BOOK The F Word

BOOK Shattered lives

BOOK Blue Covenant

QUIZ May winners, June question

BOOK Quarterly Essay: Last Drinks

BOOK Supercapitalism

OPINE The case for a Bill of Rights

QUIZ April winners, May question

BOOK Freedom on the Fatal Shore

...more

I was born in Sydney in 1936. I left school at the age of 15 and became a shearer. At 20, I was already a union representative and dedicated to the labour movement.

My formal education had been limited, but I was astute and resourceful, visionary and enterprising, convivial and quick-witted. In 1964, with Clyde Cameron’s support, I became an organiser in the South Australian state branch of the ALP, and four years later I became state secretary.

In this capacity, I attended an ALP federal executive meeting in 1969. Haphazard manoeuvring seemed about to deliver the position of national party secretary to someone who would have been in my view a disastrous choice, so I made a spur-of-the-moment decision to nominate for the post myself. I was eventually anointed.

Then the full impact of what I’d done hit me. There was a federal party conference to organise in three months, a federal election was expected in six months, and the party’s financial position was desperate.

“After locking up the meeting venue”, I wrote later, “I found myself standing alone on the footpath … late at night wondering what the hell I had allowed myself to get into.”

Happily, it all went pretty well. The conference was a success, with constructive debate in the main and the emergence of both a comprehensive reform program and a brilliant advocate in Gough Whitlam.

The election was amazing. Although our campaign funds were minimal, we did what we could and were rewarded on election night with an extraordinary swing of seven per cent. This 1969 election is the precedent that John Howard and his ministers never acknowledge when they maintain that in good economic times (and they were good in 1969) the Australian electorate does not inflict a big swing against an incumbent government.

We didn’t quite win in 1969, but we were always going to in 1972. I made sure we ran an effective, properly financed campaign. By now my organisational skills were widely acclaimed. I went into federal parliament myself, and became a minister.

What Labor people particularly liked about me was that in an era when more and more lawyers and other middle-class professional types were becoming prominent in the party, I was a reminder of the ALP’s traditions and the typical backgrounds of its former stalwarts. My death in 1996 was widely lamented.

Who was I?

TO SUBMIT YOUR ANSWER, CLICK HERE (please include your name, suburb & State/Territory)

AUGUST QUIZ ANSWER AND WINNERS
The answer to the previous Quiz is: Bill Hayden

Correct answers were received from:

Sarah Kemeny, Melbourne VIC
Rick Bagnal,l Wyee NSW
Madonna Weston, Brighton QLD
Tim Watson, Scottsdale TAS
Adrian Ryan, Westleigh NSW
Moris Allen, Eden Hills SA
Betty Birskys, Kawana QLD
Helen Mayer, VIC
Anne Levy, Adelaide SA
Greg Brian, North Strathfield NSW
Ian Wade-Parker, Helensvale QLD
Robert Patterson, Mount Tamborine QLD
Aydan Casey, Marrickville NSW
Al Stewart, Traralgon VIC
Ian Green, Winthrop WA
Brian Soiland, Port Macquarie NSW
Doug Melville, Kambah ACT
Trevor Scroop, Greenacres SA
Margaret Hains, East Ballina NSW
Lyn Knorr, Woodend VIC
Danni Smith, Brunswick VIC
George Harris, South Hobart TAS
John Jordan, Penrith NSW
John Quessy, Epping NSW
Bernie Moloney, St Ives NSW
Brian McInnes, Leura NSW
Ralph Clarke, SA
John Omond, Richmond VIC
Brian Costar, VIC
Geoff Speers, Burnie TAS
Fiona Sassenfeld, Ballajura WA
David White, Ferntree Gully VIC
Jeremy Baker, Mt Waverley VIC
Philip Laird, Keiraville NSW
Malcolm Thurston, Nicholls ACT
Chris Bollmeyer, Grange SA
Brendan Lock, Rye VIC
Susan Roberts, Rockhampton QLD
Lorie Werner, Box Hill South VIC
Nick Agocs, Dianella WA
Rod Pye, Smiths Lake NSW
Penny Carroll, Mt Lawley WA
Frances Macdonald, Mt Macedon VIC
Dave Kerr, Toowong QLD
Marc Dorey, Flemington VIC
Peter Hughes, Bayview Heights QLD
Mark Norton, Newcastle NSW
Ken Maher, Dickson ACT
John Dale, Bray Park QLD
Nick White, Balwyn North VIC
Peter Fuller, Warranwood VIC
Mary Curran, Frankston VIC
Veronica Ogata, West Pymble NSW
Andrew Thomas, Leichhardt Branch NSW
Mark Ryan, Burpengary QLD
Pru Peschar, Montagu Bay TAS
John Gallagher, Randwick NSW
Robert Ashman, Lakes Entrance VIC
Ash Jones, Fremantle WA
David Murray, Banksia Beach QLD
Robert Pask, Bentleigh East VIC
Karen Boyce, Sale VIC
Lawry Bredhauer, Conder ACT
Peter Baulch, North Arm QLD
Tim Pyke, North Carlton VIC
John Black, Highgate Hill QLD
Don McKenzie, Emerald Beach NSW
Michael Grounds, Strathfieldsaye VIC
Sotirios Theodoratos, Dulwich Hill NSW
Phil Teece, Sunshine Bay NSW
Mathew Woolley , Hobart TAS
Peter Gregg, Lismore NSW
Auriel Barlow, Dickson ACT
Brian Cullen, Carlton VIC
Brian Brown, Jerrabomberra NSW (That was too easy, I named my first born Hayden William!)
John Kloprogge, North Croydon VIC
Ian Hundley, North Balwyn, VIC
Sue Kealy, Kings Park NSW
Eric Fleming, Warwick WA
Jordan Stanley, Mangerton NSW
Beverley Turbit, Toronto NSW
Robert Bozinovski, Keilor Downs VIC
Sandra Sue, Berowra NSW
Angela Boyd, Goodna QLD
Susan Ryan, Coogee NSW
Yulia Onsman, Hobart TAS
Matthew Rayner
John Burne
Pam Bruce
James McComb
Dennis Greentree
Owen Bowland