clem Jones (as already mentioned), visionary advocate and author Everald Compton (another close friend and mentor), Neville Bonner, Sallyanne Atkinson … the list of people mentioned, living and dead, is long and impressive.
He also cleverly uses mostly short pithy chapters, clearly titled, so that you know exactly what each one is about. There is the temptation to skip some and jump to the ones that interest you, and I’m sure that’s fine with the author, although I would suggest you go back to the others later.
‘Values can be one’s guideposts in life without knowing which road they will direct you to’
The last chapter (we’ll go back to the first, shortly) is called Life is a journey, and it is, as it sounds, a reflection of sorts. It’s here that he reflects on the road not taken.
“Studying law and economics was to be my pathway to becoming a federal parliamentarian,” he writes. “Instead, I became a lawyer with an opportunity to participate in public life in another way, alongside the journey of my career. My sense of values about fairness led me to join Amnesty International Queensland. Values can be one’s guideposts in life without knowing which road they will direct you to. Values are also likely to attract you to like-minded people. Keeping to one’s values is also likely to satisfy the ‘man in the mirror’, as someone once famously said.” (Michael Jackson happened to write a pretty good song on that very subject.)
In true self-deprecating manner, Muir begins his book with a story at his own expense. The chapter is simply called EG Whitlam and recounts a moment at the 1998 Constitutional Convention (Muir is an avowed republican) where he was admonished by former PM Gough Whitlam, who didn’t agree with Muir’s stance on direct election of an Australian head of state. It so happens that Clem Jones was suggesting the same thing, but Gough thought Muir was behind this and called him a “Svengali”.
“The dressing down was delivered because Whitlam could not bear to blame Dr Clem Jones AO, whom he considered to be an icon in the Australian Labor Party for his advocacy of direct elections for an Australian head of state in an Australian republic, so he picked on me,” Muir writes. “Svengali means exerting control over another. Hardly an apt description for anyone as far as Clem Jones was concerned.”
Subscribe for updates
Muir seems to enjoy having been selected for admonition by Gough. Fair enough.
His book – part autobiography, part-memoir – is also about the life and times of all of us. And that’s what makes it so interesting.
I was very taken with his descriptions of his early life on a sheep station near Ilfracombe not far from Longreach. The area was also home to a certain former Governor of Queensland and Governor-General of Australia, Dame Quentin Bryce, who spoke at his book launch in Brisbane this week.
Muir, who lives at Indooroopilly with his wife Veronica (they have two children and two grandchildren), writes lovingly of life on Glenferrie Station, where he had a governess before formal schooling, eventually boarding at the Anglican Church Grammar School (Churchie) in Brisbane.
In the chapter, Glenferrie to the Beach, he makes a rather interesting observation that throws light on the man he would become.
“During my early schooling years, my mother sent a sample of my handwriting away for analysis to see what my future career might be,” he writes. “It might have been her way of providing vocational guidance. The report back was that I would become a diplomat.”
Which seems on the money because in his own quiet way he is, straddling the world of politics through his friendships and associations (he is friendly with politicians of all stripes) and navigating the complex fields that he is involved in, including as a champion of Voluntary Assisted Dying.
‘Hopefully, this book will encourage others to get involved in public life and give some clues about how that can be done’
He walks a middle path but is no less passionate for all that. Now at age 70 it is time to reflect, hence the book. But it’s certainly not time to rest on his laurels. There’s a lot of good work still to be done and he’s up for it. And he hopes to inspire others, as he writes in the final paragraph of this entertaining book.
“Hopefully, this book will encourage others to get involved in public life and give some clues about how that can be done.”
The Long Reach of Service: From Longreach to Legacy by David Muir, Boolarong Press, $32.99.
Want to see more stories from InDaily Qld in your Google search results?
- Click here to set InDaily Qld as a preferred source.
- Tick the box next to "InDaily Qld". That's it.
Free to share
This article may be shared online or in print under a Creative Commons licence