Mr BARRY JONES(4.29 p.m.) —We live in the age of youth and, as somebody increasingly conscious of the passage of time, it comes as a relief to find that there are people around who are older than me. The right honourable member for New England (Mr Sinclair) provides a great sense of reassurance daily. So do my elders and betters, including the honourable member for Shortland (Mr Peter Morris) and the honourable member for Melbourne Ports (Mr Holding).

The Prime Minister (Mr Howard) seems much older, almost from a former geological era, but he actually is not. So it came as a surprise, and almost a relief, when looking up Who's Who in Australia to find that Lyn Barlin is actually older than me, but he glows with good health.

Mr Truss —So do you.

Mr BARRY JONES —Thank you for that. Obviously, there is something about being 64 that has not done us any harm. I have always learnt from the honourable member for Cunningham (Mr Martin). My knowledge of small business, for example, is largely derived from him. It came as a surprise to learn today that Lyn Barlin was one of the world's great shoppers. There is deceptive packaging in the House. The use of the Geneva gown suggests a Calvinist divine but one of unusual bonhomie and balance, not at all judgmental or seeking to send sinners into hellfire.

Of course, Lyn has made a major intellectual contribution. The House of Representatives Practice: Third Edition is like Maimonides' The guide for the Perplexed. It is indispensable bedside reading. It is an infallible cure for insomnia. When you pick it up, stroke its pages and read some of the soothing sentences in it, you feel that essentially everything is all right, you can be reassured and you can sleep with very great confidence.

Mr Truss —It is heavy on your chest.

Mr BARRY JONES —True. For those who have frail wrists, perhaps a smaller paperback version could be prepared. Lyn Barlin was clerk assistant in 1977, when I was first elected. For much of 1978, he was serving in the House of Commons, so I only came to know him either later in that year or early in 1979. I think he has been one of the very great figures I have known, either sitting at that table or within Parliament House itself. His contribution has been remarkable.

The role of the Clerk, to which he was appointed in 1991, is vital. It has a sort of quasi-judicial status, although he speaks oracularly through the voice of the Speaker. The role is vital, but mysterious and often largely unrecognised. It is certainly not understood in the general community. Even people with political knowledge do not know until they come here how central the role of the Clerk is.

There was some good humoured speculation earlier about what a great parliamentarian Lyn would have made and what political party he might have stood for. I must say that I think of him more as an Independent by nature—not, I would have thought, a candidate for the Shooters Party or indeed some recent forms of Independents that we have become used to.

He is a man of extraordinary independence, judgment and depth. I regard it as a privilege to have known him. He has been extraordinarily generous with advice, a great confidante and a repository of many great secrets, not least perhaps in his role as the Registrar of Members' Interests—something of very great sensitivity.

His award as a member of the Order of Australia was very much deserved and applauded by the members who he had served so well and for so long. I know I speak for so many of my colleagues when I say that we all wish Lyn and his wife, Beryl, a very long and happy life together and that, in retirement, they will not think too unkindly of us.