Reg Withers dies, aged 90

Former Liberal government minister and Perth Lord Mayor Reg Withers has died, aged 90.

Reginald Grieve Withers, was born in Bunbury in 1924 and, after a period in the military, moved to Perth as a teenager to study at the University of WA.

He returned to Bunbury to practise law before becoming a politician.

In 1966, he became a Liberal senator.

Three years later, he was appointed Government Whip, moved on to become Leader of the Opposition in the Senate in 1972 and then Government Senate leader in 1975.

Credited with organising the Senate numbers in November 1975 to thwart the Whitlam Labor government Budget Bill - which led to the infamous double dissolution - Mr Withers believed it was not so much a case of being able to manipulate the numbers, but knowing where they were.

He was Malcolm Fraser's Minister for Administrative Services until 1978 and it was during this time that he received his Toecutter tag.

He reportedly said public servants dubbed him Toecutter (after a Sydney gang which chopped off the toes of rivals in a bid to extort money) because of his parsimonious attitude towards departmental spending.

He could also be persuasive in eliciting party loyalty.

He quit Federal politics in 1987 and languished until elected Lord Mayor of Perth in 1991 - a position he held until 1993.

Reg Withers. Picture: The West Australian

He rejoined the political fray as an active advocate for retaining the Queen as head of state and represented Australians for Constitutional Monarchy in the lead-up to the republic referendum in 1999.

In 1995, in an ultimately failed bid for the presidency of the WA Liberal Party, he told The West Australian:

“I'm an unreconstructed 50s, 60s and 70s Liberal. I'm not a wet, I'm not a dry, I'm not a Tory, not a lefty, I'm not a righty, I'm not a you know ... I'm just a Liberal.”

Mr Withers' son Simon said his father should be remembered as a major, colourful figure in Australian politics.

"Dad wasn't really an ideological person. He was more a common sense politician and I think that's the thing that people haven't realised over the years," Mr Withers told ABC radio.

"He was interested mainly in getting the sensible thing done."Premier Colin Barnett, posted on only his second day on Twitter and fourth tweet that Mr Withers was a "tough and cunning politician".