Paul Keating said that `arguing with John was like wrestling with a column of smoke'

Australian author and speechwriter James Button delivered this eulogy for his father, Senator John Button on 15th April, 2008. He was also one of our best guests on the podcast.

There’s a section at the end of this wonderful episode of the podcast in which experienced speechwriter, newspaper editor, author and writer James Button shares speechmaking advice that is the equal of anything I’ve managed in this Speakola project that has been going for nine years now.

Five things that are foremost to James Button, when embarking upon a speech, are:

• ‘A clear sense of your audience, who is in the room , connect with them, only connect with them … it’s why so many speeches begin with something like, ‘my friends’

• ‘Have something to say’

• The words to say it. If you really find the thing you want to say, the words will come.’

• ‘We’re all nervous but the audience is there willing you on … they want you to succeed’

• ‘A bit of nerves, a stumble, a bit of a cough is actually better than being too polished’

His eulogy for his dad, which turns 16 today, is a beautiful piece of writing about a man who lived an eventful political life, and who was brilliant with words himself. I highly recommend a read or listen, either on the Speakola website or below.

Best wishes

Tony Wilson

For John Button: 'While as a politician he was skilled with words, as a father he was sometimes uncomfortable with them'', by James Button - 2008

15 April, 2008, St Michael's Church, Collins Street, Melbourne

It was exciting growing up around Dad. He brought the heady outside world into our house. The phone was always ringing, visitors were knocking on the door and being ushered into dad's study, which was the classic smoke-filled room. And plots were being hatched – plots to reform the Hawthorn branch of the ALP or to transform Australia, it was the same job. My brothers and I got to meet some intriguing characters. In our living room Nick, aged 10, took the liberty of asking Gough Whitlam if he hated John Kerr. ``Well Nick,'' said Gough, ``as a good Christian one shouldn't hate anyone.'' But Gough, Nick replied. ``What about as a bad Christian?''
                  
In the 60s and 70s the ALP was not so much a party as a cause – and a doomed one, it often seemed. In the wisdom of some in the party, the reason why Labor was unelectable, and the Liberals born to rule, was that Australians were hopelessly conservative and ignorant. My father never believed that. He loved Australia and he thought that if the ALP could come to its senses and change, Australians would come to their senses too. The road was long, though. In the 1961 federal election, he ran for the then blue-ribbon Liberal seat of Chisholm, a seat in which his mother happened to live. The sitting member was Wilfred Kent Hughes, a pillar of the establishment, and dad was predictably slaughtered. At the declaration of the poll Kent Hughes stood up and said in patrician tones, ``It was a fair fight.'' In his speech Dad replied: ``It was neither fair nor a fight. I gained a swing of one – my mother.''