Alan Missen

Alan Joseph Missen (22 July 192530 March 1986) was an Australian lawyer and politician. He was a member of the Liberal Party and served as a Senator for Victoria from 1974 until his death in 1986. He was known as a leader of the party's social liberal wing.

Early life

Missen's parents were Clifford Missen, labourer, and Violet (née Bartley). Clifford hailed from Lismore in western Victoria and Violet from Chiltern in northern Victoria. They met in Melbourne where they married in 1920 and settled in the inner eastern Melbourne suburb of Kew. Alan Missen was educated at Kew Primary School, Box Hill High and matriculated from the selective Melbourne High School. He commenced a law degree at the University of Melbourne in 1943 and immediately became active in student politics.

Formation of the Liberal Party of Australia

When the Liberal Party of Australia was formed by Robert Menzies in 1944, Missen, who lived in Menzies' electorate of Kooyong, became a founding member of the Liberal Party and the Melbourne University Liberal Club. In 1947 he commenced a legal career that was to last for 27 years until his election to Federal Parliament. He established a successful partnership with Roy Schilling and Bill Impey. Missen's opinion piece in The Argus newspaper caused a furore in the Liberal Party. In a scathing critique of the referendum proposal, he poses the following rhetorical question: "Have we so little faith in our ability to defeat Communism in a free encounter that we must employ totalitarian methods against them?"

Marriage

Missen was engaged to Mollie Anchen, school teacher, in 1962. They met through the Debaters' Association of Victoria. Missen was the Association's president from 1958 to 1960. Former Labor Senator John Button debated against both and rated Missen as very good "but not half as good as Mollie, who was terrifying – really!" The Missens married in 1963. In 1974, he was elected to the Australian Senate as a Liberal Senator for Victoria.

During the term of the Fraser Government (1975–1983) Missen made his mark as an activist backbencher and champion of the Senate committee process. In 1976 he was elected as chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs and in 1978 he also took on the chairmanship of the Senate Standing Committee on Regulations and Ordinances. These roles enabled Missen to focus on his policy priorities – human rights and civil liberties. He also served as chairman of the Amnesty International Australian Parliamentary Group.

When the Liberal Party returned to Opposition in 1983 Missen was among a small and shrinking band of small 'L' liberals. Missen found himself increasingly isolated as a new generation of economic reformers took control of the Liberal Party in Victoria and elsewhere across Australia. To compound matters, Missen was a supporter of Andrew Peacock during the mid-1980s when the Liberal Party was divided by leadership tensions between Peacock and John Howard. When Howard replaced Peacock as Liberal leader in 1985 Missen was further alienated. Soon after Howard's elevation he wrote a paper entitled 'The Winter of Our Discontent' about the direction of the Liberal Party. Missen was also seriously unwell. He had long been a diabetic and suffered a heart attack (which was not disclosed publicly) in early 1986.

Death

Alan Missen suffered a second heart attack and died at home on 30 March 1986. His death was recorded in The Age on 31 March 1986, including a tribute from the Prime Minister, Bob Hawke. When the Senate met for the first time after Missen's death on 8 April 1986 a white rose was placed on his vacant desk by his close friend Senator Chris Puplick. Tributes flowed from all sides of the Senate, including heartfelt words from the Labor Attorney-General, Senator Gareth Evans: "He was absolutely, unequivocally and uncompromisingly an idealist – right over at the far, idealistic end of the political spectrum ... There have not been very many like him in Australian politics, and there will not be again". Alan Missen was survived by his wife Mollie, who died 12 October 2008.

Richard Alston was appointed by the Liberal Party to fill the casual vacancy following Alan Missen's death. Justice Michael Kirby delivered the inaugural Alan Missen Memorial Lecture on 10 November 1986 in Melbourne.

Legacy

The Alan Missen Foundation was established in 1988. The Foundation, in conjunction with Liberty Victoria, holds an annual Alan Missen Oration. The Amnesty International Australian Parliamentary Group also holds an annual Alan Missen Memorial Lecture at Parliament House, Canberra. In 2010 the Accountability Round Table instituted the Alan Missen Award for parliamentary integrity. Missen's entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography was published in 2012.