in environmental issues. However, Aboriginal affairs remained his greatest passion and, in 1979, he launched the Aboriginal Treaty Committee, calling for a formal treaty between Australia and the Aboriginal people. The idea gained much public support but neither the Fraser government nor its successor, Bob Hawke's Labor government, took it up. From 1977 to 1979, Coombs was the president of the Australian Conservation Foundation. Coombs deplored the breakdown of the postwar Keynesian economic consensus represented by Thatcherism, and in his 1990 book The Return of Scarcity he proposed a Common Wealth Estate to ensure a more equitable distribution of wealth. He suffered a disabling stroke in late-1995 and died in Sydney in 1997. During the Howard government administration, the "Coombs legacy" in Aboriginal affairs came under increasing criticism. Journalist Piers Akerman argued that Coombs's policy amounted to "politically correct apartheid", and that the communal land ownership implicit in Aboriginal land rights was keeping Aboriginal people poor and dependent on welfare by preventing the private ownership of land. Relationship with Judith Wright In a June 2009 article in The Monthly, journalist Fiona Capp revealed the story of the 25-year secret love affair between two of Australia's most well-known and well-loved public figures, "the famous poet-cum-activist" Judith Wright and "the distinguished yet down-to-earth statesman" 'Nugget' Coombs. Recognition Coombs was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia in the first awards of the Order on the Queen's Birthday in 1975. However, he resigned from the Order in 1976 upon the introduction of the grade of knighthood to the Order. In January 2008, it was announced that a new suburb in the Canberra district of Molonglo would be named Coombs. It adjoins the new suburb of Wright, named after Judith Wright. References Further reading 1906 births 1997 deaths Alumni of the London School of Economics Australian public servants Australian royal commissioners Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science Fellows of the Australian Academy of the Humanities People educated at Perth Modern School University of Western Australia alumni People from Perth, Western Australia Former Companions of the Order of Australia 20th-century Australian economists Chancellors of the Australian National University 20th-century Australian public servants Governors of the Reserve Bank of Australia