Unity is Strength

Dr Bobbie Oliver is a recognised authority on the labour movement in Western Australia, and senior lecturer in history at the Australia Research Institute, Curtin University of Technology. Her many publications include Peacemongers: Conscientious Objectors to Military Service in Australia (1997) and War and Peace in Western Australia (1995). Bobbie Oliver is currently researching the history of the Midland Railway Workshops.

Unity is Strength: A History of the Australian Labor Party and the Trades and Labor Council in Western Australia, 18991999

Bobbie Oliver

NETWORK

First published in 2003 by the API Network / Network Books www.networkbooks.com.au General Editor: Richard Nile Publisher: Emma Costantino 2013 Copyright is vested in the Australian Public Intellectual Network (API) Network / Network Books. Apart from any fair dealing permitted according to the provisions of the Copyright Act, reproduction by any process of any parts of any work may not be undertaken without written permission from the author of Unity is Strength: A History of the Australian Labor Party and the Trades and Labor Council in Western Australia, 18991999 Oliver, Bobbie, 1951- . Unity is strength : a history of the Australian Labor Party and the Trades and Labor Council in Western Australia, 1899-1999. Bibliography. Includes index. ISBN 1 920845 00 3. 1. Australian Labor Party. Western Australian Branch - History. 2. Trades and Labor Council of Western Australia - History. I. Curtin University of Technology. Australia Research Institute. II. Title. 324.29407 ISBN 1 920845 00 3

Contents
Illustrations Abbreviations Acknowledgements Introduction Unity is Strength Chapter One The 1899 Trades Union and Labour Congress and its outcomes 18991905 Chapter Two The Labour Movement and State Socialism 19061916 Chapter Three No one is big enough to break the labour movement 19161920 Chapter Four For only by the OBU shall workmens wrongs be righted Chapter Five Unity, Organisation and Continuous Propaganda 19241929 Chapter Six Engulfed in the maelstrom of today Depression, Secession and Unemployment during the 1930s Chapter Seven The one outstanding man in Australia John Curtin and the State ALP 19351945 vii viii xi xiii

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Chapter Eight Postwar Deconstruction Party Structures 19451950 Chapter Nine A Vexed Issue for WA Unions The Creation of an Independent Trades and Labor Council 19471963 Chapter Ten Dr Evatt has split the Party the length and breadth of the Commonwealth or was it Mr Chamberlain? Chapter Eleven Decline of a Labor Strongman 19631974 Chapter Twelve The Trades and Labor Council 19631979 Chapter Thirteen Fundamental Shifts in Power 19741982 Chapter Fourteen The best new Leader in Australia Brian Burke and his Successors 19831993 Chapter Fifteen Industrial Challenges for the Trades and Labor Council 19801999 Chapter Sixteen A New Agenda for a New Century Appendix Notes Bibliography Index

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377 395 441 453

Illustrations

Front Cover Top, left to right: Jim Coleman, John Tonkin and Joe Chamberlain (courtesy WA Newspapers). Centre: John Curtin (courtesy of Records of the John Curtin Family, Curtin in close-up, Fremantle 1942, JCPML 00376/56), Jack Marks (courtesy WA Newspapers), Carmen Lawrence (courtesy ALP WA). Bottom: fourth and fifth from left, Jean Beadle and May Holman (courtesy ALP WA). Back Cover Eight Hour Day/Labour Day march in Hay Street, Perth, October 1897 (courtesy Battye Library, 2220B/5). Cover design: Louise Trethewey

Abbreviations
ACEDA ACTU AEU Amalgamated Certificated Engine Drivers Association Australian Council of Trade Unions Amalgamated Engineers Union (originally the Amalgamated Society of Engineers) AIF Australian Imperial Force ALF Australian Labor Federation ALHMWU Australian Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union ALP Australian Labor Party ALP (WA) Australian Labor Party (Western Australian Branch) AMA Amalgamated Miners Association AMF Australian Military Forces (the militia) AMWU Amalgamated Metal Workers Union (subsequently Australian Manufacturing Workers Union) ARDA Alluvial Rights Defence Association AREU Amalgamated Railway Employees Union ARU Australian Railways Union ASCJ Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners ASE Australian Society of Engineers ASOF Australasian Steamship Owners Federation ATMEA Australian Tramway and Motor Omnibus Employers Association ATWU Amalgamated Timber Workers Union AWA Australian Workers Association AWU Australian Workers Union BHP BLF BLPPU BWIU CDRHWU CEPU CFMEU CMU CPA CPSU CSA Broken Hill Proprietary Builders Labourers Federation Builders Labourers, Painters and Plasterers Union Building Workers Industrial Union Coastal, Docks, Rivers and Harbour Workers Union Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Workers Union Collie Miners Union Communist Party of Australia Commonwealth Public Servants Union Civil Service Association

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DCM

Douglas Credit Movement

FEDFA/U Federated Engine Drivers and Firemens Association/Union FIA Federated Ironworkers Association FLU Fremantle Lumpers Union (subsequently Fremantle Branch of the WWF; then MUA) FMU Federated Miners Union FPLP Federal Parliamentary Labor Party (see also PLP) FSU Federated Seamens Union GWU General Workers Union

HCCT&REU Hotel, Club, Caterers, Tearooms & Restaurant Employees Union HCCWU Hotel, Club and Caterers Workers Union (successor to the HCCT&REU) IVC IWW IYDP LEDFCU LEDFU LWCE LWO MLA MLC MUA MWU NLP NWWU OBU OHS OLP OPDU Industrial Vigilance Committee Industrial Workers of the World International Year of Disabled Persons (1981) Locomotive Engine Drivers, Firemens and Cleaners Union (also LEDFU) Locomotive Engine Drivers and Firemens Union (also LEDFCU) Labor Womens Central Executive Labor Womens Organisation Member of the Legislative Assembly Member of the Legislative Council Maritime Union of Australia Maritime Workers Union National Labor Party National Waterside Workers Union One Big Union Occupational Health and Safety Official Labor Party Operative Painters and Decorators Union

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PGA PLP PRKIU RFA ROU RRIA RSA RSI RSL RSWU SPDU SPLP SSTU TLC TUTA TWU TWUWA UAP VLU WA WAASRE WACTU WADC WAGH WALTCC WATUIC WCOC WIU WMC WWF YLL YLO

Pastoralists and Graziers Association Parliamentary Labor Party (see also SPLP and FPLP) Printing and Kindred Industries Association Regional Forests Agreement Railway Officers Union Robe River Iron Associates Returned Soldiers Association repetitive strain injury Returned Soldiers Sailors and Airmens Imperial League of Australia (subsequently the Returned Services League) Relief and Sustenance Workers Union Ship Painters and Dockers Union State Parliamentary Labor Party (see also PLP) State School Teachers Union Trades and Labor Council (Western Australia) Trade Union Training Authority Transport Workers Union Timber Workers Union of WA United Australia Party Victorian Labour Union Western Australia WA Amalgamated Society of Railway Employees WA Council of Trade Unions WA Development Corporation WA Government Holdings WA Labor Tripartite Consultative Council WA Trades Union Industrial Council Womens Central Organising Committee Workers Industrial Union Western Mining Corporation Waterside Workers Federation Young Labor League Young Labor Organisation

Acknowledgements
The greater part of the research and writing of this centenary history of the ALP and the Trades and Labor Council in Western Australia was undertaken as my major research project during 1997 to 1999, while I held a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in the Research Institute for Cultural Heritage, Curtin University. The Fellowship was supported by a generous research grant. I especially wish to acknowledge the contribution of the Hon. John Cowdell MLC and the late Mr W.S. Bill Latter, who undertook the necessary negotiations to gain ALP and TLC support and funding for the project, introduced me to people and material, and read drafts of the manuscript. It is my deepest regret that Bill Latter passed away last year and did not see the project through to publication. Researchers Linley Batterham and James Lamev have provided invaluable assistance in unearthing documentary material and illustrations, compiling Appendices and obtaining copyright for illustrations. Richard Nile, Emma Costantino and Louise Trethewey, of the Australian Public Intellectual Network, have produced a well edited and beautifully designed book. Thanks are also due to Lois Anderson, Michael Beahan, Hon Clive Brown MLA, Mal Bryce, Brian Burke, Neil Byrne, Tony Cooke, Mark Cuomo, Rev. Keith Dowding, Lyla Elliott, Senator Chris Evans, Hon Dr Geoff Gallop MLA, Andrew Gill, John Halden, Pen and Rob Hetherington, Bill Johnstone, Thelma Louden, Stephanie Mayman, Hon R.F. Bob McMullan MP, Rob Meecham, Len Owens, Hon Stephen Smith MP, Arthur Tonkin, Dr John Troy, Dr Judyth Watson, Senator Ruth Webber and Don Willesee. All of these people gave of their time by either permitting me to interview them, providing material, or reading and commenting upon drafts of chapters. In some cases, their hospitality extended to inviting me into their homes and allowing me access to private collections of papers, for which I am deeply grateful. The staffs of the ALP (WA Branch), the TLCWA, the J.S. Battye Library, the National Library (Canberra), the Australian Archives (Canberra), Noel Butlin Archives of Business and Labour (Canberra) and the John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library at Curtin University were unfailingly helpful, professional and courteous. I also thank numerous academic colleagues, friends and family members for their support during this lengthy process. Comments by those who were involved in the events of this book have greatly assisted my understanding of the massive documentary evidence

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available in a centurys accumulation of files and Minutes of the ALP and the TLC. It is inevitable, however, given the time constraints, that I did not consult some people who played significant roles in the development of the labour movement in Western Australia. I have striven to be as factually accurate as is possible when writing from many different (and sometimes conflicting) sources. I am, of course, entirely responsible for the interpretation of events and personalities that is set down in these pages.

Introduction

Unity is Strength
Unity, solidarity and pulling together are recurring themes in Labour history.1 A little over a century ago, the manual worker whether in Australia or elsewhere had no individual economic, social, industrial or political power; therefore, reforms could be won only by unified labour action against the enemy Capital. Remember that the opposing class is united and acts on the settled conviction that capital is Lord over all, J.P. Boucaut, a former Premier of South Australia, reminded a Labor colleague in the 1870s. Unless you also act on settled principles you are defeated at the outset.2 Labor activists urged their fellow workers to sink differences and accept that the common good was more important than the freedom of the individual. These sentiments are encapsulated in the words that would serve for many years as the motto of the Australian Labor Federation (Western Australian Branch): Unity is strength. Visual symbols of this unity included the handshake, often encircled by the words Australian Labor Party, WA Branch and a classical figure attempting to break a bundle of bound sticks across his knee. The figure knelt on a plinth inscribed with the words Union is strength.3 This symbol was used on the letterhead of the Eastern Goldfields District Council of the ALP. Conversely, then, a movement that could not achieve or maintain unity was regarded as being weak. The search for unity forms a major theme of this centenary history of the Western Australian labour movement. The early chapters examine the organisations and ideologies established to obtain and maintain a unified movement, characterised by adherence to a platform, refusal to ally or associate with non-unionists and non-Labor political parties, and the disciplining (including expulsion) of recalcitrant members. But the same unity that granted workers freedom from the chains of oppression, poverty and powerlessness also created inflexible structures that could not meet the challenges of changing times. The central chapters discuss the strengths and weaknesses of a combined political/industrial movement and the outcomes of the movement splitting in 1963 into a Party and a Trades and Labor Council. The concluding chapters examine the impact of directions that the Western Australian labour movement took during the later decades of the twentieth century, and raises the issue of what and whom Labor represented in the 1990s. Significant historical debates are addressed on issues central to the

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Labor platform, including conscription in World War I and the Vietnam War, economic policy during the Depression, the 1950s Party split, equal pay and equal opportunity, privatisation, the rights of Indigenous Australians, and caring for the environment. At the end of their first century, the ALP and the TLC (WA) were adopting new strategies and forms to meet the challenges of an era where industrial organisation was often regarded as no longer relevant. In 2000, the TLC moved to more spacious offices in Stirling Street, Perth, in the re-named Unity House, and adopted a new title, Unions WA. In the same year, ACTU secretary Greg Combet addressed the TLC (WA), indicating a continuing of closer, more cordial relations between the two bodies in the twenty-first century. Labor returned to Government in Western Australia in February 2001 under Geoff Gallops leadership, with an agenda encompassing suburban renewal, improved essential services; high priority for environmental issues; parliamentary reform, and furthering the reconciliation process between Indigenous and nonIndigenous Australians. Among the new Members in the Legislative Assembley was Carol Martin, the first Aboriginal woman to sit in an Australian Parliament. It is appropriate, however, to commence the centenary history with a defining moment, from which the labour movement in Western Australia dates its genesis: the forging of a connection between the Coastal and the Goldfields Trades and Labor Councils in April 1899.

Chapter One

The 1899 Trades Union and Labour Congress and its outcomes 18991905
The 1899 Trades Union Congress On the afternoon of 11 April 1899, 28 men met at Pearces Hall, Coolgardie, on the Western Australian Goldfields, to open the colonys first Trade Union and Labour Congress. The Congress met for six days to found the Australian Labor Federation, WA (ALF) a body modelled on the NSW ALF and to decide party policy on a range of electoral, industrial and taxation reforms.1 It was the forum at which Labors first platform was decided, and some of the issues and disagreements raised there were to continue troubling the movement at both State and Federal levels during the twentieth century. The procedures adopted would continue in use for many years. Some issues were discussed and resolved on the floor; others firstly went to sub-committees for recommendation. About half of the Congress were members of the numerically strong Amalgamated Workers Association (AWA), whose membership was drawn from a variety of workplaces and smaller unions, representing miners, timber cutters, labourers and rural workers. Their president, Hugh de Largie, who was elected Congress President, was typical of the Labor men who gathered at Coolgardie. De Largie had gone down the pit at the age of 10 and had been an active unionist before he left his native Scotland. After migrating to Australia he was involved in industrial and political action in Queensland and New South Wales coal mines before arriving in Western Australia in 1896.2 The AWAs interest in political matters was reflected in the Congress proceedings. Firstly, the delegates agreed upon draft proposals for electoral reform, including redistributing seats on a population basis; introducing full adult suffrage (one adult, one vote); abolishing plural and proxy voting, and enfranchising all residents who had lived in the colony for six months. The

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redistribution of seats was vital in order for the mining towns to receive adequate electoral representation. The delegates also approved the institution of biennial parliaments and the Federal referendum. On the second day, the Congress adopted proposals to legalise and regulate the role of trade unions: compulsory conciliation and arbitration to enable the peaceful settlement of industrial disputes and to enforce industrial awards, and a comprehensive Act registering trade unions and cooperative stores and settlements. Trade unions were still technically illegal organisations in Western Australia and unionists could be severely punished for organised action.3 The delegates then turned to industrial reform. They wanted legislation introduced that would abolish the contract system on public works; regulate conditions in factories; enforce an eight-hour working day, and create safeguards to ensure that all labour employed on government contracts operated on a day wage system, and no worker would be paid less than the current wage. Serious accidents at work were commonplace, so it was inevitable that many Congress proposals contained reforms to grant workers greater physical and legal protection. These included recommending amendments to the Employers Liability Act to include Lumpers (wharf labourers), seamen, and female workers, and making provision in the Master and Servant Act for accidents being considered prima facie evidence of neglect in management.4 Detailed discussion of proposed mining legislation was also inevitable with so many delegates employed in the industry. The Congress resolved to recommend the establishment of mining boards, composed of equal numbers of miners and mine managers or owners, and periodic safety inspections of all mines by trained inspectors. The remainder of the Congress was devoted to determining the structure of the proposed Labor Federation, the selection of Party candidates, and the balance of the Labor platform. Congress resolved to form a body known as the Australian Labor Federation (ALF WA), comprising two Councils: a Metropolitan Council formed from the Metropolitan TLC, and a Goldfields Council comprising the Kalgoorlie and Boulder District TLC, the AWA and the Amalgamated Certificated Engine Drivers Association (ACEDA). It was decided to invite non-affiliated unions to join the relevant Council. The Congress adopted the rules of the Sydney District Council as a basis for the ALF Councils in Western Australia. Each District Council would appoint a secretary and institute an affiliation fee of four pence per member per month. Fred Davis and William Dartnell (W.D.) Johnson were appointed as respective Secretaries to the Metropolitan and Goldfields District Councils.5 A motion by Davis and Diver that this Congress advocates the national ownership of all

The 1899 Trade Union and Labour Congress

means of production and distribution for the equal benefit of all was carried. The President called for three cheers for socialism which were heartily and enthusiastically given.6 The delegates knew that many workers were non-unionised; it was virtually impossible to form organisations of workers in the scattered inland settlements. There was some disagreement over whether non-unionists should be allowed to vote to select candidates to represent the ALF in Parliament. De Largie argued that it would be better to leave the matter until the Payment of Members Bill became law, as the ALF could not afford to pay representatives in Parliament.7 The proposed Labor platform and the best means of getting Labor representation in Parliament prior to the passage of the Payment of Members Act generated much discussion. A sub-committee delegated to consider the latter issue recommended to the Congress that, pending the legislation, each constituency should be free to adopt the means best suited to them for the gaining of our aims. They could either run a direct Labor candidate, supporting him financially by local subscription, or assist the return of the most democratic candidate available. William Kerr of Coolgardie Branch AWA argued that, to support a candidate:
merely because he professed democratic principles was to leave a loophole for the milk-and-water species of candidate, and open the door through which a man could enter into Parliament under the cloak of Labor, and who, professing to be their friend, would prove an enemy at heart.8

Davis disagreed, saying that any man who gained the support of the Labor party would have to sign the Labor pledge and that would act as a safeguard against those candidates who were just after a way into Parliament. McIlroy (Alluvial Rights Defence Association) advised caution, remarking that experience had shown that returned candidates would sign cartloads of pledges and rat afterwards. Even at this early stage, the tensions generated by the perceived need for absolute solidarity were evident. Throughout the joint industrial and political organisations 63-year history, the theme of unity and pulling together would counterpoint that of expelling rats and dissidents. The sub-committee appointed to draw up a Fighting Platform recommended only four planks: payment of members; redistribution of seats on a population basis; a compulsory Arbitration Act similar to New Zealands, and the constitution of a joint Labor parliamentary committee with one section each for the Metropolitan and Goldfields districts as an interim measure until the two District Councils were formed. Fergie Reid thought that redistribution of seats was not so pressing an issue as free state education or

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the abolition of Sunday labour. Reids amendment to include these matters in the Fighting Platform was lost and the report was accepted as submitted by the sub-committee. The major discussion on the final day of the Congress concerned establishing a weekly Labor paper. A report by the relevant sub-committee recommended that a Cooperative Labor Press Printing Company be formed and 2,000 shares offered to members of the labour movement. Each shareholder would have one vote. Congress would appoint a provisional board of six trustees (three each from the Coast and the Goldfields). The business of the Congress was concluded shortly afterwards, and some of the delegates addressed a mass meeting in Kalgoorlie that evening before returning to their respective homes.9 Western Australia in the 1890s The Trades Union and Labour Congress occurred at the end of a decade of political and social upheaval. In 1890, when WA was granted self government, there were less than 50,000 people in a colony that was still an isolated outpost of the British Empire. Two decades later, the States population was around 300,000.10 Gold discoveries firstly in the Kimberley in 1885, then in the arid semi-desert, culminating in the richest finds of all at Coolgardie in September 1892 and Kalgoorlie in 1893 brought a massive immigration from the eastern colonies and from overseas, and generated unprecedented economic growth. The Western Australian gold boom began at a time when the eastern colonies were suffering depression and widespread unemployment. The Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie gold discoveries brought 8,000 immigrants to the colony in 1893 and almost 26,000 in 1894. In 1899 Coolgardie which had risen in six years from a few scattered groups of miners tents and boughroofed sheds among the low scrub to a town with many fine, new buildings was an appropriate venue for the historic Trade Union Congress. Yet Coolgardies recognised role as the capital of the Goldfields was already under threat from its richer and newer neighbour, Kalgoorlie, still a city of tents sprouting out of the red sand and scrub 40 kilometres to the east.11 Many of the immigrants were young men, born in Britain, the eastern Australian colonies or New Zealand, who already had some experience of industrial and political activity in the labour movement. They chafed under the legislative restrictions imposed by the Government in Perth, hundreds of kilometres away a Government led by Sir John Forrest and representative of a small minority of old colonists, as native Western Australians were known.

The 1899 Trade Union and Labour Congress

The system of plural and proxy voting enabled large land holders to vote in every constituency where they owned property, whereas newcomers were denied the right to enrol on the Electoral Register until they had been resident in the colony for a year and in one electorate for at least six months. Once registered, they had to be on the roll for six months before they were able to vote. To stand for a seat in either House of Parliament, the candidate must have lived in WA for at least two years. Apart from the Premier and four cabinet ministers, no Member of Parliament received a salary, effectively barring wage earners from the Legislature.12 Evidently, these measures were designed to benefit wealthy, conservative colonists who had been born or had lived for many years in the colony. In contrast, Chartist demands for universal male suffrage, abolition of the property qualification for Parliamentary candidates and payment of salaries to Members of Parliament had been a basis of many protests in the eastern colonies since the 1850s the most famous being the Eureka Stockade in 1854. By the end of that decade, manhood suffrage had been granted in South Australia, New South Wales and Victoria. South Australia was also the first Australian colony to give women the vote, in 1894.13 The Congress delegates meeting at Coolgardie were unanimous in recommending that the colonial Government legislate reforms that would bring WA into line with the other colonies by the time of Federation. All of the delegates were trade unionists and had links with the ALF. It was out of many different ideas, and groups, but with a common outrage against the injustices done to the poor, that the ALF had formed, with branches (initially known as Political Labor Leagues) in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.14 Factory Acts such as those sought by the WA labour movement had been passed in most eastern colonies in the 1890s, with the Victorian Act being the most comprehensive. The Victorian Parliament enacted legislation which set the minimum wage at two shillings and six pence per week, prohibited children under 13 years from working, granted a maximum working week of 48 hours to women and to boys under 16 years, and stipulated minimum health and sanitation requirements.15 The Western Australian labour movement The WA labour movement developed amid circumstances quite different from those in the eastern colonies. Upon its foundation in 1829, the colony had inherited legislation enacted during the reign of George IV, including the 1825 Conspiracy Law, and laws conferring illegality on all trade union activity. The

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colony accepted these laws in their entirety and added other oppressive laws that remained in force until the twentieth century. Under the Master and Servant Act (1842), servants could be jailed for up to six months for failing to perform their duties properly. Convict transportation commenced in 1842 and continued until 1868 long after its cessation elsewhere.16 Yet despite being denied legal status, the unions that formed in the 1880s and 1890s were not suppressed. Early unions included the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners (ASCJ) that was formed at Fremantle in 1884, the Locomotive Engine Drivers and Firemens Union (LEDFU), 1885, the Typographical Society and the Fremantle Lumpers Union (FLU), the colonys predecessor of the Waterside Workers Federation, both formed in 1889. Five unions the Bricklayers and Plasterers, the United Labourers, the Typographers, the Tobacco Twisters and the ASCJ formed a Trades and Labor Council (TLC) in Perth in 1891. According to William Somerville the author of an unpublished history of the WA labour movement, in which he was active between 1898 and the 1940s coastal Labor solidarity was severely weakened by strong parochial rivalries between the Perth and Fremantle TLCs, and a prejudice against dabbling in politics. Fremantles enmity towards Perth increased when the railway workshops were relocated from there to Midland Junction in 1904.17 In 1893, the TLC formed the Progressive Political League (also referred to as the Political Labor Party), which campaigned for triennially elected parliaments and payment for Members of Parliament. Labors political development was complicated by the existence of widely scattered pockets of the mining, timber and transport industries, resulting in autonomous local TLCs rather than one central controlling body. By the end of the 1890s, the largest concentration of population outside the metropolitan area was located in the Eastern Goldfields. Thus the first TLCs were founded in Perth, Fremantle and KalgoorlieBoulder. John Forrests governing Ministerial Party received its support from the largely coastal, rural population, who had lived in the colony prior to the gold rushes. Although Forrest favoured Federation with the eastern colonies, and at first proposed a referendum so that the people could decide the issue, he vacillated under pressure from his partys support base.18 The Goldfields population, however, strongly favoured Federation, partly as a way of circumventing some of Forrests more draconian legislation. Consequently, the referendum featured prominently in discussions at the Labour Congress in 1899. Labors first representative in the Legislative Assembly, Charles Oldham, a builder, was elected to the seat of North Perth in the 1897 elections, and he

The 1899 Trade Union and Labour Congress

served until 1900. Oldham was born in England, emigrated to Victoria as a young man in 1889, and then travelled west in 1892 the year that the struggling Perth TLC was revived. He served as TLC President in 1894. By the time he stood for the Legislative Assembly, he was an employer, and had the necessary resources to enable him to support himself while in Parliament. His election was a triumph for the Political Labor Party (PLP), whose sole candidate in the 1894 election, Chitty Baker, had lost in North Fremantle.19 Despite this early political activity on the coast, Goldfields candidates would dominate Labors parliamentary successes in the first decades of the 1900s once Labor members could participate fully and equally in the political process. Outcomes of the 1899 Congress After the 1899 Congress, the painstaking business of implementing decisions began. The establishment of an ALF (WA) proved to be difficult. It was not until 1907 that the joint political/industrial structure, which was to control the organised labour movement for the next half-century, took shape. In the meantime, the TLCs continued to operate as they had before the Congress. At a referendum in July 1900, Western Australians voted overwhelmingly in favour of federation with the remainder of Australia. Although without true representation in the State Houses of Parliament, the labour movement benefited from the ensuing political situation. Some of Forrests supporters who had opposed federation went into opposition and the Ministerial Party was a minority government during its last year in office. Forrest had to remain as State Premier to qualify for a position in the Federal cabinet. Thus he was particularly vulnerable to the demands of those politicians who promised him support in the House in return for legislated reforms. Liberals such as George Leake and Walter James were able to push through much-needed social and political reforms. The regulation of shop and factory hours, prohibition of Sunday work in the mines, an eight-hour day for government railway employees, a Workmens Wages Act to ensure that workers were paid the wages due to them, abolition of the truck practice of paying in kind, a minimum wages clause written into government contracts, the establishment of the Arbitration Court, the Payment of Members Act and the granting of female suffrage were all legislated in 1899 or 1900. Also the first legislative steps were taken to legalise trade unions with the passage of an Act amending the law relating to conspiracy and the protection of property. The Trades Union Regulation Act was finally passed in February 1902 and the process of legalising unions was complete.20

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The Westralian Worker The Westralian Worker office was established in Kalgoorlie, and the first edition appeared on 7 September 1900, with Thomas Bath as founding editor and W.D. Johnson as manager. Wallace Nelson, a Scot from Aberdeen, became editor in 1901, bringing with him experience as editor of the Peoples Newspaper in Rockhampton.21 Early issues of the Worker contained key editorials and articles on the meaning and tasks of the labour movement. An article in the first issue stressed the need for unity. It related the story of South Australian Labor leader, J.A. McPherson, whose deathbed injunction reputedly was: Tell the boys to pull together.22 These words were adopted as the motto of the Goldfields labour movement and hung as a framed text on the wall of the Workers Hall in Boulder. An editorial by W.D. Johnson entitled the political aspirations of Labor encapsulated the themes that were to dominate the labour movements thinking: the urgent need for a distinctive Party platform and a united approach in which the individual submitted to the majority. Johnson began:
Labor is emerging from the chrysalis stage of existence, poising itself in the general light of knowledge and power, preparatory to taking flight into the unknown realms of political life, which is to justify or condemn its existence.23

Johnson pointed to the travesty of so-called popular representation at a time when people seemed just as effectually shut out from the deliberations of their country as if they lived under the most despotic monarchy. Constitutions were good in theory, he argued, but in reality they did not establish equality, because they failed to bring about sound and honest government. Johnson contrasted the traditional political candidate with the new Labor candidate:
The old tradition was that we should select some individual with a long purse, or newspaper reputation or influential business standing and elevate him to the position of a political joss, to be worshipped but the modern belief is to organise and educate, adopt advantageous legislative measures, formulate a platform and select from our midst men of ability and integrity, men whose political views are known to be truly in consonance with that platform, men whose longcontinued service in the cause of Labor has guaranteed their sincerity and proved them worthy of the confidence of the people.24

The 1899 Trade Union and Labour Congress

Furthermore, if a members own views clashed with a vital principal of the platform, he should resign. The difference, therefore, as Johnson saw it was that while the non-Labor parties were individual-based, Labor was party- and platform-based. The 1900 Congress The Worker also provided a notice board for coming events, such as the annual Congress. A group of 55 delegates representing 32 organisations met at Jacobys Bohemia Hall in Murray Street, Perth, from 13 to 16 August 1900 for the Second Trades and Labour Congress. Jessie McCallum, representing the Goldfields Tailoresses Union, was welcomed as the first woman delegate to a Labour Congress. Apart from attending the Congress, she assisted Mamie Swanton to found the Coastal Tailoresses Union with branches in Perth and Fremantle. Others present who had not attended the first Congress included George Pearce, President of the TLC of Western Australia (Perth and Fremantle branches), who was elected Congress President; J.W. Croft, TLC Secretary, and A.J. Wilson, the first successful organiser of timber workers in Western Australia, who would hold the State seat of Forrest from 1904 until 1908.25 Resolutions included adopting a trades union label or stamp as an effective means of organisation, and impressing upon the Government the need for industrial reforms including a Shops and Factories Act to regulate working conditions, and a Compulsory Arbitration Act (which the Congress drafted). The delegates also resolved to call for a repeal of the Conspiracy Laws.26 The main task of the 1900 Congress was organising the selection ballots for the 1901 Federal and State elections. Union secretaries performed their duties voluntarily after working a 48-hour week at their particular occupation, so there was very little time for union business. The sub-committee appointed to consider Federal political action recommended that two Labor candidates run for the Senate and two for the House of Representatives on a platform of electoral reform (one adult, one vote), total exclusion of coloured and undesirable aliens, and government provision of old age pensions.27 Federal selection ballots When the time came to select candidates for the Senate, Pearce was the undisputed choice of the Coastal bodies, but the Goldfields bodies were unable to decide upon a candidate. Eventually, de Largie was chosen by a committee of three Coastal TLC members meeting in Kalgoorlie.28 The Goldfields labour

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movement protested that the method of selecting de Largie did not meet approved standards. One outcome of these protests was the re-formation of the Amalgamated Miners Association (AMA) at BrownHill in January 1901. The AMA had formed a Kalgoorlie and Boulder Branch in 1896 but had merged with other unions to form the AWA in 1897. By 1900, however, there were sufficient disaffected miners in the BrownHill area to form a rival body. The AWA was a populist organisation that drew on local Goldfields issues and discontents, rather than a purely labour organisation. Its existence indicated the hostility and elitism existing between craft and composite unions. While the AWAs unrestricted membership included skilled and unskilled workers, and even small business proprietors as exemplified by J.B. Holman, the leader of the Murchison AWA, who was a tobacconist the new body would be solely a miners union.29 South Australian-born Jabez Dodd led the dissident AMA. A Primitive Methodist by religion and a strong advocate of miners rights, Dodd served as Secretary of the Kalgoorlie and Boulder Branch AMA from 1900 to 1906. The AWA and the two other large composite unions, the Railway Employees and the LEDFU subsequently withdrew from the Goldfields TLC because they could not accept a voting system that enabled the numerically smaller craft unions to outvote them.30 In the tense atmosphere that recreated the AMA, matters such as the selection of candidates to represent Labor in State and Federal Parliaments were inevitably contentious. Dodd accused the AWA of causing the split in the Goldfields movement and delaying the selection procedure and, with a sense of irony, pointed out that de Largies union, the AWA, had seceded from the Goldfields TLC.31 Nevertheless, de Largie was the successful Goldfields candidate for the Senate. Both Pearce and de Largie were elected to the first Senate and continued to represent Labor in this capacity until they left the Party in 1917. Selection ballots for the House of Representatives were less dramatic. In February 1901, Hugh Mahon was selected to contest the Federal seat of Coolgardie, whilst James Fowler was the candidate for Perth and Thomas OBeirne stood for Fremantle. Of these, Mahon had the most colourful history. Born in Kings County, Ireland, in 1857, he became a journalist and political activist for Parnells National Land League. He was imprisoned in Dublin in 1881, was released suffering with tuberculosis, and, under threat of further imprisonment, fled to Australia. Arriving in the Goldfields in 1895, he spent the next few years editing a series of newspapers including the Menzies Miner and the Sun (Kalgoorlie). A severe and persistent critic of the Forrest Government, he unsuccessfully opposed Henry Gregory for the seat of State

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seat of North Coolgardie in 1897.32 James McKinnon Fowler was born in Scotland in 1863 and began his working life as a clerk in a Glasgow counting house. He immigrated to Australia in 1891 and went prospecting on the Murchison gold field. His attraction to the ALP was through his strong proFederation stance.33 Irish-born OBeirne had lived and worked in New Zealand and Broken Hill before arriving in WA. A publican by trade, his love of sports resulted in him being a co-founder of the South Fremantle Football Club. Both Mahon and Fowler won their seats in the March 1901 Federal election, but OBeirne gained only 36 per cent of the primary vote in Fremantle.34 Thus, WA Labor contributed four members to the first Federal Parliament. Labor in the Western Australian Parliament As agreed at the 1900 Congress, the sub-committee for State Labor Representation advocated that the ALF nominate Labor representatives for 22 seats in the April 1901 State elections, with local labour bodies being given the option of deciding whether they would run a candidate in a further 11 seats. The State Platform was far more extensive than the Federal one, reflecting the disparity between existing State legislation and the proposed Federal laws: payment of all Members of Parliament; the redistribution of seats on a population basis; one adult, one vote; compulsory industrial arbitration; the legislating of a Factories Act; the imposition of a tax on unimproved land values, and amendments to the Mining Laws.35 Six candidates W.D. Johnson, Robert Hastie, Henry Daglish, Fergie Reid, George Mulga Taylor36 and John Reside were successful in gaining seats in the Legislative Assembly. Again, the Goldfields dominated, only Daglish representing a metropolitan seat. Johnson defeated Cabinet Minister C.J. Moran for the State seat of Kalgoorlie, despite a petition being lodged against him, accusing him of soliciting votes within 48 hours of polling day. The petition was subsequently dismissed in the Court of Disputed Returns.37 It is difficult to determine who bears the right to the title of first Labor Member of the Legislative Council. James Montgomery Speed, a lawyer from New Zealand, was elected in the inaugural Metropolitan-Suburban Province poll on 5 September 1900. As he represented the State Political Labor Party (SPLP) at the 1901 Congress, he must have been a Labor Member for at least his first year in Parliament, although Black does not list him as an ALP member, and later designates him as Ministerialist.38 In the Central Province by-election of 3 December 1900, occasioned by the resignation of F. Whitcombe, Bartholomew Cornelius OBrien stood as ALP candidate and was elected with

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a majority of 71 votes, mainly from Cue and Mt Magnet. OBrien was proprietor of, firstly, the Great Britain Hotel in Cue and, later, the Court Hotel in Beaufort Street, Perth. He lost his seat in 1904, but held it again from 1908 until 1914, when he retired. Black lists OBrien as representing the ALP throughout this time, and Caucus records show that he attended two or three meetings over several years.39 It would appear, therefore, that Speed has a reasonable claim to being the first ALP Member in the Upper House. The Labor MLAs took their seats when State Parliament was opened on 1 July 1901. It was a historic moment for the Party, yet the Worker could not resist lampooning the ceremony, observing that, despite the vice-regal admonition to shepherd the shekels, the governors arrival was heralded by a fivers worth of ammunition exploding in the Domain, where a job lot of ancient canon, in the last stages of decay, thundered forth the customary salute. His Excellency arrived surrounded by a bakers dozen of armed troopers and the band murdered the National Anthem until tipped the wink to stop. The governor went into the Legislative Council dubbed the House of Horrors by the Worker performed his obligations and drove away.40 At last, WA Labor had genuine workers representatives in both the State and Federal Parliaments, but several factors served to dim Labors optimism. Firstly, the legislative reforms passed in the Forrest Governments last year in office were less impressive in reality than on paper. An example was the truck system that particularly affected the South Western timber industry. The large timber companies usually established their central mills and a village for workers within their timber concessions, served only by a private railway. They controlled all traffic in and out of the concession and were able to force their workers to buy goods from the local store while, at the same time, prohibiting any outside traders from entering. In 1905, when Somerville visited the Karridale settlement as an organiser for the Amalgamated Engineers Union (AEU), he found that the truck system remained in a modified, surreptitious form under the benevolent despotism of the Davies family. The Davies family owned Karridale, a settlement that provided a hospital and a school for its workers and their families.41 Unfortunately, other timber companies were despotic but not benevolent. The truck system continued into the 1920s.42 The Labor Parliamentarians faced the question of whether the ALF should form alliances with other political parties. In the early months of 1901, the Workers columns gave space to at least three separate opinions regarding political collaboration and the natural followers of Labor. Some argued that the party should stay aloof from all non-Labor groups, forming no alliances with any party in government and waiting until caucus had the numbers to control

The 1899 Trade Union and Labour Congress

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parliament. Others, such as Wallace Nelson, believed that Labor should exploit its position in the House, offering support to any party that agreed to enact Labor objectives. Part of the debate centred on an issue that remains relevant a century later. Was the Labor Party just for the labouring classes? Were not professionals also workers? A third group, who favoured a broader-based party, suggested allying with more liberal members to form a democratic party. They were prepared even to change the name of the party in order to attract nonLabor democrats into a merger. Speed advocated founding a new democratic party, not allied with the old, politically immoral parties but more broadly based than the present Labor Party. Perhaps this was where he and the Party separated. Others argued that the labour movement had already progressed too far towards the formation of a separate Labor Party along the lines of the British and eastern states parties to revert to being a democratic party.43 These issues, together with a fairly flexible attitude adopted by some Members to party discipline, created problems for the SPLP. Early in 1902, the SPLP resolved to occupy neutral territory by sitting in the cross benches and remaining there until the Caucus decided that the government was not passing the Labor measures on the notice paper or had failed to introduce a redistribution of seats. Taylor flatly refused to sit with the Leake ministry because he objected to the presence of C.H. Rason who, he believed, had made a political career out of changing sides. Rason had been a supporter of Forrest, then Throssell, then Piesse, then Morgans. Taylor saw his latest allegiance as further evidence of opportunism. No doubt every Labor man saw some irony in Rasons statement that he stood to gain only 200 per year as a Minister in Leakes cabinet.44 Julian Stuart, the new Worker editor who had replaced Wallace Nelson in 1903, supported Taylor. Stuart believed that Labor should maintain an absolutely independent stance in Parliament.45 Despite censure, Taylor remained on the opposition benches while his colleagues sat on the cross benches. At the Fourth Trades and Labour Congress at Fremantle in September 1902, Taylor was charged with refusing to recognise and be bound by SPLP decisions, condemning and denouncing the Labor Party in public utterances, and betraying confidential decisions of caucus. Taylor survived the delegates vote by a bare majority of 28 to 27 in his favour, and, although he had considerable support from the Goldfields, he was expelled from Caucus.46 At first it seemed as though Taylors opponents were gaining power, but other rivalries came into play that allied him with some of his Caucus opponents. Taylor, Holman, Reid and Hastie were all AWA members. Early in 1903, the Arbitration Court refused to register several AWA branches, using Clause 107 of the Industrial Arbitration Act: that only those

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workers employed in or about the same industry were permitted to register together in the one society. Johnson was prominent in supporting the Arbitration Courts ruling.47 The situation became more stable when the AWA and the AMA commenced amalgamation discussions in August 1904 but only after the Northern Eastern and Eastern Goldfields branches of the AWA agreed to become a miners union exclusively. The process was completed two years later when the Westralian Goldfields Federated Miners Union was formed. In these districts, the non-miners joined other unions including the General Workers Union (GWU), which amalgamated with the Australian Workers Union (AWU) in 1915. In the Murchison, however, the AWA maintained its composite character until after World War I.48 The Perth Trades Hall During this period, the Perth and Fremantle TLCs faced other problems. Each body lacked a meeting place or funds to build one. While the Kalgoorlie Trades Hall building was completed in 1900, Perth and Fremantle did not acquire their buildings for some years. In 1896, Forrest had granted the Perth TLC a block of land on which to build a Trades Hall. The block, where the Princess Margaret Hospital for Children now stands, lay undeveloped for three years while the movement tried to raise funds for a building. By then the focus of Labor activity had shifted from Subiaco to the central city area, and the block became too remote. In the meantime, the TLC met in a room, which they leased in Greens Chambers, a two-storeyed building on the corner of William and Hay Streets in central Perth, and later in Brookmans Buildings in Barrack Street. The TLC exchanged the Subiaco block for another site in Hay Street, but this block was also unsuitable. Delays and internal dissension resulted in Emmanuel Lobstein, the workers representative in the Arbitration Court, taking out a libel action against Senator J.W. Croft, who had publicly accused him of seeking notoriety. The case ruined both men financially, a particularly unfortunate circumstance for Croft, who would have had to surrender his Senate seat if declared bankrupt.49 The Perth Trades Hall saga dragged on, with neither Daglish the States first Labor Premier nor his Liberal successors able or willing to advance the TLC money to build. In November 1910, Wilson refused an application because the TLC was a political body. Then, Alexander McCallum was appointed as ALF Secretary. McCallum, a book binder from South Australia, had arrived in Perth in 1898 and found employment in the Government Printing Works. He married Elizabeth Ferres, the daughter of a well-to-do

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Fremantle butcher, and later managed his father-in-laws estate, learning skills and making contacts in the banking industry that were very useful to the labour movement. In 1910, he found the Shearer Memorial Hall in Beaufort Street a site that was suitable both as a temporary meeting venue and a permanent Trades Hall building. When the Hay Street site was auctioned, the TLC and the Directors of the proposed Labor Daily newspaper put in a joint offer of 4,000 for the Beaufort Street site. Andrew Fisher, Australias second Labor Prime Minister, laid the foundation stone of the new building on 8 August 1911. Premier Scaddan opened the Perth Trades Hall on 20 April 1912. The Fremantle Trades Hall was acquired with a little less difficulty. In 1903, after four years of negotiations with the government, the Fremantle TLC received a grant of a half-acre site fronting Packenham and Collie Streets. The foundation stone was laid on 23 January 1904. The government granted 2,000 towards the building and a further 1,300 was raised jointly by the Railway Employees, the Timber Workers, the FLU and the AWA.50 While negotiations were under way to secure sites for Trades Halls in Perth and Fremantle, there were further moves to unite the Coastal and Goldfields TLCs in one organisation. A Goldfields PLP was formed at a meeting on 6 March 1903, and the TLC recommended that all affiliated unions join it. At the same time, the Goldfields TLC affiliated with the WA Branch of the ALF. Johnson, Wilson, Bath and Bebee were appointed as the Goldfields ALF delegates, and allowed to exercise their own judgement unless specific instructions were forwarded from the Goldfields Council.51 The establishment of the Arbitration Court was another significant development, as it recognised the unions role as representative of the States working classes. The Court had an immediate impact. Unions grew rapidly in numbers and in size as they sought registration and adopted Rules and Constitutions. The Act encouraged the registration of specialist unions such as the craft associations rather than large composite unions. Evidently, Parliament had envisaged a Court where the decision of the majority would always prevail; however, the presiding Judge, assisted by the weight of custom, soon assumed the power of making decisions. Somerville, in a rare burst of frustration, described the situation while he served as workers advocate: Sitting with equals? Never so long as there remained the Judges silly wig with two silly tails. Yet he acknowledged that the employers and workers representatives had profoundly influenced the decisions of the Court. During the early years, there was much discussion as to whether members of the legal profession could appear in any capacity as agent, counsel or solicitor. Finally, in the Yarloop timber workers case of 1905, Justice Parker ruled under Section

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73 that legal practitioners could not appear. Parker found that the agents of unions and employers alike were perfectly capable of placing the facts of their case before the Court, whilst avoiding the time-consuming legal wrangles that often prolonged other court cases.52 Labor in Opposition While the Arbitration Court settled into the original jarrah and limestone Court House that had been constructed in 1837 to serve the legal demands of the Swan River Colony, Labor succeeded in becoming recognised as the major Opposition Party in the State Parliament. Conservative Forrest supporters such as Lee Steere, Piesse and Burgess increasingly voted with the liberals James, Gregory and Holmes whom they had previously denounced as advocates of a new and lawless order. By the end of 1903, when James named the Labor Party as the Opposition, the die-hards of the Forrest party were calling themselves Independents.53 WA Labor was soon successful in both the Federal and State elections. In December 1903, Labor won all three of the States Senate vacancies and four of the five House of Representatives seats. De Largie was re-elected to the Senate and his new Labor colleagues were John William Croft and George Brown Henderson. Croft had served as Secretary of the Perth TLC and was active in the Eight-Hours Day Committee. Henderson had begun work at the age of eight as a pony boy in a Northumberland coal mine. He emigrated with his wife and children firstly to New South Wales, where he became active in the Miners Union, and then to Collie, WA. When elected, he was General Secretary of the Miners Union of WA.54 The new Labor members who joined Mahon and Fowler in the Lower House were Charlie Frazer, a Victorian-born, 23-yearold engine driver, representing the Federal seat of Kalgoorlie, and William Henry Carpenter, who was successful in Fremantle. Frazers campaign for the worlds largest electorate is noteworthy. Beginning at the remote mining port of Hopetoun, he travelled by ship to Esperance, and then cycled 260 miles via Norseman to Kalgoorlie, a 12-day journey, perfecting his speaking ability at settlements and camps along the way. He spent the rest of his campaign on the Goldfields.55 Mahon became Post Master General when the Watson Government took office on 23 April 1904 as the worlds first national Labor Government. Labors 1904 State election campaign reflected the movements lack of a strongly unified approach. There was no Labor policy speech. Each candidate fought his own election with the help of a local committee, unopposed

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candidates helped those standing for contested seats, and the Senators spoke in several electorates. Candidates pledged to work for a nine-point fighting platform in which a referendum for the abolition of the Legislative Council had first priority. The second plank was the imposition of tax on unimproved land and no further alienation of Crown Lands. These two planks were particularly significant in the light of events over the next few months.56 The Governments campaign, in contrast, centred around the personality of Walter James. In his policy speech, James attacked the Labor Party, saying that their policies were 75 per cent bird lime and 25 per cent practical policies. Labor was a union party that was tightly controlled by an extra-parliamentary organisation. When it was pointed out to him that at least five Labor candidates were not unionists, James claimed that they stood in seats that no unionist could hope to win. The anti-Labor vote was split among Ministerialists, Oppositionists and independents, with a number of rural candidates foreshadowing the Country Party. After the election, the SPLP found itself with a real chance of governing. Labor was returned in 22 seats, with the Ministerial party securing only 18 seats and the remaining 10 being held by independents seven of whom had declared themselves to be oppositionists to the James government. Two new Acts assisted Labors success. The Redistribution of Seats Act abolished nine existing seats and replaced them with nine new seats, six of which went to Labor. The Electoral Act extended the franchise by removing the necessity for new electors to be registered for six months before they were allowed to vote, and abolished plural voting in the Legislative Assembly.57 Of the 22 successful Labor candidates, 12 were from Eastern Goldfields electorates, with the SouthWest, Fremantle and the Perth metropolitan area returning three each, and the two remaining successful candidates being Holman in Murchison and A.J. Watts in Northam. In Forrest, A.J. Wilson polled 77.5 per cent of the valid vote. Already popular among the timber workers as an AWA organiser, Wilsons popularity increased when he was fined 5 for inciting a strike at Millars Karri and Jarrah Company at Worsley.58 The First State Labor Government When Parliament resumed in August 1904, the James Government did not survive a vote of confidence, leaving Labor in a position to take office. Labors new leader, Henry Daglish, was something of a compromise, having been elected by Caucus the previous month in preference to Hastie. Daglish, a Ballarat-born public servant, did not come from a union background but he

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had Parliamentary experience, having held the seat of Subiaco since 1901. He announced his Ministry as: Taylor, Colonial Secretary; Holman, Railways and Labour; W.C. Angwin, without portfolio; and Hastie, Mines (Johnson was later added as Minister for Labour). Daglish retained the portfolios of Treasurer and Education. The Constitution required that the Labor Government should have at least one cabinet member in the Upper House. In 1904, Labor had no representatives in the Legislative Council, so Daglish approached J.M. Drew, who agreed to serve as Minister for Lands. The House then adjourned for Ministerial elections, in which only Drew was opposed.59 The new Premiers policy speech at Kings Hall, Subiaco, on 23 August 1904, was reported widely in the press. His opening remarks were to set the tenor of his administration: the States finances were in an unfortunate position, there was a deficiency in the general loan fund of over 142,500 and expenditure would have to be curtailed. In fact, Daglish said, the government regarded the present time as one in which the State could well afford to mark time in regard to legislative requirements because the present Parliamentary session was so short. The Daglish Government soon became known as the mark time government in every department of its operations. But Daglish did intend to initiate some reforms. He proposed to introduce a Bill to provide for a referendum asking the people: Are you in favour of a Single Chamber Constitution? Another Bill would legislate old age pensions for men and women over 60 years, who had resided in the State for at least 10 years. Lands valued below 1,000 would be exempt from taxation, but, curiously, the valuation was to be made by the owner. Daglish also proposed amendments to existing Companies and Mining legislation to provide for the appointment of at least two local directors of all companies carrying on business in the State, and to prevent the developing of monopolies. Other pledges included amending the ineffective Truck Act, reforming the public service to grant job security to State employees, and establishing a Department of Labor to enable the efficient administration of legislation relating to workplace relations.60 Daglish was criticised immediately over his policy speech and the appointment of Drew to the cabinet. On 28 August, the Morning Herald (Perth) printed Daglishs defence of his policies and his support of Drews candidature for the Central Province seat in the Legislative Council. Daglish was reported as saying that the abolition of the Legislative Council was not Labor policy a surprising statement considering it was the first plank of the fighting platform but that neither was a vote for Drews opponent a vote for the retention of the Upper House.61 A few days after the Subiaco speech, A.J. Wilson stated that

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he felt compelled to make public his dismay at the Premiers abandonment of the fighting platform, in order to keep faith with the electors of Forrest. He was particularly concerned that the Premier had not enunciated any clear policy on unemployment. Where would the 1,000 men recently put out of work in the timber industry find employment if public works projects ceased? Furthermore, he objected to the appointment of Drew, who refused to sign the Labor pledge. Wilson was supported by Coastal TLC members and office bearers of the Amalgamated Railway Employees Union (AREU). The Coastal TLC passed resolutions objecting to Drews inclusion in the Labor Ministry and expressing disappointment at Daglishs proposals for the Legislative Council, and regret that no prominence was given to the plank concerning the alienation of Crown Lands. Furthermore, they regarded the tax exemption of land valued up to 1,000 as a violation of the Labor platform. Hostility developed between the government and the Perth TLC, with the latter passing a December 1904 resolution stating that this Council request the Premier to state publicly what planks of the labour movement he considers are not in the best interests of the community.62 By early 1905, the Daglish government was under unrelenting criticism. In February, Johnson, deputising while Daglish was at the Hobart Premiers Conference, baulked over the issue of preference to unionists. He informed a deputation urging him to ensure that foremen on government worksites were unionists, that the Arbitration Court rather than the government should decide the matter. Johnson did not believe that he, as a Minister of the Crown, should give preference to anybody.63 Under a headline proclaiming, Johnson squelches unionism, the Sun (Kalgoorlie) asserted that the Minister had given trade unionism the severest blow which has ever been delivered in this State [A]t one fell swoop he had obliterated the glorious history of Labor from the time of Watt Tyler to the first Labor premiership of Australia. Johnson had been pitchforked above deputy leader Hastie in order to deal such a blow. Hastie would never have gone so thoroughly back on all his hustings professions and the planks of the Labor platform.64 Nor did Daglish shine at the Premiers Conference in Hobart. The West Australian pointed out that he had contributed only three items to the agenda, inferring that this compared poorly with other premiers. Of the three items, the paper claimed that only one the extension of the book-keeping period was regarded as being of national importance.65 Daglishs time at the Conference was made even more uncomfortable by an attack that the Prime Minister, Sir George Reid, launched on the Labor Party during a speech at a meeting of the Tasmanian National Association in the Hobart Town Hall.

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Speaking before a packed audience, Reid claimed that he objected to a party that favoured one class, however wealthy or poor. The Federal Opposition (Labor) was essentially a narrow class combination. But perhaps Reid came closer to the reason for his attack when he stated that, now that Labor had attained political equality, its members were banded together to destroy the industrial fabric upon which he [Reid] believed progress depended.66 The Daglish administration suffered further industrial problems. In March, H. Teesdale Smith, general manager of the giant Millars timber company, threatened to appeal to the Arbitration Court to lower the timber workers wages. Teesdale Smith claimed that his company could not run at a profit because it was saddled with huge wage and freight expenses. Despite the governments impecunious situation, Wilson suggested offering Millars rail freight concessions, provided that they agreed to maintain wages at the existing level. The West Australian questioned the wisdom of Wilsons compromise, stating that a re-arrangement in wages would be imperative in order to bring the cost of production of jarrah within commercial limits, and that employees, the London management and the railway authorities must all readjust their demands upon the common fund.67 Yet the Rason Ministry, which succeeded Daglishs, adopted the same course of action. Growing evidence of the governments unpopularity among the wider labour movement occurred when Daglish and Johnson toured the Goldfields to speak on new mining ventures. They were greeted by apathetic audiences who showed enthusiasm only when heckling the speakers. There were interjections at a Kalgoorlie meeting when Daglish stated that the government was not in a position to build a railway in the Pilbara and that it was not the governments business to find a private builder only to lay down conditions under which the line should be built. Despite the indifference of his audiences, however, the Premier reportedly appeared so buoyed up that he spoke with confidence of what the government planned for one or two years hence.68 The Daglish administration resigns Shortly afterwards, while speaking in his constituency, E.P. Henshaw, MLA for Collie, criticised government policies, especially the decision to make land valued below 400 tax exempt. Henshaw believed that owners would not improve their land so as to avoid paying tax. He also said that the Arbitration Court needed reforming in order to provide protection to the unionist. He concluded with an attack on Daglishs leadership, declaring that the rank and file were dissatisfied with him and it was time to replace him. (At this juncture,

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a member of the audience interjected, Send him down here to cut sleepers.) Henshaw spoke of the irony of the Premier considering an offer to construct a private railway in the Pilbara while negotiating to purchase the private Midland Railway. If the Pilbara railway was discussed in Parliament, Daglishs own party must refuse to support him and they would have the unseemly spectacle of Labor men voting against their Leader.69 Henshaws predictions were correct. The Midland railway unseated the Government. In Opposition, Daglish had criticised the James government for reckless spending, yet his government contemplated paying 1,500,000 for the Midland Railway, a private company that was in financial difficulties. Although hailed by some sections of the press as a chance not to be missed, the Midland Railway, combined with the States burden of debt, brought the government down. When Daglish announced that he had raised a loan of 1,400,000 at 3.5 per cent interest in London, the press queried the Governments authority to borrow so much.70 Daglishs policies were strongly criticised at the 1905 Labour Congress meeting at the Hibernian Hall in Perth in July under the Presidency of Alex McCallum. The first resolution put by the Coastal TLC, and subsequently carried, called upon the SPLP to oppose the proposition of the Daglish Ministry to construct the Pilbara Railway by private enterprise as this was in direct contravention of the Party platform. Apart from the Governments poor performance, the mood of the labour movement was confident. In his Presidential Address, McCallum dwelt on the Federal victory of the Watson Ministry, but did not propose alluding to the position of the present Labor Government in this State.71 In Parliament in August, when the Premier finally announced his decision to purchase the Midland Railway, he was met with howls of rage and disapproval from his own backbenchers. Furthermore, his Bill to introduce a referendum on the abolition of the Upper House was derided in the Legislative Council.72 Daglish had already attempted to resign the ALP Leadership early in August but a deputation of Labor Members had persuaded him against this. On 22 August, however, he submitted his Governments resignation to the Governor, giving as his reason the fact that the Ministers cannot rely upon that unanimous support from the Party, which is essential to the successful performance of Ministerial duties. Some Ministers seemed close to emotional breakdown. Johnson gave a long, hysterical speech at a social in Kalgoorlie, denouncing those Labor members who had constantly criticised the government instead of supporting it. In particular he singled out Holman, although he later apologised, saying he was not proud of his speech. Rason,

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now leader of the James party, formed a government, but he, too, had insufficient numbers, and Western Australians went once more to the polls in October and re-elected Rasons party to 35 of the 50 Assembly seats.73 Western Australias first Labor government was out of office. A major factor in the failure of Daglishs government was that the labour movement itself was still in its infancy in the west. In the climate of colonial isolation, conservatism and oppressive laws, the ALF attracted a wide spectrum of people who could be called fellow travellers, at best, but who did not subscribe to all planks of the Labor platform. It was unfortunate for the labour movement that one such Daglish was chosen as leader of the Party, especially while Labor was in government. Just as liberals fluctuated between liberal and conservative ideologies, many Laborites also changed position. The other parties, however, were much slower to impose the discipline that Caucus and the Congress regarded as essential for ensuring unity and survival. Consequently, the very nature of Labors structures meant that, while unity would always be invoked as utterly vital, there would inevitably be differences of opinion some private and some extremely public. When the Daglish government fell, the casualties included the Premier, who stood at the next election as Independent Labor and then joined the Ministerialists, subsequently the Liberal Party. Writers reviewing its performance many decades later have often been critical and dismissive of the Daglish administration, granting it but a few grudging lines in any text on the politics of the era. Buttfield, however, has vested it with greater significance, stating that the landslide win of non-Labor, in eliminating the small group of Independents, firmly established Labor as the political alternative to the Ministerialists. The departure of Daglish, Ellis and Keyser from Labor ranks, and the Partys determination to select good unionists in future, meant that the chance of the ALF becoming a liberal democratic party had passed. The political battlelines were drawn between Labor and non-Labor.74 Set in the context of the times, Labors achievement in remaining in office for a year during a period of considerable political instability was significant. From Forrests departure until 1904, WA politics was in a state of flux, with four different ministries in office in 1901 alone. Apart from Labor, the parties did not even have real names or set ideologies. They were Ministerialists and Oppositionists names which described their functions in Parliament, not what they stood for or, worse still, they were known by the name of their leader, such as the James party (otherwise referred to as Liberals). Their ideologies ranged from the reactionary maintenance of

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the status quo, practised by ex-Forrest party members, to a moderate liberalism. A significant outcome was that Labors arrival as a major party forced the Liberals to seek alliances with conservative agricultural and pastoral interests.75 The ideological poverty of the non-Labor parties is further evidenced in their constant recourse to Sir John Forrest. Early in 1905, with public discontent increasing against the Daglish administration, the Opposition invited the ageing ex-Premier to return to state politics. During the six-month Federal Parliamentary recess, Forrest spoke in numerous venues. He attacked Labor and contradicted himself, stating both that the party was not controlled by men who work with their hands but by doctors, lawyers and parsons trying to get in on the Labor vote, and that union secretaries were the ones who got the places in Parliament. Supporters in Kalgoorlie collected 300 signatures on a petition, asking Forrest to come back. Eventually, however, Sir John decided that his duty lay with the Federal Parliament and he returned to Melbourne in June 1905.76 But when the WA Liberal League formed in 1910, Forrest was its founding President. Ironically, Jamess liberal ideology had been neatly hijacked and replaced by the old colonist conservatism of Forrest and his colleagues.77 Within the Labor Party, meanwhile, recriminations and reassessments occurred, but, most importantly, it was time to learn from the mistakes of the past and to build a stronger organisation for the future.

Chapter Two

The Labour Movement and State Socialism 19061916

The years between the first and second State Labor ministries were productive ones for the labour movement, and the Party was in a strong position at the 1911 elections. By 1907, the State Executive and the District Councils of the ALF had evolved into structured bodies with well-defined policies and disciplinary procedures. The role of women in the labour movement increased, especially in raising the political awareness of female workers and encouraging them to unionise and join the Party. WA Labor Members were making an impact in the Federal sphere, thus introducing a stronger national perspective in local politics. These factors combined to give the movement a broader base and to define the ideology that the next State Labor Government was to promote as State Socialism. The District Councils Although the genesis of the District Councils lay in the aftermath of the 1899 Conference, it was not until late in 1907 that an organisational structure with a central executive was finalised. The decline in parochialism, as Goldfields members took their seats in the coastal Parliament and got to know their fellow Labor members, the increasing numbers of unionised workers, and the amalgamation of the two feuding unions, were significant factors in the development of the Western Australian ALF.1 The 1905 Trades Union and Labor Congress in Perth adopted a Constitution for the Political Labor Party of Western Australia, stating that the Party would consist of all unionists and other adult persons who subscribe to the Rules and Platform of the Party. Developed on the basis of State electorates, initially there were seven District Councils: Metropolitan, Fremantle, South Western, Eastern Goldfields, North Coolgardie, Eastern Agricultural and Murchison.2 These were later expanded to ten, with the addition of Midland, Albany, Geraldton and Great Southern, whilst North Coolgardie was absorbed into either the Murchison or Eastern Goldfields District Councils.

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The State Executives objects were to strengthen and consolidate the Labor organisation throughout the State, to confer upon matters affecting wage earners and to promote and secure legislative reforms for a more equitable society. The organisation adopted the name Western Australian Division of the ALF later changed to the Australian Labor Party (ALP). The ALF organisation consisted of unions and political branches. For organisational purposes, every union was deemed to be a branch of the Party. In most places, the Trades Hall Associations signed their property over to the ALF. The Fremantle District Trades Hall Association, however, continued to exist alongside the Fremantle District Council until the organisations were merged on 1 January 1917.3 Each affiliated organisation was permitted to have a minimum of two delegates on the District Council, which met monthly, at least. Each District Council was granted powers to act as an appeal board to decide disputes referred to it by its branches or by candidates for selection; to assist, strengthen and organise branches; to endorse candidates for any selection ballot under its jurisdiction and conduct ballots; and to control and distribute finances. A General Congress or Council, consisting of one delegate from each of the affiliated organisations, met annually from 1899 until 1902, and biennially or triennially thereafter, to determine policy. Between Congresses, authority was vested in the State Executive, composed of delegates from the District Councils and office bearers elected by the rank and file. Unions, Party branches and womens Labor organisations were affiliated with, and elected delegates to, the District Councils. Each affiliated organisation was required to pay annual dues to the relevant District Council, which then forwarded a portion of these dues to the State Executive. The affiliation fee was three shillings per annum per adult male member, with the District Council paying one third to the State Executive. The Constitution required members to be over 16 years of age and to subscribe to the Labor platform, rules and pledge. Womens groups were welcomed within the District Council structure and were granted the right to form their own Executive if they wished an offer which they did not take up until 1927, when the Labor Womens Central Executive was formed. Each District Council elected representatives to the State Executive proportionate to the size of its membership. Consequently, the District Councils varied considerably in size and voting power. At the State Labor Congress in 1913, over 12,000 of the 23,320 District Council members represented were from the Metropolitan and Eastern Goldfields, with the membership of the other five councils making up the remainder. The voting power ranged from 144 votes held by the Metropolitan Councils three

The Labour Movement and State Socialism 19061916

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delegates to 20 votes held by the sole North Coolgardie delegate.4 During the first decade or so of the District Councils existence, power gradually shifted to the metropolitan area. Even in 1913, the Eastern Goldfields had one less vote than the Metropolitan Council, although it had over 200 more members a situation which must have arisen because Metropolitan had more affiliated organisations. From 1910 until 1921, the Metropolitan District Council and the State Executive shared a full-time paid Secretary, a position held from 1911 by the hard-working Alexander McCallum, who had previously been Secretary of the Perth TLC. Consequently, Metropolitan was the most politically powerful of the District Councils, and feared the authority of the State Executive even less than the others. Matters of discipline generated tension among the labour bodies, whether State Executive, District Council or SPLP in particular, over which body had the power to expel a member from the Party, as when A.J. Wilson (Forrest) was expelled in 1906 for accepting a paid commission from the timber combine.5 In 1909, a special meeting was held to discuss the unsatisfactory attendance of Members in the House. Ernest Heitmann (Cue) said that some members seemed to forget their duty to the rank and file once they had secured their seats in Parliament. Yet without the sacrifices and efforts of that rank and file no Party member would have been elected. He specifically named Hugh Gourley and Austin Horan, the Members for Leonora and Yilgarn, as being careless in their attendance and not loyal to the Party and the Labor cause. Horan defended himself by stating that he had paid for his own election expenses and felt under no obligation to the Party, although he had refused to vote with the Party only on issues that were contrary to his views. Gourley explained that he had got into debt over his electoral expenses and had recently opened a business that required his close personal attention. He admitted the right of the Party to censure a Member who was not doing his duty, but he insisted that he was loyal to Labor and would endeavour to do his work conscientiously. The decision of the meeting was inconclusive, resulting only in a resolution being passed refusing to grant pairs.6 On 4 October 1910, the SPLP resolved that no Labor member would be allowed to accept the position of Chair of Committees if offered the post by the Wilson Liberal Government. Yet Taylor went against the resolution by accepting the position. In an acrimonious debate in the Legislative Assembly on 13 October, Heitmann and Harry Bolton (North Fremantle) accused Taylor of being an instrument in the Governments attempts to cripple the Opposition, and of selling his party for emoluments. There followed the curious spectacle of Labor members nominating various Government members for the position,

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each being at pains to stress the peculiar suitability of his nominee to fulfil the duties of Chairman of Committees. On this occasion, the Liberals showed a greater respect for party discipline than their opponents, and in what was obviously a pre-arranged strategy each man declined the nomination. Taylor was elected by 24 votes to 17, those in favour including Collier and Daglish, the latter having recently swapped political allegiance, re-emerging as Minister for Works in the Wilson Ministry.7 In Caucus, Heitmann was again on the attack, stating that at the next meeting he would move that, by his action, Taylor had proved himself disloyal to the cause of Labor and that he should no longer be recognised as a member of the PLP. Heitmann later declined to proceed with the motion in Caucus but forwarded it to a meeting of the State Executive. The State Executives Chairperson, Fred Burrows, ruled Heitmanns motion out of order because the Constitution granted power to the District Councils to deal exclusively with State selection and endorsement of candidates; therefore, the Executive expelling Taylor would not prevent the District Council from again endorsing him as a Labor candidate. Burrowss ruling was dissented from by a vote of ten against to eight in favour. Taylor, who was present, did not vote. Peter OLoghlen (Forrest) took the Chair and Heitmann proceeded with his motion. He claimed that the Liberal Government intended to introduce a Redistribution of Seats Bill to defeat the workers and the ALP. They had offered the position of Chairman of Committees to a Labor member in order to deprive the Opposition of the Chairs vote and save a vote themselves. The Party had pointed out the seriousness of the position and urged Taylor not to accept, but he had done so in the face of practically the unanimous dissent of his Party. Consequently the Government was able to pass the Bill. Taylors excuse for his action was that, owing to prolonged illness, he was hard up and in need of the extra salary that came with the position, but Heitmann declared that this was not a legitimate excuse for selling the Party and the workers who had sent him to Parliament. After much discussion, Heitmann withdrew his motion. In line with Burrowss ruling, the matter was left to the North Coolgardie District Council, who condemned Taylors action, but pointed out that it should not be assumed that he would be barred from contesting the next selection ballot. In the 1911 election, Taylor stood as Labors candidate and was re-elected unopposed to his seat of Mount Margaret. Such was his local popularity that, even after Taylor joined the National coalition in 1917, he continued to be returned until the seat was abolished in the 1929 Redistribution.8 The District Councils membership was made up almost entirely of unionists. Only a few members were delegates from the Party branches. Unions

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could be both a strength and a burden to the ALF. They controlled policies and activities, selected Parliamentary candidates, and provided virtually all of the funds. Most of the income from these dues was spent on industrial matters, with special levies being exacted on union members for appeals during longrunning disputes such as the timber workers lock-out in 1907.9 A constant lack of finance resulted in a vicious chain reaction. If the union was short of funds, it failed to pay its District Council dues, and then the Council found difficulty in paying its own fees to the State Executive. Unions and ALF branches that had not paid their dues to the District Councils were regarded as unfinancial and lost their right to vote at Congress. Sometimes Congress opened with lengthy discussions about which unions were financial and whose credentials could be accepted.10 Labor women A significant proportion of the ALP branch delegates were women, many of whom were ineligible for union membership as they were not in the paid workforce. Women had not played an important role in the formation of the WA labour movement in the 1890s, but the new century was to see their increased participation. In most labour bodies, women were accepted as delegates of unions or other affiliated organisations, apparently on an equal footing with men. Female members were often appointed as Treasurers or Auditors to the various bodies, as, for example, were M. Field (Tailoresses Union), Treasurer to the Goldfields TLC; Jean Beadle (Labor Womens Organisation), Auditor for the Eastern Goldfields District Council; and Jessie Johnson, Treasurer of the ALP State Executive.11 The Northam Branch ALP was unusual in belatedly resolving in July 1912 to admit women to its membership at an annual fee of two shillings and six pence.12 Women were entitled to vote in selection ballots on the same basis as men. From 1900, women members took an active part in each Trades Union and Labor Congress, as the numbers of unionised female workers increased. Because of their lower wages, women were always admitted at a lesser affiliation fee. In the early 1900s, the major source of female employment, apart from unpaid labour in the home, was domestic service or factory work. By 1911, there were approximately 8,500 women working in industrial trades some of whom were union members and about 10,000 were employed as non-unionised domestic servants. The disparity between male and female wages arose from the assumption that a working woman had only herself to

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maintain whereas a man supported a wife and children an assumption that failed to take into account the circumstances of female breadwinners with dependents. Thus categories of employment became gender-based.13 The Tailoresses were among the first women unionised in Western Australia, with the Eastern Goldfields Tailoresses Society being formed in 1899 and the Coastal Society the following year. Jessie McCallum was President of the Eastern Goldfields Tailoresses. In September 1900, she and Miss Field were appointed to a committee that drew up and submitted a draft Factories Act to the Premier. This resulted in a Factories Bill being introduced in the Legislative Assembly in July 1903 by the Premier, Walter James. A select committee appointed to consider the Bill reported to Parliament in October with the recommendation that conditions in factories should be policed by specially trained inspectors, not health inspectors with so many other duties that they rarely had the time to visit factory premises. After various amendments imposed by the Council, the Bill became an Act in July 1904.14 When Jessie McCallum married W.D. Johnson in November 1901, the Westralian Worker claimed that she had resigned that union for a better [one], but she remained politically active.15 After her husband became the Member for Guildford in a by-election following Rasons resignation from politics in 1906, Jessie Johnson played a leading role in the foundation of womens political labour leagues around Perth. Originating in Melbourne, Mamie Swanton devoted her life not only to her own trade but to the wider labour movement, and to exploited female and child workers everywhere. Her efforts won her the gratitude and respect of the workers, to whom she was affectionately known as the little tailoress. Swanton knew that sweating of female and child labour was widespread in Western Australia, as elsewhere in the Commonwealth. It was only after her persistent efforts that Parliament appointed a Select Committee to inquire into the practice of sweating in Western Australian industries, but its report must have been a bitter disappointment. The Committee visited 34 factories and 7 shops in Perth and Fremantle, and interviewed 29 witnesses before concluding that sweating does not exist to the alarming extent that was commonly believed. The Report stated that allegations of sweating often arose from a misconception that women were forced by circumstances to undertake piecework in their homes, whereas they did so not out of necessity, but in order to supplement the already sufficient incomes of their breadwinners and to supply themselves with objects of luxury or refinement.16 Exploitation, it seemed, was only exploitation when women had to work, or when large numbers of workers were involved.

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Swanton battled on, accusing the labour movement of shamefully neglecting the women workers. She achieved a partial victory in 1907 when the Arbitration Court granted an award with a standard wage and improved conditions (such as allowing some workers to sit on stools rather than stand). The little tailoress worked for other reforms: equal pay for women; better working conditions for nurses; state legislation to protect abandoned children; and to establish widows pensions and a state maternity hospital.17 Swantons efforts were undermined by articles in the labour press stating that women were paid less because of their inferior physical strength, and that factory work sapped the physical and moral health of the family and was inconsistent with the position of the good mother, the good wife and maker of the home.18 Rather than improving conditions for women in factories, these articles stated that employers should replace them with men. Jean Beadle was another pioneer of the labour womens movement. Jeans husband, Harry Beadle, an iron moulder, was a militant trade unionist. The couple spent the first six months of their married life enduring a lengthy strike, as a result of which Harry was permanently black-banned from Melbourne workshops. Jean took a prominent role in organising relief for the families of miners in the 1892 strike and formed a union of women factory workers. She joined the Political Labor League and founded the first Labor Womens Organisation in Victoria.19 The Beadles moved to Western Australia in 1901, and settled in Fremantle, where Jean founded the States first Womens Labor League in 1905. By 1907, there were several womens leagues around Perth. The North Suburban Womens Labor League, whose office bearers included C.E. Diver and Katherine Holman, had an initial membership of 22 women. Other branches were formed at Midland Junction (presided over by Jessie Johnson), Balcatta, Subiaco, North Perth and Guildford. Although encouraged to join the existing mens organisation, they voted unanimously to remain an all-female organisation perhaps because they believed that they could achieve more reforms for female workers by remaining separate. They had no objection to male speakers, however, and at an early meeting Senator George Pearce delivered a stirring address on the aims and objectives of the Party. Unlike the mens groups, the womens branches usually met in private houses, the Subiaco Branch, for example, meeting at Mrs Baths residence. Subiaco reported in March 1907 that their group grew by two or three members each meeting.20 The Eastern Goldfields Womens Labor League was formed at Kalgoorlie on 28 December 1906, with Jean Beadle (who had moved to Boulder with her family) and Mrs Trenoweth as President and Deputy President. Mrs Beadle

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later became Secretary and served in that position until she left the Goldfields in January 1911. Eleven women paid a one-shilling annual membership fee, and three men became associate members for the higher fee of two shillings and six pence. Meetings were held fortnightly, and alternated between Kalgoorlie and Boulder. However, with the exception of Mrs Trenoweth, it was the Boulder women who did all the work and Kalgoorlie meetings were very poorly attended. In the first few months, the women canvassed to get every adult in the Boulder electorate on the roll, and claimed to have sent considerably over 200 names to the Registrar by April 1907. As these were most likely to be new arrivals and members of the mining community, their inclusion on the rolls could only benefit the Labor vote.21 The political activity of women among the Labor canvassers prior to the annual municipal elections in 1907 was remarked on in the press. The Evening Star commented:
Is it that the trade unionists are more advanced than any other organisation, or why is it that they number so many women among the workers for the cause? In no other section of the community do the women take such a prominent part in affairs of moment.

The papers correspondent observed, too, that he had never before seen so many women engaged in electioneering, and that a big proportion of the voters was female.22 The Westralian Worker observed that the interest of Menzies women in the 1908 election was largely due to Jean Beadles work as a canvasser for the Labor cause. Prior to the election, she toured the agricultural areas speaking on behalf of Labor candidates, and she gained a reputation as the best woman speaker in Labor ranks.23 Other sections of the media were much less positive about female canvassers, with the North Coolgardie Heralds correspondent remarking waspishly that Mrs Beadle should stop home and mind the baby instead of occupying political platforms in support of Buzacott, Bath and Co.24 The womens work bore fruit, for in the 1908 State elections, Labor increased its seats in the Legislative Assembly from 14 to 22.25 Another area in which women worked particularly hard was the Labor Daily Movement to raise capital to finance the Peoples Printing and Publishing Company.26 Although the Company was formed, the main aim of the movement to finance a daily Labor newspaper was never achieved. The canvassers also enrolled voters for the Municipal elections. The Boulder Municipal Council was Labor controlled from 1908 until 1915 and had Labor mayors during that time.27

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The State and Federal Parliamentary Labor Party Meanwhile, significant changes were occurring in the State and Federal PLPs, with the resignation or retirement of a number of the movements early leaders, and the entry of more Labor parliamentarians to the Upper House. Thomas Bath (the Member for BrownHill), who had succeeded Johnson to the leadership of the SPLP in 1906, was ready to stand down by mid 1910. He told his Caucus colleagues that he had lost confidence in himself and did not wish to contest the 1911 election. Bath was a popular leader and his resignation was accepted reluctantly. The SPLP elected John Scaddan as Leader the following month.28 Scaddan had been born to Cornish parents in 1876 at the South Australian copper mining town of Moonta. The family moved to Bendigo where Jack received his schooling and entered the work force as an underground miner before emigrating to the WA Goldfields at the age of 20. He soon qualified as a mines engine driver and became prominent in union affairs. In 1904, he stood successfully for the State seat of Ivanhoe, served as SPLP Secretary for several years, and became Leader of the Party at the age of 34.29 In the May 1910 Legislative Council elections, Labor increased its number of Upper House seats to three when the fiery Jabez Dodd was successful in South Province. In November 1911, Fred Davis and J.A. Doland, representing Metropolitan/Suburban Province, joined OBrien, Dodd and Drew.30 The number of Western Australians representing Labor in Federal politics increased, too. After the 1906 elections, all six WA Senators were ALP members; Pearce, de Largie, Croft and Henderson being joined by Edward Needham and Paddy Lynch. Lancashire-born Ted Needham had become politically active as a 16-year-old ship worker on the Clyde. He emigrated to WA in 1901 and found employment chopping rock at the Rocky Bay Quarry. Later, he became a boiler makers assistant in the Government Railway workshops. He stood successfully for the State seat of Fremantle in 1904, defeating the Ministerial candidate by 28 votes, but lost his seat the following year after the fall of the Daglish government. After two unsuccessful attempts to regain Fremantle, he stood for the Senate.31 Irish-born Patrick Joseph Paddy Lynch emigrated to Queensland in 1886 and thence to Western Australia in the 1890s. He tried many forms of employment, including sleeper cutting, gold prospecting and stoking boilers on coastal trading ships eventually qualifying as a marine engineer and then becoming an engine driver on the Goldfields. He entered the State Legislative Assembly in 1904 as Member for Mount

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Leonora, served briefly in the Daglish Cabinet as Minister for Works, and entered the Senate at the 1906 elections. He was noted for his Irish brogue and his quick temper.32 Although Croft did not stand again at the end of his six year term in 1910, another Goldfields Senator, Richard Buzacott, succeeded him. Buzacott was born at Clare, South Australia, in 1867, and worked as a miner at Broken Hill in the 1890s. After a year in the Queensland copper and tin mining industries, he arrived at the Goongarrie gold fields as a prospector. On four occasions in 1904, 1905 and twice in 1908 he stood against Henry Gregory in the State seat of Menzies, coming the closest to victory on the first occasion in 1908 when he won by seven votes, only to lose the seat on an appeal. When he gained a seat in the Senate in 1910, Buzacott became part of a dynamic Federal Labor administration.33 Since entering the Federal Parliament as the Member for Kalgoorlie in 1903, Charles Frazer had been an increasingly strident critic of Deakin and the Protectionist Party. He became openly dissatisfied with Labors support of the Protectionists. In October 1908, he moved the motion that resulted in a Caucus majority withdrawing its support from the Government. Consequently, the Deakin Government was voted out of office on 10 November, allowing the ALP to form a government under the leadership of Andrew Fisher. Frazer was appointed Assistant Whip.34 Pearce served as Defence Minister and Mahon was Minister for Home Affairs. De Largie was elected Whip and Secretary in the Senate, and Pearce and de Largie also were officers of the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party (FPLP). Pearce amended the Defence Act to introduce a compulsory military training scheme for boys aged 14 to 18. The electorate granted Labor a decisive victory in 1910. Again Defence Minister, Pearce pushed through the Senate a more extensive compulsory military training scheme, despite strong opposition from such eastern states Labor Senators as Rae, Gardiner, Ready and Long.35 Mahon retained his Lower House seat but was not included in the 1910 cabinet.36 Frazer became Post Master General, and introduced the first Australian postage stamp, featuring a design of a kangaroo on a map of Australia, in preference to the Kings head. Frazer strongly supported the Labor platform, and he may have made a significant contribution to the coming conscription debates had he not died of influenza in 1913, aged 33.37 Needhams early contribution in the Senate centred on his wish to develop a more independent Australia. In his maiden speech, he called for the Australian Government to cease paying the annual 200,000 naval subsidy to Britain to maintain the phantom [British] fleet in our waters. Instead,

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Needham recommended that the Government build shipyards so that Australia could manufacture its own naval fleet.38 Henderson advocated the construction of a transcontinental railway to link Perth with eastern states cities. Before the line was completed in 1917, travelling to the eastern states involved a journey of several days by ship. The railway substantially lessened Western Australias isolation from the rest of the Commonwealth. Henderson showed foresight, too, regarding the importance of the national capital. He stated that the area of 100 square miles (160 square kilometres) set aside for the proposed Federal Capital Territory was inadequate the present area is nine times that size and he opposed attempts by New South Wales to maintain control over the Territory. But Hendersons greatest contribution lay in fighting for industrial reforms to protect unionised workers. He was a powerful advocate of the conciliation and arbitration system as a means of settling industrial disputes. He also favoured a proposal to stamp products with a trade union mark to enable buyers to be confident of purchasing union-made goods. Although Senators were supposed to show allegiance primarily to their State rather than their Party, Henderson left no doubt about his political affiliation.
First of all, we are a Labor Party, and whatever else we may be is a secondary consideration The Labor Party have never yet asked a legislative assembly in Australia to place on the statute book any law that is not humane in its every instinct that has not for its ultimate object the uplifting and the general welfare of the people.39

Apart from their parliamentary duties, Federal Members were required to represent their State in Congresses and Conferences. Labors constant cash shortage meant that there were no funds to send WA delegates, so Federal politicians fulfilled many such roles. At the February 1907 Federal Trades and Labour Congress, for example, Pearce, de Largie, Croft, Needham, Henderson and Fraser all represented the State.40 The Partys base in union membership meant that Federal and State Members rallied, too, when major industrial action, such as the 1901 Albany Lumpers strike and the 1907 timber workers lock-out, was being fought. The unions involved were opposing employer attempts to reduce wages. In 1901, de Largie led an unsuccessful Labor delegation to discuss the Albany Lumpers strike with Sir Malcolm McEachran, Managing Director of the shipping combine McIlwraith McEachran, in his Melbourne headquarters. The strike lasted for more than six months before the matter was resolved, with de Largie again contributing to a deputation, this time to the State Premier in January 1902.41

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In the May 1907 timber workers lock out, Pearce along with Holman, the Timber Workers Unions WA Secretary took a major role on the Defence Committee for the timber workers. He was assisted by Lynch and Fabre, who dealt with correspondence and distributed relief among unemployed timber workers. The Worker reported that Bath and Collier were also rendering yeoman service, whilst many Labor women were seen haunting football matches in order to collect donations. The timber combine, Millars, issued notices of eviction to the families of striking workers who were housed on their leases, and obtained an injunction to prevent the Defence Committee providing food for the workers wives and children. Despite pouring rain, over 1,000 people gathered at a Perth meeting to condemn Millars. A month later, the ALF negotiated a compromise settlement, in which Millars agents, Teesdale Smith and McNeill, were forced to pay a minimum wage of seven shillings and nine pence per eight-hour day. (The wage had previously been eight shillings but the employers were attempting to lower it to seven shillings and three pence.) The employers were also required to pay overtime rates to employees working more than a 48-hour week. Prices in the company stores were not to exceed Perth prices by more than 10 per cent, and if the company enjoyed substantial profits, these were to be reflected in increased wages.42 The strike also provoked the conservative government to amend the Conciliation and Arbitration Act in July 1907. The new Bill proposed penalising anyone who advocated strikes or assisted strikers, and granted provisions for non-unionists to enter the Arbitration Court, and greater powers to the Court President. The Bill also prohibited Members of Parliament from appearing as advocates. Unionists protested so strongly that the Bill was shelved.43 The 1910 Labor Congress Sixty-four affiliated organisations of the ALF met for the 1910 General Congress at Bunbury in May, under the Presidency of Fred Burrows. Discussion centred on the position of the Westralian Worker. Dodd, the Chairman of the Worker Board, urged the delegates to support the paper in every way possible, and to assist in the process of making it a daily newspaper. The delegates also discussed the salaries and expenses of Members of Parliament, which, they agreed, should be raised from 200 to 400, with the Party Leader receiving 500. They disagreed, however, over the proposal to abolish State Parliaments and establish a unitary system of government. De Largie commented that Australia was too big to have only one government. The motion in favour of a unitary system was lost by 47 votes to 8.

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Proposed changes to mining legislation again received attention. The subcommittee on Mining recommended that the existing legislation be amended to reduce the amount of Sunday labour in mines, that a government sanatorium be built to cater for phthisis sufferers, and that drivers in charge of Holman hoists be certificated engine drivers. The fighting platform was also reviewed. Some delegates were in favour of introducing adult suffrage for voting in the Legislative Council, prior to the abolition of that Chamber. But a motion to reduce the property franchise of the Legislative Council to 10 was unsuccessful. The delegates urged the Government to safeguard the States resources by introducing reafforestation programs, and by policing concessions to the wood line companies at Kurrawang and elsewhere.44 Within 18 months, the ALP had the chance to experiment with some of these amendments, for they were again in government but with a majority in the Lower House only. Labor victorious, 1911 Prior to the State election in October 1911, the ALF had overhauled the Labor machine, making it more efficient and better able to impose discipline upon its members. Although some renegades (such as Taylor) remained as an irritant within the ranks, others had revealed themselves to be fellow travellers rather than true Laborites and had left the party.45 Planning for the 1911 election had begun several months earlier, with ALP branches being formed at such country centres as Pinjarra, York, Popanyinning and Denmark. Senators Buzacott, Lynch and Needham contributed to the campaign, and toured extensively in country districts, but Pearce and de Largie were prevented from doing so by their duties as Defence Minister and Party Whip, and Henderson was ill.46 State politicians undertook similarly exhaustive speaking tours, travelling about the country by train or horse-drawn vehicle. Led by Scaddan, Labor offered dynamic new land, housing and transport policies. Wilsons Liberals attempted to misrepresent these policies, but Labor hit back through the press and through its numerous platform speakers. Labors land policy was not one of robbery and confiscation, the Party argued: its object was to provide houses for the people. Under a Labor administration, no land presently owned by the state, or in the process of reverting to state ownership, would be sold. All remaining lands would be settled by leasehold in perpetuity, with an annual rent to be revised only every 20 years.47 Labor concentrated on developing distant parts of the State and promised to establish a line of state-owned steamships. The North-West would get improved harbour facilities, a freezing works for the meat industry, and a regular steamer

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service all of which would encourage prospecting and mining in the region. The ALF also planned to construct the Norseman to Esperance Railway to link Kalgoorlie with the coast, and to establish a university immediately, and to ensure that all State education (including tertiary) would be free.48 During the campaign, the State experienced its longest industrial strike to date, after workers at the Scottish Colliery at Collie walked off the job in protest over the dismissal of a miner, William Wyard. Wyard had lit a fuse as a practical joke, and the resulting smoke had forced several miners to stop work until the air was clear again. The Collie Miners Union (CMU) had a strong union culture and a history of militancy, which included raising levies to help the Victorian coal miners during a 17-month strike cum lockout. At Collie, union solidarity, with support from the ALF, achieved Wyards reinstatement after 18 weeks. The employers also agreed to compulsory unionism, the removal from the Industrial Arbitration Act of the controversial Clause 26, under which a union could be penalised for striking, and the return to work of the men who had been locked out.49 Before the Collie strike ended, the Scaddan Labor Government came to office in October, with a landslide of 34 of the 50 Legislative Assembly seats. Demos is King, the Workers banner front-page headline trumpeted triumphantly. The Worker saw the swing to Labor as a result of economic circumstances and personalities. Among the economic circumstances were listed the widespread discontent against the governments continued support of immigration whilst there was high unemployment in the State, and unhappiness with the activities of rings and combines, which forced up the price of food and other commodities. One such example was the meat ring operating in the States North-West, which the Labor Party pledged itself to circumvent by establishing a line of state-owned steamers to ship meat rather than cattle to the southern ports. Here, according to the Worker, the matter of personalities also influenced the election result. The public saw Government Ministers as being corrupt and exploitative. The last straw was the passing of the Redistribution of Seats Bill, which Labor supporters regarded as nothing more than a cynical attempt to give the Liberals an extra lease of power. Conversely, Labors policy appealed to a public who were tired of bandits and boodlers. The election campaign was extremely professional, well organised and aided by the publication of a newspaper, the Vanguard, edited by Hugh Mahon. In celebrating the fruits of victory, the Worker did not forget to praise the Party faithful making particular mention of the women organisers.50

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The Style and Ideology of the Scaddan Government While about half of the Labor members were returned from Goldfields seats in the 1911 election, for the first time Labor representatives were elected across the state, including eight metropolitan seats, rural seats such as WilliamsNarrogin and Avon, and the regional centres of Albany, Bunbury and Geraldton. The number of Labor Legislative Councillors increased in the May 1912 Upper House elections, with Drew being re-elected to Central Province, and two new Labor members entering the Council: Reginald G. Ardagh (North-East) and James Cornell (South). James A. Doland, however, was defeated in Metropolitan-Suburban Province. With Dodd, and Harold Millington, who gained a North-East Province seat after a by-election, Labor Legislative Councillors numbered six.51 Drew the only WA-born Labor Member was not yet a member of the Labor Party, and the Eastern Goldfields Council objected, stating that his admission to the SPLP contravened the ALF Constitution. The Murchison District Council advised that, while Drew was not a member, his candidature had always been supported by Murchison labour organisations and that there was no stauncher Laborite. But even they recognised the need to change the rules by resolving that in future all Members of Parliament must be ALF members before they could represent a Labor government.52 From its first day in office it was evident that the Scaddan administration would differ greatly from that of Daglish. Caucus was immediately occupied with putting into practice Labor election promises, but not before its members passed a motion that all Bills that would vitally affect the principles embodied in the platform be discussed by the Party before being introduced in the House. The Cabinet promised to keep Caucus informed of important policy decisions. Important issues discussed in Caucus included the development of the North-West, amendments to the Arbitration Act, and the establishment of a Labor Daily newspaper. Caucus resolved to ask the Government to consider immediately the election promise to run a line of state steamers to the NorthWest. Caucus also agreed to a conference with the State Executive and the directors of the proposed Labor Daily to discuss ways of giving this movement a fillip. In April 1912, the Worker was transferred to Perth, becoming recognised as a state-wide, rather than a Goldfields, newspaper.53 Scaddan certainly did not mark time during the short Parliamentary session following his Governments victory (NovemberDecember 1911). In this brief period alone, the ALF put up more than 20 pieces of legislation, including amendments to the Agricultural Bank Act, the Criminal Code Act, the Divorce Act,

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and the Goldfields Water Supply Act. A Transcontinental Railway Bill granted the Commonwealth of Australia permission to construct a railway from Kalgoorlie to Port Augusta and to utilise Crown Lands that were required for the railway. Other Bills authorised the construction of State railways from Norseman to Esperance, and between various smaller country centres.54 Introducing the Norseman to Esperance Railway Bill, Johnson, the Minister for Works, said, This Bill is one of the utmost importance to the State and has been the subject of agitation for the past 15 years. The Bill was rejected by 13 votes to 8 in the Legislative Council, ostensibly because the cost of building the railway and upgrading the port of Esperance was regarded by conservative Parliamentarians as prohibitive, when 1,350,000 had recently been spent on Fremantle.55 But apparently vested interests in Fremantle and Albany worked against Esperance becoming a major port, and there had always been a suspicion amongst old colonists that with a port of its own the Goldfields might secede from the rest of the State.56 A further attempt in 1912 to introduce the legislation also failed in the Legislative Council. A Workers Housing Act, enabling the government to erect workers houses and make them available to people of limited means, was passed in the Upper House, as well as legislation establishing a Land Tax. The Government also sought amendments to the Divorce Act to grant women grounds for divorce on equal terms with men, but in this case even some Labor members demurred. A majority of Legislative Councillors objected to the inclusion of desertion for three or more years and incurable insanity as grounds for divorce. They had the period of desertion amended to five years.57 Two examples of the Upper Houses savaging of Labor legislation were the Industrial Arbitration Bill and the Workers Compensation Bill, both of which took most of 1912 to pass through the two Houses. The former eventually went to a conference of managers, consisting of Members from both sides of Parliament, to thrash out the amendments. What had been intended to be ground-breaking legislation was reduced to a series of compromises. Despite strong opposition from Mitchell (Northam), Harper (Pingelly), Stubbs (Subiaco) and Monger (York), rural and pastoral workers were included in the definition of worker, but domestic servants were not. In the Legislative Assembly, these four Members had used extravagant language, arguing that it was suicidal to force [the legislation] upon the people of the agricultural districts, and they had referred to the Bill as tyrannical and iniquitous. They claimed that 99 per cent of rural workers did not want fixed wages and working hours, but wanted contracts where they could make as much money as possible.58

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The Workers Compensation Amendment Bill received a similarly hostile reception. Introducing the Bill, Attorney General Thomas Walker stated that it was based on the 1879 Act and that few amendments had been legislated in the intervening 30-odd years. The Bill foreshadowed planned legislation establishing a State insurance organisation to cover industrial accidents. Proposed amendments included adding industrial diseases (to be defined in the Act) as grounds for compensation; mandatory payment of compensation to dependants for death caused by accident in the course of employment, and provision for the worker as well as the employer to commute his payment to a lump sum. The Legislative Council rejected this latter amendment. Furthermore, Moss (Western Province) and Gawler (Metropolitan/Suburban) succeeded in having the maximum amounts of compensation payable reduced from 400 to 300 in the case of death, and from 600 to 400 in other cases. Cornell tried valiantly but unsuccessfully to get the maximum amount fixed at 500.59 Not surprisingly, the purchase of steamers for the North-West coastal trade primarily to counter the activities of a meat ring that Labor candidates had condemned prior to the election was not put forward in the form of legislation, but undertaken early in 1912, during the Parliamentary recess. The Government also established a State Brickworks, chiefly for the construction of the Workers Homes, and a State Implement Works to produce farm machinery. Although the Legislative Council passed Supply Bills to fund these ventures (which appear to have had considerable public support), the method of their advent indicates that the Government feared its measures would be either rejected in their entirety in the Upper House or amended until they were useless.60 So, by the end of its first year in office, the Scaddan administration was able to claim some achievements. According to the Worker, the State dairy in Claremont realised 187 profit in 11 weeks, and the State-owned Gwalia Hotel made a profit of over 1,700 in its first year of trading. But the Gwalia Hotel spoiled its image as an exemplary Socialist venture when two employees complained about the establishments poor working conditions and food.61 Historians have differed over whether the State enterprises were examples of Socialist policy in action. According to Gibbney, while the term socialism was freely used by the opposition, none of the governments ventures were in fact motivated by any consistent scheme of state planning. Furthermore, the State enterprises set up by the Scaddan government merely filled gaps in existing services, and were retained by the Labors conservative successors.62 Black tended to follow this argument, pointing out that there were Liberal predecessors to the Scaddan State enterprises, but the speed and extent of the

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governments entry into the world of business and commerce was something quite new.63 There was a Socialist ideological dimension to the setting up of the State enterprises. The State Shipping Service, for example, was a key element in Labors North-West policy, which included establishing experimental farms to test agricultural possibilities, and constructing a freezing works at Wyndham.64 This project was controversial because, as shown later in the chapter, the Premier and the Minister for Works abandoned Labor principals and granted a private firm the building contract. The 1912 Labor Womens Conference As the Scaddan government completed its first year in office, the women of the labour movement were organising their first State Conference in October 1912. The Westralian Worker published an account of the Conference on 1 November: the delegates passed a wide range of resolutions aimed at protecting children, instituting better working conditions, improving educational and health facilities, and increasing the old age pension. They resolved that people who had committed sexual crimes against children should be segregated for life rather than receive a whipping, which was the usual punishment; that legislation was needed to prevent children under the age of sixteen years from collecting money for school or any other cause; and that a State Childrens Council should be established along the lines of a body already existing in South Australia. They wanted the minimum age of apprentices raised from 14 to 16 years and their working week reduced to a maximum of 40 hours. The delegates also resolved that the maximum working week for men and women should be 44 hours. The standard working week was 48 hours, although it was commonplace for male and female employees in some industries to work 52 hours or longer. Another resolution was carried asking the State Government to legislate to give its employees equal pay for equal work. Whilst these resolutions were aimed at effecting fairly radical but not undreamed of changes, others might certainly have been regarded as being more revolutionary. The delegates resolved to urge the Scaddan Government to make changes in the education system: limiting classes to fewer than 40 children; providing free books and other requirements; introducing open air classes during summer months (in the belief that this was beneficial to the childrens health); and including Australian history in the curriculum. Other resolutions were carried urging the government to provide State school children with free dental and medical treatment. The delegates also called for changes to the WA health system in order to stem the high rate of infant

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mortality. They recommended providing nursing and medical attendance in the homes of new mothers, and a motherhood allowance for needy women during the latter stages of pregnancy and the early life of the infant. This may have been an attempt to prevent women returning to work and farming out their babies sometimes to unscrupulous women who failed to administer proper care. Further resolutions recommended such mental health reforms as separating child psychiatric patients from adults by providing a cottage for them in the grounds of the Claremont Asylum, and building a ward where suspected lunatics could be assessed by expert authorities without suffering the trauma of being admitted to a ward for the insane. Several Government members visited the Labor Womens Conference. Jabez Dodd and Michael Troy, in their respective capacities as Honorary Minister in the Legislative Council and Speaker of the Assembly, attended on one morning, and W. Angwin (Dodds counterpart in the Lower House) addressed the Conference on the third day. Delegates from the concurrent timber workers conference visited, and a joint river excursion took place on the afternoon of the fourth day. The timber workers conference filled the columns of the next edition of the Worker, while the womens conference report had to wait for almost a month before publication. While the delay may indicate that the womens conference was regarded as being of lesser importance, the published report was comprehensive. By 1912, it appears, women were accepted within the labour movement as organisers of female workers, as promoters of policies especially those relating to child welfare, health and education and as canvassers at elections, but not as colleagues in parliament. It was to be another eight years before women won the right to stand for the State Houses of Parliament and 15 years before the next Labor Womens Conference. When the Labor Womens movement revived in the late 1920s, it regarded the 1912 Conference as the true commencement of womens activities, and in 1937, celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary accordingly. Free education The Labor women had expressed a number of concerns about State school education, and the Party showed that it was prepared to pursue its platform of free education even into the realm of tertiary education. In September 1912, E.B. Johnston, the Member for WilliamsNarrogin, moved a resolution in Parliament that all education at the University of Western Australia should be free and that the practice of charging fees at State educational establishments should be entirely abolished. Johnston reiterated that free technical, scientific

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and general education was one of the planks of the Labor platform and an election promise. If the Labor Party stand for anything, they stand for the free education of the masses from the kindergarten to the university. Johnston wanted to establish a university that was available equally to the children of the poorer settlers, miners or city workers, as well as the children of the richest. He argued that, as primary education was now free, the State could not limit the right of the child to continue education beyond the age of 14 years.65 After further discussion in both Houses, the resolution was passed in the Assembly on 13 November. Johnston expressed his happiness that the Government do not propose to permit the University to be an institution for rich mens sons. The Government was to subsidise the university to the extent of 13,000 per annum, after meeting the cost of buildings, estimated at 50,000.66 Industrial relations and reforms In general, the first Scaddan administration enjoyed good relations with the unions, but the government had to negotiate a number of industrial disputes. Discussion of these disputes in Caucus revealed a range of viewpoints about workers rights and the role of unions when a Labor government was in office. There was an expectation by some Ministers that unions should be loyal to the government by being more accommodating than with a non-Labor government. On the other hand, Caucus generally allowed the Minister a fairly free rein in settling disputes within his own department. In January 1912, a dispute over rates of pay occurred in the WA Government Railway (WAGR) Workshops at Midland. The Minister for Mines and Railways, Philip Collier, reported to Caucus that considerable pay increases had been granted to employees at the lower salary levels, at a time of falling railway revenues. This made it difficult for the government to grant the engineers a wage rise of more than six pence a day. The engineers a skilled group of workers comprising fitters, turners, machinists and pattern makers demanded two shillings and refused an offer of arbitration. Some Caucus members agreed with the engineers, stating that whilst labourers daily wages had risen from 6 shillings and 6 pence in the late 1890s to 9 shillings, engineers still received only 11 shillings. Others believed that the Party should stand by its platform and compel the workers to go to the Arbitration Court. Union delegates met to put their case and, after much heated discussion, the railway men reluctantly agreed to have their dispute referred to a specially appointed Board of Arbitration. The presence at the Workshops of two mutually hostile

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engineering unions, the AEU and the Australian Society of Engineers (ASE), complicated matters.67 By September 1912, the Metropolitan District Council was putting strong pressure upon the two engineering unions to amalgamate, but the ASE refused to cooperate. The two unions were still competing for members in mid 1916, and the dispute was to drag into the post-conscription split era. The GWU also clashed with the Scaddan government. In July 1912, workers constructing the MerredinWickepin Railway demanded a pay rise of one shilling per eight-hour day (raising their daily rate from 10 to 11 shillings). The Public Works Department refused to meet the demand and the men ceased work. Although the matter was discussed in Caucus, members resolved to leave it in the hands of Johnson, the Minister for Works.68 The workers did not get their pay rise, but other conditions of employment were improved. Workers who had to walk the full distance to work from camp were allowed to include the time for one daily journey in their working hours. Time was also allowed for shifting camp, and the Department agreed to cart stores and provide water.69 Referring disputes to the Arbitration Court did not always achieve a satisfactory solution. During a particularly protracted case involving shop assistants in 1912, the Metropolitan District Council discussed some of the difficulties of enforcing even the provisions of the existing Arbitration Act, for example, the number of hours worked. Tweedale (Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union) and Swanton (Tailoresses) moved that in future Arbitration legislation it be expressly stated that the maximum working week was 48 hours for men and 44 hours for women. Tweedale knew of employees in his industry working 70 to 100 hours a week. Another Council delegate cited the case of a 16-year-old boy, who was employed in the biggest hotel in Perth, working 79 hours a week for 10 shillings, and a 14-year-old boy working 84 hours for 12 shillings and 6 pence.70 Instances such as these sometimes provoked a radical minority of Labor members to denounce the Arbitration Court. At a February 1913 meeting of the Metropolitan District Council, Doland moved a resolution declaring that settlement of conditions of employment in the various industries by means of the Arbitration Court is obsolete, and urging unions affiliated with the Council to refrain from taking cases to the Court. The motion was lost by 9 votes to 82.71 By mid 1913, the Arbitration Court had developed a tremendous backlog of cases. In Caucus, Holman complained of the delay in having cases heard, and declared that all the advantages of arbitration were being nullified. Walker and Angwin blamed Justice Burnside,

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and a motion was carried accusing him of attempting to bring ridicule and discredit upon the Government and the party.72 But it is impossible to ascertain whether the motion had any impact on the workings of the Court. The Scaddan government enjoyed some success in addressing health and safety issues, especially in the mining industry. The Federated Miners Union had condemned the findings of a 1911 Royal Commission on Miners Lung Disease for failing to recommend alterations to the Mines Regulation Act, especially regarding ventilation and the prevention of industrial diseases.73 Prior to introducing new mining legislation, the government organised a series of visits by inspectors to the Boulder mines, and their reports were published subsequently in the Worker. Ventilation was poor in the deeper shafts of most of the mines. In one of the least safe mines, the Great Boulder Proprietary, the temperature at 2,800 feet was 82 to 88 degrees Fahrenheit, and there was a high moisture content in the air, so that workers were constantly bathed in perspiration, and in some places the ground was flaky and appeared unsound. It was mining practice to fill the empty stopes with sand to prevent them collapsing, yet in several mines there were gaps of 17 to 20 feet between the filling and the roof of the stopes.74 In June 1913, Caucus appointed committees to inquire into the best method of dealing with miners phthisis and industrial diseases, and to frame the Mines Legislation Act. By mid 1915, during the governments second term in office, the Bill was being mauled in the Upper House. Caucus discussed the difficulty of getting the Bill passed. Collier argued that a small Bill setting in place a system of workmen inspectors was worthwhile, while others believed that the Bill had been mutilated so much as to be completely useless, but the SPLP eventually agreed with Collier.75 Meanwhile, a massive crisis had befallen the State and the nation Australia was at war. The second Scaddan administration When Britain declared war on Germany in August 1914, involving the British dominion governments, the Scaddan administration faced three immediate problems: whether Labor would win the October State election; how to alleviate high unemployment; and what to do about demands to intern enemy aliens. There was a strong body of anti-war opinion within the State Executive. A declaration, signed by ALF President Doland and Secretary McCallum, and included in the State Executives Annual Report for 1914, stated:
This is one of the few wars in history that no one will stand father for. No nation will accept responsibility for the commencement of hostilities, but if we are to

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believe the official communications, this hell has been created on earth because a demented schoolboy threw a bomb which killed a man and his wife, who happened to be the Heir Apparent to some throne. What a commentary on our boasted civilisation.76

But Doland and McCallum were in the minority, as most supported the war effort. Labor won the election but its 34-seat majority of 1911 had been reduced to 26.77 Poor financial management was a major reason for the electorates dissatisfaction with Labor. Scaddans free spending created budget deficits and earned him the nickname Gone a million Jack. Maladministration in the various state enterprises also caused financial losses. Problems with the management of the State Implement Works at Rocky Bay resulted in a 1915 Royal Commission, headed by Justice Northmore, who found no undue or unwarranted Ministerial interference with the management of the Works, but that there was evidence of irregularities, largely because the Manager was incompetent. The Government made itself more unpopular by attempting to introduce a wartime emergency tax.78 These difficulties were compounded by a hostile Legislative Council. Just prior to the election, Scaddan admitted that it was impossible to put policies into operation whilst the Liberal majority in the Legislative Council persisted in blocking bills including Supply Bills. Curtailing Legislative Council power was a major issue of the election campaign. After the 1914 election, the Opposition consisted of 8 Country Party members and 17 Liberals. In its first term in Parliament, the Country Party was noted for rural populism, rather than a conservative stance and, until the resignation of its first leader, James Gardiner, supported the ALF on marketing and rural credit policies.79 The Government lost its one-seat majority when Joseph Gardiners seat, Roebourne, was declared vacant after his persistent and mysterious absence from the House. In 1914, Gardiner had secretly married John Holmans 21year-old daughter, May. Holman disapproved of the marriage and even though May was legally an adult he was able to break up the relationship and Gardiner left the state. The marriage was annulled in 1919.80 In November 1915, Labor lost the by-election occasioned by Gardiners departure. Wartime issues The administration faced public and official pressure to intern enemy aliens. At the beginning of the war, Western Australias non-Indigenous population was about 323,000. By the end of 1914, the State had made an impressive initial

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commitment to the war; over 4,000 men were in the khaki uniform of the newly formed Australian Imperial Force (AIF).81 A less honourable statistic was the number of internees in the State. An estimated 1,600 Austrians, Slavs and Italians lived on the Goldfields, including some women and children. These immigrants who had suffered racial prejudice and poor working conditions, being largely ignored by the union movement now faced humiliation, imprisonment and semi-starvation. Male civilians were interned on Rottnest Island until mid 1915, when they were all sent to Liverpool, NSW, following complaints by some of the prisoners about the treatment they received from their military guard. Their dependents were left to the mercy of the State.82 Initially, the labour movement resisted attempts to intern all aliens or even to debar them from union membership. At a special meeting on 3 December 1914, the Metropolitan District Council received the report of a committee appointed to investigate the question of union members working with enemy subjects. The committee thought it unlikely that most German workers would do anything to harm unions that they had helped to build up. The trade union movement all over the world had been consistent in agitating for the abolition of war. It was imperative, therefore, that unionists kept their ultimate aim well in view and guarded against disintegration. The report continued:
We would not be worthy of our place in the Movement if we allowed any suggestion from those who have ever opposed us to crumble our ranks by raising questions of nationality or creed. When this war is over, there will still go on that struggle for better conditions for a higher and better standard of life by the workers of every land Your committee, therefore, think we should not discriminate in working with those who were our former mates, and who are related to countries [sic] who have been made our enemies.83

Regrettably, the labour movement, too, bowed before the bigotry that engulfed the nation, condemning dissidents as being disloyal to the war effort and the Empire. High unemployment added to community tensions. Initially, some Labor Ministers contributed up to 10 per cent of their salaries towards unemployment relief. Subscriptions were also invited from the general public. A later scheme to impose an 8 per cent salary reduction on all Members of Parliament and senior officials in the Public Service was strongly opposed and was soon abandoned.84 By November 1914, there were so many homeless unemployed in Perth that the Metropolitan District Council agreed to leave the Trades Hall unlocked at night, and asked the Royal Agricultural Society to open the

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Showgrounds, and clergy to make church premises available as shelter. The Council also appealed to the Perth City Council to make all sanitary conveniences free of charge. The official statistics of 6.3 per cent unemployment among the unionised work force during 1915 masked a desperate situation in which, Scaddan estimated, about 90 per cent of the unemployed were non-unionists.85 The prospect of large numbers of British settlers seeking employment in Western Australia after the war placed the government under further pressure. By 1915, organisations in London were developing emigration programs to enable British ex-service personnel and their families to re-settle in Australia.86 When the Liberals returned to power after the Scaddan Governments fall in July 1916, Labor viewed these schemes with increasing disquiet.87 Problems in Caucus Even within Caucus, dissatisfaction over government policies was increasing. Major disagreement centred on a private pre-war contract to construct a freezing works at Wyndham.88 In May 1914, Scaddan and Johnson had begun negotiations with a private firm, Nevanas and Company. Nevanas agreed, at a cost to the State of 155,000, to build a plant capable of processing 30,000 head of cattle annually. In return for getting concessions on meat processed at the works, the Government would lease his company 50,000 acres, provide a water supply, erect a jetty and develop stock routes. Johnson was not satisfied with this offer, so, for a fee of 1,000, Nevanas agreed to visit Wyndham and investigate the schemes feasibility. Cabinet discussed his report in October 1914. Early the following year, when the Government called for public tenders for the erection and management of the freezing works, Nevanas submitted a successful tender for 155,150. Some months later, Nevanas was in the process of shipping materials to the North-West when Johnson terminated the contract, claiming that the company had failed to comply with the conditions of the agreement. The Government paid the company 7,844 in compensation. One of the irregularities investigated by a Select Committee of the Legislative Assembly, chaired by W.J. George, was that, before the tender was accepted, Nevanas had been given authority to order iron pipes from the State Implement Works and cement from G. Wills and Company.89 Johnson claimed that the conservative press had stirred the matter up especially the West Australian, which he regarded as a [Liberal] Party organ. He said that the Wests attitude to the government was in direct contrast to that adopted by most

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newspapers since the beginning of the war, of urging that all party bitterness should be set aside and that all parties should endeavour, to the utmost of their ability, to pull together and work for the common good.90 The Opposition was not satisfied with Johnsons explanation, nor with the findings of the Select Committee regarding the contract and its cancellation. The Committees Report sparked an extensive debate in the Legislative Assembly during which Heitmann, Johnston and Taylor savagely attacked their own Party, Johnston successfully moving a motion to appoint a Royal Commission into the matter.91 The Royal Commission did not report until June 1917. Justice Burnsides conclusion that:
I have been unable to find, after careful examination of the whole of the evidence, any circumstance which would justify any imputation on the character of any of the Ministers, or of Mr Nevanas, in their dealings with each other in this somewhat complicated matter.92

came too late to save the Labor government. Meanwhile, at a particularly turbulent Caucus meeting on 9 December 1915, Scaddan attempted to resign from the leadership, partly on the grounds of ill health, but also because he felt unsupported by his Party. The debate that took place during this meeting amply demonstrated the mutual hostility felt by some Caucus members. Holman attacked the Nevanas contract as the gravest blunder ever made by any government, and also criticised the administration of the Implement Works and the State Mills. Walker accused Johnson of playing a significant role in the defeat of the Daglish Labor government in 1904, and of responsibility for the blunders of the present government. He declared that he would rather leave politics than support Johnson. Johnston, who remarked that Scaddan and Johnson would best serve the party by leaving it, had already objected to the price the Government charged farmers purchasing land from the Crown a matter of considerable importance to his rural constituency of WilliamsNarrogin. Scaddans pre-election promise to reduce the price of agricultural land had assisted Johnston in securing his seat the only rural constituency won by Labor in 1914. When Scaddan introduced re-pricing legislation in 1915, setting the maximum price of agricultural land at 25 shillings an acre (10 shillings above the maximum stipulated in 1914), Johnston accused him of reneging on his promise.93 Johnston, who crossed the floor of the Assembly on each of 11 divisions during the committee stages of the controversial Bill, left the Party shortly after this fiery Caucus meeting, and successfully re-contested his seat as an

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Independent. His action made Labor a minority government, which was saved from a no-confidence motion only by the arrival of the lengthy end-of-year recess.94 The other controversy, the Referenda Powers Bill, was a fight between Labor and the Opposition. In attempting to legislate for a referendum to transfer a number of powers from the states to the Commonwealth, Labor opened up an area of major disagreement between themselves and the Liberals. In the Legislative Council, J.F. Cullen (Liberal) moved a motion to postpone all referenda until after the war. He objected both to the subject of the proposed referenda and the fact that men on active service and many farmers (whom he believed would be too busy harvesting to vote) would be excluded from the poll. These groups, Cullen argued, were most likely to support states rights and to vote against the proposals if they were able.95 He was unsuccessful, but the referendum issue remained controversial. During the six-month recess, the Liberal and Country Parties managed to agree sufficiently to support each other when Parliament resumed in the middle of 1916. On 25 July, Frank Wilson moved a vote of no confidence in the Scaddan Government, which was carried by 24 votes to 20.96 The next day, the Governor refused to grant Scaddan a dissolution. Scaddan then submitted the resignation of himself and his Cabinet. On 27 July, the ALF held an emergency meeting of Caucus members, District Council representatives, selected Labor candidates and officers of the State Executive to discuss the political crisis. The Wilson government would take office with a majority of only one seat. Scaddan believed that he could defeat R.T. Robinson in Canning, so the pre-selected candidate, Don Cameron, was persuaded to stand down. Scaddan resigned from BrownHillIvanhoe to contest the Ministerial by-election, but Robinson won and the Wilson Government took office.97 But Labors defeat was overshadowed by the far grater crisis that gripped and divided the Party the disagreement over whether men should be conscripted for overseas service with the AIF.

Chapter Three

No one is big enough to break the labour movement 19161920

During the years 1916 to 1920, as in other parts of the continent, Western Australia was an ideological battleground where the Official Labor Party (OLP) and the National Labor Party (NLP) fought for control of the labour movement, but there were other tensions within the labour movement itself. Conscription for military service overseas Australias small population, combined with the terrible cost of the Somme offensive in July and August of 1916, resulted in falling enlistments. While visiting Britain and France, the Australian Prime Minister, W.M. Hughes, had rashly promised the British Government an immediate draft of 20,000 men and 16,500 monthly thereafter. He claimed to believe that the Government could achieve this target if Australia followed the example of Britain, New Zealand and Canada by introducing military conscription for overseas service but the ALP was deeply divided over the ethical and ideological issues. Like all party policy, the Western Australian ALFs policy on conscription was initially determined at the State Congress. WA was no different from the other states, all having abided by the decision of their State Conferences. The eastern states congresses, however, had adopted an anti-conscription policy and had voted to penalise those members who did not follow their directive.1 A change of personnel had rendered the WA State Executive more pro-conscriptionist. At the beginning of 1916, McCallum, a strong anti-conscriptionist, suffered a mental and physical breakdown, resulting in a period of six months of enforced leave, which he spent with his family in the eastern states.2 He was replaced by the pro-conscriptionist James Cornell. When the ALF State Congress convened in Kalgoorlie in mid 1916, the Federal Party had not yet issued a policy on conscription, which was only one of 221 items on the agenda. But this deeply divisive issue generated far more

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discussion than any other item. The Midland District Council began the debate with a resolution stating that the Federal Government should conscript the wealth of Australia. Don Cameron (Fremantle ALF) and George Lambert (Bulong ALF) moved an amendment that conscription of wealth could be achieved by nationalising banking and currency, and by taxing all surplus wealth over a given basis representing a standard of living common to all.3 After a discussion lasting all morning, the amendment was defeated by 39 votes to 30. Any further discussion of conscription was postponed until 5 June. Then, Cameron and C.B. (Charlie) Williams (FMU) moved that the Congress oppose the conscription of human life for service outside the Commonwealth and that it instruct affiliated councils and unions to oppose all labour members who voted for, or otherwise supported, conscription. The resolution, which reflected decisions made in eastern states PLPs, also instructed the State Executive to refuse to endorse any Labor candidate State or Federal who supported or voted for the conscription of human life. E.W. Walsh, representing the Barmaids and Barmens Union, moved a contrary amendment urging the Federal Government to introduce legislation whereby all eligible males between the ages of 18 and 58 would be required to serve overseas. The motion and the amendment reflected the range and incompatibility of views on conscription within the labour movement. The ensuing debate took up the whole of the next two days. Twice a motion that the question be now put was lost. Eventually, G.F. Dennis (AEU) moved a compromise amendment that in the interests of the defence of Australia and the Empire, this Congress desires to express its confidence in the Federal Executive, and this was carried by 41 votes to 26 on the evening of 7 June. The ALFs policy on conscription from then until the end of 1916 was based upon this amendment. Against this background of dissatisfaction, determining a clear policy on conscription was impossible. At every level, the Western Australian ALF was split: some union and party branches such as the Westonia FMU and the Tenterden ALF declared themselves against conscription, others supported it; likewise, District Councils. A majority of Metropolitan District Council delegates voted in favour of conscription. The Eastern Agricultural District Council left the issue of conscription an open question, whilst Albany and the Eastern Goldfields District Councils voted against conscription, and urged the State Executive to do likewise.4 Tom Butler (AWU) and Don Cameron (Plumbers) were involved in the WA Anti-Conscription League, whilst others spoke on pro-conscription platforms. The pro-conscriptionists organised an effective campaign. Tragically for labour unity, they included some of the movements best and most

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articulate leaders, such as Jabez Dodd, MLC; MLAs Heitmann, Holman and Underwood; and John Hilton, editor of the Westralian Worker. Among the Labor women, Mrs Dodd and Miss Eccles were prominent in the proconscription lobby, whilst Mrs Foxcroft and Mrs Beadle spoke at many anticonscription meetings. The Westralian Worker reflected this division. In an editorial on 6 October 1916, Hilton expressed the opinion that the Labor Party was hopelessly divided upon the issue. Consequently, the paper would adopt a neutral stance since it could not speak authoritatively [for] the whole, or even a pronounced majority, of the party. In order to ascertain opinion, Hilton opened the papers columns to the readership. Many of the responses were against conscription. Senators Henderson, Pearce, de Largie, Lynch and Buzacott favoured conscription. Henderson had not always held this position. Shortly before the commencement of the Gallipoli campaign in April 1915, he had spoken strongly against so barbarous a principle as the adoption of conscription for military service overseas.5 Pearces stance on conscription was similar to that taken by Hughes, for he was in full agreement with British aims to use Australian troops to defend the Empire.6 In August 1916, Pearce angered both sides of the debate within Labor ranks when he sanctioned a police raid on the Melbourne Trades Hall. Police seized copies of reports and manifestos from the recent Victorian Conscription Congress. The WA State Executive was unanimous in carrying a motion demanding that Pearce explain his action, and pointing out the need for free speech during the lead-up to the conscription referendum.7 Shortly before the referendum, Pearce embarked on a controversial tour of the Goldfields, accompanied by a body of soldiers said to be 200 strong and addressed pro-conscription meetings. Needham was the sole WA Senator to stand out against conscription. While supporting Australias involvement in the war on a voluntary basis, he emerged as a strong opponent of conscription for overseas military service. He was the only Western Australian among 34 Federal Labor parliamentarians who signed an anti-conscription declaration urging the people to vote No at the October 28 referendum.8 In the House of Representatives, R.J. Burchell an official of the Railway Officers Union (ROU) who had been elected to the Federal seat of Fremantle favoured conscription, while Mahon (who was Minister for External Affairs) opposed it. Mahon was prominent in a number of civil rights issues. In 1915 and 1916 he interceded on behalf of the priests who were interned as enemy aliens at Trial Bay, and on the behalf of Father Jerger, who was charged with uttering disloyal sentiments from the pulpit.9 He also supported Irish Home

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Rule. In the months following the Irish Easter 1916 Uprising against the British authorities, several public meetings in Perth supported Home Rule for Ireland. One such meeting resolved:
That the continuance of Martial Law and the creation of a Unionist Executive are a poor reward for Irelands loyalty and sacrifice, and have exasperated the feelings of the Irish race at home and abroad.

The Censor intervened and demanded that the last part of the resolution be changed to: have wounded the feelings of many Irish people at home and abroad. Mahon wrote to Hughes, criticising him for not living up to his promise that a resolution from the public meeting on Irish Home Rule would be sent unchanged to Asquith and Redmond in Britain. At the same time, Mahon wrote to Pearce:
You are in error in describing the meeting which adopted the resolution as a meeting of the United Irish League. It was a public meeting of the citizens of Western Australia, presided over by the Mayor of Perth and addressed by the late Premier of the State [Scaddan] and other representative citizens.10

Apparently, Hughes and Pearce did not appreciate Mahons criticism. In 1920, Hughes succeeded in having Mahon expelled from Parliament, on the basis of an allegedly seditious statement that he made at another public meeting concerning Britains behaviour in Ireland. Mahon was said to have referred to Britain as the bloody and accursed Empire.11 With regard to the 1917 anticonscription campaign in WA, one of the Mahons most significant contributions was in recommending John Curtin for the position of editor of the Westralian Worker. On board the SS Katoomba on the way to Perth, Curtin wrote thanking Mahon for his good offices in helping him to secure the position.12 The impasse in the WA labour movement was resolved only when James Cornell resigned as Acting Secretary of the State Executive, on the grounds that he could not support the anti-conscription motion and at the same time go on a public platform and support conscription. Anti-conscriptionist Andrew Clementson was appointed in his place and one of his first duties was to send out a circular to all District Councils, urging them to support the Federal Labor Parliamentarians anti-conscription declaration.13 The campaign was marred by violent incidents. A mob attacked Don Cameron as he spoke on the Perth Esplanade, forcing him ironically to take cover in the Weld Club, Perths most conservative and elite gentlemans club. Violence occurred on the Goldfields, too, but the worst incidents were on 27 October, the night before

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the referendum, when an unruly crowd of soldiers and civilians destroyed several Greek-owned cafes in Hay Street.14 On 28 October, a narrow majority of the Australian people rejected Hughess proposal to introduce conscription, although 70 per cent of Western Australians who participated in the referendum voted in favour.15 Splitting the Labor Party Hughes, continuing to support conscription, split the Federal ALP by walking out of a Caucus meeting with 23 of his supporters. Pearce played a significant role in rallying Hughess supporters by finding a room where the dissidents could meet, thus preventing them from milling aimlessly in the parliamentary corridors and dispersing before any resolutions had been carried. On 14 November, the Governor-General commissioned Hughes to form a new Federal Government a National Labor Party (NLP) Government. Hughes was assured that the Liberals would co-operate to enable him to govern. In January 1917, after negotiations with Federal Liberal politicians, Hughes agreed to head a National Coalition Government consisting of pro-conscriptionist Labor members and Liberals. Burchell and all of the WA Labor Senators except Needham joined the National Coalition, with Pearce retaining his Defence portfolio.16 Immediately after the October referendum, the anti-conscriptionists on the WA State Executive began taking steps to wrest influence from their proHughes colleagues. Far from becoming a dead issue, now that the conscription referendum was defeated, branches and unions declared more openly their opposition to Labor members who supported conscription. Enmities surfaced within Labor ranks. Scaddan was summoned to a meeting of the Eastern Goldfields District Council to confirm or deny his reported statement that, by occupying a platform with Liberal Party pro-conscriptionists, he was in bad company politically, but he preferred these men to the company of Hun advocates.17 Scaddan denied using these words. While the Council members accepted his denial, they resolved to inform him that his explanation of his attitude on conscription was not considered satisfactory.18 Don Cameron denounced his one-time friend, Paddy Lynch, whom he accused of publicly vilifying the labour movement.19 While speaking at a proconscription meeting at the Boulder Town Hall on the night before the referendum, Lynch had been reported as saying that anti-conscriptionists were mongrels, Huns, hypocrites, pro-Germans [and] IWW [Industrial Workers of the World members] who were being financed by German gold. He had also

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said that the eastern states branches of the Labor Party were rotten to the core.20 On 10 January 1917 another special meeting of the Eastern Goldfields District Council chaired by the Councils Vice President, George Callanan, a dedicated anti-conscriptionist was called to hear Lynchs explanation.21 Lynch brought de Largie and Cornell with him perhaps for moral support. He denied using the word mongrel but admitted to calling the anticonscriptionists pro-Germans, adding that he was still of this opinion. Lynch maintained that his reference to the IWW was correct because all of that organisations members were anti-conscriptionists. Furthermore, he knew but could not make public the fact that German gold was being used to finance the breaking up of the AWU. Lynch was probably referring to the One Big Union movement that began at this time. He reiterated his statement that the Labor Party in the eastern states was rotten to the core and added that in fact rotten was too mild a term to use when referring to the official heads of the labour movement. Lynch concluded by charging his opponents with having violated every principle in the Labor Platform and having scabbed on the movement. He defied the Council or anyone else to expel him from the ALF. The mood of the meeting was extremely angry. Callanan had to appeal frequently to delegates to stop interjecting and he also asked the Senator to desist from making personal attacks. When one member, J.R. Brown, moved that Lynchs explanation was unsatisfactory, and accused him of lying, the Senator left his seat next to Callanan, walked to where Brown was sitting near the back of the room, and hit him. After the pair were separated, Callanan ordered the meeting closed. Not all of the please explain requests were addressed to proconscriptionists, however. The Eastern Goldfields Council had also asked A.E. Texas Green to explain a statement that many of the married men had gone to the front to escape their obligations, and that some of their wives had got other women to send them white feathers in order to get rid of them. The Council accepted Greens response.22 They also questioned McCallum about John Hiltons sacking from the Westralian Worker. McCallum claimed that the Worker had decided to dispense with Hiltons services in July 1915. Several labour organisations had complained of the literary weakness of the paper and that was the reason for Hiltons dismissal. McCallum was not intimidated by the Council. In a two and a half hour address on the situation facing Labor, he attacked censorship and the activities of the military authorities in silencing the anti-conscriptionists, and finally he exhorted all to pull together and not to

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cut themselves adrift from the unionists of the eastern states. As those unionists were solidly anti-conscription, McCallums speech was an attempt to win over the pro-conscriptionist delegates, and he succeeded.23 Anti-conscription Labor members around Australia demanded the expulsion of their State and Federal pro-conscriptionist colleagues. In December 1916, delegates at an Interstate Congress of the labour movement voted 29 to 4 in favour of expelling all Federal Members of Parliament who had joined the NLP. WA was the only state to vote against the resolution. Congresss ruling meant that the Federal pro-conscriptionists automatically severed their connection with the ALF when they joined the new National coalition. McCallum, who attended the Interstate Congress, was reluctant to expel members, but was utterly opposed to forming a National Party. Reporting to the State Executive shortly after he returned to Western Australia, he said bitterly:
What does [Mr. Hughes] offer you now? He asks the Labor organisations of this State to affiliate with the National Party, a party which has Frank Wilson on its executive in this State! which has Joe Cook and Sir William Irvine, Watt and other noted opponents of the people, which has Sir John Forrest in the Treasury; the man who offered to subscribe to defeat the Taxation proposals of the Labor Government; and remember he has a majority of the Cabinet behind him and [they?] can do as they like on financial matters.24

Burchell and the Senators defended their action on the grounds that parliamentarians should be able to exercise freedom of conscience upon big national questions which are not provided for in the Labor Platform. They argued that if they returned to the Official Labor Party (as the ALP was now called by NLP members), they would be bound by the decisions of the other State Executives which may be altered at any moment at the whim of these Executives. The Federal members asserted that conscription was a logical extension of the Labor platform, which supported the Defence Act of 1903, and that it was merely a tool to assist in winning the war. They reminded the State Executive of Fishers pledge in 1914 that if Labor was returned to power it would do its utmost to prosecute the war to a successful conclusion.25 Their arguments failed. Delegates met at a Special Congress, held in Perth in March 1917, to discuss a resolution that:
[as] the State Congress left the question of conscription an open one, this Executive cannot expel any member for either supporting or opposing conscription, but [as]

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Bobbie Oliver Messrs. Pearce, Lynch, De Largie, Henderson, Buzacott and Burchell have left the Labor Party and joined another political party, they have severed their connection with the ALP.26

After two days of discussion, the resolution was eventually carried by 134 votes to 30 with 10 members absent. The overwhelming majority indicates the change of attitude among party members to the conscription issue since the previous year. The District Councils dealt similarly with their State Members. When Geraldton questioned his NLP membership, Heitmann replied that Hughes and his followers needed all the support they could get in order to win the war. He saw anti-conscriptionists as comprising outsiders, IWW members and murderers. The IWW had captured Sydney and were gaining sympathy amongst unionists in Melbourne and Broken Hill. Tudors party, he felt, was supported by every pro-German in Australia. Heitmann said that he had fought the conscription question with Hughes and it would be craven to desert him. James Hickey and his fellow anti-conscriptionist Council delegates were angered by Heitmanns accusation that opponents of a coalition government were not doing their utmost to win the war or were less loyal than Forrest, Vincent, Lovekin and other pro-conscriptionist members of the Liberal Party. Although they did not want to expel Heitmann, he refused to withdraw his support from the National Coalition, so he left the ALP. The Councils efforts to persuade him to leave the Nationalists testified to his value as a member of the labour movement, but perhaps also indicated a fear of political eclipse if the Party continued to lose members. The feeling of many members might have been summed up by the District Councils motto:
Labors goal is far ahead, and the road thereto is criss-crossed with perils, sown with hardships, and environed by disappointments. That is why the journey itself, apart from the goal, is worth a mans and a movements while. The journey deserves the goal, the goal repays the journey.27

As in the Goldfields, there was lasting bitterness over the conscription issue in Geraldton.28 But the greatest blow to the political wing of the ALF was the loss of John Scaddan, who set out his disagreement with the Labor Party in a letter to McCallum:
[I would be] compelled to give first consideration to the dictates of my national conscience as against my Party conscience We are called upon to declare our allegiance not to principles but to men and by so doing denounce all others as traitors. I am not prepared to do this.

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Scaddan reiterated that he would not denounce men with whom he had previously agreed and whom he had encouraged.29 The machinery for removing the dissidents was developed early in 1917, when Doland and McCallum composed a Manifesto declaring the State Executives position on Labor members who joined the newly formed National Party. In accordance with the agreement made at the Kalgoorlie Congress in May 1916 that conscription was to be left an open question, the Manifesto declared, the Executive had not expelled anyone. The dissidents had been offered an opportunity to return. Not only did they reject this offer, but they also:
offered as an alternative that Labor Organisations of this state break away from fellow workers in other states and affiliate with an organisation which has Frank Wilson [Leader of the Liberal Party] as an Executive Officer We regret exceedingly the split that has occurred, and the loss of so many men who have worked long and well in the labour movement, but no matter how big a man may be or how much ability he may possess, no man, or body of men, is big enough or great enough to break the labour movement. When it comes to a choice between individuals and the Movement the individual must go.30

The State Executive then carried resolutions expelling Scaddan and eight other state members: Hudson, Dodd, Mullaney, Thomas, Carpenter, Ardagh, Cornell and Taylor. Appreciation was expressed to pro-conscriptionists Angwin, Holman, Drew, Wilson and Walker, who had refused to rat on the labour movement.31 While the WA Executive acted with less acrimony than, for example, NSW where the SPLP executive expelled all pro-conscriptionists, bitterness towards members who had joined the Nationalist Party was felt for many years after the conscription crisis. The departure of the nine pro-conscriptionists brought several anticonscriptionists into positions of influence, and Collier was elected party leader to replace Scaddan. Apart from Collier and McCallum, the anti-conscriptionist who was to exert the greatest influence on the events of the 1917 referendum campaign was a new arrival to the west, John Curtin, whom McCallum had recruited to replace Hilton. Frank Anstey, Mahon and McCallum favoured Curtin for the job of Worker editor, despite his known alcoholism, because of his skill as a journalist, an orator and an anti-conscription campaigner. Curtin commenced his duties in January 1917, some two months before the proconscriptionists were expelled from the party. He immediately adopted an editorial policy of attacking Hughes and the National Party.32

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Changing fortunes for pro- and anti-conscriptionists Both at State and Federal level, the Labor members who supported W.M. Hughes did not regard themselves as changing sides. The NLP had formed a coalition (the National Party) with the Liberals and the Country Party in order to win the war.33 There was little trust between National Labor and the Liberals. Pearce knew this, and worked hard to establish the NLP at Federal and State levels. He offered financial assistance to other State governments who were planning to form branches of the NLP and affiliate with the Federal body, the National Federation, and wrote to key unionists encouraging them to support the Party in the 1917 Federal elections.34 To keep informed of local developments, Pearce corresponded regularly with J.G. Hay (a WA employee of the Defence Department) and John Hilton.35 Both Hay and Hilton appear to have initiated the correspondence with Pearce. Hilton wrote for assistance after he had been sacked from the Westralian Worker. He blamed McCallum for his removal, stating now McCallum is back the antis on the [Worker] directorate number 5 to 1. Hilton was then employed as an organiser for the NLP.36 Hay laid claim to the title National Labor Party, stating that Hilton had proposed the name Labor Solidarity Committee. Hays letters contained misinformation and over-optimistic predictions. He reported that the Labor organisations were all in pieces and that the Metropolitan District Council was 80 in debt, partly because of losing affiliation fees when several pro-NLP unions withdrew their membership.37 While conceding that the Wilson Government was limping along on the Country Partys support in return for railway concessions to farmers, Hay represented the ALP as being rent by further schisms. The influence of the red rag section as he referred to the Clerks Union, led by Leighton and Driver, and seven key ALF officials: McCallum, Clementson, Cameron, Doland, Doheny, Green and Johnson was weakening. While he was making this assertion, the red rag section formed the Industrial Vigilance Committee (IVC), with E.L. Driver as Secretary, to protect civil liberties and to organise and educate Western Australian workers against Nationalist propaganda. A public launch of the IVC at the Olympia Theatre on 21 January 1917 was cancelled, however, when large numbers of returned soldiers and civilians arrived to break up the meeting. Driver claimed that a prominent pro-conscriptionist had written to the RSL,38 advising them to call their members together, take charge at the theatre and turn proceedings into a recruiting meeting, and he did not wish to run the risk of this happening.39

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The IVC met instead at the Perth Trades Hall the following week and made arrangements for the visit of anti-conscriptionist Adela Pankhurst, a guest of the State Executive. Pankhurst was a popular speaker and received invitations from all of the District Councils except Eastern Agricultural. A meeting at Kings Hall in Fremantle attracted 600700 people. Police officers taking notes of Pankhursts speeches at these two meetings reported little that had not already been argued by anti-conscriptionists. She stated that attempts were being made to interfere with the liberties of workers and that censorship denied freedom of speech. Furthermore, war meant the sacrifice of the healthiest and youngest men. Who would be left to populate Australia except coolies? Conscription meant military law and as soon as a man enlisted, the government inflicted military punishments upon him. The real profiteers from the war were the trusts and the British armaments manufacturers.40 Several of Pankhursts meetings were attacked by returned soldiers. After soldiers disrupted a large public meeting at the Perth Town Hall on 28 February, McCallum protested to the Commissioner of Police. The ALF accused certain police officers present at the meeting of letting Lieutenant Priestly, Lieutenant Burkett (the Secretary of the State Recruiting Committee), and other soldiers into the back of the hall. None of the soldiers appear to have been disciplined for their behaviour.41 Tensions within the National Coalition increased during the lead-up to the Federal election on 5 May. The NLP feared that its members would be overlooked in favour of true Liberals. In his correspondence with Pearce, Hay referred disparagingly to the Forrest crowd trying to take over. But Forrest urged electors to support the NLP politicians as well as members of his own party: Burchell (Fremantle), Heitmann (standing for Kalgoorlie), and Senators Buzacott, de Largie and Henderson, whom, Forrest claimed, have separated themselves from the Official Labor Party because they preferred patriotism and manly independence to humiliating subserviency and unfair and unjustifiable Trades Hall-dominated tyranny.42 The conservative coalition was victorious in both Houses in the Federal elections, and again in the September State election, but it was a temporary reprieve for many NLP members. While Pearce continued to be returned in the Senate, and to hold Cabinet portfolios, Henderson and de Largie did not remain long on the conservative benches. Both retired from politics after being defeated in the 1922 election.43 Lynch retained his Senate seat until 1937, but only briefly held a Cabinet portfolio Minister for Works and Railways in the National Coalition between November 1916 and February 1917.44 Some anti-conscriptionists, too, suffered electoral defeats in the next few years. Needham lost the 1919 general election, but his re-election to the Senate

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in 1922 the year that Henderson and de Largie were defeated suggests a turning of the tide of Western Australian public opinion in Labors favour once more. During the interim, Needham devoted himself to the State labour movement and to the cause of the unemployed. He served as Secretary of the Metropolitan District Council (after this post was separated from that of General Secretary of the ALP), and was elected as a Trustee of the ALP and a member of the State Disputes Committee.45 The process by which NLP members got weeded out, or relegated to the backbenches of the conservative State and Federal parties, took place amid the second conscription referendum, the general strike and further bitter industrial battles. Heavy military casualties on the Western Front in the European summer of 1917 and Russias withdrawal from the war created further pressure on the Australian Government to secure an impossible monthly recruitment total of 6,000 men. Hughes decided to hold another referendum, this time asking, Are you in favour of the proposal of the Commonwealth Government for reinforcing the Australian Imperial Force overseas? The State Executive immediately set up a Campaign Committee. At a special meeting on 12 November, State Executive members resolved that the conscription of human life was opposed to the principles of the labour movement, and urged all District Councils, Party branches and unions to do everything possible to prevent its adoption.46 A crowded public meeting at the Hibernian Hall in Fremantle a few nights later resolved unanimously to oppose conscription, and to constitute a League to work for its defeat in the forthcoming Referendum.47 Party members committed themselves to addressing anti-conscription meetings throughout the State. John Curtin was one of the most effective propagandists in the anti camp. In contrast to the pallid, neutral prose of his predecessor, Curtin used the Workers columns to attack conscription. He assembled statistics to disprove Hughess claims regarding the required number of military reinforcements.48 Not restricting his comments to the editorial, he penned many paragraphs in the weeks prior to the December referendum. On 23 November, he wrote:
What can be said in justification for the draining of the blood from the youth of this or any other country in order that the gibbering spectre may quaff the rich red fluid and gloat over the maimed bodies and blistered souls of the stricken members of the human family? Nothing.49

Curtin urged Mothers, say No [to conscription]. The pro-conscription press, he observed, had commented that, fortuitously, most of the babies born recently happened to be boys; thus the balance of nature was restoring itself by

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making up for those lost in battle a facile enough argument which made no allowance for the generation gap. Curtin tugged the heart strings by remarking that it was cold comfort for mothers to know that they were merely producing more soldiers or mothers of soldiers. (Was it merely by coincidence that Curtins comments were printed next to a large advertisement for Glaxo baby food guaranteed to build bonnie babies?) Similarly, on the eve of the referendum in response to a news item which stated that the Americans, who had recently entered the war, were prepared to fight for 20 years Curtin asked voters to spare the babies, spare the babes in arms.50 Most of Curtins anti-conscription arguments, however, were based on sound reasoning rather than emotion and sentiment. He insisted that contrary to earlier statements by Hughes the voluntary system maintained five Divisions in France and the Light Horse regiments in Palestine. He declared that no reliance could be placed on the word of a man who has for months denied that Australia had more than five Divisions outside the Commonwealth. He also pointed out that recruitment figures for the past 13 months exceeded casualties by 20,000, and that 10,000 of the men enlisted since October 1916 had remained in Australia. He reminded Australians of Russias lesson: the only thing needful unity at home, and reiterated that the issue was not whether Australia continued to contribute to the war effort but whether or not [we shall] bundle practically the whole of our manhood in under conscription. Finally and here the politician in John Curtin was becoming evident a vote against conscription would also be a vote of protest against the present Federal administrations refusal to check the shameful robbery of the people through high prices.51 Charges and fines Curtin did not confine his remarks to the Westralian Worker. He was one of the most fluent and effective public speakers at anti-conscription meetings. Police officers attended these meetings and made transcripts of speeches, which they sent to the Censor. Curtin was one of several speakers who were charged with offences under the War Precautions Act. The West Australian reported extracts of one of Needhams speeches in which he had purportedly made false statements regarding the number of Australian divisions at the battlefront. Arthur Catts MHR was prosecuted for making similar statements in Sydney. Despite Senator Pearces desire to prosecute Needham, legal counsel advised against bringing charges. Pearce was the only person who was in the position to deny on oath the veracity of the statement, and even were he prepared to do

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so, it was almost certain that Needham would be acquitted. The matter was dropped. Cameron and Johnson also were reported for having referred to the number of AIF Divisions in France, but their charges appear to have been dropped even earlier than Needhams.52 The police reported J.J. Simons for criticising Government censorship and for his claim that black labour was to be introduced to replace men who were conscripted to fight. He also made a controversial remark about Pearce the carpenter of Subiaco travelling to the Goldfields in October 1916 with an armed guard of 200 soldiers, headed by two Gallipoli veterans who were experienced in killing. Fremantle MLA Ben Jones commented that the referendum was the result of the blood lust of Billy Hughes, Tom Allen and the rest of the blood thirsty cannibals.53 But none of these charges were proceeded with. Curtin was less fortunate. On 17 December, he appeared in court charged with having made a statement which was prejudicial to recruiting and likely to cause disaffection to His Majesty the King in an address at the Star Skating Rink five days previously. Detective-Sergeant Ebbeson, who had taken notes in long hand, claimed that Curtin said:
Mr Hughes says that if the referendum is not carried, conscription will be introduced to Australia, and in that case if conscription is passed, I deny their right to force conscription on me, and the cause will be just if we rebel. The worst form of revolution is that which is forced on men of a free and democratic country. Revolution in despotic countries is the necessary solution of their difficulties.54

The trial took on a rather amusing aspect when the case for the defence hinged on the speed of Curtins delivery and the unlikelihood of Ebbeson being able to reproduce his exact words. Curtins lawyer, Mr Dwyer, read a passage from a book and asked the witness to take notes. Afterwards, Ebbeson admitted that he had written down only two words. M.J. Smith, a reporter with the West Australian, who had also been present at the Star Skating Rink, said that Curtin was a very fast speaker indeed, sometimes speaking at the rate of 180 to 190 words per minute; consequently, although Ebbeson had got some of the words right, the context was misleading. Curtin maintained that he did not deny the right of the Government to force conscription upon him; nor did he justify rebellion. His own account of what he said differed markedly from the police officers report:
[Mr Hughess] declaration to force conscription is a denial of the popular rule and is in fact the worst form of rebellion. It means revolution in the interests of reaction and that in a country which is described as free and democratic.

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Revolutions against despotism are the historical process of liberty. The solution of the popular impasse has frequently been found in that way. But we are faced with a problem of a different kind. Mr Hughess assertion is not a challenge to a despotic government but an attack on the declared verdict of a sovereign people.

Several others, including Clementson, who had chaired the meeting, testified that Curtin had not used the words rebelling and revolution in the sense imputed by the prosecution, but to not avail. Lilian Foxcroft appeared in court on Christmas Eve, on the same charge as Curtin. She had also spoken at the anti-conscription rally on 12 December and was reported by Ebbeson to have stated that it was impossible to have military conscription without industrial conscription. More than half of Australia had already indicated that it did not want conscription. If the authorities tried to impose something the people did not want they would hit trouble. Why should Australia send men to the front? If the worst came to the worst they might as well die in Australia defending their liberty. Mrs Foxcroft admitted that she had made the last quoted statement, but that her other remarks had been misquoted. She did not say that Australia should not send men to the front, but that those people who were voting in favour of conscription were not prepared to abide by the [majority] decision of the people of the Commonwealth. In each case, the Police Magistrate held that the charge had been proved. Curtin and Foxcroft were each fined 15 and ordered to enter into a surety of 25 to comply with the conditions of the Regulations in future. Their appeals were unsuccessful. Collier, too, was charged and fined under the War Precautions Act with statements that were construed as inciting the people to take up arms against the government. He was quoted as saying:
the people of Russia could pull the Czar off the throne and we could do likewise If you cannot beat them with rotten eggs and tomatoes, down with your tools and take up arms and blow the fat-bellied politicians off the face of the earth.

The fines appear to have been reimbursed by the Commonwealth Government in 1920.55 On 20 December 1917, a substantially higher majority of Australians and Western Australians than in 1916 voted against the introduction of conscription for overseas service. Only WA retained a sizeable Yes majority.56 This vote put the issue to rest for the remainder of the war, but the deep bitterness over Hughess creation of the NLP and National unions would not be resolved for many years.

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The formation of the National unions The first National unions were formed in mid 1917. On 17 August, the Lumpers refused to load flour on a ship bound for the Dutch East Indies, declaring that the ships should be used to feed our own people. Hindering anyone engaged in discharging, loading, coaling or despatching ships was an offence under the War Precautions Act, and the Lumpers risked fines or imprisonment. McCallum saw the dispute as being just another phase in a systematic campaign to discredit the Lumpers and to depict them as being unpatriotic, yet they had never refused to load a ship on war work. Five hundred members and 300 of their sons had enlisted with the AIF. William Renton, the Lumpers President, had two sons killed in action.57 Although a different dispute, the Fremantle Lumpers strike occurred at the same time as the 1917 General Strike. The strikers were immediately replaced by so-called volunteer loyalists, the original members of Hughess National Waterside Workers Union (NWWU). After striking for fourteen weeks, the FLU capitulated on 17 November and its members returned to whatever work they could get. First preference was always granted to the Nationalists, then to returned soldiers, whether unionists or not, and lastly to the Lumpers. For the next 18 months, FLU members earnings averaged 25 shillings a week and many families went hungry.58 At a meeting in Melbourne in September, members of the powerful employer group, the Australasian Steamship Owners Federation (ASOF), agreed the terms of settlement they would demand of the striking waterside workers around Australia. The main terms were: employer solidarity (no domestic rules unless mutually agreed to); preference to loyal (Nationalist) labourers; payment of weekly wages to wharf labourers who could be moved from wharf to wharf depending on demand, and employment of foremen who were not members of the Waterside Workers Federation (WWF). ASOF members put considerable pressure on the State and Federal governments to provide adequate protection for volunteer labour, and also to de-register the WWF and cancel the unions Award in the Arbitration Court.59 Unlike Fremantle, the Melbourne wharves were enclosed and easier to guard, so the Harbour Trust Commissioners there were able to arrange for ASOF vessels using NWWU labour to berth at a wharf inside the Trusts gates without incurring charges for special berths. Attempts to have police guards installed seem to have met with less success than in Fremantle. Police protection was very unsatisfactory from the employers point of view.60 ASOF also established a system of identity cards for volunteer labour.61 Similarly, in Fremantle:

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Entry to the wharf was by a metal disc (dog collar) and a registration card which had to be presented to the Pick-Up office at the Cliff Street entrance to the Wharf, prior to and at the completion of each days work. This meant that the men employed on the North Wharf or the eastern section of Victoria Quay were put to considerable inconvenience.62

Violent incidents between the rival unionists occurred daily. The Lumpers claimed that the Nationalists picked and chose their work and did not always answer when called if they did not like the jobs offered, leaving the really dirty and dangerous work to the FLU. Carter, the NWWU Secretary, exacerbated tensions by openly declaring his intention to rid the wharf entirely of FLU members.63 Each month, the Federation of Waterside Labour (WA) wrote to Captain Corbett, the officer in charge of Military Intelligence in Perth, submitting the names of all applicants for registration as wharf labourers, and asking whether any were undesirable persons. In September 1918, the Federation asked about Alfred Callanan, a unionist from the Goldfields, who with five others had stood trial the previous January accused of conspiracy under the War Precautions Act. Callanan was the older brother of AWU Mining Branch official and Eastern Goldfields District Council President, George Callanan. He had gained a reputation as a red ragger, and was accused of being a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). The IWW, an anti-capitalist organisation that advocated international industrial unionism, originated in the USA. During World War I, the IWW was outlawed in Australia under the War Precautions Act, and over 100 members were imprisoned on charges of arson or conspiracy, although none of the charges was actually proven.64 There were two IWW trials in Perth. At the first, in December 1916, Thomas Walker, who had served as Attorney-General in the Scaddan government, defended nine men including the old Socialist Monty Miller (then in his 80s) and ALF member Mick Sawtell. All nine were charged, tried and found guilty of conspiracy with five named IWW members in New South Wales and other divers persons unknown. Justice Burnside, however, was aware that if the men were imprisoned, any trades unionists who protested against their sentence would have to be similarly dealt with. The charge was so broad that it could be used to convict virtually any dissident. Burnside decided to offer the defendants the alternative of two years imprisonment or a good behaviour bond of 50 for the same period.65 One of the men charged, William Johnstone, appeared in the second trial in the Perth Supreme Court in 1918. Johnstone, Alfred Callanan and two other

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Goldfields workers M. Yates and T. Hawken were acquitted, but a fifth man, T.P. Candish, a member of the Carpenters Union and a delegate to the Fremantle District Council, was convicted of conspiracy with divers persons unknown and served six months in prison. Even the acquitted men found it extremely difficult to get work, and the State Executives attempts to have them compensated for lost wages and expenses while awaiting trial were fruitless.66 The May 4 riot on the Fremantle Wharf A year after the Lumpers strike ended, the Fremantle police were still being stretched to the limit in protecting the Nationalist workers on the wharves. Pick-up times 7.45 am, 12.45 pm and 3.45 pm were the most tense part of the day. Not only the Lumpers and Nationalists but members of the same union were in direct competition as they waited to be called up for the days employment. Police officers were stationed at intervals from the railway station to the wharf to protect the men going to and coming from work. Wars end in Europe saw no alleviation of the war on the Fremantle waterfront. The night of the Armistice was celebrated by a midnight battle between the rival unions in High Street. Although there is no evidence of police partiality, there were incidents involving members of the Naval Guard who were stationed on the wharf. On one occasion, two Naval Guard members punched two Nationalists in the face; on another, a sailor and five Lumpers were arrested.67 Industrially, 1919 was to prove even more troubled than its predecessors. The year opened with an influenza epidemic carried back from Europe on the troop ships which created widespread panic in the community, taking 12,000 lives Australia-wide, including over 500 in Western Australia. In February 1919, the Western Australian Minister for Health, Hal Colebatch, acting as Premier during Sir Henry Lefroys absence in Melbourne, defied the Federal Government by imposing new State quarantining laws and refusing entry to interstate trains thereby stranding them in South Australia. He also insisted on isolating ships for seven days before they could be unloaded at WA wharves. Colebatch even refused Lefroys request to put on special trains to repatriate himself and other Western Australians stranded in Melbourne. At that point, the State was virtually free of influenza cases and Colebatchs quarantine measures received strong public support.68 Yet the situation changed dramatically the following month when the Dimboola and the Delta arrived in Fremantle with influenza cases on board. Lefroy had resigned and Colebatch was now Premier. The Federal Government issued new regulations controlling the passage of interstate transport and

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imposing a uniform quarantine period of three days in all Australian ports. With the support of the President of the Perth Chamber of Commerce, H.W.D. Shallard, and other employers, Colebatch urged the Acting Prime Minister, William Watt, to retain the regulation of seven days quarantine for ships arriving in port. Watt refused, claiming that such a safeguard would mean ships lying idle indefinitely. Unless the State Government brought its quarantine regulations into line with the Commonwealth, no more ships would call at WA ports. Although Shallard supported the Premier in retaining the seven-day quarantine period, when the Lumpers refused to unload Dimboola because it had not been adequately quarantined, he stated publicly that their action was subversive to all constituted authority and urged the government to take immediate steps to uphold law and order. The Lumpers determined that Nationalists would not unload Dimboola either. Soon large groups of unionists and their families began assembling at the wharf each day, and processions marched through the Fremantle streets. Returned soldiers also protested, especially as some were Lumpers who were being denied work.69 Colebatch met with representatives from the Perth Chamber of Commerce, and other employers, the ALF, and the FLU officers, but the viewpoints expressed were implacably opposed to one another. The Premier argued that restoring business on the wharf was an urgent necessity, according to medical opinion the Dimboola was no longer contagious, and loss of trade and employment were more serious issues. He told the Lumpers officials, Renton and Rowe, You people forced the government into enrol[ing] National workers. We are now under an obligation to them, which we arent going to break. The employers agreed and demanded that the Lumpers return to work under the existing conditions. Renton and Rowe were equally adamant that the Lumpers would not return to work unless the Nationalists were removed from the wharf. Consequently, no settlement was achieved.70 The ALF State Executive held a special meeting to consider the situation and appointed a seven-member Disputes Committee to have State-wide control over the dispute.71 Colebatch contacted Watt, reiterating the difficulties in upholding law and order at Fremantle. Even with country reinforcements, the police force was inadequate to protect the Nationalists while they worked on the ships; there were no gates or fences around the wharves to prevent anyone entering the work area, and there was much local sympathy for the Lumpers. He feared that any attempt to enforce the law would result in bloodshed and grave disorder by widespread industrial trouble.72 But Watt believed that the State Government must regain control of the wharf and keep its pledge to the

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loyalist workers. He avoided becoming involved by insisting that it was a local dispute.73 Employer groups applied further pressure. The Association of Employers of Waterside Labour, the Fremantle Harbour Trust and the State Steamship Service jointly drew up a return to work agreement, similar to the ASOF agreement of 1917.74 Shallard advised the Premier that the Overseas Shipping Representatives Association in Sydney would omit Fremantle as a port of call for overseas steamers until the labour position was settled. Other employers deputations urged Colebatch to stand up to the Lumpers.75 Evidently, pressure from the Federal Government and the employer organisations influenced Colebatchs rash action when he travelled to Fremantle to oversee the installation of barricades on the wharf on the morning of Sunday 4 May.76 The 4 May riot was sparked by the news that a party of employers with volunteer labour was coming to erect barricades so that the NWWU members could unload Dimboola. Colebatch came down the river from Perth by launch. By 9 am before the employers and scab labour had arrived about 80 foot police were lined up in double formation facing a 300-strong crowd of Lumpers. The police persuaded the Lumpers to withdraw and then stationed mounted police across Cliff Street to bar access to the wharf.77 Then cars and launches began to arrive, carrying workers to erect the barricades. The police could not stop a crowd of 700 Lumpers running back onto the wharf, where they began throwing missiles and stoning the launches carrying the Premier and some volunteer labourers. The police retaliated, hurling back lumps of metal and iron bars into the crowd. Soon, the crowd had swelled to over a thousand, including women and children, but this number was to increase three or fourfold before the battle was over. Several times the police cleared the wharf, only to be driven back again by the enraged crowd. Some of the police were armed with unloaded rifles and fixed bayonets. FLU member, Edward Brown, a returned soldier, was wounded seriously in the head by a bayonet. Most of the other head injuries appear to have been inflicted by flying missiles. The mounting toll of injured police officers included Constable Patterson, a returned solider, who collapsed with nervous shock when he heard rifle fire.78 In his report of the days events, Inspector Mann of the Perth police insisted that ammunition was sent for only after shots were fired from the crowd. By mid morning, the crowds in Cliff Street and at the Edward Street entrance of the railway reserve had joined together and were attacking the police from both sides. To add to the tension, the troopship Khyber, with 1,500 troops on board, had just entered the harbour. Returned soldiers on the ship began sending signals, asking what was happening. The Lumpers urged the

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soldiers to join in, but some other returned soldiers signalled them not to get involved. The troops stayed on the ship. With a major riot on their hands, the senior police officers held an emergency meeting at C Shed with McCallum and Ben Jones. McCallum accused the police of firing and wounding innocent men and returned soldiers without any reasonable justification. He added, Call them off or I will not be responsible for what happens. Connell replied that he had taken over the wharf and it was his job to protect it. He claimed that the police had used no force until fired upon by the Lumpers. According to Manns written report, police threw missiles into the crowd, and used bayonets, and mounted police charged and drove people off the wharf. McCallum and Mann argued about who fired the first shots, the police or some one in the crowd, until further shots were heard. McCallum said, I must stop this and ran back to the fence where about 4,000 people were gathered. Colebatch was talking to the Police Commissioner by the OConnor Monument. McCallum obtained the Premiers guarantee that the Nationalist workers would leave the wharf immediately. Just then, the ammunition arrived, and a police sergeant began issuing cartridges to the armed police. According to the West Australian, the Riot Act was read. In the words of the Wests reporter, one false step on the part of either side would certainly have resulted in numerous deaths and hundreds of casualties. The Chief Inspector quickly signalled to the sergeant to cease issuing cartridges. McCallum climbed the railway footbridge and addressed the crowd beneath, promising that the Nationalists would be removed from the wharf and urging the men to leave quietly. As the crowd obeyed, McCallum told the Commissioner, Advise these men [the Nationalist workers] to keep quiet and take no notice of anything that might be said because some fool might say something or even throw something. The Lumpers left the wharf and held an impromptu meeting at the OConnor Monument a few metres away before dispersing.79 The official casualties from the riot numbered 26 police and 7 Lumpers, but the comments of some of the eye witnesses suggest that Lumpers casualties outnumbered those among the police officers. Of the Lumpers, the most seriously injured were Edward Brown, who was bayoneted; William Renton, who was attacked and wounded in the head by four policemen wielding lumps of metal and batons; and Thomas Edwards, whose skull was fractured by a police baton when he went to help Renton. Edwards died in hospital on the Wednesday evening after the riot. Thousands attended his funeral at Fremantle the following Friday, and the State virtually came to a standstill to observe three minutes silence in his honour.80

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In one of those strange quirks of history, there were two big funerals in that week. On Wednesday, Lord John Forrest, past Premier, was laid to rest after a grand funeral service in St Georges Cathedral. Forrest had died en route to England the previous year and his body had been returned to Perth on the Khyber. Fremantle District Councillor J.W. Burgess was present at both funerals and wrote a letter to the Worker that beautifully encapsulated some of the class distinctions between the greatest and the humblest in Western Australia at that time:
[The funeral of the late Lord Forrest] was an imposing spectacle. There was a brass band and a pipers band, naval and military men, policemen in galore [sic], speeding motor cars, carrying their freight of well-fed, well-groomed humanity. The tall silk hat and long frock coat betokened the class to which the deceased belonged. He was true to his class, and they left their sordid schemes for a brief while to follow him to his last resting place At the graveside an area is fenced off to keep the common crowd from intermingling with the class to which the dead baron had belonged I felt as if the very sounds [of the military salute and the last post] mocked me and my class in our fight for emancipation. [Tom Edwardss funeral] too, was an imposing spectacle; but there were no swanking military officers, no tall silk hats, nor flogger coats, to mar the sanctity of the scene. Thousands of sad and solemn men and women followed to the last resting place one of their comrades who had fallen in the grim battle; faces that were careworn, clothes that were threadbare betokened the desperate struggle through which hundreds had passed during the preceding long months since, they followed the mortal remains of one who was true to his class, conscious of the fact that their cause was a righteous one, and some day right must triumph. As I left the spot where my comrade was taking his last long rest, I felt sad at heart, with a gleam of comfort from the knowledge that his life was not given in vain.81

Mass meetings in Fremantle and Perth The riot was over, but the crowd was not placated. Three mass meetings were held that afternoon. A huge crowd assembled on the Fremantle Esplanade to hear Fred Baglin, standing in for the injured Renton, state that the object was to take repossession of the wharf. Despite heavy rain, they marched to the wharf led by several hundred returned soldiers, some in uniform tossed the heavy barricades in the river, and wrecked the pick-up bureau and some of the offices. It was as if, by their violence, they were trying to eradicate months of humiliation and hunger. Another meeting, mainly of returned soldiers, assembled at the OConnor Monument under the direction of Mick Donnes.

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Donnes was president of the South Fremantle RSL sub-branch, whose membership was entirely composed of unionists. He gave an impassioned speech, urging the returned men not to put up with Prussianism, but to defend the rights of the people against tyranny. A resolution was carried to this effect and then the meeting quietly dispersed. McCallum, Renton and Panton spoke at a meeting of about 2,000 people in His Majestys Theatre. Renton, who appeared with a blood-stained bandage around his head, was received with cheers. The sentiment was similar to that expressed by Donnes. Panton, a veteran of both the South African War and the World War, was eloquent in denouncing the Governments action:
I have not come back to be dominated by monopolies. Let the men who saw thousands of little wooden crosses at Bullecourt and Mouquet Farm ask themselves what it was about. Here is Renton, whose two sons are lying dead in France, and this morning he has been knocked on the head by the police.

McCallum told the meeting that he had pleaded with Colebatch and with the high police officials to take a less confronting course of action and avoid bloodshed but, to no avail. He related scenes that did not feature in police reports of the riot:
From the OConnor Monument to the overway bridge, there are stains of human blood. Men were knocked down and bayoneted and battered with road metal. Our only satisfaction is that the casualties were not all on one side. Women with little children were batoned, or struck with road metal thrown by the police.82

McCallum promised that the ALFs Disputes Committee would deal with the matter, and he urged unionists to remain at work unless an official strike was called. His negotiations with the Chief Commissioner the next day resulted in the country police reinforcements being sent back to their respective stations.83 On Monday evening, McCallum advised Inspector Mann that the Disputes Committee had discussed some proposals with the Premier and would place them before the State Executive that night. These plans were interrupted by another riot in central Fremantle. An angry crowd attacked two police constables in High Street, and they and four other police officers who went to assist them were injured.84 Mann immediately went to get McCallum at the Perth Trades Hall, and the two men drove to the Fremantle Police Station, where Renton and Baglin were already waiting. The Labor men organised a public meeting in Kings Theatre, where they addressed the crowd, urging them to remain quiet and obey the direction of the Disputes Committee to commit no violence. Such acts would only delay a settlement.85

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Several meetings of returned soldiers were held on the same evening. At the Fremantle Trades Hall a 400-strong crowd passed a resolution condemning the Governments action in using armed police on the wharf. While the RSL Executive convened a meeting of returned men in Perth, a dissident group, led by the officers of the East Perth sub-branch, met at the Shaftesbury Theatre. They then marched to the venue of the official meeting and succeeded in having a resolution passed condemning the governments action. The RSL State Executive feared that, had the resolution not been carried, the Association would have split into two rival groups which they did a few months later.86 At midnight on 7 May, Colebatch and his Deputy, James Mitchell, announced that they were prepared to accept the Disputes Committees terms. They would withdraw the NWWU from the wharf; abolish the National Workers Bureau, and permit the foremen to select workers for each shift, as had been the case prior to August 1917. There was to be no victimisation on either side, and pending the Arbitration Courts decision on the complaint currently before it the Lumpers and Tally Clerks unions were to guarantee continuity of work under the existing Award. This guarantee was to be endorsed by the ALF on behalf of the unions, and any difference of opinion would be settled by Arbitration. A seven-day period of quarantine would be enforced for all boats arriving at Fremantle. The Government was prepared to give relief to urgent cases of distress among the Lumpers families. Colebatch also agreed to compensate Tom Edwardss widow and family. The amount finally agreed upon was 686.87 Shortly afterwards, Colebatch resigned as Premier, and James Mitchell was elected Party Leader. Colebatch had been in office for only a month. The Riot at Fimiston The focus of the battle between Nationalist and Official unionists shifted to the Goldfields a few weeks later. AWU miners threatened to forcibly remove NLP supporters from the mines. In an attempt to preserve law and order, the Kalgoorlie Municipal Council placed a ban on street meetings. Citizens styling themselves loyalists approached Police Inspector Duncan and asked him to form a Citizens Protection League. Duncan favoured this action, and asked the Police Commissioner to sanction it.88 Instead, Connell sent Inspector Mann to Kalgoorlie. Mann found the town very unsettled and the firewood cutters threatening to strike. The mines could not function without fuel. If the cutters stopped work, over 3,000 men would shortly become unemployed and without

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means of subsistence. Merchants and storekeepers, fearing looting, had allowed stocks to dwindle. Kalgoorlie was a deeply divided community. Duncan even regarded some of his own officers as disloyal.89 The anticipated cutters strike began in June and dragged on for several weeks. The wood trains ceased running, the mines began closing down for want of fuel, and soon over 2,000 miners and engine drivers were unemployed. The Mitchell Government responded slowly to the desperate need of the miners and their dependents. In late July, an ALP deputation succeeded in persuading Mitchell to dispatch a Public Works Department official to Kalgoorlie to register the unemployed miners and issue rations. By 30 July, after five days of intense effort, 1,130 miners were registered, but an estimated 2,000 remained to be attended to, including the railway men who had also been thrown out of work by the strike. A Charities Department officer arrived to institute a reduced Charities Scale of relief, but the men absolutely refused to accept the reduced ration. The Mayors of Kalgoorlie and Boulder and the Police Inspector joined in opposing the new scale, while the Boulder Star denounced Black Fellows rations. Eventually a compromise was reached but the wood lines workers were excluded from all assistance as they were on strike. Ultimately, both parties in the dispute were forced to accept the temporary expedient of fixing company prices for tools and food at 191516 levels in order to match their unraised wages.90 For a while, the community was quiet, but further industrial trouble occurred in November, when a group of Nationalist workers attempted to reregister the defunct Coolgardie Branch of the Federated Miners Union (FMU) in the Arbitration Court.91 The AWU Miners held a general meeting and members voted not to work with non-unionists, as they regarded FMU members. On 2 November, a Sunday, the union Executive appointed committees to visit the mines, ask the miners to show their union tickets, and urge non-members to join the AWU. Wednesday of that week was Labour Day, which was celebrated as a general holiday. On Tuesday, the Chamber of Mines informed a deputation of AWU miners led by their President, George Callanan, that the mine owners would have steam up ready for work at 8 am on Thursday morning, 6 November. They would lower any man who was prepared to work, whether or not he was a unionist. ALF President Alex Panton arrived in Kalgoorlie to investigate the trouble and found the town abounding with rumours soon substantiated that the RSL was distributing firearms to returned servicemen and enrolling them as Special Constables. The Government had provided 600 rifles and 10,000 rounds of ammunition to

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assist in upholding law and order in Kalgoorlie and Boulder. The AWU, meanwhile, was preparing to initiate a state-wide general strike as a protest against the continued employment of FMU and other National unionists.92 By 7 am on Thursday a crowd of about 2,000 miners had already gathered at Boulder Block, an area east of the Boulder township, named after a popular public house. A group of shops known as Fimiston also marked the area hence the reference to a riot occurring at Fimiston. The AWU Miners Secretary, Thomas Bradley, told the crowd that the mine managers would employ non-unionists. The crowd then went to the Kalgoorlie Mine, where Bradley urged the AWU members on day shift to present themselves for work, but Alfred Callanan disagreed, saying that this would weaken their protest. The crowd moved on to Perseverance where George Callanan talked with several non-unionists. He also attempted to address the crowd but gave up because of the noise. Three Special Constables, Albert and William Schwann and Colin Edwards, suffered cuts and bruises when a crowd of angry miners attacked them and kicked them to the ground. William Schwann had his ribs broken. While the press depicted the affair as a battle between unionists and returned soldiers, this was far from accurate. As the ALF was to point out later, only 21 of the returned soldiers involved were not AWU members. Ironically, Tom Axford, a Victoria Cross and a Military Medal winner for his bravery in action on the Western Front, was an AWU miner at Fimiston, whilst his brother, Harry, the Kalgoorlie RSL President, was enlisting Special Constables. The Boulder RSL held a meeting on the evening of 6 November, and passed resolutions condemning the actions of the Kalgoorlie RSL executive and censuring it for interfering in industrial matters. Other motions pledged support for the AWU in its struggle against the Nationalists, and urged RSL members to join the union.93 The AWU leaders, meanwhile, were bent upon achieving a non-violent settlement. George Callanan met with Richard Hamilton, the mine manager at Great Boulder, and persuaded him to call a meeting of the Chamber of Mines. Standing on a skip at the mine entrance, Hamilton read a statement to the crowd, to the effect that he would call a meeting of the Chamber at 4 oclock and the AWU officers would attend. Bradley also spoke, urging the men, We can win this fight, not by violence but by logic. Throughout the demonstration, George Callanan and Bradley consistently urged the use of passive resistance and discouraged violent or abusive behaviour, and the mine managers cooperated with them but the presence of hot heads on both sides of the dispute complicated matters. All of the violent incidents appear to have involved men who had been signed on as Special Constables.94

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When the mine managers did not keep their 4 oclock appointment with the AWU delegation, a crowd of angry miners went looking for them, and pushed over the fence in front of the Chamber of Mines office. Despite the hostile situation, George Callanan persuaded the managers to return to the building, where the AWU executive attempted to negotiate terms of settlement. The mine managers remained intractable, sticking to their Tuesday statement that they would not discriminate between AWU members and others. Alfred Callanan stood up. Its no use talking, he said, They wont give in and he went out through the back door. Months later in court, a police witness testified that Callanan then went around to the front of the building where some of the crowd were threatening to break down the door, and told them, Its no good, boys. We can get no satisfaction from the Chamber of Mines. Theyre leaving the premises by the back door now. Come on. Rush the back door. Three of the managers made their escape but the remaining four, including Hamilton, were prevented from leaving by the crowd who swept in through the open door. Some of the miners threatened the managers, calling them bastards and shaking fists in their faces.95 Hamilton later testified that this went on for about 10 minutes, until the managers agreed to recommend that FMU members link up with the AWU. (The managers subsequently failed to honour this agreement and Hamilton said that this was because it was made under duress and without the acquiescence of the full Chamber.) After the meeting had broken up, the crowd dispersed. At about midnight on 10 November, the police raided the homes of the Callanans and 14 other AWU miners, and arrested them in front of their terrified wives and children. They were all charged with disturbing the peace. Afterwards, several armed Special Constables went to the locomotive sheds and ordered the engine drivers to blow the whistles in order to announce that the arrests had been made. When the drivers refused, the Special Constables threatened them with their rifles, and then blew the whistles themselves. In the morning, the Resident Magistrate refused the miners bail, sending them immediately to Perth without allowing them even to inform their wives that they were going.96 The miners were soon released on bail. George Callanan was back in Kalgoorlie by 15 November, when he attended an Eastern Goldfields District Council meeting and asked for an Acting Secretary to be appointed until he was able to return to his duties. J.R. Brown was appointed. It was agreed that all affiliated unionists would be asked for one days pay each fortnight to help with court costs. The 16 miners appeared in the Perth Magistrates Court in early December and were committed to appear at the Criminal Court. In the interim, they were allowed bail.97

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The police claimed that the ALF account of the incident in the locomotive sheds was exaggerated and that in fact AWU members singled out soldiers for brutal treatment. Commissioner Connell, in reporting to the Police Minister (Scaddan), described an attack by miners on Harry Axford as cowardly, for he was incapable of defending himself because of his war injuries. Even the testimony of witnesses at the ensuing Supreme Court trial in Perth was confused as to whether the returned soldiers were victims or perpetrators of violence.98 There was considerable doubt as to which of the Callanans incited the miners to violence by remarking, You know what to do with them (referring to the FM unionists). The police witnesses, however, testified that George Callanan did not use any bad language, nor did he advocate violence, whereas Alfred Callanan was prominent at the Perseverance Mine urging the crowd on and calling non-unionists filthy names. Much of the evidence for the prosecution and the defence indicated the extreme hostility with which the AWU miners regarded FMU members because of their scab activities.99 All of the miners were subsequently acquitted. In the meantime, Justice Rooth had refused to register the FMU in the Arbitration Court, which defused the situation and was a notable victory for the AWU. By January, the AWU and the FMU claimed to have only one point of difference: the matter of granting preference to returned soldiers whether or not they were unionists. However, even the RSL did not desire immunity for their men from the preference to unionists principal. On 3 January 1920, Premier Mitchell presided over a conference of unionists at the Boulder Municipal Chambers, which resolved to recommend to their respective unions the principal of the AWU and the FMU working together co-operatively. 100 The Royal Commission on National Workers Towards the end of 1919, the Mitchell Government held a Royal Commission on National Workers. Both this and the previously described events at Fremantle and on the Goldfields show how considerably the situation had changed for loyalists between April and November 1919, and how the victories at Fremantle and Kalgoorlie had empowered the official labour movement with a new spirit of militancy and solidarity. The Royal Commission on National Workers commenced on 29 September 1919 at Parliament House. Many of the National workers interviewed complained of victimisation. As one witness, William Dunne, observed: there is no doubt in my mind that as regards a man who is known, it is a case of once a scab always a scab, and he cannot get work. But the Commissioner

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remained unconvinced that Dunne and other NWWU members were unable to obtain work solely because they were regarded as a scabs.101 Some ALF District Councils had requested from the State Executive the names of those who scabbed on Fremantle Wharf , indicating that victimisation was actively pursued by some sections of the labour movement, and that Dunne and others in a similar situation, were not exaggerating their predicament.102 The Royal Commission appears to have achieved very little in the way of alleviating or even acknowledging the plight of workers whom the government had claimed it would not fail to stand by less than a year previously. By the early months of 1920, therefore, unions in the official labour movement had won some significant victories against bogus or Nationalist unions. Tragically, however, the divisions and bitterness in this case were not between long-acknowledged class enemies, but between fellow workers. Scabs were branded for life and were not welcomed back into the union movement. The next big battle was to be a class one in 1921, when shearers in the Gascoyne region sought a new Award and were denied it by the pastoralists. But before then, a more pressing matter took centre stage and again threatened to divide the labour movement the One Big Union.

Chapter Four

For only by the OBU shall workmens wrongs be righted

In 1919, the ALF finally fell into line with the Federal body and the eastern States by adopting the title Australian Labor Party (ALP) for its entire organisation, but retained its unique joint political and industrial structure. Thus, the WA branch consolidated its position in the Federal body whilst retaining much of its old identity. But the compromise and tolerance of a wide range of views that had characterised the WA movement were gone. In their 1917 Manifesto, quoted in Chapter Three, McCallum and Doland had stated that the labour movement would always take precedence over the individual. During the 1920s, the Party continued to adhere to this policy. But there was a difference. In 191719, those expelled were rats who had formed an alliance with the conservative side of politics or who had joined scab Nationalist unions. In the 1920s, those who fell foul of the ALP were militants who defied the State Executive, the State Disputes Committee or the Labor Government. Some were members of the newly-formed Communist Party of Australia (CPA). All advocated more militant tactics than the ALP was prepared to use. The One Big Union (OBU) Movement of 19191922 and the disputes that resulted in George Ryce, Cecilia Shelley and T.J. Hughes being expelled from the ALP were all facets of organised labours struggle to achieve solidarity in a strong, unified industrial and political movement. The OBU, in particular, caused upheavals in the Party. The origins of the One Big Union Despite their political and industrial triumph over the Nationalist unions in 1919, more members of the organised labour movement began to place their faith in industrial unionism and its vehicle, the OBU, as the only means of overcoming the immense power of employers. The ideology of industrial unionism pre-dated World War I. Developed by the IWW, it stressed the need for workers to organise into OBU and to resort to direct action, rather than arbitration, as a means of settling industrial disputes. The OBU movement is

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significant in Western Australian history because its commitment to direct action reveals a lack of confidence in the Arbitration Courts capacity to do justice to the worker and to deal impartially with each union. Anomalies in judgements led to increasing scepticism about the benefits that could be gained through arbitration.1 Female unionists, too, were often poorly served by the Arbitration Court, as evidenced by the Perth Womens Labour Leagues attack on the workers representative, William Somerville, who, they believed, showed a want of sympathy towards women.2 Advocates of direct action claimed that the Arbitration Court was in league with the bosses, but their opponents feared that strikes were sometimes a cloak for Bolshevik activities. Communist literature became increasingly available from mid 1919 with the appearance of Lenins first work to be published in Australia, Soviets at Work. Other writings by Lenin, Karl Radek, Bukharin and Zinoviev soon became available. The first Australian Communist newspaper, the Proletarian Review, was launched in Melbourne in June 1920.3 The main impetus for the formation of the OBU came from New South Wales and Victoria, although different structures were proposed in each of these states. The Workers Industrial Union (WIU), founded in Sydney by Jock Garden, the NSW Labor Council Secretary, sought to attract returned soldiers.4 In Victoria the movement was led by Socialists, including Curtins friend Frank Hyett, who planned to establish a Victorian Labour Union. Hyett argued that the industrial labour movement lacked power, was inefficient, and was utterly inadequate, as an instrument, to accomplish either permanent and satisfactory progress under the wage system (capitalism) or the abolition of that system. He believed that the Victorian Labor Union would end craft union domination and establish a common industrial policy.5 The 1919 Melbourne All Australian Trade Union Conference In Western Australia, the New South Wales model gained precedence possibly because of its more inclusive title. In January 1919, Western Australian representatives, H. C. Gibson of the Federated Engine Drivers Association and Ernest H. Barker (AEU), attended the All Australian Trade Union Conference, which met in Melbourne to adopt the WIU Preamble and Rules. The Preamble stated that class struggle was caused by capitalists owning the means of production. The struggle to end want and hunger existing among the working people must continue until capitalism was abolished, and this objective would be achieved only when workers united in one organisation and took hold of the means of production by revolutionary and political action. Revolutionary was

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defined as action to secure a complete change; that is, the abolition of class ownership of the means of production, whether privately or through the state, and the establishment in its place of social ownership by the whole community. An eight-tier structure was proposed for the management of the WIU, commencing at the local level with sections and district committees, and culminating in a grand council headed by an elected President and General Secretary. This was a more complex structure than an earlier proposal that the OBU consist of unions, group councils and a central committee, which was similar to that of the ALF (WA).6 The Preamble was adopted only after considerable discussion, and even then the South and Western Australian delegates voted against it because they felt it was ambiguous. Moreover, the system of electing office bearers was extraordinarily protracted and cumbersome. Barker felt that no sooner would one set of officers be elected than the process would begin again to elect their successors. The issue of local autonomy was hotly debated. Barker queried the imposition of a structure that appeared to be ruled from the top by officials and bore little resemblance to democracy.7 Yet, despite his reservations, he firmly believed in the concept of the OBU. Some others within the labour movement actively opposed the scheme. The Perth Labor Congresses, 1919 and 1920 The struggles and disagreements threatening to divide the movement in the eastern states were replicated in WA when the ALF gathered for its tenth Labor Congress in June 1919. George Callanans motion to adopt the OBU Preamble caused dissension. Although agreeing on the principle of one union, the delegates differed over the proposed organisational structure. Many objected to the wording of the Preamble that had been approved at the Melbourne Conference. They argued that the word revolution contained connotations of violence and bloodshed; that the American phraseology suggested an imported movement; and that the OBU should not insist on direct action rather than arbitration, nor condemn craft unionism.8 Some delegates believed that the AWU structure and title should be preserved whilst others argued for a completely new organisation. Some were disillusioned with the AWU and pointed out perceived weaknesses. Mrs Coates and Miss Greenough of the Womens Labor Union claimed that the AWU had ignored women workers and had failed to educate the wives and daughters of the workers to an appreciation of their economic situation. Fred Baglin pointed out that thousands of workers in Australia could not join the AWU under its present constitution.

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Furthermore, the AWU was pledged to a policy of arbitration that Baglin believed had failed. AWU officials A.J. Watts, Tom Butler, Mick Costello and James Hickey defended their union. Butler reminded the Congress that in the 1890s the unions founders went to jail for their principles, and some were even shot for them. The AWU had borne the brunt of five years of strikes to save unionism in Australia and had used its funds to fight the 1916 and 1917 referenda campaigns and rid the nation of the curse of conscription. Costello and Hickey defended the AWUs record in achieving gains for women workers. Other delegates also supported the AWU, advocating building on the already existing base rather than abolishing the union and beginning anew. Finally, the Congress rejected the OBU Preamble by 177 to 92 votes, and carried an amendment by J.P. Doheny that the Preamble be replaced by an objective to bind together into one organisation all industrial workers in Australia, to achieve economic freedom by political and industrial action.9 This was an overwhelming victory for the pro-AWU delegates. The Congress then appointed an OBU committee, with Andrew Clementson as Secretary, to draft a Constitution and perform general propaganda work.10 Union members in both metropolitan and country areas began responding enthusiastically to the OBU scheme, and Clementson attended many speaking engagements. Within 3 months of the Labor Congress, 11 OBU organisers were active in 16 workplaces in the metropolitan area to spread the propaganda of industrial unionism, and groups had been formed at Bunbury and Albany.11 Above the entrance to the Perth Trades Hall was a verse which ran:
Be workmen still, be workmen true, Among yourselves united, For only by the workmens hands Shall workmens wrongs be righted.

Enthusiasm for the OBU ran so high that the Committee considered a suggestion to alter the third line of the verse to read For only by the OBU 12 The alteration was not made. At the ALPs OBU Congress in Perth on 25 May 1920, the militant rhetoric invoking revolution was soundly rejected in favour of more moderate objectives. Even resolutions to adopt the title One Big Union failed, and the organisation was named the Workers Industrial Union of Australia, WA Section.13 A majority of conference delegates opposed including a reference to class struggle being caused by the capitalist class owning the means of production and an assertion that there can be no peace as long as want and

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hunger are found among the millions of working people. Instead, the conference opted for a statement that was even less polemical than the socalled conservative constitution of the AWU. The WIUWAs objects were:
To unite the workers of Western Australia in one organisation, and by the provision and distribution of funds and other means to regulate the conditions of labour, the relations between employers and employees, and workmen and workmen, to replace the present competitive system by one of social ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange, and to advocate the formation of one big union of workers for Australia.14

The Constitution was virtually identical to that of the AWU. Amendments to open the membership to all workers, irrespective of race or gender were defeated, and the exclusion of Asiatics or coloured aliens other than Maoris, American Negroes, or the Australian-born issue of mixed parentage again parallelling AWU practice was carried by 36 votes to 27. The Conference also adopted a five-tier management structure starting with the local industrial union and progressing through divisional, provincial and industrial departmental councils to a 15-member Grand Council, elected by the entire membership of the union. This last body was to be the supreme authority in the Union with power to veto the actions of any [other] governing body or member. The Grand Councils functions included the administration of finances and personnel, and liaison with government bodies. Most significantly, however, it alone could enter into an agreement, arbitrate, or declare a strike on behalf of all or any of the members of the union.15 The reservations which Gibson and Barker had expressed at the Melbourne Conference apparently went unheeded. Alfred Callanans OBU Frustrated by the direction in which the OBU appeared to be going, Alfred Callanan took matters into his own hands. In October 1920, he formed a new organisation, the One Big Union, among the workers on the Kurrawang wood line most of whom were non-unionised Italian immigrants. At the end of November, 140 OBU members had gone on strike because the AWU refused to recognise their union.16 The West Australian reported that 80 per cent of men on the wood lines had joined the new union.17 The OBU members strike lasted for only a week, but caused alarm in the Goldfields community. The Mayor of Kalgoorlie wired the Premier that the mines were closing down for lack of fuel and all work would soon cease. The RSL demanded to know whether the government intended taking action.18 Work resumed on Monday

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6 December after the intervention of the Italian Consul, Count Gallo.19 Employers supported the AWU as the more moderate union in this dispute, thus reversing their stance of 1919, and this was a significant factor in the strikes failure. Furthermore, the preponderance of Italians among OBU members exacerbated the ever-present racism in the Goldfields community. It was only 15 months after the August 1919 race riots in Kalgoorlie.20 Connections were readily made between the foreign workers and Bolshevik ideology, both of which were unacceptable in a loyal, British community. In reporting Callanans activities, the police emphasised the revolutionary nature of his message, and his unpopularity among British workers, whilst a section of the press accused him of cowardice. Now, the newspapers conveniently ignored their earlier estimates of the OBUs popularity.21 The organised labour movement refused to recognise Callanans union, and the ALP quickly distanced itself from Callanan. Speaking in the Legislative Assembly, Collier stated that no such union as the OBU exists in Australia, and these men have simply formed an organisation they call the One Big Union.22 Technically, he was right: the title One Big Union had never been adopted. Many grievances surfaced in the debate that followed. Thomas Harrison, the Leader of the Country Party, and two National Party members, Scaddan, the Minister for Mines, and Frederick Teesdale, the Member for Roebourne, demanded that criminal proceedings be instituted against the OBU leaders. Teesdale went so far as to suggest such solutions as a firing squad or deportation. J.C. Willcock who had won the seat of Geraldton for the ALP from Nationalist sitting Member Samuel Elliott in 1917 vehemently opposed these demands.23 George Lambert, the Member for Coolgardie, where the strike had occurred, blamed the monopoly of the firewood industry by the Lakeside and Kurrawang Companies. When industrial trouble occurred on the woodlines, the whole mining industry on the Goldfields was held up because of the lack of fuel. He urged the government to support small, private contractors by building spur lines into the forests south of Coolgardie. Both Lambert and OLoghlen said that the appalling conditions and pay at Lakeside and Kurrawang resulted in Britishers refusing to work there. Lambert contrasted the Governments tardy response with its handling of the situation the previous year, when they had spent a few thousand pounds and equipped 800 or 900 soldiers to end the industrial strife created by the appearance of the FMU.24 It was important for Labor to differentiate between OBU-ism, to which the Party had directed much energy over the past two years, and Callanans bogus union. Collier had every sympathy with genuine OBU-ism but none with the

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bogus organisation.25 The Worker enunciated the difference between the two: Schismatics whether Nationalists or Revolutionaries are enemies of the workers cause. Instead of being certificates of industrial militancy, the OBU tickets, which were issued on the wood lines, were labels of disintegration. Accordingly, the Worker pledged its support for the AWU, its major shareholder, with a dramatic declaration that it was:
impossible that any recognition be given by any body to any union labelled OBU at the expense of the AWU. This paper will do its best to encourage unions to work for the One Big Union of all workers, but it will fight to the last ditch against malcontents breaking away from existing unions to form another one 26

A month later, in an OBU New Year Message, the Worker clearly laid out the tenets of OBU-ism. Under the guidance of Secretary T.J. Hughes, the Provisional Committee appointed the previous May by the Industrial Labor Conference had been organising unions in the metropolitan area with a view to amalgamation, and it was soon to commence work in the country areas and on the goldfields.27 Union amalgamation had a precedent in WA, with the 1915 absorption of the GWU by the AWU. The labour movement was consistent in its planned procedure for achieving one union. Other factors, too, influenced the course taken by the ALP: the level of social unrest on the goldfields, and the AWUs desperate financial situation, which was worsened by the States deepening economic crisis. Several mines closed permanently. Early in 1920, 1,000 men lost their jobs when the Gwalia and Lancefield Mines closed and staff levels were reduced at Boulder. In July 1921, Menzies Consolidated at Coolgardie closed.28 It was a time to foster solidarity. The Party could not survive further schism. The failure of industrial unionism Despite its victory over the OBU movement, the AWU was financially and strategically weakened by the mine closures and by defeat in the 1921 shearers strike. When the AWU convened a conference on the pastoral industry at the Melbourne Trades Hall in November 1920, no representatives from either Western Australia or Queensland attended. At this conference the union representatives drafted a claim to be submitted to the Federal Arbitration Court for a new minimum Award for shearers and station hands. If granted, this Award would cover the entire pastoral industry, abolishing different shearing rates in each state.29 But the Pastoralists and Graziers Association of WA

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(PGA) paid shearers only the state award of keep and 30 shillings for 100 sheep shorn, vehemently refusing to allow contractors to pay higher rates or to negotiate with the AWU or the ALP, and rejecting all suggestions of arbitration.30 Consequently, the shearers went on strike and formed strike camps at such towns as Pindar, Roebourne, Cue and Carnarvon. Commissioner Connell urged local police to enrol special constables from among the station hands and shed employees.31 AWU members picketed the outskirts of Carnarvon but failed to prevent shearers being transported to stations by road. By mid July, shearing was proceeding on all local stations, with shearers accepting 1920 rates. There was very little violence, despite attempts by some AWU members to force shearers to join the union, and threats to burn down sheds. According to police, most of the working shearers belonged to the AWU, but some were still holding out for new rates. Undoubtedly the power of the PGA was a major factor in the failure of the strike, although Police Minister Scaddan denied pastoralists the greater police protection that they requested.32 The ALP State Executive warned the District Councils that:
Western Australia is being made the battle ground in Australia for a trial of strength between the Pastoralists Association and organised labour. Should the union be unsuccessful in this fight it will prejudice their case which will be heard in the Federal Arbitration Court next month.33

The PGA succeeded, and pastoralists were still refusing to implement the conditions of the Federal Award in 1925. The AWU was severely handicapped by lack of finance, and the shearers strike suffered from inadequate funds. Despite the generosity of the Bunbury Lumpers and the Collie Coal Miners, the latter sending 300, few other unions made donations. Shortage of funds was a problem not only for the pastoral workers branch but for the entire union.34 The formation of branches of the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) in the closing months of 1920 may also have diverted labour militants from their commitment to industrial unionism. In Melbourne, in June 1921, delegates at the All Australian Trade Union Congress achieved a compromise between the competing interests of the AWU, the ALP Left, the industrial unionists who were prepared to cooperate with politicians, and the Communists.35 As has been shown in the Western Australian context, it became increasingly difficult for these groups to work together. Initially, only six people committed themselves to membership of the Western Australian branch of the CPA. These included Katharine Susannah (Prichard) Throssell and George Ryce, the latter having remained an ALP member, despite the directive that joining

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another Party meant automatic expulsion. The CPA suffered considerable division in its early years, and was not a powerful force in Western Australian politics. Nevertheless, it provided a vision of hope for a few of the more militant members who became disillusioned with the ALP.36 In May 1922, AWU State Secretary A.J. Watts reported on the OBU movements lack of success in establishing itself. The name Workers Industrial Union had been abandoned in favour of Australasian Workers Union at the 1921 AWU Annual Convention, but legal problems arose when the union attempted to issue tickets in the new name rather than that of the AWU.37 In May 1924, the Federal Arbitration Court refused to register the Australasian Workers Union because the AWU was already registered by virtually the same name and had the same purpose, and the new union was an organisation of organisations and not an organisation of persons. The Registrar stated that he was prepared to reconsider the application of the Australasian Workers Union, but only if the AWU de-registered first which, of course, it refused to do. Significantly, unions formed a majority of the 24 organisations that lodged objections to the unions registration. H.E. Boote, the editor of the Australian Worker, claimed that the apathy of the working classes was to blame for the defeat of the OBU.38 But he need not have looked further than the AWU executive. In New South Wales, the AWU had been so hostile to OBU supporters that a split had occurred over the issue in 1919.39 For years, the AWU had worked to become the one big union. Once the OBU was defunct, the AWU set about empire building by poaching from other unions as well as organising non-unionised sectors of the workforce.40 At the same time, Alfred Callanan was silenced. In March 1923, he appeared before the Kalgoorlie Court on a charge of robbery with violence. He admitted holding staff at the Great Boulder Goldmine at gunpoint and stealing 520, but claimed that he had done so as a protest against the persecution of himself and other workers by the Employers Federation. Callanan, who had a wife and five children to support, had found it impossible to gain ongoing employment because of his militant activities and his past IWW connections. He informed the Court that his action was what the socialists called propaganda by deed. The presiding Chief Justice, Sir Robert McMillan, said that he had never previously encountered a plea of this nature in all his years at the Bar. The jury retired for two and a half hours but could not agree, so Callanan was remanded in custody and the trial was heard at the Supreme Court in Perth in April. There, the jury unanimously found Callanan guilty of robbery, and Justice Burnside sentenced him to seven years hard labour, which he served at

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Fremantle Prison. Burnside, who had presided at the trial of Miller and Sawtell in 1916, reminded the defendant that the maximum penalty for robbery with violence was life imprisonment, thus indicating that he had got off lightly.41 From 1924, when the ALP regained government, the Eastern Goldfields District Council and the WA Organisation of Labor Women headed several unsuccessful attempts to have Callanan released. In 1926, Mary McEntyre, of the Goldfields Labor Women, put the case to Harold Millington, the Member for Leederville. She compared Callanans case with that of Fred Baglin, past Secretary of the Fremantle District Council, who had been imprisoned for embezzlement and then pardoned by the Collier Government. She claimed that, In the eyes of all unionists Baglins crime was very much more serious than Callanans. Resolutions requesting Callanans release were passed by the Kalgoorlie and Boulder Section of the AWU Mining Branch; the Perth and Goldfields Labor Womens organisations; the Eastern Goldfields, Metropolitan, Fremantle, and South West District Councils; and many other labour bodies. Several deputations had brought the case before the Premier, emphasising the need for justice and the plight of Callanans wife and children all to no avail. The Government even defied a resolution passed unanimously at the 1925 Labor Congress.42 Callanan was still in prison in 1930, when he appears to have been involved in an attempted mutiny. It is not known when he was released, but in July 1937, along with W. Moiler, his credentials as an Eastern Goldfields delegate to the State Executive were withdrawn when they disobeyed the voting instructions of their District Council. Callanan died in Perth in 1940.43 Changes in the State Executive and the District Councils While the OBU drama was being fought out, Labor was beginning its long climb out of the post-conscription campaign abyss. The moderate approach bore immediate fruit with the ALP gaining 3 more seats in the April 1921 State election, making a total of 18 Labor-held seats in the Legislative Assembly. The National Coalition held a sizeable majority with 30 seats, but internal divisions were beginning to appear.44 With reasonable prospects of regaining government in the next State election, the Party had good reason to silence divisive militant factions. In 1921, McCallum won the State seat of Fremantle South. Harold Millington succeeded him and served as ALP State Secretary, until he was elected to the seat of Leederville in 1924. Millingtons successor as State Secretary was E.H. Ernie Barker who remained in office for almost a decade. In contrast to his predecessors, Barker was over 50 when appointed,

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and yet he, too, was typical of that generation of labour pioneers. Born in West Riding, Yorkshire, in 1871, he had emigrated to Western Australia at the age of 26 in 1898. Despite having had a limited formal education, he was described as one of the best read men in the labour movement and as the proud possessor of a big library of books on economics and sociology. Barker became an engineer and in 1908 joined the AEU executive, later becoming Organiser. Having gained a reputation as a union advocate in the Arbitration Court, he continued to act in this capacity throughout the 1920s and 30s. This necessitated the State Executive appointing an Acting Secretary during his absences. He also served on the State Disputes Committee. Barker was successful in the selection ballot for the Senate in 1928, but was not elected to Parliament. He remained as ALP Secretary until 1933, when he resigned because of ill health, and then served a term on the Licensing Commission before retiring. He died in July 1941.45 The ALP Presidency also changed hands several times. In May 1922, Alex Panton resigned after three and a half years in the office and was replaced briefly by Stan Munsie, but it was James Joseph Kenneally, a locomotive engine driver, who was to hold the post during the second half of the decade and into the 1930s. Kenneally also represented the WA labour movement at Federal Executive meetings during the 1920s, was Vice President of the Federal Executive in 1926, and was elected Federal President in 1928. This position involved travelling to the eastern states for ALP Federal Executive meetings. Other Western Australian representatives on the Federal Executive included Senator Needham, Alex Panton and John Curtin.46 The District Councils experienced a similar pattern of personnel changes. District Council Secretaries carried out their unpaid duties in their spare time. The work was exacting and some either died in office as had long-serving Eastern Goldfields Secretary, R.E. Clifford, in August 1919 or were forced to retire from ill health. Albany Lumpers Union Secretary, Sam Taylor, for example, served as Albany District Council Secretary for over a decade until his terminal illness in 1936.47 Others departed less honourably, as when Cliffords successor, Frank Worthy, allowed the Eastern Goldfields Councils finances to fall into a disastrous mess in 1921. Panton and Millington investigated and discovered that the Councils books had not been audited for 18 months. Sums of money raised from various fund raising activities, totalling thousands of pounds, were lumped together and listed as one amount. Worthy was relieved of all other duties so that he could concentrate on the books, but he resigned on 6 January 1922 and was succeeded by J.R. Brown. The auditors moved to

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quash derogatory rumours and to point out that the laxity of the system was more to blame than the Secretary. By 1924, J.J. Lawler was Secretary, and he remained in this post until 1937.48 George Callanan, the President of the Eastern Goldfields District Council and Secretary of the AWU Mining Branch, died suddenly at the age of 40 while undergoing a relatively minor operation in Kalgoorlie Hospital in December 1923. The labour movement turned out in force to pay its last respects to a man whom its members mourned as a stalwart comrade and brother. The priest who took the funeral service, a friend of Callanans, said that George had followed in life the example set by our Lord Jesus Christ. Callanans wife, Freda, had predeceased him and the 5 orphaned Callanan children, aged from 18 months to 16 years, were left in the care of Georges widowed mother, Mary. Despite its crippling financial problems, the Eastern Goldfields District Council donated 21 to Callanans family and obtained free rail passes enabling them to travel to Sydney, from where they may have returned to Mary Callanans native New Zealand. Callanans eldest son, also named George, probably remained in Western Australia, for in 1934, he was working in Walpole.49 Louis Grieve left the position of Secretary to the Avon Valley (previously the East Agricultural) District Council in the mid 1920s, after several years in this office. He was preselected for the State seat of Northam and stood unsuccessfully against Sir James Mitchell in 1921 and 1924. AWU official Joe Tankard was Avon Valley Council Secretary from 1929 to 1936.50 In Narrogin, railway worker J.C. Clunas served as Secretary of the Great Southern District Council for nine years, resigning only when he was transferred to Perth in 1935.51 But no other District Council Secretarys term in office approached that of W.D. Johnson. Despite holding the State seat of Guildford for much of this time, and being SPLP Chairman throughout the 1930s, Johnson served as Secretary of the Midland District Council for most of the first four decades of the century. Successes and failures for Labor women The years 1919 to 1924 saw many changes occurring for women in the labour movement. Despite the formation of many Labor womens organisations around the State, the successful 1912 Womens Conference, and the enacting of legislation enabling women to take more prominent roles in public life, their role in the ALP actually diminished during the period of the 191418 war and into the 1920s.52 The legislative amendments enacted in the State Parliament,

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however, were significant steps in the process of making women full citizens, and impacted upon the labour movement in a number of ways. The Justices Act (1919) provided for the appointment of women as Justices of the Peace on equal terms with men. The first women called were those who had served in a honorary capacity on the Childrens Court Bench since a 1915 amendment to the State Childrens Act had provided for the appointment of male and female Special Justices. Jean Beadle, Alice Rapley and Adelaide Casson were three Labor women who served on the Childrens Court Bench and as Justices of the Peace. The Childrens Court was a heavy commitment. Two or three voluntary justices were rostered to attend each sitting of the Court, which sometimes sat several times a week. In 1925, the female JPs formed the Women Justices Association of Western Australia, with Jean Beadle as foundation President.53 May Wilson, a member of the Goldfields Labor Women, whom Collier appointed as a JP in 1934, became the first female Inspector of Shops and Factories.54 In October 1920, new legislation enabled women to stand for State Parliament. The amended Municipal Corpus Act allowing women to contest municipal elections had been passed by the Mitchell Government the previous December, but both Bills had been instigated by Labor Members.55 Australias first female Member of Parliament, Edith Cowan, held the seat of West Perth for the National Party from 1921 until 1924, when she was defeated by a member of her own party, T.A.L. Davy.56 Similarly, Labor women found the road to Parliament a rocky one. Applications even for lesser posts were rarely successful. In a ballot to select delegates to attend Prime Minister W.M. Hughess Industrial Unrest Conference in Sydney in 1920, for example, unionist Cecilia Shelley polled only 2 votes compared with 12 to 14 votes for each of the male delegates.57 In 1922, Etta Hooton sought pre-selection for the Federal seat of Swan, but, despite representing Guildford in the State Legislature, Johnson wanted to contest the seat. The Campaign Committee influenced the outcome by stating that Johnson could stand at very little expense to the Executive as he already possessed a free rail pass. Hooton was told that she was an unsuitable candidate not because she was a woman but because it was a country constituency and Johnson had experience in framing the Land Act and in working with the Agricultural Board and the Wheat Pool. When challenged by Helen McEntyre, Millington denied that the decision not to accept Hootons nomination resulted from anti-female bias. Johnson had not gone beyond merely expressing an interest, and Hootons was the only nomination for the seat, yet it was rejected.58 Hootons long years of faithful service to the labour movement would never be rewarded with preselection for a seat in Parliament.

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The Esplanade Hotel workers strike, 1921 Other changes occurred because women were becoming more active in unions. Before 1921, the public was unaccustomed to the sight of women workers on strike. In March of that year, members of the Hotel, Club, Caterers, Tearooms and Restaurant Employees Union (HCCT&REU) employed at the Esplanade Hotel in Perth went on strike when their union steward, Rosemary Clune, was sacked. In 20 years, the HCCT&REU had developed from a small group of 18 workers (including only three women), who formed the Coastal Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union in 1901, to a union of over a thousand members, including 810 women.59 In 1920, the Union elected its first female Secretary, 25-year-old Cecilia Shelley, who was to play a leading role in the strike. Opposing Secretary George Dixon over the Unions proposed Award claims for female workers, Shelley was elected on the votes of the women whose conditions she had fought for as an Organiser. One of nine children of a militant brewery worker, red-haired Shelley was a controversial figure, forthright and aggressive in an age when women were expected to be modest and passive. Her own assessment of the situation was that the Labor Party was a dead as a dodo the conscription issue had broken its back. The Trades Hall was in the doldrums. I think I struck it like a flash of lighting.60 Shelley saw the need for militant action. Two major issues triggered the Esplanade Hotel strike: the working conditions in the industry generally, and the situation at the hotel itself. At a private industrial hearing between HCCT&REU and three employer groups the United Licensed Victuallers Association, the Master Caterers Association and the Restaurant Employers Shelley gave evidence of the appalling working conditions that women endured in the hotel and catering industry. Common injuries included strains from carrying heavy loads, and scalds from boiling water. Workers sometimes fainted from the lack of ventilation in hot kitchens. During busy periods, women were expected to work long hours without a break.61 At the Esplanade Hotel, in addition to the poor working conditions, staff had to endure harassment from the manager and the housekeeper. Those who insisted on working under Award conditions were marked men and women. Eventually the staff informed Shelley that they would unanimously cease work unless the housekeeper agreed to adhere to Award conditions for days off. While the position was being discussed, the manager sent for Rosemary Clune, the union steward at the Esplanade, and then dismissed her, allegedly for refusing to serve afternoon tea to the clerk a task usually performed by the button boy. When the remainder of the staff

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heard of Clunes dismissal, they walked out, but the real cause of the strike was the difficulty over the Award. Initially, the Fremantle and Metropolitan District Councils set up Industrial Disputes Committees to deal with the matter, but achieved nothing.62 According to historian Wendy Brady, this was because the walk-out over what was probably considered a minor issue, the dismissal of a female worker, was called by a female secretary without prior consultation with Trades Hall.63 But the evidence suggests that the Industrial Disputes Committees handling of this dispute was similar to that of other disputes. Under the existing guidelines, Disputes Committees would not take up any dispute unless they were consulted prior to the beginning of the strike, and unions were expected to abide by this stipulation.64 But the State Executive became concerned by claims in the antilabour press that the dispute was due to trifling causes, was not constitutional, and did not have the support of organised labour, and so circularised the District Councils with the facts of the dispute. After 15 weeks the State Disputes Committee took the strike over because it had now assumed such proportions as warranted organised labour in this State. The ALP believed that the strike was being used to break unionism.65 Although public sympathy for the strikers initially was lacking, the hotel owners aroused deeply held racial prejudices when they employed Asian workers to replace the striking staff. One Sunday in June, a crowd estimated at 4,0005,000 people gathered on the Esplanade to protest against Asian labour being used as strike breakers. Victoria Cross winner Tom Axford was among those arrested. A similar protest two weeks later attracted 7,000 people. Large numbers of police armed with Army service rifles were present. During one demonstration, Shelley was knocked to the ground and punched in the face. She was arrested three times in one day.66 The Industrial Vigilance Committee published a leaflet declaring that a conspiracy was afoot to reduce wages and smash unionism.67 A deputation from the Trades Hall complained to Police Minister Scaddan about Shelleys rough treatment, the insulting language by police officers, and the fact that the police were armed. Scaddan replied that if demonstrations were not held, there would be no need for the police, but he said he would investigate specific examples of violence if they were drawn to his attention.68 A settlement did not look likely, and the ALPs behind-thescenes negotiation with the breweries to persuade them to stop supplying the Esplanade Hotel appeared to have had little success.69 Yet by 5 August, 33 unions and individuals had contributed to the strike fund and, eventually, the hotel management re-entered negotiations with the State Disputes Committee. On 19 August, Panton, as ALP State President, and Dobbie, representing the

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hotel management, signed an agreement. The strike was declared off, sacked staff were either re-instated at the Esplanade or found similar employment elsewhere, and those who remained unemployed were paid a months wages.70 Despite this victory, the economic recession of the early 1920s stultified union activity and kept wages low. When the HCCT&REU requested a new Award in 1925, its members were still being paid 1921 wages. The Licensed Victuallers refused to re-negotiate their employees Award in the Arbitration Court. The union claimed an increase of 5 shillings a week and a 44-hour working week. During the ensuing strike, the union was threatened with deregistration by employers who wanted to split it into two smaller unions, with hotel workers in one and restaurant, cafe and club workers in the other. HCCT&REU members resorted to militant action picketing restaurants, marching with placards and reportedly, in some cases, verbally abusing patrons. In presenting so militant a stance, they incurred the scorn and criticism of the press, as well as public indignation. Accounts of the strike were often prefaced by headlines such as Amazons on the warpath and Amazons at the Doorway as women tried to prevent patrons from entering restaurants and tearooms. George Ryce, who had replaced Shelley as Union Secretary, took a significant role in this dispute. Again with McCallums assistance, the unionists finally achieved their pay and reduced hours demands but not the preference clause which they had also sought.71 The decline of militancy After the collapse of Alfred Callanans OBU, the State ALPs attention turned to the enormous challenges of the post-war decade. The OBU episode shows that the ALP (WA) followed a course similar to labour movements in the eastern states, where the rise and decline of radicalism in the mainstream movement reflected the industrial, social and political turmoil following World War I and its gradual outworking during the 1920s. According to some analyses, Labors increasing moderation as the decade progressed was entirely predictable.72 Conservative politicians, however, overreacted to the ALPs early flirtation with Bolshevism, capitalising upon it as long as possible in order to discourage the electorate from voting Labor. These tactics by both State and Federal Governments during the 1920s created many difficulties for the ALP, as we shall see shortly. Other difficulties were encountered in the industrial sphere. Although some industrial victories had been won, unions did not

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emerge stronger. The power of the employer to divide the working class and overcome union pressure appeared as unassailable as ever. The mainstream labour movements defence was caution. Unemployment rose in the early 1920s. By actively encouraging British immigration in a time of increasing unemployment, National government policy militated against improving working conditions. The ALP opposed Mitchells Group Settlement Scheme, whereby English ex-servicemen and their families were encouraged to immigrate to Western Australia to take up land in the South-West.73 It was important, therefore, to pull together and find again the strength of unity proclaimed by the ALPs motto. The Party desperately needed to achieve victory in the 1924 State elections, and this would happen only if the movement was united and moderate.

Chapter Five

Unity, Organisation and Continuous Propaganda 19241929

During the 1920s, the labour movement in Western Australia, as elsewhere, operated in a climate of rising unemployment, which rapidly accelerated at the end of the decade as the world-wide economic depression set in. According to contemporary quarterly statistics, from 1919 to 1927, approximately 6 per cent of WA trade unionists were unemployed. Trade union unemployment levels shot from 6.7 per cent in 192728 to 13.8 per cent in 192930 slightly below the national average.1 During this time, the Federal Government, led by Stanley Melbourne Bruce, enacted a series of savagely anti-union laws, which the labour movement regarded as a sinister attack upon the trade unions. The 1924 State election Political changes matched economic changes in the 1920s. Led by Philip Collier, the ALP gained victory in the March 1924 general election after a campaign featuring expenditure as a major issue. The Nationalists depended on their past record, claiming that a Labor victory would inevitably result in a return to the reckless spending of the Scaddan years. Collier, however, offered practical reforms. The State enterprises established by Scaddan still served the people of Western Australia, and Collier wanted to add another a State Bank. He promised to develop base metal and other industries to provide employment and stem the flow of workers out of the State. In-fighting among the nonLabor parties, and public discontent over the Mitchell Governments Group Settlement and other immigration schemes swelled the pro-Labor vote.2 The ALP regained office by a narrow majority of four seats in the Legislative Assembly, with conservatives still maintaining a stranglehold majority in the Upper House. Like previous Labor administrations, Colliers was unable to pass reforming legislation without the Legislative Council imposing severe amendments. Nevertheless, the victory was a great encouragement to a party that had been out of office since before the split. The old stronghold, the Goldfields, returned 12 members, whilst 7 gained metropolitan seats, and the

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seats of the remaining 8 were scattered throughout the State. Especially sweet were the victories over the 1917 rats: W.D. Johnson over John Davies in Guildford, Alex Panton over John Mullaney in Menzies, and Alfred Lamond over Rufus Underwood in Pilbara. Scaddan had vacated Albany, where Arthur Wansborough scraped home on preferences over National candidate R.T. Robinson.3 Trouble on the Waterfront The Collier administration was barely settled in government when the waterfront unions entered a serious industrial dispute. The Federated Seamens Union (FSU) requested an alteration to the Federal Navigation Act of 191920, to prevent non-union and immigrant labour being employed on coastal ships. Four WA coastal traders, Charon, Gascoyne, Minderoo and Gorgon, were particularly notorious for this practice.4 As the end of the year approached and nothing changed, the seamen became more militant and asked other unions to help them enforce a ban on ships employing non-union or Asian crews. In mid November, the Fremantle Lumpers who had recently been involved in an overtime dispute supported the seamen in declaring the British-owned ship Clan Monroe black because it had a mostly non-European crew and because it was chartered by the British-owned Australian Commonwealth Line while Australian ships lay idle. This action contravened State Executive rules that a black ban could only be instituted by the State Disputes Committee.5 The Worker, however, was solidly in support of the seamen, even when the dispute widened and a picket of unionists threatened to throw a pilot in the harbour if he boarded the steamer Raranga. The Worker asserted that the Bruce Federal Government planned to register the Commonwealth Shipping Line in Britain so that they would not have to pay Australian rates to seamen. The paper remarked on the huge profits gained by the 10 companies that comprised the Australian Shipping Board and attacked the intervention of Lord Inchcape, head of the British-owned Inchcape Shipping Combine, who was accused of trying to influence Bruce to sell the Government-owned ships.6 By the end of 1924, Collier was experiencing the kind of pressure from the mercantile community that had broken Colebatch in 1919, with the Perth Chamber of Commerce and the WA Employers Federation again taking leading roles. The Employers Federation called for a revision of Industrial Arbitration legislation so that any breach of the Act such as ceasing work would be penalised by the Court. They started a publicity campaign to educate the public to the necessity of observing and upholding the law, and to

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counteract in every possible way the evil effects of communistic propaganda.7 The labour movement was sympathetic to the seamens cause until the FSU went on strike because the Minister for Works, Alex McCallum, refused to agree to the new rates and conditions that the union demanded for dredge and tug operators. McCallum stated that he was unable to grant concessions to any government employees. The strike, which had not been sanctioned by the State Disputes Committee, lasted about three weeks; then the seamen were forced to capitulate. Although it was a victory for the government, this strike brought the FSUs militant Federal President, Tom Walsh, to the west. Walshs intervention sparked a bitter public dispute in the labour movement. McCallum, a devoted fighter for the rights of unionists, now had to tackle the dispute from the point of view of a Minister in the Government. He was extremely frustrated, on one occasion declaring, to the delight of the press, that Walsh was so determined to have a strike that if the Angel Gabriel himself had been here he could not have averted [it].8 The conservative press, which had previously adopted a suspicious attitude to the Labor government, now recognised a greater enemy in the form of the Communist union boss and waged a vitriolic campaign against him, casting him in the role of enemy of the Empire.9 Several sections of the press, however, recognised the issue for what it was a division in the ranks of the labour movement.10 Early in December, the situation rapidly worsened when, at the recommendation of the State Disputes Committee, the Collier Government allowed police to intervene and enable passengers joining the liner Orcades to cross a union picket line. The Disputes Committee argued that the union had no business picketing because Orcades had not been declared black, but the incident erupted into a very public row in the press between Walsh and State Disputes Committee Secretary Barker. The District Councils and affiliated bodies were divided. The Eastern Goldfields District Council condemned the Committees action whilst Fremantle supported it; union branches such as the Shop Assistants and Warehouse Employees (Bunbury) endorsed every action that was taken by your committee against such men as Tom Walsh and his colleagues, but the Collie Branch ALP and the Bunbury branch of the Waterside Workers Federation were strongly critical.11 The role of the waterside workers was central to the outcome of the dispute. They vacillated over whether to come out on strike in support of the seamen. The Lumpers convened a meeting at the Palladium Theatre in Fremantle and invited McCallum and Walsh to speak. According to the Daily News, the packed audience applauded McCallum, whilst Walsh received a mixed reception of cheers and hoots. McCallum reminded his audience that the Seamens Union

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had been the only one in Australia to refuse to contribute to the Lumpers Appeal in 1919 thereby throwing back at Walsh an earlier inference that the Collier government was betraying both Tom Edwardss memory and the labour movement as a whole. The audience responded favourably to McCallum, but, when Walsh rose to reply, a section of the crowd loudly counted him out. At the end of the meeting, it was resolved that the parties get into negotiations straight away with the object of bringing about a definite settlement of the dispute forthwith.12 But, however the Lumpers might vote, Walsh enjoyed a large following among the seamen. A mass meeting of seamen at the Fremantle Trades Hall on 11 December condemned the Governments action in placing police on the Fremantle Wharf.13 As a member of the FSU (WA) Branch Executive, George Ryce wrote to the Worker, criticising the Government and the State Disputes Committee. Ryce had never worked in an occupation that qualified him for FSU membership, but he was useful as a political activist. It was later revealed that he held this position illegally by means of a bogus union ticket organised for him by local Seamens President Tom Houghton.14 Curtin was unaware of this, but he refused to publish Ryces letter because, he claimed, it contained gross untruths and libelled the State Disputes Committee. He later believed that he had made an error in refusing publication. The Seamens Union retaliated by passing a resolution declaring Curtin black, and stated that they would refuse to take to sea any vessel on which he was a passenger. The State Executive reacted swiftly, resolving on 20 January 1925 that the FSU had no authority to declare Curtin black and calling upon the union to immediately rescind its resolution. When the FSU failed to comply, the State Executive expelled the union and its executive (including Ryce) from the ALP. The Eastern Goldfields and Midland District Councils objected, but the FSU was not re-admitted until long after the offending resolution was expunged from its books in mid 1925. Ryce, however, remained expelled on the grounds that he had secured admission to the State Disputes Committee meetings by falsely representing himself to be a member of the Seamens Union Executive.15 The Labor Womens split One of Ryces strongest supporters was Cecilia Shelley, whom Ryce had replaced as HCCT&REU Secretary in 1921. Shelley had returned to her role as union organiser. She was a hard worker, and between 1921 and 1922 the union almost doubled its membership. But Shelley had political ambitions as well. In 1921, she joined the CPA, while still remaining in the ALP. As a woman, she

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had little hope of gaining office on the State Executive or the Metropolitan District Council, despite her role as a delegate to these bodies, so she attempted to build a power base by admitting her supporters to the WA Organisation of Labor Women. The Organisation had already been criticised by the State Congress when it refused to change its name. At a stormy Perth branch meeting in August 1925, Secretary Margaret Green complained that members were being admitted illegally to the organisation.16 She said that there were at least twenty women at the meeting whom she did not know. Shelley accused Green of being an unsatisfactory Secretary who had done no organising. A resolution to depose Green was carried by 32 votes to 12, and Mrs Ealing replaced her as Secretary. Green and several other dissident members asked the Metropolitan District Council to set up a committee of inquiry to investigate the activities of Shelley and President Muriel Brain. The Metropolitan District Council passed the dissident members request to the State Executive, as women from more than one District Council were involved. The State Executive formed a committee consisting of S.W. Stan Munsie (Chair), Peter Mooney, A.J. Watts and May Holman, and requested the members of the Labor Womens executive to attend a hearing at the Trades Hall on 6 October. Shelley persuaded the members not to attend the State Executive these nincompoops, as she referred to them because they had no authority to summon anybody before them. A vote does not appear to have been taken on this matter.17 Brain and Ealing complained to Munsie that the Organisation had received no official notification of the inquiry, that Rule 26 of the Metropolitan District Council Constitution had not been complied with, and, therefore, they considered that the committee was acting unconstitutionally. They refused to attend, but dissident members Green, Clapham and Rapley complied and put their case.18 Rapley stated that Brain and Shelley had refused to accept resolutions, so that it could not be resolved to appoint a committee to meet with the State Executive. Regarding the bogus members, Green and Clapham claimed that lists of names were put in as new members, and that they often did not know who these women were. They also claimed that the name of the Organisation was inconsequential. What mattered was the use they are going to make of it as they had had the assurance from not only Miss Shelley but others that they are doing all they can to damage the party. They accused Shelley of making offensive remarks concerning Labor officials, Labor members and the Government generally, threatening to oppose Labor candidates, and stating that she would make it her business to see that this rotten government was kicked out at the next election.19

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Brain, Ealing and Shelley ignored a summons to appear at another meeting on 14 October. In their absence, the Committee decided that the charges were serious enough to warrant the State Executive ordering Shelley to attend at its next meeting and show cause why she should not be expelled from the Labor Movement. Again, she failed to appear. The next State Executive meeting resolved by 22 votes to 5 that, as Shelley had failed to show cause why she should not be expelled, she should be notified that she was no longer a member of the ALP. Clementson moved also that the Metropolitan District Council and all other District Councils be instructed not to accept the affiliation of [the WA Organisation of Labor Women], but after discussion the resolution was withdrawn.20 With the concurrence of the dissident members, the State Executive set up a new organisation. On 26 January 1926, ALP President J.J. Kenneally chaired a meeting on the future of the WA Organisation of Labor Women. A majority of members present voted to abide by the Congress decision.21 A further resolution was carried requesting that dissenting members leave the room, but the minority group refused to go and the meeting was forced to move to another room, where the dissidents were refused entry. The new group resolved to form the Perth Womens Branch of the ALP, and to appoint a subcommittee to draw up rules. This name does not appear to have been used, however. Both before and after the split, the organisation was referred to as the Labor Womens Organisation (LWO). The members elected a new committee: Beadle as President; Green, Corboy and Swindlehurst as Vice Presidents; Rapley as Secretary; and Hooton as Treasurer. Mrs Green was appointed as delegate to the Metropolitan District Council (subject to the new organisations affiliation). In this shake-up, only the Perth Branch was affected. The other branches continued under their previous office bearers. For a while, Shelley continued to run a Labor Womens Organisation, which was regarded as bogus by the ALP.22 T.J. Hughes expelled Another dissident to be expelled was T.J. Hughes, MLA for East Perth. In the autumn of 1925, he was nominated as a candidate for election as Secretary of the Australian Timber Workers Union (ATWU) No. 5 Branch (Western Australia). The Committee of Management rejected his nomination on the grounds that he was not a union member. Hughes, however, contended that he was an ATWU member, and that he was eligible to apply for the position irrespective of whether he was a member. After the position was advertised in

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the Worker, Hughes apparently had worked for one and a half hours at Hotham Timber Mill and had paid for a union ticket up to 30 June. He took the union to Court, but on 19 June Mr Justice Draper ruled in the ATWUs favour. Draper stated that, under Rule 3 of the Unions Constitution, members were to consist of persons employed in the timber industry, and that to read it any other way would contravene Section 55 of the Conciliation and Arbitration Act.23 Meanwhile, C.J. Burge, Federal President of the ATWU, asked the State Executive to tell Hughes to stop causing dissension in union ranks.24 Hughes, however, ignored Drapers judgement and the State Executives demand that he cease interfering in the ATWUs internal affairs. In August, the State Executive held a long discussion on Hughess attitude, but decided to take no action because they could not actually prove that he had disobeyed their ruling.25 The matter did not end there. With the support of some of the unions subbranches, Hughes launched a campaign against May Holman MLA, whom he accused of having him expelled from the Union. He disobeyed an instruction from the State Executive and sent out circulars to ATWU members asking them whether Holman represented their wishes in wanting him expelled. He claimed that Holman was not looking after the timber workers interests: she had done nothing to obtain a 44-hour week for State Sawmills employees, and, after waiting for her to make some move in Caucus, he was at last compelled to move that they be granted 44 hours, which she seconded. Hughes accused Holman and Barker of incompetence, and openly boasted to John Curtin that he was getting his own back on Holman for trying to get him expelled from the party. He also attacked the Union for employing as chief clerk in their office a non-unionist named W.B. Fletcher. Hughes found support at Hoffman, where the workers resolved that none but unionists be employed at Head Office. The Mornington and Mornington Bush Landing branches of the union expressed dissatisfaction with Head Office management and stated that they wanted to form another union. Yarloop sub-branch threw out its committee and elected supporters of Hughes.26 F. Winrow, the secretary of the ATWUs Kirup Mill branch, had pointed out earlier that Hughess candidacy for the position of General Secretary had the support of nearly half the union, that he had been approached by centres to stand rather that putting himself forward when he wasnt wanted. This position was confirmed by A.J. Fraser, the secretary at Hoffman Mill. Whatever the truth, Hughes failed to gain the ATWU Secretaryship.27 Perhaps because of the strength of his support, however, the State Executive still did not proceed against Hughes until 1928, when he declared himself an Independent Member and stated that he would work to defeat the

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ALP in the forthcoming election. The Metropolitan District Council resolved to expel Hughes from the Party because he had violated his pledge, and called upon him to resign his seat, as he had repudiated the promises made to the electors of East Perth.28 Hughes had already resigned from the party, but he had no intention of resigning from his seat. He was re-elected as an Independent Member and continued to be a thorn in the side of the ALP during the 1930s. While some dissidents acted as though they were better off free of the ALP, expulsion was a serious matter. Both Shelley and Hughes were to discover that their unions were disadvantaged by having a Secretary who had been expelled from the ALP. In August 1928, Hughess union, the Mental Nurses, complained to the Fremantle District Council that the Collier Government proposed staffing the Heathcote Mental Home with females, which they believed would close an avenue of employment to men. The Fremantle Disputes Committee investigated, and recommended that the question be referred to the State Executive and that a deputation should wait upon the relevant Minister protesting the contemplated action. The State Executive advised, however, that as Hughes had been expelled from the ALP, it would not deal with any communication or correspondence from him in reference to union matters. Furthermore, the Fremantle District Council should concur with the State Executives decision.29 Similarly, when Cecilia Shelley took office as Secretary of the Hotel and Restaurant Workers Union in 1929, the State Executive was equally adamant that no District Council was authorised to have any dealings with her. Eastern Goldfields Secretary J.J. Lawler asked why Shelley had been expelled and received the curious answer that she had not been expelled but had put herself outside the movement by actively organising a bogus womens organisation in Perth. Her unions affiliation was cancelled because it refused to pay dues to the District Council. But, in Shelleys case, the labour movement also suffered from her expulsion. Lawler admitted that she had the support of many of the Kalgoorlie women and that she had, in fact, been re-admitted to the Labor Womens Organisation there. Only Shelley, it seemed, was able to organise the union effectively.30 For an individual or a union, disaffiliation meant sacrificing the right to nominate for or vote in pre-selection ballots, or serve as a representative on any Labor Council. If a member of a disaffiliated union wanted to maintain a voice in the labour movement, she or he had to join an ALP Branch, thus preserving continuity of membership. Under these circumstances, it is perhaps surprising that so many unions either disaffiliated or saw little benefit in paying their

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District Council fees. For the State Executive, of course, fewer affiliated bodies meant fewer members and a corresponding drop in dues. Thus unions could wield the threat of disaffiliation and apparently quite a few industrial unions were taking this course of action by 1933 in the knowledge that the State Executive would suffer financially by disaffiliating them.31 But the unions stood to lose the most by withdrawing from the organised labour movement. In the late 1920s, however, a new player entered industrial relations. Originally dismissed by WA labour men as an insignificant organisation, the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) was to change the face of industrial labour in Australia, including bringing about a restructuring of the Western Australian movement. The Australian Council of Trade Unions In 1927 at about the same time as the ALP Federal Executive was considering whether to reorganise its Constitution along the lines adopted in Western Australia 20 years earlier a group of militant, industrial unions in the eastern states formed the All Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU). Politically, the ACTU was at odds with the philosophy of Australias biggest union, the AWU, which by 1928 had a nationwide membership of 160,000 or one-sixth of all trade unionists. The AWU was particularly dominant in Queensland, where it had begun as a pastoral workers union, South Australia and Western Australia. In WA in 1926, over one-sixth of the States 52,600 unionists held AWU tickets.32 Immediately, the AWU was hostile to the ACTU, as it had been to the OBU. In July 1928, Henry Boote published a lengthy attack in the Australian Worker. In what, with hindsight, must rate as one of the classic misjudgments of the century, he wrote:
The [ACTU], despite its pretentious and presumptuous title, is not in the least likely at any time to exercise much influence in the industrial and political life of the Commonwealth and New Zealand. 33

According to Boote, the ACTU had no authority to speak for organised workers in Australia, for it represented only a small minority of unions and was not an Australian institution. This conclusion was based on the ACTUs connection with the Pan-Pacific Secretariat, which made it a branch of an organisation not only foreign in the geographical sense but utterly alien in every way to the sentiments, objectives and ideals of the people of this country. Boote further claimed that the ACTU borrowed its tactics of organisation from

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Moscow and pledged itself to undermine the faith of the Australian working class in constitutional action for the redress of their grievances.34 It is hardly surprising, therefore, that the new body was opposed by a union that boasted in 1929 that half the Labor members of the House of Representatives [not to mention the State Parliaments] held AWU tickets, nor that both Queensland and WA should refuse to affiliate.35 Yet the WA labour movement was not unanimous in its rejection of affiliation. The Midland District Council urged the State Executive to become affiliated with the ACTU as we consider that to be unaffiliated with other states on industrial matters would be a source of very great weakness to the trade union movement. The Eastern Goldfields, on the other hand, opposed affiliation in the belief that the ALP State Executive should continue to be the controlling body for both the industrial and political movements in this state. Likewise, individual unions varied in their response, with the conservative Shop Assistants opposing affiliation, while others such as Percy Trainers union, the Coachbuilders, stated that they were not unfavourable. After Labor failed to gain government in the 1928 Federal election, FEDFA Secretary H. Gibson again raised the matter.
It is almost a calamity from the viewpoint of our movement that Western Australia has latterly held aloof from all the principal activities in the eastern states that [sic] on more than one occasion the Western delegates could have materially altered the aspect of affairs by their presence The Victorian delegates want your cooperation and help to combat the Communist viewpoint. WA will not be financially disadvantaged.36

Barker saw the ACTU as rivalling the power of the State Executive and splitting the organisation into separate industrial and political bodies. At the end of 1929, he reiterated to ACTU Secretary C. Crofts that:
The Executive in this State is not affiliated with your Organisation, our objective being, if possible, to continue our present method of organisation by which both wings of the labour movement are kept within one organisation. We have found that this method has been the most successful and there is every indication on the part of the movement in this State to retain that method of organisation.37

This attitude prevailed until the ALP (WA) was allowed to affiliate as the ACTUs Western Australian Branch on its own terms in 1949.

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May Holman Another factor that would change the nature of the ALP also began in a small way the entry of women to Parliament. A few months before the dispute with Hughes, May Holman had nominated for pre-selection for the seat of Forrest following the death of her father in February 1925. Mary Alice May Holman was born in 1893, the eldest of nine children of John and Katherine Holman. At the age of 17, she went to work in her fathers office while he was the ATWU Secretary. She joined the LWO and acted as official recorder of proceedings at the 1912 Labor Womens Conference. For many years, she was Assistant Union Advocate in the State and Federal Arbitration Courts, often deputising for her father, and also assisting him in his role as MLA for Forrest. John Holman won the seat in a by-election following the tragic early death of Peter OLoghlen in November 1923 after a lingering illness thought to have been brought on by an attack of Spanish influenza in 1919.38 Holman was returned in the 1924 election, but died of complications following an appendectomy on 23 February 1925, a few days before his 53rd birthday. May was certainly not regarded as his automatic successor, 10 male candidates contesting the pre-selection ballot. In campaigning for the seat, May Holman travelled between the mill towns on the cow catcher of the timber trains and spoke from fallen logs.39 Once elected, she devoted herself to bettering the conditions of the timber workers and their families, and succeeded, with McCallums assistance, in forcing the Timber Industry Regulation Act through Parliament in 1926. This legislation brought the control of the timber industry under one Act rather than three, as had been the situation previously, and instituted a new system enabling mill inspections to be carried out without advance warning. Most importantly, the legislation introduced the provision of government and workmens inspectors to the timber industry. Only the mining industry had a similar provision. Under the Act, mill managers became legally responsible for providing safeguards to protect workers, including clearing trees away from bush tram and train lines, and ensuring proper ventilation, lighting and machinery guards in the mills. There were also regulations for the provision of adequate housing and sanitation.40 But this considerable achievement did not win Holman a Cabinet post. Her highest office within the Party was Secretary of the SPLP.

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The Labor Womens movement develops The official LWOs numbers waxed and waned in its early years. May Holman reported in March 1926 that 8 new branches, totalling 150 members, had been formed in the South West. By late 1929, quite a few country LWO branches had formed, the preponderance in the South West, suggesting that many were instigated by Holman. The LWO largely eschewed politics, dealing instead with matters of more immediate concern to women and children. They campaigned for a simpler style of dress for school children, for the appointment of female gynaecologists at Perth Hospital, for heating to be installed in the Ladies Retiring Room at the Town Hall they succeeded in this and for an increase of the 5 baby bonus to 10.41 A major task involved collecting information for a Report that was presented in July 1927 at a Special Conference of Unions to Consider Child Endowment. Chaired by Curtin, the Report recommended that an endowment of 13 shillings and 5 pence per week (rather than 5 shillings) be paid on each child in excess of 2 children (in the belief that 2 children were already provided for under the Basic Wage). The Report strongly opposed any move by the Bruce Federal Government to means test endowment or to pay for it by reducing the wages of single or childless workers.42 The resulting Royal Commission decided against instituting any scheme of child endowment. Labors representatives, Curtin and Mrs Muscio, submitted a minority report recommending the introduction of a child endowment scheme, but the majority report concluded that the advocates of a plan of family assistance have not established that wages were insufficient [to support children adequately].43 The second Labor Womens Conference was convened in October 1927, after a gap of 15 years, and the Labor Womens Central Executive (LWCE) was formed immediately afterward, with May Holman as President, Jean Beadle as Vice President and Etta Hooton as Secretary.44 As its name indicates, the LWCE in relation to the womens organisations had a role parallel to that of the State Executive over the District Councils, but enjoyed virtually none of the prestige. The role of women remained very much peripheral to the maledominated ALP, yet, in drawing the movements attention to the poor working conditions endured by women and children, the LWCE was highlighting loopholes in legislation such as the Shops and Factories Act. In 1932, for example, Margaret Green reported to the LWCE the conditions endured by small boys working in bulk petrol stores. The boys were employed to crawl into the drums and clean them out. They were given no protective clothing and their ordinary clothes wore out at a terrible rate. Surprisingly, Green did not mention the

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effects of such work upon the boys health. A decade after the first Esplanade Hotel strike, Green reported that the worst conditions were still encountered in the kitchens of tearooms, but hospital workers endured similarly poor conditions. The maids quarters at King Edward Hospital were dark with filthy walls, located next to hot and noisy boilers. The LWCE complained to C.J. Latham, Minister for Health in the Mitchell Government (193033).45 After the return of the Labor Government in 1933, an attempt was made to amend the Shops and Factories Act, but the legislation failed to pass the Upper House in September 1935.46 Another aspect of the womens work was their call for a complete review of the methods of dealing with the Aboriginal population. They claimed that the government policies of the day did nothing to raise Indigenous Australians from savagery and equip them to be civilised citizens.47 While clothed in the patronising language and attitudes of the day, these sentiments were unusual in that era; the Labor women did believe that Indigenous people should become full citizens of Australia. The first Federal Conference of Labor Women was convened at the Melbourne Trades Hall on 4 March 1929. Each State sent three representatives, those from Western Australia being May Holman, who was elected Conference President, Etta Hooton and Mrs Mannion. The Conference resolved to institute a Labor Womens Interstate Executive whose functions would include promoting the organisation of women in the ALP. They would educate women politically and industrially, coordinate the work of female ALP members, arrange for Labor women to be delegates at such conferences as may be deemed desirable and pay special attention to the interests of women and children.48 The Labor Women received little help from the State ALP Executive in pursuing their aims, particularly those that granted women more personal freedom. The campaign for equal work for equal pay would not succeed for another 30 years, despite the fact that it was a plank of the ALP platform. Requests for a woman organiser whose expenses would be partly met by the State Executive were always returned with the explanation that finances would not permit. By 1934, the women were no closer to getting their own organiser and Helen McEntyre urged that the matter should be brought forcibly before the Movement.49.

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Betting, boozing and billiarding: the trials of country organising A male organiser was appointed in 1928 to tour country areas, but earlier attempts had been made to organise rural workers and farmers. The Partys attempts to woo farmers involved organising among the group settlers of the South West. In September 1923, the SPLP and the State Executive Officers requested unionists to devote more of their energies in the political field by allowing their union Secretaries and Organisers to undertake a few days organising when they are in country districts. Frank Anstey, the Federal Member for Bourke in NSW, who was visiting Western Australia, took part and spoke on the need for solidarity and continuous propaganda. It was decided to attempt to organise group settlers into ALP branches.50 Peter McDonald, of Corner Swamp on the Peel Estate, began organising the farmers on four Groups prior to the 1924 State elections. With 20 men in each group, plus wives and children, there were at least 80 votes which if organised will go to Labor. T.J. Hughes and Tom Butler spent a weekend at Corner Swamp. They officiated at a sports gathering, held a Labor meeting and attended a concert and dance before retiring to bed at 2 oclock on Sunday morning. A few hours later, they held a public meeting at Group 37, followed by an evening meeting at Mundijong, before departing on the Monday morning train for Perth. McDonald, who had conducted the visitors around by horse and sulky, had to return the turnout to its owner and did not arrive home until 8 oclock Monday night. However, he reported that he was:
really satisfied and pleased because it was owing to my efforts that the very first MP who ever thought it worth while to get right in and make friends with Group settlers and find out first hand their wants was a member of the only party that is worthwhile Hughes and Butler made a very good impression.51

By the following September, there were active ALP branches at Cornervale and Tutunup, affiliated with the South Western District Council. Their concerns were typical of any bunch of small farmers: the price the Government charged for cows to stock the small holdings; fluctuating prices of wheaten chaff; lack of security of tenure on their blocks; and lack of suitable equipment for clearing and farming. The South Western District Council requested a supply of suitable literature to distribute amongst group settlers.52 But the effort was not sustained. The presence of a Country Party organiser operating on Peel Estate, and the pending Legislative Council election in April 1926, sparked further efforts from the State Executive and the SPLP. Millington (now Member for Leederville)

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and J.H. (Jack) Close, past Secretary of the Collie Miners Union, who was the Labor candidate for South West Province, spoke at a meeting on 17 April at Group 50. The houses on the settlements had been assessed as having a letting value of at least 17 per annum, entitling the head of each household to vote in the Legislative Council elections, provided he or she was a natural born or naturalised British subject who had been resident in the state for at least six months.53 Electorally, however, the ALPs sporadic attention to the Group Settlement areas bore little fruit. Bunbury, Collie, Forrest and Albany where there were sizeable populations of industrial unionists returned Labor candidates to the Legislative Assembly. Rural electorates such as Nelson, Sussex and MurrayWellington continued to be held by the Country Party, the National Party or the United Party, a short-lived coalition of the National Party (WA) and the two State branches of the Country Party, formed in March 1925.54 The State Executive neglected the northern areas of the State, too. In 1927, James McCarthy, an AWU organiser based at Cue, stood for the State seat of Roebourne against Frederick William Teesdale, who had been the incumbent since 1917. McCarthy was described as being young and full of vim, and his local ALP branch urged the State Executive to give him more support. McCarthys experience revealed the difficulties of campaigning on a low budget in an electorate like Roebourne, despite having an active body of men and women pledged to support him. He wrote to Barker:
By walking through the night (Wed); so on Thursday 2 am hit Karratha homestead. Friday got a lift into Roebourne on Mr Mearess truck. Believing Roebourne to be my opponents stronghold I got busy straight away. On Monday I am off per mail to the Tablelands to enrol electors; on Wed, public meeting in the Jubilee Hall and following which I am doing Whim Creek, Cossack and the Nichol.

McCarthy outlined the local issues: a new jetty for the pearlers, one of whom was a staunch Laborite; closer settlement; and the development of a mining industry. He would be exceedingly obliged if the State Executive could provide a speaker for a public meeting. In contrast, when Teesdale visited the district, he invited the men to a free drink in the pub and delivered a eulogy on James Mitchell. McCarthy arrived at Beadon (near Onslow) on polling day, 9 April 1927, to find an imposing example of opposition propaganda in the form of a large placard on the front of H.H. Cornishs hotel, which read:

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Despite the odds being stacked against McCarthy, Teesdale won by a majority of only 68 out of 437 recorded votes. Writing to Barker, McCarthy was justifiably aggrieved:
I desire to stress upon [sic] the lone part the State Executive left me to play in this campaign, the 25 for enrolment purposes not being made available at the opportune moment.

He had walked over 600 kilometres because he could not afford transport and had crossed several flooded rivers and creeks. In an electorate of 14,400 square kilometres, with 2 principal centres of population (Roebourne and Onslow) 320 kilometres apart, and workers scattered across the outback over a distance of some 400 to 600 kilometres, the State Executive can now realise how vital, early assistance is necessary both for speakers and finance. McCarthy had made arrangements for Collier to speak and then found that owing to the awkward hour of the boats arrival and departure, he was unable to stop. Had Collier come a week earlier and spoken in Onslow and Roebourne, added support would have come our way. Furthermore, he alleged, far from fighting clean, Teesdale had intimidated the mailmen who were acting as postal vote officers, so that at least 15 votes were not taken on the Pilbara and Tablelands routes. One mailman was said to be so disgusted that he threatened to complain to the Chief Electoral Officer. McCarthy requested that the State Executive take up the matter with William Marshall, Labor MLA for Murchison. He reminded Barker that a high proportion of workers in the North West were unemployed including himself. He was keen to obtain work that would take him throughout the electorate, so he could begin organising. All Barker could offer in reply was the hope that something will turn up which will enable you to remain in the electorate. It was not to be. Shortly afterwards, McCarthy having obviously hoped for something more substantial from the labour movement to which he had given so much informed Barker that he was leaving for good making for Darwin on the Koolinda in search of employment. 55 Labor had some success in the North-West, although nothing came of complaints against Teesdale, and he continued to hold Roebourne until his death in December 1931. In 1933, Labor candidate Aloysius Joseph Rodoreda secured the seat and held it until its abolition in 1948.56 Labor was successful

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also in Kimberley, which Aubrey Augustus Coverley gained in 1924 and held until his death in 1953.57 The increased number of industrial unionists on the Kimberley electoral roll was a factor in Labors success. The 1933 Kimberley by-election was an example of what could be achieved in the North-West with dedicated organisation. In the April 1933 State election, Coverley defeated the Nationalist candidate, Arthur Povah, by only 32 votes (out of 718 votes cast). Povah appealed the result and the Court of Disputed Returns ordered a fresh election, which took place on 3 July. In the meantime, the Organising Committee got busy. Coverley was reluctant to re-contest the seat because of the expense, but he was persuaded to stand and the State Executive granted 150 to cover costs. The electoral roll was brought up to date; 24 names were removed and 227 added. Of these, over half gave their occupation as labourer or butcher. In the by-election, almost 68 per cent of the votes cast were for Coverley.58 In 1928, the State Executive decided to appoint a full-time organiser to tour the southern half of the State and attract rural voters. When the State Executive advertised the position, there were 25 applications, including several from as far away as Queensland and Tasmania. The local applicants included AWU organiser James Hickey. But the selection committee decided upon Albert R.G. Hawke, a 28-year-old South Australian from Port Adelaide. Hawke, a tramways officer who had been an ALP member for 12 years, had served 3 years in the South Australian Legislature as the Member for Terowie and Peterborough. He was noted as being a good speaker.59 Hawkes selection was not an undisputed choice throughout the State, with the Great Southern and the Eastern Goldfields District Councils objecting. Barker replied to these Councils that Hawke had been the best candidate, and that McCallum had interviewed him in Adelaide and had been firmly convinced that Hawkes advent into this State would be a great advantage to the Labor Movement.60 Indeed, Hawke proved to be very hard working. Commencing his duties on 1 October 1928, he sent monthly reports to the State Executive. His appointment coincided with the State Congress, where he met delegates and obtained a grip of problems affecting the Party and the State. He favoured the existing union of political and industrial organisations, which he saw as greatly assist[ing] in maintaining solidarity and unity. Hawke embarked on a series of meetings in districts surrounding Perth. After a week-long trip to Northam, York, Merredin and nearby localities, he returned to Perth for most of November to undertake canvassing with Mrs Maude Needham. They filled out postal voting applications for patients in the Perth Public Hospital, St. John of God and the Home of Peace in preparation for the Federal election. Hawke

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spoke highly of Mrs Needhams work and claimed rather courageously for someone so new in his post that her efforts were not being fully rewarded. He also praised the electioneering efforts of Mrs Kenneally, Mrs Mooney and Miss Holman. In WA, the ALP enjoyed one victory in an otherwise dismal Federal election in 1928. John Curtin gained the seat of Fremantle, defeating the non-Labor candidate by over 1,600 votes, and taking the first step on the road that was to lead him to Australias highest political office. Hawke spent December 1928 and January 1929 in the South-West, and established organising committees at Yarloop, Harvey and Brunswick. He also visited the ALP branches, noting the important role played by women. The Drakesbrook Branch had six female and three male members. Yarloop had similar numbers, and Harveys founding membership consisted of one woman and three men. While tiny sidings and villages produced small, active branches, the response in some larger centres was disappointing. Bunbury ALP had only five active members, all farmers. A Friday night meeting at Manjimup attracted only five people and there was nothing doing. I was disappointed with Manjimup, Hawke wrote. Betting, boozing and billiarding seem to keep most of the people here fully occupied.61 In contrast, the group settlers who formed the majority of the ALP branch at Yanmal were splendid fellows and women too.62 Hawke was an exacting critic, not sparing even fellow Laborites. On receipt of one of his early reports, Barker wrote a friendly word to the Organiser:
Paragraph 1 contains a criticism of the usefulness or otherwise of the South Western District Council. This in itself may be quite all right and I am not prepared to dispute your criticism, but I think it would be inadvisable to have it contained in your report. I am quite sure that if some of our South Western friends were to see your remarks they would make quite a song about it and create a fair amount of trouble for everybody concerned.

Furthermore, Hawkes report had contained an opinion favouring one of the two candidates in the pre-selection ballot for the seat of Nelson. Barker advised him that it would be very inadvisable to have [your opinion] written in your report and returned it to him to make the necessary alterations.63 During March and April, Hawke travelled through the wheat belt, forming branches in Cunderdin and Kellerberrin. He had a car but experienced problems with tyre tubes blowing out frequently. He reported in early April that the walls of three of his tyres had worn through, necessitating a trip to Perth to have them repaired. The following paraphrase of a report to the State Executive shows how constantly he travelled:

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Sunday 16 March [1929]: Merredin (branch formed) Monday 17: Nungarin (street meeting - no branch as yet). Tuesday 18: Burracoppin (street meeting) Wednesday 19 - Friday 21: Northam - found arrangements had been abandoned owing to a misunderstanding that he was visiting Murray-Wellington. Attempted to establish a womens and a mens ALP. Saturday 22: Womens meeting Saturday night poorly attended. Sunday 23: (AM) small attendance at mens meeting. (PM) meeting at Meckering, then on to Perth. Monday 24: At Head Office, Perth, preparing reports, obtaining electoral rolls, etc. Tuesday 25: To Pinjarra. Working on rolls. Wednesday 26: Mandurah, North Dandalup, Serpentine. Thursday 27: Mundijong, Peel Estate, then back to Perth. Easter spent in Perth. Tuesday 1 April: at Head Office. Wednesday 2: Byford, Cardup, Waroona. Thursday 3: Waroona, Yarloop, Cookernup, Wagerup, Harvey. Friday 4: Harvey, Wokalup, Brunswick. Saturday 5: Brunswick, Matildas Bridge, Harwells Siding. Sunday 6: Bunbury for the South West District Council meeting.64

Hawke not only travelled constantly; he rarely took a day off. He motored all over the southern half of the State, including a trip in June 1929 to Esperance, Salmon Gums, Norseman and Southern Cross, where he reported the presence of a very active ALP branch. His itineraries also reveal the emphasis placed upon organising not only timber and rural workers (the latter coming mainly under the aegis of the AWU), but also group settlers and farmers. But, as Hawke worked, another challenge arose, on a previously unknown scale unemployment. Unemployment Unemployment had been significant throughout the 1920s, although the early peaks had diminished after Labors return to government. In October 1927, however, the State Executive asked the SPLP to stop recruiting immigrants until work was found for the thousands of unemployed already in the country. In January 1928, Barker advised Collier that the prevalence of unemployment right throughout Western Australia, particularly in the metropolitan area, was more serious this year than ever before in our experience for this season.65 As the depression deepened, the District Councils and unions reported incidences of unemployment more frequently. In August 1929, J.H. Atkinson, Secretary of

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the Busselton WWF, complained to Barker that men were being sent from Perth to local works projects while there were over 50 unemployed men in the town, not counting the Lumpers, who were working only a few days per month. He reported that 25 families were on government rations. Barker forwarded the letter to W.H. Kitson, the Minister in charge of the Labor Bureau.66 Despite rising unemployment, the ALPs attitude was generally optimistic. Before the Legislative Council elections on 12 May, the Party circulated a pamphlet endorsing C.W. Hammond for MetropolitanSuburban Province. Entitled The Collier Governments Record, the pamphlet stated that Labor stands for the greatest good for the greatest number. The Labor platform embodied the highest principles of democratic government; the movement did not believe in the right of a minority privileged class to dictate through their Parliamentary representatives to the majority of electors. Among its achievements, the Government listed the States unparalleled prosperity, the restoration of a sound financial footing, reduced taxation, the development of land settlement schemes, transport routes and other public works, the introduction of the 44-hour working week and the establishment of a State Insurance Company.67 Just over a decade after its disastrous split, the ALP appeared strong and unified, with a string of legislative successes and reforms to its credit. In 1929, the State celebrated the centenary of European settlement. The optimistic tone of the Collier Governments 1928 pamphlet was reiterated in the Foreword that Collier wrote for Hal Colebatchs A story of hundred years: Western Australia, 1929:
It is the desire of the government that an outline of the progress of Western Australia in the first 100 years of existence should be placed on permanent record. It is a story which cannot fail to be inspiring. Few colonising enterprises have been embarked upon in the face of greater natural difficulties none has resulted in more complete success.68

Collier went on to express a debt of gratitude to the pioneers but said nothing specifically about the achievements of the labour movement. Federal Politics a sinister attack on trade unions Colliers optimistic tone sits oddly against the background of happenings in Federal politics a legislative attack upon unionism and industrial arbitration that was not matched in intensity until the efforts of the Howard Government in the 1990s. In the 1922 Federal election, the National Party had lost its House

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of Representatives majority and, in order to retain government, was forced to form a coalition with the Country Party, led by Earle Page. The Country Party agreed, provided that Hughes was replaced as Prime Minister. Hughess successor was Stanley Melbourne Bruce, who had enjoyed a privileged upbringing he was, in fact, the exact opposite of the Little Digger. Bruce had entered Parliament only after being persuaded that it was his duty to protect his country against the Bolshevik menace; consequently, he was an implacable enemy of anything that he perceived as being Socialist.69 According to Labor historian, Ross McMullin:
Australia has known no national government more devoted to business interests than the BrucePage government. It introduced a variety of incentives designed to encourage business to flourish, including reduced taxation for the wealthy, in accordance with Bruces belief that if business prospered so would the nation Australia now had a Prime Minister prepared to waive 1.3 million of land tax arrears owed by wealthy property-holders, and simultaneously claim that an overdue increase in pensions was impossible because his government had no funds to spare.70

In addition to these injustices, the BrucePage government sought to enact a series of oppressive industrial reforms. To his everlasting discredit in Labor eyes, George Pearce continued in the Cabinet the sole remaining 1917 Labor rat and supported these measures against his former class. Bruce and his Attorney-General, J.G. Latham, attempted to outlaw strikes and succeeded in establishing a series of Federal industrial awards, which overrode State awards. The assault began in May 1926 at a time when five of the six State governments were Labor. These administrations rightly saw Bruces tactics not so much as an assault on states rights as an all-out attack on the labour movement. The Constitution Alteration (Industry and Commerce) Act proposed to grant the Commonwealth Parliament supreme control over industrial conditions and powers, corporations, trusts, combines, trade unions, and employers and employees associations. Furthermore, the legislation would enable the government to establish a tribunal to lay down the basic conditions of Australian industry, decide appeals, and generally act as the co-ordinating and harmonising authority in industrial affairs. The Constitution Alteration (Essential Services) Act would grant the Commonwealth Parliament the power to protect the interests of the public in case of actual or probable interruption of any essential services. Supporters of the legislation claimed that the proposed tribunal would be absolutely independent and impartial, and that it was most

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necessary for the Commonwealth Parliament to have control of essential services in the event of a situation as dangerous and critical as external war but the labour movement disagreed. Barker and Kenneally compiled a detailed case for the No Vote, arguing that the essential services legislation was nothing but a War Precautions Act in peace time. Such an Act would grant the government the power to pass legislation authorising them to do literally anything, seize property, close on funds, impose any penalties, including deportation, sentence of death or imprisonment for life. The impartial tribunal would consist of Judges appointed for life and armed with full judicial powers that could not be overturned by State or Federal governments.71 Curtin, too, realised that the referendum proposals were quite different from the previous Federal powers referenda endorsed by Labor governments. He argued that Labor should oppose the referendum because Bruce proposed an authority or a commission not Federal Government to take over powers held by States. Curtin concluded that the people should never vote for proposals that divested them of the powers conferred upon them by the Constitution. On Polling Day, 4 September 1926, a majority of the Australian people voted against both proposals.72 When the referendum failed, the Bruce government tried another strategy. Under an amended Federal Arbitration Act, politically conservative Federal Arbitration Court judges brought down a series of Awards, which overrode State Awards and imposed stricter conditions relating to strikes and working hours. The first, Justice Beebys Federal Engineers Award of July 1927, permitted individual bargaining between employer and employee. The Award stated that the employer may make agreements with his employees for payment by way of piecework, time bonus, or work done in excess of a set task, so long as the rates fixed will enable the employee to earn at least 10 per cent more than his minimum wage.73 Under Beebys ruling, State Arbitration Courts were given the power to enforce Federal Awards. In Perth, Judge Drake-Brockman accepted the terms of the Federal Engineers Award and applied it to the engineers who were striking in protest against their working week being extended from 44 to 48 hours. Unions and District Councils sent protest resolutions to the State Executive, supporting the engineers.74 The State Executive spelled out the extent and ramifications of the sinister attack on trade unionism (the Federal Arbitration Act) executed by the Bruce Government. Firstly, the Executive argued, the Act interfered with State decisions and enabled the Federal Court to make an order restraining the State industrial authority from dealing with any matter before the Federal Court. Secondly, it curtailed the labour movements activities. The Federal Court could

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order a State Labor Government to stop attempting to settle a dispute. The State Executive saw the real purpose of the Act as enabling the Federal Tory Government to work in harmony with the Tory State Governments through the respective industrial tribunals. Clauses 7 and 8 of the Act laid out fines and penalties: an organisation causing a strike would be liable for a fine of 1,000; an individual would be fined 50. A union officer who encouraged, advised or incited members to refuse an offer of employment would also make his or her union liable for a 1,000 fine, but if the union removed this person from office, the fine would then be reduced to 100. A 1,000 penalty applied to any union reinstating such an officer within 12 months of his or her offence. The Act gave the Federal Attorney-General powers to intervene in the public interest in any proceedings before the Court. Under the new legislation, also, it was a crime to declare goods black.75 The next blow was delivered by Beebys 1928 Waterside Workers Award, under which the unionists lost many hard-won privileges. FLU Secretary Thomas Fox put the Lumpers case to fellow trade unionists and the public. Fox argued that, since 1923, advances in wireless communication had enabled the Lumpers to present themselves for work only once a day instead of twice or three times as had been the case previously. A twice-daily pickup would result in unemployed men being forced either to pay for extra tram fares to and from their homes or waste time waiting in town until the second pickup at midday. Furthermore, the Award actually lengthened the pickup times to two hours each, thus doubling the possible daily amount of time which a man might spend waiting to receive work. Other amendments enabled employers to avoid allowing the men a smoko break, or to insist on them working during meal hours, under the justification of pressure of work, whilst a new system of shift rates effectively reduced pay earned between 5 pm and 7 pm by around seven pence per hour. Perhaps worst of all was the provision that, when accepting an engagement, an employee should continue to work on a ship as long as his services were required. Lumpers who recalled the 70- to 80-hour shifts of the past were particularly anxious to maintain the present maximum 12 hour shift. Long shifts were made even more certain by the provision that workers could transfer from one ship to another provided the vessels were owned by the same employer.76 Waterside workers around Australia went on strike, an outcome that Beeby privately claimed that he had foreseen and had brought about in order to break the power of an arrogant faction which controlled the union.77 The Bruce Government then rushed the Transport Workers Act through Parliament. The Act enforced a licensing system similar to that established by the Australasian

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Steamship Owners Federation in 1917. The wharfies had their own name for it the Dog Collar Act but despite their scorn, the legislation quelled resistance and forced the union to accept whatever work was available. As in 191719, most of the work went to non-unionised volunteers drawn from the ranks of the unemployed. In another parallel with the events surrounding the Fremantle Wharf riot of May 1919, wharfies in Melbourne rioted in the winter of 1929, and one was killed when police opened fire.78 Further industrial trouble was created by Justice Lukins equally controversial Timber Workers Award, delivered in February 1929, which reinstated the 48-hour week and reduced wages by three shillings. Around Australia, timber workers refused to accept the Award. In New South Wales, 3,000 workers were locked out of 70 mills, and the ensuing strike went on for 34 weeks.79 The Federal Executive of the ATWU in Melbourne agreed to a settlement in June 1929, in which the unionists would work a 48-hour week while an inquiry was in progress to ascertain whether the industry really could not sustain a 44-hour week.80 But then the political wind changed. At the 1928 Federal election, electors reduced the NationalCountry Coalition Governments majority. John Curtin was among the new Labor Members when the Federal Parliament met for the first time in Canberra. The increasing industrial turbulence led to a crisis in government. In February 1929, mine owners and managers on the northern NSW coalfields had told 10,000 miners that they would be dismissed unless they agreed to accept reduced wages and the owners right to control hiring and firing. The miners refused and drew up picket lines. The strike and the Bruce Governments preferential treatment of one of the wealthiest mine owners, John Brown, led to its downfall. With both workers and employers antagonised by its tactics in the Arbitration Court, the government survived a noconfidence motion in August 1929. On 2 September, Curtin wrote to Barker regarding the Bruce Governments precarious situation: I cannot see [it] lasting the remainder of the year.81 He was right. When his Bill to dismantle the Arbitration Court was defeated, Bruce called an early election. Not only did the coalition lose office, but Bruce lost his own seat when he was defeated by Melbourne Trades Hall Secretary, E.J. Holloway.82 When the new Prime Minister, James Scullin, urgently summoned his Party to Canberra to elect a Labor Ministry, he appointed only one Western Australian to the Cabinet. Granted the Defence portfolio, Texas Green was congratulated by Barker and reminded of his new financial obligations. As a Minister, he was now expected to pay 10 (instead of 5) shillings to the Western Australian ALPs Organising Fund that financed Hawke. While a campaigner against military conscription in World War I, Green had seen his daughter

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victimised at school for refusing to write pro-conscriptionist essays. Now, he had the satisfaction of suspending the iniquitous compulsory military training scheme for boys by an administrative act before Parliament met.83 A bitterly disappointed John Curtin retired to the backbench after graciously thanking Kenneally for the support of the State body in the recent election campaign.84 During his time in the Federal Opposition, Curtins considerable intellect and brilliant oratory had already made an impression, and he was a member of the FPLP executive. His omission from Cabinet, therefore, is surprising, and has been attributed to a number of factors, including a perception by some his Parliamentary colleagues that he still had an alcohol problem and was therefore unreliable.85 But this set back to his political career, while painful, was only temporary.

Chapter Six

Engulfed in the maelstrom of today Depression, Secession and Unemployment during the 1930s
In the 1930 State election, a narrow majority of Western Australian voters decided to give Jimmy Mitchell another go. The extent of unemployment in the urban seats, where a swing of 69 per cent away from Labor occurred, was a decisive factor in the result. Mitchells promises to provide full employment seemed attractive in the gloomy economic climate. Electors apparently forgot that the non-Labor parties were no more capable of providing full employment than the ALP, and their emphasis on rural work was even less successful than Colliers public works programs. The 1929 electoral redistribution which abolished the old mining seats of Coolgardie, Menzies, Mount Leonora, Mount Margaret and Yilgarn, and created new metropolitan seats of Mount Hawthorn, Maylands, Victoria Park, Middle Swan and Nedlands had an impact on the result, as Labor lost two of of these seats. Most sitting Labor Members, however, made the transition to new seats. Alex Panton moved from Menzies to Leederville, vacated by Millington, who gained the new seat of Mount Hawthorn. In YilgarnCoolgardie, the two former sitting Members, Corboy and Lambert, stood against each other, with Corboy emerging victorious.1 State Labor in Opposition and Federal Labor in Government The United Partys term of government was turbulent, with Mitchell floundering out of his depth and offering simplistic solutions while unemployment soared from 15 per cent just before the change of government to 25 per cent by the end of 1930, peaking at above 30 per cent in mid 1932. An estimated 28.7 per cent of trade unionists were among the unemployed.2 The lack of government relief work programs increased individual hardships. Mitchells solution was to keep unemployed men congregated in large encampments outside of the metropolitan area. He obtained permission from

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the Federal Government to lodge single men at the deserted Blackboy Hill Army Camp, where soldiers had trained prior to their departure for the 191418 war. The camp, which accommodated 1,000 men, was run along military lines, with the Government providing food, bedding, army greatcoats and a weekly allowance of five shillings.3 According to the ALP, Blackboy Camp cost the State over 121,000 in three years.4 There were similar camps at Fremantle and in the South West at Frankland River. Mitchells return, empty handed, from the February 1931 Premiers Conference in Canberra sparked two major reactions mass demonstrations by groups of unemployed, sometimes several thousand strong, and the revival of the secessionist movement. On Friday 6 March, a crowd of angry demonstrators marched from the Esplanade to the Treasury Buildings in St Georges Terrace, where they came to blows with police who prevented them from sending a deputation to the Premier. The West Australian reported that a crowd of 5,000 to 7,000 people gathered, but that most of these were spectators. Several demonstrators and one police officer sustained minor injuries, though several men in the crowd were seen with blood pouring down their faces. Police arrested nine people on charges of assault and disorderly conduct. The paper reported that at least two of those arrested spoke with a non-Australian accent. A further demonstration that night in Forrest Place drew a crowd of about 300 unemployed, and there were 3 arrests, including the speaker, who was charged with addressing a meeting without the Police Commissioners permission.5 Whereas the West Australian had chosen to report the 6 March demonstrations on page 13, the Workers front page headline announced, Give them a dose of the baton, proceeded to ridicule the Wests coverage, and asked, Can anyone tell us what is a non-Australian accent?6 According to historian Geoffrey Boltons account, some of the demonstrations leaders were known Communist Party members.7 Although the labour movement had no official role, the police treatment of the demonstrators provoked angry reactions from several unions. The ALP State Executive and the Metropolitan and Midland District Councils passed resolutions condemning the police actions, especially the brutal manner in which they handled the unemployed outside the Treasury Building. The Midland District Council requested that the Police Minister be asked to discipline the police officers involved, and that stop-work meetings be held as a protest. The State Executive endorsed the first resolution, but took no action on the second.8 In September 1931, with over 16,000 receiving paid sustenance relief, Mitchell announced that sustenance workers would be transferred to public works projects as quickly as possible.9 This move did not prevent further

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demonstrations, the most notable being the Frankland River march of September 1932. A camp of sustenance workers went on strike over piecework rates offered to clear timber for settlers in the area. The men took a train to Perth, joined with other unemployed in the metropolitan area and staged a mass demonstration on 12 September. The ALPs Metropolitan District Council was directly involved in negotiating a settlement. Although the strikers refused to put the matter in the hands of the State Disputes Committee, 10 of their 16 demands were satisfactorily settled at the first deputation to the Minister for Lands and the Minister for Employment. These demands included the payment of piece-work rates; the appointment of a committee consisting of the mens representative, a government representative and an independent outsider to fix the contract price; government medical facilities and a store at each camp; the provision of free tools; and insurance compensation in case of injury.10 The Labor Women assembled many clothing parcels for the families of unemployed breadwinners, requesting donations through the Workers womens page. LWO members brought gifts of baby clothes to their meetings for parcelling, including a beautiful hand-worked babys coat and dress donated by Jean Beadle. In the winter of 1931, the paper reported on efforts to procure second-hand clothes for people in the South West of the State. To encourage donations, letters from the needy were sometimes published. One woman wrote, describing the plight of her family of six. Her husband had been out of work since the Pindalup mill closed down, and, previously, he had been involved in a strike lasting six months. For the last eight months, he had received weekly sustenance pay of 2.9s., of which 10s. went to pay the rent. The children had no shoes, their feet were all chapped, the familys underclothes were patched until I can patch no more, and she had no winter clothes except an old coat. She requested a warm dress for herself, and night clothes and shoes for the children, before concluding, I hope you will not mind me troubling you.11 As was often the case, the woman did not ask for clothing for her husband. Men who reluctantly allowed their families to receive charity rarely accepted any hand-outs for themselves. Group settlers were some of the hardest hit, and many abandoned their farms during this period. Michael Troy, who became Lands Minister when Labor was returned to Government, wisely rejected a scheme to settle unemployed workers on deserted farms, remarking that there was no money even to maintain existing properties. Although well intentioned, this scheme would undoubtedly have resulted in further hardship, as there was abundant evidence that families could not become self-sufficient quickly.12 Aboriginal

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workers were even more disadvantaged than group settlers. In September 1933, the Collie Miners Union (CMU) supported a petition signed by 60 half-caste and aboriginal workers who had been employed as drovers, station hands, shearers and wheat lumpers, but who had been thrown out of work by the economic downturn. Some had been union members, but their unions had not objected to them being paid 2s.2d. a week, when non-Aboriginal unemployed received at least seven shillings weekly sustenance pay. The CMU demanded that these workers be granted the right to receive full rations the same as every other type of worker.13 It is unlikely that this resolution changed the situation of the Indigenous Australian workers; the Unions support of their petition had few parallels in that period. The Scullin Federal Government also floundered in the difficult economic conditions. At the 1931 Premiers Conference, NSW Premier J.T. Lang proposed that Australia should abandon the gold standard reduce all interest on government borrowing to 3 per cent, and refuse to pay interest to British bondholders until Britain agreed to an arrangement about Australias debt obligations.14 Langs plan was not adopted but there was widespread interest and some support for it within the WA labour movement. J.T. Lang rocks the boat, ran the Workers front-page headline, whilst the editorial pointed out the futility of Australia asking for British aid in the Depression on the strength of our war sacrifice. The city would as soon assist Germany as Australia, the Worker declared, Finance is international. Those who expect preferential treatment have a poor understanding of the motives of financiers.15 A month later, the paper adopted an even more pro-Lang stance, stating that he was the only one of the bunch of legislators to produce a concrete scheme that would have any effect in absorbing the unemployed and relieve distress.16 The Worker also gave space to Langs own views, published in a four-part series entitled Away with the Golden Cross.17 In mid 1931, the State Premiers had met with Scullin and devised a financial strategy known as the Premiers Plan that involved raising taxes, lowering interest rates, and reducing government spending (including wages and pensions) by 20 per cent. It is hard to imagine that the Plan embodied equality of sacrifice as its devisers claimed. Curtin and Cameron were two FPLP members who remained certain that it did not, with the former declaring in Parliament that the Partys endorsement of the Plan would bring about the demoralisation of the labour movement. In particular, Curtin was opposed to the plan in its entirety because:

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the variations of interest rates are contingent upon my acquiescence in the reduction of payments to old age, invalid, and war pensioners, and because implicit in the plan is an abandonment of the whole conception of the labour movement in regard to the reconstruction of society [T]he plan leaves untouched the top-heavy political system of this country [I]n effect it says to me, Go out and justify the taking of 2s. 6d. a week from the income of an old age pensioner, while at the same time it is proposed that we shall continue to maintain the panoply of six sovereign States, with six agents-general, six governors, and all the pomp and ceremony of thirteen chambers connected with the political mechanism of this country 18

Joseph Lyons and several other Federal Labor MHRs resigned from the Scullin Labor Government over Treasurer E.G. Theodores alternate economic plan. As in 1916, their splinter group soon formed a coalition with the National Party, and thus the United Australia Party was born, with Lyons as leader. After the fall of the Scullin Government in December 1931, Lyons became Prime Minister. Curtin lost his seat and returned to Perth depressed, disillusioned and unemployed. His initial reaction was to write to Henry Boote, seeking a position in the Eastern States, although he was not at all clear on what role he should fill:
My feeling is that the real effective decisions of the Labor Movement are made in the East and that for all practical purposes, WA does not count in the formulation of Labor policy I am wondering if you could talk with Ted Grayndler with a view to my being used in some sort of a job where I will be available for whatever purpose would be best. I offer you no recommendations. All of you know me and the only question is that I feel a call to go to either Melbourne or Sydney and for that to be realised some sort of job is needed.19

A job did not eventuate for Curtin. Yet he declined the offer of Ansteys seat, Bourke, when Anstey decided to retire from politics in 1934. Instead, Curtin encouraged Anstey to reconsider, but his old friend refused to re-nominate, and the Labor nomination went to Maurice Blackburn, whom Curtin disliked.20 At the same time he re-nominated for Fremantle, which he subsequently won in the 1934 Federal election. The State ALP was returned to government in April 1933, on the strength of promises that they could not fulfil. These promises included paying award wages and giving fitness tests to relief workers, so that unfit men should not be obliged to undertake strenuous work in order to earn money. The ALP had also promised a rotation of men on relief projects three months of full time

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work followed by a lay-off period and sustenance for farmers.21 When these promises were not met, groups and individuals who were not necessarily allied in other matters were drawn together by a common antipathy towards the Government. Challenges to WA Labor: the Secessionist Movement The desperate economic situation caused some people to look for solutions outside of the organised labour movement. Some Western Australians sought the old solution of seceding from the Commonwealth. Some sections of the community harboured a residual resentment at being as they felt forced into Federation in 1901. This resentment had thrived sporadically on a belief that the State was suffering economically by being part of the Commonwealth of Australia. The Secessionist League had a brief lifespan in the mid 1920s, offering a program of public education and a campaign for a referendum on the issue.22 In 1930, the Secessionist League re-emerged as the Dominion League. Its Chairman, a young Perth Accountant named H.K. Watson, had received Senator Pearces support when he unsuccessfully campaigned for the Federal seat of Fremantle against Curtin in 1928. Others in the Leagues executive included conservative parliamentarians J.T. Franklin CMG, MLC, J. McCallum Smith MLA and Norbert Keenan MLA. According to the Dominion League, WA was disadvantaged by Commonwealth-imposed tariffs, and the States secondary industries had not progressed satisfactorily because it was flooded with eastern states imports, amounting to 10,000,000 annually. The secessionists claimed that, if granted tariff autonomy, the State would be 1,561,000 better off . The pro-secession case was encapsulated in the slogan, Seek Secession, end Depression.23 In protest against the Lyons Governments proposed Financial Agreement Enforcement Bill, the Dominion League wrote to the WA Federal Members of Parliament. They accused the Commonwealth Government of using the default of Mr Lang as an excuse for further serious and unwarranted encroachment upon the sovereign rights of the States. Senator Pearce regarded this statement as a most serious charge against the honour and good faith of the government.24 Many other conservatives similarly resisted the secessionist moves, with Harold Boas and Sir Charles Nathan MLC setting up a rival group, the Federal League, with a slogan Unity within the Commonwealth. But even they were anxious not to be referred to as the Anti-Secessionist Movement.25 The Federalists argued that the tariff situation did not automatically mean that secession was the only answer. They pointed to other factors in the States

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financial plight, for example, the debt incurred by participation in the war. Instead of secession, there should be an Australian Convention set up as soon as possible to discuss matters. Although at least one sitting Labor Member, Alex Clydesdale MLC, was a secessionist, the majority of ALP members supported the idea of a Convention.26 Labor opposed secession for a number of political and economic reasons. The Party saw itself as a Federal rather than a State entity, believing that to secede would be retrogressive in both weakening the unity of the Australian nation and being detrimental to WA. The ALP argued that to use the prosperity of pre-Federation times as a rationale for secession was nonsense. That prosperity came from gold discoveries and from the enormous influx of people from other parts of Australia and overseas. Gold production in 1932 was only one-fifth that of the 1890s a decrease experienced in all of the gold-mining states, not occasioned by federal taxes and tariffs. Before Federation, there had not been the crippling war debt, which had to be borne by each of the Australian states. To quit the Commonwealth at this critical stage of Australias history would be a traitorous action as well as financially disastrous. The ALP argued further that the State did not have the financial capacity to carry on as a separate Dominion. Another argument against secession was that it would cut Western Australians off from the one Parliament where majority rule is existent in truth and in fact. Secession from the Commonwealth would:
condemn the people of this State to suffer the infliction of a Parliament in which a Legislative Council, elected on a severely restricted franchise, would be the final arbiter of all legislative efforts for the improvement of the people and the advancement of this State.

Furthermore, prior to 1932, the ALP argument ran, the secession movement was politically inspired and was being used by its conservative sponsors to attack the Federal Labor Government and to:
engender a bitter feeling against the Federal authorities so that when the double dissolution of the Federal Parliament comes, as come it must, there will be a violent antagonism against the Scullin Government existing throughout the State.27

But the public mood was angry, and a change of Federal Government in December 1931 did nothing to assuage their grievances. Prime Minister Joe Lyons received a torrid reception when accompanied by Senator Pearce he spoke at Fremantle in March 1933. The following month, W.M. Hughes was treated even less courteously and narrowly missed being thrown in the Swan River.28

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A Secessionist Bill passed through both Houses of Parliament, enabling a referendum to be run in conjunction with the State election on 8 April, 1933. Labor now supported the issue going to referendum, believing in the right of the people to make a democratic choice. The vote, however, was not compulsory. Curiously, although nearly two-thirds of those who recorded a vote were in favour of seceding from the Commonwealth, they also voted into government by a considerable majority an ALP that did not support secession. The Nationalists were routed, the party retaining only 8 seats, compared with 11 held by the Country Party and 30 Labor seats. Among the victims was Sir James Mitchell, defeated in his Northam seat by Bert Hawke who obtained a majority of 460 votes. The anti-secessionists welcomed the result, Latham writing to Pearce that it was a blessing that Sir James has been defeated. According to Latham, the result of the referendum left the incoming Premier no alternative than to take formal steps to present Western Australias demand to the British Parliament, via a petition delivered by the Agent General, Hal Colebatch.29 He was correct in assuming that the British Parliament would never accept such a petition. Unfortunately for Labor, the aftermath of the pro-secession vote created tensions between the State Executive and the SPLP. The Midland District Council condemned the Government for proposing a Bill that would make the Parliament controlled by a Labor Government the petitioners for secession and would misrepresent the actual position to the British Parliament. Johnson instigated these resolutions and opposed Collier in Parliament over the Bill.30 This public disagreement between two of the Partys senior members was symptomatic of deeper tensions, centring on Colliers personality and leadership. Challenges for Labor: unemployment Unemployment, too, was both a challenge and a source of tension within the State ALP, two volatile issues being the rates of pay for sustenance workers and the matter of which union should gain their membership. The Government was continually reminded of its election promise to employ relief workers on the Basic Wage. The State Executive endorsed a Metropolitan District Council resolution that the Government allow men on sustenance to earn extra money privately up to the Basic Wage level, but the Minister for Employment and Member for East Perth, J.J. Kenneally, stated that sustenance was granted to prevent the needy from starving. If the Councils request was granted, sustenance would be used to subsidise the Basic Wage when there was not sufficient money to do this.31

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The tensions experienced at this time were evident in a resolution forwarded by the Avon District Council to the State Executive from one of its most active affiliates, the Merredin ALP:
This branch views with grave concern the apparent disruption in the ranks of the movement, particularly the frequent threats from industrial unions to sever their affiliation with the ALP in this State. The Merredin ALP urges the State Executive to do all in its power to remove or prevent friction, to broaden its outlook, to recognise the heterogenous nature of the constituent units of the ALP, and to minimise any movement towards a highly centralised control, no matter how unconscious that control may be, and for this purpose we suggest a special conference be held.32

The State Executive responded tersely that no good purpose would be served by calling a conference at that particular time. According to ALP Secretary Percy Trainer, who had succeeded Barker in mid 1933, the State Executives officers always did all in their power to remove and prevent friction. But the enormity of the problem was entirely beyond them. By late 1933, the economic situation for some was so desperate that the South West District Council Secretary, Tom Lowry, objected in strongly emotional terms to the Collier Governments inhumane policy, which made no provision for unemployed children over 14 years:
If we cannot do better than that it would be more humane for us to further amend the Police Regulations and give them the power to destroy those evidently unnecessary children, and thereby save the Government the painful necessity of feeding and clothing them, and at the same time relieve their parents of the untold anguish of watching them starve.33

A.A. Wilson had already brought this matter to Caucus in July 1933, and had been informed by Kenneally that sometimes sustenance was provided for family members over 14 years of age. Yet it was not until late in 1935 that J.C. Willcock, then Acting Minister for Employment, informed Trainer that in exceptional circumstances the government did continue relief to one member in a family aged over 14 years, but that financial limitations prevented any general concessions being made.34 This was only one of many complaints against the governments unemployment policy. Kenneally defended the decision to stop sustenance to family men who refused to accept work in the country by observing that it was a pity that the State Executive has arrived at a stage where it can condemn the Government for offering men work. He reminded Trainer of a time when a

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man thought nothing of travelling from Fremantle to Kalgoorlie or Northam to find work without even the benefit of a railway pass.35 But the trend of sending men from city to country would soon end. The Depression forced Western Australian governments, both Labor and non-Labor, to realise that the limits of closer settlement had been exceeded, and that the drift to the cities was a permanent feature of future development.36 The Relief and Sustenance Workers Movement Late in 1933 when there were 35,000 unemployed workers in Western Australia, of whom under one third were unionists a new union was formed, consisting of unemployed, previously non-unionised men, engaged in labouring work. It aimed to secure full-time work on the Basic Wage.37 Collie was one centre where militancy became very strong. H.E. Squance, a member of the South Western District Council, who had been a left-wing official of the CMU, became Vice President of the new union. Squance was an office bearer in the Douglas Credit Movement. He saw the enormous pressure group potential of the unemployed, and he set about organising them.38 At a meeting in Collie, speakers criticised the government, declaring that the ALP did not cater for the sustenance man and claimed that we are a scab organisation.39 The central figure of the Relief and Sustenance Workers Union (RSWU) was the contentious T.J. Hughes, whose mere presence provoked the Partys hostility.40 Apart from Squance and Hughes, the RSWU leadership included L.F. Bullock, also an office bearer in the Douglas Credit Movement, and J.C. Fraser of the Liberation League. Despite high unemployment in rural areas in the South West and elsewhere, the RSWU comprised 93.5 per cent Perth metropolitan membership, of whom 91 per cent were married men. By March 1934, only 45 of the 496 members came from country areas.41 Although the RSWU leaders were strongly critical of the Party, which they accused of waging war on the unemployed, they still expected to be accepted as part of the labour movement, and they had supporters in some ALP branches. The Fremantle District Council made a meeting room available in the Trades Hall until the RSWUs application for affiliation was rejected. The ALP adopted two main tactics to combat the RSWUs influence. Firstly, it diverted relief workers into affiliated unions, usually the AWU. In August, 1933, the AWU seconded two of its full-time organisers, Bill Hegney and Joe Tankard, to join South West organiser J. Costello and visit camps of sustenance workers in his district. In the following year, over 3,000 new members were

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enrolled in the AWUs Construction and Forestry Departments.42 Secondly, it launched a direct attack on the RSWU. On 6 November, the State Executive resolved that any ALP member who still belonged to the RSWU after 30 November 1933 would automatically place himself outside the labour movement. Accordingly, Squance was expelled in March 1934.43 The AWU used its column in the Worker to justify its hostility to the RSWU, pointing out that the Relief Workers were supported by the conservative press (chiefly the West Australian) and politicians such as Charles Latham in an attempt to smash the AWU. If further evidence was needed, the RSWUs Secretary had left the ALP, and one of the Unions Vice Presidents had opposed the Labor Member for Collie in the previous State election.44 Early in 1934, the RSWU applied for registration in the Arbitration Court. The application was rejected without reaching a Court hearing, and after this the Union lost its impetus. It had already been involved in a disastrous strike at Harvey where sustenance workers had been undertaking heavy manual labour in primitive and unhygienic conditions. There seems little doubt that Hughes also used the union to further his own ends, as a means of publicising his dispute with the ALP.45 The Worker, on the other hand, took a low-key approach to the dispute, preferring not to mention Hughes by name. In a February 1934 issue, the paper mentioned the Secretary of the so-called Relief Workers Union, an ex-ALP member, and an editorial the following month made even more oblique references to critics from within the ALP. The destructive type whose openly avowed policy is one of destruction had been very prominent in Western Australia lately.46 The fact that the RSWU failed in its bid to be registered in the Arbitration Court did not warrant a mention, yet this was the fatal blow that destroyed the Union. The Douglas Credit movement The Douglas Credit Movement (DCM) was another solution to the economic situation; one which initially had the support of some sections of the labour movement, and gained a sizeable following. The movements founder, Major Douglas, stated that the world economic crisis was due only to a shortage of purchasing power. Everything else was in abundance. He argued that shortages occurred because it was impossible for any industry to pay out sufficient purchasing power to cover the cost of the goods it produced, and that the use of labour-saving machinery only exacerbated the problem. The only remedy was for the national government rather than the banking system to take over the control and issue of all money, which would result in a debt free issue

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of credit. Major Douglas argued that money was a costless creation, and provided that it was issued and cancelled scientifically in the manner proposed, there could be no repetition of the evils of inflation or deflation.47 The 1932 ALP State Congress appointed a Douglas Credit Committee, consisting of John Curtin, John Tonkin, W. Hodsdon, E. Elliott, Margaret Green, and Edward Needham, to consider the proposals. The committee met four times and reported that it could not agree that the proposals of Major Douglas offer a remedy to existing social collapse, which would be acceptable to the Labor Party or in accord with ALP principals. Their report concluded that the scheme was theoretically unsound and unworkable in practice. It was out of harmony with the trend of Labor thought and fundamentally opposed to Labor principles.48 Curtin, while agreeing with these conclusions, also put in a minority report that threw more light on why the labour movement rejected the DCM. According to Curtin, Major Douglas and the labour movement agreed on the urgent need to nationalise the banking system in order to establish a truly democratic community and end the monopolistic exploitation by banking and financial interests. Where they differed, however, was in Douglass scorn [of] socialised activity and his rejection of the unjust distribution of wealth as a cause of the economic crisis.49 The State Executive discussed the Reports, but no action was taken against Laborites who were DCM members until a year later. In August 1934, the State Executive called upon candidates in the 1934 Federal election to dissociate themselves from the Douglas Credit Movement immediately.50 Nevertheless, the Labor candidates were glad of DCM preferences, most notably John Curtin in Fremantle. The election appears to have been the Movements last hurrah, for it disintegrated soon afterwards.51 Others seeking solutions to the financial chaos of the 1930s believed that the times justified a radical, isolationist approach, similar to the Lang Plan. In July 1933, the South Western District Council passed a resolution from the CMU stating that it was utterly futile to expect financial assistance from the Federal Government, or, indeed from any administration under the present obsolete and viciously controlled monetary system. The CMU resolution requested the State Executive to urge the Collier Government to fearlessly face the present unsatisfactory financial position and immediately establish a State Cheque-paying Treasury Banking Department with powers to purchase all of the States gold, and issue legal tender and credit exclusively for monetary transactions within the State. In forwarding the resolution to the ALP State Executive, South Western District Council Secretary Tom Lowry stated that he believed that the action called for in the resolution was justified by a big

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secession vote and the fact that it is utterly useless waiting for any reform from outside. Trainer replied that the ALP already had a definite reform policy and that the recent Federal Conference dealt with this question.52 Lowry responded that the monetary policy was not being put into practice, yet the time was ripe to do so. The overwhelming majority vote in favour of Secession at the recent State election indicated that it was an opportune moment to establish a State Bank the first step to achieving secession. Lowry believed that any action resulting from federal discussions would not be effected for at least two years, during which time:
hundreds of thousands of our unemployed will remain starving and degraded, and tens of thousands of others will be added to that list each year. Have you ever considered the appalling fact that we are compelling those workers to scab on our wages and conditions, and degrading them by forcing them to go to the Police Stations throughout the Country and lay bare their innermost position, or else commit perjury, in order to obtain charity? How much longer is this to continue?

Lowry reminded Trainer that, despite the Partys election promise to provide work at the Basic Wage rate, now there was no money to fulfil that promise. There was no money only because The Associated Banks, the real Government of the Country, will not give us credit even with our own money; not even when we pay exorbitant interest for it. The only possible solution was for the ALP to take complete control of the monetary system.
The Constitutional and orthodox methods of the past are engulphed [sic] in the maelstrom of today, and if drastic and far-reaching action, such as we have suggested, is not taken and taken quickly, the whole structure of our social, industrial and national existence will be submerged.53

Industrial troubles at Collie The CMU did not, however, have a reputation for industrial militancy. In fact, as L.W. Johnson pointed out in his thesis, between Edmunds Award in 1917 and 1931, no stoppage of any consequence had occurred, wages were comparatively good and a significant proportion of miners owned their own homes including some who were small farmers. Collie had never resembled the depressing picture of Cessnock, as portrayed by the Reverend Alan Walker in Coal town.54 The Depression changed the situation and embittered many Collie miners. Collie coal was sub-bituminous, inferior to the bituminous NSW coals and high in moisture content, which meant that a greater quantity was required to

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achieve high heat.55 The higher price of NSW coals, together with a protective State Government policy, had enabled Collie coal to be competitive until the end of 1920s, when the price of NSW coal fell, and the onset of the Depression created a diminishing railway traffic. The collieries stood down workers. The staff of Amalgamated Collieries, Collies biggest employer, dropped from 793 in 1929 to 472 in 1932. To add to Collies problems, the Arbitration Court lowered miners wages in 1931, so that even those who remained in work suffered privations. Soup kitchens operated in the town during the winters of 1931 and 32. The CMU opposed the wage reduction and imposed a deliberate restriction of output (or darg). Amalgamated Collieries took the Union to court, and subsequently sacked large numbers of miners.56 In September 1933, the CMU claimed unsuccessfully for a change in Award conditions, so that certain miners worked for day wages, rather than a rate per ton. The union went on strike, but later agreed to work under the Board of Reference Award until the termination of the 1931 Award on 26 August 1934. But the Griffin Company was not a party to this agreement. When Griffin objected to the price that the Commissioner of Railways offered for their coal which was inferior to that from the Amalgamated Collieries mines the WAGR ceased buying their coal. As the Railways was the Companys major customer, 115 miners were thrown out of work by the Commissioners action. There were already 600 unemployed in the town, and additional orders to Amalgamated Collieries did not create extra jobs. Lowry asked the Commissioner to keep the men in employment by maintaining the Griffin order at the previous rates until the new contracts were entered into. But the Griffin Company supplied 9 per cent of WAGR requirements, compared with 91 per cent supplied by Amalgamated Collieries, and the Commissioner could not extend a consideration in one case without doing so in both. Even so, the State Disputes Committee appears to have brought about a satisfactory conclusion to this dispute before the end of the year.57 With the economic upturn, the CMU applied successfully to the Arbitration Court for a revision of the Award. Although wages and conditions for Collie miners improved markedly from August 1934, the industrial problems continued for some time. Another dispute in September concerned the payment for headings worked in sections of the mine where the gradient was particularly steep. The Board of Reference considered the complaint and ruled that the payment was adequate.58 Lowry gave notice that he would appeal this decision, but, in the meantime, 159 miners were arrested and charged with going on strike. The strikers were subsequently locked out and could not return to work. Each of miners was fined 2, plus 3s. court costs for going on

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strike, although only one miner, H. Bray, appeared in court. A number of juniors aged under 18 years were fined, despite the fact that the Police Court had no jurisdiction to hear these cases. Some of the men had received summonses at 2 pm, and were fined for being on strike when they were due to work the afternoon shift from 3 oclock; one man was even underground working when summonsed. The CMU asked the State Executive to approach Willcock, the Minister for Justice in the Collier Government, requesting that the period for payment of the fines be extended from six days to three weeks, and then for the fines to be remitted. The General Secretary advised Lowry to let the matter remain in abeyance and to inform him immediately if the police made any moves to collect the fines.59 The matter appears to have lapsed. At the end of January 1935, the CMU again went on strike over an adverse decision relating to the gradient of a heading in the Proprietary Mine. The dispute was referred to the Arbitration Court, which sat in Perth on 20 December, but the Court sought further information from the Board of Reference. The delay, and their representatives exclusion from proceedings, angered the miners and they stopped work on 31 January, incurring the displeasure of both the Company and the State Disputes Committee. The Union wanted the Companys writ for damages withdrawn, and the Agreement renewed, as the Company claimed that their action had cancelled it. The CMU members voted to return to work but they were dissatisfied.60 Amalgamated Collieries agreed to bear in mind the spirit of the original agreement when employing new men, and to suspend their writ for damages and warrants of execution against certain members, provided the Union reimbursed their court fees of over 45. The employer warned:
It must be distinctly understood that this is not a final settlement of our cause of action, merely a tentative act of forbearance in the interests of peace, but no further latitude will be considered if similar dislocation of the industry by a strike occurs or if breach of any promise by the Union takes place.61

The pressure on the union continued, with the Arbitration Court refusing the miners a day off to hold an aggregate meeting to consider their position. When the CMU held a pit-top meeting without the companys permission, Trainer accused Lowry of putting the State Disputes Committee in an invidious position. He suggested that the union pay court costs of 21 reduced by the Disputes Committees intervention and the CMU concurred.62 In December 1936, Justice Dwyer brought down an Award with more favourable conditions, including confirming for the first time the seven-hour shift principle that had been in operation since 1919, and granting a wage increase

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of one shilling per shift. Furthermore, if a miner completed 267 shifts in a year, he was entitled to 12 days of paid holiday, with a proportional reduction for less employment. But this agreement included a controversial clause that miners would be penalised by loss of leave if they participated in strikes or unauthorised pit top meetings. The union bitterly contested this clause, and later Awards were modified.63 The Albany Lumpers Unions grievances Railway and waterside unionists were among those most affected by Kenneallys determination that sustenance workers should join the appropriate union, as they often moved between labouring jobs when employment was scarce in their chosen trade. The WA Amalgamated Society of Railway Employees (WAASRE) came to an agreement with the AWU, whereby sustenance workers employed in railways could not be accepted as union members, as the work they performed did not come within the WAASRE Award.64 But the Lumpers were less fortunate. In mid 1934, the Albany Lumpers Union Secretary, Sam Taylor, wrote to Kenneally, protesting against a State Executive resolution that preference be given to unionists when employing men on government relief work. Taylor argued that, as unionists meant AWU members, the members of his own union would be disadvantaged. The Albany shipping season was of only of three months duration and the Lumpers were driven to seek employment in relief work. He pointed out that the WWF (of which the Albany Lumpers Union was a branch), was unlike any other union because when a member became unfinancial he had not the slightest chance of rejoining as the books of the WWF are closed indefinitely and practically by an order of the Federal Arbitration Court.65 Taylor later supplied a list of 23 names of men who were employed on government relief works and who, he claimed, would be compelled to join the AWU if the State Executive pushed its policy of preference to unionists. His plea was unsuccessful. A few months later, Trainer advised Taylor that the ALP State Executive endorsed a decision of the AWUs executive reaffirming the principle of sustenance workers joining the AWU. The Lumpers, therefore, must pay into the AWU or other unions which control the work they are engaged upon.66 By September 1935, the Albany Lumpers were so disillusioned that they decided to disaffiliate from the ALP. R.A. Pike, Taylors successor, wrote to the Albany District Council, giving the unions reasons. Chiefly, the Lumpers objected to being compelled to contribute to the ALP via the AWU when they were working on sustenance projects, having already paid through their own

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union, and in some cases through the Railway Union as well. They also objected to their members being stood down and non-unionists being given preference in the Government Railway Goods Sheds. Pike claimed, also, that visiting railway men on holidays were given work while Lumpers were unemployed, and he mentioned other grievances one specifically against the Labor government which, the union asserted, had replaced Lumpers with ships officers to act as tallymen on the State steamship Kybra. This practice, it was claimed, was not carried out by any other shipping company. Pike stated that many of the unions grievances had been taken to the Albany District Council and no redress received; therefore, we think our best course is to cease our affiliation with the ALP.67 Pikes letter provoked some action, with Trainer writing to WAASRE Secretary Geoff Keating, and Chief Secretary, William Kitson, about the complaints regarding the railway men and the State steamships respectively. Keating dismissed all the Lumpers grievances but travelled to Albany at the beginning of December to address a public meeting on the organisation of unions in the region. Kitson replied that no actual tallying was done at Albany, with only damaged packages being checked. In the new year, the Albany Lumpers withdrew from the Albany District Council.68 At the same time, Trainer sent fraternal greetings to Henry Boote at the Worker office in Sydney, on the occasion of the AWUs fiftieth anniversary. He wrote in superlative terms:
The AWU has used its beneficial influence for the good and welfare of its membership during its existence. Australian industrial history would indeed be the poorer had it not been such a live factor for the common good. The AWU breathes the true Australian spirit. The very nature of its foundation makes this self evident. It is a workers organisation of the out-back, the bush and the mine, all of which are associated with the pioneering and development of a great continent so vast and rich in natural wealth and resources that its value cannot be adequately estimated. The AWU has been the cradle and training ground for many noble spirits who have played a part as statesmen in Federal and State politics. May it grow even greater and so spread its beneficence is the fervent wish of the Labour movement in Western Australia.69

Obsequious statements such as this were rare, but they provide a glimpse of the AWUs powerful role in the Western Australian ALP during the 1930s.

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Economic Revival After two years back in office, the Collier Government was able to demonstrate that the State had turned the corner economically. In September 1931, there had been 20,700 men and women on relief. When the ALP returned to government in April 1933, there were 8,668 men employed on government relief and almost 5,000 on sustenance only. (It is unclear whether women are included in these latter figures.) Many relief recipients were at the end of their contracts, and, as the Mitchell Government had made no provision for further relief work, the Collier administration was confronted with the task of keeping these workers employed. Two years later, only 671 were on sustenance, while over 9,000 were employed on relief work. The remainder some 3,871 workers had returned to other employment. This was achieved by Kenneally making tough decisions. While the Labor Government was unable to reinstitute the Basic Wage as quickly as promised prior to the election, Kenneally devised a scheme that provided at least four weeks of full employment at Basic Wage rates, followed by three to seven weeks on sustenance, depending on the workers domestic responsibilities. Later, sustenance was almost entirely replaced by paid work. In another departure from Mitchells relief policy, Kenneally included relief projects suited to skilled workers. The Government fostered relief works that would contribute to the States economic development, use local material and absorb the greatest number of unemployed. Major works projects employing over 9,000 workers repaired railway lines, laid drainage and irrigation systems in the South West, built a metropolitan sewerage scheme and the Canning Dam, and worked on re-afforestation, road building, and harbours and rivers. The Labor Government believed that the unemployed mens camps had a debilitating effect upon the inmates, causing loss of manhood and independence, and they were closed within six months.70 Perhaps these achievements should have gained the government more popularity with unionists, but tensions between unions also came into play. Kenneallys policy undoubtedly strengthened the AWU almost trebling the unions numbers and increasing its voting strength between the 1932 and 1935 State Labor Congresses from 10 to 20 per cent. The AWUs aggressive tactics in poaching unemployed unionists who were engaged in sustenance work apparently had the full support of the State Executive and of Kenneally. This probably contributed to Kenneallys electoral defeat in 1936.71

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Changes in the political leadership In March 1935, the Labor Government lost one of its most experienced members when McCallum accepted an appointment to the Chair of the new Agricultural Bank Board. Trainer wrote expressing the Executives deepest appreciation of McCallums magnificent and sterling service to the labour movement over many years.72 McCallum replied that he had difficulty in deciding to leave his position as a fighting force in the Movement and to tear up by the roots a lifelong association and activity.73 Several factors probably influenced McCallums decision to leave politics. In 1930, he had defeated Willcock in the ballot for Deputy Leader of the Party, and had acted as Premier during Colliers lengthy illness and rehabilitation in 1934. McCallum may have resigned because he was increasingly reluctant to shoulder the Premiers burden without any indication that he would succeed to that office. But he also experienced difficulties in his constituency, poor health and personal attacks by Hughes, which led to corruption charges and a Royal Commission. In 1932, McCallum had been strongly criticised for voting for bulk-handling of wheat when many of his constituents were unemployed. Then Hughes accused him of corrupt practices. McCallum held shares in a hotel, for which he granted planning permission shortly before he retired from politics. The resulting Royal Commission exonerated him, but not until shortly before his death in 1937.74 By the mid 1930s, there were widespread problems surrounding Colliers leadership of the party. He was a popular politician, and he had a formidable record of parliamentary achievement. Yet, after the Labor Government was returned in the 1936 State election, it became increasingly evident to his Caucus colleagues that he must be persuaded to step down from the leadership. Heavy drinking exacerbated Colliers health problems, and he became increasingly difficult to work with. He was often absent from his office, Cabinet and Caucus meetings, and the Legislative Assembly. He quarrelled with other senior members of Cabinet, especially Johnson. He also made decisions without consulting Caucus. In July 1933, Collier was asked to explain to Caucus why he had recommended the appointment of Sir James Mitchell as Lieutenant Governor. He claimed that the government had nothing to do with the appointment. Sir James had been recommended to the British Government by the retiring Chief Justice. The WA Government could not recommend as they were not consulted. He also said that Sir James had definitely and finally withdrawn from politics for all time as part of the undertaking. After

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discussion, Caucus resolved to protest against the Imperial Governments appointment of a Lieutenant Governor without consultation with the State Government.75 With the State election out of the way, the SPLP called a special meeting on 13 August 1936 to discuss the Party leadership. Johnson, as Chair, stated that this was a Party, rather than a Cabinet, matter. Drew reported that, as a result of the Premiers illness, certain negotiations had taken place and arrangements made to meet Collier the following day, Friday 14th. The outcome of this meeting was that, on 18 August, Caucus reluctantly accepted the resignation they had engineered, and 57-year-old John Collings Willcock became the States fourth Labor Premier. He was only six years younger than Collier. Willcock had been born in 1879, the sixth child of Joseph Willcock, a miner, and Ella (Webb) Willcock, in the Boorowa District of NSW. After he came west in 1897, John Willcock worked on the Fremantle Harbour, became a railway fireman and, subsequently, a locomotive engine driver at Geraldton, where he was an active LEDFCU member. From 1914 to 1917 he served as President of the Geraldton District Council, winning the seat of Geraldton in the September 1917 State election. He held the portfolios of Railways and Justice in the first two Collier ministries and was also Minister for Police from 1924 to 1928. Willcock was Deputy Premier from 1927 to 1930, and from McCallums retirement in 1935 until his appointment as Party Leader. At this time, he was again Minister for Railways, but relinquished this portfolio upon becoming Premier. Willcock was to serve as Premier until 1945 when he resigned on the grounds of ill health, leaving Parliament two years later.76 Collier continued to hold the seat of Boulder to which he was returned unopposed in 1943 and 1947 until his death on 18 October 1948. His record of almost 43 years of continuous parliamentary service stood for nearly three decades until exceeded by John Tonkin in 1976. He did little to justify the faith of his constituents for, during his final 12 years as a backbencher, he spoke only twice in Parliament, and was frequently absent from Caucus meetings.77 But Collier was by no means the only dead wood in the SPLP. Alex Clydesdale and Charlie Williams were particularly notorious and rarely attended Caucus. Williams was elected to South Province in 1928. In 1929, State ALP Secretary Ernie Barker wrote, warning him unofficially of complaints from public bodies in his electorate whose correspondence had not been attended to. Barker also commented that it would be a good thing if you could get around the district a little. Clearly offended, Williams declared that these tasks should be undertaken by Kanowna MLA Tom Walker who earns plenty and sits back

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and does nothing, whereas he on 50 a month had barely enough to pay his debts, let alone do another mans work for him. He suggested that Barker write to Walker in the same vein.78 In 1933, the Eastern Goldfields District Council refused to endorse Williamss nomination for the selection ballot an unprecedented occurrence for a sitting Member. When the State Executive asked the Goldfields Secretary, J.J. Lawler, to explain the Councils action, Lawler replied that Williams had neglected his constituency, especially the NorsemanEsperance portion of it, having paid only three visits there in the previous five years. The Council declined to nominate him in the belief that he had no possible chance of winning the election.79 But the State Executive upheld Williamss appeal and the Eastern Goldfields District Council was forced to accept his nomination. Williamss constituents were more forgiving than had been expected, for they continued to return him to the Upper House. The State Executive evidently foresaw this likelihood when they supported his endorsement. James Cunningham, MLA for Kalgoorlie, was another non-achiever. In 1936, the Eastern Goldfields District Council ran a rival candidate, Herbert Styants, who won the election. But the ALP then accepted Cunninghams nomination for the Senate, to which, surprisingly, he was elected in 1937.80 Women in the ALP In the late 1930s, too many Labor backbenchers were either fading stars such as Collier and Johnson, or low achievers like Williams and Clydesdale. It was unfortunate for the Party, as well as for individuals, that some who were willing and competent to represent Labor in Parliament were denied the opportunity purely on the grounds of gender. Part of the reason for the lack of female representation in Parliament was that women were denied the mechanism of Executive positions in the District Councils, which frequently served as a stepping stone to pre-selection. No longer did women serve as District Council Treasurers, and the few who were delegates were not considered for any of the seven offices. The one exception was Eileen Long, who served as Secretary of the Eastern Goldfields District Council from February 1939 until September 1941, when she was forced to resign because of ill health.81 During the 1930s, the only State Executive offices open to female candidates appear to have been on the Peace Committee. By the end of the 1920s, peace rallies were fairly commonplace in Australia, with a growing number of peace organisations using occasions such as Anzac Day and Armistice Day to educate the public about the horrors of war and to urge governments to seek other means of

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settling international differences. In 1928, Labor women in Western Australia took part in a peace demonstration on Armistice Day.82 The State Executive appointed an ALP Peace Committee in 1929, with the initial Executive comprising Lilian Foxcroft, May Holman, Etta Hooton, Andrew Clementson, Percy Trainer and Eden Greville. Obviously, the LWCE did not regard this as a womens committee because they formed their own Peace Committee to work alongside the ALPs organisation.83 In March 1939, May Holman stood for her sixth term in the seat of Forrest. Although unrewarded with a Cabinet post, Mays achievements had been recorded in a 1935 souvenir booklet issued by the LWCE to celebrate her tenth year in Parliament. In the same year, Collier opened Holman House at Holyoake in her electorate. That the first Labor Womens Clubrooms in the Commonwealth should bear May Holmans name was an appropriate gesture, for she had devoted much of her energy to strengthening and increasing womens organisations within the labour movement. Yet despite Colliers stated hope that Holman would inspire many women of her kind to assist in the magnificent work she is doing for the people generally and for women in particular, during her lifetime, only one other woman, Dorothy Tangney, succeeded in gaining Labor pre-selection in Western Australia.84 In January 1939, when Michael Troy resigned to become Agent General in London, the Perth LWO passed a resolution requesting the SPLP include Holman in the Cabinet. Such a move, the resolution said, would give the greatest confidence and satisfaction to the Labor women of the State and would strengthen the position of the movement in respect of WA women generally.85 Perhaps Willcock would have considered her for his Cabinet after the 1939 election. During the 1939 election campaign, Holman was assisted by her sisters, Sheila, who worked as her secretary and personal assistant, and Iris Demasson, who although six months pregnant toured the Forrest electorate canvassing for votes. On 17 March, Iris and Mays car skidded out of control on a gravel road near Bunbury. Iris and her unborn child survived, but May died from massive internal injuries three days later. She had remained fully conscious and lived long enough to know that she had been re-elected. As a backbencher, Holman was not entitled to a state funeral. But her funeral service at St Marys Cathedral was attended by the Lieutenant Governor, the Premier and the entire Cabinet, other Members of Parliament including those in the Opposition, trade unionists, Labor womens representatives and both official and private members of the Bassendean community where May had lived. Other tributes

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came from those unable to attend, including John Curtin, whose broadcast commemorating Holmans life and work ended with the words, Her memory will have a precious place in the annals of our cause.86 As part of this tribute, Curtin had said that, the times in which brilliant women exerted their influence by proxy have long since vanished. But Labor women would have no further direct role in the WA Parliament until Ruby Hutchison was elected to the Upper House in 1954. She held the distinction of being the first female Legislative Councillor in Australia.87 The most sincere tribute to May Holman that the labour movement could have offered was to ensure that women candidates were given an equal opportunity in pre-selection ballots. This was not attempted, and no woman represented Labor in the Lower House again until Yvonne Henderson, Jackie Watkins, Pam Buchanan and Pam Beggs were elected in 1983 44 years after Holmans death. Although devastated by Holmans death both at a personal and a political level the womens organisations continued their work. The LWCE held its 1939 conference in the shadow of a great sorrow. They supported the work of the Spanish Refugee Relief Committee, which was founded in Perth on 28 April 1939 to send aid to the Republican refugees from the Spanish Civil War. Information from the Committee showed that the Fascist Government was carrying out fierce reprisals against many social groups, including trade unionists, priests, and professionals such as doctors, nurses, university staff and social workers.88 They also organised assistance for the striking members of the Coastal Food Union at the Mills and Ware Biscuit Factory in South Fremantle in August. Nearly 300 workers, including many females and juniors, were seeking a 44-hour week instead of the 48-hour week that they presently worked. After two months, the workers returned to work without gaining their demands, on the undertaking that there would be no victimisation of any workers arising from the strike, and that the company would negotiate for a fresh Award.89 The coming war Throughout the 1930s, the LWCE persisted in bringing before the State Executive resolutions condemning war and the activities of the Fascist powers in Europe. They opposed compulsory military training schemes, and criticised the Lyons Governments excessive spending on armaments and its manufacture of munitions, while health and education programs suffered from lack of resources.90 They were assisted by the Worker, which ran a front page headline in March 1935 announcing, Australia and War. Universal Conscription

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Foreshadowed. The paper warned that covert preparations for another war were already underway, and that Australia and the other dominions would again be involved without having any say. Speculation had been fuelled by the visit to Australia the previous year of Sir Maurice Hankey, Secretary to the British Cabinet and to the Committee of Imperial Defence. Hankey was officially in Australia for Victorias centenary celebrations, but left in the midst of these for New Zealand, accompanied by Senator Pearce. Hankey was, indeed, in Australia for secret defence talks,91 and he later made public his advice to the Australian and New Zealand governments to reinstate compulsory military training. The Worker remarked, prophetically:
It is highly improbable that the [Australian] people would be given a voice on the matter [of conscription] again, but conscription would be passed by an antiLabor Federal Government in accordance with undertakings arrived at between the British Government and those responsible for the administration of such matters in Australia.

The Worker added that the Lyons Government clearly stated its intention to reintroduce compulsory military training in the next two or three years when money was available to finance the scheme.92 As events in Europe moved relentlessly toward war, the Federal ALP maintained an isolationist stance, best exemplified by Curtins emotional speech during the Czechoslovakian crisis of 1938. Curtin pleaded with Lyons for an assurance that the government would not automatically commit Australia to any war declared by Britain upon Germany.93 In April 1939, after Lyonss sudden death, Robert Menzies became Prime Minister and Leader of the UAP. When, at the beginning of September, as a consequence of Hitlers aggressive militarism, Britain declared war upon Germany, Menzies stated that as a result, Australia is also at war. Despite his announcement being utterly at odds with Labors stated position, Curtins approach was to offer support instead of expressing outrage that Menzies had not asked the opinion of the people, although he had strong objections to sending Australias defence force overseas and leaving the country undefended.94

Chapter Seven

The one outstanding man in Australia John Curtin and the State ALP 19351945
When Prime Minister Robert Menzies announced to Australians on 3 September 1939 that they were once more committed to an overseas war, he addressed a nation of about seven million people, or roughly twice the population that had sustained so impressive a war effort from 1914 to 1918. Western Australias population of approximately 493,000 was about 7 per cent of the national total.1 The Willcock Labor Government had been returned in the March 1939 State election the first at which voting was made compulsory.2 During the war years, Western Australia was perhaps more solidly Labor than at any other time in its history, and a significant factor in this bias was the personal popularity of John Curtin. Curtin as Leader of the Federal Opposition Collier, McCallum and Curtin had fought the anti-conscription campaign together in 1917. In the mid 1930s, as Collier and McCallum relinquished their roles and dreams of leadership, Curtin rose to prominence as Leader of the FPLP and the Federal Opposition. Back in Canberra after regaining the seat of Fremantle in 1934, Curtin was at last rewarded when his Caucus colleagues elected him to the Opposition front bench. But few foresaw his speedy elevation to Party Leadership. Curtins gift of oratory and his opposition to the Premiers Plan were significant factors in gaining him support as the ailing Scullins successor. Curtin was reportedly stunned when he heard that his old anti-conscriptionist colleague, E.J. Holloway, was heading a Caucus group pushing to make him Leader of the Party. Green was another supporter. Curtin won the ballot on 1 October 1935 from Francis Forde, by one vote ironically that of Maurice Blackburn, whom he detested.3

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The WA State Executive responded swiftly with sincere congratulations. Replying to Trainer, Curtin summed up his role in the WA labour movement, writing:
For years I have been either a member or an officer of the State Executive and to the utmost of my ability, I have endeavoured to interpret what would be the reasonable view of the majority of its members. It is, therefore, with feelings of deep satisfaction that your message is received as giving the view that whatever may have been the differences in the points of view between myself and individual members from time to time, these are of little consequence compared with the broad general unity of thought that has marked the State Executive as a body and myself as its officer for so many years. I have no great sense of personal ambition, and I have never had any The Western Australian Labor Movement has given me much, and I have given to it the best of which I was capable, yet I feel I am indeed its debtor and that I have gained more than I have given.4

Curtin was 50 years of age when he became FPLP Leader. He inherited a Party that was depleted financially and ideologically, and split into two warring factions in New South Wales. Although he felt that the Party would have been better served by a younger leader as yet unwearied by years of in-fighting at Party conferences, Curtin clearly understood that his task was to unite and build up the party, aiming to return it to Federal Government.5 To achieve this end, he toured the country by train, meeting and talking with as many members in as many places as possible. Curtins efforts were eventually rewarded; in 1941, NSW Labor was reunited and the Federal ALP returned to government. Green was Curtins only WA colleague in Federal Caucus until 1937, when Senator James Cunningham arrived, with James Fraser and Robert Clothier entering the Senate in 1938. Cunningham became Deputy Leader in the Senate in 1940 and was President from 1941 to 1943, and Clothier served as Senate Whip from 1941 to 1949. Fraser was the only other WA Federal Member besides Curtin to hold a Cabinet post in any of the 194145 administrations.6 The Western Australian war effort The State Executives Annual Report for 1939 recorded, somewhat wistfully, that the early months of the year had shown every promise of a permanence in the economic progress of the works of this State. Increased employment and economic output had heralded a return to normal conditions that is, until the war came. At least, State Labor could rejoice in a position far stronger than in the previous war, having been returned with an increased number of

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Lower House seats in the 1939 election. The swing to Labor, reported the State Executive, was particularly marked in country areas. Already, the Party was thinking of post-war reconstruction and the need to avoid another devastating economic depression.7 In the meantime, the Willcock Government had to negotiate numerous problems associated with the States war footing. Within a week of war being declared, the Menzies administration passed the National Security Act, giving the Federal Government wide-ranging powers including conscripting all males aged 18 to 60 years for military training. Until 1942, the only form of exemption for those who were physically fit was to serve as non-combatants. As the war continued, Regulations increasingly governed virtually every aspect of social and economic life, and gave the Commonwealth Government a previously unimagined authority. Those most adversely affected were civilians designated aliens because of their country of origin Germany, Italy or Japan or members of a party or group that was deemed to be disloyal: Communists, Fascists or Jehovahs Witnesses. Both the Communist Party and the Jehovahs Witnesses Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society were declared illegal organisations in June 1940 under the National Security Regulations. Members of these organisations, conscientious objectors who had been ordered by the Court to perform military duties, and other dissidents (a small minority of a few hundred persons in all), risked and in some cases suffered imprisonment. The lesser, but still very considerable, inconveniences created by commodity rationing and travel restrictions affected everybody.8 Many men and women enlisted in the defence forces, either as volunteers or conscripts. Male volunteers mostly joined the Second AIF, an expeditionary military force formed in the tradition of the original AIF, to serve overseas. Within six months, 100,000 men across Australia had volunteered for military service overseas, where they fought in North Africa, Palestine, Greece and Crete. Other men and women enlisted in the naval and air forces, the militia, or in medical, nursing or auxiliary bodies. Western Australians were in all branches of the services overseas, whilst the RAN and the RAAF maintained active bases at Fremantle and Pearce respectively, and contributed significantly to the war effort, especially after Japans entry into hostilities. An estimated 83,400 Western Australian men enlisted in the armed services during World War II. Enlisted ALP members included Tom Burke, Harry Styants and William Lonnie, whilst many others, including State Secretary Tom Davies, suffered the loss of relatives. From 1941, when the Federal Government approved the

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establishment of the womens auxiliary services, Western Australian women led the nation in enlistments, and in 1945 there were 4,800 of them in the armed services.9 Elections and by-elections, 194041 Meanwhile, the normal political processes continued. The tensions that developed between the WA Branch and the Federal ALP centred chiefly on the choice of candidates and the conduct of election campaigns; the role of the Federal Opposition during Menzies administration; defence needs and priorities; and Federal powers. The first Federal election of the war occurred on 21 September 1940. Curtin opened Labors campaign with a policy speech delivered at Perth on 28 August. Campaigning zealously around Australia, he neglected his own electorate and barely retained his seat. His UAP opponent, F.R. Lee, lost by only 641 votes.10 Labor polled better than in the previous election, resulting in a Parliament in which the UAP/Country Party Coalition and Labor each held 36 seats. The balance of power was held by two Independents. Within days of the election, Texas Green, died. Texas was affectionately remembered as a big-hearted man, always loyal and stalwart to the principles for which the Labor Movement stood.11 Those very principles were debated in the ensuing pre-selection ballot for a candidate to replace Green. The vast seat of Kalgoorlie spanned the Geraldton, Murchison and Eastern Goldfields District Council areas. According to the Constitution, each Council had a say in selecting the candidate. Vic Johnson, the State Executives preferred candidate, was not popular in the Murchison. The Eastern Goldfields District Council objected to the process of selection rather than to the candidate. Council Secretary Eileen Long was instructed to insist on holding a selection ballot as laid down in the Constitution. The State Executive, however, was concerned about the tight time schedule. Nominations had to be in on 25 October, and, with polling day on 16 November, the State Executive suggested that its officers choose a candidate from the nominations. The UAP candidate, the irrepressible F.R. Lee, hot from his defeat in Fremantle, was ready to commence campaigning in the Goldfields. The Eastern Goldfields wanted a goldfields person in the seat. Initially, Long stood for pre-selection but then withdrew.12 The Geraldton District Council accepted the State Executives decision, but Murchison conducted a ballot in which James Dinan polled nine

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votes to Johnsons three, so they urged support for Dinan.13 The ballot was held in the customary way, and Johnson was elected by a majority of 15 votes out of 49 cast. He succeeded in winning the by-election from Lee.14 Dinan was selected as Labors candidate for the Swan by-election which took place the following month, following the death of veteran Country Party Member, Henry Gregory. A victory in Swan would have gained Labor a majority in the House of Representatives.15 Swan electorate covered parts of Avon Valley, Midland, Metropolitan and Great Southern District Councils. The campaign was a fiasco. It came at a difficult time when the Federal Budget was being debated in the House of Representatives, and Curtin was under pressure from Caucus to exploit the precarious situation of the UAP Government. Curtin wanted to send Bert Lazzarini to campaign in Swan, but Menzies refused to offer pairs except for the new Member for Barton, Dr. H.V. Evatt. Senators Fraser and Cunningham accompanied Evatt to Western Australia. Curtin prepared publicity material, and obtained financial assistance and air broadcast time, all tasks which he regarded as above and beyond the rightful expectations of a Party Leaders role in a by-election. He did not make the radio broadcast that he had promised in support of Dinan, claiming that the time available had been reduced so he had given it all to Evatt.16 While Curtins absence from the campaign undoubtedly contributed to the apparent lack of Federal support for the Swan candidate, rumours that Dinan was connected with the Communist Party had a negative effect, too. Labor colleagues became increasingly reluctant to be associated with him. Although Evatt threw himself enthusiastically into the election campaign, his efforts were not sufficient and the majority of Swan electors voted for Country Party member T.W. Marwick.17 Immediately after the election, Dinan accused the State Executive of sabotaging the Swan by-election. On 6 January 1941, Dinan and Curtin were both present at a special meeting of the State Executive Officers to discuss the charges. Curtin invited Dinan to state his full case. Dinan said he could produce a witness to testify that certain stuff was prepared and not used referring to campaign materials. Curtin accused Dinan of muck raking. The meeting adjourned for a week. When it reconvened, the evidence that Dinan had produced was revealed as mostly hearsay about criticisms of the campaign by J. Brady, the Secretary of Midland District Council, W.D. Johnson MLA and Senator Fraser. Curtin was absent from this meeting, but had prepared an affidavit containing replies to all of Dinans previous charges. Dinans complaints about the lack of speakers and the absence of advertising material were countered by the Executive Officers. They argued that 17 Members of the

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Legislative Assembly had assisted directly in the campaign, and that 5 Federal politicians and more than 32 members of the State Executive contributed in various ways. A resolution to expel Dinan from the ALP was carried with only two dissentients. Although the Dinan case, as it became known, occupied several Metropolitan District Council meetings, few delegates spoke in his favour. A large majority carried a resolution stating that Dinans remarks showed clearly that he was not in support of the party.18 The role of the Federal Opposition 193941 Curtin had blamed his own apparent lack of support for Dinans campaign largely on pressing business in the House of Representatives. As Leader of the Opposition during wartime, Curtin believed both in supporting the Government in its war effort and maintaining a full Parliamentary Opposition, capable of criticising the Menzies administration when necessary. He strongly opposed attempts to form a national government consisting of all the political parties, because he believed that a functioning Opposition was essential to the proper conduct of the war. 19 In June 1940, the Federal Labor Conference altered its defence policy to express its complete and indissoluble unity with the Allies in war. The second plank of the platform stated that the entire resources of Australia should be under the control of the Commonwealth Government although at the same time many Federal Labor Members of Parliament opposed a bill to amend the National Security Act and grant the Government far-reaching powers.20 Other elements of the ALPs policy were the absorption of all idle employable labour into industry in order to secure maximum productivity; a national service training scheme; participation in the Empire Air Training Scheme, whereby Australia provided pilots who trained and entered combat overseas; and the reinforcement of the AIF in the European theatre of war as necessary. But the policy stayed true to its Labor roots by including an excess war profits tax of 100 per cent. The Conference supported Curtins aims of maintaining a separate party in Opposition, and urged that ALP representatives be included in a National War Council to advise the government in the conduct of the war and in preparing for post-war reconstruction.21 Six months later, Curtin told a meeting of the Metropolitan District Council that he had succeeded in persuading Menzies to set up a joint War Council. The Labor Opposition was now able to influence the resolution of industrial disputes involving the coal miners and waterside workers. Machinery was made available on the waterfront to meet the increased demands of wartime

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conditions, and, Curtin promised, the views of unionists would be considered. Curtins role on the War Council and his remarkable frankness in District Council meetings kept the Western Australian Branch of the Party well informed. His proposals to the War Council in line with the ALP plank that provided for the preservation of citizens from attack resulted in increased defence in the Indian Ocean. Curtin also reported to the Metropolitan District Council that he had accepted the Prime Ministers challenge on the budget and that he was prepared to go to a general election. Menzies had invited him to confer, and with ALP support Curtin was able to bring about a number of concessions without compromising the Party. These included raising the threshold of exemption under the Federal Income Tax which spared the great mass of the working class, and having the proposed soldiers pay increase converted to a family allowance of seven shillings a week for the dependents of members of the armed forces who were serving in Palestine. This move, he believed would avoid taxing British ratepayers, as the money was to come from a war loan. Curtin had also secured a promise that the old age pension would not be reduced below a guinea a week, and that it would be subject to a quarterly adjustment based on present purchasing power compared with that in 1939. At the conclusion of his address to the District Council, Curtin was accorded a hearty vote, by acclamation.22 Not all members of the Metropolitan District Council were won over by Curtin, however. At the next meeting, the Carpenters delegate, Maurie Lachberg, announced that his union supported the Federal Members who opposed the Menzies budget: Evatt, Brennan, Ward and Calwell. Evatt wanted to challenge the Government, in order to bring it down so that Labor could take office.23 The AEU and the Young Labor League (YLL) also opposed what they saw as Curtins collaboration with the UAP. In February 1941, the YLL, which had shrunk to 10 members, was disaffiliated from the Metropolitan District Council, following its public support for Dinan and a statement in the Daily News that it would cleanse the labour movement.24 Some of the dissidents were later revealed to be dual members of the CPA and the ALP. The man on the white horse Since its foundation at the end of 1920, the CPA had not been a significant force in Western Australian politics, although it had attracted some labour dissidents to its membership (see Chapter Four).25 Federally, the CPA had been under attack since the UAP returned to power in 1932. As Attorney General, Menzies had launched a vendetta against overseas visitors such as Egon Kisch

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and Gerald Griffin, on the grounds of their Communist Party membership. Military and civil intelligence justified their persecution of Communists on the grounds that they were loyal to the Soviet Union rather than to Australia.26 In September 1937, after the CPA had attempted to affiliate with the State ALP, Percy Trainer issued a press statement regarding the Partys attitude to the Communists:
The ALP hereby refuses affiliation to the Communist Party, and dissociates itself from its policy, methods and propaganda. It declares the Communist party to be anti-Labor [and] in direct conflict with the policy, platform and Constitution of the ALP.27

At the beginning of the war, there were some 300 CPA members in the State. The Menzies Governments Australia-wide ban of the Party in June 1940 preceded police raids upon the houses of known or suspected members, arrests and several imprisonments. The following year, the WA State Executive followed the lead of the Federal Executive in warning ALP members against belonging to Communist Party subsidiaries such as the Australia-Soviet Friendship League and the Medical Aid to Russia Committee.28 While acting as Employees Representative in the Arbitration Court in June 1941, Trainer angered the building trades unions by saying that their recent strike had been engineered by Communists. J.G. White, a building trades delegate to the Metropolitan District Council, stated that the strike action had been endorsed by a meeting of all the Executives of the building trades unions. The Carpenters Union representative, Maurie Lachberg, said that Trainers statement would jeopardise all union claims before the Arbitration Court. Trainer failed to respond to a resolution asking him to explain his statement. He later said that he feared that his remarks might prejudice a court case between T.J. Hughes and the Westralian Worker, in which he was involved. The Executive Officers held a special meeting on 1 July (attended by Trainer) and resolved unanimously that no explanation was desired as no good purpose would be served by pursuing the matter further.29 At a later meeting, Lachberg tried to move a motion of no confidence in Trainer, both as Employees Representative on the Arbitration Court and as ALP State Secretary, but the Carpenters Union refused to be associated with it. The Chair ruled that delegates represented their organisations, not themselves; however, as this was not stated in writing, he allowed Lachberg to proceed with the motion. Lachberg asked what confidence the District Council could have in a representative of the Court who made such statements. Trainer, he claimed, had slandered workers in the gutter and had worked in the

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interests of the bosses, but he was forced to withdraw this remark. P.W. Hughes opposed the motion, asserting that Lachberg had no case. Hughes said that Lachbergs own union had repudiated him, he was a Communist Party member whilst sitting as a delegate on the Metropolitan District Council and the State Executive, and he represented only his own faction in the building trades. Trainer, on the other hand, had given his life to the Movement over the past 20 years. Trainer defended himself by saying that he had been in the witness box of the Arbitration Court for four days in trying circumstances, whereas Lachberg had sat in the gallery, laughed and jeered and seemed pleased when we were likely to be downed. Lachberg then accused Trainer of being a police informer, another remark that he was forced to withdraw. The no confidence motion was finally put and lost on a large majority of voices. Hughes accused both Lachberg and Plasterers Union delegate, A.C. Lee, of being Communists who went under the respective names of Mouvre and Thomson.30 The next District Council meeting was taken up entirely with the charges against Lachberg and Lee. Hughes, who presented the evidence against the two men, asserted that both had attended the Eighth Conference of the WA State Committee of the CPA in April 1939, and that Lee was a State Committee member and Chair of the Building Trades faction. In Communist circles, Hughes claimed, A.C. Thomson was identified as a member of the Plasterers Union, a member of the Building Trades executive and a delegate to the Metropolitan District Council of the ALP, as was Mouvre, a member of the Perth Branch of the Carpenters Union. Vice-President Tom Burke supported this claim, basing his evidence on the sworn statement of a police detective that the man on the white horse in the Labour Day procession was a Communist. Lachberg had revived the tradition of Chief Marshall at Labour Day parades, and rode at the head of the procession on a white horse. A majority supported a motion to expel Lachberg and Lee from the ALP.31 Lachberg and his wife applied to be re-admitted to the ALP in 1958 and their applications were accepted in January 1960.32 After Hitlers troops invaded Russia in June 1941, the Soviet Union became an ally, fighting the Fascist powers of Germany and Italy, but the CPA remained an illegal organisation until the Curtin Government lifted the ban in December 1942. A majority on the State Executive continued to oppose any cooperation between the two parties, even to assist the war effort. In November 1944, the State Executive ruled that no affiliated organisation could appoint or retain as an officer or servant a CPA member or an expelled ALP member. A year later, when the Midland District Council asked for a ruling on whether CPA

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members could attend Council meetings, the State Secretary replied that only officers, delegates and visitors who are ALP members might attend.33 As these were all expected to have signed ALP pledge cards, the meaning was clear Communists were barred from attending meetings of the District Councils irrespective of whether they were members of affiliated bodies. The defence of Western Australia Even before the war began, the Willcock Government had commenced negotiations with the Federal Government over the States defence. During his 1939 visit, Menzies had received an ALP State Executive deputation, led by Mooney and Trainer, to discuss whether the Federal Government intended to use the WAGR Workshops at Midland for manufacturing defence equipment, and grant defence contracts to Western Australian firms. They also suggested that the Federal Government construct a standard gauge railway between Perth and Kalgoorlie, the terminus for the standard gauge railway from the eastern states. But Menzies claimed that that the Midland Workshops could not economically fulfil such requirements as have been sought to date, and while their potential would be considered for future requirements, there would be no work for the foreseeable future. He also regarded the cost of constructing a standard gauge railway from Perth to Kalgoorlie as prohibitive.34 These decisions greatly reduced Western Australias competitiveness and efficiency in the war effort Shortly after the war began, Willcock met with Menzies in Canberra and secured a promise to expedite any defence expenditure in Western Australia and also to consider the Premiers request that local defence industries should utilise local labour and materials. The Commonwealth proposed to spend 40,000 on constructing Army huts at Northam and Cottesloe. These would be built by the State Public Works Department.35 Some of these promises came to fruition, with the Northam Army Camp being established in 1940, and a munitions factory at Welshpool two years later. Shells were also manufactured in a purpose-built annexe at the Midland Workshops from 1943. Meanwhile, with the support of the two Independents who held the balance of power, Labor rejected the Budget of Menziess successor, Artie Fadden, causing the fall of the UAP Government.36 John Curtin became Prime Minister on 7 October 1941. Exactly two months later, Japanese forces attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbour, and Australia became involved in an even more perilous conflict than that occupying its troops in faraway Europe and North Africa. As the Japanese forces advanced, capturing the Malay

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Peninsula and Singapore, bombing Darwin and over-running the islands as far as New Guinea, Curtin spent the early months of 1942 organising the return of the Sixth and Seventh Divisions AIF from the Middle East. He also negotiated for American forces, headed by General Douglas MacArthur, to use Australia as a base from which to launch a counter-attack to win the Pacific war. This was the context of Curtins responses to Western Australias demands for more adequate defence. The Murchison District Councils November 1942 resolution supporting Curtin, and protesting against the attitude of the State Premier and other State politicians, reflected a widespread opinion in nonSPLP labour ranks.37 The State Governments main disagreements with Curtin concerned the defence of Western Australia and the matter of uniform taxation. The early months of 1942 were anxious times for Western Australians, with Japanese aircraft attacking Derby, Wyndham and Broome. Possibly one hundred people, mostly refugee women and children from the Dutch East Indies, were killed in the first raid on Broome on 3 March. In the face of apparently imminent invasion, Murchison, the most northerly District Council, remained calm. Meeting a few days after the Darwin air raid in February, the Council resolved to send a telegram to the Minister for the Army, urging haste in arming Home Guard units. They also requested that gold mining be abandoned for the duration of the war and the machinery and workers be utilised in producing munitions; this request contravened the State Governments efforts to maintain the gold mining industry throughout the war.38 Nor did the District Council abandon Labor policy in the crisis. Seven members attended the monthly meeting on 5 April and resolved that nothing less than the nationalisation of all war and relative industry could enable Australia to achieve its maximum potential in defeating the enemy, and that this step should be taken at an early date. In another resolution, they called upon the Federal Executive to consider a referendum to abolish State Parliaments.39 Air raid precautions and blackouts were intensified. These disrupted Metropolitan District Council business. In February 1942, the ALP secured Unity Theatre with sand bags to protect against explosion-generated blasts, and blacked out windows. Perth businesses did likewise. The Government planned to erect air raid shelters to accommodate approximately 80 people on a vacant block of land at the rear of the Churchyard estate, and the Metropolitan District Council Secretary was asked to ascertain how many shelters should be built. The Council was concerned that if an air raid happened while a meeting was in progress, there would not be sufficient accommodation in the shelters for all of the delegates, especially if other union meetings were taking place in

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Trades Hall at the time. Government directives urging people to avoid congregating at night also discouraged frequent meetings. In the early stages of the war, the State Executive officers had sometimes met as frequently as every two days; by mid 1942, the precautions forced them to consider meeting monthly. But the full Council continued to meet almost fortnightly and the Executive similarly.40 Some defence fears were alleviated when American forces began arriving in Perth, the US Navy setting up submarine and Catalina bases, and the US Air Force establishing air warning radars at Kalamunda and Gingin. Number 77 Squadron RAAF was formed at Pearce to defend Perth and Fremantle. By June 1942, some 70,000 troops had been stationed in Western Australia. Every Labor MHR who visited the State spoke to one or more District Councils, assuring them that, in Vic Johnsons words, the Prime Minister was doing a wonderful job and history would prove Mr Curtin to be the one outstanding man in Australia.41 But the Government remained anxious, and continued to complain that the State was poorly defended. Johnson reported to Caucus that the Munitions Factory at Welshpool would not be in production for another year, and that virtually no war work was being done at Midland. In the absence of Willcock in hospital, the SPLP explained to visiting Senators Fraser and Clothier why they were concerned about the defence of the State. Fraser promised to visit the Welshpool site.42 The following month, feeling that pleas to Canberra had been ignored, Caucus passed a resolution demanding that Curtin visit WA to discuss their concerns. Disturbed by the contents of the letter, Curtin rang Caucus Secretary Frank Wise, advising that he could not possibly travel to Perth at present, and requesting further details of the SPLPs grievances. Discussion of the issue over the next two meetings revealed that Members held differing views. While Millington and Wise acknowledged Curtins stupendous task and urged a generous approach, Sleeman thought it imperative that Curtin come to Perth, and Needham preferred the option of sending delegates to Canberra to put their position to the Prime Minister in person. After much airing of views, the SPLP and the Cabinet appointed John Tonkin (MLA for Fremantle NorthEast) and Bert Hawke (MLA for Northam) to represent their position to the Prime Minister. Hawke and Tonkin reported the results of their visit to Caucus on 7 October 1942. Curtin had told them that Australias job was to hold the Japs in the Pacific. It was not possible to supply all States with soldiers and equipment but he promised that the position would be steadily improved. Following the totally unforeseen attack on Darwin the previous February and the more recent attacks on the WA coastline, Curtins assurance that the Allies

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would have at least seven days warning of any large scale movements in the vicinity and thus be able to move Australian and American air support to the State was optimistic. Curtin promised to visit Perth when the Federal Parliament rose in October. From other Ministers and Departmental Heads, Tonkin and Hawke obtained promises to establish a munitions works at Kalgoorlie. to produce alumina in the State and to construct wooden ships.43 Curtins appearance at a State Caucus Meeting at the end of October was carefully staged. Caucus meetings usually ran from 11 am to 1 pm. Curtin rang to say that he would arrive at 12.40 pm too late, as one member observed, to discuss anything. Curtin spoke for 35 minutes on the Federal Governments defence strategy and the wars progress. Invited to attend a further meeting, Curtin said that it would be difficult, and he departed the State without doing so. Styants specifically asked to meet with Curtin again to discuss what he saw as deficiencies in the Army, but no appointment was arranged.44 In contrast, when he attended meetings of the Fremantle and Metropolitan District Councils, Curtin spoke for 90 minutes on the war situation. He recounted the difficulties a democracy faced when confronted by powerful, militaristic forces. Despite the losses suffered by the Allied nations, he said that he was confident of their ultimate victory. The District Councils had given Curtin unwavering support throughout the war, the SPLP had not, and Curtin treated the bodies accordingly. Total war the demand for increased Federal powers Another difference of opinion arose between the SPLP on the one hand, and State and Federal branches of the Party on the other, over uniform taxation. Each State levied its own income tax at rates that varied considerably across the Commonwealth. Soon after the Federal Labor Government came to office, the Treasurer, J.B. Chifley, established a committee to consider ways of instituting a direct tax, raised by the Commonwealth, as a step towards the more efficient prosecution of the war effort. The States would be compensated by grants approximating the tax collected. Chifley believed that by instituting a uniform taxation system he could tap into previously unexploited sources in the lowertaxed States, and he had bi-partisan support. But all of the State Governments opposed the move. The Federal Government pushed ahead in mid 1942 with four Bills that resulted in the Commonwealth acquiring all income tax as revenue. Curtin stated in Parliament on 27 May 1942 that the proposed legislation was designed to enable the Commonwealth Government to take

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command of the taxable capacity of Australia in order to obtain the economic and financial resources required for the war, but he fully intended that the Commonwealth would retain these powers.45 As in the other states, the Willcock Government opposed uniform taxation, while the State Executive and the majority of the District Councils and their affiliates appear to have supported it. At a July 1942 meeting of the Metropolitan District Council, MLAs Ted Needham and Howard Raphael explained the SPLPs opposition. Raphael was strongly opposed because of his experience of Federal domination of State industries, and he thought the issue should be submitted to a referendum. For others, however, the principle of unity was more important. Lewison remarked that the SPLP was apparently at loggerheads with the FPLP when the Federal Governments proposals for financing the war should be given every support. Cooke wanted to know why the SPLP had not consulted the ALP State Executive before opposing the Federal bodys policy. A motion was carried reaffirming the District Councils support for the FPLP.46 The State Executive, likewise, supported the FPLPs uniform tax proposals. Upon his return to Caucus after three months of illness, Willcock expressed his regret that there were tensions between the State Executive and the SPLP. The conservative non-Labor majority in the Upper House was to blame for destroying much social reform legislation put up by his Government; the Basic Wage had been reduced by five shillings per week, and the Workers Compensation Act, which he regarded as being better than any other in Australia, would be lost. Needham expressed surprise at Willcocks words, because, he said, the only difference of opinion between the SPLP and the State Executive was over uniform taxation. Even this was not a clear cut division, with some State Executive members believing that the SPLP had dealt unfairly with the Federal Government, and others, including ALP Secretary Tom Davies, disagreeing.47 But the fight against uniform taxation was a lost cause. Surviving a High Court challenge, the legislation remained in place after the war and determined the nature of taxation in Australia during the remainder of the twentieth century. On 26 October 1942, members of the State Executive and the SPLP met with WA Federal Labor parliamentarians at Perth Trades Hall for a free and frank discussion and exchange of opinions on the proposed federal referendum. They hoped to prevent a repetition of the misunderstandings which arose over the uniform taxation proposals. If passed, the referendum would grant 14 powers, normally held by the States, to the Commonwealth Government for a temporary 5-year period from the end of the war. The powers included control over employment, marketing, profiteering and prices,

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company legislation, and production and distribution. Curtin requested the extra powers primarily so that the Commonwealth Government could ratify the proposed terms of the Atlantic Charter. He reminded the meeting that the use of military conscripts created a situation quite different from that of World War I where all members of the armed forces serving overseas were volunteers. The Commonwealth Parliament had undertaken to restore the positions of men who had been forced to leave their work and enlist in the armed forces, yet it had no authority in respect of industry and was actually dependent upon the States relocating 600,000 to 800,000 service and war industries personnel. Because chaotic conditions [existed] between States exemplified among other things by different industrial awards only a National Government with complete authority could honour the promises of post-war reconstruction. In addition, the enormous logistical problems that had to be overcome in transporting troops and supplies from one part of the continent to another would be minimised if Australia had a standard gauge rail system, and Commonwealth-controlled locomotives and rolling stock.48 Willcock put opposing arguments. While it would be safe to hand over such extensive powers to a Labor government, there could be no guarantee that the next Federal election would not see a change of government in Canberra. Secondly, WAs social legislation offered workers a higher Basic Wage and a more comprehensive Workers Compensation Act than anywhere else in the Commonwealth. Unification of award conditions would reduce these to the standards of Federal legislation. Thirdly, any further incursions upon State Government powers would merely increase Western Australian feelings of isolation and of being ignored by the Federal Government. As an example, he said that, in the present war, it had taken personal representations by the Prime Minister to increase the capacity of WAs munitions factories. Willcock concluded that he was sure that the State Governments would be always willing to cooperate, but if the Federal Government forced the issue, the Federal Labor Senators would be wiped out in this State. The referendum bore the imprint of a big split such as occurred in the last war.49 After other State Executive delegates had spoken, the meeting adjourned to consider the matter further. When the so-called Fourteen Powers Referendum was finally put to the people, Western Australia and South Australia were the only states to record a majority of votes in favour of granting the Federal Government additional powers. Despite his earlier support of the campaign, Curtin grew increasingly pessimistic about the likelihood of the referendums success and, when the result was known, announced that he was not surprised.50 The result in WA, however besides being a tribute to the work

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of the State Executives Organising Committee which strongly supported the campaign suggests that Willcock was quite out of touch with his own people.51 In the meantime, Curtin had to face his greatest challenge and the action that generated the most criticism of him as a betrayer of his revolutionary roots the conscription of men for military service overseas. As he had indicated to the WA State Executive, Curtin was uncomfortable with the fact that Australia had two armies: the AIF, recruited to fight overseas and composed entirely of volunteers, and the partly-conscripted Australian Military Force (AMF), also known as the militia. He knew that American conscripts were dying while fighting in Australias defence, and he felt that Australias insistence on retaining conscripts at home was insupportable. Curtin introduced the issue of conscription for overseas military service at a Special Conference of the ALP in Melbourne in November 1942. Although Lloyd Ross stated that Curtin undertook no prior lobbying, his intentions were certainly foreshadowed in his speech to the WA State Executive the previous month. Fearing the prospect of splitting the Party, he followed the correct ALP policy procedure by seeking a ruling on the issue by the Partys decision-making body before introducing legislation in Parliament. WA supported Curtins conscription policy. Senator Fraser seconded Curtins original motion to extend the area in which conscripts might serve to include the South West Pacific Area. The proposal was sent to each of the State Executives for consideration and most voted in support. It was passed at a Special Conference in January 1943 with WA being one of the States to vote in favour. Curtin then introduced in Parliament the Defence (Citizen Military Forces) Bill, under which members of the militia (including conscripts) could be required to serve in any area of General MacArthurs command in the South West Pacific Zone. The Opposition had long been calling for the removal of any territorial limitations for the militia. When Curtin finally yielded to the extent of requiring the militia to serve in the South West Pacific, he was criticised from both sides of the House. Curtin justified his timing of the Militia Bill by saying that his governments policy had not impaired the efficient use of the [fighting forces] by the Commander in Chief [MacArthur]. But the UAP members said that it was too little, too late.52 Among Labor ranks, Arthur Calwell, Don Cameron, Eddie Ward and Maurice Blackburn most strongly opposed conscription for overseas service. In a Caucus meeting on 24 March, Calwell accused Curtin of being a turncoat and said that he would finish up to the other side leading a Nationalist Government. Curtin threatened to resign and Calwell was forced to apologise. Curtins old friend, H.E. Boote, launched a savage attack against him on the

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front page of the Australian Worker. This must have been particularly hard for Curtin to bear, as Boote was one of a select group of friends that he had maintained since his youth. He depended on these friends to reassure him that his present role was in accord with his earlier international socialist beliefs.53 The 1943 Federal and State Elections In between the subject of the Federal Powers referendum first being debated in Labor circles and the referendum itself, the ALP had been returned to government in the 1943 Federal election. Labor had campaigned under the slogans, For the Safety of Australia return the Curtin Government and Assure victory in war and security in peace vote Labor. Everywhere, Curtins personal popularity was exploited in an unprecedented way. To the farmers, Curtin was presented as a Man of his Word who took a more serious view of rural problems than the so-called Country Party. Queensland election posters featured Australias contribution to the war effort, and used a quotation from General MacArthur: No nation is making a more supreme war effort than Australia.54 Curtin exploited the relatively new medium of radio, becoming the first party leader to deliver his election policy speech from Canberra. In this broadcast, he dwelt on Labors achievements since taking office in late 1941, and conceded that, at last, Australia was safe from invasion. He then outlined his vision of a post-war Australia where resources would be fully developed, there would be full employment and full provision for social security.55 The Party also used the medium of radio for brief slogans and jingles such as:
Help Labor and John Curtin win And so make sure of our defence Against the foes without, within, His leadership gives confidence.

After campaigning around Australia, Curtin returned home to Perth to four days of packed-out meetings. Elsie Curtin had overcome ill health to speak at numerous womens meetings organised at the homes of LWCE members. State and Federal Labor politicians embarked upon an extensive schedule of speaking engagements and radio broadcasts on the local radio stations. Wartime electioneering presented its own set of problems. Scripts of radio broadcasts had first to be vetted by the Censor, passed, collected by the broadcasting company and held at the studio until the time of the broadcast. Davies advised speakers to arrive at least 10 minutes prior to the broadcast to familiarise

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themselves with the script.56 Also, posters larger than A3 size were prohibited because of the paper shortage. Other difficulties were of the more traditional kind associated with a winter campaign in the southern half of the state. Nash and Mountjoy (candidates respectively for the Senate and Swan) wrote from one country centre:
We were unable to hold a public meeting here tonight; it rained very heavily just before eight [pm] and only about six people turned up, most of them supporters.57

Nevertheless, the State ALPs efforts were rewarded by a landslide victory for Labor on 21 August. Having scraped home in Fremantle by a few hundred votes in 1940, Curtin must have been encouraged by his majority of almost 23,000 votes over the same opponent, F.R. Lee, and Nationalist A.H. Bracks. Labors popularity in the west was so great that all four Senate candidates were elected the fourth spot resulting from a vacancy arising because of Cunninghams death. Dorothy Tangney became Australias first woman Senator. Tangney, the daughter of engine driver Eugene Tangney and his wife, Ellen, had been born in 1911 at Claremont, but spent most of her childhood in timber towns. At the age of 11, she won a scholarship to St Josephs College in Fremantle. The family returned to Claremont, where Ellen Tangney became a prominent member of the local ALP branch. Dorothy also joined the Labor Party, becoming President of the University Labor Club, and of the Claremont ALP by 1933 and a member of the Young Labor League which was formed in 1936. She stood unsuccessfully for Nedlands against Norbert Keenan in 1936 and 1939, before gaining pre-selection for the Senate in 1940, and finally being elected in 1943.58 Curtin welcomed her presence in Parliament and that of UAP member Dame Enid Lyons, who entered the House of Representatives at the same time.59 All five of the Labor candidates for the House of Representatives were victorious, including three newcomers. Tom Burke, the new Member for Perth, a former farm worker and truck driver from the country town of Moora, was elected a week before his 33rd birthday. Burke had studied accountancy at night school and enlisted in the RAAF; he was serving at Kalgoorlie at the time of his election. He had held the office of Vice President of the Metropolitan District Council, and as a Trustee of the State Executive.60 Nelson Lemmon, a 37-year-old farmer from Ongerup, was the successful candidate for Forrest, whilst D.A. Mountjoy, a railway officer, won Swan.61 The State election was held on 19 November, having been postponed from the previous year by the war situation. The West Australian grudgingly conceded:

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It appears that the Labour [sic] Party has been returned to power for the fourth time in succession and that they would hold the same number of seats as before. The paper described the voting public as apathetic and pointed out that the State had not seen the swing to Labor reflected in the earlier Federal poll.62 Union responses to the erosion of industrial reforms In his role as State Campaign Director, Tom Davies summed up the results of the 1943 Federal election as an unprecedented triumph for Labor in Western Australia and a sweeping victory throughout the Commonwealth. He named as significant factors: Curtins outstanding character; the Federal Governments wartime record; and its achievements in introducing new social security legislation including pensions for widows and deserted wives. Davies also praised the strenuous efforts and generous donations from State ALP affiliates.63 The support evinced in the Partys efforts before and during the election stemmed partly from Curtins determination that there would be equality of sacrifice as much as possible. This included efforts to avoid undermining hard-won workplace reforms. Although the erosion of these was to some extent an inevitable consequence of war, some workers benefited from wartime conditions. Females were awarded a Basic Wage at 75 per cent of the male rate. From the beginning of the war, the unions had been vigilant in attempting to prevent a repetition of the loss of awards and privileges that had occurred in the previous war. Affiliates of the Metropolitan District Council requested that the Federal and State Governments employ only day labourers on contract work, to avoid accepting piece-work and sub-contracts, and to employ more workers rather than offering overtime to its staff. Another resolution requested that the Government made a special effort to have all possible Defence material required for WA made in the State, employing local labour.64 In February 1944, the Curtin government reduced both the State and the Federal Awards by between one and two shillings per week. The WA Award generally exceeded the Federal Award by between six and seven shillings per week. When unions met in Perth in March 1945 to discuss the Basic Wage, they admitted that the National Security Regulations would not permit any variation in the Award, but agreed that attempts should be made to curb the rising cost of essential commodities such as vegetables and clothing. Basic Wage rates were

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not fully restored until after the end of the war and, in October 1946, the Federal Award was increased until it was only one penny per week less than the WA rate.65 Western Australian unions looked optimistically towards peacetime and, by May 1945, were discussing ways and means of achieving the transition from a wartime to a peacetime economy without losing jobs. Their proposals made sound economic sense. The engineering unions recommended that the State Government undertake massive public works: a vitally needed rehabilitation of the State railways and production of locomotives and rolling stock; the establishment of steel works, steel rolling mills, and a ship building industry; improvements to Fremantle Harbour; and the development of a State Engineering Works. They also advocated the expansion of consumer industries such as the manufacture of domestic electrical apparatus, food, textiles and furniture. The Glass Workers wanted a white glass industry developed in the State, whilst the Eastern Goldfields Municipal and Road Board Workers Union called for road building programs and the expansion of sewered areas. Other suggestions included erecting a modern bridge across the Swan River and a properly protected small boat harbour near the Fremantle fish markets.66 Curtins ill health and death As the labour movement looked towards peacetime and reconstruction, the man who had led the Party and the country through the war was unable to keep pace. John Curtin spent very little of his last year of life in Western Australia. He was in Britain and the United States from April to June 1944. In October, he returned to Perth for two weeks holiday his last days in Western Australia. On the way back to Canberra, Curtin became ill in Melbourne and was hospitalised with a heart attack. He was not present at the State ALPs 19th Congress in December 1944. The Congress despatched a telegram expressing sympathy over Curtins illness, and he responded with thanks, saying that he was making steady progress.67 After two months in hospital in Melbourne, Curtin returned to Canberra and work, but in the autumn of 1945 was hospitalised once more with congestion of the lungs. He returned to the Prime Ministers Lodge in May but never resumed work.68 The war years had already taken a considerable toll on Western Australias labour pioneers those who had spent their youth and strength organising sweated labourers into unions, struggling to establish union and party branches in remote places, and rebuilding the movement after its disastrous split in 1916. Ernie Barker, George Lambert and Tom Lowry had all died in 1941.69 Jean

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Beadles funeral in May 1942 was attended by thousands, and among her pallbearers were State and Federal politicians and the Lord Mayor of Perth.70 Mrs Mannion, another foundation member of the Labor Womens movement, Senator Cunningham and W.C. Angwin, past MLA for Fremantle North-East, all died in the winter of 1943.71 Whilst these men and women were in their 70s and most had retired, Curtin, at 60, might have served for another decade in an active capacity. Only those close to him realised the terrible strain that the war had placed on him, and the severity of his illness. Some urged him to retire.72 Yet, even in his final month of life, Curtins mind was on the 1946 Federal election. One of his last communications to his Western Australian Labor colleagues was a note of thanks to the State Executive for endorsing his nomination for Fremantle. Curtins private secretary, F.A. McLaughlin, who had written the note on his behalf on 28 June, added:
Mr Curtin is not able to write to you himself as he is still confined to his bed, but it is hoped that he will soon begin to make real progress towards recovery.73

This hope was not to be realised. Curtin died in his sleep at the Lodge in the early morning hours of 5 July 1945. His death was a great shock to most Australians. Thousands attended his lying in state at Kings Hall, Parliament House, and his funeral at Perths Karrakatta Cemetery. Among the State Executives correspondence relating to Curtins death formal condolences to Mrs Curtin, John and Elsie; plans for the funeral procession, and a reply to a Labor supporter advising that Mrs Curtin was not interested in contesting the seat of Fremantle in the forthcoming by-election is a sincere farewell from Tom Davies:
John Curtin is dead, but the memory of a great Australian, a great Labour leader, a great democrat and a great man will live so long as Australian history endures. The loss to the nation by his passing is not less than the loss to the Australian labour movement. He personified Australia in sentiment and outlook. He was fearless in championship of the working class; but in that championship he was ever tolerant of the right of others to hold and voice opposing views. As a working man, as a journalist and in the glare of public life he won the respect and affection of those amongst whom his lot was cast. As Leader of the Opposition in the first war years, his fairness won expression from the then Prime Minister; and later as the nations leader in war, he measured up well in the highest counsels of the allied nations. In the Labour Movement in Western Australia his life and work will ever be an inspiration. In defeat, as in success, he proved himself a man; and in the wider sphere of the great Australian Labour Movement his name will be bracketed with the other giants of the past a mate ever to be remembered. Slong Jack!74

Chapter Eight

Postwar Deconstruction Party Structures 19451950

In August 1946, the Chifley Federal Labor Government was returned with only a slightly smaller majority than that yielded by the Curtin landslide victory of 1943. Western Australian voters returned Tangney, Harris and Cooke to the Senate, and Labor retained all of the States House of Representatives seats except Swan, where Mountjoy was narrowly defeated by the Country Party candidate. The successful MHRs were Tom Burke (Perth), Kim Beazley (Fremantle), Vic Johnson (Kalgoorlie) and Nelson Lemmon (Forrest).1 Western Australians also voted in favour of all three questions put in a referendum run jointly with the election, in which the Federal Government requested Commonwealth control of social services, the marketing of primary products and employment in industry.2 Yet the State Labor government was defeated at the March 1947 election, barely seven months later, its number of Legislative Assembly seats dropping from 31 to 23. The slogan, Be wise, vote Wise intended to capitalise on the personal popularity of ALP Leader Frank Wise in a manner reminiscent of the Chifley-centred Federal campaign failed to inspire voters. The results of the 1947 State election were an outcome of major changes in the composition and ideology of WAs unions postWorld War II. Ideological changes During the war years, an ideological gap began to develop between the SPLP, on the one hand, and the State Executive and the District Councils on the other. This arose partly from a growth in the membership strength of several militant industrial unions, and a decline in the influence of the conservative AWU. Although its numbers continued to grow, the AWUs rate of expansion had slowed considerably by the end of the 1930s and more significantly its members comprised a smaller proportion of the District Councils affiliated unionists. In 1921, the AWU had claimed a total membership of 102,400 including 7,900 in WA, where the entire District Council membership was

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approximately 20,000.3 In 1952, the AWUs full affiliated WA membership was 7,700 out of a total of almost 57,000 affiliated unionists. Thus the AWUs portion had shrunk from over one third of the ALPs affiliated membership in 1921 to about 13 per cent in 1952. Conversely, industrial unions such as the AEU had increased in both membership and militancy, in some cases electing Communists to official positions. By 1952, the AEU had 20 branches and 5,000 affiliated WA members, compared with only a few hundred in 1921. Other unions with a significant membership by this time included the Carpenters and Joiners, 2,100; the WAASRE, 5,000; the Shop Assistants, 5,000; and the Federated Clerks, 2,900 the latter two with a majority of female workers. The CMUs membership had increased from 300 in 1919 to 959 in 1946.4 The State Executive responded to the new militancy by tightening control over affiliates and District Councils, partly by enforcing the policy of not permitting members or affiliated bodies to join or remain in organisations which were regarded as being CPA subsidiaries. Early in 1947, the Eureka Youth League was targeted as a Communist subsidiary and its invitation to take part in the Labour Day procession was withdrawn. The Leagues Secretary, Juliet Marks, stated that her organisation was not affiliated with any others except the National Fitness Council and the World Federation of Democratic Youth, and that only 4 of the 85-strong membership belonged to the CPA. The LEDFCUs request that the State Executive reconsider its decision was rejected. The Australia Soviet Friendship League was similarly branded and ALP members discouraged from joining. Disobedience meant disaffiliation. The State Executive adopted a policy of refusing to receive correspondence signed by union officials who were CPA members.5 This attempt to discourage unions from electing Communist officials heralded the 1948 State Congress decision to alter Section 8 of the ALP Constitution and disaffiliate unions who appointed or retained non-ALP officials.6 For their part, the militants were openly critical of the Labor Government, and sometimes of the State Executive as well. At the December 1944 Congress, the Carpenters and Joiners regretted that the State Government showed a lack of vigour in the carrying out one of the planks of the Fighting Platform the socialisation of industry. Similarly, the Maylands ALP resolved that the Government should institute a referendum seeking the abolition of that hostile and useless body, the Legislative Council.7 WA did not experience the wave of early post-war strikes that occurred in other parts of the nation the small size of the industrial workforce and the unique set up of the ALP being two reasons for the comparative harmony.8 But several industrial disputes had occurred in 1945. The CMU stopped work

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in May and again in September over the issues of low wages and the poor quality of the coal being mined. In November 1945, the Coastal, Docks, Rivers and Harbour Workers Union (CDRHWU) and the Fremantle Branch of the Carpenters and Joiners (led by Lachberg) gave their support to the Indonesian independence movement and refused to work on Dutch ships, despite a directive from the ACTU opposing the campaign. In March 1946, the Lumpers also became involved, refusing to load the Dutch naval vessel Bonaire with munitions.9 Labors response to the Aboriginal pastoral workers strike, 1946 The slow pace of workplace reforms and widening ideological differences created frustration and conflict within the labour movement, but the first major strike of the post-war era came from an unexpected source the oppressed and non-unionised Aboriginal pastoral workers of the Pilbara region. On 1 May 1946, Aboriginal hands on 25 sheep stations withdrew their labour at shearing time and demanded a wage of 30 shillings a week a rise of 10 shillings and improved working conditions. Thirty shillings was still well below the pastoral Award for non-Indigenous station hands. The strike was led by two Aboriginal men, Dooly Bin-bin and Clancy McKenna, but the media and the authorities soon decided that its guiding spirit was Don McLeod, a white man from Meekatharra. While working in the area, McLeod had gradually realised the terrible inequalities and injustices suffered by Indigenous Australians. Having embraced Marxism during the war, he was easily cast in the role of a trouble maker who had instigated the strike.10 The labour movements attitude to securing citizenship rights and workplace reforms for Indigenous Australians was ambivalent. During the 1930s, a few voices had protested about the plight of the Aborigines but no sustained, concerted effort had been made to organise Aboriginal workers or to obtain civil rights for the Indigenous population.11 In September 1944, the Minister for the North West, A.A.M. Coverley, introduced in Parliament the Natives (Citizenship Rights) Bill, a controversial piece of draft legislation which permitted certain Aboriginal people to apply to their local police magistrate for full Australian citizenship, including the right to vote. The conditions for qualification were extremely exacting and included a provision that a native will lose his citizenship if he does not live in accordance with the standards of white people or fulfil obligations imposed on him. Returning to a tribal way of

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life was one means by which citizenship might be lost. The Bill passed through both houses and became law in 1945 but, because of its severe limitations, it did not impact on the lives of most Indigenous Australians.12 The Pilbara strike, however, began a groundswell of opinion that resulted in much greater support for Aboriginal people fighting to obtain full citizenship. When McLeod first sought assistance for the strikers, the press ignored him, but within a few days of his contacting them, unions were expressing their support. At a meeting on 6 May 1946, the AWUs Port Hedland branch passed a resolution of whole hearted support. The Bootmakers Union in Perth also responded quickly. Senator Tangney, too, strongly supported the campaign, but like McLeods efforts, her media release was ignored by the press except for the Workers Star.13 Several of the District Councils were critical of the Wise Governments lack of commitment to work for any significant change in the condition of Aboriginal people. Coverley, especially, was singled out as his portfolio covered the area where the pastoral workers strike occurred. Bin-bin, McKenna and McLeod were all charged with persuading the workers to leave their employment without the consent of the Protector of Aborigines. They were tried and sentenced to three months imprisonment. Undoubtedly, McLeods involvement helped to raise the strikes profile in Perth and brought about a strange alliance of supporters including university academics, Christian clergy and church members, Communists, womens groups and, indeed, ALP branches. Resolutions from numerous affiliated bodies urged the Government to consider the injustice of imprisoning the strike leaders, and requested their immediate release. The State Executive sent these resolutions to Coverley and asked for a meeting to discuss matters.14 McKenna, Bin-Bin and McLeod were released after a few weeks on the strength of public outrage, but other imprisonments followed. The hard core of the strikers never went back to work on the stations. Eventually, McLeods vision of self-supporting Indigenous communities was partially realised. In the early 1950s, the strikers formed their own mining companies and profited sufficiently to purchase five cattle stations. One of these, Yandeearra, was established as a model settlement with a hospital, a school, and accommodation for the aged. Although at least one company went into liquidation, the communities survived and two of these, the Strelley mob and the Nomads, were to feature in a confrontation at Noonkanbah Station in the early 1980s (see Chapter Fifteen).15 The issue of equal rights for Aboriginal people continued to embarrass the labour movement throughout the 1950s. Some unions, and even the majorities on some District Councils, were more deeply committed than the Parliamentary Party to abolishing the existing

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paternalistic system. The Wise Governments reaction to the Pilbara strike created further tensions within the labour movement in the early post-war period. Yet greater differences soon arose, which had a devastating impact on the government. The 1946 Australian Standard Garratt strike The most significant industrial conflict in the early post-war years involved the influential railway mens union, the LEDFCU, and a number of Australian Standard Garratt locomotives. Controversy had always surrounded the immensely large, powerful Garratts, built during the war to supply urgent transport needs in central and northern Australia. They were not designed for narrow gauge railway systems, parts were difficult to obtain, and poor workmanship resulted in numerous breakdowns. Safety issues included a faulty braking system, the fact that steam often obscured the drivers vision, and the excessive width and height of the engines. Crews refused to work the Garratts in the Swan View tunnel, where the narrow clearance created a danger of asphyxiation. A number of derailments involving Garratts had already occurred.16 In September 1945, when 19 Garratts were in service, LEDFCU President A.R. Davies gave an ultimatum to Railways Minister William Marshall to withdraw the locomotives. Wise promised to appoint a Royal Commission to inquire into the safety issue, to withdraw the Garratts from passenger services, and to repair and restore to service only those engines awaiting minor repairs, delaying any major repairs on engines out of service. The union withdrew its ultimatum, and thanked Wise and his cabinet for their sincere and sympathetic efforts.17 A year later, however, the LEDFCU charged the Government with having done little to resolve the issue, and again delivered their ultimatum. The dispute failed to be resolved in the Arbitration Court, and the union announced that its members would refuse to work the Garratts. The Arbitration Court President, Justice E.A. Dunphy, accused the union of reneging on an agreement not to strike if the Garratts underwent safety tests. The Commissioner of Railways suspended the first six unionists who refused to work the Garratts. When they were not reinstated, the entire union struck from midnight on 6 November 1946. The 16-day strike involved the 1,500 LEDFCU members and about 1,000 Collie coal miners, who were stood down to avoid coal stockpiling, created disruptions in transport and communications, and was economically disastrous for the state.18 Desperate to resolve the dispute quickly, the State Government offered to reinstate all suspended unionists without loss or punishment. They

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undertook to keep all Garratts out of service until they had been examined by an independent engineer from New South Wales and a locally-formed committee, and to return and maintain in service a maximum of 12 locomotives until major alterations had been carried out. Union members were divided on the issue, but the militant LEDFCU executive got sufficient backing from the branches to maintain the strike. The union was supported by the Bootmakers, the Carpenters, the CMU, the Fremantle Branch of the WWF, and the Tramways Union. The LEDFCU executive went against State Executive policy by accepting donations from two Communist-linked organisations, the Modern Womens Club and the Eureka Youth League.19 In Parliament, Wise defended his governments position, and stated that some of union leaders were allied directly with Communism.20 Wises remarks angered many unionists and did nothing to resolve the dispute. There was further division of opinion within the District Councils. Metropolitan delegates, attempting to move a resolution supporting the LEDFCU, were warned by the Council President, H.E. Herb Graham MLA, that the motion could be regarded as contempt of court. After much discussion, and an attempt to move an amendment supporting the State Disputes Committee, the majority voted to proceed to the next item of business.21 True to its militant spirit, the Fremantle District Council condemned the Disputes Committees actions as provocative and inimical to the best interests of the working class in general and the Labor Party in particular. On 12 November, the Arbitration Court commenced deregistration proceedings against the union for having instigated an illegal strike. Justice Dunphy quickly decided to deregister the LEDFCU but withheld the order for a few days. When settlement was not reached by 18 November, however, Dunphy formally deregistered the LEDFCU. His action generated widespread anger and a profound distrust of the Arbitration Court among LEDFCU members and their supporters.22 Eventually, the CMU persuaded the LEDFCU to re-enter negotiations with the government, facilitated by a neutral and highly respected negotiator, W.J. Wallwork. Acting on the LEDFCUs behalf, Wallwork submitted a proposal to set up a five-member Industrial Board comprising two union representatives, two technical representatives and an independent chairman to determine the minimum modifications necessary before the Garratts could be returned to service. The Board would also oversee implementation of the Royal Commissions findings. The government agreed to support the unions application for re-registration in the Arbitration Court and legal proceedings against the strikers were dropped. Settlement was finally reached on 22 November.23

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Even more was at stake in the 1946 Garratt strike than the important issue of industrial safety. The strike was the outcome of increasing tensions between those who had dominated the labour movement for the past 20 years and those who challenged the existing hegemony.24 The supposedly neutral Arbitration Court favoured the government during the strike, confirming the opinion of a growing section of the trade union movement that justice could not be achieved under the existing system. Nor was the LEDFCU an isolated example of a union with a list of grievances. The Tramways Union wanted the State government to legislate a 40-hour week, a 1 per week rise in the basic wage, and the elimination of 12-hour shifts.25 The Boot Trades Union, too, demanded an immediate 1 rise, an end to the wartime rationing of foodstuffs and clothing, and the raising of the tax free threshold to include incomes of 300 per annum. With the endorsement of the Fremantle District Council, the Union wanted the State Executive to organise a monster demonstration and put resolutions demanding Federal Government action in these matters. The State Executive replied that it could not comply, as it had already taken the necessary steps to increase the Basic Wage, and the questions of rationing and price-fixing were on the Federal Governments agenda for proposed legislation. The tax free threshold of 300 was Labor policy and was also being attended to.26 Again, unions were frustrated by the cautious pace of the State Executive and the government. The 1947 State Election Despite these differences of opinion within the labour movement, the ALP did not expect to lose the 1947 election. The Wise Government had concentrated on post-war reconstruction rehabilitating public utilities such as schools, and developing new industries. The State Housing Commission was established to meet the enormous demand for accommodation. The Government encouraged Chamberlain Industries to set up a tractor manufacturing factory at Welshpool and commenced State-run potash and charcoal-iron industries.27 In the closing months of 1946, ALP State Secretary Tom Davies, acting as union advocate in the Arbitration Court, had secured a further rise in the Basic Wage and an increase in the number of annual paid public holidays. The Wise Government increased the number of paid public holidays for its employees beyond the Courts ruling, and embarked on a large-scale public works program funded by the Grants Commission.28

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Some sections of the labour movement were so confident of success that they were complacent. Harry Harris, managing Robert Hearns campaign in the unwinnable rural seat of Sussex, wrote to Davies:
You can begin to save your weekend pocket money ready to come to our victory dinner. Sussex is in the bag. There are good reports all round and we are more confident than ever before. Business people as well as farmers are looking our way.29

During the 1940s, the ALP had made a concerted effort in both State and Federal elections to appeal to rural voters, and candidates such as Hearn were endorsed to attract strong local support. Aged 43, Hearn was both Labor and rural. Brought up in the timber towns of Karridale and Jarrahdale, and then on a farm at Margaret River, he earned his living as a stationary engine driver at the Margaret River dairy farmers co-operative butter factory. He was Secretary of the ALPs Margaret River branch and a union delegate to Labor Congress. As a member of a small, rural community, and dependent upon the dairy farming industry for his livelihood, he was fully aware of the needs of people in the electorate. Hearn supported the principle of guaranteed prices, which he believed to be in the best interests of the consumer and the producer. He promised reduced interest charges on bank mortgages; interest-free, short-term loans for farm improvements; and financial assistance with the costs of clearing heavy timber and purchasing machinery. He also undertook to upgrade roads in the district, asking rhetorically, Why shouldnt the farmer have as good a road as the tourist?30 Yet on election day, he polled less than 36 per cent of the vote in a two-candidate contest with sitting Liberal member, W.H.F. Willmot. Labor did not put up a candidate in the by-election following Willmots death on 2 May.31 Jean Beadles son, William, who gained Labor pre-selection for the seat of Mount Hawthorn after Harold Millington announced his retirement, was another unsuccessful candidate. A victory for Beadle should almost have been a foregone conclusion, as Mount Hawthorn had always been a Labor seat. But the campaign was complicated by ex-ALP member, Archibald Cruickshank who had contested the Labor pre-selection ballot in February 1946, and subsequently pledged support to Beadle as the pre-selected candidate reneging on his pledge and standing as an Independent in the election. He gained 920 votes in the first count. In a five-way contest, Liberal candidate L.C. Nimmo eventually scraped home with a 289-vote majority, and Mount Hawthorn became a non-Labor seat for the first and only time in its history. Beadle did not stand again, and died in 1954. Men like Beadle and Hearn were

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the new face of Labor mid-century better educated, representing a more diverse range of occupations, and often having served in the armed forces. But it was the Labor veterans who retained their seats while the new candidates were largely unsuccessful although one exception was William Hawkins (Bill) Sewell, who succeeded Willcock in Geraldton. Johnson and Collier were faithfully returned by their constituents for the last time, Johnson having conducted his campaign by traditional half-hour street meetings rather than by the modern medium of radio.32 Both men died in 1948. Despite Labors optimism in 1947, the election campaign was handicapped from the start by lack of support and finance from the industrial organisations. The SPLPs stance in the Garratt strike had alienated many unions and they were reluctant to provide funds for the election campaign. In some instances, they even transferred their loyalty by voting non-Labor. Campaign director Tom Davies stated that many thousands of workers, including government employees, had voted against ALP candidates. He named the lack of financial support from the unions as a decisive factor in the election result.33 It was sobering for the ALP to realise that their pre-election achievements had not outweighed the unions grievances. Other factors contributing to the defeat included public impatience with the inadequate State railway system, the slow progress of the soldier settlement and housing schemes, and poor educational facilities. Farmers waiting to receive loads of superphosphate for their crops were amongst those most inconvenienced by the outdated railway system, and they also objected strongly to the government imposing a flat rate land tax, not based upon improvements or the presence of water on blocks. The governments inability to combat Opposition propaganda was regarded as another significant factor in the defeat.34 The Australian Council of Employers Federations assisted the Opposition by arguing for the abandonment of the theory of class warfare, and of the concept of government as an enervating, restrictive force in industry. The Council accused certain unions and employees of truculence and of determining to substitute direct negotiation for the arbitration procedure.35 The disenfranchisement of a number of voters was another factor in Labors defeat. Davies reminded the State Executive of the diligence with which past ALP members had worked on the electoral rolls prior to an election, both to ensure that newly qualified people were enrolled and that changes of address were recorded.36 He called for similar commitment in the future, but other forces were gathering which would again shatter party unity.

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The Communist purges During the early post-war period, tensions increased owing to a perception that the Communists were gathering strength and would take over the labour movement. The CPAs Australia-wide membership is estimated to have peaked at around 22,000 in 1944. By the following year, Communists held national leadership positions in the Federated Ironworkers Association (FIA), the WWF, the AEU, the Miners Federation, the Australian Railways Union (ARU) and the Seamens Union. They bore some responsibility for the wave of postwar strikes. Communists played leading roles in the 40-hour week campaign and in the boycott on Dutch shipping during the Indonesian independence struggle.37 In response to a perceived Communist takeover of power within the major industrial unions, a faction consisting largely, but not entirely, of Roman Catholics founded groups within the ALP to ensure that non-Communist workers participated in union ballots. The Groupers, as they became known, and the secret Catholic Action (or the Movement) were most powerful in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. Although many ALP Industrial Groups were set up in the eastern states after the 1945 ACTU Congress, none appear to have existed in Western Australia before 1949. The Workers Star, however, claimed that Catholic Action or Movement cells were in place in the Federated Clerks Union, the Postal Workers Union, the AEU and the Fremantle WWF as early as 1946.38 Anti-Communist propaganda had already been used in the 1945 by-election for the Federal seat of Fremantle, when antiLabor forces circulated a sticker embossed with a red hammer and sickle, over which the words Vote Beazley 1 were printed in heavy black typeface. In the 1949 Federal election, a How to Vote card issued by the Liberal Party described Labor candidates in the new Curtin electorate as Labor (Socialist). Liberal election propaganda also linked the ALP and CPA Senate candidates by referring to them as the Socialist and Communist candidates. In both cases, the ALP sought legal advice but decided not to pursue an injunction against the Liberal Party.39 Factionalism was evident at the September 1948 ALP Federal Conference in Canberra, when the Queensland Branch submitted a resolution calling for the Communist Party to be declared an illegal organisation. A WA resolution, however, requested an addition to the Constitution, stating that during peacetime no political party would be banned. The two resolutions were submitted to a Committee dealing with matters of Platform and Constitution and they came back to the Conference with the following recommendation, which was adopted:

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The Australian Labor Party expresses its adherence to the basic freedoms of the right of association and the right of expression which are fundamental principles associated with the Australian democratic way of life. We therefore declare that any proposal for the banning of a Political party because of hostility and objection to its Platform and beliefs, no matter how repugnant such may be, is a negation of democratic principles and should be rejected. Conference stresses that freedom of expression enables the Community to determine the soundness or otherwise of Political philosophies and to reject such views as are inimical to the peoples interests.40

In his report to the State Executive, F.E. Chamberlain, one of the six Federal delegates, attacked the half-hearted efforts of some of the timid elements in the Labour Movement to change the Partys Objective the socialisation of industry, production, distribution and exchange on the grounds of political expediency. Support for retaining the existing objective was so strong that the amendment was withdrawn. Chamberlain congratulated Conference for refusing to be stampeded into any departure from the principles upon which this Movement stands or falls.41 The delegates who proposed this amendment may have been timid, but they signalled the commencement of demands to dissociate the ALP with anything and everything to do with Socialism or Communism. The Groupers capitalised on the perception that unions were falling into Communist hands. In September 1949, the WA Branch of the Federated Clerks Union called a special general meeting to discuss falling membership, alleged to be due to the stigma of Communism. The unions annual general meeting in February 1950 appointed four delegates to attend the Federal Conference: W.S. Foulds (State President), W.R. Sawyer (State Secretary), E. Griffiths (Industrial Officer), and J. Treloar, a member of the Tally Clerks Section. All except Treloar were strongly anti-Communist. The delegates were instructed to obtain an amendment to the Constitution, whereby no Communist could hold an office in the Union anywhere in Australia. The Federal Conference, however, was a fiasco as far as the WA Branch was concerned, because the Executive was allegedly stacked with Communists and fellow travellers: delegates representing 16,000 members were able to out vote those representing 35,000 members and the amendment was lost. The Victorian Branch, which had voted in a Communist-dominated Executive in 1949, counter-attacked those seeking to remove Communists from official positions in the union using the same tactics as the Groupers. The Federal Executive refused to accept the credentials of the WA Branch delegates and those of other anti-Communist branches. Foulds and Sawyer were suspended,

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and replaced by a South Australian delegate, H.D. Krantz, as Acting President of the WA branch, and J. Treloar (who belonged to the Left faction) as Acting Secretary. The WA Branch was unfinancial at the time of the Conference. Because only about 30 per cent of the WA members were covered by Federal awards, there had been a long-standing disagreement with the Federal Executive over the amount of dues payable. But the main difficulty was the WA resolution barring Communists from office in the union. The anti-Communist branches then challenged the Federal Conference decision in the Arbitration Court. The democratically-elected right wing was swept to power after the Arbitration Court ordered and supervised union elections. The Commonwealth Arbitration Court also granted an application by the WA Branch, placing Krantz and Treloar under restraint and the Branch sought further legal action, in order to have them removed from office.42 The WA Society of Carpenters and Joiners, another union that had changed from being militant to conservative in a relatively short period of time, was expelled from the Building Workers Industrial Union (BWIU) in January 1950. The BWIU, a militant umbrella organisation that covered workers in all aspects of the building trade, had refused to accept the credentials of Carpenters Secretary, Tom Henley. In reporting the matter, the Westralian Worker added that the BWIU had been deregistered by the Federal Arbitration Court in 1948, suggesting that the Carpenters might be better off not being allied with such an organisation. Indeed the Carpenters took the same path as the Clerks in 1951, when they altered their rules to prevent Communists becoming union officials. Every candidate for office was required to sign a pledge supporting the principles of the ALP.43 In reality, a systematic purge of individual communists had been going on in unions and ALP branches since just after the war. In 1947, at least five members were expelled, either for opposing an endorsed Labor candidate or for supporting a Communist candidate.44 Labor in Opposition If it were any comfort to the ousted government, the LiberalCountry Party coalition had won by only a narrow margin, necessitating the support of Independents to put legislation through the Lower House. But the ALP found itself under attack from both external and internal forces. In its first term, the McLartyWatts Government passed the 1947 Electoral Districts Act, which established a 1:2 weighting on rural seats in the Legislative Assembly, thus entrenching the principle of rural votes having twice the value of metropolitan

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votes. With the decline of the mining industry, the ALP knew that this would adversely affect their party and opposed the Bill strenuously but unsuccessfully. The Bill also provided for a reorganisation of Legislative Assembly boundaries, dealing a lethal blow to Labor strength in the Goldfields.45 While the McLartyWatts government did not increase the male Basic Wage, the female Basic Wage came under a much greater threat. In 1949, the National Security Regulations expired. Under these Regulations, female workers had been paid 75 per cent of the male Basic Wage (compared with pre-war rates of 54 per cent). When it appeared that womens wages would revert to the pre-war percentage, the District Councils urged the State Executive to obtain an assurance from the Employers Federation that its members would not reduce the wages of their female employees. The State Executive asked the SPLP to declare that a Labor Government would maintain the present female Basic Wage for its employees, and would move to have this principle established in the current Basic Wage hearings before the Arbitration Court. But other bodies, such as the East Perth ALP, opposed the establishment of a separate female Basic Wage and urged the Party to implement the Labor platform of equal pay for equal work.46 After a brief flurry of activity, the issue resumed back burner status, with the campaign for equal pay failing to gain momentum until 1958. As in the Equal Pay campaign, the Labor women enjoyed very limited success in their other activities during the post-war period. In December 1945, LWCE President Rose Fuhrmann became the first woman to be elected to the Subiaco Council, where she continued to serve for 16 years.47 Several of the pioneer labour women ceased to have an active role shortly after the war. On 31 May 1948, Labor women and men from around the state gathered at Unity Theatre to honour Etta Hooton, who had recently retired as LWCE Secretary after 20 years of service.48 While the end of the 1940s coincided with the death or retirement of such Labor pioneers as Hooton, W.D. Johnson and Phillip Collier, one man was on the verge of a very significant career. F.E. Chamberlain In 1949, the States most powerful Party office changed hands. Tom Davies resigned as State Secretary to become full-time Workers Advocate on the Arbitration Bench. His successor, Francis Edward Joe Chamberlain, had been born in London in 1900 of poverty-stricken parents. The nickname Joe derived from the fact he shared a surname with the British statesman Joseph Chamberlain. Apprenticed to a copperplate printer at the age of 14, he lost his

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apprenticeship when conscripted to serve in the British Army at the end of World War I. After discharge, he was unable to secure permanent work and emigrated to WA in 1923 under the Empire Settlement Scheme. Chamberlain worked for several years as a labourer clearing timber and constructing roads and railways, then married Gladys Burke. They became group settlers on a block near Busselton. Chamberlain became active in the ALP and in 1933 won endorsement for the Legislative Assembly seat of Sussex, but had to relinquish it after an appeal by another candidate. Later the same year, the Chamberlains decided to end the unequal struggle to make a living on their farm. They moved to Perth, where Chamberlain worked at various jobs until securing employment as a tram driver during the war. Chamberlain was elected President of the Tramways Union in 1942 and was subsequently appointed Union Secretary, becoming the only full-time, paid official in 1944. By 1946, he was a union delegate on the Metropolitan District Council. The trammies was a militant union, made more so when their poor wartime working conditions were not quickly alleviated with the coming of peace. The Commissioner for Railways was responsible for tramways, and had to be consulted before any concessions were granted, thus hindering the progress of industrial reforms. Despite his own militancy, Chamberlain was a strong supporter of arbitration and used the Court skilfully to his unions advantage. During the Garratt strike, he reversed the unions support for the striking LEDFCU members by persuading a mass meeting of unionists to support the government. Shortly afterwards, he was successful in gaining the union a new Award in the Arbitration Court, where he won Dunphys praise for his advocacy.49 Ten candidates stood for the position of State Secretary, but the major contestants were Chamberlain and Irishman Geoff Keating, a WAASRE member and a fluent public speaker. Chamberlain was not so appealing a speaker as Keating, but he had established good rapport with the press, in particular Len Owens and John Morrison, industrial roundsmen on the staffs of the Daily News and the West Australian. Owens and Morrison decided to support Chamberlain, believing that it would be an asset to have another man who, like Davies, was friendly to the media. They promoted Chamberlain and publicised his unions activities, including two or three stoppages, during his campaign for the State Secretaryship. Chamberlain was elected by a narrow majority. Thereafter, he became much less available to press reporters and consented to be interviewed only if they had specific questions to ask him.50 In a virtually factionless ALP, Chamberlain employed a number of tactics to establish a power base. Although evidently hostile to Communists from the

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time of his appointment, he appeared to remain neutral on the activities of the Industrial Groupers until the mid 1950s. By gaining election to key posts within the State ALP structure, he soon dominated the Partys industrial and political apparatus. Apart from holding office as the ALP State Secretary for 25 years, he was ex-officio member of all Party Committees, State Secretary of the Trades Union Industrial Council (TUIC), and one of the two State delegates to the ACTU during the 1950s. He served as Federal ALP President (195561) and Secretary (196163).51 Federal electoral defeat In 1949, the 50th anniversary of the 1899 Coolgardie Congress appears to have gone unnoticed, except by William Somerville. Somerville had retired from the Arbitration Court in 1940, suffering from cataracts on his eyes. After a successful operation, he wrote a history of the WA labour movement relying on his memory where early documents could not be traced. Somervilles history was never published, although he offered it to the State ALP in 1953 after an Interstate Labor Congress had passed a resolution that something should be done towards writing the History of Australian Trade Unionism and the Labour Party.52 Yet 1949 would gain significance in labour history as the beginning of the FPLPs 23-year political eclipse after the Chifley Government lost the 10 December election. Menzies was once again Prime Minister, heading a new Liberal Party, created out of the ashes of the UAPs wartime defeat. The Country Party remained the minor partner in the conservative coalition. The ALP contested eight House of Representatives seats in WA. Of these, Burke (Perth), Beazley (Fremantle), Lemmon (Forrest) and Johnson (Kalgoorlie) were already sitting Members. The newcomers were ex-serviceman and civil servant, William Lonnie, who stood in the new metropolitan seat of Curtin against Paul Hasluck; university administrator, Kevin Byrne, contesting the new rural seat of Moore; ex-locomotive engine driver Harry Webb in Swan; and Tom Scaddan, hotel keeper and son of past Labor Premier Jack Scaddan, ALP candidate for Canning. Radio broadcasts were now the main means of disseminating propaganda, with State and Federal Members, and some of their spouses, contributing. Labor relied, perhaps too heavily, on the strength of its achievements during the past eight years, while pointing to the conservative Coalitions failures, including the Depression and its political collapse in 1941. They showed little understanding of the new Liberal Party, and did not take seriously its capacity to sink past differences with the Country Party in order to form government.

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Much effort was expended in giving socialism a respectable face. Speaking on radio station 6IX, both Webb and Lonnie tried to counter strong anti-Labor propaganda by addressing the question of socialism. Webb explained that, while most people disliked the word socialism, few knew what it actually meant or that they benefited from socialism in practice, with the government providing services such as water, light, heat and power, public transport, roads, postal services, garbage collection, and facilities including hospitals, parks and playgrounds. The Labor Party, he told his listeners, does not believe in extremes either extreme Right (the Liberals) or extreme Left (the Communists), but in steering a middle course and gradually improving the lot of the Australian people by giving them social and economic security. Lonnies concept of socialism, also aimed at reassuring those who feared the socialist bogey, would hardly have won the votes of militants. He stated that the Partys objective and declaration proposed socialist ownership for the purpose of preventing exploitation, but that there was no intention of abolishing private ownership, or even of the instruments of production where these were utilised by the owner in a socially useful manner and without exploitation. In refuting the accusation that the Party was allied with the Communists, Lonnie declared, The ALP hates and detests Communism. Communism breeds in conditions of discontent and chaos. It recruits from the ranks of the embittered, hungry, outof-work, degraded and despairing. Lonnie claimed that, while under Menzies the Communists had increased to a membership of 12,000 during the early war years, in the recent industrial upheavals the CPAs power had been countered and smashed by the Labor government. But the Coalition exploited the Communist scare for all it was worth. Electors were evidently influenced by propaganda that a vote for Labor was a vote for Communism, an opinion that was not confined to the Liberal and Country Parties. Some leaders in the Catholic Church, notably Archbishop Duhig, became openly critical of the ALP, while maintaining that their church members should exercise freedom of conscience in casting their votes. Other factors influenced the outcome. Chifleys attempt to nationalise the banks had stirred up powerful enemies in the banking profession; the Federal Governments mishandling of the coal strike alienated some Labor supporters; and the promises that mattered most to many voters were made by Menzies: child endowment payments for all children and an end to petrol rationing.53 In Western Australia, only Beazley, Burke and Johnson retained their seats, and none of the new candidates was elected.54 The Liberal victory contained forebodings of a bleak future.

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Reorganisation The closing years of the 1940s, therefore, brought rapid political and industrial change to the Western Australian ALP. Apart from both State and Federal Labor going into Opposition, and industrial changes which will be discussed in the next chapter, other factors affected the number and powers of the District Councils. In the 1948 redistribution of electoral boundaries, all of the seats under Murchisons jurisdiction were reallocated to other District Councils. Murchison District Council ceased to exist and responsibility for its various centres was divided between Geraldton and the Eastern Goldfields. A 1949 State Congress decision resulted in the remaining District Councils losing autonomy and revenue. Congress granted the State Executive the power to collect all affiliation dues from ALP Branches and unions and return a portion to each District Council. Henceforth, the State Executive, rather than the District Councils, had first-hand knowledge of the number and strength of affiliated unions. When the District Councils had collected their own affiliation fees, they had forwarded only one-third to the State Executive; under the new system the Councils received back the curious portion of four-ninths.55 The Congress decision was an attempt to improve the finances of the District Councils, yet the difficulties created by prior debts continued for several years. In July 1951 the Midland District Council pointed out that, under the new system, affiliation dues were reduced from three shillings per full financial member to one shilling and four pence. Meanwhile, costs had doubled and sometimes trebled in the last few years.56 Albanys financial circumstances were even worse than Midlands. After numerous letters had failed to elicit the information he requested regarding outstanding debts, Chamberlain was forced to visit Albany to rectify matters. The District Council Secretary, R. Selby, asked to be relieved of his duties. Several of the overdue accounts finally had to be settled by the State Executive in order to preserve the ALPs reputation.57 For years the District Councils financial difficulties had been exacerbated by the union practice of paying dues on only a portion of their membership the AWU being particularly notorious. Despite rulings at Congresses from 1947 to 1950, unions had avoided paying either affiliation on their full membership or the new fee four shillings and six pence per annum for adult males and equivalent half rates for females and juniors. The State Executives ruling that, as from 1 January 1952, all affiliations would have to be in strict conformity with the Constitution had far-reaching consequences for the District Councils, although they supported it. This ruling meant that all branches and unions

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would have to pay dues for their complete membership and the increased fees. Any union or branch that refused to comply by 31 March 1952 would be disaffiliated. By November 1952, 20 unions were disaffiliated. Most were craft unions such as the Boilermakers, the Brick and Pottery Workers, the Leather Workers, the Plasterers and the Tobacco Workers, but they included the Busselton WWF, and the Laundry Employees. The State Executive sent these unions a letter expressing regret that your organisation is severing its connection with the Party, but adhered inflexibly to the ruling.58 The ALPs political wing came under close scrutiny, too. The State Executive appointed a Committee headed by Bert Hawke to examine the partys political and industrial structure, including the District Councils, and to consider the feasibility of amalgamating the Metropolitan District Council with the State Executive.59 In its report to the 1952 Congress, the Committee stated that political organisation meant much more than appointing a Political Organiser. If the primary objective was to secure sufficient State and Federal seats to form government, it was necessary to determine where the best return for effort would be reaped. Accordingly, 75 per cent of the effort should be concentrated in the metropolitan area to win state seats such as Victoria Park, Maylands, West Perth, Subiaco and Canning. In order to strengthen links between the political and industrial wings of the Party, selected Members of Parliament should attend and address union meetings. The Committee discussed the importance of non-British immigrants to Australias political future, and recommended that a special effort be directed to encouraging their enrolment in unions, and to ascertain whether any had been labour activists in their own countries. Chamberlain urged fellow Laborites to show them [immigrants] that you have no racial prejudice and harbour no resentment at their presence in Australia.60 Efforts to improve publicity and propaganda centred on establishing a Labor Journal with a minimum print run of 10,000 perhaps an ill-thought-out proposal since Labors weekly newspaper, the Westralian Worker, ceased publication in 1951. The proposal to amalgamate the Metropolitan District Council and the State Executive was rejected by a sub-committee consisting of the President and Secretary of each body. They found that it would be impossible to alter the position of the Metropolitan District Council without disturbing the structural set up of the Party in Western Australia, including all of the other District Councils. The sub-committee felt that the continuance of the Metropolitan District Council was fully justified and warranted a full time Secretary. The majority decision to maintain the Metropolitan District Council affected discussions relating to the other Councils. The committee stated that it would

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be most difficult to devise improved machinery to carry out the work of the Party without the focal points provided by the District Councils. A minority group, led by R.C. Cole and including Hartley Cant (AWU), favoured the establishment of a Constituency Council in each State Assembly electorate, on the basis that unionists would be more likely to accept nomination on a Council in their own area than under the existing system. Although a majority opposed the proposal, believing that it would create duplication, the District Council system was now exposed as inefficient and in need of replacing. The pressure to devise a more workable and equitable system came from the industrial wing of the movement. In 1950, the ALP State Executive also endorsed the restructuring of the LWCE. The enlarged Executive included one female representative from each trades union and each ALP branch that had female members, one representative from each Womens ALP branch, and the President and Secretary of each LWO branch, in addition to those representatives appointed by Congress. LWCE officials were elected by ballot at the annual Labor Womens Conference and consisted of the President, two Vice Presidents, a Secretary/Treasurer and seven members, three from metropolitan and four from country districts.61 As the State branch of the ALP entered its second half-century, there was a definite shift towards centralising the power structure in the Executive, and a renewed dedication to defining and following the Partys Platform and ideology. Although the system of District Councils would prevail for another decade, the weaknesses had become apparent. The changes inevitably created stresses in both the structure and the ideology of the labour movement.

Chapter Nine

A Vexed Issue for WA Unions The Creation of an Independent Trades and Labor Council 19471963
The most powerful evidence that all was not well in the unified labour movement arose in the aftermath of the post-war strikes. A section of the trade union movement started a revolt from the ALP, which was to result in the formation of an independent Trades and Labor Council (TLC) 15 years later. The WACTU In May 1947, a group of 15 militant trade unionists met to form a Western Australian Council of Trades Unions (WACTU) and to apply for affiliation with the ACTU, as there was no WA representative on this body. Reputedly influenced by the Communist officials of some of its affiliated unions, the ACTU had grown increasingly militant since the war. This militancy attracted the disillusioned big three militant WA unions the CMU, the LEDFCU and the Fremantle Branch of the WWF (formerly the FLU). ACTU applications to the Arbitration Court had succeeded in obtaining improved working conditions, increased wages and shorter working hours for some State and Federal unionists. This impressed unions dissatisfied with the Wise Governments handling of recent industrial disputes and distrustful of getting a fair deal in the State Arbitration Court. Furthermore, union officials did not have to pledge allegiance to the ALP in order to represent their union at ACTU Interstate Congresses. Paddy Troy, the CDRHWU Vigilance Officer, was one of the officials excluded from the ALP Councils because he was a Communist. Troy had become disenchanted with the ALP in the 1930s and had joined the CPA in 1934. His duties as Vigilance Officer included acting as the union advocate in the Arbitration Court. Although sceptical of the arbitration system, Troy became a highly skilled and successful advocate, mainly through exploiting the methods of arbitration and direct action.1 The CDRHWU was militant of

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necessity. The 600-member union represented widely varying occupations including dredge drivers, ship painters, night watchmen and casual workers employed to clean out ships. Most of its members laboured under difficult, dangerous and primitive conditions for low pay, the casuals receiving no attendance money for workless days, and no sick or holiday pay.2 Five other unions involved in the move to form the WACTU also had Communist officials. The Federal Secretary of the Ironworkers, E. Thornton, was reputedly one of the high ups in the CPA; the Seamens Secretary, Ron Hurd, had been sent by the CPA from the eastern states to bolster the industrial work of the party; and the Bootmakers Secretary, George Strickland, was a local CPA member. The other two unions were the Hotel, Club and Caterers Workers Union (HCCWU), a successor to the HCCT&REU which was non-financial with the ALP and the Carpenters and Joiners. Harry Curran, a member of the Fremantle WWF executive committee and a Fremantle District Council delegate, was appointed WACTU Secretary.3 At the movements zenith, with some 33 unions representing many thousands of unionists, the WACTU applied to affiliate with the ACTU. But, at its 20th State Labor Congress in 1947 the ALP pre-empted this move by forming the WA Trades Unions Industrial Council. The Western Australian Trades Union Industrial Council The WA Trades Union Industrial Council (WATUIC) was established to become the ACTUs affiliated body in Western Australia. Its stated objects were to strengthen and consolidate the industrial section of the WA labour movement, to promote and establish complete co-operation among the industrial organisations and co-ordinate industrial matters, and to assist in securing improved working conditions for all workers by means of collective consultation and action.4 Its unstated purpose was to remove the grievances which had led to the WACTUs formation. Once the TUIC was established, the State Executive set about ensuring that it would become the Western Australian Branch of the ACTU. Firstly, knowing that the ACTUs Federal President and Secretary, Percy Clarey and Albert Monk, were coming to the State in November 1948 to invite the WACTU to affiliate with the federal body, the State Executive took over arrangements for their visit. Davies booked hotel accommodation and met their plane. The ACTU officials attended meetings of the State Executive and the Metropolitan District Council, and met Justice

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Dunphy to discuss the Arbitration Court. Prior to travelling to Perth, Monk informed an astonished WACTU that they should refrain from preparations for his visit.5 Seeking to justify their abandonment of negotiations with the WACTU, Clarey told a special meeting of ALP State Executive Officers in Perth that, in the dying hour of the 1947 ACTU Congress, the delegates had resolved to direct himself and Monk to visit Western Australia at the earliest opportunity to form an ACTU branch. He admitted that it had been suggested vaguely that the WACTU be the branch, but said that it was not debated because it was at the end of the Congress. In his opinion, the last paragraph of the resolution was not intended to be a direction to them to make the WACTU a branch of the ACTU. Instead, he assured the State Executive, the branch would be established under the rules applying in Western Australia, with no interference from the ACTU in any internal affairs. The ACTU strongly requested the ALP State Executive to become the branch. Western Australias only financial obligation would be a contribution ranging from 5 to 25, depending on the size of their membership. Monk added that if the State Executive became the WA Branch, no industrial organisation in the State could become part of the ACTU unless it had first affiliated with the ALP.6 Monk and Clarey attended the ALP State Conference in 1949 and assured the State Executive: There is nothing in the ACTUs Constitution to debar open expression of political beliefs.7 They realised that most of the unions were affiliated to the ALP. Persuaded by the State ALP leadership that the WACTU was merely a sideshow of Communist-led unions, they decided against offering it affiliation with the ACTU. At the end of 1949, the Metropolitan District Council voted on whether the State Executive or the new TUIC should be the ACTU branch in Western Australia, and decided in favour of the State Executive by one vote. This had to be ratified by Congress.8 Assisted by the Arbitration Court and the non-Labor Government, the ALP then launched attacks upon individual union officials. Lachberg was fined in the Arbitration Court because some of the Carpenters stopped work, and the Bootmakers were denied improved margins because Strickland was their representative. Some unions created rules to ensure that Communists could not hold office. The State Executive forced Curran to relinquish his position as WACTU Secretary. Support for the WACTU declined and the body disbanded two years later.9 The TUIC was controversial from its inception, with conditions of membership and the extent of the bodys powers being matters of contention. After affiliating with the ACTU, the TUIC came under increasing pressure to

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alter its structure. Membership was strictly limited to industrial unions affiliated with the ALP. Each union was permitted two delegates who had to be financial members, union officials and ALP members, and to submit a signed ALP pledge to the Council before they were credentialled. The TUICs powers were constantly under discussion. Initially, the Councils Constitution stated that it had control under the State Executive of industrial matters of a collective nature, namely awards, industrial agreements and standard conditions. As the TUIC was not to interfere with the autonomy of the District Councils or the industrial unions, some of its designated powers suggest a role similar to that of the States Disputes Committee: dealing with industrial matters which encompassed the whole State or two or more District Councils, or any matter not dealt with by a District Council. The TUIC was empowered to appoint advocates to appear in the Arbitration Court on behalf of affiliated unions during the Basic Wage hearings and to recommend to the State Executive nominations for delegates to represent the Party at State or Federal industrial conferences.10 Before long, both the State Executive and the TUIC were under the control of one man, F.E. Chamberlain. Some unions objected to the limitations imposed by the ALP being their State representative on the ACTU Federal body. As the years passed, these objections increased. The AEU Perth Branch claimed that, in order to obtain a more solid working class front, the ACTU Branch should be democratically elected by and from the membership of the industrial unions.11 Upon inquiring about the nature of its affiliation, the CMU was informed that it was indirectly affiliated with the ACTU via the ALP State Executive.12 Troy tried to correspond directly with the ACTU Federal Executive, on behalf of his union, but the ACTU officials continued to allow the WA State Executive to discriminate against non-ALP affiliated unions. In May 1951, Troy protested to the WA Branch and the ACTU Federal Executive against the Menzies Governments police raids on the headquarters of the Seamens Union and the WWF, and subsequent prosecutions under the Crimes Act. This correspondence was apparently ignored by the WA Branch, and the only response from the Federal Executive was a circular letter stating that the ACTU could not consider correspondence except from the Federal Offices of affiliated unions or the State Executive.13 Within a few years, the ACTU Federal Executives attitude was to change radically as pressure increased from State and Federal unions in Western Australia and the eastern states to force the WA Branch to adopt the same structure as in other states and create a TLC that was entirely independent of the ALP.14

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In the meantime, a lengthy industrial dispute erupted at the Fremantle Engineering Works, the Westrail Workshops at Midland and several other locations. The dispute resulted from dissatisfaction with the Jackson Award on tradesmens rates of pay, including margins, which had been handed down in November 1951, and over 20 workers being laid off at the Pemberton railway running sheds. A strike, led by the Boilermakers and AEU, commenced at the end of February as the Industrial Registrar and the Crown Law Department began deregistration proceedings against the two unions. It lasted six months and achieved almost none of the strikers aims. Most significantly, the unions refused to seek the assistance of the ALP Disputes Committee, and, in fact, resisted all attempts by the Committee to take control of negotiations with the Government. At the end of May, Monk met union and ALP officials and government representatives in Perth to try to settle the dispute, but it did not end until further intervention by Chamberlain in August. The unsatisfactory result of the strike including the deregistration of the both the Boilermakers and the AEU made the militant unions even more disillusioned about the representation of their interests by the industrial wing of the ALP.15 Reaffiliation with the ACTU Western Australias ACTU affiliation was due for renewal in 1959. The ACTU Executive indicated that it might refuse reaffiliation unless an independent TLC was formed as the States affiliated body. In an attempt to block this move, the State Executive enlarged the TUICs powers, granting it the right to determine all matters of an industrial nature referred to it by its affiliated unions or the District Councils without first having to obtain the Executives sanction. The only exceptions were matters that Congress had determined were to be dealt with by the State Executive, and those which required legislative attention. These latter, after TUIC approval, would be forwarded to a new Industrial Committee consisting of the TUIC Executive, and the State Party President and Secretary.16 Chamberlain sent a circular letter to the affiliated unions, the eastern states TLCs, the ACTU Federal Executive and the Head Offices of the Federal unions, putting the case for the ALP (WA) maintaining its ACTU affiliation and its existing organisational structure. He stressed that the majority of the WA unions strongly opposed attempts to separate the TLC from the ALP. A possible outcome of the States disaffiliation, he felt, was that the branches of the Federal unions might form their own TLC. Chamberlain mentioned Clareys earlier assurance that the ACTU would not interfere with the internal

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workings of the State organisation. The TUIC represented 73 unions (including the WA branches of 19 Federal unions) with a total membership of over 73,000. These members received a State Basic Wage of 13.12s.9d., compared with the Federal Basic Wage of 12.16s. a week. They could stand to lose almost 1 a week if they adopted the Federal Basic Wage. Chamberlain asked the ACTU to call a special conference in Western Australia to determine whether the states industrial unions were in favour of establishing a separate TLC or whether they would agree to the WATUIC becoming the ACTUs State branch, in place of the ALP State Executive. He also suggested that the State Executive examine the proposal at the next State Congress and consider amending Rule 8 of the Constitution to permit the affiliation of any industrial organisation, subject to safeguards determined by Congress.17 Chamberlain and Joseph Pereira (of the Police Union) were appointed as State representatives to the September 1957 ACTU Congress. At the prior meeting of the ACTU Executive, Pereira asked Monk to postpone any discussion of the Agenda items dealing with the Western Australian affiliation until after Chamberlain arrived on the Thursday morning of the Congress. Monk assured him that these items would not reach the Agenda because there were more important things to discuss, but ACTU Federal Secretary Harold Souter said that any delegate could move to bring items before Congress. Pereira rang Chamberlain and related this conversation. Pressure of work made Chamberlain reluctant to travel to Sydney, so he sent Metropolitan District Council Secretary Bob Hartley as his proxy. On the morning before Hartley arrived at the Congress, Troy, who was attending as a Federated Miscellaneous Workers Union (FMWU) delegate, submitted a motion asking that an independent TLC be set up in Western Australia. The ACTU Executive discussed Troys motion and Pereira fought strenuously for a recommendation that the WA Branch proposals be placed before Congress. Finally, Monk suggested convening a Special Congress of affiliated and unaffiliated unions in Western Australia, together with the ACTU Executive officers. Pereira pointed out that the existing ALP Rules prevented this, but Monk said, Thats a matter for your own state. Some delegates thought that the ACTU should call a conference. Pereira was informed that if the WA Branch opposed this proposition, there was no doubt that a successful move would come from the floor, calling for the establishment of a TLC. Pereira did not speak against the motion because he had ascertained from several WA Branch delegates of Federal unions that Congress would not agree to the WA proposals and his intervention might only worsen the position.18

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The State Executive decided to hold a Special Conference of unions in December 1957 to discuss the proposal to make the WATUIC the States ACTU-affiliated body. According to Chamberlain, everything was arranged to ensure that all union delegates could participate and express their views freely. A circular to the unions elicited a variety of responses regarding the future industrial set-up in the State, and its relationship with the ACTU. The CMU favoured a separate TLC with direct affiliation to the ACTU, but supported any move to establish unity and allow all unions to affiliate to an industrial organisation under the ACTU. The Seamen and the Ship Painters and Dockers (SPDU) were more forthright. Both were affiliated with the ACTU through their unions Federal bodies but were not affiliated in Western Australia. The Seamens Union objected to an ACTU branch being subservient to any political party, but conceded that the defeat of the Menzies Government and the unity of all sections of the labour movement is paramount over any differences within the movement itself. The SPDU (WA) whose membership included part of the old CDRHWU (deregistered in 1952 for conducting unauthorised stoppages) pointed out that the present position was untenable and illogical. Troy, now SPDU Secretary, described as absurd the situation whereby a unionist could be elected to the ACTU Interstate Executive while remaining barred from participation in the State branch. He claimed that because the present Western Australian branch could not speak for all unions, this situation was harmful to the national unity of the ACTU.19 When the vote was taken at the WA Special Conference, 497 delegates favoured the WATUIC being Western Australias ACTU affiliate, with only 203 against. A majority also voted against setting up a separate TLC. Rule 8 of the Constitution was amended to make the WATUIC, rather than the State Executive, the body to which representatives of the industrial unions were affiliated. But even so, the stipulation remained that:
Industrial unions shall not be represented on any political section of the ALP or in any political conference or proceedings convened by the ALP, by any person who is a member of any political party other than the ALP.20

This was only a temporary measure. Dissatisfaction grew among the proponents of a separate TLC. The Hawke Labor Governments electoral defeat on 21 March 1959 was a significant factor. When the ALP reverted to the Opposition, the trades unions once again lost their ready access to the government, which they had taken for granted during the 1930s and 40s and for the past six years. Consequently, the WATUIC suffered because of its close links with the defeated Party.21

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When the ACTU Interstate Executive met in Melbourne in June 1959 to discuss agenda items for the forthcoming biennial Congress, Chamberlain claimed that there was almost complete unanimity among the delegates on the matter of the WATUIC becoming the affiliated body. Even Jim Healy, the General Secretary of the WWF and a CPA member, moved an amendment recommending that the [ACTU] affiliation of the WA ALP be transferred to the WA Industrial Council. But Healys amendment also expressed the hope that this situation would be temporary in the move to organise the Trade Union Movement in [WA] on a basis identical of [sic] industrial organisations approved by the ACTU. This amendment was carried and became the resolution to be placed before Congress. At the Congress, however, Healy did an about face (according to Chamberlain). He moved another amendment, directing the WA Branch of the ACTU to carry out fully the democratic principles of affiliation on which the ACTU itself and its other five branches operate and make affiliation open to any bona fide registered trade union or any Branch of a Federal Union operating within the State. A Western Australian delegate, J. White of the Painters and Decorators Union, seconded the motion, which was subsequently carried. The mood of the Congress was probably influenced by a letter that Healy produced and read. It was signed by the officials of 12 WA trade unions and supported the proposal to establish a separate TLC.22 At a meeting in Perth two weeks later, Chamberlain defended his opposition to Healys motion. He stated that it was based on a misunderstanding of the Western Australian position, because, even before the Rules had been changed in 1957, only four unions had been excluded from affiliation. The basic difference between the WATUIC and the organisation in the eastern states, he claimed, was that a delegate could not represent his or her union without signing the ALP pledge card. In reality, Chamberlain could not have believed that this difference was insignificant, as it was a major deterrent to non-ALP union officials participating in the local organisation. He accused the CPA and the Democratic Labor Party (see Chapter Ten) of supporting the question of a separate TLC solely because it would increase their participation within the labour movement. When the division was called, members of the Communist Party and the DLP were falling over themselves to vote for Mr Healys amendment.23 Chamberlains main objection was that the ACTU had reneged on its 1949 position. He said that the ACTU Congress had the right to reject the States application for a new affiliation, but it had no right to direct the

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internal organisation of Western Australian unions to take a particular course. He alluded to Monks ruling after the motion had been carried, that the ALP (WA) must consider the resolution and determine its attitude to it.24 Despite Chamberlains warning that a separate TLC would spell the end of the District Councils, those bodies increasingly supported the ACTU position. On 22 September 1959, the Fremantle District Council heartily endorsed the decision of the Congress and urged the State Executive to accept its inevitability and take immediate action to give effect to the resolution. Chamberlain sternly reminded Fremantle Secretary, Don Lippiatt, that he [Chamberlain] was discharging his duty in protecting the democratic majority decision of the WA trade union movement when at the December 1957 special conference it overwhelmingly rejected the establishment of a separate TLC.25 The Metropolitan District Council, however, supported the State Executives position, with a resolution regretting the ACTUs refusal to accept the reaffiliation of the WATUIC.26 Meanwhile, Troy convened a significant meeting on 17 September in the AEU Rooms. Troy began with an ultimatum to the State Executive if a TLC was not formed within 12 months, he would bring [about] sharp repercussions. He did not elaborate on what these repercussions would be. J. McMullan (AEU) informed the meeting that the Commonwealth Council of his union had instructed the WA Branch to assist in setting up a TLC. W.R. Sawyer Secretary of the Federated Clerks Union and State Leader of the Democratic Labor Party opposed continued affiliation with a political party and supported an independent TLC. The meeting authorised a committee composed of Troy, Sawyer and Cahill (Boilermakers) to meet with the State Executive.27 Chamberlain refused to meet them, maintaining that the question was one for consideration by the WA Branch of the ALP and the State Executive, not outside bodies. He also reiterated his belief that Monks decision at the ACTU Congress had merely maintained the status quo, that is, the ALP (WA) was still the ACTUs affiliate.28 The issue was to be decided at yet another Special Congress of Unions on 23 November 1959, but non-affiliated unions and union representatives who were not ALP members were again excluded from proceedings. Troy complained to the SPDU Federal Executive, who forwarded the correspondence to the ACTU Federal Executive. Souter wrote to Chamberlain, requesting his comments on the matter but only after the Congress had taken place.29 As the Congress approached, the West Australians Trades Hall correspondent, Clarrie Menagh, mused over this vexed issue for WA unions. Although Chamberlain had the backing of 36 out of 49 unions affiliated with

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the ALP, the success of Healys resolution at the ACTU Congress, according to Menagh, had pave[d] the way for Communist infiltration, left-wing control of the WA trade union movement, and possibly a split. Chamberlain maintained that the 13 unions whom Healy had declared were excluded from affiliation for political reasons were, in fact, a group of small unions who had played no part in the overall labour organisation in Western Australia. But Menagh pointed out that participants at the ACTU Congress saw the passage of Healys motion as:
a crushing defeat for Mr Chamberlain, a blow to his prestige, the finish of the Chamberlain trade union dictatorship in Western Australia and the end of a happy political-industrial family that had existed for forty years.30

Perhaps it was a blow to Chamberlains prestige, but, under the existing system, a card vote for the unions would continue to support the status quo. Officials of the AWU, the WAASRE, the Shop Assistants, the Hospital Employees and the South Western Branch of the Timber Workers Association representing a block of 27,000 votes all opposed the establishment of an independent TLC, whereas most of these unions had supported the WACTU in 1947. Indeed, the Congress voted against any structural change by 555 to 206. But it was later claimed that the officials representing the 27,000 votes were a small group of people who never consulted their membership.31 Despite this temporary set-back, the tide of opinion strengthened against retaining the old structure, and in 1960 the campaign for an independent TLC intensified. WA branches of Federal unions began urging their Federal Secretaries to advise the ACTU Interstate Executive that its WA Branch had refused to carry out the direction of the 1959 Congress and should be disaffiliated. Again, the press represented Chamberlain unfavourably, describing him as fighting desperately to prevent the application of the ACTUs decision and accusing him of influencing the outcome of the November Congress in Perth. For this, in the opinion of the Carpenter and Joiner, he should be expelled from the ACTUs Interstate Executive.32 The TLC Campaign Committee In February 1960, the TLC Campaign Committee was formed, with Don Lippiatt as Secretary, to implement the decision of the ACTU Congress. Delegates from 16 unions represented a combined membership of over 32,000 workers. By now, the Geraldton, Albany, Fremantle and South Western District Councils also supported an independent TLC. The Committees manifesto stated that every bona fide trade union or branch of a federal union had an

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inalienable right to membership in a State TLC and to join the ACTU. No majority vote could deny that right. In Western Australia, for political reasons, unions and delegates were denied their fundamental rights to organise with their fellow unions. The manifesto stated that, of 187,400 wage and salary earners in the State in January 1960, almost 55,000 were non-unionists, and 38,000 unionists were not affiliated with the ALP a sad commentary on the present organisational situation here.33 Nor did unions mind going to the capitalist press to air their grievances. Sawyer stated in the West Australian that the formation of an independent TLC would not increase Communist influence in WA unions. He pointed out that an overwhelming majority of unions would refuse to continue affiliation with an ALP-controlled TUIC. Of 114 unions presently registered in Western Australia, only 65 were affiliated with the ALP, and also many WA branches of Federal unions were not affiliated, largely because of the stipulation that they first had to pay to the State Executive a levy on each member.34 In April, 1960, the State Executive convened a meeting of ALP delegates including Lippiatt, Gavin Ryce, Ruby Hutchison MLC and the Reverend Keith Dowding, and three ACTU officials, Monk, Souter and Senior Vice President J.D. Kenny. Monk stated that all that was required was for all unions to be permitted to affiliate with the ALP (WA) and that all affiliated unions should be permitted to credential delegates to the TUIC without any restrictions regarding their political beliefs. He was satisfied that the first requirement had been met when Rule 8 was changed in 1957, and he recommended removing the qualification of ALP allegiance. White, Wayman (Fremantle WWF), Hartley and Ryce were among the opponents of this measure. At 9.55 pm nothing had been resolved, so the meeting was extended another hour. Finally, Chamberlain said that the State Executive Officers had agreed to co-operate with the ACTU Interstate Executive, believing that Monks recommendation would be fully supported by those who for so long had been making much capital out of the very situation that the recommendation sought to adjust. In view of the violent opposition from this section of the Executive, he saw no point in another conference. It was resolved by 32 votes to 20 that the ACTU be advised that the WA Branch was unable to comply with the decision of the ACTU Congress.35 The situation had reached a stalemate, while further industrial disputes at Collie over the issue of open cut mining strengthened the CMUs belief that unions required a separate body, free from political allegiances, to negotiate for them. Meanwhile, the Fremantle District Council resolved to ask the State Executive to invite Monk back to Perth and re-open discussions. Monk

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returned to Western Australia in mid 1961 and informed a meeting of the State Executive that his interpretation of the Rules had been unanimously endorsed by the ACTU Interstate Executive. The meeting then resolved unanimously to convene a Special General Council to determine the future relationship of the WA trade union movement to the ACTU.36 At Unity Theatre on 28 August, a Special Affiliated Union Conference rejected a resolution endorsing the decision of the ACTUs 1959 Congress that each affiliated union shall be allowed without any political restriction, to be represented on the Industrial Council by such member(s) of that union as it may decide in accordance with its Rules. A motion was then carried recommending that the Special General Council establish a committee to examine the process of setting up a separate industrial organisation. This organisation would be structured to meet the ACTUs requirements. The decisions of the Special General Council were endorsed by the ACTU Congress in Sydney in September 1961.37 An independent Trades and Labor Council By September 1962, the Committee appointed by the Special General Council and chaired by Chamberlain had drawn up and revised a Constitution and Rules for the Western Australian TLC, still insisting on affiliation with the ALP as a prerequisite for membership. Furthermore, one of the four objects was to promote and develop the closest possible relations between the Trade Union Movement and its political wing, the Australian Labor Party. Each affiliated union would be entitled to between one and six representatives, depending on the size of its membership. The proposed Constitution granted considerable powers to the Secretary and gave him a similar role to that of the ALP Secretary. The TLC Executive would consist of a President, two Vice Presidents, a Secretary, a Treasurer, three committee members and three Trustees. Each would be elected for one year, except for the Secretary, who would be elected for three years in the first instance, with an annual salary of 1,750. If the Secretary was re-elected, he (or she) would become eligible to be a permanent officer of the Council, subject to good conduct and proper application to duties. In a departure from earlier Labor policy, the paid officer would not be expected to retire at the age of 65 years, but have his position reviewed by the Council, which body was granted the power to determine whether he retired or continued in his position.38 Perhaps Chamberlain was considering his own situation, for he was in his early 60s when the Constitution was drafted.

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Concurrently, another seven-member Committee, including Hawke, Jamieson, Hartley and Chamberlain, drafted a new Constitution and Rules for the WA Branch of the ALP. The intent to ensure that industrial unions remained closely linked with the Party was clear from the Preface, which read, in part:
It is vitally necessary that in the new political organisation the affiliated union movement must be encouraged to play its full part by representatives prepared to pledge themselves to the political philosophy, objectives, and platform of the ALP. We cannot risk the dangers of a weak political organisation functioning purely on existing ALP branches.39

The Partys objects were listed as strengthening and consolidating the labour organisation in Western Australia, and promoting and extending such legislation and other reforms as will secure justice for all. The structure remained much as before, except that the old District Councils were to be replaced by Electorate Councils, consisting of delegates from ALP branches and affiliated unions within each Legislative Assembly electorate. The State Conference remained the supreme governing body in the State, with the State Executive as the chief administrative authority. The new five-part structure, therefore, consisted of: the General Council, the State Executive, the Electorate Councils, political branches and the Labor Womens Organisation. Where no party branch existed, individuals of 16 or more years could become direct members of the Party through the State Executive.40 The big losers were the old District Councils. Once so strong that they could successfully defy the State Executive and the SPLP, the District Councils powers had been eroded since the 1930s, and they surrendered with little struggle. There must have been many regrets and sad recollections as the Councils wound down. The final meeting of the South Western District Council was held at the RSL Hall, Bunbury, on Sunday morning, 9 December 1962, with Joe and Gladys Chamberlain attending. Arrangements had already been made for the transfer of funds and assets to the State Executive. The District Council Secretary, W.K. Young, reported on the Electorate Council that was to succeed the District Council. The political representatives appointed to represent the four major centres of the old South Western District Council were: H. May MLA (Collie), J. Rowberry MLA (Manjimup), W.K. Young (Bunbury) and E. Crockenberg (Pinjarra). The meeting passed a number of resolutions including a censure, from the Collie ALP, of the SPLP members for voting in favour of raising Parliamentarians salaries; and a strong protest from the Pinjarra ALP against penal clauses in the Arbitration Act being

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enforced against the Boilermakers and other militant unions, and a call to abolish this vicious legislation.41 To the last, the District Councils affiliates wanted to emphasise their autonomy. With the abolition of the District Councils, an era ended in Western Australian labour history, with mixed benefits for the movement. Under the new constitution, the trade unions were no longer branches of the party. The unions were free to conduct their own business without party interference, and union officials could represent their unions without being ALP members. Conversely, trade union participation in the Labor Party declined. At the time of the division, the State ALP like its Federal counterpart was in Opposition and would remain so for the rest of the 1960s, largely because of a split that had resulted in the emergence of the Democratic Labor Party.

Chapter Ten

Dr Evatt has split the Party the length and breadth of the Commonwealth or was it Mr Chamberlain?
The 1950 Anti-Communist Legislation Shortly after his victory in the December 1949 Federal election, Menzies determined to fulfil his promise to outlaw the CPA. On 27 April 1950, in the House of Representatives, he introduced a Bill to outlaw and dissolve the Australian Communist Party, to pursue it into any new or associated forms, and to deal with the employment of Communists in certain offices, and under certain circumstances.1 Many features of the Bill alarmed civil libertarians. It compared the perceived activities of the CPA in peace time with so-called fifth columnists during the recent war; it was retrospective to 10 May 1948 (the date on which the CPA Constitution was adopted at its last Commonwealth Congress), and it required any individual or any body, apart from the CPA itself, charged under the Act, to prove their innocence. Menzies justified this departure from legal precedent in an extraordinary manner, declaring:
This is one of the few occasions on which it is right to say to a man that is declared, or to a body which is declared: If you want to demonstrate that you are not within this net, prove it, because after all you should be the one who knows the facts.

The CPA would be disposed of without any right of appeal, and no humbug.2 Other provisions of the Bill disqualified Communists from holding any government office or office in any organisation engaged in activities deemed vital to the defence of Australia. This meant that no Communist could hold office in a union whose members were chiefly employed in any of a number of designated key industries including coal mining, iron and steel production, engineering, building or transport industries. Chifley and Evatt strongly opposed the Bill that, Chifley said, struck at the very heart of justice for it opened the door for the liar, the perjurer and the pimp, to make charges and damn mens reputations in secret without having

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either to substantiate or prove any charges they may make.3 Evatt demonstrated that it would be possible for people with no connection to the Communist movement to be declared and that the accused would not know what was alleged against him or her, because of the secrecy provisions. The FPLP departed from the policy laid down in the 1948 Federal Conference; however, by accepting the Preamble and the portion of the Bill that provided for the dissolution of the CPA and the appointment of a Receiver of its property. Although Tom Burke took only a minor role in the Lower House debate, attacking the onus of proof clause and the lack of evidence necessary in declaring any person or body,4 he would occupy a pivotal role in the ultimate fate of the Bill. Despite opposition from affiliated bodies, the ALP majority in the Senate finally passed the Bill, subject to 19 amendments being made.5 It was returned to the Lower House but the Government refused to accept the amendments and resolved on 23 June to set the Bill aside. Menzies also refused the Oppositions request to have the Bill completely reprinted to gauge whether its amendments had, indeed, prevented the Government from dealing effectively with the CPA. Three days after the Bill was set aside, the North Korean Army invaded South Korea. A month later, Menzies announced that Australia would send a brigade of volunteers to assist American and British forces to repel the North Koreans. A public opinion poll stated that 80 per cent of Australians favoured banning the Communist Party.6 Tom Burke began to play a crucial role in the Bills outcome. During the Parliamentary recess, Chifley visited Western Australia. Addressing the State Executive, he said that, while the ALP agreed that the CPA should be dissolved, the Party disagreed violently with the Government on many of the Bills features. He believed that, as it stood, it would constitute a very real threat to the person of every militant trade union official.7 After Chifley had left the meeting, delegates discussed a recommendation from the recent State Executive Officers meeting that this States delegates to the Federal Executive ALP and the Interstate Executive ACTU be given discretionary powers when voting on the ALPs policy regarding the Bill. Wises motion that the delegates be instructed to insist upon the full implementation of the Partys amendment to the onus of proof clause was carried.8 Although Burke appears not to have voted against the resolution, he later accused Chifley of seeking to whip up support for his viewpoint on the Bill.9 In September, the Federal Executive considered a motion from the Victorian State Executive that the FPLP should be allowed to formulate its own attitude to the bill without direction from the Federal Executive.10

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Chamberlain reported to the State Executive that the WA delegates had adhered to the August resolution insisting upon the full implementation of the onus of proof clause. Burke moved that Chamberlains report be adopted, that a final decision [on whether the Bill should be allowed to pass through the Senate] should be left to the FPLP, and that the ALP Secretary ascertain the view of the other State branches on this motion, to authorise the FPLP to act. While he believed that the whole Bill as presented by the Government was bad and should have been rejected, he felt that it would not be in the best political interests of the Party to face a double dissolution on this question with the inevitable consequent loss of seats. (Burkes seat was marginal.) This position clearly contravened Chifleys attitude that a cynical policy switch to avoid an election would cost the party dearly in political credibility. Bill Hegney moved that the Federal ALP President and Secretary seek the opinion of all of the Federal Executive delegates whether to convene a Special meeting to reconsider the Victorian motion that the FPLP be allowed to use its discretion in connection with the Communist Party Dissolution Bill. This motion was carried.11 But the Midland and the Fremantle District Councils opposed this change of policy. Midland demanded that Burke be requested to explain on whose authority he had been present at the State Executive meeting. Burke agreed to attend a Council meeting to explain.12 The WA vote ended the deadlock in the Federal Executive. On 16 October, the Federal Executive met once more and decided by eight votes (WA, Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania) to four (SA, NSW) to instruct the FPLP to let the unamended Bill through Parliament. Chifley felt betrayed by Burkes move, but refused to accept his resignation. Burke claimed that he had helped to save Chifleys leadership and the Party from a devastating defeat in the event of a double dissolution. The FPLP had no option but to make a humiliating reversal of opinion and allow the Bill to pass through the Senate. The Bill went through virtually in its original form and became law on 20 October.13 The Federal Executive tried to save face by issuing a lengthy statement on its change of stance, which concluded:
The Federal Executive has decided to test the sincerity of the Menzies Government before the people and to give the lie to its false and slanderous allegations against the ALP, that the Bill should be passed in the form in which it is now before the Senate. The Federal Executive directs the FPLP to withdraw opposition to the Bill in its present form before the Senate, and to amend legislation as soon as it resumes Government.

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The WA State Executive considered this statement at its meeting on 30 October. Chamberlain objected to the final sentence and moved for its deletion on the grounds that federal policy could be determined only at the Federal Triennial Conference. The next Conference was due to be held in March 1951. He also believed that it was politically bad to say that the Bill was a bad issue to fight on this year, but apparently will be good to fight on next year.14 As the Melbourne Argus put it: The Labour Party says, in effect, We shall be upright men but not this week.15 An exultant Menzies declared that the turn around was made by 12 outsiders, not because they favoured the Bill but because they feared the electors.16 The humiliation was all in vain as the ALP did not avoid a double dissolution. The 1951 Referendum Immediately after the Act became law, the Communist-led Federal Executives of the WWF, the FIA and eight other unions challenged it in the High Court, neatly reversing the situation envisaged by the Federal Government. In this case, the Communist Party and the unions were the plaintiffs and the Government was the defendant. The plaintiffs wished to prove that the CPA was not seditious, that it did not engage in industrial sabotage, and that it was not controlled by a world-wide Communist movement all allegations made in the Preamble to the Act. Against the advice of his political colleagues, Evatt took the brief for the unions, and their case succeeded. Six out of seven High Court judges declared the Communist Party Dissolution Act invalid.17 A week after the High Court judgement, Menzies sought and was granted a double dissolution on the grounds that the Senate had rejected the Commonwealth Bank Bill.18 The 1951 election was disastrous for Labor. In Western Australia, only Johnson, Burke and Beazley retained their seats, Burke defeating the Liberal candidate, Billy Snedden, by only 118 votes.19 Shortly after the election, in June 1951, Chifley sustained a fatal heart attack. Evatt, who had retained his seat of Barton by the barest majority, was elected FPLP Leader. Once re-elected, with a majority in the Senate, Menzies called a referendum seeking permission to ban the CPA. It was scheduled for 22 September 1951. Harry Webb directed Western Australian Labors Vote No campaign in the absence of Chamberlain, who was on sick leave from mid August until 24 September, the Monday after the vote was taken. The campaign was officially launched at the Assembly Hall in Pier Street on 27 August, with Evatt addressing a 700-strong audience. His speech was broadcast on the Labor radio station 6KY.20 The State Executive organised many lunch hour meetings in

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workplaces and public rallies in Forrest Place, Victoria Park, Midland and Kalgoorlie. Speakers included Senator Nash, Hawke, Tonkin and Fred Daly MHR. The Labor Women provided postal voting facilities for hospital inmates and distributed literature for the ALP branches. Rose Fuhrmann, Grace Oliver and Mrs Hart appeared on platforms in Perth and Fremantle during the campaign, although whether they spoke is unclear. The Fremantle WWF reviewed the low lights of Menziess career in a comic strip, entitled The Calamitous Career of Dictator Bob, that declared, We dont want Fascism here. Vote NO and keep Australia free.21 Nevertheless, Labor opposition to the referendum was not unanimous. The Westralian Worker, which usually indicated the more conservative opinion, had ceased publication mid year, but the paper had been non-committal over the issue of the Communist Party Dissolution Bill.22 A number of unions were extremely hostile to Communists. The outcome of the referendum was a victory for the No campaign but by the narrowest margin in the history of Australian referenda, with 50.6 per cent of formal votes against the ban. Three states Queensland, Tasmania and WA yielded Yes majorities. The ALP Federal Executive recorded its satisfaction with the result, which, it claimed, was a great victory for democracy, a tribute to Dr Evatts leadership and a credit to State Branches of the Party. The Federal Executive also sternly rebuked those who had opposed the No campaign and remarked: This Executive will not in future tolerate such unjustifiable disregard for Federal conference decisions and democratic principles. This charge could have been laid on the Executive itself after its change of policy on the Communist Party Dissolution Bill in 1950.23 Perhaps the WA Executive was more realistic in observing that the outcome was disappointing in the narrowness of defeat.24 The Hawke Government, 195356 While the Federal scene was gloomy, the ALP won the 1953 State election. A.R.G. (Bert) Hawke, who had succeeded Wise as Party Leader in June 1951, became Premier. Wise had resigned from Parliament upon being appointed Administrator of the Northern Territory.25 Alex Panton was also missing from the new administration. Panton, MLA for Leederville, who had been Minister for Health and Lands in the Wise Government, had died on Christmas Day 1951, ending a political career spanning 32 years.26 In the election, Labor gained four seats over its 1950 result and governed with a majority of one, after appointing A.J. Rodoreda (Pilbara) as Speaker. There were many newcomers in the first cabinet, with only Hawke, Tonkin and Nulsen having held Ministries

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in the 1940s. The portfolios, too, had changed, with the position of Hon. Minister having disappeared. Bill Hegney, who had won Mount Hawthorn back for Labor, took the new portfolios of Native Welfare (introduced by the McLartyWatts Government as Native Affairs), and Prices, together with Labour. Other new portfolios included Housing, Local Government and Town Planning. Harry Strickland MLC was Minister for the North West in place of Coverley, who was returned to the seat of Kimberley but died only a month later. J.J. Rhatigan gained the seat in the ensuing by-election.27 The Hawke Government began addressing some of the matters that the Party believed had put it out of office in 1947, and that the LiberalCountry Party had not dealt with during its period in government such as building new homes and schools to ease public demand. The first major issue was the continuation of price control, in the form of a Prices Control Bill, which the nonLabor majority in the Council completely rejected in 1955. Rent control also was debated during early 1954. Although the Governments legislation was amended in the Upper House including the removal of clauses establishing tenants rights against eviction it was passed in a modified form, allowing rent control for a period of one year.28 Labor won all of the five seats contested in the May 1954 Legislative Council elections. Ruby Hutchison became the first woman to sit in an Australian Upper House when she was elected to the Suburban Province at the age of 62. Hutchison, the eldest daughter in a family of 10 children, was born in Footscray, Victoria, in 1892 and came to Western Australia as a child. She lived in the Geraldton and Murchison districts, and was married and widowed by the time she was 30 years old. With seven children to raise, she learned the hard way what it meant to be poor with a large family. Once her children were independent, she entered university to study social welfare and public administration. Hutchison had a deep concern for children and young people, and their carers, and aimed to establish a respite home for intellectually disabled children. Another great passion was the abolition of the House in which she sat. She derided the disgraceful property vote which disenfranchised many women in Legislative Council elections. On one occasion, she was suspended from the House after refusing to retract her remark that the Chamber was undemocratic.29 The conservative majority in the Upper House continued to frustrate the reforms of State Labor Governments. The Rev. Keith Dowding a Minister of the Presbyterian Church, who arrived in Perth in 1956 after some years in Sydney, where he had associated in Federal Labor circles and had become a friend of the Evatts described State Parliament as being unimportant at the

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time. While the State Executive worried about things that would affect Federal Parliament more, the State Parliament was seen as a body that look[ed] after the roads and so on30 barely more exalted than a local council. Dowdings judgment appears harsh. A number of factors determined the difference in orientation between the State Executive and the SPLP, but of greatest significance was the impact of Labor government legislation being obstructed by the anti-Labor majority in the Upper House. For many years, the Labor platform had contained an aim to abolish State Parliaments and replace them with provincial governments (with functions approximating those carried out by local government), so State Parliaments were regarded as second best by ambitious ALP members who wanted to make a wider political impact. Inevitably, too, the State Government had to give State matters priority in order to keep faith with the electorate. These differing priorities had been evident during World War II, when the State Executive supported Curtin, whilst the SPLP criticised his lack of attention to Western Australias defence. But, of course, State politics were not immune to the Federal controversies. As in 1916, the split eventually came to Western Australia, even though its full impact was not felt until after 1956. The Petrov Affair Approaching the 1954 Federal election, the FPLP had reason to be confident. Swings to Labor in State elections since 1951 meant that only South Australia retained a non-Labor government in office. Across Australia, Communists had been purged from the union movement.31 The WA branch began organising for the election in July 1953 by updating the electoral rolls, ensuring that facilities were established to cater for sick and absent voters, distributing literature and visiting country districts.32 The Federal election was scheduled for 29 May 1954. On the last night of Parliament, while Evatt was absent at a private function in Sydney, Menzies announced the defection of a spy, Vladimir Petrov, from the Russian Embassy. The ALP decided to support Menziess establishment of a royal commission to investigate the matter. Proceedings began during the penultimate week of the election campaign. The non-Labor coalition won the election by a narrow margin. Considerable argument has centred on the extent to which the Petrov defection was staged in order for the Government to win the election. Evatt undoubtedly believed he was the victim of a conspiracy.33 Dowding, who attended several of the

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Commissions sessions, felt that it was very, very one-sided. Like many other Labor supporters, he believed that the whole thing was weighted against justice and was intended to discredit Evatt.34 Grouper and non-Grouper antagonism played a significant part in the election campaign, and in some of the results but not in Western Australia, where Beazley, Burke and Johnson were all returned. The other successful Labor candidate in Western Australia was Harry Webb, who won Swan.35 But the indications were that Labor should have won the election. Bitter in defeat, some Caucus members attacked Evatts leadership at the first meeting after the election. Burke rashly challenged for Party leadership and received 20 votes to Evatts 68 a result which probably reflected Evatts waning popularity more than Burkes perceived leadership qualities. Don Willesee (who had entered the Senate in 1950) voted for Burke, but only as a protest against Evatts involvement in the Petrov Enquiry.36 The attacks against Evatt intensified after he criticised the activities of a small minority group of members, located primarily in the State of Victoria, which has, since 1949, become increasingly disloyal to the labour movement and the Labor leadership. At another stormy meeting on 13 October, Johnson and Burke were among those who took the opportunity to condemn their leader for his public announcement.37 In taking this position, they became increasingly at odds with the majority in the WA ALP Executive and in the Federal Executive, including the newly-elected Vice President, F.E. Chamberlain. Labor womens organisations in WA also remained loyal to Evatt. In August 1954, the Perth LWO congratulated Tangney for supporting Evatts stand during the Petrov Royal Commission. Tangney and Hutchison, the LWCEs two Parliamentary representatives, remained loyal to Evatt, and the LWCE endorsed the Federal Executives position. At an LWCE meeting in 1956, Hutchison accused the Secretary, Rae Golding, of being a Grouper one of the few occasions on which the Labor split surfaced in the womens groups.38 The Hobart Conference Although WA Labor members had played little part in the events of the Petrov Royal Commission, the upcoming Federal Conference was a different matter. By the end of 1954, the swiftly deepening divisions within the Party became evident during the process of electing WA delegates to the Federal Conference, scheduled for Hobart in March 1955. According to Brian Peachey, who had joined the ALP in 1951 as a member of the Shop Assistants Union, subsequently serving as a delegate to the Metropolitan District Council in 1955:

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Labor members whose political philosophies had been only loosely formed were being lobbied and demands were being made for them to stand either right or left in the Party. Men and women who had given a lifetime to the Labour movement were suddenly being asked to demonstrate where they stood in the political spectrum.39

By December, five of the six conference delegates had been elected. Tom Burke and Kim Beazley were to represent the Metropolitan and Fremantle District Councils respectively, Ruby Hutchison, Senator Cooke, and Chamberlain represented the other District Councils and the State Executive. The competition for sixth position was between Harry Webb and Dan James, a Collie railway worker, who was Vice President of the South Western District Council. Harry Webb was popular choice, as an experienced Federal delegate to both the ACTU and the ALP Executive, and as MHR for Swan. But some sections of the Party disliked his Leftist stance and supported James as an alternative. On 12 December, the election was held at a meeting of the South Western District Council in Bunbury, and James was successful. The Minutes relate only that, after the election, Chamberlain, Burke and Senators Cooke and Don Willesee all addressed the meeting. Chamberlain spoke on the split being caused at the present time in the Party. Burke also discussed the split, Federal politics and the policies of the Menzies Government. Both Burke and Chamberlain were applauded.40 Peachey and several others attended as bogus delegates of the Timber Workers Union to secure James election, as they were determined to stop Webb from going as a delegate to Hobart because he had aligned himself with the far Left and was loyal to Chamberlain. According to Peachey, both Cooke and Willesee defended the Victorian Executive (which had recently come under the control of the Grouper faction), and criticised Evatt. Chamberlain criticised the Movement, the Industrial Groups and some of the Victorian Federal Members, and Burke attacked the Federal Executive and Chamberlain in particular. Chamberlain was humiliated and stormed out of the meeting.41 None of these events were mentioned in the Minutes, although, if true, they would suggest a personal reason for Chamberlains later action against Burke, whom he doubtless saw as jeopardising Party unity in his criticism of Evatt and his challenge for the leadership. Ironically, even Peachey admitted that James was not a particularly suitable candidate as he could well have been out of his depth in the sophisticated, ruthless cut and thrust of Labor politics at Federal Conference level.42 The selection of James, rather than Webb, actually made no difference to the outcome of events at Hobart.

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None of the items that the WA Executive put forward for discussion at the Conference reflected the sensitive political situation in the Party. The resolutions, instead, concerned practical issues such as the availability of workers housing loans; the provision of greater quantities of building material to meet the rising demand for homes; amendments to the Federal Platform to determine the Basic Wage on a family unit of four or more members and on a needs principle; and raising civilian widows pensions to the level of war widows pensions. On the foreign affairs front, however, the resolutions indicated a Leftist stance in support of the diplomatic recognition of the Peoples Republic of China, and of the ACTUs opposition to hydrogen bomb tests in Australian territory.43 On 16 December, the State Executive Officers met to discuss a letter from the NSW Branch of the ALP regarding the autonomy of State branches at the Federal Conference. The Officers recommended that the State Executive inform the NSW Branch that the majority decisions of the Federal Executive should be observed by all branch members. This was in accordance with Rule 9 (I) of the Federal Executive Rules, which gave the Executive plenary powers to decide any matter that, in the opinion of seven or more members, affected the welfare of the labour movement provided that it did not contravene a Federal Conference decision. The Officers agreed that Rule 9 (I) was binding upon all ALP members and any person or branch should have the right of appeal to the Federal Conference. In effect, the Officers were recommending that the WA delegates to the Federal Conference be instructed to vote in accordance with the majority decisions of the Federal Executive on any matter which affected the welfare of the Party. This recommendation was debated in the State Executive meeting on 20 December. Tom Burke moved an amendment that the Federal Conference convene prior to the proposed Victorian Conference, rather than afterwards. Senator Cooke seconded Burkes amendment and both spoke in support, whilst Chamberlain and Webb opposed it. The amendment was defeated on a show of hands and the recommendation carried.44 At a further meeting of the State Executive, on 1 February 1955, Burke again questioned the ruling that Federal Executive decisions adopted by the State Executive would be binding on Federal conference delegates. He sought a ruling from the Acting Chairman, A.T. Curtis, who determined that the six delegates were bound only by those matters that had already been discussed and decided in the State Executive meeting.45 A Special Victorian State Conference in Melbourne in February, chaired by Chamberlain as Senior Vice President of the Federal Executive, elected a new Victorian Executive to replace the Grouper-controlled Executive and new Federal Conference

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delegates.46 The WA State Executive did not discuss matters arising from this Special Conference before the Federal Conference, so, according to Curtiss ruling, the delegates were not bound by any decisions concerning the validity of either of the Victorian Executives. The Federal Conference commenced in Hobart on 14 March. Ruby Hutchison arrived to find the lobby crowded and a group of men at the door of the meeting room demanding admittance. These were the delegates selected by the so-called old or Grouper Victorian Executive prior to the Victorian Special State Conference in February. They were removed only after the police arrived. Chamberlain and the other members of the Federal Executive decided to reconvene the Conference at another venue next day. This venue was to be kept secret from the old Victorian delegation. Just over half of the Conference delegates, including Chamberlain, Hutchison and Beazley, reconvened at Trinity Hall the next morning. The ban on the old Victorian delegation moved 17 delegates to boycott proceedings in protest. Beazley handed the Conference President, E.E. Reece, a letter that he and 11 other delegates from New South Wales, Western Australia and Tasmania had signed, calling upon the Conference Executive to use the same procedure as in 1927, when two rival NSW delegations had arrived at the Federal Conference. At that Conference, both delegations had been excluded while the other delegates voted on which one to admit. Reece read the letter and said that he could make no decision because there was no conference, but he would like informal proceedings to take place to discuss the situation. Chamberlain took the platform and stated that the WA delegates had instructions as to how they should vote, and that any deficiencies in representation at the Victorian [Special] Conference had been due to the old executive in Victoria. Beazley, the only one present of the signatories to the letter, then spoke. He acknowledged the authority of the Federal Conference as the supreme governing body of the ALP; he said that he knew nothing about the Victorian Special Conference, as it had not yet been reported upon in the State Executive. He interpreted his instructions to mean that he could not seat the old Victorian delegation, and, in a proper vote by the delegates whose credentials were not in doubt, he would not vote to seat it. Beazley believed that the 1927 precedent should have been followed. It was absurd to have a situation where one claimant delegation could judge the other. Chamberlain had told him, before coming to Hobart, that the only procedure for the Conference to adopt would be to exclude both delegations and decide. This had not occurred and regarding this as a violation of the 1927 precedent he chose to withdraw. Beazley also believed that a decision on the outcome of the Victorian

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Conference should not have been forced on the Conference by the Federal Executive before a report of proceedings had been made to the Federal Conference. He then retired before any of the other delegates could respond. The Conference officially began at 3 pm and accepted the Victorian delegation led by J.V. Stout, in preference to the Grouper delegation led by F.P. McManus. The remaining delegates voted unanimously to proceed with the Conference and invited the boycotters to send a deputation to explain their position. The boycotters refused this invitation and did not request admittance to the conference. Some delegates believed that the previous days events had been staged for the benefit of the press, which was not admitted to proceedings. The conference resolved that any action to combat Industrial Groups should be determined solely by the unions concerned, and reaffirmed its complete opposition to Communism and to all forms of totalitarianism.47 In Western Australia, ALP State President C.A. Gough tried to stop rumours by stating publicly that no action taken by any or all of the delegates attending the Hobart Conference will lead to a split in the ALP in [this State]. The press predicted, however, that Fremantle would become a political battleground over the question of whether Beazley had contravened conference rules. Fremantle District Council Chair, Gordon Harris, believed that he had done so, but Beazley was expected to have wide spread rank and file support.48 Although Beazley was the only delegate who attempted to state his case before the conference, all four submitted written explanations to the State Executive on 28 March. Beazley reiterated and elaborated upon the arguments that he had raised in Hobart. Burke similarly held that as the Federal Executive had abrogated Conference powers and authority, 17 delegates (including the 4 Western Australians) had boycotted the proceedings. He also claimed that his instructions had stated that he should support the Federal Executives position on decisions announced on 20 December 1954, not on appeals, new decisions, and matters arising from action taken. Burke said that the Federal Executive should have reported to Conference, and indicated that an appeal had been lodged by the so-called old delegation, before any binding decision was made about the credentials of the respective delegates. Conference had a duty to maintain unity, which, Burke claimed, was the overriding consideration in the minds of the 17 delegates. He added:
Justice to the individual, and the welfare of the Party, are not conflicting aims. Indeed, the Party cannot live, much less progress and develop, unless justice is done and proper procedures followed. The proper procedure was not followed.49

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Burke then refuted the charges that he and his fellow delegates had failed to obey the instructions of the State Executive and that, without good reason, they failed to attend the Conference. Much of his argument hinged on Curtiss ruling at the State Executive meeting on 1 February 1955. Burke argued that for delegates to be bound to make a decision before hearing the old Victorian delegations appeal was an abnegation of the right of fair trail by a jury of their peers. Consequently, the charge that the WA delegates disobeyed Conference instructions was baseless: they failed to attend after the first day because they believed that the Federal Executive was usurping the powers of the Federal Conference. According to Chamberlain, however, further discussion in the State Executive meeting of 14 February 1955 should have cleared up all doubts in the delegates minds that they were to support the Federal Executives decisions, and that no circumstances would justify delegates failing to observe the State Executives instructions. When all four delegates, Chamberlain and Webb had spoken, the State Executive resolved that it fully supported the decisions of the Federal Executive and the Federal Conference, and the actions taken by Chamberlain, Webb and Hutchison to uphold the constitutional authority of the ALP. Burke gave notice that he would move to rescind the motion at the next meeting. Fox then moved that the Partys endorsement be withdrawn from Beazley, Burke and Cooke and withheld for three years, and that James be removed from office on the South Western District Council executive, and not permitted to hold any office or endorsement for three years. After much discussion, an amendment instituting a lesser penalty the withdrawal of credentials to Federal Conference for a period of three years was carried.50 James resigned from the ALP, joining the Democratic Labor Party in 1966.51 The Rise of the Democratic Labor Party in WA The disastrous Hobart Conference signalled the birth of a conservative party, initially calling itself the Australian Labor Party (Anti-Communist) but in 1957 adopting the title Democratic Labor Party (DLP), with branches in every state except Queensland, where the Queensland Labor Party retained a separate identity. Early impacts included electoral defeats for the Cain Government in Victoria and the Gair Government in Queensland.52 In Western Australia, the DLPs progress was slow, probably because no leading parliamentarians, ALP officials or unionists joined the new party. By late 1955, there were only seven members. G.M. Handcock, the Fremantle Bailiff, was founding President.

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Others included Mr and Mrs R. Cuffley, Brian Peachey, D. ODea, A.F. Malone and Olive Anstey, the matron of the Perth Chest Hospital, who had only a brief association with the party. The DLP membership had much in common. Cuffley, Peachey, and ODea had all belonged to the ALP; the majority were Roman Catholics; and all were affected by a siege mentality, believing that Christianity and the nation were in great danger from external and internal threats posed by Communism.53 In November 1955, Menzies ever the political opportunist called an early election, barely 18 months after his 1954 victory. The campaign was particularly vitriolic, with the LiberalCountry coalition offering little more than a character assassination of Evatt, and Evatt fighting back with extravagant and imprecisely-funded promises.54 The DLPs WA branch put up two Senate candidates. With virtually no preparation, they polled 3.4 per cent of the formal vote. For the first time since 1931, Labor did not contest all of the Federal seats in Western Australia. No Labor candidate stood in Canning, Curtin, Forrest or Moore. Webb made a successful transition to the newly created seat of Stirling, but his replacement in Swan, T. Williams, was defeated.55 Beazley and Burke had both survived pre-selection challenges but, while the former was returned comfortably in Fremantle, Burke lost his Perth seat to the Liberal candidate, Fred Chaney, who, like himself, was of the Catholic faith. Factors in Burkes defeat included the DLP Senate team, who polled particularly well in Perth, and attacks on the ALP by Father Talty of the Redemptorist Monastery.56 DLP objectives included maintaining an allegiance to the British Crown and basic civil rights embodied in the British law, and defending these liberties from attack (particularly from the tyrannies of Communism and Fascism). The Party advocated developing the nations physical resources collectively, but recognising that the State exists for the good of the individual. The DLP aimed to assist people of other nations to maintain their liberties and to encourage and assist the extension of these rights and liberties throughout the world. Thus the Party supported Israeli incursions into the Gaza strip and the Gulf of Akaba; the expansion of the South East Asia Treaty Organisation; refusal to recognise Communistic governments, and maintaining Australian troops in Malaya and Singapore. The Party also supported extending the compulsory National Service training scheme for young Australian men, and expanding the system of assisted passages for British families emigrating to Australia.57

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The Hawke Governments second term Despite the formation of the DLP, the Hawke Government was returned to office in 1956 with an increased majority. Hawke was a strong and popular leader who had considerable Caucus support. The major legislative achievement of the governments second term was the Unfair Trading and Profit Control Act designed as a means of preventing inflation which succeeded where the Prices Control Bill had failed. Charles Court (Nedlands) led the Opposition attack against the Bill, denouncing it as a monster that struck at the very roots of our ideas of personal freedom and fairness and as a deterrent to investors.58 The business community and the West Australian also attacked the proposed legislation, provoking the SPLP to institute a boycott on the West and place all advertising with the Sunday Times. Qualified support came from the Country Party, at the cost of several amendments. These included changing the Bills title from the Profiteering and Unfair Trading Act to the Unfair Trading and Profit Control Act, defining unfair trading and unfair profits, and inserting a clause that initially the Act would be limited to 12 months duration. The Act finally passed through the Upper House with the support of two Country Party Councillors, Hugh Roche (South Province) and Leslie Diver (Central Province). Mr Wallwork was appointed as Commissioner to inquire into instances of alleged unfair trading, and soon was investigating three cement companies, including Cockburn Cement, a major partner in the Kwinana industrial development that the Liberal Party had initiated while in government.59 The Act and the ensuing investigations were to make major enemies for the Hawke Government, but in the meantime, the ALP had to face the fact that the DLP was taking away some of its electoral support. In 1957, the DLP had only 47 members. The Party showed great optimism in appointing Brian Peachey as its first full-time, paid Secretary, a post which he held until 1964. The figures show that thereafter, the financial membership varied between 347 in 1958 and 621 in 1968. The WA Branch captured 10.5 per cent of the formal vote in the 1958 elections for the House of Representatives a disastrous election for the ALP. The total of 5.2 per cent of the vote in the Legislative Assembly elections in 1959 (when the DLP contested 17 seats) was sufficient to topple the Hawke government.60 The DLPs rise in popularity may be partly attributed to support from the Catholic Church. The WA Catholic newspaper, the Record, had for some months been carrying out an anti-ALP campaign, centred in publishing attacks upon Evatt and Chamberlain by church leaders such as the Very Reverend Father Crowe of the Redemptorist Monastery. Father Crowe said that the Communists had succeeded in smashing

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the Industrial Groups within the ALP, with the assistance of Evatt, who had at first supported the Groups but then turned savagely upon them. He claimed that many of those men who today are called saboteurs, fascists and rats were trusted friends of Curtin and Chifley he did not actually name any and he concluded that Evatts party is no longer the traditional Labour Party.61 Another boost to numbers came from the defection of large portions of the Scarborough, South Perth and WembleyFloreat branches of the ALP. In June 1957, the Scarborough ALP Branch voted 11 to 3 in favour of disaffiliating from the ALP. Branch members were summoned to appear before the Metropolitan District Councils Executive, but refused because there was no written charge. On 18 June, the District Council ordered Scarborough ALP to stop meeting until the investigation was completed, but the branch again refused to obey and the Branch President, William Coyne, said that he would try to join the DLP. He accused the Metropolitan District Council of being dictatorial and said that he and other members could not subscribe to a Party policy that recognised Red China and advocated the withdrawal of Australian troops from Malaya. The 10 dissident members were expelled from the ALP. The South Perth ALP Branch also expelled 10 members for attempting to disaffiliate from the Party, and the Branch was reconstituted. Some members of the WembleyFloreat ALP also were expelled. The Scarborough and WembleyFloreat dissidents formed the Crusade for Freedom and published a pamphlet predicting that unions would disaffiliate over the issue. A related group, the Rank and File Rights Committee, promoted a public meeting at the Perth Town Hall in mid July, where Sawyer, Coyne and two speakers from Victoria, revealed why they had been expelled from the ALP.62 While 1957 appeared promising for the DLP, new quarrels shook the ALP. The first was the matter of the so-called Unity Tickets, and the second was to cost Tom Burke his Labor membership. Unity Tickets The issue of Unity Tickets (or United Trade Union candidates) surfaced in mid 1956. The Fremantle WWF Secretary, Gordon Harris, asked Chamberlains opinion of the position of ALP members standing in WWF Branch elections on a united candidates ticket. The first time that WWF members had been grouped thus was in the 1955 union elections. The State Executive discussed the matter and resolved that any ALP member or affiliated unionist who knowingly became associated with any member of another political party on a

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unity ticket in union elections would be expelled from the Party.63 The resolution was adopted by the ALP Federal Executive at a meeting in Canberra on 24 September.64 When the Federal Secretary of the Sheet Metal Workers Union learned of the ruling, he wrote to Chamberlain, who was now Federal ALP President, stating that such an action would be interfering with the unions domestic affairs, as members had the right to elect the candidate of their choice. Furthermore, he disagreed with Chamberlains interpretation of the 1948 Conference decision, which made it an offence to collaborate with a Communist:
To take that decision to its logical conclusion, it would mean that if a Communist Party member joins the union because he is employed in the industry, and he submits some proposition beneficial to the membership and it is accepted, is that collaboration? Let us be real about the situation for it is only a matter of interpretation and who is the interpreter whether he is narrow or broad minded.65

A similar complaint came from the Coburg (Vic) ALP Branch. Chamberlain replied that the Federal Executives decision did not in any way tell a unionist what he is to do. Our decision says to Labor Party members, you shall not use your political position to influence union elections.66 But the disagreement continued for several years, with many objections to the ruling. Inevitably, the members of militant industrial unions were the most likely to be pressed to stand on a unity ticket with Communists although the Groupers also used this tactic. In July 1958, Gordon Harriss name appeared on both CPA and Grouper unity tickets for the same union election, each without his permission. By 1959, the unity ticket issue had turned into a war between Groupers and non-Groupers, while one leaflet declared that Every blow against the groupers is a blow against the Menzies Government.67 Frank Crowley regarded the ALPs inability to stamp out unity tickets involving exchanges of preferences between Labor and Communist union candidates as a significant factor in the Hawke Government losing the 1959 State election. When the ALP and the DLP were unable to reach an agreement on unity tickets, Sawyer advised DLP voters to place Labor candidates last on their ballot papers, except where Communists were standing.68 In 1961, the Federal Executive again declared its intention of penalising ALP members who stood on unity tickets with members of other political parties. The WA branch of the FMWU again maintained that it was the fundamental right of all unionists to collaborate and issue reading material for the purpose of influencing the outcome of elections, if they consider their

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actions would be in the best interests of their memberships. FMWU Secretary Don Lippiatt pointed out to the Fremantle District Council that his union would encourage members to elect officials on the basis of their reputation, ability and desire to genuinely work to improve the wages and conditions of the membership not on their political affiliation.69 Metropolitan District Council Secretary Bob Hartley passed this letter to the State Executive. He was duly notified of the 1959 Federal Conference ruling on unity tickets, which reaffirmed previous rulings and declared that it was the duty of ALP members to ensure that the trade unions remain in control of executives sympathetic to and supporting ALP policy. Furthermore, any ALP member whose name appeared on a unity ticket with members of another political party must immediately publish an advertisement in a daily paper declaring that he did not give permission for his name to be included. Failure to do so, or to produce a Statutory Declaration supporting his denial, would result in automatic expulsion from the party.70 Tom Burke and Vic Johnson The unity ticket issue was another instance of the ALP State Executive attempting to exert greater control over its affiliated bodies, as it was doing over the TLC issue. Other signs of discontent within the rank and file included recurrent criticism of Evatt. In August 1957, Vic Johnson attacked Evatt for raising the sectarian issue and splitting the Party the length and breadth of the Commonwealth.71 The State Executive decided to penalise Johnson by denying him re-endorsement for the Federal seat of Kalgoorlie. It was generally believed that Johnson intended to retire at the next election, but he had not yet announced his decision. Burke regarded the withdrawal of Johnsons endorsement not as a hollow gesture but as a great insult. In protest, he wrote to Hartley stating that he would not seek re-endorsement for the seat of Perth. I have no desire to contest a selection ballot while that right is denied to [Johnson]. The Metropolitan District Council forwarded Burkes letter to the State Executive, as that body was responsible for pre-selection ballots for Federal Parliamentary seats. On 10 October, the Sydney Daily Mirror ran a story headed Burke may quit Labour, and this was published by the West Australian the following day. Burke expected both a speedy response from the State Executive regarding his decision not to re-contest the selection ballot for Perth, and a letter to the press from the General Secretary refuting the rumours that he was to quit the Party. When neither had appeared by 14 October, he decided to make his version of the story public in the West Australian, together with

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comments about his reaction to Johnsons penalty. He indicated that he thought the Daily Mirror story may have been leaked with malicious intent. Burke was given front page headlines in the West Australian on 17 October. On the same evening, the State Executive Officers Hartley (who chaired), Fox, Ron Davies, Colin Jamieson MLA, and Chamberlain met to discuss the situation. The Officers noted Burkes comments about malicious intent, and acknowledged that he had not resigned from the Party. They recommended that the public comments of T.P. Burke constitute a withdrawal of membership from the ALP by him and that the State Executive should accept his resignation.72 Burke denied that he had resigned from the Party. He reminded Chamberlain that he himself had been before a disciplinary hearing of the South West District Council some years earlier (in the matter of endorsement for the seat of Sussex) and that the Council had heard his case and modified its penalty. Your decision, in view of the publication of the correspondence, merely makes the Party look foolish and dictatorial. When his letter elicited no reply, he wrote another, addressed to Chamberlain but referring to him in the third person, arguing irrelevantly that if an attack on the party constitutes a withdrawal of membership, then Dr Evatt must long since have ceased to be a member. He proceeded to attack Chamberlains character and competence, and concluded:
It is apparent that Mr Chamberlain has brought the Labor Party to a state of confusion, despair, and near disintegration. Mr Chamberlain, and not I, should be dealt with, or better still he should realise his own shortcomings, and seek some position where he may be useful, or at least have less scope for the harm he is capable of doing.73

Apparently, Burke underestimated Chamberlains power. As Federal ALP President, as well as State Secretary, Chamberlain occupied a far more significant role in the Party than any previous extra-parliamentary official from the WA Branch. Also, Burke had few supporters. On 20 November, officials of 24 unions had signed a letter to the West Australian supporting the State Executives decision to expel him.74 In 1960, when Burke re-nominated for the seat of Perth, the State Executive rejected his nomination on the grounds that his membership of the ALP had ceased on 27 October 1957. Burke replied that he was still a member of the AWU, and so he had been a financial member of the ALP for over 30 years. His nomination form was signed by the President and the Secretary of the AWU, as well as the required 10 ALP members who resided in the Electorate

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of Perth. Chamberlain ignored Burkes correspondence, instead writing to Charles Golding, the AWU State Secretary, that he had no knowledge that Burke was still a member of the Union. Burkes employment with WA Newspapers would not have permitted constitutional membership with the AWU; but that was not important. What mattered was that Burke was not a member of the ALP. To ensure that his membership ceased in 1957, Chamberlain refunded the sum of seven shillings and four pence (two years affiliation fees) and stated that from now on the financial membership of the AWU will be reduced by one.75 In 1964, Burke finally took the course that had always been available to him, appealed to the Federal Conference, and was readmitted to the Party.76 Although only 54 years old, he never again attempted to stand for pre-selection, directing his political ambitions through his sons, Terry and Brian. He died in 1973, shortly before Brian won the state seat of Balcatta.77 Chamberlains Ideology Chamberlains dogged pursuit of members whom he regarded as having betrayed the Party is difficult to comprehend, although some clues to his attitudes can be found in his public utterances. His speeches and writings were filled with cautions and warnings concerning the future of the labour movement. In Labors Road Back, an article written after the disastrous 1955 Federal election, he advocated critical self analysis. The ALP was wrong to have developed along the accepted lines of any other political party, with success and failure being measured in terms of parliamentary seats.78 His philosophy clashed with that of Hawke and Whitlam, who held more flexible views of Labors objectives. If attaining government was dependent upon some agreement with the DLP, then Chamberlain was prepared to accept that the Party might remain in Opposition indefinitely. After the ALPs decisive defeat in the 1958 Federal election, Chamberlain warned against the fear of Communism clouding the judgement of that part of the community whose religious persuasion makes it susceptible to the sustained propaganda to which it has been subjected namely the Catholics. His concept of democratic socialism was a conservative vision, centred on the home. The male breadwinner worked usefully in the community and was adequately remunerated while his wife [was] divorced from the drudgery of housekeeping, as she can well be with the application of modern science and their children were properly educated to enable them to take their place as future citizens.79

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There is little evidence to justify accusations that Chamberlain was extreme Left wing. Among those who had influenced his life intellectually or philosophically, he listed the British philosopher, atheist and pacifist, Bertrand Russell; Indian Nationalist leader M.K. Gandhi, who used methods of mass non-violent protest to achieve Indias independence from British rule; US President, F.D. Roosevelt; Prime Minister John Curtin; and economist Dr H.C. Coombs each of whom held strong, moral and ethical views and worked for the uplifting of the poor. Most of these men were inclined to pacifism. Their arguments on the futility of war and violence appealed to the battler who had lost his first job when conscripted into the British army in 1918, who did not enlist in World War II, and who was strongly opposed to the war in Vietnam.80 While praising some of Marxs ideas, Chamberlain described his theories as flawed. He believed that Socialist revolution would have inevitably erupted without [Marx].81 Labour Day or May Day? Other members of the Party leadership shared Chamberlains thoroughness in discouraging contact or cooperation between Party members and Communists. An example was the celebration of Labors annual day. Congress had ruled that the celebration would take place on the first Monday in March (Labour Day), rather than the first Monday in May (May Day).82 When the matter arose at the beginning of the 1950s, members of the Eastern Goldfields District Council preferred the later date, when the weather was cooler and people were less likely to be away on holidays. The weather in centres such as Big Bell, Cue, Gwalia and Norseman was still too hot in early March to organise Labour Day activities. In Perth and the South West, however, rain often spoiled celebrations in May, and the earlier date was preferred. Nothing was resolved, and in 1953, the Eastern Goldfields Council requested that the State Executive revert to a May celebration of Labour Day. The avoidance of the term May Day indicates the Councils desire to escape any Communist connotations. The State Executive, however, advised that State Congress had made the decision to celebrate Labour Day in March, and only Congress could alter that decision. Hawke and Chamberlain spoke at the Labour Day rally in 1954. Hawke recalled a time 60 years previously, when unions were illegal or non-existent and workers suffered severe punishments and unfair burdens of sacrifice. Today, while great progress had been achieved in improving living and working conditions, there were many backsliders in the union movement. Few members attended union meetings and consequently union affairs [were] too

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often decided by too few. Hawke warned that rights carried responsibilities, and he urged workers to again embrace the burning idealism with which Australias working people were inspired 60, 70, 80 and more years ago and to re-establish the supremacy of human values over materialistic and monetary values.83 Chamberlain, however, believed that rather than mourn the passing of the traditional Labour Day ceremony with marches and banners it was more profitable to accept that the number of people who are moved by references to the struggle that took place in the past, are growing fewer and fewer. He attributed some of this change to the impact of two world wars, and to the advent of industrial unionism as a highly organised business conducted on the basis of compulsory arbitration. But he, too, had a cautionary word for his audience, suggesting that some of the economic problems facing working people today call for more attention to the political side of their organisation.84 Throughout the 1950s, Labour Day was associated with the labour movements tradition of philanthropy and generosity towards the less fortunate. Each year, the LWO catered for a picnic lunch at the Claremont Showgrounds for 600 to 900 orphans from institutions around Perth, as well as inmates of the Sunset Home. Throughout the year, the Labour Day Committee and LWO members also visited such childrens homes as Bindoon, Fairbridge and institutions in the metropolitan area, to bring a little cheer to the inmates.85 In 1957, the State Executive resolved that the Congress decision to celebrate Labour Day on the first Monday in March meant that all the historical significance of May Day should be observed on Labour Day. Each ALP District Council, however, was free to celebrate the day in accord with its own policy.86 The Fremantle District Council resolved to participate in the organised march and celebrations on the first Sunday in May. They invited Chamberlain to speak, and also requested confirmation from the State Executive Officers that it in no way transgressed Labor policy or breached the Congress decision to hold celebrations in March. Some Council members were unhappy with the program organised by the Fremantle May Day Committee. Grace Oliver sent Chamberlain a leaflet describing some of the activities, including a film entitled Deadline for Action featuring militant American unions including the West Coast Longshoremens Union led by Australian Harry Bridges. There were also films of the previous years May Day celebrations in Sydney, Melbourne, Fremantle and Beijing. Oliver sent Chamberlain the leaflet to show you what we are up against in the Labor Party in Fremantle. The State Executive responded by calling a meeting of the ALP Councils to discuss the possibility of re-invigorating Labour Day. Midland, Geraldton, Albany and

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Avon Valley were not represented at the meeting, so no vote was taken, but there was strong opposition to a move to recommend the first of May as the official date. The State Executive later informed the Councils that if they wished to pursue the question further, they should use the normal channels to place it on the agenda for the next State Congress.87 The Metropolitan District Council appointed a Labour Day Committee that wrote to 96 affiliated bodies, asking whether a Labour Day procession should be held in March 1958. The Committee reported that of 64 replies received, 31 were against holding a procession, 30 were in favour, and 3 were undecided. The remaining 22 unions and 10 ALP branches did not reply. Fremantle, meanwhile, continued to favour May Day, and was supported by the FPLP, Evatt advising that the Federal Caucus would be represented by Harry Webb. At the 1958 celebrations, a public meeting resolved to call for:
a great international demonstration so that in all countries and in all cities on one appointed day the toiling masses will tell the state authorities that mankind has had enough of war and will demand the right to live peaceful and bountiful lives which mans creativeness makes possible.88

Lippiatt sent this resolution to the TUIC, but was advised that the State Executive Officers would not accept a resolution from a public meeting as it was a non-affiliated body. Consequently, the motion should not have been before the District Council.89 Just prior to the 1959 celebration, Fremantle District Council President William Cant ruled that the decisions of the May Day Committee could not be endorsed by the District Council. His ruling was overturned. The next day, Cant chaired a meeting of the May Day Committee with three CPA members present. He accepted the position of returning officer and conducted a ballot for platform speakers. Paddy Troy was among those elected. Upon learning of this, the State Executive held an inquiry into the running of the May Day Committee. The Committee was charged with allowing Communists to take part in meetings and move and second motions, and taking part in a ballot in which a Communist was elected. Both Cant and Lippiatt were forced to admit to the State Executive that the Fremantle District Council had failed to protect the integrity of the ALP. The State Executive censured the District Council and threatened that drastic action would follow any repetition of the offence. They also insisted that it was the District Councils duty in any future situation of this nature to inform the State Executive or the State Secretary immediately. Furthermore, under Rule 31 of the Constitution, May Day celebrations by any District Council should take place only on the first Monday in March. Yet

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Chamberlain advised Lippiatt that the final resolution should not be construed as placing a ban upon any affiliated union which chose to celebrate May Day on a day other than the first Monday in March.90 Thus, as the DLP gained strength in the State, the ALP State Executive, under Webb and Chamberlains leadership, tightened control over the activities of Party members, disciplining those who were regarded as being proCommunist or pro-Grouper. These sanctions created an atmosphere of suspicion and divisiveness that weakened the Party. The Impact of the DLP Despite the damage it caused to the ALP, the DLPs impact in Western Australia was always limited. In elections, its influence was restricted to the allocation of second preferences. The WA branch never came close to electing its own parliamentary representatives in either the State or Federal Parliaments. The strongest indicator of State-wide support 9.8 per cent of the total formal vote in the 1966 Senate election was due partly to the absence of Country Party candidates. Also, the DLP headed the Senate card and undoubtedly benefited from the donkey vote, an estimated one to two per cent of votes cast.91 The DLP never developed a union base, and did not attempt to create any structure for doing so in contrast to the South Australian branch, for example, which did provide for the affiliation of unions. Apart from this, there had always been a section of the WA Branch that wanted to drop Labor from the title and become a moderate central Democratic Party. Consequently, DLP historian F.G. Clarke asserted, The DLP (WA) has never been a Labor party in the Australian sense. Peachey, however, always maintained that the DLP was a genuine Labor Party full of generational Labor voters such as himself.92 Clarke also challenged the assertion that the DLP (WA) vote exercised a balance of power influence. He pointed out that by no means all DLP voters had previously supported the ALP. Support for the DLP fluctuated wildly, so that it was impossible to estimate confidently which party would have received first preference had the DLP not existed. Clarke claimed that the DLP preferences reversed the primary outcome in an electorate only four times in all State and Federal elections contested before 1969: Kalgoorlie and Stirling in the 1958 Federal election, and the State seats of Murchison in 1959 and Canning in 1965. Of these seats only one Kalgoorlie had reverted to the ALP, whilst the others continued to return Coalition members.93 Peachey, however, maintained that, prior to the 1971 State election when the DLP rashly over-

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extended itself by standing a candidate in every seat, the party succeeded in its aim of keeping the ALP out of office. He pointed to Labor losses in 1959, when the Brand government came to power on DLP preferences, and 1962 when the LCP coalition retained government by a slender majority, as evidence of the success of the Partys policy.94 Wards analysis of the Hawke governments defeat in 1959 tends to support Peacheys observations:
Labor concentrated heavily on the marginal seats which it had picked up the 1956 election, knowing they were under immense threat from [the] flow of DLP preferences in the end, it was the loss of these marginal seats and the manner in which they were lost, that finished the Government. Simply by the number of seats it lost, the ALP was defeated, but the way in which they were won by the Coalition reflected more the role of the DLP and the ALPs difficulties, than on any decisive swing in public support.95

Other reasons for the DLPs failure in Western Australia, Clarke stated, were the apathy of the membership, and the weak and oligarchic structure. The party machine was run by an autocratic minority that borrowed many of its policies from the Catholic organisation, the National Civic Council. Furthermore, the objective was negative electorally crippling the ALP, perhaps in the hope of eventual reunification. In summary, Clarke dismissed the DLP as more an ideological pressure group than a political party.96 Peachey made a similar criticism of the WA branchs policy on the 1971 State election that it was virtually a unilateral decision of the Secretary [John Martyr], to contest every electorate possible. Peacheys criticism of party policy led to his expulsion, although he was later reinstated. In 1974, some sections of the Party tried to form an alliance with the Country Party, and Peachey resigned. He disagreed with the Country Partys policies on defence and abortion. Other members, however, saw the anti-Vietnam war campaigns of the late 1960s, the Federal Labor victory in 1972, and Vince Gairs actions in Queensland in 1974 as major contributors to the end of the DLP.97 The years 1955 to 1963 marking the zenith of Chamberlains power in the Federal party machine were some of the most turbulent and troubled in the ALPs history. Chamberlain and Evatt were blamed, with some justification, for the split which occurred in 1955. Chamberlain has also been accused of exacerbating the split in Western Australia by bringing federal politics into the state arena. From mid century, however, the party in Western Australia had little chance of avoiding federal embroilment. Chamberlains federal role in the 1960s and the freedom of the independent TLC to support national ACTU policies on the Vietnam War, nuclear weapons tests, and a number of other

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issues, together with the Cold War political situation, were all factors that involved the WA labour movement in national and international politics more fully than ever before.

Chapter Eleven

Decline of a Labor Strongman 19631974

In 1965, the Federal Executive presented Joe Chamberlain with a standard lamp and thanked him for his contribution as ALP Federal President and Secretary.1 Although his role in Federal politics diminished after his resignation as Federal Secretary in 1963, Chamberlain retained his reputation as a strongman or power broker in the WA State branch. Despite having reached retiring age, Chamberlain did not resign as State Secretary, serving in that post for another nine years, and during this time he clashed with both State and Federal Party leaders. The major row between Hawke and Chamberlain During the 1965 State election campaign, Bert Hawke sparked a controversy by agreeing with Federal DLP Leader Senator McManus that an attempt should be made to find a basis for unity between the DLP and the ALP. Victorian Labor Senator Pat Kennelly also supported the idea. Hawke told the West Australian that he would be in favour of talks if these could be arranged, with no prior conditions binding on either party.2 The West Australians headline the following day announced: Hawke favours talks with DLP on unity.3 The item apparently reported Hawkes sentiments accurately he did not favour either side laying down conditions; he saw the need for such a conference because unity was strength and because he did not envisage that the ALP could possibly be disadvantaged. When interviewed in 1971, Hawke reflected:
I couldnt imagine that anyone with any common sense, or with the welfare of the Labor Party as a whole at heart, could find anything to cavil at. I thought the ALP [bargained from a position of numerical and financial strength] I always had hopes that the sincere rank and file members who were honestly believing in the DLP as a party but who wanted the ALP to become the one Labour movement in Australia if we could get these people back to support us, either as ALP members or even to give second preferences to us [in an election], it would greatly assist the ALP.4

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Chamberlain, however, saw the matter quite differently. He was astonished by the statement because, to his knowledge, Hawke had never suggested unity talks with the DLP either privately or publicly. Chamberlain accused Tom Burke of persuading Hawke that some gesture to the DLP would win many Catholic votes for the ALP when in fact Burke knew that it would bring about Labors certain defeat.5 In his report as State election campaign director, he claimed that Hawkes comment might have been a factor in the ALP losing the election. Offended and angry by what he regarded as disloyalty, Hawke accused Chamberlain of treachery, although, with hindsight, he attributed Chamberlains statement to his need to blame someone or something for nonsuccess. It was, after all, the third successive defeat of the State ALP.6 But Chamberlain had considerable support. Affiliated unions and ALP branches expressed their disapproval of Hawkes action through the State Executive, and some demanded disciplinary action. The agenda for the State Executive meeting of 22 February 1965 contained resolutions from the FMWU and the ClaremontNedlands ALP condemning Senator Kennellys statements and disapproving of Hawkes action. After discussion, Joe Berinson (Mt Lawley ALP) moved that the matter be referred to the Executive Officers to bring down a comprehensive recommendation to the next meeting. This motion was lost. After further discussion, the meeting passed a slightly altered version of the FMWU resolution, abhorring Senator Kennellys public utterances, rejecting his proposals unconditionally, fulminating against outside influences seeking to undermine the democratically determined ALP platform, endorsing Arthur Calwells refutation of the spurious proposals, and, lastly, disapproving of Hawkes action. A sentence in the original motion that Kennellys proposals would only serve to promote the interests of the fascist-like, National Civic Council-dominated DLP was omitted. The State Executive passed this resolution except for the final statement regarding Hawke. The Party Leader was invited to address the State Executive, which he did on 8 March. The resolution was then passed in its entirety and forwarded to the Federal Executive, where it was discussed on 24 May, and Hawke was subsequently censured and threatened with more severe action if he repeated his misdemeanour.7 On being advised of his censure by the Federal Executive, Hawke commented in the press that he was disappointed that while his main accuser [Chamberlain] was given the opportunity of stating a case against him, he was not allowed to reply or state his side of the case. He wrote to Federal Secretary Cyril Wyndham, asking which Rule he was deemed to have broken. He pointed to the agreement on preferences that the ALP had made with the Country Party

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at the last Federal election, for which no party official had been censured. Furthermore, he requested proof that his suggestion for preliminary ALPDLP talks had materially assisted in developing a controversy, which was damaging to the ALP. In Hawkes opinion, Chamberlain generated the controversy by claiming that his suggestion was the major factor in the election defeat. He accused Chamberlain of either appalling ignorance of the facts or of making a treacherous move against me in my position as Leader of the State Parliamentary Labor Party.8 The majority of the SPLP supported their Leader. Meeting for the first time after the election defeat, Caucus carried a motion thanking Hawke for his untiring efforts on behalf of Labor since being elected Leader in 1951, and assuring him of continued confidence. Jamieson opposed the motion because he agreed with Chamberlain over the DLP matter, although he supported the loyalty clause. Speaking about the election defeat, Hawke said that the main cause was the drift of the Roman Catholic vote to the DLP. As the Liberals came to realise and use the effect of the Communists, Roman Catholic opinion swung against us and we have been unable to survive. Many Catholics felt passionately that State aid should be made available to independent schools. Hawke was sure that Labors stance on this issue had lost further votes. He had seen McManuss and Kennellys statements as providing a glimmer of hope for reunification of the DLP with the ALP, and a possibility of minimising the vote loss. Any Labor supporters who had opted to cast their vote elsewhere on the strength of his statement to the West Australian were not true Labor supporters but self-righteous hypocrites.9 The rift between Hawke and Chamberlain widened when Harry Strickland, Member for North Province, moved at a Caucus meeting on 22 April that the continued decline in public support for Labor in the Federal, State and Municipal elections was due in a large degree to the ever mounting widespread unpopularity of the State Secretary, F.E. Chamberlain. Tonkin and Jamieson were among those who opposed the motion, whilst Wise (now back in Caucus as a Legislative Councillor), Hawke and Lavery were in support. After considerable debate, the item was adjourned until 26 May, and again until 29 June. Finally, on 29 July, the condemnatory resolution against Chamberlain was passed by 14 votes to 8.10 At a special joint meeting of the State Executive and the SPLP at Parliament House on 11 August, Chamberlain said that he wanted only to deal with the facts of the dispute, not interpretations; he regarded the SPLPs motion as being of no confidence in himself. In an address lasting over an hour, he put his view of the events since Senator Kennellys statement to the press on 13

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February. Members asked questions at the conclusion of Chamberlains address, and the other State Executive officers and Caucus members were invited to speak. Strickland revealed that his motion on Chamberlain was not related to the current dispute. Chamberlain claimed to be not concerned with the motion and gave an assurance that Strickland would be heard at a meeting of the State Executive to which Caucus members were invited on 23 August. Some members avoided taking sides. Fletcher said that he was concerned only for the Party and was distressed to see members lining up on one side or the other an attitude that he saw spreading to the unions. He did not think that Chamberlain had transgressed, but he also had great respect for Hawke whom, he believed, had made the suggestion of DLPALP talks with all sincerity. Hutchison blamed both Hawke and Chamberlain and said that they should show greatness by healing the rift. Chamberlain agreed and offered to shake hands with Hawke and ask the State Executive to write off the whole of the matter. But Hawke was not so easily placated. He replied that he would think the matter over during the next 10 days, while he was absent in South Australia. Chamberlain was visibly offended and left the meeting soon afterward.11 No resolution could be drafted which satisfied both Hawke and Chamberlain, and eventually the matter was dropped. Later on, Hawke and Chamberlain served together as delegates to Federal Conference which Hawke interpreted as a sign that they had overcome the rift. He believed that the difference of opinion arose mainly out of a basic disagreement over Party aims:
It didnt matter [to Chamberlain] if we ever won an election in any State or Federally, provided we stuck to party principles and policies as interpreted by him. [But I believe that] unless you are going to hand over for long periods of time the vital processes of government to the anti-Labor forces you have got to adopt a reasonably balanced course which appeals to a majority of the Australian people. There didnt have to be any sacrifice of principle or policy [to achieve government] If, for example, the Federal ALP had been able to win office prior to or during the early years of the Vietnam war, 20-year-old Australians would never have been conscripted for the war. And perhaps even volunteers wouldnt have been involved for so long, because a Labor government might have decided we shouldnt have been involved in this war. I placed a million times more importance on the ALP winning elections than Chamberlain did.12

Chamberlain expressed it somewhat differently. For my part, I always opposed the sacrifice of a Party principle for purely political expediency.13 According

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to Chamberlains long-time Secretary, Lyla Elliott, he was desperate for Labor to get back into power but he couldnt tolerate people who, when they got a seat in Parliament were prepared to betray the platform and, as he put it, all the little people in the party who gave so generously of their time staffing polling booths during elections and performing hundreds of other tasks voluntarily.14 Conflict between Chamberlain and Whitlam A major public disagreement between the State ALP Secretary and the Leader of the SPLP was an embarrassment for the WA Branch, but differences of opinion between Chamberlain and Gough Whitlam took on a national significance. From Whitlams election as Deputy Leader of the FPLP in 1960, until they were forced to bury the hatchet in 1967 after he had become Party Leader, the two men were adversaries in an acrimonious power struggle, fuelled by widely differing views on party policy and major issues including Australias involvement in the Vietnam War. State Government aid to private schools was one such policy matter. The Federal Executive claimed that the Holt Governments policy of paying the capital cost of private schools in the ACT and the Northern Territory could contravene Section 116 of the Australian Constitution, which forbade the Commonwealth to make laws for establishing any religion, imposing any religious observance or prohibiting the free exercise of religious belief. Whitlam disagreed. He argued that the 1963 and 65 Federal Conferences had actually reversed the policies behind the Chifley Governments 1945 Education Act, and that no socialist party should tolerate the present inequality of opportunity for our school children.15 In an interview on TV Channel 7 in February 1966, Whitlam accused the Federal Executive of breaking Party policy, of standing over his FPLP colleagues, and of selecting favourites for standing committees. At stake were the extent to which non-FPLP personnel outnumbered their Parliamentary colleagues, and whether the Federal Executive (of which Chamberlain remained a member) was abusing its power. When asked whether he thought that he might be expelled from the Party for criticising members of the Federal Executive, Whitlam replied that he did not think there would be any expulsions but that the Chamberlains will be superannuated and others will be retired before their time from the Federal Executive.16 Later, Whitlam apologised unreservedly for making certain personal references but stated that the Executive did not discipline members who made personal attacks upon him. He believed that a recent directive stating the Federal Executives position on

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government aid to private schools had placed the FPLP in an impossible position and that the Parliamentary Party was humiliated by the recent selections for Executive Committees. Is the Parliamentary Party to have no status, no voice? I felt obliged as Deputy Leader to speak up for it.17 The battle over Labors policy on aid to non-Government schools was finally ended at the July 1966 Special Conference held at Surfers Paradise to consider the Report of the National Advisory Committee on Education. Chamberlain had chaired the Committee and John Tonkin MLA was the other Western Australian representative. Whitlam represented the FPLP. The Committee recommended altering the ALP Platform to state that nonGovernment schools should continue to be responsible for the cost of erecting and maintaining their own buildings and paying staff salaries, pending a full Commonwealth inquiry into primary, secondary and technical education in both public and private sectors. Meanwhile, any existing benefits granted to non-Government schools would continue at the present level. The Committee also recommended including two new clauses. One would commit a Federal Labor Government to providing direct aid to all school students without discrimination. The other (Clause 9) would pledge Government assistance in producing educational books and other teaching tools, facilitate professional training for teachers in both Government and non-Government schools, extend universal free education to university and technical students, and introduce living allowances for those aged over 16 years old.18 The new Clause 9, in particular, would significantly improve the quality of resources in primary and secondary schools, and the availability of post-secondary education.19 At the Special Conference, the WA representatives supported the recommendations. Chamberlain was absent, owing to illness. The stance on non-Government education, however, was a compromise to avoid another party split, and to appeal to parents whose children attended Catholic schools including, of course, DLP voters. Vietnam War policy While the WA position on State aid to schools reflected the minority stance, a majority of State Executive delegates, and both Hawke and Chamberlain, supported Calwells opposition to Australian involvement in the Vietnam War. In early May 1965, when Menzies announced that his government would send the First Battalion Australian Regular Army to Vietnam, Calwell responded with a prophetic speech in the House of Representatives, in which he stated that such a decision should be judged ultimately on one crucial test:

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What best promotes our national security, what best guarantees our national survival? On behalf of all my colleagues of Her Majestys Opposition, I say that we oppose the Governments decision to send 800 men to fight in Vietnam. We oppose it firmly and completely.

Calwell believed that the Menzies Government failed to understand the nature of the Communist challenge, and the interests of the USA and its allies in Vietnam. Far from being a war between two separate nations, the conflict was a civil war in which the great majority of Vietcong were South Vietnamese, and the government in Saigon had no popular support, relying instead upon a ruling junta to remain in power. It was a situation in which our men will be fighting a largely indigenous Vietcong in their home territory.20 His prediction was tragically accurate. Supporting Calwell, Chamberlain moved a resolution at a July 1965 Federal Executive, expressing distress at the escalation of the war, and urging the Australian people to become more vocal in supporting the ALPs opposition. The resolution was carried.21 Despite increasingly strong public opposition to Australias involvement, 1966 was a bitter, turbulent year for anti-war demonstrators. At a May Day rally to celebrate the ALPs 75th anniversary, a panel of speakers at Fremantle Town Hall, including Senators Doug McClelland (NSW), and John Wheeldon and Harry Cant (WA), addressed topics such as What is the solution to the Vietnam War?, and Conscription. The State Executive endorsed increasing numbers of anti-war resolutions and forwarded them to the Federal Executive. The State Executive also resolved to investigate police actions at the so-called Battle of Forrest Place on 11 June 1966. Police officers reacted violently when several young men burned their draft cards at a demonstration staged by the Vietnam Action Committee. The University branch asked the State ALP to lead an antiVietnam protest. This was in line with Calwells expressed wish that the WA Branch organise a rally on a Sunday at the end of September, possibly in the Perth Town Hall, and an address to a University audience during lunchtime on the following day.22 Public demand to see the film Mills of the Gods, which revealed the horrors of the war, was so great that ABC TV showed a repeat screening. Large attendances at anti-war rallies and demonstrations suggested that Labors stance was more in step with public thinking than that of the Government. Nevertheless, Labors crushing defeat in the 1966 Federal election was at least partly attributed to the partys anti-Vietnam war stance. This defeat caused much reflection among Labor members. A West Australian editorial remarked: Labor has to decide in analysing its latest failure whether it should continue

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to hold to a course that is increasingly alienating it from the broad current of public opinion or whether [to] make a bid to gain enough support to put it into office. But Chamberlain, Calwell and Victorian MHR Dr Jim Cairns all believed that ALP policy should not undergo any radical change of direction.23 Chamberlain never wavered in his belief that it was utterly wrong for Australia to be involved as a combatant. In response to widely-reported statements by the new Federal Deputy Leader, Lance Barnard, that the ALP should change its policy on Vietnam to one more compatible with that of the Holt Government, he argued that the ALP did not need a new policy for Vietnam. While Barnards views may have been misrepresented, Chamberlain wrote, his statements had been read widely and could influence the minds of some Party members. He advocated that the forthcoming WA State Conference examine Barnards statements closely. Arguing from the stance of total opposition to foreign intervention in Vietnam, Chamberlain wrote passionately:
One only has to recall TV documentaries like The Mills of the Gods to justify the assertion that the undeclared war by the greatest military nation on earth on a small, undeveloped Asian nation represents a bloodbath of a magnitude which beggars description. The camera hasnt lied when it has shown crude hospitals jammed with little children, blinded and burnt with napalm; children legless and armless; children alone in their world of war; the sightless eyes of their parents facing the skies from whence shattering death had come Is this great humanitarian party [the ALP] now to seriously consider joining with the Holt Government and LBJ in their crime against a people who are struggling for the freedom so long denied them by a long list of aggressors? Are we to turn our backs upon the ever growing world opinion that condemns the aggression in Vietnam? If there is to be a reassessment of policy on Vietnam, I hope that it would produce a more determined attitude based upon the philosophy of the Party which, in effect, says No man shall come into the world booted and spurred to ride another. If we do this, then we will emerge with a policy which expresses complete opposition to the presence of any foreign troops in Vietnam.24

Whitlam immediately wrote to the WA Executive, Federal and State Parliamentarians and affiliated branches and unions, declaring: It is not Mr Chamberlains prerogative to interpret or enunciate the Federal Policy of the ALP. He demanded that Chamberlain apologise to Barnard.25 Chamberlain refused to do so. When Whitlam attended the 1967 WA State Conference a few weeks later, his relationship with Chamberlain had deteriorated to the point

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where they refused to speak to each other. TLC President Don Cooley, who was a State Conference delegate, found the antics between the protagonists so laughable that he threatened to expose their conduct to the whole of the trade union movement if they could not come to some agreement. With Jamiesons assistance, he arranged a lunch at which Joe and Gough were prevailed upon publicly at least to patch up their differences and shake hands.26 As in the private schools issue, the underlying problem was the power struggle between the Federal Executive and the FPLP. At the next Federal Conference in Adelaide, Chamberlain assisted Whitlam to achieve administrative reform by moving that Leaders and Deputy FPLP Leaders be delegates to Federal Conference, and that the SPLP Leaders and Deputies be members of State delegations.27 When the Whitlam Government came to power in December 1972, its first legislative act was to repeal to the National Service Act and bring the remaining Australian troops home from Vietnam. The day to day running of the ALP While Chamberlain was regarded as the most powerful man in the ALP, he worked from a humble office in the basement of the old Trades Hall building in Beaufort Street. It was poorly ventilated, with traffic noise and petrol fumes entering the basement through louvres that opened at street level. There were other unpleasant aspects of the location. Lyla Elliott, who joined the staff as an office junior in 1952, once disturbed a little boy relieving himself through the railings. She recalled that he got the shock of his life when he saw this face looking up at him from the window.28 Elliott shared an office with Chamberlains secretary, Joan Williams, the daughter of Charlie Williams MLC. Williamss and Elliotts duties included attending fortnightly meetings of the State Executive, where they took Minutes. These were typed on the old chaffcutter, as Elliott termed the ancient typewriter. Copies of documents were acquired by painstakingly re-typing the original, using carbon paper if more than one was needed. They created mutiple copies of Minutes and Agendas by typing a wax stencil and attaching it to the revolving drum of the messy Gestetner machine, so that it printed onto sheets of paper. Williams and Elliott also organised the triennial State Conferences in Unity Theatre. State Conferences required their attendance throughout the five days that the Conference was in session. Firstly, circulars were sent to the unions and ALP branches, requesting agenda items for the Conference. Elliott and Williams drew up the agenda and sent out printed copies to the affiliated bodies. Committees were then selected to examine the various agenda items, write

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reports, and make recommendations to the Conference. Organising the card vote was another important pre-conference task. Each affiliate was entitled to a number of votes according to its membership. Elliott had to ensure that the organisations were financial and to establish their voting entitlement, which she did by keeping meticulous records based on membership returns sent in by the unions and ALP branches.29 She then prepared cards showing the number of affiliated members and their voting strength. The credentials of every delegate also had to be checked, to ensure that each was entitled to vote and that each organisation was represented by the correct number of delegates. There were four ways of voting: on the voices, by a show of hands, by a division, or by a card vote the last being employed only on particularly contentious occasions. When a card vote was used, the doors of Unity Theatre were locked and scrutineers stood on the stage to count the votes. Chamberlain called the name of each affiliated organisation and asked which way it was voting, and relevant delegate would reply for or against. The tellers then recorded the vote.30 Other duties involved preparation for State and Federal elections. Prior to elections, Elliott made arrangements with the radio stations to broadcast speeches and scatters (as the short propaganda messages and jingles were called), booked public meeting venues such as Forrest Place, and arranged other suburban speaking venues. Despite radio broadcasting, street meetings were still a popular, effective propaganda vehicle in the 1950s and 60s.31 Elliott found Chamberlain to be an easy boss, although he did not tolerate mistakes or untidy work. When she became his secretary after Williamss departure in 1956, her duties included balancing the books, sending out accounts, and being a watchdog to see that people did not waste his time. Even so, people did waste Chamberlains time. Correspondence files from the decade 1961 to 1971 reveal letters from members of the public ranging over many topics.32 One correspondent wanted to know why ACTU Secretary, Albert Monk, travelled overseas so often? Chamberlain wrote a long, courteous letter explaining that Monks duties included observing industrial systems in other countries. One particularly regular correspondent was Frank Reale, a member of South Fremantle ALP Branch, who appealed in April 1961 on behalf of a condemned prisoner named Fallows, whom he described as being one of the sex-starved men of Western Australia. Reale claimed to have undertaken research which proved that the State had 100,000 sex-starved men, the highest figure per density of population in the whole world.33 He did not disclose the methods by which he had conducted his research. Throughout the 1960s, Reale wrote regularly and at length on his favourite themes: the iniquities of the

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DLP and of Federal Leaders, Calwell and Whitlam, and ALP campaigning strategy. He insisted that the polling booths were wrongly and badly staffed. In November 1966, he wrote:
ALP leaders deserve the most savage castigation for not bringing women and girls into the electioneering. The Party needs GIRLS, GIRLS, GIRLS, to man [sic] the booths, to influence the electors to win the votes of sex starved men. The party should not waste money on TV trash as a cuckold for Santamaria.34

Apart from answers to general inquiries and the occasional response to cranks such as Reale, Chamberlains correspondence included letters of sympathy to bereaved ALP members. Condolences and obituaries always contained kind and flattering references to the deceased. When Merredin ALP Branch Secretary Dick Law died suddenly at home on 17 March 1963, for instance, the Branch Chairman, J.M. Brown, asked Chamberlain to write to Mrs Law. Law, a faithful party worker within the Avon Valley District Council, had stood unsuccessfully for State Parliament in the 1930s. Chamberlain wrote to his wife that, at a recent State Executive meeting, delegates stood in silence to mark their affectionate memory of a dear colleague.35 Chamberlain also answered queries from overseas about job prospects in WA, sent out numerous Christmas cards to affiliated bodies, and attended to much routine business. During the 1960s and 70s, he edited the ALPs monthly newspaper, the Western Sun, which was published until 1979 and was succeeded by the magazine format Labor Voice. Some correspondence was generated by the change in party structure. With the disbanding of the District Councils, the work that had previously been dealt with by nine Secretaries albeit most of them honorary now became the responsibility of the State Executive. Although this administration increased the staff workload, an even larger problem arose as a result of the disbandment of the District Councils the administration of property. Property matters: the Trades Halls All of the District Councils made over their property to the ALP, including the Perth Trades Hall once ably managed by the Metropolitan District Councils long-serving Secretary Bob Hartley.36 Numerous problems were associated with the properties. Firstly, many were more properly assets of the union movement, and their disposal became a source of tension between the ALP and the TLC. At the beginning of the century, the State Government had made land grants to the existing union bodies and Trades Hall Councils in Perth,

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Kalgoorlie, Fremantle, Midland, Albany, Bunbury and Collie. The halls that arose on some of these blocks of land were built and administered by the union movement. After the ALF was formed in 1907, the halls were taken over by new corporate bodies, known as Trades Hall Associations, and administered by Trustees who were members of the State Executive. In Bunbury and Albany, the Lumpers had taken over the title of the hall in their own name, and in Fremantle, the title was not handed over until 1916, but most of the others became the property of the State Executive by 1910.37 By 1963, most of the buildings needed attention. One of the biggest headaches was the Fremantle Trades Hall. Less than three years after the Fremantle District Council ceased to function, the Public Health Department condemned the Trades Hall, and the State Executive was faced with the options of extensive renovations or demolition.38 The Commissioner for Public Health closed down the public section of Fremantle Trades Hall chiefly because of the bad state of repair of the main hall on the first floor and the lack of proper toilet facilities on the premises. Urgent repairs included upgrading the upper floor fire escape and installing fire fighting equipment, providing an additional female toilet, restoring the male toilet block to working order, and cleaning the main hall. The ceiling also needed repairing to prevent pigeon droppings from accumulating on the floor.39 Despite the objections of several Fremantle unions, the State Executive decided that the only viable action was to sell the building and set up a trust fund to purchase or build new premises for the labour movement in Fremantle The Perth Trades Hall, meanwhile, was bursting at the seams. In 1966, an additional floor was added at gallery level in Unity Hall and the original floor subdivided into offices and meeting rooms, but even this did not provide sufficient space.40 The State Executive raised a loan to demolish the old Trades Hall Flats and build a new office block on the site. Work began in December 1971, and the nine-storey building, which contained modern offices, a library, and some shared facilities with the TLC, was completed in September 1974. Space was at a premium because the Tonkin Government had signed an agreement with the ALP by which most of the building would be leased to government departments for the next 20 years. The ALP occupied only one floor. By July 1974, Assistant State Secretary R.F. McMullan was advising unions that all available space in the new building had been let. The new building was opened in March 1975 and named Curtin House, in honour of John Curtin. Mrs Elsie Curtin was unable to attend the opening ceremony because of illness, although her son and daughter and their families were present.41 Elsie Curtin died later that year.

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Tensions arose between the ALP and the TLC during the construction of Curtin House, because the TLC had no equity in the new building, and because the ALP imposed a rental rate of $3.20 per square foot per annum, which the TLC considered excessive. It was about three times the rate for the old building. The dispute was featured on the This Day Tonight TV program, after the TLC announced that it might soon break its links with Trades Hall and move to other accommodation. When interviewed, Secretary Jim Coleman stated that the TLC was very concerned about having to consider this action. The TLC had been asked to vacate rooms in the section of the building that was being demolished. They had no option but to find new premises, at a rate of rental commensurate with what were paying now. There is no alternative accommodation available in the Trades Hall for our departments. Coleman said that the TLC was not consulted during the planning process. When asked why, he said that TLC and the ALP worked closely together politically and industrially, but not where the property complex is involved. The TLC had protested about the rental rates but had been told that if we didnt like it we could get out and they could get plenty of tenants to take our place. Only one union had expressed interest in occupying the new section. It is rather tragic because the trade union movement itself with 86-odd unions around the town will be scattered to the four winds. Reporter John Knight also spoke to Chamberlain, who said he was quite flabbergasted at the views expressed by Mr Coleman. Chamberlain stated that the ALP, 85 per cent of the members of which were union representatives, resolved without dissent to proceed with the building of an extension to the existing Trades Hall. Coleman had not discussed the matter with him or expressed any objection, despite the fact their offices were in the same building, separated only by a flight of stairs.42 The Electorate Councils The inefficiency of the Electorate Councils created other problems for the ALP. Although the ALP branches paid an annual affiliation fee to their Electorate Councils of one shilling for each female or junior male, and two shillings for each adult male membership ticket issued, no funds were set aside for any administrative structure. The intention was to avoid instituting a more cumbersome system than the one it replaced. All administrative tasks, therefore, became the responsibility of the State Executive, to which the affiliated bodies now had direct access. Like their predecessors, the Electorate Councils contained both ALP branches and affiliated unions; however, unionists now had to join as individual party members, rather than holding

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membership through their union. While the separation of the industrial and political wings destroyed the eligibility of individual unionists to vote in selection ballots, it also stopped the practice of non-ALP members, by virtue of the their union affiliation, choosing ALP candidates. Henceforth, only Party members and in particular delegates to the State Executive now expanded from 40 to over 100 members had voting rights.43 Chamberlain made several recommendations to the Electorate Councils regarding key priorities for the February 1965 State election. He suggested that the Party expend all its effort on seats already held by Labor and on marginal seats where Labors success determined whether or not the Party obtained government. Those with a firm non-Labor majority were not worth bothering about. In Avon Valley, for example, the post-1962 election situation suggested that only Bert Hawkes seat, Northam, was worth any effort. Similarly, in Geraldton Electorate Council, Bill Sewell held Geraldton for the ALP, but Greenough was held by Liberal Party leader David Brand.44 By the 1964 State Conference, however, it was already evident that the Electorate Councils were not performing satisfactorily. The Conference resolved to disband them and replace them with Regional Councils, which, it was hoped, would be a more effective system of organisation. The Electorate Councils ceased to function on 31 August 1965, but were revived again at the Special State Conference in 1975.45 Changes in the Labor Womens organisations Apart from the major structural reorganisation surrounding the formation of an independent TLC, changes occurred at other levels in the Party, too. At the 1959 Interstate Executive, the LWCE was given a new title the Federal Labor Womens Organisation, and by the mid 1960s, the interstate body in Western Australia was called the Womens Central Organising Committee (WCOC). WCOC held a biennial conference and encouraged women to seek representation on Federal ALP bodies. Delegates travelling interstate were assisted from a central fund.46 At last, it seemed, the Federal Womens movement had overcome the internal dissension that had occurred during the 1950s, and the various branches could work together and speak with a unified, national voice. But the Constitution of the new Organisation placed it firmly under the control and supervision of the State Executive. The Constitution stated that no member could hold office unless she had three years continuous financial membership of the ALP (WA). The WCOC was allowed one State Executive

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delegate and one State Conference delegate, and was empowered to correspond with and send resolutions to the State Executive. It was expected that the Organisation would devote itself chiefly to the political education of women and to developing the social welfare of women and children.47 Executive control tightened over the Labor womens finances and assets, too. By the early 1960s, the Perth LWO owned shares in the Westland Broadcasting Company, valued at over 1,000; a fixed deposit of 1,600 with the Perth Building Society, and land at Gosnells valued at 400. In 1961, the State Executive claimed that the shares were the property of the Metropolitan District Council, as they had originally been owned by the LWOs predecessor, the WA Organisation of Labor Women. The State Executive justified claiming the shares on the basis of a rule stating that the property of a dissolved branch reverted to the relevant District Council. Their solicitors, however, advised the LWO not to relinquish the shares unless they wanted to a position supported by the Metropolitan District Council. But in 1969, the State Executive renewed its claim for the shares and demanded a cheque in settlement. This time that demand was backed by a State Conference resolution (ironically originating from the Fremantle LWO) that all branches should submit annual returns of monies and assets held, and empowering the State Executive to dispose of any sums in excess of 200. After a long correspondence between Chamberlain and LWO Secretary Molly Holmes, the LWO agreed to retain $2,000 of the share money and forward the balance ($15,900) to the State Executive in return for the rent-free use of a meeting room in Trades Hall. The State Executive also claimed the Gosnells block of land. Because the Perth LWO was not an incorporated body, the land a gift from R. Llorens in 1927 was held in trust by the Perth Trades Hall. In 1964, when the LWO decided to sell the block, Chamberlain refused to sign the transfer documents until threatened with legal action by the purchaser. In this case, the LWO retained the money.48 Equal Representation in the ALP Apart from battles over assets, the Labor women struggled to achieve small, reluctantly granted concessions towards political equality with men. The 1952 Labor Womens Conference passed a resolution requesting an amendment to the Federal ALP Constitution, entitling one woman from each State to sit on the Federal Executive. They believed that this move would enable the women of the movement to have a closer knowledge and understanding of the labour movement as a whole.49 The amendment was not made.

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Despite such setbacks, the Labor Women not only maintained unity in a time of Party turmoil, but they also made significant progress in obtaining equal status in other areas. In 1953, the Hawke Government passed legislation in the Lower House to enable women to serve on juries, but the Bill was defeated in the Council.50 In 1956, the Government secured a Select Committee of the Legislative Council to examine the Juries Act. The Minister for Justice, Emil Nulsen, introduced another Bill based on the Committees recommendation of several new measures, including provision for women to serve on juries in the Legislative Assembly on 24 July 1957. Speaking at the Bills Second Reading in the Upper House in September, Ruby Hutchison reminded members that similar attempts to change the existing law had failed on several occasions, yet the evidence of the Select Committee was overwhelmingly in favour of women serving on juries. Hutchison said that this step was necessary and desirable if justice in this State is to reach its highest plane. Women should take their place and bring their intelligent outlook to bear on all phases of life. The Bill was passed later the same year.51 The Labor Women continued to campaign for the appointment of women to public boards, such as the Market Trust, Hospitals and the Milk Board. Equal pay for male and female workers was an old issue, but in the 1950s and 60s, the ALP at last began campaigning whole heartedly for its achievement, and against any further reductions of female wages. In March 1958, the ACTU convened an Equal Pay Conference in Sydney, at which Dorothy Tangney represented the ALP (WA Branch). The conference carried resolutions expressing disappointment at the failure of Governments and Industrial Tribunals to award wage justice to women workers, and calling upon the Federal Government to honour its obligations by granting equal pay to women employed by the Commonwealth on the basis of equal pay for work of equal value and to grant State Governments extra finance to enable them to do likewise. The Federal Minister for Labour and National Service, Harold Holt, received strong criticism because, as President of the 1957 International Labour Organisations Annual Conference, it was his bounden duty to persuade his Government to observe and implement the Conventions and Recommendations of the ILO.52 Throughout the 1960s, the Labor Womens demands increased for more public positions to be made available to female candidates, for child care and equal employment opportunities. Adequate, accessible child care was essential to many women re-entering the work force or public life. Accordingly, the LWO and the WCOC campaigned for registered centres where parents could be confident that their children were in a safe and stimulating environment

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not left in a cot all day as happened in some minders homes. As a result of their initiatives, Bill Hegney MLA asked the Minister representing the Minister for Child Welfare if he was aware that advertisements were appearing in local papers: Babies minded apply within. Did the Minister consider that legislation was necessary to govern standards relating to child care? The Minister answered that relevant legislation was being prepared.53 Despite the changes that these women had worked for, only one WA woman, Ruby Hutchison, represented the ALP in the State Parliament in the 1950s and 60s. Hutchison initiated a campaign to buy local goods and founded the Australian Consumers Association. She also campaigned for equal opportunities for people suffering epilepsy or intellectual disability, and founded the Western Australian Epilepsy Association and Nulsen Haven, which provided accommodation for severely intellectually disabled children. Hutchison gave her last speech in the Upper House on 26 November 1970, when she was 79 years of age. In it she both rejoiced that voting for Legislative Council seats was becoming much more equitable 22,000 young women of 18 years of age will be eligible to vote at the next election and reminded her listeners: This House is still a House of privilege, and the boundaries remain undemocratic. She promised to continue working for the abolition of the Legislative Council in retirement.54 Hutchison was succeeded in the Council by Lyla Elliott, who was elected to North-East Metropolitan Province in 1971 at the age of 37, and served until 1986. In her maiden speech on 15 July 1971, she took up Hutchisons mantle in addressing the tremendous imbalance in the voting power of the electors of this State. Using the example of her own seat, she pointed out that North-East Metropolitan had about 77,000 voters, whilst most country electorates had about 18,000 or 19,000 voters giving the rural vote up to four times the power of the metropolitan vote. But the bulk of her speech was a stirring and eloquent call to the newly-elected Labor Government to do something concrete to overcome the inequalities suffered by Indigenous Australians. She spoke of the enormous health, housing and education problems that Aboriginal people had to surmount in order just to have an equal chance with most non-Aboriginals.
What equal opportunities does a child have in respect of education when it goes home to a cold, unlit, overcrowded hovel at night time? What incentive does a man have to work when he does not have a home to go to in which he can have pride? There must be compensatory educational programmes to ensure the children have motivation and financial ability to remain at school and receive adequate training for employment other than as labourers or unskilled workers.55

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During her time in Parliament, Elliott served on various Committees and was a Member of the Honorary Royal Commission on Alcohol and Drugs. She was Deputy Party Whip and Chair of the SPLP, but, like Holman and Hutchison, did not hold a Cabinet post. As late as 1978, a Committee of Enquiry on Women in the ALP found that, with the exception of the ACT, whose sole delegate was female, there were no women members of the National Executive. Females comprised less than 10 per cent of the delegates on any State Executive except in the Territories.56 The Tonkin Government, 19711974 The ALP returned for one term of government, gaining victory in the State election on 20 February 1971. This was the last State election to be fully managed by Chamberlain, as he was absent ill for long periods in 1974. At 69, Premier John Tonkin could look back on more than half a lifetime in Parliament. Only he and Deputy Herb Graham had any Cabinet experience. Younger members such as Attorney General Thomas Evans (MLA for Kalgoorlie) had some experience of being in government, having entered Parliament in the 1956 election and served as a backbencher in the Hawke Government. The remainder had been elected during the period in Opposition or in 1971. The Ministry included the new portfolios of Recreation, Traffic Safety, Cultural Affairs and Community Welfare (the latter resulting from merging the Departments of Child Welfare and Native Welfare). The 1971 election results showed yet again the inequities in the electoral system. Although the ALP polled over 93,000 more Lower House votes than the Coalition, it gained government with a one-seat majority. Some of the margins were very narrow, as in Toodyay where Jim Moiler won the seat for Labor with a majority of 39 votes. A majority of 62,000 votes was not sufficient to yield a Labor majority in the Legislative Council. The matter of electoral reform was pursued aggressively by two new members: Arthur Tonkin, who had won Mirrabooka from Liberal MLA Doug Cash, and Mal Bryce, who succeeded the late Merv Toms in Ascot in an October 1971 by-election. Both were secondary school history teachers. Together with Graham Hawkes, they researched an extensive case for electoral reform in both Houses.57 Yet, despite the fact that one vote, one value had always been a plank of the ALP platform, Arthur Tonkin and Bryce found little support among their Labor colleagues, many of whom had adopted a fatalistic attitude that reforming Labor legislation would never pass the Legislative Council. During its term in Parliament, the Tonkin Government had 21 bills rejected in the Upper House,

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yet a Bill to abolish the Upper House and institute a Lower House with 81 Members failed to achieve a constitutional majority even in the Legislative Assembly. The reformers felt extremely frustrated and discouraged by the atmosphere of inertia that pervaded the Caucus.58 The Tonkin administration was reasonably successful in the area of industrial reform, appointing an extra Industrial Commissioner to assist in processing Arbitration cases. The responsibility of representing the Government as an employer on the Industrial Commission was switched from the Department of Labour to the Public Service Board, leaving the former free to concentrate on the safety, health and welfare of employees. This reflected an increased interest in work place safety during the 1970s. The Government succeeded in having apprentices pay rates expressed as a percentage of tradesmens rates, as well as being substantially increased. State Government employees benefited by reforms including four weeks paid annual leave, full pay while on workers compensation, equal pay for female staff performing work deemed to be of equal value to tasks performed by male employees, and free return air fares for employees working north of the 26th parallel. The Legislative Council blocked bills to provide employees in the private sector with 4 weeks of annual leave, 10 days of paid sick leave per annum, and long service leave after 10 years of service.59 The Government commenced a massive public works program which included building the Perth Concert Hall, the Kwinana and Mitchell Freeways, a grain export terminal and other port facilities at Kwinana. They merged the Native Welfare Department with other State agencies to create one Department of Community Welfare, and established an Aboriginal Advancement Council. An Environmental Protection Authority and a Consumer Protection Authority were other major government initiatives.60 The Balcatta by-election In May 1973, the Deputy Leader of the SPLP, Herb Graham, announced his retirement from politics after 30 years as a Member of the Legislative Assembly. Graham was popular among the constituents of Balcatta, whom he had represented since 1962, but a number of factors influenced his decision to retire from Parliament at the age of 62. Balcatta was due to disappear in an electoral redistribution of seats in 1974, creating a new seat of Balga. Graham had been Deputy Leader for the past six years, yet the 71-year-old Premier, John Tonkin, showed no sign of stepping aside for him, so he decided to accept an appointment as Chair of the Licensing Court.

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Labors success in the ensuing by-election was crucial to the Tonkin Government remaining in office, as it had governed for 30 months on the casting vote of the Speaker.61 Bryce and Arthur Tonkin who had gained the nickname The Flying Wedge because of their active role in Caucus moved a motion to force Cabinet not to appoint Graham to the Licensing Court. They saw the move as irresponsible when Labor governed with a one-seat majority. Their motion was defeated.62 The five candidates for the 1973 pre-selection ballot included Tom Burkes second son, Brian, a journalist with TVW Channel Seven. Brian Burke was encouraged to stand for pre-selection by his older brother, Terry, the State Member for Perth, who was SPLP Secretary.63 Since Tom Burkes expulsion from the Party, the Burkes had been outsiders, but Terry organised the numbers so effectively that, on 21 May 1973 when the State Executive voted to select a candidate for Balcatta, Brian led from the first count. Chamberlains support was essential. McMullan opposed Burkes pre-selection but Chamberlain told him, young Burke is the right man for Balcatta. In the first ballot, Burke scored 58 out of 121 formal votes, with the next candidate receiving only 26 votes.64 Chamberlains belief that Burke was the right candidate for Balcatta, however, did not extend to being generous with campaign funds. When the Burkes sought funds for the election campaign, Chamberlain was absent through illness and McMullan had not yet been appointed as Assistant Secretary. The post of Acting State Secretary was held briefly by the ALPs Senior Vice President, Kim Christian Beazley, the son of the Federal Member for Fremantle. Tom Burke and the elder Kim Beazley had been close friends, both of them regarding Chamberlain as an adversary, and their sons had known each other since childhood. Perhaps this friendship influenced Beazley Juniors decision to make $6,000 available to the Burke brothers the entire campaign funds for the forthcoming 1974 State election. But he also believed that Burke was a very good candidate contesting a very tight seat, and he needed every bit of the support we could give him. Furious, Chamberlain came back from his sick bed and resumed his duties immediately.65 Yet Beazleys prognosis was proved correct when Burke held the previously safe Labor seat by only 28 votes from the Liberal candidate, Dr Neil Beck.66 The narrow result sent a shock though the Party and confirmed a growing belief that the Tonkin Government was lacklustre and likely to lose the next election. If this was not bad news enough for the Party, Charles Court threatened to block Supply in the Upper House until dissuaded by members of his Party. UWA Politics Lecturer Bob Hetherington saw the swing away from Labor in Balcatta as ominous for the Tonkin Government. Hetherington pointed to

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the age of the Premier and several of his Ministers, stating that Tonkin should reconstruct Cabinet and present to the electorate the team with which Labor would hope to govern after the elections.67 Another outcome of Grahams retirement was that Alexander Donald Don Taylor, the Member for Cockburn, who held the portfolio of Labour Relations, was elected to the Deputy Premiers position. Nevertheless, some of the Premiers young Caucus colleagues made representations to him along the same lines as Hetheringtons arguments. Tonkin, however, dismissed any suggestion that he should stand down and indicated that he had the support of his Cabinet. But some branches of the Party agreed with Hetheringtons assessment of the situation. A few days after Burkes election, the Young Labor Organisation (YLO) passed a motion of no confidence in Tonkins leadership and sent it for consideration by the State Executive. The YLO believed that their opinion reflected the attitudes of a majority of Western Australian youth, and they asked the State Executive to recommend to the SPLP that Mr Tonkin be asked to resign from the leadership of the Party immediately. The State Executive replied over two months later that the question of SPLP leadership was determined by Caucus and any action that is to be taken as regard to such leadership can only be taken at that level.68 Close to the time that the YLO expressed this view, a public opinion poll indicated that Labors approval rating was very low at around 40 per cent. In the State election on 30 March 1974, the ALP gained 49 per cent of vote, indicating a substantial increase in approval rating although not sufficient to retain government. The Party sustained the greatest losses in rural seats such as Albany, Pilbara and Toodyay. Burke held the new seat of Balga, with a primary vote of 62 per cent.69 Curtain fall for Labor strongman When Chamberlain announced in October 1974 that he would retire as State Secretary at the end of the year, Philip Pendal wrote in the Daily News that it was the Curtain fall for [a] Labor strongman. Chamberlain had often been referred to as a strongman, with all the connotations of power-broking and dispensing favours. Pendals article concentrated both on Chamberlains fractiousness and his vision: his insistence long before Gough Whitlam came to prominence that it was necessary to allow the Peoples Republic of China a role in world affairs, and his strong views on the role of women long before it became fashionable to talk of womens liberation.70 Chamberlains last day in office was Monday 18 December 1974. The function to mark his retirement also celebrated his 25th year as General

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Secretary. During his farewell speech, Chamberlain sounded the same warning that he had uttered at the 1957 Federal Conference in Brisbane the importance of the Party remaining faithful to its objective of democratic socialism. He referred again to the divisive 1955 Conference as the beacon that was lit at Hobart, which he had pledged himself to keep alight, and he warned that the split could easily happen again. He was succeeded by Robert (Bob) McMullan, another Western Australian who would contribute significantly to the Federal Party.71 What then was Chamberlains legacy? He inspired intense loyalty among some and deep enmity among others. When in 1959 he had resigned as Federal ALP President in protest against Federal Caucus supporting a recommendation to increase Parliamentarians salaries, he received letters of support from a wide section of the labour movement, and was prevailed upon to reconsider his resignation.72 But there was no objection to his resignation as Federal Secretary in 1963. In 1964, he was forced to withdraw his name as a candidate for preselection for the Senate, after complaints that his nomination was contrary to a time-honoured practice that the sitting member [in this case either Hartley, Cant or Joe Cooke] was not opposed. Senator Cooke had, of course, been one of the Hobart rebels.73 Chamberlains quarrels with Burke, Hawke and Whitlam resulted partly from the Partys difficult circumstances during the 1950s and 60s, and partly from his unwillingness to compromise his particular vision of what it meant to be a true believer. Keith Dowding, who regarded Chamberlain as a friend, compared his devotion to the ALP with that of some Catholics for their church. He lived for the Labor Party and he lived to see it win office and change Australia. But he wouldnt compromise in order to win office. He had very great compassion especially for the underdog, and was absolutely incorruptible. Dowding did not think that Chamberlain had been instrumental in expelling him from the Party over the maintenance of the White Australia Policy in 1962.74 As his Secretary and political colleague, Lyla Elliott was convinced that he always had the best interests of the Party at heart. She said that Chamberlain operated in an era of unprecedented criticism of the ALP by the press, when the newspapers were viciously anti-Labor, and that some press reports resulted from his refusal to make information available to them. Bob Hartley judged him as being very ambitious, shrewd but sectarian. Chamberlain had a knack of introducing [religion] into every argument, and Hartley a devout Catholic found this offensive. Colin Jamieson, John Tonkins successor as Party Leader and long-time ALP President, thought that Chamberlain was a

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very genuine guy who liked to sail his ship straight. He didnt suit everybody, nor they him and he was a bloke you could have an argument with very easily.75 In belonging to the ALP Federal Executive for so many years remaining as a State representative after he resigned as Federal Secretary Chamberlain undoubtedly enabled the State Executive to gain greater access to national politics. This, together with the Cold War political situation of the era, involved the WA labour movement in national and international politics more closely than ever before. Chamberlains retirement as State Secretary also marked the beginning of leadership and factional changes in the State ALP that was to culminate in the ascendancy of Brian Burke and the Right Wing to the Party Leadership in the early 1980s.

Chapter Twelve

The Trades and Labor Council 19631979

During the three-year transition period from 1963 to 1966, unions still had to affiliate with the ALP before joining the TLC. TLC delegates attended fortnightly meetings. They elected an Executive Committee with an identical structure to that of the ALP State Executive, except for the addition of three Committee Members. As in the ALP, the Secretary was a full-time, paid official who was the TLC spokesperson. The Executive Committee met in alternate weeks to the general meetings, to frame recommendations on items appearing on the agenda for the following weeks meeting. In his study of the TLC, Saliba (Sam) Sassine outlined two major implications that arose out of its formation. Firstly, the Councils own leadership emerged independently of ALP influences and limitations. Communists, Groupers and unionists of other political persuasions were free to join the Executive, and thus the TLC developed a more divergent political and ideological base.1 The first Executive comprised mainly ALP men, with Paddy Troy, who was elected as Trustee, being the sole Communist. Police Union Secretary Joe Pereira was elected President, Jim Coleman, a former AWU organiser, was Secretary, and Jim White of the Painters Union was Junior Vice President. Gordon Harris (WWF) was Treasurer. Don Cooley, Secretary of the Breweries and Bottleyard Employees Union, who had served on the TUIC, was also a Trustee. Because he had supported the retention of the TUIC out of loyalty to the Labor Party in general and [his] good friend Joe Chamberlain in particular, Cooley declined to nominate for the position of TLC Secretary. But in 1965, when it was evident that the TLC was permanent, he agreed to accept nomination as President and obtained 80 per cent of the vote.2 The TLC set up a new system of representation, whereby numerically smaller unions were permitted between one and six delegates, and unions with more than 3,750 members were allowed an extra delegate for every 1,500 extra members. Late in its first year, the TLC comprised 70 unions representing approximately 70,000 workers.3 By 1967, the TLC had divided its affiliates into

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several major groupings. The Building Trades Group, convened by T. Henley, contained bricklayers, carpenters, painters, timber workers and other building trades industry employees. Others were the Food Group convened by Don Cooley and including unions such as the brewery employees, bakers, meat industry workers, and pastrycooks and the Services Group (gas workers, police, professional musicians, hospital employees, architects), convened by J. Try.4 The Council also created committees to deal with specific issues such as automation and technological change, Aboriginal affairs, compensation, equal pay, juniors, immigrants, the North West and workplace safety.5 Relations with the Brand Government The TLC received the full support of the ALP when, soon after its foundation, it faced a tough test in industrial relations. G.P. Wild, Minister for Labour in the Brand Coalition Government, introduced an Industrial Arbitration Act Amendment Bill in the Legislative Assembly that was designed to overcome the backlog of cases in the Arbitration Court. The proposed legislation would abolish the Arbitration Court and the office of Conciliation Commissioner and replace them with two new bodies: a WA Industrial Commission headed by a Chief Industrial Commissioner and three other Commissioners; and an Industrial Appeal Court headed by a President and two Judges. The Industrial Commission was to have wide-ranging powers of jurisdiction. Only one Commissioner would preside and could deal with up to four separate matters in one sitting. If the Commissioners decision were appealed, the other three Commissioners would hear the appeal. The proposed Act would also grant greater powers to the Minister for Labour to initiate proceedings when he perceived them to be in the public interest. On the other hand, the Bill stripped unions of power, restricting preference to unionists, and widening the provisions under which a worker might be exempt from joining a union.6 Immediately, the TLC leadership saw the threat in the proposed legislation. At a meeting on 29 October 1963, Troy stated that the Bill was directed against the trade union movement and was designed to legalise interference by employers in [its] affairs, membership and rights. The TLC argued that the system had worked for over 50 years, and that the present problems could be overcome by appointing more Commissioners within the existing Act. Together, the SPLP and the TLC devised a strategy that included deputations to relevant government Ministers, a publicity campaign, and fund raising by

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affiliated bodies. The SPLP left the campaign in the hands of the TLC, while doing its part opposing the Bill in Parliament by attempting to divide the House on each of the 159 proposed amendments.7 On 30 October, a shop floor meeting at the WAGR Midland Workshops resolved to stop work so that unionists could attend the debate at Parliament House. The following day, a TLC delegation composed of Periera, Mutton and Coleman met Wild. Although the Minister argued that his Bill was just, he agreed to withdraw any amendments that were deemed to be wrong. The TLC delegates argued that there was no need to restructure the entire arbitration system. They objected especially to abolishing the office of Conciliation Commissioner, widening the Ministers powers, diminishing union rights and instituting criminal clauses, all of which, they believed, would weaken provisions against unfair dismissals, and increase the possibility of unions being fined for their members conduct. Although negotiations with Minister Wild achieved very little, the meetings were politically significant. This was the first dispute in which the TLC was an independent entity, yet it gained access to the Minister within two days. The TLC was fully supported by the SPLP, both parties regarding the Bill as an act of collusion between the government and employers.8 Next, the TLC organised a series of lunch hour stop-work meetings around the State, commencing on 1 November. Workers in Geraldton demanded a 24hour stoppage of all industry in protest. Coleman warned that there could be a general strike following a meeting on 5 November. The Government announced that it would modify the legislation by removing the nonpreference to unionists provisions and the Crimes Act section. At first, the TLC leadership accepted these proposed modifications and agreed to call off the general strike, but soon they became convinced that these amendments would be inadequate. On 12 November, members at a general meeting resolved unanimously that the TLC should empower its Executive Committee to call the States first general strike. Strike action was adopted by a meeting of the Committee and affiliated bodies on 19 November. But there was a divergence of opinion. The ALP and one section of the TLC did not favour a strike because they believed it would prejudice Labors chances of winning the pending Federal election on 30 November. The General Strike After much discussion, the TLC meeting decided to hold a six-hour general strike from 12 noon until 6 pm on 20 November, the day the Bill was before

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Parliament. Attempting to lessen the impact on the Federal ALP, the TLC announced that essential services would not be affected. Up to the last moment, the TLC gave the government the option of withdrawing the offending sections of legislation and avoiding the stoppage. Adamant that strike action was not justified, Brand refused all conciliatory gestures, whilst the WA Employers Federation warned that workers risked dismissal, and unsuccessfully sought an injunction. In Parliament, even Hawke was provoked into using extreme language. When the Chairman of Committees, I.W. Manning, put the guillotine motion on the Bill at 8.43 pm instead of 9 pm, as agreed, Hawke referred to Butcher Court trying to urge on the Chair and accused the Government of First class fascism. No. Tenth class fascism.9 Thousands of workers did not take part in the general strike, including the 9,000 members of the Shop Assistants Union, who complained that they were given insufficient notice. The 6-hour strike extended to 16 hours on the Goldfields, because management refused to allow morning shift workers to return to the surface at noon, so they decided they would not go down at the beginning of the shift. At both Kalgoorlie and Bunbury, an estimated 3,000 workers struck, with 1,000 CMU members participating at Collie. A rally in the grounds of Parliament House drew some 4,000 to 5,000 workers. Cooley organised the Brewery workforce to assemble in Kings Park and march to Parliament House. A group of Fremantle unionists led by Paddy Troy entered the House and draped a large banner over the balcony of the public gallery. Police cleared the gallery, but allowed unionists to return to hear the debate, on the understanding that there would be no further demonstrations. There was a scare when the Speaker heard that someone in the public gallery was planning to tip a pot of red paint on the Government members seated below. He called Coleman and Cooley into his room and told them that he would hold them responsible if this occurred. They returned to the gallery and kept a close eye on proceedings but no further disturbances occurred. On the floor, Bill Hegney, the Shadow Minister for Labour, made a stirring speech, inviting Government members to speak in support of the Bill, but apart from the Ministers Second Reading speech, none did so a point not lost upon the Opposition members.10 The TLC estimated that almost 34,000 workers around the State had taken part in the strike. Although the number was well below the forecast 63,000, the TLC Executive claimed to be satisfied with the result. Nevertheless, the government quickly passed the controversial legislation on 29 November, preventing any further debate. The Employers Federation accused the TLC Executive of breaching the Arbitration Act by inciting workers to strike, and

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proposed that all workers involved in the general strike should be charged. Many unionists were prepared to go to jail rather than pay fines of up to 100 each, which could be imposed under the new legislation. Some employers were worried about further strike threats. All charges were withdrawn after Justice Neville advised that, if the unionists refused en masse to pay their fines, there was insufficient accommodation for them in the States jails. Although the campaign did not prevent the legislation being passed, it established the TLCs authority as the most representative industrial body in the State. Coleman emerged as the major TLC spokesperson, with considerable negotiating skills.11 Internal politics in the TLC Despite these early successes, the TLC suffered internal dissension during the remainder of the 1960s. According to R. W. Clohessy (Secretary of the Building Trades Association), the TLCs authority came from its consensus method of getting affiliate bodies to agree to policy items. Consequently, the Council rarely adopted extreme methods a majority usually favouring a middle of the road approach. Even so, some of the more moderate unions had difficulty working with the militants and tried to limit their power. To forestall further militancy, the moderates opposed Clohessys candidacy for the Disputes Committee, and AEU District President Jack Markss bid for a place on the TLC Executive Committee.12 Left Wing officials were routed in the elections for the 1964 Executive. R. Anderson (ASE) defeated Tom Henley (Carpenters) for the Senior Vice Presidency; Troy lost his position as Trustee; and Clohessy and Marks failed to secure positions on the Committee. Harris was defeated as Treasurer by AWU Secretary, H. Barry.13 Nevertheless, the Left Wing retained some influence in decision making. During 1964, the Executive was occupied with the Basic Wage Case arising out of the ACTUs 1963 Conference in Melbourne. This was a consensus-building exercise, as it was in the interests of all workers. The affiliates agreed to meet the cost of the case, which amounted to approximately 5000 over 12 weeks, on a pro rata basis. Troy and Clohessy persuaded the TLC to obtain the services of R.J.L. (Bob) Hawke to conduct the case. Hawke, who was Bert Hawkes nephew, had joined the ACTU as a research officer in 1958, and by the early 1960s was making a reputation as an industrial advocate. Hawke argued that the industry had the capacity to pay the wage increases that the TLC sought for workers, and called for a uniform State Basic Wage of 17.16s.2d. (males) and 13.7s.2d. (females). Although a uniform Basic Wage was instituted, the Commissioners took a long time to agree on the amount, finally deciding upon

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15.4s.2d. (males), and 11.8.2d. (females). The WA Industrial Commission could still award a quarterly adjustment if warranted by variations in the Consumer Price Index, but workers effectively lost their marginal wage advantage. Pereira foresaw the possibility of WA unions seeking Federal awards. Bob Hawke also criticised the decision. The Basic Wage decision, together with the Employers Federations prosecution of the Boilermakers Society during the Forwood Down industrial dispute, disappointed workers and revealed weaknesses in the TLCs policy. The militant unions wanted the TLC to be able to enforce sanctions over unions that refused to participate in strike action.14 Equal rights, equal pay and equal opportunity for women On other fronts, however, progress was achieved through quiet persistence rather than militancy. The TLC made equal pay a commitment in the 1960s, and with the introduction of Equal Pay Week mid decade raised public awareness on the issue. In 196667, the Meat Industry Employees Union achieved equal margins for its female workers, and Industrial Commissioner Cort granted male margins to female wool sorters who had gained a wool classers certificate at Technical College, but he refused an application for equal pay. The Brand Government contemplated amendments to the Industrial Arbitration Act to grant female government employees equal pay. And two large supermarkets, Charlie Carters and Tom the Cheap, granted their female workers equal pay. The management of Charlie Carters, who granted equal pay from 28 April 1966, withdrew from the WA Employers Federation because of criticism over their action. As an expression of thanks, the TLC asked its 70,000-strong membership to shop at Charlie Carters.15 In 1969, the Arbitration Commission agreed to phase in equal pay for equal work by 1972. This benefited very few women because much of the work performed in female-dominated professions, such as nursing, was not deemed to be of equal value. Equal minimum wage rates were approved in the May 1974 National Wage Case, but at the end of 20th century, womens average earnings remained substantially below those of male workers.16 In the late 1960s, women were still being dismissed from their work when they married, as demonstrated by a case in January 1968. Printing and Kindred Industries Union (PKIU) members at the Government Printing Office stopped work over an attempt to dismiss an employee, Mrs M. Griffiths, who had married during her annual leave. In 1967, Premier Brand had issued a press statement that married women would not be denied employment, although he

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also stated that this was in view of the current labour shortage. Furthermore, several married women with no prior experience in the printing industry had recently been employed at the Government Printing Office, including four in the reading room where Griffiths worked. Yet, without her knowledge, the Head Reader had endorsed her request for leave: resigning to be married, although she had not submitted a letter of resignation. Fortunately, Griffiths had the support of the local PKIU Chapel. After several conferences with the Government Printer, A.B. Davies, and the Industrial Commissioner, it was agreed that Mrs Griffiths employment would continue with no interruption of service. A meeting of Chapel Members unanimously endorsed this undertaking and work was resumed. The PKIU Secretary, L.E. Hearle, commented on the solidarity of the Chapel members in giving full support on a vital issue. This is good unionism and the Chapel officials and members are to be congratulated on their action and the work they undertook.17 Ray OConnor, the Minister for Labour, informed his Head of Department (G. Johnson) that it was now Government policy not to alter the employment situation of a female in the waged employees section of the Government Service when she married. Her service could continue uninterrupted. This decision was relayed to the Industrial Commissioner at a conference on 11 January. Despite this, Davies attempted to transfer Griffiths to the Bookbinding Department on the pretext that her frequent absences through illness jeopardised the efficiency of a proof reader. The Branch delegation refused to accept this condition and advised that the situation was so delicate that it could provoke industrial action. The Commissioner advised the Government Printer not to transfer Griffiths, and it was finally agreed between the Union and the employer that she would remain in her normal section until 30 June, when her attendance would be reviewed.18 Although the Equal Pay case was decided in 1969, Western Australia did not have Equal Opportunity legislation passed until 1984. Like another country: Conditions in the North West During the 1960s, the increasing world demand for minerals, coupled with significant discoveries in Western Australia, introduced a new element to industrial relations. Transnational companies with headquarters in Japan, the United Kingdom or the USA, entered partnerships with Australian-owned or operated companies such as Broken Hill Proprietary (BHP) or Western Mining Corporation (WMC). In 1965, the Japanese Steel Corporation signed an agreement with BHP to buy 71 million tons of iron ore pellets. The iron ore

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was to be extracted from mines in the Pilbara and turned into pellets on site by the US-owned firm, Cleveland Cliffs Iron Company. This immense project involved not only the building of a pelletising plant, but also the construction of entire townships, railway lines and port facilities. Meanwhile, as nickel prices rose on world markets, WMC was anxious to exploit nickel deposits at Kambalda.19 The State experienced the rise of the company town a modern day, much larger version of the timber milling settlements of the South West, vast sites upon which everything was owned by one enterprise. From the 1960s to the 1980s, labour relations changed significantly. The old motto, Unity is strength had disappeared from the ALP letterheads in the mid 1960s. Now, unity was interpreted differently. Union awards began to be replaced by site agreements, whereby companies drew up contracts with all of the unions on one work site. Unity, then, meant creating similar conditions among many different unions on one site, rather than within one union at many different sites. Another means of achieving unity was by amalgamating smaller unions into super unions bodies of workers from several related trades. The unions adopted a cautious approach to these changes. Writing in the September 1965 issue of the Boilermaker, J.W. Bevan, a member of the Perth branch of the Boilermakers Society, warned members against rushing to the North West in search of lucrative employment. He wrote that employers often lured workers with the promise of vast amounts of overtime. Not only was this practice contrary to the Societys rules, but workers often arrived on site to be told that there was much less overtime available than advertised; consequently, their take-home pay was considerably below the advertised rate. Sometimes a 10 bonus was added to weekly pay on the understanding that an employee would work a 60-hour week. Writing especially for the benefit of eastern states members, Bevan described the conditions under which men were expected to work: primitive housing, poor sanitation, and extreme heat. He warned of the safety hazards of operating heavy machinery while over-tired by long working hours and heat exhaustion.20 Two years later, organisers Jack Marks (AEU), Frank Bastow (Boilermakers) and Jack Quinn (Carpenters and Joiners) inspected conditions at Dampiers Hamersley Iron pelleting plant. They arrived during a stop-work meeting called because a worker had been sacked for a minor offence. The organisers were able to resolve this matter, but they found many larger problems. The USowned Kaiser Steel Corporation ran a depressing company town where 1,300 men were housed eight to a hut. The dwellings were divided into two rooms, each measuring three metres square, accommodating four men in double bunks. They were jammed in with their belongings including very dirty work

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clothes. There was neither privacy nor cleanliness. The water supply was inadequate; heavy traffic on unsealed roads threw up clouds of choking red dust, and men queued for up to 20 minutes for meals in overcrowded messes. The working day began at 5.30 am, which benefited the organisers as they had more hours in which to visit workers on the site and also confer with management. They found that it was difficult to find out exactly how many companies were involved, as work was broken into a series of small tasks performed by different contractors, some of whom employed only three or four workers. The organisers found similar conditions elsewhere in the North West. In contrast, Dampier was a pleasant township eight kilometres from the mine. Residents had begun growing lawns and establishing playing fields, while sealed roads and air conditioned houses made life more bearable for workers and their families. Commodity prices were high, however; one woman reported saving one-third of her shopping costs by ordering in bulk from Perth. The town also had a swimming pool and a cinema but unlike at some other centres, such as Mount Goldsworthy these were not free. At Mount Goldsworthy, however, house rents were higher and bonuses lower than at Dampier. At the end of their trip, the organisers reported that going north of the 26th parallel was like going into another country. A multitude of industrial problems and a constantly changing workforce intensified the need for union organisers.21 Safety was always an issue, with the off-shore oil and gas exploration industry on the North-West Shelf being particularly hard to police. This was because there were many anomalies and deficiencies in the existing legislation relating to the safety, health and welfare of workers engaged in this industry. Ships had gone to sea without sufficiently qualified crews, in a number of instances the crew in charge did not have certificates, and the vessels were often unseaworthy. Already several deaths and injuries had occurred as a result of inadequate safety precautions. Similar complaints were levelled at the shipping and other transport used for servicing the oil rigs. In some cases helicopters were used, despite carrying barely sufficient fuel for the journey.22 The TLC asked the Brand Government to consider extending the Factories and Shops Acts north of the 26th parallel to cover the whole of State. In September 1968, the government sent Factory Inspector W. Davidson to visit factories in the North West. Reporting to the Factory Welfare Board, Davidson stated that, amenity provision ranged from excellent to frighteningly inadequate. He found that toilet and washing facilities were generally of a high standard, but that there were many instances where males and females were not separately catered for. The worst case sighted was a small factory in Port

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Hedland when seven men had their beds distributed about the factory and adjoining rooms. Not only were the workers eating facilities located in areas used for work purposes, but a toilet was in the same room, separated only by a partial partition. At the time of the survey, one fellow was using the toilet, another washing and a third preparing food. Adjoining the back wall was the septic tank with no lid.23 As a result of Davidsons investigations, the TLC recommended that the Minister extend the Act to the 20th parallel of South latitude [just north of Port Hedland] in its entirety.24 Trading hours did not come under the Factory Welfare Boards jurisdiction, but Jim Coleman travelled with Davidson to investigate shop opening hours. The climate, the shifts worked at many mining sites, and the arrival times of aeroplanes bringing fresh produce from the South inclined businesses to open at irregular hours, avoiding the hottest part of the day and catering for late and early work shifts. None of the unions had awards or agreements covering workers in the area and Coleman conceded that, unless such awards were established, it would be extremely difficult to attempt to regulate working hours.25 Indentured labour Another problem confronting union organisers was the transnational companies preference for non-union and non-Australian labour. In 1965, the Secretary of the WA Employers Federation told members that the WA economy could not afford the high labour cost and chaotic labour conditions caused by over-award payments in other Australian States, which the Unions are campaigning to introduce here. In order to maintain uniform and stable wage levels during our temporary labour shortage, employers were urged to show solidarity by refusing to offer attraction wages. Employers were warned that those who offered attraction wages not only created unnecessarily high wage levels but also raised the rate of labour turnover and aggravated management problems generally. In fact:
If pressure is applied to you for over-award wages it will be to your own and the community interest if you will immediately advise the employers federation which also has facilities available to assist you on methods to obtain labour.26

The Employers Federation had taken steps to build up the WA work force by recruiting overseas, particularly in London and Southern Europe. Most of these workers would be permanent settlers; however, the Federation also made arrangements to employ indentured labour. An employer contracted with a worker in another country to work in WA for a specified number of months or

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years, advanced the fare and guaranteed the return fare if this was required. Consequently, a worker who did not remain with the employer for the period stated in the contract could be liable to repay the fare. Where a labour force was required for a short or limited term, (as on many projects in the North West) indenting was recommended on the grounds that it satisfied an immediate need without making inroads into the established workforce or migrant intake.27 When the American construction company Utah-Jild tendered successfully for a dredging contract in Port Hedland Harbour in 1967, the Federal Government permitted the company to bring 30 indentured Japanese tug masters to work on the operation. WA trade unions saw this as a threat to their working conditions and wage standards, and the AWU staged a stop-work demonstration. The indentured workers were not unionists, nor were they immigrants. Their working conditions and wages were not disclosed, yet the Employers Federation strenuously denied that they were indentured workers. The TLC stressed that their objection was not to Japanese workers per se but to the conditions under which they were brought in. When a conference with the Industrial Commissioners failed to resolve the matter, members of the AWU and the Merchant Service Guild led a series of strikes. AWU Secretary Frank Mitchell believed that the strike would achieve little and ordered his members back to work, but they refused to go. A second conference also failed to resolve the dispute. The disagreement within the AWU placed the TLC in a difficult position: the State Secretary of their largest affiliated union argued for a return to work whilst fifty of the unions members, plus the small Merchant Service Guild, remained on strike. The strikers were supported by the militant Executive members. A public meeting at Port Hedland backed their stand. Eventually the dispute was resolved when the unions permitted three Japanese workers to remain on the dredge for a limited time to train Australian workers in the required procedures. Cooley believed that the State Minister for Development, Charles Court, was using Utah-Jild to test union reaction, having told overseas investors that Western Australia was a cheap labour state, in order to attract industry. If this company had succeeded, other companies would have used the same tactics, and indentured labour would have been widely introduced in the North West.28 Working for the US Navy The United States Navy was another major overseas employer in the North West. In 1966, the US Navy announced that they would employ 368 Australian

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citizens in a range of occupations at the Communications Base at North-West Cape. Problems occurred over the US Navys failure to give a firm assurance that the relevant Workers Compensation Act covering its employees would be extended to Australian citizens. In particular, the unions involved were concerned about the legal position of Australian workers or their dependents if they had to lodge claims for damages in a situation where a worker suffered death or disability as a result of employer negligence. An Australian citizen could not sue the US Government, so no claim could be processed under Australian law where an Australian employee of the US Navy suffered workrelated disability or death. After considering the position, the TLC advised the unions to sign an Agreement with the US Navy, pending a review within three months if the negotiations to achieve an overall indemnity compensation coverage for workers employed at North-West Cape had not been satisfactorily finalised. The unions could accept the provisions of the Commonwealth Employers Compensation Act until the negotiations were completed.29 The matter was not resolved until October 1967, after the unions threatened to withdraw their labour from the site. The Holt Government then decided that all Australian workers at the North-West Cape project must have full workers compensation coverage under the Commonwealth Employees Compensation Act, and full access to common law action in Australian courts for damages in the case of death or injury in the course of employment. As it had shown no inclination to intervene previously, it is unlikely that the Holt Government would have considered such a step except for the fear of being embarrassed by the unions industrial action. Even so, the legislation was not introduced until June 1968, after Senator Cant had raised the matter in Parliament. Then, a Bill titled the United States Naval Communication Station (Civilian Employees) Bill, 1968 appeared. The Bill extended to workers employed at North-West Cape the terms of the Commonwealth Employees Compensation Act 193067, as if they were employees of the Australian Federal Government. It also gave employees or their dependents the right to recover damages from the Commonwealth independently of the Compensation Act in the event of injury or death suffered directly as a result of employment with the US Navy.30 Union joint committees and amalgamations The industrial changes occurring in the North West made the organised labour movement increasingly aware of the need for greater strength, either by unions cooperating while retaining their autonomy or by seeking amalgamation with unions in related trades. Whereas it had once been guilty of poaching

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members, now even the powerful, conservative AWU saw the need to cooperate with other unions. Gil Barr, a shearer who worked as an AWU Organiser in the Pilbara from 1968 to 1972, was one union official who began to advocate combined union meetings. During his time in the Pilbara, he succeeded in gaining members for the AWU among the construction and maintenance gangs along the railway lines that linked the iron ore sites to the ports. When he began work, he found many of the men he met were disillusioned with the organised labour movement. They lived and worked in appalling conditions and many had not seen a union official for months. Barr found that he had to win their trust by working to improve their conditions, irrespective of whether they were union members. Only after they could see some of the benefits of unionisation did they begin to join. In one camp, on the Mt Newman to Port Hedland Railway, he worked for six weeks before anyone signed up. Barr also organised workers on the mine sites, and there, in particular, he began to see the need for combined union meetings. The AWU was reluctant to concur, having been the States largest union and one of the more politically conservative, so Barr sought help from Coleman and Troy at the TLC. Troy helped him set up combined union committees. Once these were established, Barr experienced some difficulties over demarcation disputes between the AWU and other unions such as the Transport Workers (TWU), the Boilermakers and the Shipwrights. There was also some member poaching. Eventually, Barr decided that the AWU had to stop supporting the combined unions committees when other union secretaries began signing on AWU members. Historically, the AWU was getting a taste of its own medicine, but Barr was not impressed. The AWU rejoined the combined unions committees when tempers had cooled.31 A big step beyond combined unions committees was the actual amalgamation of unions. Some unions had already combined, with very positive results. In 1966 two printing unions, the Amalgamated Printing Trades Employees Union of Australia and the Printing Industrial Employees Union of Australia, amalgamated in all States to form the Printing and Kindred Industries Union (PKIU) with an Australia-wide membership of 50,000.32 In 1969, the WA Branches of the Federated SPDU, the Federal Shipwrights and Ship Constructors Association and the Waterfront Watchmens section of the Miscellaneous Workers Union amalgamated to form the Maritime Workers Union of Western Australia (MWU). The following year, the MWU held

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negotiations with the Western Australian branch of the WWF. The Fremantle WWF regarded the idea favourably, but the Federal body feared that amalgamation on a State basis would lead to the disruption of the union.33 The first amalgamation to affect the mining industry directly occurred early in 1971, when a large majority of members of the Boilermakers and Blacksmiths Union and the AEU voted to amalgamate. This vote was the first major step in fulfilling the aims and aspirations of metal workers, their shop stewards and union leaders of the past 50 years one big metal union. The structure of the proposed Amalgamated Metal Workers Union (AMWU) placed in the hands of the membership an advanced organisation which would more effectively press their claims for a greater share of the wealth they create. A majority of almost three to one voted in favour of amalgamation, as did most of the AEU membership.34 Workplace Agreements Concurrent with union amalgamations came the first workplace agreements. In August 1971, the Australian hailed a move by WA employees of Hamersley Iron to by-pass arbitration for direct bargaining as a precedent in Australian industrial relations. A new iron ore processing Award was due to be determined in the near future, and there were strong indications that the Award would be agreed by direct bargaining between the unions and the employers, rather than in the Industrial Commission. The iron ore mining companies, the unions, the WA Government even the State Industrial Commission supported the proposal. The paper foretold that direct bargaining would be an important step in employeremployee bargaining that could be expected to spill into other sectors and other States. Most unexpectedly, the miners themselves supported the proposal.35 On 9 August 1971, the TLC met to discuss future policy regarding award making procedures for the iron ore industry, as the Iron Ore Production and Processing Award was due to expire the following January. Hamersley Iron workers wanted to secure a separate company award. Such a move would remove Hamersley Iron from the type of Award presently binding on all the companies operating in the industry. The TLC circulated the affiliated unions for their opinions on the matter, and some responded. The FEDFU advised that it lean[ed] towards an award or agreement having sections for each union or group of unions, so that wage rates and any other specified conditions pertaining to that union could be provided for in that section, for example,

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railway crews. The union did not, however, favour separate awards for each company, as it feared the duplication of conditions and lots of paper work. The BWIU and the AWU favoured maintaining an Industry Award.36 Frank Wagner, Secretary of the Dampier Combined Unions Committee, stated that there was no change in the structure of either the iron ore award or the over award. The site unions insisted that there must be site representation in forming and negotiating the log of claims. Wagner believed that the unilateral discussions that have taken place in Perth are not in the interests of good trade unionism and, unless the unions reviewed their attitude, they might find their finances depleted and their membership permanently reduced. The unions claimed that the site was advanced enough for an established agreement, and the men on the site were in the best position to know their needs in this type of agreement.37 Further meetings of the iron ore industry unions resolved to reaffirm their decision that the respective Agreements with the companies should continue to operate in their existing form; but a meeting on 20 December resolved to advise that negotiations be abandoned, owing to the companies reluctance to participate.38 Hamersley Iron and the unions finally signed an agreement setting out guidelines for grievance procedures on 8 May 1972. Shortly afterward, the Australian Mines and Metals Association urged the TLC to ensure that the agreement was honoured.39 Workplace agreements adopted elsewhere in 1972 soon caused discontent. In August, workers at Finucane Island and Mount Goldsworthy went on strike because they were not earning the money they had formerly made by working 60-hour weeks. After a conference with Industrial Commissioner Kelly and Company officials, a meeting of the relevant unions discussed the dispute. Organiser Jim Mutton reminded the unionists that the recently concluded agreement had been fully explained to them prior to their acceptance. It would not be renegotiated. The alternative was to abandon the agreement and return to award conditions and to the unions policy banning overtime because of the unemployment situation in the State.40 Disputes The late 1960s to the early 70s was a volatile period in the Pilbara, and in a number of other industrial sites across the State. The Brand Government and employers exerted pressure on unions to cooperate by avoiding direct action, instead going through often prolonged and ultimately unsatisfactory processes in the Industrial Commission. Poor management practices resulted in a

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proliferation of brief strikes. Also, transnational companies were very vulnerable to strike action. As Kosmas Tsokhas wrote of the Mount Newman Mining project:
production is highly interdependent and closely planned. All work, from the mine site to transportation and loading at Port Hedland, is expected to function as a single integrated process. Management has pursued a policy of maximising the continuous operation of plant and equipment, and maintaining a rate of throughput at the same basic cost. While the scope for worker autonomy, initiative and control has been reduced, the possibilities for disrupting this finely tuned system are great. Small groups of strategically placed workers have broken up the rhythm of work with short, sharp strikes, and stop-work meetings have been equally damaging.41

In the first quarter of 1969, four separate stoppages occurred at Kambalda, ranging from one to seven days, over working conditions and the demand for a uniform nickel bonus. At Dampier, 300 Hamersley Iron employees held a stoppage over the employment of trade assistants, and the reassignment of a crusher foreman precipitated a 24-hour stoppage by 200 workers at Goldsworthy. Brief stoppages occurred at Kwinana, Fremantle and at the Muja Power Station at Collie over such issues as the employment of non-union labour, sackings, working hours, payments, and in one case the insertion of a non-strike clause in an award.42 The big companies wanted flexible work forces whose members could be reassigned to different areas depending upon demand. Unions had long fought the tendency of employers to assign employees work for which they were not qualified. The apprenticeship system and reward for skills (over-award margins) ensured a highly skilled but not a highly flexible work force. The requirements of modern technology were significant factors for change occurring in work patterns. Another issue became so serious that it threatened to cause a general strike in 1968: employers using the penal provisions of Section 41 of the Industrial Arbitration Act. On 9 May, several unions in Kwinana were involved in an unauthorised stoppage. The Boilermakers and Blacksmiths Union was fined after seven of its members went on strike from 18 to 21 June. Their employer, J.W. Storer, took action under Section 41, claiming that the unionists had taken part in an illegal strike. This and other cases were discussed at the TLC Executive. The Executive acknowledged the right of unions to decide their own respective policies on disputes, without external interference. Where it was considered necessary for a union to seek the support or assistance from other unions, however, the Executive devised an official procedure.43

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The ACTU supported the right of organised trade unions to strike. They declared that the trade union movement should not be impeded in the performance of responsible traditional functions, including the right to withhold labour or impose limitations on performance of work. Otherwise, the ACTU believed, the minimum wage and conditions of work awarded by Tribunals would become the maximum available and there would be no scope for improvement. The ACTUs 1969 Congress reaffirmed its opposition to the penal provisions within the Arbitration System and demanded the repeal of the sections of the Commonwealth Arbitration Act that protected employers from normal bargaining procedures while discriminating against the unions. The Congress urged the unions not to meet any fines imposed under the Acts penal clauses until the outcome of discussions with the Commonwealth Government was known. Furthermore, if unions or individuals were penalised for not paying fines, the ACTU Executive would decide what appropriate action should be taken on a national or state basis.44 The ACTUs backing appears to have had little positive effect for, on several occasions in 1970, employers applied successfully for penal provisions of the Act to be used against workers. This instigated a hard line TLC campaign against the use of the penal provisions, led by the Australian Tramway and Motor Omnibus Employers Association (ATMEA) a militant union that had been a target of employers. ATMEAs Victorian branch had been fined over $10,000 for striking in 1965 and had lost its appeal, adding a further $5,000 in costs. Clarrie OShea, the unions leader, was jailed after ATMEA refused to pay the fine.45 The TLC asked the WA Minister for Labour, D. ONeal, to review the industrial regulations in the Act. ONeal refused to consider the request unless he received it in writing, but the TLC argued that a written submission on its part would fall short of the required improvement. In March 1971, the AEU, the Boilermakers and Blacksmiths and the FEDFU were all threatened with deregistration after their members struck during a dispute regarding over-award pay and working conditions with Forwood Down and Structural Engineering. The three unions asked the TLC to persuade the Tonkin Labor Government to intervene. Although the Government did not become directly involved in the dispute, the Minister for Labour, Don Taylor, urged large employers who had satisfactory relations with the three unions to speak on their behalf. The dispute widened, involving 300 workers at Alcoas Pinjarra plant, who went on strike when four workers were dismissed for refusing to load material for Forwood Down. The TLC Disputes Committee finally managed to achieve a compromise, under which the three unions

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withdrew their pickets and refrained from calling for further strike action, all the dismissed employees were reinstated, and deregistration proceedings were averted.46 While all unions regarded the removal of the penal clauses as essential to industrial harmony, many took a dim view of so-called wildcat stoppages over relatively trivial causes. On 23 March 1969 a meeting of Kwinana crane drivers all FEDFU members discussed the frequent stoppages. The meeting resolved that FEDFU would support other unions in any stoppage of work only if there was a genuine dispute and negotiations are entered into in the correct manner to resolve the dispute. If any FEDFU member was penalised for genuine union activities the union would take appropriate action, and it would support other unions whose members were likewise penalised. But FEDFU would not support wild cat stoppages over trivial or trumped up matters.47 Not all unions adopted such a definitive policy. Coleman and Cooley received a mixed reaction when they called for stoppages in protest against OSheas imprisonment. They were responding to an ACTU Congress resolution, pledging industrial action if there were further prosecutions under the penal provisions. The right wing unions attacked the TLC leadership for their strike call. So the TLC circulated affiliated unions, requesting their policies regarding a general stoppages. The circular elicited responses ranging from the ASEs statement that their members would not take action until they themselves have determined what action should be taken to the CMU, the Breweries & Bottleyards Employees and the BWIU who would all abide by any decision of the TLC.48 The most detailed reply came from FMWU Secretary Don Lippiatt, who also acted for the WA Chemical and Allied Trades Industrial Union of Workers:
We accept and appreciate the wisdom of consultation with rank and file members on the matter of work stoppages, but we believe that when State or national stoppages are properly considered and called by the TLC or the ACTU in the best interests of trade unionists, (the objective of repealing or amending penal legislation) such stoppages must of necessity be spontaneous, with the element of surprise to have the desired impact. We have unqualified faith in our delegates to Council to debate and vote logically and responsibly on propositions which are calculated to commit members of the Union to participate in a stoppage of work. Unions have an obligation to accept a decision determined by the majority.49

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Improvements in working and living conditions Local support was a significant factor in the TLCs success in many of the industrial disputes during the 1970s. A mass meeting of unions in Port Hedland in 1970 had formed a provincial council of the TLC, and an ALP branch also formed in the town. The ALP and the TLC worked closely to improve living conditions in Port Hedland, Point Cooke and Dampier, as well as for workers on the mine sites. With the help of Ruth Coleman, Carol Fagan, the ALP Branch Secretary, started a Consumer Action group to maintain a watch over local price rates and protest against exorbitant costs. Townspeople campaigned successfully for a high school and a students accommodation hostel at Port Hedland to serve families in the region.50 Hamersley Iron agreed to install street lighting and foot paths in Dampier, and construct a modern swimming complex.51 The TLC also worked to improve employment prospects for Indigenous workers, whom the mining companies refused to employ. Barr was able to secure some local employment for Aboriginal men with the Main Roads and Public Works Departments and the Shire Councils.52 Employment prospects were limited for most Aboriginal workers. They were poorly paid and often exploited, as at the Seventh Day Adventist Mission at Wiluna.
Aborigines from the Mission work on Desert Farm Inc., 10 miles east of Wiluna. The farm sends a truck each day to the Reserve and the Mission. The Aborigines are advised how many are needed. The truck arrives at the mission between 5.30 and 6.30 am and at the farm about an hour later, arriving back at the mission around 6 pm. I could not find out how long the lunch break was. Some days they dont get back until 8 pm if ripe melons need picking (otherwise they go bad). Aboriginal workers are paid $5 per day for men and $4 for women. If they work beyond 5 pm they are paid an extra $1. Some reserve Aborigines work a seven-day week, mission workers a six-day week (Saturday being the Sabbath). They are employed picking melons under supervision of white leading hands. Generally they do not push Aborigines because of extreme heat and low wages, but they are reluctant to help them get higher wages.53

Early in 1972, the TLCs Aboriginal Affairs Committee passed a resolution recommending that discrimination on race and colour must stop. The Committee asked the TLC Executive to request the [Tonkin] State Government to introduce Anti-discriminatory laws.54 On 8 December 1971 in the Upper House, the Minister for Community Welfare, W.F. Willesee, had introduced a Bill to repeal the Native Welfare Act of 1963, and to enact a new Aboriginal Affairs Planning Authority Act.55 Moving the Second Reading of the

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new Bill in the Lower House on 11 May 1972, Attorney General Tom Evans stated that, under the proposed legislation, a new, more comprehensive Department of Community Welfare would absorb the welfare activities of the Native Welfare Department. The responsibilities for the Aboriginal town housing program would be transferred to the State Housing Commission. These changes, it was intended, would bring the Aboriginal population into the ambit of the welfare and assistance services available to the community in general. The Bill also provided for a range of specialist services in health, housing, education, welfare and economic measures to help Aboriginal people overcome their continued depressed state. The State and Federal Governments would make special funds available to finance these services. The Bill was returned from the Assembly without amendment on 30 May and became law on 1 August 1972.56 The Coalition may have been accommodating about the Aboriginal Affairs Planning Authority, but they were less so in other matters. Political strikes In 1974, electors returned the LiberalCountry Party Coalition to power under the leadership of Sir Charles Court, Brand having retired. Immediately, the Court Government began preparing legislation which would bring it into direct conflict with the unions. The Fuel and Energy Bill, introduced by Minister Andrew Mensaros in August 1974, empowered the Governor to declare a state of emergency in any part of Western Australia if he was satisfied that the supply of fuel to the community was restricted by embargoes, disruption of supplies or any other reason. The Governor could then make emergency regulations to ensure the provision of supplies and services needed by the community. A state of emergency, thus declared, could last up to six months and could involve fuel rationing and distribution according to perceived need.57 The Labor Opposition and the senior TLC leadership argued that the Bill was directed against the trade union movement. In September 1974, 12,000 BWIU members voted unanimously for a general strike. The legislation was debated in the Upper House on 1 October, whilst a huge rally demonstrated outside Parliament. Don Cooley (who had entered Parliament as Member for NorthEast Metropolitan Province in the 1974 State election), attacked statements made by Coalition members in the Bills second reading speeches in both Houses. He said that these statements were, a shameful subterfuge to cover a malicious attack on the trade union movement. Cooley warned that the Government would find itself engaged in a conflict, the like of which it has

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never seen before.58 An estimated 100,000 workers around the State joined the general strike, including 10,000 in the Pilbara and 3,000 in the North Eastern Goldfields, causing the nickel and gold mines to halt production. The general strike of 1974 was more strongly supported than any of the previous strikes had been. In July 1976, thousands of the States workers again went out on strike against the governments proposed changes to Medibank. The strike led to the closure of the WAGR Midland Workshops where only 230 of 2,500 workers reported for duty, and the absence of an edition of the West Australian on the following morning 13 July 1976. Estimates of the turnout ranged from 45,000 to 80,000, with Court claiming that there was no discernible absence in the State Government Departments.59 Even within the TLC, reaction to political strikes was mixed, with conservative unions such as the Federated Clerks, the Shop Assistants and the Public Servants being reluctant to commit themselves. With the conservative government enjoying a majority in both Houses, the political strike was a fairly ineffective weapon. Neither the 1974 nor the 1976 general strikes prevented the legislation being passed. The Hamersley Strike, 1979 In the climate of reduced economic confidence that pervaded the latter 1970s, a lengthy strike by workers at Hamersley Iron again demonstrated the weaknesses of workplace agreements. By this stage, the normal practice in the iron ore industry was for claims to be negotiated by collective bargaining. The workers would draw up a log of claims and forward them to their shop stewards. Senior shop stewards, or convenors, from all of the companys sites would meet to discuss the claims and compile a composite log, which they would then discuss with their union officials before a final version was served upon the company. After the company had examined the new claims, a process of bargaining and negotiation would follow until each side was satisfied or a compromise achieved, enabling a new agreement to be set.60 The Iron Ore Production and Processing (Hamersley Iron Pty. Ltd.) Agreement of 1977 was due to expire on 30 June 1979, and the iron workers wanted to negotiate a new agreement before the expiry date. They had been dissatisfied with the previous agreement especially after Utah Mining gave their workers wage increases of $70 to $90 per week in 1978. Other factors which increased workers discontent included their physical isolation from their own union officials in Perth and the divisive policies adopted by Hamersley Iron, including separating convenors from the rank and file membership of the union, so that they associated more

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with management than with workers. Hamersley also embarked on a controversial policy of increasing rents on company accommodation, while reducing the amount of available overtime, in the belief that if the workers were less well off financially they would be less inclined to strike.61 Three union convenors L. Fisher (AWU), D. Bartlem (AMWU) and N. Gilligan (BTWU), representing the Tom Price, Dampier and Paraburdoo work sites coordinated a 25-member Negotiating Committee to bargain with Hamersley Iron. They drew up a log of claims that was agreed by the majority of the rank and file in the eight unions involved before being sent to the Company in May. The five principal demands were: a 40 per cent pay increase; a company-financed sickness and accident scheme; paid meal breaks; a redundancy clause in line with ACTU policy; and a stipulation that the workers length of service be counted from the date of commencement in employment, and include periods of absence without leave while on strike. Only the pay increase was regarded as being negotiable the other demands having been first introduced in 1972 and since rejected by the Company. Hamersley, however, rejected three demands outright and submitted counter claims on the redundancy and health insurance provisions, as well as including a new provision to increase rental on accommodation by 150 per cent. Union meetings at Dampier, Tom Price and Paraburdoo on 24 May overwhelmingly rejected Hamersleys offer and more than 98 per cent of workers voted to go on strike. Hamersleys statement that they would not negotiate with striking workers provoked a ninth union, the LEDFU, to announce its support for the other unions claims. The Court Government arranged a compulsory conference convened in the WA Industrial Commission on 7 June. But the workers rejected the Commissions recommendation to return to work. A very active Womens Committee, comprising female staff and spouses, formed to organise a food and household goods cooperative and to keep morale high. The Company responded by sacking its female staff.62 On 11 June, while the Industrial Commission conducted a compulsory conference in the Karratha Shire Council offices, striking trade unionists and their families attended a rally on a vacant block across the street. Two of the speakers, AMWU officials Laurie Carmichael and Jack Marks, were arrested when they returned to Perth. They were charged with being in contravention of Section 54B of the Police Act by holding an unlawful public assembly. Other unionists were arrested then and in the following month, including TLC President Bill Latter, who chose to go to jail rather than pay his fine. Latter was arrested for failing to appear before the Magistrate and was kept in the East Perth lock-up over the weekend, before appearing in court on the following

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Monday. He had to spend a further nominal day in the Fremantle lock-up for refusing to pay the fine. The arrests obscured the real issues on the strike, but brought the matter national coverage resulting in a large influx of funds from unions and individuals. This was vital to the disputes success, as officials estimated that the families involved needed over $20,000 to meet their weekly expenses. The other impact of the arrests was that the TLC became directly involved, whereas previous negotiations had been in the hands of the Negotiating Committee. Throughout the dispute, Court remained adamant that the government would not change its stance a strike on 21 June involving an estimated 120,000 workers had no appreciable impact on the Premiers attitude. In fact, he was unhappy when, on 1 August, Hamersley Iron agreed to pay rises, and to union demands regarding length of service, paid meal breaks, redundancies and the sickness and accident scheme. The new Agreement was finally negotiated after the workers had been on strike for 10 weeks and had suffered considerable financial hardship.63 The arrests and fines, however, were the catalyst for a TLC-led campaign against Section 54B the following year. TLC Secretary Peter Cook who had succeeded Coleman early in 1976 emerged from the dispute in a strong leadership position. Although the Negotiating Committee had not invited the TLC to enter the dispute, they praised Cook for helping to resolve it. Latters brief imprisonment was the only indication of the government relenting from its hardline stance in the entire dispute. Both Cook and Latter gained prestige by their role in the dispute and established themselves as the new generation of TLC leaders, following on the long careers of Coleman and Cooley.64 It is difficult, however, to see any major gains for the workers who were involved in this dispute. Although Hamersley Iron eventually granted most of the demands, the company was allowed to reduce its workforce. In 1978, the Japanese buyers had indicated that they would not be extending the export contracts for iron ore pellets because of reduced demand, but that they would compensate by buying more fine iron ore. Hamersley put its workers at the Dampier pellet plant on 12 months notice and found alternative employment in other sites for retrenched employees. The long-term effect of this move was that the company was able to increase the automation of its work procedures and reduce the number of workers required in production.65

Chapter Thirteen

Fundamental Shifts in Power 19741982

The fundamental shifts in power, style and ideology that changed Labor from the Party of the 1960s to the Party of the 1990s began while the both the Federal Party and the WA Branch were in Government, and continued during the period of Opposition until 1983. The composition of the FPLP, which governed under Whitlams leadership from 1972 until 1975, reflected the socioeconomic changes in the Partys membership. The Whitlam cabinets included university lecturers such as Frank Crean and Jim Cairns, and legal practitioners including Whitlam, Senators Lionel Murphy and Jim McClelland, and ACT Member Kep Enderby. Likewise, the Western Australians who served in the Whitlam Cabinets were in the professional mould. Joe Berinson, a pharmacist, had held the Federal seat of Perth from 1969 to 1975, and had served as Minister for the Environment in the last months of the Whitlam Government. He lost Perth in the landslide against Labor at the Federal election following the Governor-Generals infamous dismissal of the Whitlam Government. Senator Don Willesee held Foreign Affairs, Kim Beazley Senior was Minister for Education, and Senator John Wheeldon took up a new portfolio, Minister for Repatriation and Compensation, after the 1974 election.1 Within the State ALP, there was a similar increase in Members from professional backgrounds. Young, highly educated professionals Arthur Tonkin, Mal Bryce, Joe Berinson, Brian Burke and Jeff Carr a young school teacher who held the seat of Geraldton for Labor following the retirement of Bill Sewell in 1974 belonged to a group of new Members who would dominate State and Federal politics over the next two decades. They and others, such as Don Taylor, Bob Hetherington (MLC from 1977 until 1989) and Bob Pearce, fitted the professional white collar mould. While Beazley was returned in Fremantle in the 1975 Federal election, he decided to retire at the next election. Kim Beazley Junior immediately nominated for preselection. State Secretary Bob McMullan persuaded the selected candidate for Swan, John

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Dawkins, to oppose Beazley in the pre-selection ballot. McMullan regarded Beazley as a Right Wing candidate, but also may have feared the harm that any semblance of nepotism would do to the Party. Dawkins won the Fremantle pre-selection, but Berinson was defeated by McMullans preferred candidate, Pat Fowkes, in a three-cornered contest for the seat of Swan. In the preselection for the Federal seat of Perth, Left-Winger Jim Moiler defeated Douglas Mitchell. These outcomes were influenced by changes to the preselection procedure and by growing factionalism. Pre-selections were determined by a council of 30 members, of whom only 6 came from the local area. Factionalism was beginning to develop in the WA Branch of the Party by this time, although the Right Wing did not fully emerge until after the election of the Burke Government. In the 1970s, with McMullan as State Secretary, the broad Left coalition was still in the majority, as evidenced by the selection of Dawkins, Fowkes and Moiler.2 The three men at the centre of the Fremantle pre-selection dispute, Beazley, Dawkins and McMullan had been fellow students at UWA. Beazley entered UWA in 1967 to study History later gaining a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford. He and Dawkins were politically active in the Student Guild. McMullan, had graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1967 and a Bachelor of Economics in 1970, before taking up a part-time Tutorship in Industrial Relations and a succession of union posts. Throughout 1974, McMullan was Assistant State Secretary, before becoming State Secretary on Chamberlains retirement at the end of the year.3 He was 26 years old; he wore coloured shirts and long hair a stark contrast with Chamberlains conservative suits but he and Chamberlain worked well together and respected each others views. Once in charge, McMullan made many administrative changes.4 The State Executive retained the position of Assistant State Secretary, with Barry Hodge appointed in the first instance. Later holders of this position included Gordon Hill and John Cowdell. The year 1974 also saw changes in the SPLP leadership. John Tonkin remained Party leader after losing the State election, but Taylor stood down as Deputy Leader. In a temporary return to blue collar Labor leadership, State ALP President and Member for Welshpool, Colin Jamieson, replaced Taylor as Deputy. Jamieson, a carpenter by trade, had won the seat of Canning in 1953. Although regarded as the baby of the House when he entered the Legislative Assembly at the age of 30, Jamieson was not impressed by the new young Members of 1974. When interviewed after retiring from Parliament, he said that the quality of membership of the SPLP when he joined was very different from today. Then, the major influences had been the AWU and the

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Goldfields; these were no longer in evidence. The Parliament had changed from a Parliament of peers to a Parliament of academic[ally] qualified people. This was more marked in Labor than in Liberal ranks. Then, the ALP had been more representative of the wider population. Now most of the Labor fellows have got degrees.5 Jamiesons comments reveal some of the prejudices felt by old Labor members against younger, university-educated members. Jamieson waited almost two years as Deputy before Tonkin stepped down from the ALP Leadership. While he believed Tonkin should retire, Jamieson claimed that he was not prepared to stage a coup for the Party Leadership. Nor would he have had the numbers to do so. Eventually, McMullan and TLC Secretary Peter Cook advised Tonkin that it would be in the best interests of the Party to make way for a younger leader. Jamieson was elected Leader after Easter 1976, by which time Tonkin had exceeded Philip Colliers length of time as a Member of Parliament. But the push for a new leader did not end with Jamiesons election. He was by no means a unanimous choice, having beaten the other contender, Dave Evans (MLA for Warren) by only one vote. Style and ideology continued to be pressing issues. According to Jamieson, Whitlam made the image of politicking on television the thing in Australia and the SPLP was looking for alternatives.6 Jamiesons tenure as Party Leader would be short. Fundamental changes in the Party structure As ALP State Secretary, McMullan instigated or oversaw many changes in the structure of the State Executive. In October 1975, the State ALP held a Special Rules Conference. Affiliated unions were entitled to between one and eight delegates to State Executive, depending on the numerical strength of their membership. The State Conference remained the policy-determining body, with the State Executive carrying out Conference decisions. A new Administrative Committee replaced the old Executive Officers, but retained the same duties and powers. It was expanded to include three Trustees, five committee members and the SPLP Leader. Whereas the State Executive had met alternate weeks with the Executive Officers, the full State Executive meetings were now monthly and the Administrative Committee met fortnightly. The new rules listed the duties and responsibilities of the Executive Officers, and established the boundaries and composition of Electorate Councils. Each Electorate Council was to have jurisdiction over one House of Representatives seat, would meet at least quarterly, and would comprise credentialled delegates from Branches and affiliated unions with members in

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the Councils area. Electorate Councils duties including raising funds for candidates, maintaining records, organising ALP branches within their jurisdiction, keeping audited accounts, and conducting pre-selection ballots for Local Government bodies. These rules reflected and reinforced the centralisation of power in the hands of the State Executive. Unlike the old District Councils, the Electorate Councils were not autonomous, although they did provide 6 elected representatives to sit on a 24-member panel to recommend candidates for Legislative Assembly, Legislative Council and House of Representatives seats. Their recommendations were subject to ratification by the State Executive, whose members also selected Senate candidates.7 By January 1981, there were 14 Electorate Councils. There were also changes to the rules regulating ALP Standing Committees. By December 1976, the ALP had formed 17 Standing Committees to formulate policy on a range of matters including Aboriginal, civil rights and equal opportunity issues; arts and media; conservation and the environment; consumer affairs; economics; education; foreign affairs; and minerals and energy. Each committee had a convener and members who were elected by the State Executive. Under McMullans leadership, the State Executive encouraged women to nominate for these positions. Wendy Fatin, who was LWO President in 1976, wrote to about 80 female ALP members who had attended Labor Womens seminars and meetings in the recent past, advising them that nominations were being called for membership on Party Standing Committees. She suggested that they put their names forward for consideration.8 This move met with some success, for, by 1977, almost all of the policy committees had at least one woman member and most had several.9 The numbers of Western Australian women representing Labor in Parliament increased, too. In 1974, Grace Vaughan was elected to the Legislative Council as a Member for the South East Metropolitan Province. Vaughan, who served in the Upper House until 1980, was passionate about achieving electoral reform and equality for Indigenous and other disadvantaged social groups. She also entered into debates on urban planning, conservation and traffic control. Vaughan lost her seat in the 1980 election after yet another unfavourable redistribution, but continued to work for social reform through the membership of agencies such as the WA Council of the Ageing and the Board of the Royal Perth Hospital. She died in 1984, aged 62 years.10 Also in 1974, Ruth Coleman was elected to the Senate, where she served until 1987. Upon arriving in the Senate, Coleman was amazed to find that a woman Parliamentarian was still regarded as something of a novelty. She worked for equal rights not only for women, but for all disadvantaged sections

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of the community, including supporting fathers with sole custody of their children, who did not qualify for the same benefits as supporting mothers.11 Coleman was joined in the Senate in 1981 by Pat Giles. Both women were backbenchers in the Hawke Labor Government that came to power in 1983. Giles was the first WA Labor woman to serve on the ALP National Executive in 1984. She held the post of Junior Vice President in 1984/85 and served as a WA delegate (with ALP State Secretary Michael Beahan) until 1989.12 A Labor Womens Conference in Sydney in January 1981 endorsed Affirmative Action as a program to be implemented by the ALP.13 The July 1981 meeting of the National Executive considered Guidelines that set out a 10-year program of Affirmative Action in the Party. Goals were set to achieve specific percentages of women on the executive and on other committees, in State Parliaments, in each State Branch of the Party, and on National Conference committees. Initially, the minimum was set at one-third female membership by the end of 1982 perhaps an over-ambitious goal to be achieved in less than 18 months, but one which, if adopted, would show that the Party was committed to change. The goals were to be achieved by a number of measures including: electing committees en masse on one ballot paper, rather than individually; accepting nominations for some positions only from female candidates to ensure that the appropriate number of women were elected; and running separate contests for female candidates. The Guidelines acknowledged that, in some areas, affirmative action would be particularly difficult to implement. They suggested permitting lesser representation of women on the National Executive until 1985. Where a small union, electorate body or branch was entitled to only one delegate, the Guidelines suggested either enforcing the election of a woman as representative every third year, or grouping such bodies into threes and ensuring that one of the three was represented by a female delegate.14 Nevertheless, when it came to appointing staff on the National Executive, the branches were reluctant to ensure that women were represented. The National Executive meeting of 9 October 1981 resolved that there was insufficient funding to establish a position of Female Assistant National Secretary, and referred the matter to State Branches and the Status of Women Policy Committee for suggestions on alternative methods of funding. The National Executive meeting of 5 February 1982 considered the responses to this resolution, and resolved that, until the State Branches agreed to provide the necessary funds for the position, or a special funding arrangement was agreed to, no appointment could be made.15 In 1982, McMullan (now National Secretary) requested reports from each state on their affirmative action programs. Michael Beahan, the new WA State

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Secretary, reported that Party Rules now guarantee[d] at least two of the six Administrative Committee positions, one of three Trustee positions and one of the Vice-President positions to women, subject to review in 1985, and that Rule changes scheduled to be introduced at the coming State Conference would guarantee women at least one position on each Party Standing Committee. Only the Electorate Councils, however, were close to allocating one-third of their positions to women 28.5 per cent of Electorate Council officers being female. In contrast, only 10 per cent of the State Executives union delegates, 15 per cent of State Executives political delegates and 21 per cent of ALP branch officers were female. The Report stated that it had proved difficult to frame Rules applying Affirmative Action to the various components of the Selection Panels for State and Federal seats. However, one woman had succeeded in winning selection for a House of Representatives seat in the next election, and two of WAs four Labor Senators were women. Out of ten preselection contests for Legislative Assembly seats, women had won three, and one was as yet unresolved but was being contested by a strong woman candidate. But the Report conceded, There are considerable imbalances to be redressed. Of 23 current ALP Legislative Assembly members, none is a woman; of nine current ALP Legislative Council members, one is a woman.16 Since 1980, childcare had been provided at Party conferences and seminars, but there were still problems regarding administration and funding. In 1982, the LWO took over responsibility for childcare, but funding remained inadequate. The State Executive insisted that the burden of expense should not fall upon the user, nor should the provision of child care be related to the numbers demanding it. Another step in the process of Affirmative Action, the couching of party publications in non-sexist language, had been in practice for several years. The Special State Conference in March 1982 resolved to request the Administrative Committee to devise to plan of action to implement affirmative action in relation to State and Federal pre-selection within the next 12 months.17 Besides encouraging women to take a more active part in the Partys decision-making processes, the State Executive began to place greater emphasis on civil liberties and human rights issues. They set up a Discrimination Committee, with specific responsibility for investigating discrimination and opportunity creation in education, employment, housing and financial services, and contraception and family planning (with assistance from the Health and Welfare Committee). In consultation with relevant bodies, the Committee reviewed all Party policy as it affected women. Pat Giles chaired the Discrimination Committee, Grace Vaughan was convener, and one of the

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committee members was Brenda Brush, a member of the North Beach ALP who was later to become Premier Burkes personal assistant. Each member was given his or her own area of responsibility; for example, Vaughan dealt with discrimination in financial matters; Brushs areas were homosexuality and abortion. Recommendations that the Committee sent to the State Executive over the next few months included the repeal of all previous legislation and the introduction of new legislation regulating the business and occupation of prostitution; the development of a new Discrimination Platform; and the introduction of homosexual law reform and legislation to make all forms of sex discrimination illegal.18 There were other initiatives as the Party responded to the changing social and political demands of the 1980s. The Aboriginal Affairs Policy Committee, chaired by John Dawkins, was another attempt by the ALP to rectify longstanding injustices. In 1980, relations between the Court Government and Aboriginal people reached a nadir when the Government insisted that it had the right to drill for oil on Noonkanbah Station, which had belonged to the Yungngora Community since 1976. Some ALP branches sent resolutions to the State Executive, calling on the ALP to organise a protest against the State Governments handling of the Noonkanbah dispute, and to ask the FPLP to make a firm commitment to land rights for the Noonkanbah community. They requested that the ALP express dismay at the Western Australian Museums apparent lack of concern over the disruption of sacred sites at Noonkanbah; and that the State Executive organise a massive telephone and letter campaign to support the Aboriginal people in their struggle.19 In 1980 and 1981, the National Executive passed resolutions condemning the actions of the Court Government and the transnational drilling company Amax at Noonkanbah. They recommended to the 1981 National Conference that the Party Objective include: the right of Australian Aborigines and Islanders to preserve and develop their culture through self-determination and the granting of land rights.20 Consecutively with the civil rights, affirmative action and equal opportunity programs came a push to reconsider the Partys relationship with the unions. As ALP Leader, Jamieson recognised the need for continued close liaison between the unions and the Party. He had allocated each Member one or more trade unions to look after, a responsibility that only some took seriously. In May 1978, the BLF was offended by a press statement by Ron Davies (Jamiesons successor as Party Leader), attacking unnamed union delegates whom he described as gaining support from noisy, Maoist elements, represent[ing] almost no-one, and being little better than scabs. He said that the BLF made

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demands on the ALP and took the benefits that flowed from Labor Governments without affiliating with the party. BLF Organiser Bill Thomas accused Davies of making statements that were factually incorrect, derogatory, inflammatory and therefore not in the best interests of the Party. On 5 October, Davies appalled several of the big unions with a press statement in the West Australian in which he opposed the idea of a future Labor Government nationalising key basic industries. AMWU Secretary Frank Bastow accused Davies of making a supine retreat from supporting the basic tenets of Socialism and said that if he could not accept the Partys policies, he should resign and become an Independent Liberal. David Parker, Acting State Secretary of the BWIU and the Plasterers Federation, expressed similar shock, especially that a Caucus meeting had subsequently endorsed the Leaders statements. Parker believed that the matter ought to be discussed and thrashed out within the Party not made into a public brawl. Consequently his union had refrained from making any comments.21 Parker himself annoyed some sections of the union movement in November, after State Executive endorsed him for the seat of Fremantle instead of the sitting Member, Dr John Troy. The previous March, Troy had been involved in organising a public forum at the Fremantle Town Hall to discuss the Palestinian Question. The panel of speakers included an Australian who was secretary of the United Palestinian Workers from Sydney. The President of the Jewish Board of Deputies, Dr Walters, objected to the meeting before it took place. In response, Troy wrote a letter to the Daily News stating that he supported the stand of the PLO. In prose reminiscent of John Curtin in his more radical Worker editorials, he wrote:
Not surprisingly, the wealthy few fear what the PLO stands for redistribution of wealth. For myself, the fight of the starving and the dispossessed and the working class against imperialism is the only fight. I support the PLO.22

On 12 March, Israel invaded Lebanon. Four days later in the Legislative Assembly, Scarborough Liberal MLA Raymond Young criticised a number of the Arab States and launched a personal attack on Troy, whom, he said, might be shot at because of his views. Young was permitted to insert in the Hansard record five pages of tables listing atrocities by the PLO.23 Don Taylor, the Member for Cockburn, was outraged by Youngs attack, which breached Parliamentary etiquette. Troy had no opportunity to respond as the session closed, but he made a statement in response to a question from a journalist from the West Australian. The statement, which was published the following day, was the basis of a charge by Bob McMullan and Kim Beazley that Troy was

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bringing the ALP into disrepute because he had expressed views that were contrary to the Partys policy on the situation in the Middle East. The Administrative Committee heard the charge on 28 March. They recommended that Troy be censured and warned that any future utterance inconsistent with Party policy or any other breach of Party rules by him would be treated with utmost seriousness. In the State Executive meeting, several delegates tried unsuccessfully to amend the resolutions charging and censuring Troy, but these were subsequently passed by about a two-thirds majority in each case. Members of the State Executive who had opposed Troys censure included Bill Latter, Maurie Lachberg and Frank Bastow. Latter saw the disciplinary action as clearly being a prelude to his disendorsement which was being mooted by some of the middle roaders. Sure enough, in October, five candidates stood for preselection in Fremantle and, in the final count, Parker defeated Troy by 97 votes to 52.24 Although McMullan defended the choice of Parker to affiliated bodies, he sent a placatory letter to WWF Secretary Ron Inkster, stating that the ALP highly valued the historic and continuing support received from the [Waterside Workers] Federation. He reiterated that the pre-selection had taken place in accordance with selection procedures democratically determined at the most recent State Conference and supported by the WWF.25 The role of the unions in the Party continued to be a thorny issue. While Opposition spokesperson for labour and industrial relations, Arthur Tonkin urged the ALP to break away from a slavish adherence to the past. He warned that any radical party, or even any mildly progressive party, has to break free from the past and prepare itself for the future. Tonkin had already attacked unions for their practice of electing secretaries for life and their closed shop policy in many industries.26 In May 1980, Gordon Payne an unsuccessful candidate for Metropolitan Province at the February election created another furore when remarks that he made at an ALP seminar were published in the West Australian under the headline: Labor urged to alter union role. Payne said that unions ought not get voting rights on ALP bodies by being affiliated with the party. The only organisational units within the party should be the branches. If unionists wished to influence the party, they should do so by forming site branches or joining the suburban branches. He claimed that the Partys close ties with the union movement had been damaging electorally as unions had a very poor image in the community. A recent survey had shown that 79 per cent of Australians thought that unions had too much power. This view was wrong, but it was held by too many Australians to be ignored. The same survey showed that only 47 per cent of unionists voted for the ALP. The union affiliates of the WA branch had the power to control and veto policies

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going to the State Conference. In many cases, their influence was authoritarian, racist, anti-feminist and anti-conservationist. Payne said that the ALP was headed for political extinction unless changes were made to its structure. State membership was presently under 5,000, with some branches defunct in areas with a traditionally strong Labor following. The State Executive endorsed a resolution from the Administrative Committee, stating that:
the unions be advised that the State Executive values union support highly. The Party grew from the union movement and draws significant elements of its policy from union opinions. Aside from the value of participation of union affiliates in our activities, the State Executive is aware that the substantial proportion of the Partys running costs and electoral expenses are carried by unions contributions.

The resolution also added that any change in party rules was a matter for State Conference to decide.27 By May 1981, the ALP listed only 51 affiliated unions, but these were overwhelmingly blue collar. They included big industrial unions of metal workers, miners, maritime and railway employees, as well as the AWU and the Shop Assistants. In comparison, the TLCs returns listed 72 affiliated unions, representing a much broader occupation base.28 This preponderance of blue collar unions among the ALPs affiliates continued to the end of the 1990s, despite the increasing trend to white collar professionals among the parliamentary Party. Policy matters The first Shadow Ministry was introduced in the period after the Tonkin Governments defeat on 30 March 1974, and was refined during the Partys time in Opposition.29 McMullan also expected a higher accountability of Members of Parliament regarding their daily activities and their availability for trips to country areas. In mid 1975, the State Executive passed resolutions requesting six-monthly confidential, written reports from each State and Federal Member of Parliament. The aim of these reports was to encourage Members to communicate more effectively with their electorates.30 The new Standing Committees (mentioned earlier) were created to formulate policy. In doing so, McMullan expected Committee Members (including himself) to travel to country centres to collect information. When he travelled to the Great Southern and Albany in April 1977, he found that Albany ALP members were anxious about the State seat. There was little local finance or support for the Labor candidate. They also were concerned over the perceived failure of the party to attract young people. It was evident to

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McMullan that the branch had lost contact with the mainstream of community activity, although the members were interested in issues such as uranium mining, and requested a film to show at a public meeting. Other once-active branches, such as Williams, were on the verge of extinction. Issues for residents in the Williams area were the poor TV reception, rising salinity caused by the Wellington Dam, and the need to improve rural roads. Wagin, too, was struggling to remain a viable branch. Fortunately, some of the smaller country centres were much more vibrant. Walpole had an active and diverse branch with many competent and creative people in it indicat[ing] that the branch will continue as a strong and active one for some time. This was the only branch where McMullan was able to engage in significant debate on policy as well as organisational matters concerning the Party. The Narrogin and Katanning branches, likewise, were flourishing, and their members were keen to address current environmental issues at public meetings.31 SPLP Members supported various campaigns including those to establish Medicare in 1975 and to save it from being abolished by the Fraser Federal Government in 1976. By far the longest running, involving both State and Federal Labor parliamentarians, was the campaign to bring electoral reform to the Upper House. After the ALPs electoral defeat in 1974, the Electoral Reform Policy Committee whose membership included Pat Giles, Bob McMullan, Jeff Carr, Marcelle Anderson, Mal Bryce, Graham Hawkes and Arthur Tonkin continued its campaign.32 Unsuccessful in attracting media attention to their campaign, they were forced to resort to extreme measures. On 13 March 1975, Arthur Tonkin refused to obey the Governors request to assemble in the Legislative Council for the opening of Parliament. He staged a lone protest by entering the Legislative Assembly as the other Parliamentarians filed out to attend the ceremonial opening of Parliament, and remained seated in the Assembly while proceedings took place in the other chamber.33 The following year, Caucus agreed to support Arthur Tonkins gesture, but the Leader, John Tonkin, refused to comply. In the third year (1977), some of the Labor Members who did not attend in the Legislative Council spent their time in the Parliament House bar, thereby, in Arthur Tonkins opinion, discrediting the gesture.34 Meanwhile, the Court Government introduced a bill to amend the Electoral Districts Act of 1947. The Bill which sought to redefine the boundaries of the metropolitan electoral district and increase the membership of the Assembly from 51 to 55 and the Council from 30 to 32 was debated in the Legislative Assembly in September 1975. In a particularly acrimonious session during the committee stage of the Bill on 9 September, Arthur Tonkin and Mal

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Bryce were forcibly removed from the chamber. Tonkin was suspended for accusing the State Government, and Sir Charles Court, of being corrupt. He refused to leave the Chamber and in the ensuing chaos, both he and Bryce were suspended for 24 hours.35 Apart from the action in Parliament, the Electoral Reform Policy Committee mounted an extensive campaign to oppose the Bill, which, they claimed, sought to perpetuate and extend the electoral malapportionment in this State by similarly weighting Lower House seats in favour of rural constituents. A comparison of one metropolitan and one rural electorate showed the possible extent of the disparity: MurchisonEyre contained 2,260 electors whilst Canning contained 27,035 electors, but each had one representative in the Lower House. In the Upper House, the disparity was far greater, with the 435,000 metropolitan voters represented by 12 members, whilst the 212,000 rural voters had 20 members.36 Even the normally proCourt West Australian commented on the weighting of seats:
In a State as vast as WA there has to be a special loading of votes to safeguard the interests of people who live in remote and sparsely settled areas. But outside those areas the present weighting in favour of non-metropolitan votes (about 2 to 1 in the Legislative Assembly and 3 to 1 in the Legislative Council) is too high.37

At the request of the SPLP, a One Vote, One Value Committee was launched to fight the Bill. Graham Hawkes, a member of this committee, researched an extensive case against the existing arrangement and the proposed amendments.38 The One Vote, One Value Committee devised a Charter for Electoral Reform, which stated that the ALP would apply the principle of one vote, one value in all Parliamentary elections and that the democratic right to an equally valued vote would be written into the State Constitution. The Charter also proposed steps to bring about this objective while two Houses of Parliament continued to exist: the introduction of equally valued votes in the Legislative Council by electing Councillors by a proportional system comparable with the Senate; reducing the Upper Houses powers to prevent it obstructing Government legislation; and granting special assistance to Members representing country electorates.39 In addition to the weighting of rural seats, the ALP claimed that the 1976 Redistribution of Seats was a blatant gerrymander by the Liberals. They pointed in particular to the reclassification of 30,000 mainly Labor voters from rural to metropolitan while Liberal voters in areas closer to Perth remained country. The Federal Member for Fremantle, Kim Beazley Senior, strongly criticised the Court Governments action. His advice to Western

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Australians to bypass Parliament and resort to industrial action to improve their conditions attracted media attention. Court accused Beazley of advocating anarchy. Beazley replied that it was Court who was creating conditions for anarchy through an electoral gerrymander. These amendments were later acknowledged by non-partisan commentators to favour the non-Labor parties.40 Further changes were enacted in the 1981 Electoral Districts Act Amendment Bill, which was regarded in the Labor press as being the most blatant gerrymander of the Western Australian Parliament seen in the last 50 years.41 This Bill involved the redrawing of boundaries on four northern electorates, and the inclusion of Rockingham, Armadale and parts of Wanneroo in the metropolitan area. Concurrently with debates on Party structure and policy, discussions occurred on the Socialist Objective. The Federal ALPs devastating defeat in the 1975 election led to a major rethink of the ideological stance that had determined policy for the past 70 years. Since the 1955 split, certain sections had voiced disquiet about the Socialist Objective, and by the 1977 National Conference, an increasing number of Party members believed the time had come for an overhaul. This belief was reinforced in 1977, when both the Federal Party and the Western Australian Branch lost elections. It was a time to take stock and revisit some of the Partys most sacred beliefs and assumptions. But it was also a very productive time when delegates attended workshops and seminars on many aspects of Party activity and ideology. A 1976 discussion paper stated that, Socialism has become a dirty word due to the ignorance of many voters and the highly successful campaign of linking socialism and communism by our opponents.42 That the Party regarded ideology as a particularly significant election issue was reflected in the 1981 National Conferences adaptation of its traditional socialist platform to emphasise values reflecting equality, democracy, liberty and social cooperation. According to commentators and leading politicians alike, this event marked the ALPs passage from a reformist to a liberal democratic party reflecting the established order.43 Yet the 1981 National Conference was another step in the evolution of the socialist objective, beginning with the 1921 declaration that the Party stood for the socialisation of industry, production, distribution and exchange. The most marked differences between the Basic Principles and Objectives of the Party in 1982 and those enunciated in previous Platforms were, on the one hand, the declaration of individual freedoms such as the right to own private property; the elimination of discrimination and exploitation on the grounds of class, race, gender, sexuality, religion, political affiliation, national origin,

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citizenship, age, disability, regional location, or economic or household status and, on the other hand, the dropping of planks such as the abolition of the State Upper Houses and the nationalisation of industry.44 Electoral strategies From its early days in Opposition, the Party underwent an assessment of where and why it had failed in the 1974 State election. Apart from the common problem of lack of finance, and some disagreements over which seats required the greatest attention, there was the Whitlam factor. While in government, Whitlam had withdrawn many of the rural sectors concessions, such as the superphosphate bounty and cheaper petrol. In the 1974 Federal election campaign, Whitlam addressed a public rally in Forrest Place in central Perth. The rally was mobbed by angry farmers who bombarded Whitlam with pies, cans of soft drink and tomatoes. Colin Jamiesons grey suit was showered with the contents of a can of Fanta that struck Whitlam on the back of the neck. Jamieson believed that the demonstration came very close to being a riot. Shortly afterwards, at the University of Western Australia, Whitlam received an enthusiastic, and much less publicised, reception from thousands of students. Even so, he was shaken by his Forrest Place experience. Prior to the 1977 State election, he offered Jamieson the use of a speech writer, but said that he didnt care whether he came over to Perth for the campaign or not. He told Jamieson, If Im not wanted over there thats all right by me. But I dont want you to pour a bucket of shit on me like Neville Wran did [in NSW].45 He did not take any part in the campaign. In preparation for the 1977 State election, the Party formed a committee of Members responsible for marginal seats. McMullan devised a strategy whereby each member was allocated several suburban branches to visit on a regular basis, as well as a number of country centres. He advocated at least one trip a year to major centres such as Albany and Bunbury and to smaller active ALP branches. Demographic changes were reflected in McMullans judgements of the strategic importance of particular centres. The dairy farming centre of Harvey was big enough to warrant regular visits as part of strategy to revive the local ALP branch, but McMullan thought that one visit every three years was sufficient for Mt Magnet, the once-flourishing mining area that had been a Legislative Assembly seat in its own right, faithfully returning Labor members from 1905 until it was abolished in 1947.46 The visits of Federal and State Members to isolated areas had the benefit of putting them in touch with respected local people who might further Labors

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cause in the community, as well as revealing many of the organisations weaknesses. Ernie Bridge, the first Indigenous Australian to stand as a State ALP candidate and who later won the seat of Kimberley, first came to Senator Gordon McIntoshs notice in 1974.47 In seats such as Kimberley and MurchisonEyre, the Indigenous vote was considered seriously for the first time. The committee of Members responsible for Marginal seats decided that the Aboriginal vote cannot be underestimated due to the very high percentage of Aboriginal population. They could, in fact, be a deciding factor in the electorate, should they be properly organised. Candidates for such seats had to be chosen carefully.48 The Aboriginal vote was certainly important in deciding the result in Kimberley in the 1977 State election. Kimberley had been Labor from 1924 to 1968, when the seat was secured for the Liberal Party by Alan Ridge. The problems associated with illiterate voters had been catered for, and poll booth staff were advised:
If a voter satisfies you that he is so illiterate that he cannot vote without help, you are entitled to mark and fold and deposit his ballot-paper for him. You should do this in the presence of any Scrutineer, or if there is no scrutineer in the presence of the Poll Clerk, or if the voter wants it, in the presence of a person whom the voter wants. There is no reason why a non-literate voter should not use a How to Vote Card in order to tell you how he wants his ballot-paper marked.49

Ridge won the February ballot by 93 votes with preferences split almost equally between him and Bridge. But 97 Aboriginal people complained that they had been prevented from casting a vote. They all wished to vote for Bridge, but, being illiterate, they had planned to indicate their preference to polling booth staff by showing their ALP How to Vote cards. Ridge disapproved of illiterate people being enfranchised. He admitted to another supporter, P.J. Quilty of Ruby Plains Station at Halls Creek:
It was a degrading experience to have to campaign amongst the Aborigines to the extent I did and it offended me to know that whilst I was concentrating my efforts on these simple people over the last couple of weeks, I was neglecting a more informed and intelligent section of the community. There can be no doubt that the ALP used a campaign of fear and intimidation Bearing in mind that we couldnt get any reasonably large groups of people to hear our side of the story, I resorted to employing the services of a country and western singer at a cost of some $600 for 3 days and it was only by having him perform at many settlements that I was able to speak to the people.

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Bobbie Oliver It is indeed a travesty of justice that a comparative handful of such illinformed people who can be used like pawns in a game by unscrupulous opportunists, should have the right or the power to determine the future of our State. I shall certainly be pressing for changes to the Electoral Act in relation to the casting of absent votes by illiterate people. To permit the existing situation to prevail is doing nothing more than encouraging dishonest people to take advantage of large numbers of Aborigines.50

The full irony of Ridges comments about pawns and unscrupulous opportunists became evident when it was revealed that, despite the protests of some of its own backbenchers, the Liberal Party had devised a strategy to prevent illiterate Aboriginal people from casting a vote.51 Copies of Ridges letters, boasting of the trickery, were used in evidence in the WA Court of Disputed Returns in September 1977 after the ALP disputed the result of the election. On 7 November, the Court ruled that the election was void.52 Two days later, D.H. ONeil, Deputy Premier and Member for East Melville, introduced the Electoral Act Amendment Bill. This Bill sought to alter Section 129 of the Electoral Act, which had been amended in 1976 to permit presiding officers to mark the ballot papers of voters who were either physically impaired or illiterate. The proposed amendment would prevent an illiterate voter from indicating his or her preference by showing the presiding officer a how to vote card. Instead, the officer would read out the names of the candidates in the order they appeared on the ballot paper and ask the voter to indicate a choice, without mentioning any party affiliation. Labor Members greeted the Bills second reading with derision. To ONeils statement that:
the only persons whom the proposed amendment will affect are those persons not in regular institutions or who are unable to attend a polling booth and who are so blind, physically incapacitated or illiterate that they are unable to sign their names

Burke interjected, The Aboriginal people, the illiterate people, the aged people and the sick people.53 When the vote was taken on 15 November a month before the by-election the result was tied 25 for to 25 against. The Speaker, Ian Thompson, voted against his Party to defeat the Bill.54 The Kimberley by-election took place on 17 December. During the campaign, Premier Court accused Labor of foul tactics in the poll. Court claimed that ALP supporters were telling Aboriginal people in the Kimberley electorate that the Government would stop their old age pensions, child endowment and unemployment benefits. Ridge won the Kimberley by-election by 84 votes, but Bridge was gracious in conceding that he was defeated fairly

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and squarely. Bridge had to wait until the State election of 1980, when he was elected with a majority of 581. He continued to hold the seat with majorities ranging from 1,850 to 4,269 up to and including the 1996 election.55 Leadership changes Major leadership changes occurred in the context of the new ideas described above. Jamiesons inadequate leadership was perceived in some quarters to be a major factor in Labors defeat in the 1977 State election. Against Sir Charles Court, who had been a Minister in the Brand Government as well as Premier for a term, Jamiesons inexperience as a Leader and as a public performer was only too obvious. The Party tried to remodel Jamieson for the television age. He went to the eastern states to learn how to speak on television, and then a team from Sydney was flown to Perth to assist with the election campaign. According to Jamieson, however, the Sydney team did not operate well in the local environment and raised too many hackles. In a departure from previous practice, the ALP policy speech was launched at the Golden Ballroom of the Sheraton Hotel, where there was limited seating and attendance was by invitation only. Despite his recent training, Jamieson made a fatal mistake; he did not rehearse his policy speech at the venue. When he stood up to speak, he found that the lighting was too dim for him to read his notes and he had to rely upon his memory. To members who believed the Party should adopt a more polished and sophisticated style, Jamieson was an embarrassment.56 The member for Victoria Park, Ron Davies, a former WAASRE member, agreed to challenge Jamieson for the Leadership early in 1978. Jeff Carr was instrumental in getting the numbers. A special meeting of the SPLP on 21 February declared the Leadership vacant, and elected Davies in the ensuing ballot. It was an historic moment. Although past leaders had been persuaded to resign, none had ever been unseated by a spill in Caucus. Jamieson challenged the proceedings, claiming that they contravened Branch Rules, especially Rule 18, which stated that an officer shall be properly charged and provided with all facilities for defence before action is taken to declare his or her position vacant. Jamiesons appeal was discussed at an Administrative Committee meeting on 24 April. The Administrative Committee decided that Caucus had a special identity created under Rule 24 and could not be regarded as a Branch. Furthermore, Rule 18 related to branch officers, not Parliamentary officers or Members of the Shadow Ministry. Jamieson protested unsuccessfully against this interpretation.57 Bryce, who had been elected State ALP President and Deputy Leader of the SPLP in 1977, was a major player in the Leadership

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change. In a significant shift away from the politics of the Chamberlain era, a group of young politicians Bryce, the Burkes, Carr and Arthur Tonkin was gaining power in Caucus. When Davies became State ALP Leader, Bryce retained the Deputy Leadership.58 In 1981, Bob McMullan was appointed ALP National Secretary. The position had been full-time ever since the Secretariat had been established in Canberra in 1963, so it was inevitable that McMullan would leave Western Australia once he was appointed. Besides, he had been State Secretary for six years and he felt that it was time to move on. There were family reasons, too. Having recently become a father, he did not relish the jet setting life of a Western Australian Federal politician. When McMullan later entered Federal politics, firstly as a Senator for the ACT and then as MHR for Fraser one of the two Federal seats in Canberra he was in the enviable position of having Parliament House on his doorstep, not at the other side of country from his constituency. McMullans successor as State Secretary was Michael Beahan, who took office in May 1981. Beahan had begun his working life as an electrician, but after a serious car accident had enrolled in an Arts degree at the University of Western Australia, where he joined the University Branch of the ALP and became friends with McMullan. After a period as an economics lecturer at the Bunbury Technical College, Beahan returned to Perth in 1972 to work for the TLC. He assisted in setting up the Australian Trade Union Training Authority (TUTA) and then became WA Director.59 Initially, Beahan supported Davies as Party Leader. But after he became State Secretary, he concluded that that there were better leadership alternatives. The Caucus had been split for some time into three factions led by Bryce, Burke and Davies. Despite losing the 1980 State election, the SPLP re-elected Davies as Leader, but Bryce lost the ballot for the Deputys position to Dave Evans by one vote. Over the next 18 months, Bryce considered his parliamentary future while the media speculated on whether he or Burke would be the next ALP State Leader. Davies, meanwhile, had failed to inspire his parliamentary colleagues. In September 1981, Bryce came to the conclusion that the Party was going nowhere under the existing leadership. After consulting Beahan and parliamentary colleagues Pearce and Tonkin, he agreed to run as Deputy to Burke. Among the unions, Burke had the support of the 21,000-member FMWU and their Secretary, Jim McGinty, but other unionists, including past TLC President Bill Latter and ALP President Tom Butler, strongly supported Davies and were critical of the leadership challenge. Beahan, McGinty and AWU State Secretary Gil Barr approached Davies and advised him to stand down, but he refused to do so. The leadership battle was

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fought in a long, bitter Caucus meeting on 18 September. After Tonkin had moved the spill motion declaring all positions vacant, Burke defeated Davies by 20 votes to 11, whilst Bryce defeated Evans for the Deputys position.60 Several Caucus members representing blue collar Labor Jamieson, Tom Jones (Collie), John Harman (Maylands) and Jack Skidmore (Swan) were dropped from the Shadow Cabinet. Skidmore resigned from the Party, accusing Burke and Bryce of disloyalty to the elected SPLP Leader.61 In 1983, the new leadership would return the ALP to government for the next decade, but the electoral success came with a heavy price for the Party.

Chapter Fourteen

The best new Leader in Australia Brian Burke and his Successors 19831993
In February 1983, the ALP returned to government in Western Australia after almost a decade in Opposition, and the following month, Bob Hawke (a Western Australian by adoption) led Labor to power in Canberra. Just over seven years separated the traumatic events surrounding the dismissal of Whitlams Federal Government on 11 November 1975 and the victory of the Hawke-led ALP in March 1983. Although Labor governments were at last returning to power all over Australia, they were markedly different from their predecessors. These differences included emphases on entrepreneurial activity, leaner, more efficient government bodies, and harmonious relations between employer and worker. The Labor slogan for the 1983 State campaign Brian Burke, the best new Leader in Australia in many senses encapsulated the era.1 Burke was the undisputed Leader of a State Party that had experienced years of discord over the leadership issue. The achievements of his administration were impressive; the mistakes were devastating for the Party and for Burkes successors as Premier. Both positively and negatively, therefore, Brian Burke dominated State politics throughout the 1980s and well into the 90s. Factors influencing Labors return to government A number of factors influenced the electoral swing to the ALP in 1983. Firstly, the organisational and structural changes that had begun with Bob McMullans appointment as State Secretary resulted in a much more efficient Party machine. For three or four years prior to his departure for Canberra in 1981, McMullan had concentrated on reversing the disastrous pendulum swing away from the ALP in the Federal and State elections of 1977. This was done by pro-active campaigning to increase Party membership, building up an organisational base and modernising policies. McMullans successor, Michael Beahan, built upon

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these strategies.2 One outcome was a much more professional approach to campaigning in the electorate. An example was the Nedlands by-election following Sir Charles Courts retirement from politics. A strong campaign and the right choice of candidate resulted in a swing of 11 per cent to the Party. Barrister Ian Temby gained over a third of the vote, compared with 49 per cent for the Liberal candidate, Richard Court.3 Labors very professionally run campaign, modelled on the 1972 Whitlam campaign, was another significant factor in the victory. The election slogan, Brian Burke, the best new leader in Australia symbolised Burkes importance in a campaign focused upon his leadership capabilities and popularity. The new Party leadership was undoubtedly a major element in Labors success. Burke was popular in his electorate, where he had worked hard for his constituents. Throughout 1982, in preparation for the coming election, he improved his public image by losing weight and giving up alcohol, as well as putting in long hours at his office. His confidence in handling the media marked him as a leader capable of presenting the modern, professional image that was essential to Labors return to government. Attaining the leadership in 1981 had already proven his success in coalition-building and his ability to draw disparate factions together. Burke was attracted to entrepreneurial philosophy, which he believed could be used to create wealth in the State, and which resulted in a government unlike any previous administration, either Labor or Liberal, in Western Australia. Conversely, on the other side of the House, Party leadership was problematic. Sir Charles Courts retirement from politics in 1982 contributed to Labors electoral success.4 The new Liberal Leader, Ray (Rocky) OConnor, who succeeded Court at the end of January 1982, was a less capable leader. He lacked the forceful personality and skill as a speaker and debater that had enabled Court to dominate his party and the chamber.5 Another factor in Labors success was policy overhaul. A policy committee consisting of Bryce, Tonkin and Berinson produced policies that were attractive to the public. Much of the CourtOConnor era had been marked by industrial disputes. Labors confidence in promising more harmonious industrial relations, therefore, was a significant factor in the 1983 State election campaign. The 1981 ALP National Conference had issued a joint statement with the ACTU, committing trade unions to a policy of wage restraint and industrial harmony that would become the Accord implemented by the Hawke Government. This factor was a powerful element in the almost parallel Federal campaign that brought Labor to power in Canberra two weeks after the Western Australian victory. Hawke promised that the wage freeze of the Fraser administration would be replaced with a form of wage indexation in which

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unions were expected to moderate their wage demands so that they did not exceed rises in the cost of living. Although many unions (especially those of lower paid workers) did not support the Accord, the ALP was able to use the image of harmony and industrial peace that it promised to woo voters in the 1983 Federal and WA elections. The State Labor election pitch centred on the Coalition governments divisive industrial relations policies. Burkes electoral policy speech reflected Hawkes collectivist approach of reconciliation and consensus: emphasis on economic growth as the best means of protecting jobs, reducing unemployment, and preserving and enhancing family living standards. TLC support for Burkes cooperative and consensual approach, together with the Liberal Governments growing unpopularity, were sufficient to gain a Labor victory.6 The Party produced a series of detailed policy statements, promoted by an expensive, slick advertising campaign. A major policy initiative, the Bunbury 2000 Development Strategy, promised resources for the Bunbury region, including improved transport and education. Out of 32 Lower House seats secured by Labor, 8 were non-metropolitan, including the 2 Bunbury seats.7 A key aspect of the victory was that six women won seats, mostly captured from marginal Liberals. Yvonne Henderson gained 61 per cent of the primary vote in Thornlie in a three-candidate contest, winning with a majority of well over 3,000 votes. Jackie Watkins in Joondalup, Pam Beggs in Whitford and Pam Buchanan in the Pilbara each obtained between 57 and 59 per cent of the vote. Kay Hallahan entered the Upper House as Member for South-East Metropolitan Province.8 In her first speech in Parliament, Watkins drew attention to these results as evidence that women could win marginals.9 After the euphoria of victory, the Ministry soon faced the reality of the States economic situation. The Burke administration came to government at a time when Commonwealth grants to states were declining, and reduced minerals royalties reflected the downturn in the mining industry. Two decades of conservative governments during the Brand/Court/OConnor era of big development had resulted in an excessive reliance on the States agricultural and mineral products at a time of increasing competition in the world economy.10 The States deteriorating economy was reflected in slumps in the building and construction industries, and in retail trade. The bureaucracy needed reforming to deliver the more efficient and effective services envisaged by the incoming government. Burkes strategy was three-fold, and consisted of creating greater powers for the Executive Branch of Government; seeking the cooperation of labour and industry, and establishing an active role for the State in economic planning, which involved the acceptance of a bipartisan ideology

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of development. Some of these initiatives were inspired by the policies of the Dunstan Government in South Australia, and may have been introduced a decade earlier if the ALP had won the 1974 election.11 Creating greater powers for the Executive Branch of Government The new government reviewed the functions of the Premiers Department and identified several deficiencies, including inadequate forward planning and coordination in preparing a legislative program, and no formal mechanisms for consultation in the decision-making process. Cabinet approved the restructuring of the existing Department into a new Department of Premier and Cabinet. This involved creating a new branch of the Cabinet office. The new system aimed to ensure that all submissions to Cabinet had been well prepared and all the implications properly canvassed, and it gave the Premier greater control over proceedings. The revamped Department also coordinated, monitored and reported on the implementation and review of Government policy, and researched special projects when required. The administration saw the restructuring of the existing Premiers Department into the new Department of Premier and Cabinet as the first step in our program to improve the quality of government in Western Australia. The Department relocated to new offices at 197 St Georges Terrace in 1985. Appointing Ministerial Advisers from outside the public service was another innovation. This would become one of the most controversial aspects of the Burke administration, for it created a public perception that promotion in the public service depended upon ones politics rather than merit or seniority. Furthermore, the government promoted a public service culture where looking after your mates at public expense had become acceptable behaviour. Advisers and public servants alike, therefore, were often regarded as being political appointees.12 This became a matter of concern to the Party in the run-up to the 1986 State election. Soon after becoming Premier, Burke introduced more structured Cabinet meetings, each with a clear agenda. Communication channels were simplified and made more efficient, and power concentrated within specific bodies. Many of the reforms to the Executive effectively moved power away from the Treasury. Although with Burke serving as both Premier and Treasurer this was less noticeable in Cabinet, the Treasury was well aware of the changes. The Policy Secretariat within the Department of Premier and Cabinet effectively became the most powerful decision-making body in Western Australia. The Secretariats head, Tony Lloyd, initiated the creation of the Functional Review

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Committee and developed a system of networking links between private and public sectors. Bodies such as the Western Australian Development Corporation would deal directly with the Policy Secretariat and the Premier.13 In 1985, the Cabinet approved a de-regulation program to reduce red tape. Burke outlined the steps he had taken to date and sought Cabinet support for a proposal aimed at deregulating statutory agencies and providing a check on their growth. These included establishing an Office of Regulatory Review within the Department of Premier and Cabinet; investigating and repealing all redundant Acts and Regulations on the statute books, and introducing legislation annually to abolish Agencies, along the same lines as the Acts Amendment and Repeal (Statutory Bodies) Act 1985.14 Establishing an active role for the State in economic planning It was not only in the area of Executive powers that the Burke administration made extensive changes. The policy for which the Labor Government would become best known and most misunderstood was the promotion of economic development, in particular the finance, tourism and technology industries, which the media entitled WA Inc. In the period of economic growth under conservative government, much of the States wealth had gone to eastern states or overseas-owned companies, in a reversion to an historical pattern. Burkes Government faced the challenge of keeping more wealth within the State and increas[ing] the role and importance of local capital in the process.15 Burke wanted to establish the WA Government as the power house of the nation. Originally, he had regarded State Governments as being ineffective, and had supported Whitlams idea that they should be abolished in favour of provincial governments. But later he adopted a position that, if State Governments were to exist, they should become more powerful and not be at the mercy of the private sector.16 Burke believed that if the government could manage its assets more effectively, it would create and redistribute wealth, from which all Western Australians could benefit. Conservative critics, however, were particularly sceptical, and suggested that the Government both interfered with free market forces and operated in an atmosphere of secrecy.17 To implement its policy of generating wealth within the public sector, the government created a number of corporations. The Western Australian Development Corporation (WADC) Act, 1983, established a statutory corporation to promote the development of economic activity in Western Australia as a commercial business undertaking and to generate profits (and dividends) for the benefit of shareholders of the Corporation. In 1984, the WADC made its

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first major purchase, the Argyle Diamond Mine, from Bond Corporation. The government also established WA Government Holdings (WAGH) with the Export-Import (Exim) Corporation as a wholly owned subsidiary. As Treasurer, Burke was a majority shareholder in each of WADC, Exim and WAGH. Businessman John Horgan chaired the WADC and Exim Boards, as well as the John Curtin Foundation (established in 1984). The Governments appointment of entrepreneurs from the private sector to manage its assets created a hitherto unknown business relationship between a Labor government and some big business. Although the Curtin Foundations patrons were the three living former Labor Premiers, Frank Wise, Bert Hawke and John Tonkin, most of the members were wealthy entrepreneurs, more generally associated with the other side of politics. Among the vice-patrons were entrepreneur Alan Bond, banker Laurie Connell, John Roberts of Multiplex, Perths Lord Mayor, Mick Michael, and Sir Ernest Lee Steere, a previous Lord Mayor of Perth and a member of an old, conservative pastoral family.18 Burke formed the Curtin Foundation to gather the best brains to work with the government, rather than against it. In an attempt to make the ALP a viable alternative party for business people, he aimed to attract professionals who might normally support the Liberal Party both financially and at the polls.19 Burke also made use of a secret Leaders Fund as a repository for donors from the business community who wanted to support his initiatives but did not want to give money to the ALP. Some businesses, however, donated to the Leaders Fund in exchange for access to government contracts and commercial opportunities. Bond and Connell, in particular, arranged many of the WADCs biggest deals, which attracted considerable international investment in the State. In addition to this strategy, the Burke Government began to move in the direction of smaller and more efficient government, which included rationalising government agencies and disposing of assets, as well as advocating privatisation. Burke had enunciated this policy clearly in the 1983 election campaign. Commentators such as Caroline Simmonds in the Sunday Independent had remarked on his conservative policy which included selling 20 per cent of the State Housing Commissions metropolitan land holdings to raise funds for the construction of 5,000 housing units, and establishing a private sectorbased WA Development Bank.20 Privatisation was a controversial issue for the labour movement. The TLC led an extensive anti-privatisation campaign prior to the 1986 state election (see Chapter Fifteen). At an August 1987 meeting, the State Executive considered a resolution from the Pilbara Electorate Council opposing any move by State or Federal Governments to sell off any public utilities, particularly profitable ones

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that should be preserved for future generations. The Executive resolved to note the concern of the Pilbara Electorate Council and re-affirm its commitment to the Party platform on privatisation. The state and national platforms were then spelled out:
A Labor Government will: support public sector involvement in economic activity where this is necessary to achieve Labors objective; reject the disposal of public assets and functions where there is no advantage other than short-term financial gain, and where such a sale might have a detrimental effect on employment and service delivery; dispose of Government assets and functions, where Labors objectives could be achieved more effectively by doing so. The national platform states: Labor rejects the concept of privatisation and will preserve and develop public enterprise and public investment so as to integrate the policies of public enterprises with broad social and economic objectives.21

During September and October 1987, the State Executive received further resolutions from unions and branches objecting to moves by both the State and Federal Labor governments to dispose of public assets. The FMWU totally condemned any privatisation, selling or other disposal of Federal Government enterprises such as the Commonwealth Bank, Australian Airlines, Qantas, Telecom, and the Overseas Telecommunications Commission ALP branches from as far apart as Marble Bar, Cockburn and Maylands sent resolutions through their electorate councils condemning privatisation; endorsing national and state platforms on privatisation; objecting to the sale of public assets; and recommending alternatives such as raising public subscriptions in order to finance the governments program.22 The debate continued in the following year, with further ALP branch resolutions opposing any moves to privatise large public assets such as the airlines. ALP State Secretary Stephen Smith wrote to Bob Hawke to seek clarification of the Federal Government position. Hawke replied that that he was committed to a strong, dynamic public sector which discharges effectively the social obligations the Party places on it. The Government, however, had to meet its commitments to social justice issues. Three public enterprises in dispute Qantas, Australian Airlines and the Commonwealth Bank required huge injections of Government capital totalling $2.5 billion in the next two or three years. If the Government met these requirements

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from the public purse, it would not be able to fully meet its responsibilities in the areas of health, education, the young, the aged and the poor. 23 The new State Premier, Peter Dowding, wrote to Smith:
Much of the debate on public enterprise seems to be centred on the ownership question, whereas it should be focused on the performance and efficiency of their operations. The Government takes pride in its performance in these two critical areas a performance which has increased the security, and enhanced the quality of employment in the public sector. Hence, whilst we will be continuing efforts to improve efficiency, there are no current plans to pursue the issue of privatisation.24

But the debate continued, with Mount Hawthorn ALP Branch, urging:
That [Curtin] Electorate Council: 1. condemns the concept and practice of privatisation; 2. expresses its concern at the divisive debate currently taking place within the Party 3. expresses its concern at the amount of time, effort and money being spent by unions fighting the Government on this issue, rather than supporting it on more appropriate initiatives; 4. calls on the Prime Minister to remove privatisation from the agenda of the forthcoming National Conference; 5. calls on both the State and Federal PLPs to support a strong efficient and responsive public sector.

The State Executive resolved merely to send the Curtin Electorate Council a copy of the relevant Platform items and the resolution on public enterprises adopted by the 1987 National Conference.25 The debate outlasted the Premierships of both Burke and Dowding. Opponents of privatisation included many unions and the TLC, as well as former Members of Parliament such as Lyla Elliott who protested strongly against the impending sale of the Commonwealth Bank.26 Electoral Reform While many of these achievements were certainly innovative for a Labor government, the Burke administration made one particularly significant contribution to Labor and electoral history by reforming the Upper House and the States electoral laws. Arthur Tonkin, who with Mal Bryce had headed the campaign against malapportionment during the 1970s, held the portfolio of Electoral Reform from 1983 until 1986. In 1983, the plank advocating abolition of the Upper House was replaced in the State Labor Platform by a pledge to reduce Legislative Council powers. Prior to its reform, the Legislative Council

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consisted of 6 Metropolitan Provinces with 12 Councillors, 8 agricultural and mining provinces with 16 Councillors, and 2 North Western/Murchison provinces with 4 Councillors. The Acts Amendment (Constitutional and Electoral) Bill (1983) proposed a single state-wide electorate from which all Councillors would be elected, thus removing the weighting that favoured non-Metropolitan voters. The Bill also proposed to reduce the number of Legislative Councillors from 34 to 22 and to introduce proportional representation. After the Bill failed to pass the Upper House, the Government presented it again in 1984. This time it contained some structural rural weighting in order to gain the support of the National Party, but still failed to pass the Upper House. The Government set up a royal commission into Parliamentary deadlocks, to which the SPLP and the State Executive sent a Joint Submission, detailing the Upper Houses history of anti-Labor bias. In the past 30 years, the Legislative Council had rejected 41 Labor bills during 9 years of ALP administration and only 1 Bill during 21 years of Coalition administration. In 20 months of the Burke administration, 5 Bills had been rejected. The submission pointed out that Western Australia (like Tasmania, but unlike the other States) had no provision in the Constitution for resolving Parliamentary deadlocks.27 The Government scored one victory for Labors principle of one vote one value in 1984 in achieving full adult franchise for all local government elections.28 The Burke Government went into the 1986 State election promising fair representation for both Houses of Parliament. The Australian Democrats supported them in this endeavour. After the election, Burke gave the portfolio of Electoral Reform (previously held by Tonkin) to Bryce. In April 1986, Cabinet met in Geraldton to discuss a revamped Electoral Reform Acts Amendment Bill, but the reform had always been resisted by some of the more conservative Labor Members, especially those who feared that they would lose their seats in any resulting redistribution. About five Labor members seats could be placed in jeopardy if the reform succeeded. Burke said that he thought it was nonsense to try to enact the pre-election promise of fair representation. Both Beahan (who was present as a visitor) and Tonkin objected strongly. Tonkin resigned from the Cabinet after Burke promised that he would ensure the Bills defeat in the Upper House. In a statement to the media, Tonkin said only that he had serious policy differences with the Government and that these were unrelated to his present portfolio of Police and Emergency Services. In actuality, Bryce persevered with the legislation despite lack of support from Caucus colleagues. The Electoral Bill incorporated the commitments that the Government had made at the 1986 State election, such as changes to the Legislative Assembly in order to remove the rural weighting. It provided for all boundaries to be drawn

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by the Electoral Commissioners, and for a re-distribution to occur automatically when the enrolments in eight or more districts exceed the permitted 10 per cent deviation from the average enrolment.29 The Legislative Council section of the Bill proposed that Councillors would be elected from six regions made up of three country and three city regions. The Bill also attempted to institute the same terms for MLCs as for MLAs, and indicated that the 1989 election and every subsequent general election will be for every seat in the parliament. Cabinet approved the Bill, subject to an alteration to Recommendation 1 that read:
The Constitution to contain the principle that a redistribution of the enrolment in each of the 57 Assembly districts shall be set within a range of 15% either side of the average district enrolment and that each district shall be represented by one Member. No referendum is to be required.30

Although the Bill lost many of its equalising aspects, including one vote, one value in the Legislative Assembly, it was finally passed in both Houses in 1987 after Labor made a deal with the National Party, agreeing to a 17 metropolitan/17 country split of seats in the Legislative Council. The deal had been hammered out at a series of secret meetings between National Party representatives and ALP officials.31 So, although Bryce, the Bills architect, was forced to compromise in order to get the Bill passed in the Legislative Council, the Burke Government could still take the credit for a major electoral reform. Other policies In 1984, the Burke Government passed the Equal Opportunity Bill to prevent discrimination on the grounds of gender, marital status, pregnancy, race, or political conviction, and laid the basis for Workplace Harassment legislation. The Bill was passed with only minor amendments, the Opposition supporting the establishment of an Equal Opportunity Commission. As Minister for Water Resources, Arthur Tonkin created a state-wide Water Corporation, and appointed three women to the six-member Board: Dr Carmen Lawrence, Justice Toni Kennedy and June Hodgson, the Mayor of Albany. The Government also obtained the support of several non-Labor members to pass legislation abolishing capital punishment in the State. Although the last execution had been in 1963, and opinion polls indicated that a majority wished it retained, Burke was determined to get rid of this barbaric measure, and he

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succeeded.32 Another significant step was made in 1985, when the Government passed legislation requiring Members of Parliament to disclose their financial interests. During this period, the Party made substantial progress towards achieving equality of opportunity. Affirmative Action figures in WA revealed that in 1983, women who represented about 38 per cent of the Partys membership held 24.5 per cent of the offices in local ALP branches. This figure rose to 28 per cent in 1984. One-third of the Administrative Committees members and 22 per cent of Policy Committee members were female.33 By 1984, the proportion of women members in the ALP (WA Branch) had risen to over 39 per cent. Women had always formed a greater proportion of the membership of ALP branches than of unions; in 1984, 29 per cent of local branch delegates to State Conference were female, compared with approximately 19 per cent of union delegates.34 The Government was less successful in the area of Indigenous Land Rights, which became a divisive issue by the 1986 State election. In 1983, they had commissioned the Seaman Aboriginal Land Inquiry to consider the most appropriate form of title over land reserved for the use and benefit of Aborigines or leased for Aboriginal Communities.35 According to Burke, the Government attempted to make available for claim all current reserves, vacant crown land, some mission land and residential sites on pastoral leases. The Governments policy was that the minerals in the ground belonged to all Australians and not to any particular group, whether an Indigenous community, mining company or land owner. But the Aboriginal Land Bill did not pass the Legislative Council.36 In reality, however, the situation was much more complex. As Campaign Manager, Michael Beahan saw Land Rights as being a major negative for the Government in the 1986 State election. The evidence available from opinion polls indicated that most Western Australians opposed Land Rights and supported the Liberal Party position. The ALP took the unprecedented step of running television advertisements pledging that Land Rights would not be introduced in the life of the coming Parliament. Just four days after the State election, Burke threatened to go as far as the High Court if necessary to block Commonwealth interference with state sovereignty. Shortly afterward, the Hawke Government announced that it had abandoned plans for uniform land rights, and offered Western Australia a compromise package. In return for allowing mining exploration companies entry permits to Aboriginal reserves, the Federal and State Governments would fund a $100 million package over five years, half of which would be spent in acquiring land for WA Aboriginal communities and the remainder on services and facilities.37

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The Burke Government was determined to bring about substantial educational reforms. Kim Beazley Senior was appointed to examine the educational needs of modern society; his resulting recommendations led to the setting up of a Secondary Education Authority to assume responsibility for syllabus development and the assessment of secondary school performance. Bob Hetherington MLC led an inquiry into the public accountability of University Senates and the Councils of other tertiary institutions although nothing eventuated from this report. Higher education was made more accessible to country populations after the Government founded the Bunbury College of Advanced Education and established regional TAFE colleges at Albany, Geraldton and Bunbury. The Government replaced the Education Department with an Education Ministry, coordinating policy development, education services and funding arrangements, and including responsibilities for the private, public and tertiary education sectors. These changes proved stressful for many in the education industry and a number of senior personnel quit the service. The Government also introduced the legislation that changed the status of the WA Institute of Technology to Curtin University of Technology in 1987.38 Bunbury 2000 was another major Government initiative for regional development in the South West of the State over the next two decades. The plan, involving a private and public investment totalling $2,500 million, included electrifying the rail link between Kwinana and Bunbury, a rapid transit rail service between Perth and Bunbury, and establishing the Bunbury CAE, which later became a campus of Edith Cowan University. Mandurah was included in the scheme as the Gateway to Bunbury. Julian Grill held the portfolio of Minister with Special Responsibility for Bunbury 2000. In 1983, former Bunbury Mayor Dr Ernie Manea was appointed head of the South West Development Authority, which cooperated with the government to undertake further development in the region. Between 1989 and 1993, the model for the South West Development Authority was successfully replicated in Albany and Geraldton. After the Coalition returned to government in 1993, National Party Leader Hendy Cowan used the model to develop a further six regional authorities.39 Other policy outcomes included the development of a Technology Park in Bentley, financial support for a number of sports, and large-scale civic beautification projects. The Government injected money into the ailing WA Football League; provided funds for the upgrading of several sports centres including a $9 million refurbishment of the WACA ground, and established the Institute of Sport, which funded the development of baseball, basketball,

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hockey and gymnastics, and the State Indoor Sports Centre (known as the Superdome), built at a cost of $25 million. Much of this activity was in preparation for the hosting of the Americas Cup in 1987. Burke was particularly proud of the governments funding to upgrade the Perth Zoo, where the animals had been kept in primitive conditions. Government support for the building of the Casino was less widely welcomed and proved to be a divisive policy, opposed by many in the community. At the same time as it made large grants to sporting bodies, the Government was narrowly defeated in the Legislative Council over attempts to ban tobacco advertising the tobacco companies being the largest sponsors of sport.40 The 1986 State election The Labor victory on 8 February 1986 was the result of lengthy, sophisticated, expensive campaign of which planning began a year earlier. It revealed the extent of changes in the Party machine in the past decade. Under Beahans leadership, the Campaign Committee took very seriously a mid-1985 poll that indicated a 4 per cent swing against Labor, based mainly on Federal issues such as taxation and perceived internal divisions. Part of the strategy was an in-depth analysis of the recent Federal and Victorian elections in which Labor sustained unexpected losses while clinging to power. The campaign was characterised by new techniques such as conducting consistent qualitative polling throughout, central coordination of policy formulation, strategy, media comment and presentation, regular planned policy launches at intervals, and the use of common advertising themes. The Party also employed a prominent US campaign consultant, Bob Squier, as an adviser. Burke was still seen as being a major asset. He remained a popular Leader who enjoyed a much higher approval rating than Liberal Leader Bill Hassell. The Governments record was good, having stimulated the WA economy, generated employment and created jobs. Leadership and stability were listed as positives, while the negatives were land rights, perceived increases in government charges and petrol prices, jobs for the boys and cronyism particularly in regard to the employment of advisers and concerns about inadequate policing. The Campaign Committee identified target groups such as young families and battlers (people on an income of less than $15,000 per annum), as well as women in general and public servants disenchanted over the savage job cuts in the first Burke administration. The Party developed policies to create more jobs, especially for

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the young unemployed, and to demonstrate that the Government had a coherent plan to deal with lawlessness. This strategy proved successful with ALP members being returned in 33 Lower House seats.41 The Parliamentary careers of Ken McIver and Colin Jamieson ended at the 1986 election. McIver was defeated in Avon, and Jamieson retired.42 Shortly after the election, Ron Davies resigned to become Agent General in London. New faces in the 1986 Parliament were Geoff Gallop, the new Member for Victoria Park; William (Bill) Thomas, representing Welshpool; Dr Judyth Watson, who succeeded long-time Labor Member Tom Bateman in Canning; and Dr Carmen Lawrence, who won the seat of Subiaco from the Liberals. The trend of university-educated Labor Members of Parliament continued, Lawrence, Watson and Gallop being the first Members of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly to hold Doctor of Philosophy degrees. After the 1986 election, Burke expanded the Cabinet to 17 members and appointed WA Labors first female Ministers. Kay Hallahan and Pam Beggs received the respective portfolios of Community Services and Racing and Gaming. In February 1987, the Government announced that Des Dans would retire as Minister for Works and Services and Government Leader in the Legislative Council, and Terry Burke would step down as Cabinet Secretary. Aged 62, Dans was close to retirement age, but Burke was a mere 45. Attorney General Joe Berinson was promoted to Leader in the Legislative Council with Kay Hallahan as Deputy. Graham Edwards entered the Cabinet as Minister for Sport and Recreation. More significant for the Partys immediate future were the promotions to more senior portfolios of Dowding and Kalgoorlie MLA, Ian Taylor, who at 37 became the second youngest member of the Ministry after Parker.43 In December 1987, true to his earlier promise, Burke announced that he and Bryce would both resign on 25 February 1988 the fifth anniversary of Labors return to power. In his farewell speech in Parliament, Bryce stated that his reasons for retiring were mainly family and personal combined with a belief that the time was appropriate for a new generation of members to assume responsibility. He had been heavily involved in Western Australian politics for 25 years, of which the past 17 had been as a Member of Parliament, and he had served as a front bencher for 15 years. Burke said that he and his wife had decided soon after he was elected Premier that five years was the maximum that he would spend in the office. That period would be as long as we felt able to deliver the concentration and commitment required, and they feared the effect of his 17-hour working days on a young family of 6 children. Burke stated that he was conscious of his own shortcomings and of the ability

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of others around him in government. Others, however, have seen Burkes retirement as the next step in his goal of winning his fathers old Federal seat of Perth.44 The Dowding Ministry, 19881990 Burkes successor was Peter Dowding, the son of Reverend Keith Dowding. After graduating from UWA Law School in 1966, Peter Dowding gained a reputation as a radical, combining the defence of conscientious objectors to military service in Vietnam with a lucrative career as Perths foremost divorce lawyer. In the mid 1970s Dowding went to work for the Aboriginal Legal Service in the Pilbara. In 1980, when he entered the Upper House representing North Province for the ALP, he shocked many Legislative Councillors with his aggressive manner and his rough vocabulary. Dowding quickly developed a reputation for being tough and uncompromising with unionists (as shown in Chapter Fifteen) and his parliamentary colleagues. He argued with Bryce over control of the Argyle Diamond Mine project. Upon the retirement of sitting ALP member John Harman, Dowding moved into the safe Lower House seat of Maylands in 1986. Burke, Bryce and Beahan believed Dowding was the best person for the [Premiers] job and persuaded the other leadership contenders, Grill, Parker and Pearce, not to stand against him.45 Parker was elected Deputy Leader. A past UWA Guild President and law graduate, Parker entered politics in 1980 at the age of 26, when he was elected to the State seat of Fremantle. In 1983, he became the youngest cabinet minister in the States history, and he was appointed Deputy Leader at the age of 34. He had served briefly as a clerk in Dowdings law firm and the two had become friends. Both had strong social consciences and were opposed to Australias involvement in the Vietnam War, and Parker had been involved in the moratorium movement.46 The Cabinet vacancies created by the departure of Bryce and Burke were filled by Lawrence and Henderson, raising the number of women in the first Dowding Cabinet to four the highest in Australia.47 By the time Dowding took office, a series of unforeseen events had begun to impact disastrously upon the Governments economic policies. During its second term, the Burke administration had become too closely identified with certain business interests. The 1987 Black Tuesday stock market crash had severely hit Bond Corporation, Holmes Courts Bell Group and the Rothwells Bank. The government became implicated in investment difficulties experienced by the State Government Insurance Commission. In response to

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public demands that Ministers become more accountable to Parliament for the handling of public monies, Dowding appointed a Commission on Accountability, headed by former Chief Justice Sir Francis Burt, to commence an investigation into the key government agencies set up by the Burke administration. In its January 1989 Report, the Commission on Accountability recommended that the agreement between the WADC and the Treasurer be rescinded, with the investment of Treasury funds reverting to the Treasury Department. The Report acknowledged the professional approach of the WADC board, and considered, given the philosophy of the existing Act, that the WADCs investments were appropriate. But the Corporation risked incurring significant unforeseeable liabilities by participating in an unincorporated investment vehicle, or providing a non-specific financial guarantee. In participating as a significant shareholder in a limited liability company, the WADC or the Government could morally commit themselves to assist in meeting liabilities.48 The Report was more severe in its judgment of Exim, and of WAGH, which, it claimed, failed to satisfy any of the accountability criteria. The Report recommended that WADC, Exim, Gold Bank and WAGH be brought under ministerial control and subject to the Financial Administration and Audit Act.49 Despite the Burt Commissions findings, which suggested some mismanagement, the Dowding Government was re-elected on 4 February 1989, miraculously retaining 31 seats in the Legislative Assembly and 16 Upper House seats, while receiving only 47.5 per cent of the two party preferred vote. A significant minority of voters showed their disillusionment with the government by giving first preference to minor parties such as the WA Greens and the Greypower group, but the second preferences of these voters did not generally favour the Coalition. A swing away from Labor of about 10 per cent had been sustained mostly in safe seats, and, although the Party lost Collie, Melville and Warren, it gained the new seats of Kenwick, Swan Hills and Thornlie, and the previously-Liberal seat of Northern Rivers. The changes to the rural weighting in Legislative Council seats also favoured the ALP.50 ALP Secretary Stephen Smith ran a very professional campaign and Dowding performed well on television, particularly in a series of strategically-aimed advertisements with an emphasis on families.51 Soon after the election, the Petrochemical Industries Project at Kwinana, inherited from the Burke administration, became a major embarrassment for Dowding. The controversial project consisted of three integrated plants that would manufacture chlorine and caustic soda; ethylene and ethylene dichloride; and vinyl chloride monomer respectively. Dowding predicted that the plants

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would provide almost half the States alumina industry requirements for caustic soda, representing an annual savings on imports of $50 million, and would become one of Western Australias largest users of energy. According to estimates, revenue to the SEC would amount to $1 billion over 15 years. The project would employ a construction workforce of up to 1,700, and offer over 400 permanent jobs in the production phase. Ongoing operational costs would inject more than $340 million into the State every year, and the plant was expected to increase the States exports by more than $200 million annually.52 Some sections of the community expressed fears that the petrochemical plant would present a serious health hazard. The Conservation Council wrote to Geoff Gallop requesting his support for a Public Inquiry into the design, production and safety arrangements for the proposed petrochemical plant. The Conservation Council believed that severe environmental and public health issues would result, as the plant would produce 200,000 to 300,000 tonnes each of highly toxic chlorine and vinyl chloride every year.53 Parker rejected Professor Martyn Webbs claims that the project posed a risk to Perth residents as dishonest scaremonging for political purposes.54 It was, in fact, a financial rather than environmental issue that destroyed the project. Following the October 1987 economic crash, the Burke Government had provided a rescue package for Rothwells Bank by purchasing accepted commercial bills with funds from the State Government Insurance Corporation (SGIC) and the Government Employees Superannuation Board. The WADC already held $14 million worth of Rothwells accepted commercial bills. After the crash, Rothwells required a commercial bill endorsement of $150 million that the National Australia Bank would not give without WA Government endorsement, but Attorney-General Joe Berinson was reluctant to do so. On 22 October, Rothwells Director Laurie Connell sold one of his assets, Midtown Property Trust, to the SGIC for $30 million. The Government continued to purchase accepted commercial bills until October 1988. When Provisional Liquidators of Rothwells were appointed on 3 November, they found that the Bank owed the Government $135 million. This sum included funds owing from the petrochemical plant that had been on-lent to Rothwells. The debt increased to $144 million on 14 November when CIBC Australia Ltd presented $9 million worth of Rothwells drawn and accepted commercial bills to the Bank for payment, and these were dishonoured. They were subsequently presented to the SGIC, as endorser of the bills, and so the SGIC paid out CIBC.55 These dealings were revealed in the October 1989 Report of an investigation into Rothwells by M.J. McCusker, QC. McCusker stated

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categorically that this was not an investigation into WA Inc despite media insistence to the contrary.56 McCusker attributed the true cause of Rothwells failure to its debtors. The Banks reputation as a last resort lender was compounded by the massive debt of L.R. Connell and Partners and Oakhill. Meanwhile the Banks assets were stripped and replaced by fake assets debts for millions of dollars owing by companies with $2 paid up capital, where recourse against the directors was prohibited by the terms of the loan. According to McCusker, the WA Government and other rescuers had no idea of true position of Rothwells.57 These revelations late in 1989 contributed directly to the end of Dowdings Premiership. Further stress was generated in Caucus by increasing friction between the one-time friends Dowding and Parker, whilst others, too, were offended by the Premiers abrasiveness. Ultimately, Dowdings persistent refusal to consult Labor colleagues, in particular State ALP Secretary Stephen Smith, caused his downfall.58 When Caucus held its last meeting for 1989, Dowding berated his colleagues for their lack of loyalty. He was obviously feeling the pressure, for he said that the stress on a Leader just goes on and on. He could cope with it if he had the loyalty of the Members but discipline was lacking; grizzling to journos was unacceptable. Dowding urged the Caucus members to put their thoughts down on paper during the Christmas break regarding the direction the Government, Caucus, Cabinet and the Premiership should take during 1990. Pearce and Berinson spoke in support of Dowding, and reiterated that we must not let our guard down before the budget was passed.59 The conservative majority in the Legislative Council had threatened to block supply. Smith, however, had concluded that it was impossible to work with Dowding, who would not take any advice. He advised the Premier to consider stepping down by mid 1990, but Dowding rejected this advice.60 In his Leaders statement when Caucus reconvened in January, Dowding adopted a more confident tone. He emphasised the Partys successes, especially winning the 1989 election, despite the forces ranged against us. He said that there would be no quick fix to ease the pressure but he expected this year to be better than the last.61 Dowding then left for a World Economic Forum in Switzerland. On 31 January, Tony Lloyd was convicted of breaching his duties as a director of Western Colleries Limited in paying a $15 million cheque from the SEC to cover an urgent debt just prior to Rothwells Banks liquidation.62 The conviction which Dowding had claimed would not occur reflected on the Premiers political judgement. Evidence produced during the trial indicated that Dowding and Acting Energy Minister Julian Grill were responsible for making the payment, and that Lloyd was simply carrying out his

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duties. Lloyd was later cleared in the Court of Appeal. The decision, with its inference that Dowding and Grill had acted improperly, came at a particularly inconvenient time for the ALP, with a Federal election approaching. Smith, FMWU Secretary Jim McGinty and seven Caucus members Parker, Lawrence, Taylor, Hallahan, Wilson, Gallop and Beggs met at Pam Beggss house to discuss whether Dowding should be forced to step down. All agreed that he had to go. There was a mixed reaction from other SPLP members and from union leaders, however, when Smiths plan became public. Nor were the divisions purely along faction lines. Berinson, Grill and Bridge supported Dowding, as did Henderson, of the Left faction, but other Left Wingers voted against him. McGinty wanted to retain Parker, but the TLC and the SPLPs Left Wing objected. These included Nick Catania and Fred McKenzie. The majority of the AMWU, which exerted considerable influence through its 15,000-strong membership, also refused to support Parker.63 In a press statement issued on 11 February after his return from Switzerland, Dowding indicated that he regarded the Rothwells matter as the reason for his removal from the Premiership. He stated that he believed that his resignation was in the best interests of the Government and the Party. He stressed his wish to minimise the damage to the Party and emphasised that as revealed in the recent Burt Commission on Government Accountability there was absolutely no question of corruption or criminal activity by the government. In Caucus the next day, Dowding reiterated his disappointment at Lawrences challenge for the leadership. He claimed that the timing was premature and said that it was done to help Labor win the forthcoming Federal election, not for the good of the State. If the move was unsuccessful, the State Party risked another election in 1990. He added that he was disappointed that Lawrence had not communicated with him; thereby maximising the benefit of the party changeover. Dowding said that there was a community expectation that the leadership should step down. It hurt him to hear Parker blame him for much of the problem of WA Inc. Dowding and Parker both resigned from the Leadership positions. Dowding retired to the backbench but Parker initially kept his portfolios of Resources, Trade and the Arts. There being no other nominations, Lawrence was declared the new Party Leader. Ian Taylor was elected as Deputy, and Buchanan and Gallop filled the Cabinet vacancies. Lawrence was the first woman to hold the office of Premier in any Australian state. Her election signified the Partys desire to break with the WA Inc era.64 Several ALP branches objected to public brawling and the Pearce Electorate Council sent a resolution, deplor[ing] the public debate that has

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been carried on regarding the leadership of the Party. But the Council added that it is apparent that Peter Dowding must resign as Premier and that Deputy Premier David Parker should do his duty and join his Leader in resigning his portfolio as well as the Deputy Leadership and going to the backbench. After Dowdings departure, most of the Electorate Councils made a point of commending him for acting in the best interests of the Labor Party.65 The Electorate Councils carried little influence, however, and whether or not they objected had no impact on the decisions of the State Executive or the SPLP. On 5 April, Parker yielded to pressure and resigned from the Ministry and the Parliament. Dowding also resigned his seat and a by-election was held on 26 May 1990 for the seats of Fremantle and Maylands. Dowding had wished to retain his seat longer but agreed to resign at the same time as Parker to spare the Party the expense and organisation of two separate by-elections.66 Dowding returned to his law practice. Parker made use of his overseas contacts to establish a consultancy and property development business in Hong Kong. The Labor candidates, Judy Edwards and Jim McGinty, were successful in retaining Maylands and Fremantle respectively. Edwards, a medical practitioner, entered Parliament at the age of 35. McGinty was one of the nine children of a Fremantle powerhouse worker raised in Hilton Park. At the time of his election, as well as running the FMWU, he was completing a law degree at UWA.67 After Lloyds conviction was quashed, Grill resigned his cabinet position but remained as a back-bencher. The Lawrence Ministry, 19901993 Lawrence set herself and her administration a tough agenda. Shortly after her election as Party Leader, she declared that she would set a new direction for Government, in order to restore public faith and confidence. I want Western Australians to be able to say they are proud of their Government.68 Within weeks of her ascendancy to the Premiership, Lawrence had the satisfaction of seeing the Partys faith in her justified. In the Federal election, WA lost none of its seats except Moore, where sitting Member Alan Blanchard was defeated by the Liberal Party candidate, Paul Filing. This seat had been significantly altered in the 1989 redistribution, and its loss was almost inevitable.69 In March, Cabinet approved the Premiers recommendation that WADC, LandCorp and EventsCorp all cease operations on 30 June 1990. The WADC Act would be repealed, and a private sector agent appointed to manage the sale of all remaining WADC projects as quickly as was commercially prudent. The repealing legislation for WA Exim Corporation and the WADC Act Repeal and

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Amendment Act, providing for the transfer of the powers and functions of LandCorp and EventsCorp respectively to the Department of Land Administration and the Tourism Commission, were introduced in the next Parliamentary session.70 WA Government Holdings, with liabilities of $230 million from the failed Petrochemical Project, proved to be the most difficult to dispose of, and Lawrence introduced a five year plan to clear the losses. She also proposed cuts to travel expenses, the employment of consultants and advertising in order to help recover the deficit and foster a cleaner, leaner administration.71 But the open and trustworthy government that Lawrence had hoped to establish was unobtainable in the prevailing climate. The Bond Corporation, the most important single partner of the Burke and Dowding Governments business deals, reported a loss of $750 million at the end of 1989. Labor ranks were divided over the site and type of the proposed new power station. Grill supported a private power station. Throughout 1990, the government was involved in a lengthy and bitter struggle over the old Swan Brewery site on Mounts Bay Road. The Swan Valley Fringe Dwellers, an Aboriginal community for whom the site had sacred significance, opposed a WADC plan to develop it into a museum, tavern and underground car park complex. In January, the ETU and the CFMEU placed work bans on the site. Lawrence attempted to defuse the Swan Brewery controversy, stating that the future of the development project would be decided only after court actions by Aboriginal protesters ended. On 20 June, the High Court ruled unanimously that Crown Land was not exempt from the Aboriginal Heritage Act, upholding an appeal by Robert Bropho and the Swan Valley Fringe Dwellers against the finding of the WA Supreme Court that the Act did not apply to Crown Land.72 The collapse of Rothwells Merchant Bank and the failure of the petrochemical project at Kwinana, resulting in a debt of $230 million, remained central to Western Australian political debate in 1990, especially after the Second Part of McCuskers Report was released in August.73 The Opposition focused on forcing the Government to establish a royal commission into WA Inc, and for a while threatened to block supply and force an early election on the issue. On 27 June, however, George Cash, the Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council, announced that the majority of Liberal Party members had agreed to pursue alternative methods in order to persuade the Government to establish a royal commission. He did, however, point out that no member of the Liberal Party was bound by this decision and each could vote as his or her conscience dictated. Cash also stated that, in separating the issues of Supply and the royal commission, he was giving the Premier the opportunity to honour

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her commitment to the creation of some sort of enquiry after the McCusker inquiry has reported.74 Pressure to appoint a royal commission came also from People for Fair and Open Government, a group led by the Premiers brother, Bevan Lawrence. Opposition Members continued to make serious allegations against former Government members. In Caucus on 20 November, Lawrence announced her decision to appoint a royal commission. She said that Cabinet had decided and, in order to avoid any leaks, members had been telephoned individually. The Commission would provide Brian and Terry Burke, among others, with an arena within which to defend themselves. Lawrence also stressed the importance of improving the Governments health before the next election. Presently, she said, the Government was bleeding to death.75 In the Legislative Assembly that afternoon, Lawrence announced that the State Government had appointed three justices Sir Ronald Wilson, Peter Brinsden and Geoffrey Kennedy to lead a royal commission to investigate allegations of corruption, and illegal and improper conduct of persons involved in the investment decisions of the Western Australian Government from 1982 until 1990.76 She stated that she had decided to hold the royal commission because the communitys concern, and the loss of confidence [in the Government] cannot be satisfied in any other way. Whatever Lawrences intentions, in the mind of the media and the public, this investigation became known as the royal commission into WA Inc. The royal commission, which ran until 30 June 1992 with two extensions, immediately put the government under pressure. In a major reshuffle in January 1991, Lawrence dropped Jeff Carr, Gavan Troy and Pam Buchanan from the Cabinet, although she said that it was no personal reflection on the people involved but rather that the Party was in need of rejuvenation and renewal. The deposed Cabinet members attempted to defend themselves at a acrimonious special Caucus meeting on 29 January. Each attacked Lawrences statement about the need for renewal and rejuvenation in the Party. Despite support from Pearce, Grill and other Caucus Members, the Cabinet posts occupied by the three Ministers were declared vacant. Only Troy recontested, but without success. Judyth Watson, Eric Ripper and Jim McGinty were elected to fill the vacant Cabinet posts. Buchanan left the ALP but remained in her seat, Ashburton, as an Independent for another year until she died of cancer at the age of 55.77

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The State Executive There were changes, too, in the State Executive. Stephen Smith was appointed as Senior Adviser on Paul Keatings staff. In explaining why he had decided to accept Keatings offer, Smith stated that, since becoming ALP Secretary three years previously, he had effectively been a full time Campaign Director. In addition, 1990 had been a very difficult year and, in Smiths opinion, changes were needed in personnel and approach. He believed that the Party was in need of regeneration, and this process would be assisted by electing a new State Secretary. Smiths successor, Chris Evans, was the sole applicant for the post. Evans, who had joined the Party in 1975, held a BA with majors in Politics and Industrial Relations from UWA. He had worked as an officer with the Department of Industrial Relations, and then as an organiser and industrial officer with the FMWU. At the same time, Tom Butler, who had been Party President for twelve years, retired and Geoff Gallop was elected.78 At the end of 1991, John Cowdell resigned after nine years as Assistant State Secretary. In 1993, he entered the Legislative Council as a representative of the South Western Region. Lois Anderson, Cowdells successor, was the first woman to hold the position of Assistant State Secretary. Anderson had begun her career in the ALP in 1980 as an electorate officer for Howard Olney MLC. She later moved to the ALP office where she worked as a secretary and research officer. Appointments with Julian Grill and Senator Michael Beahan were followed by three years in Canberra as National Organiser.79 Anderson was to serve as Assistant State Secretary throughout most of the 1990s, but the State Secretaryship would change hands three more times before the end of the decade. Chris Evans resigned in 1993 to stand for the Senate. His successor, Mark Nolan, returned to his native Queensland in 1997 and later became Cheryl Kernots political adviser. Mark Cuomo was State Secretary from 1997 until late in 1999, when he resigned and was succeeded by John Halden. Perhaps Chamberlain, who had died in 1984, might have found some irony in the office that he held for 25 years changing hands 7 times in the next quartercentury. Another feature of the Party during the 1980s would have deeply disturbed him the rise of factionalism and, in particular, the ascendancy of the Right. Factionalism takes hold Burkes election to the Party Leadership tipped the balance in favour of the Right Wing and saw a decline of the old Left that had held power in the Party since Chamberlains day. When interviewed for this history, Burke denied being

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either Right Wing or pragmatic. He pointed out that his supporters included TLC President Bill Latter and Don Lippiatt, both noted Left Wingers, and that many of his own beliefs including affirmative action were not Right Wing views.80 Indeed, while building his power base, Burke succeeded in gathering wide support. Burkes friend and colleague, Kim Beazley, remarked:
Brian always thought that I was unwise to associate so intensively with the Right. He thought what you needed to do in the Western Australian branch was to build coalitions. Brian was always building extraordinary coalitions, LeftRight coalitions, basically, and they always worked because they were attached to him as a person.81

Members of the old Left, however, blamed Burke for creating Party factionalism in Western Australia. Jamieson maintained that factionalism did not exist in the Party until Burke took over the Leadership and strengthened the Right Wing.82 The pre-selection battles described earlier indicate, however, that factional struggles significantly impacted upon the Party. According to Bob Hetherington and ALP Leader Geoff Gallop, although broad Left and Right factions existed from the time of the 1955 split, factionalism became a far more significant force in Australian Labor in the 1980s. Gallop attributed the development of Right, Centre and Left factions not so much to the Burke Government as to happenings in the Federal Party during the power struggle between Bill Hayden and Bob Hawke.83 Factional conflict in Western Australia throughout 1984 culminated in the December elections for the Administrative Committee. Burke organised the numbers so that Left Wing members were either voted out of, or failed to secure, positions on the Executive, which went, almost without exception, to Right and Centre candidates. Beahan, however, claimed that this was an aberration caused by national factors rather than the norm.84 A recent study of Labor Party politics agrees with the claim that factionalism is a relatively new phenomenon in Western Australia. According to Anthony Sayers, it was in response to the logic of proportional representation as a means of voting for party positions, introduced in 1980, that factions began to emerge. Consequently, a dominant Left faction (Broad Left), a sizeable Right faction (Labor Unity) and a somewhat smaller Centre faction emerged in the State branch. Burke (from the Right) and Bryce (from the Centre) represented the new alliance that dominated WA Labor. Their respective successors, Dowding and Parker, were both from the Centre faction, as was Lawrence.85

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Western Australians in Federal Parliament More Western Australians than ever previously played significant roles in the Federal Parliament during the last two decades of the century. Despite his youth, Kim Beazley immediately secured a post in the first Hawke cabinet in 1983 as Minister for Aviation and Minister Assisting the Minister for Defence. At the end of 1984, Beazley was promoted to the Defence portfolio. He developed a policy of Australian self-reliance, rejecting the concept of forward defence held by past governments, where Australian forces were made available to assist a powerful ally such as Britain or America in overseas conflicts. Despite this, Beazley remained a firm advocate of the AustraliaUS defence alliance, including US bases and visits to Australian ports. Beazley was Defence Minister until after the 1990 election. During Labors last five years in office he held the portfolios of Transport and Communications, Finance, and Employment, Education and Training. He was elected Deputy Prime Minister by the Federal Labor Caucus on 20 June 1995.86 In Hawkes first cabinet, John Dawkins served as Finance Minister. After the 1984 election, he moved to Trade, and later, as Minister for Employment, Education and Training, he implemented a series of educational reforms, introducing a tertiary education fee, converting colleges of advanced education and institutes of technology to universities, and amalgamating some institutions. Dawkins served as Treasurer in the Keating Government. Left Wing faction member Peter Walsh, a farmer from the wheat belt centre of Doodlakine, had been elected to the Senate in 1974. He held the portfolio of Resources and Energy in the first Hawke Ministry. In 1984, he was appointed to Finance a portfolio he held for six years, while proving to be a very tough Minister. Walsh opposed the reduction of the top rate of income tax and the introduction of a consumption tax because he believed that both moves would disadvantage the poorer sections of society. He fought against moves by his own Department to introduce a Medicare co-payment, on the grounds that it would undermine the basic principles of equity and fairness on which Medicare was structured. Walsh claimed that he supported the introduction of university fees because by 1985, published analyses had shown there was no change in the socio-economic background of university students following the abolition of fees in 1974.87 This position received little support in academia and may be seen to have contravened the intentions of E.B. Johnston and his colleagues when they established UWA as a free University in 1912. Senator Peter Cook entered the Ministry in March 1990. Between then and Labors

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departure from government in 1996, he held the major portfolios of Industrial Relations; Trade; Industry, Science and Technology. Former State Secretary Michael Beahan became President of the Senate in 1994.88 In 1983, Wendy Fatin made history as the first Western Australian woman to sit in the House of Representatives after she was elected as the Member for Canning. She was re-elected as the Member for Brand in 1984 and was joined in the House by Carolyn Jakobsen, who gained the seat of Cowan. In 1990, Fatin entered the Ministry when she received the portfolios of Local Government and of Minister Assisting the Minister for the Status of Women. Later she held the portfolios of the Arts and Territories. When Keating became Prime Minister in December 1991, Fatin was one of only two women in the Ministry, the other being Jeanette McHugh (Phillip, NSW). Jakobsen did not enter the Ministry, but in April 1990 she made history as the first woman to chair the Federal Parliamentary Caucus.89 Both Jakobsen and Senator Pat Giles made a significant contribution through their work on Committees, covering a wide range of issues including education, community affairs, health, electoral reform, and the interpretation of aspects of the Family Law Act.90 The royal commission into WA Inc Although Western Australians were performing well in Federal politics, they were becoming increasingly embarrassed by the situation in their home state.91 If 1990 had been a difficult year for the party, 1991 was even worse. When the royal commission opened, police entered the ALP offices and seized documents relating to donations received into the Leaders Fund during the Burke and Dowding administrations. The royal commission investigated a network of complex dealings involving large sums of money being moved from one body to another as, for example, the $18 million loan that the R&I Bank had granted to the Teachers Credit Society to help it out of serious financial difficulties. The process included exhaustive investigations of all of the politicians, Party officials and public servants involved in the various transactions. A number of criminal charges arose out of these investigations. On 25 March 1991, Tony Lloyd was sentenced to two years imprisonment for obtaining a $6 million loan from the R&I Bank for Rothwells, and Kevin Edwards was fined $10,000 for complicity. Edwards argued that he had acted under Ministerial orders. Lloyds sentence was quashed by the Court of Criminal Appeal and he was fined $1,500.92 The principle victims of the royal commission were David Parker and Brian Burke. Burke had resigned from his post as Ambassador to Ireland and the

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Holy See on 29 April 1991 and voluntarily returned to Perth to appear before the royal commission. Under questioning, Burke testified that he had invested $300,000 in gold and stamps on the Partys behalf, and without their knowledge. His trial was not related to his Governments business dealings. He was charged with false pretences, found guilty of claiming more than $17,000 in Parliamentary travel allowances, and served seven months of a two-year sentence from July 1994. On the eve of Burkes imprisonment, the West Australian invited commentators of various political opinions to reflect on his government and the findings of the royal commission. Bob Pearce reflected on the former Premiers lost reputation:
Burke resigned at the height of his popularity. Just six years later all that has gone. The party he once led ignominiously thrust from office, his career blighted, his reputation in tatters. The judgement of those who once idolised him is harsh. It is hard to remember how much power and influence he had then. He had turned the Labor Party from a dispirited, seemingly permanent Opposition into serious political contenders and then led it into a landslide victory in the 1983 elections with an almost unimaginable seat majority. He set his stamp on a new style of government. In an era of political leaders of the ilk of Sir Charles Court and Malcolm Fraser, distant and aloof figures, he moved with ordinary people, sat in their kitchens with them and listened to their concerns. He wanted to bring people together and said he would govern for all West Australians, irrespective of how they voted.93

The Wests political writer, Steven Loxley, was one who was harsh in his judgement, titling his piece: Curtain falls on the master manipulator. Loxley said that the extent of Burkes obsession with control could be gauged by the preparation he put into his departure from State politics in February 1988.
He not only hand picked his successor, he convinced two of the three other contenders not to run by judiciously using an opinion poll he had commissioned to get the result he wanted. He then selfishly stayed on as parliamentary leader for three months after Peter Dowding was elected by the caucus because he was determined to retire on the 5th anniversary of his governments election and his 41st birthday. He arranged a good job for himself as Ambassador to Ireland by calling in Federal favours and he commissioned and coordinated an uncritical biography which he released just before departing for Dublin. It was to be a shortlived achievement because there seemed to be precious little compassion or gentleness in Perth streets yesterday for the man who was once the most popular politician in Australia.94

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Parker was recalled from Hong Kong. Under intensive questioning, Parker denied that he had instructed the SEC to buy Fremantle Gas and Coke from entrepreneur Yosse Goldberg in 1986. But he was also implicated in the Dowding Governments underwriting of the disastrous petrochemical project, and admitted that he and Dowding had concealed the fact that the Petrochemical Industries Company was linked to Rothwells financial difficulties. Yet the charge for which Parker was tried and sentenced was not related to these matters. He received a years imprisonment when convicted of stealing $38,000 from his election campaign funds between 1986 and 1989. After a month in Casuarina Prison, where he worked as a hospital orderly, Parker was transferred to Wooroloo minimum-security prison, where Burke was a fellow prisoner. Parker served out his time working in the kitchens. In 1996, he was again convicted and imprisoned for committing perjury before the royal commission. The following year, the High Court acquitted him of the charges of stealing that had led to his first imprisonment.95 In March 1997, Burke was again imprisoned this time for three years on a charge of stealing from the ALP. He was accused of spending over $122,000 worth of funds donated to the Party on a personal postage stamp collection. Julian Grill testified that Burke had given various campaigns $50,000 and had offered the ALP the stamps [that] he had valued at $37,000 or the cash after the royal commission had revealed the collections existence. Burke served one year of his sentence before being paroled early in 1998, and his conviction was later overturned.96 Ray OConnor was the only Liberal politician charged with crimes connected with the terms of reference of the royal commission. He served 4 months of an 18-month sentence for stealing $25,000 from Mount Lawley electorate campaign funds during the 1984 byelection.97 The achievements of State Labor Governments, 19831993 Tragically for the State ALP, Burke, his government, and their successors have been subject to many harsh and often hasty judgments. The royal commission and its findings may have overshadowed the achievements of the State Labor administrations from 1983 to 1993 and talented individuals within those administrations with the media and the non-Labor parties being keen to emphasise the failures of the Burke, Dowding and Lawrence governments. Yet during the decade many positive reforms were achieved. According to Stephen Smith, the Burke government was good before the 1986 election, but afterwards Burke lost interest in the Premiership, his administration became

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too closely identified with business interests and, as a result, some of its activities were hard to justify at the royal commission.98 Burkes own assessment was that he led a good government disadvantaged by a degree of naivety and some international events beyond our control.99 The first and perhaps greatest achievement was the electoral reform engineered by Tonkin and Bryce. Substantial progress was achieved in affirmative action and equal opportunity both in the Party and in the community; civil liberties, and education reform. The government upgraded sport and improved sporting venues; re-introduced and expanded the suburban railway system; and redeveloped Fremantle in preparation for hosting the Australian defence of the Americas Cup in 1987. Dowding had the distinction of being the first WA Labor Premier since World War II to lead his party into a third term in office. A major achievement of his administration was the electrification of the Perth railway system, including the construction of a new line from Perth Central Station to Currambine, following the route of the Mitchell Freeway. This was the responsibility of Bob Pearce, the Minister for Transport. Dowding also introduced the Seniors Card and an education allowance for high school students.100 Lawrence spent much of her Premiership in damage control mode, but this did not prevent her from announcing a legislative program in 1991 that covered more than 60 bills. The program included legislation for the East Perth redevelopment and development in the Peel region, taxation and micro-economic reform measures, electoral reform and other Bills to promote good government such as disclosure of financial interests and election campaign funding details. Other legislation was introduced to reduce crime and protect childrens rights, and a number of bills dealt with social justice and ethical issues such as age discrimination, Aboriginal heritage, human reproductive technology and confidentiality.101 The Lawrence Government also began to implement the recommendations of the royal commission, including legislating a Freedom of Information Act, upgrading the governments system of finance administration, and instituting processes to ensure government accountability an initiative that had first been attempted by Burke.102 On the eve of the 1993 State election, the recent difficulties ensured that the Labor Government was not optimistic about winning a fourth term. When the Lawrence Labor team gathered to be photographed for the cover of Labor Voice, 6 of the 19-strong Cabinet were women most having held several Ministries. State Secretary Chris Evans put on a brave face and headed his editorial with the hopeful words, We can win!!! But the Western Australian Branch of the ALP would complete its first century in Opposition.

Chapter Fifteen

Industrial Challenges for the Trades and Labor Council 19801999

The third and fourth decades of its existence presented the Trades and Labor Council with many of the same problems and challenges that had arisen in the 1960s and 70s. Campaigns run by the TLC resulted in improved health and safety practices in the workplace, workers compensation, equality of opportunity for disadvantaged groups such as women, non-English speakers and disabled workers, and better working and living conditions in the company towns of the North West. Despite these advances, however, the period ended with regressive industrial legislation enacted by conservative State and Federal Governments in the 1990s. Other campaign issues were freedom of speech, Aboriginal land rights, privatisation, and the deregulation of the labour market. The TLC recognised the contribution of some of its founding Executive members, bestowing life membership on Paddy Troy, Joe Pereira, Jim Coleman and Don Cooley by 1979. Gordon Grenfell, Les Beech, Harry Bluck, Harold Peden, Bill Latter, Ruth Jeneff and John Gandini also received this honour in later years.1 During the two decades, the offices of President and Secretary changed hands several times twice because the incumbent was pre-selected to stand for Parliament. Peter Cook entered the Senate in 1983 and Clive Brown became the Member for Morley in 1993. Ron Reid, Rob Meecham, Tony Cooke and Stephanie Mayman all served as Assistant Secretary and subsequently as TLC Secretary. K.B. (Barry) Gilbert (Electrical Trades Union) succeeded Bill Latter as President in 1980. Later holders of this office were John Gandini, Kevin Reynolds and Keith Peckham, the last retiring in 2000. The period saw a number of union amalgamations including, in May 1987, that of the historic FEDFU with the BWIU to form the states largest construction union the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Workers Union of Australia [CFMEU] (WA Branch) in May 1987.2 Labor was in government in Western Australia for half of this period.

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The TLCs relationship with the Burke Government After the stormy industrial disputes of the Court and OConnor years, the TLC welcomed Labors return to government in 1983. Early in its first term, the Burke administration adopted a strategy to bring about the cooperation of labour and industry. The WA State Executive of the ALP supported this policy throughout the 1980s, but the TLC was less enthusiastic.3 The State Government set up a Labor Tripartite Council (later formalised by the WA Labor Tripartite Consultative Council [WALTCC] Act, 1983), whose members included representatives from the Government, the TLC, industry and the Workers Compensation and Rehabilitation Commission. Clive Brown, TLC President and (later) Secretary, Industrial Officer Tony Cooke, and FMWU organiser Tony Beech served as the TLCs representatives at regular meetings to discuss industrial relations matters.4 The system of tripartite negotiations was part of a new framework for industrial relations that included a muchneeded rewriting of the Industrial Arbitration Act, and the establishment of the Occupational Health and Safety Commission.5 The Government appointed several key unionists as Ministerial advisors, including Tom Butler (OPDU), Bill Thomas (BWIU) and Dr Judyth Watson (FMWU). Some political scholars have criticised these appointments as being a means of keeping unions on side, and have claimed that in the early years of the Burke Government, the outbreak of industrial conflict was prolific and well above that of other States.6 According to one historian, Rose Graham, the Burke Government harassed, threatened and fined militant unions, whilst favouring compliant unions whose officials were responsible for ensuring industrial harmony on Perths numerous building sites.7 For example, after Burke consulted with Mark Smith, the new Secretary of the Civil Service Association, the unions assertive stance was significantly modified. Graham also accused the Industrial Relations Commission of using the Prices and Incomes Accord as an ideological tool to reprimand those trade unions that transgressed the commitment to wage restraint and industrial peace and to associate them with threatening the national interest.8 Yet, according to Black, Western Australia was the only state to record an increase in the number of days lost per 1,000 workers in 1983. The WA average was 420 days per 1,000 workers, compared with a national average of 234 days.9 But the Dowding Governments Minister for Industrial Relations, Gavan Troy, reported that the number of working days lost per thousand employees 1980 to 1987 dropped from almost 600 in 1983 to 250 in 1984, and below 200 in 1985. The Australian

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Bureau of Statistics figures are similar to these, showing that, after an initial rise, the number of days lost in industrial disputes did indeed decline during the period of Labor government in Western Australia.10 Industrial conflict in 1983 centred on the Burke administrations commitment to reducing the remuneration of senior public servants, cutting the public service workforce and abolishing several government agencies. Burkes rationale for implementing these measures was a $274 million shortfall in the budget, which he had inherited from the OConnor Government. In June, the Government reduced the earnings of about 4,000 government employees, including cutting the salaries of the Premier and Cabinet members by 12 per cent, and others earning salaries in excess of $35,000 by 10 per cent. Fees paid to members of many government boards were also cut. For the general public, there was a steep rise in electricity, gas, water, bus fares and other charges, but the government implemented an increase in social welfare payments to particularly needy families, to help offset these costs.11 Early in the Burke administration, the State School Teachers Union (SSTU) requested salary rises and more funded teaching positions. While rejecting a proposal from the teachers requesting another 350 positions, the Cabinet agreed to appoint 50 additional primary teachers from the start of the 1984 academic year. The Cabinet also approved pay increases for government hospital workers, Perth Dental Hospital employees and prison catering staff, at an annual cost of over $5 million.12 Other public servants were less fortunate. In September 1983, the Government set up a Functional Review Committee to assess Public Service efficiency and economy. By 1984, the Civil Service Journal was referring to the vicious and unrelenting onslaught that the Burke Government had launched upon its members. Among the considerable job losses the Public Works Departments Architectural Division alone lost over 300 positions were some controversial developments, such as the merging of public health, mental health and hospitals into one Health Department. A proposed revamping of the education system to grant individual schools more autonomy over budgets, staff and development brought charges of privatisation and elitism.13 Apart from tensions with the State Government, the TLC moved from the Labor Centre to new premises in Brewer Street in 1986. Burkes interference in the election of TLC office bearers contributed to the Council and the Party moving further apart. In 1983, Ron Reid had replaced Peter Cook as TLC Secretary when Cook was elected to the Senate. TLC President Clive Brown was made a full-time paid employee, the office of President having previously been honorary as in the ALP. Rob Meecham was elected as Assistant Secretary

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to Reid. In the elections for the 1986 TLC Committee, with Burkes encouragement, Norm Marlborough stood against Meecham for the Assistant Secretarys position but lost by 131 votes to 112.14 A successful move by Burke to influence the composition of the ALPs Administrative Committee in December 1984 had seen a purge of Left Wing delegates, including Clive Brown who stood as Party Vice President. Increasing factionalism among unions in the ALP reflected the Partys Left/Right/Centre divisions. But the TLC lacked a central faction comparable with the ALP, where the Labor Alliance (including such ALP affiliates as the AWU, the TWU and the BLF), worked with the Right during the Burke years. The late 1980s saw an increase in the number of white collar unions, such as the Australian Journalists Association, affiliating with the TLC.15 During these years, the TLC embarked on a number of significant campaigns, of which one of the earliest and longest involved workers health and safety. Health and Safety issues, 19801988 In the early 1980s, the TLC pushed for improvements to ensure workers health and safety on work sites. Becoming increasingly concerned for employees in hazardous work situations, the TLC Executive asked the State Government to introduce legislation guaranteeing WA workers the right to refuse to work in unsafe conditions. In April 1980, a TLC deputation met with officials of the Occupational Health Division of the Health Department to discuss hazards to workers engaged in sandblasting and using nail guns, chain saws and other dangerous implements.16 The Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Committee sought safety standards for professional divers, and recommended that workplace regulations should cover the installation of non-slip flooring, and the development of radiation codes of practice.17 Neither the Court nor the OConnor Governments responded satisfactorily to these moves. The OHS and the Workers Compensation Committees also expressed concern that workers from non-English speaking backgrounds were at risk in many workplaces. The TLCs Ethnic Affairs Officer, Leo Gatica, had compensation referral forms translated into 12 languages to assist non-English speakers. The TLC arranged for some of its officers to attend a seminar on the services offered by the Migrant Interpreter Service.18 The TLCs commitment to health and safety issues was most clearly demonstrated by its appointment of Stephanie Mayman as OHS Officer in 1983, and an Industrial Democracy Officer, Tim Noonan, in 1984. Noonans duties included assisting Mayman in preparing OHS information for unions,

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prior to the introduction of State Government policy allowing workers a greater role in promoting health and safety in the workplace. Mayman and the TLC Executive led a full-scale campaign to improve workplace safety. The campaign was launched partly in response to the finding that exposure to blue asbestos in mining townships such as Wittenoom was a direct cause of various forms of cancer. Wittenoom had been closed in 1978, although the Court Government investigated the possibility of moving the town to a nearby location until it was realised that the health hazard was too great.19 During the 1980s, both the TLC and the ALP campaigned to remove asbestos from worksites and to gain compensation for the victims of asbestos-related diseases.20 The OHS Committee received correspondence from numerous unions, drawing attention to workplace hazards around the State. The potential hazard of Marra Mamba ore dust caused members in the Pilbara Iron Ore industry much concern, as did the use of radioactive gauges. Most of the large mining companies in the Pilbara used these gauges (also known as density or industrial gauges) in collection areas where the ore was separated from any large extraneous matter. Regulations stated that the gauges should be turned off before any maintenance staff entered the area, but, this practice was not always adhered to. The matter had been brought to attention of the Mines Department several times but the safety regulations were still not being met. Unionists were also concerned about the proliferation of professional safety consultants. They wanted to ensure that people who called themselves experts in the field of OHS were properly qualified.21 In July 1984, the OHS Committee discussed the need for site-by-site health and safety agreements to be signed between employers and unions. Members hoped that implementing OHS agreements would speed up the drafting of the workplace safety reforms part of the Occupational Health, Welfare & Safety Act. Later, the Committee acknowledged the contribution that individual unions had already made in getting health and safety agreements signed site-by-site. In order for developments to continue, however, it would be necessary for unions to identify which private or Government sector employers would be receptive to such negotiations.22 The Government made a commitment to passing an OHS Act and establishing an Occupational Health, Safety and Welfare Commission. In October 1983, the Minister for Industrial Relations, Des Dans, released a Public Discussion Document, researched by Dr Judyth Watson, which showed that WA suffered from fragmented and anachronistic statutory and structural provisions as well as unenlightened management and union attitudes to safety.23 The Government proposed to incorporate into one new

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Act provisions that had been covered by 44 Acts and 58 sets of regulations, for which 11 Ministers (in 13 portfolios) and 19 departments had responsibility. Despite this proliferations of laws and regulations, as many of half of the workforce remained without any specific provision.24 Not surprisingly, progress was slow. In September 1984, the WALTCC released its Report.25 The Occupational, Health, Safety and Welfare Act, to establish an Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Commission, passed into law in October; however, the Government told TLC representatives that the legislative timetable for 1985 was already full and did not allow for the introduction of a further Bill to amend the existing OHS legislation. The TLC objected and requested that new legislation be introduced within the administrations current term of office.26 Further delays occurred in introducing the Workplace and Safety Reforms into the Act. The OHS Committee recommended that the Commission seek an assurance from Cabinet that the second part of the Act, containing the workplace safety reforms, would be introduced in the first session of Parliament after the 1986 election. The Committee also recommended that the TLC recognise coverage for OHS research in the areas of chemicals, training needs, information requirements, VDUs and related problems during pregnancy, stress, dust, muscular and skeletal injuries, heat, and [the special OHS needs of] women. Mayman was appointed TLC representative on the Asbestos Insulation Advisory Committee of the Occupational Health, Safety and Welfare Commission.27 Inquiries into worker fatalities revealed a very poor safety record in WA. A Coroners Inquest was not always held after each fatal accident, and unions did not automatically have the right to give evidence. These findings followed an inquiry into the electrocution of a young SEC linesman at Collie. The worker was involved in replacing low-tension cables under live high-tension cables. This particular accident showed the need for a more adequate system of investigating fatalities so that a preventative approach could be developed.28 A further delay was caused by Danss successor as Minister for Industrial Relations, Peter Dowding, seeking an exemption for workers in the entertainment industry from the Noise Abatement (Hearing Conservation in Workplaces) Regulations, 1984. Although the TLC was willing to meet with various parties to examine all aspects of noise in the entertainment industry, they did not agree with exemptions for any workers. Dowdings response was that he would go ahead without the support of the TLC. Ron Reid told the Council Executive that it appears that the Minister for Industrial Relations is making every attempt to by-pass the Occupational Health and Safety Commission with

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reference to exemptions, which is reprehensible. Reid reported further disagreements with Dowding. At the Ministers request, the Commission had set up a Technical Working Party to look into issue of asbestos insulation in Government buildings, in particular the multi-storey Dumas House in Kings Park Road. The Commission inspected Dumas House and recommended major refurbishment, including the removal of asbestos insulation. This meant moving partitions and a fixed ceiling on the ground floor level. On 23 September, Cabinet approved the encasement of asbestos not its removal. The Commission objected strongly on health and safety grounds, as did the TLC, who believed that encasement would not be sufficient to protect the workers from exposure to lethal asbestos fibres. The TLC asked Cabinet to reconsider. The building unions imposed work bans. A first, Dowding offered a compromise solution, but this, too, was unacceptable to the unions. In January 1986, the Government decided to accept the Occupational Health and Safety Commissions recommendations and the work was carried out.29 In line with ACTU policy, the TLC also embarked on an extensive OHS education program of training courses for unionists. By October 1985, 6 wellattended courses had been run and 97 unionists trained almost half the target set for the unit by the ACTU. Further courses were planned, including some specific to particular unions and industries, two general courses (including one in Carnarvon), and one course designed for non-English speakers. The courses covered four main areas: the trade union application of occupational health and safety, the role of the Health and Safety representative, hazard identification, and OHS legislation.30 Despite these efforts, however, OHS meetings were so poorly attended by union representatives that, on 13 November 1985, the delegates discussed whether to continue meeting. It was decided to continue meeting monthly from February 1986 and to urge members to attend.31 In 1986, the Committee asked TLC affiliates to list OHS priorities from their perspective. The WA Timber Industry Industrial Union of Workers (SW Land Division) responded that dust and smoke caused major safety problems. Smoke from burners sometimes reached suffocation point, sawdust and gravel were whipped up by the wind, and there was the added hazard that hardwood sawdust was suspected of causing cancer. The noise levels in sawmills were much too high. Earplugs should be banned because they caused infection, and replaced by earmuffs, and workers should also be supplied with better quality face masks and safety boots. The union also suggested that the Timber Regulations Act come under the OHS Commission. The FMWU listed musculoskeletal injuries and respiratory damage inflicted by working with solvents.

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McGinty stressed the need for improved workforce awareness, education, training and organisation. The Electrical Trades Union suggested preventative measures; for example, workers should avoid working alone in live situations, such as powerlines, and workers in flammable situations should wear only cotton clothing.32 The OHS Committee later recommended changes to the ACTUs Occupational Health and Safety Policy, as it was outdated in the light of industrial and legislative gains in this area over the past few years. The Committee suggested that a higher priority be given to union-elected Health and Safety rep[resentative]s as fundamental to workers gaining access to healthy and safe workplaces. They also endorsed the promotion of education and training as a central principle to enable heath and safety representatives to carry out their functions effectively.33 Dowding introduced the Occupational Health, Safety and Welfare Amendments Bill in Parliament on 9 April 1986. The Bill proposed legislation to rectify the exclusion of many workers from basic OHS protection. Its content was based on over 200 submissions received as a result of the earlier Public Discussion Document. Dowding highlighted the Bills emphasis on joint responsibility for workplace safety (rather than allowing minimum standards), and on providing consultative and participatory mechanisms by creating safety representatives and committees.34 Speaking in support of the Bill in Legislative Assembly, Judyth Watson stated that the Bill sought to address three urgent needs: comprehensive chemicals control and information; the education and training of all parties in industry, and the creation of a valid, reliable data base that was prevention oriented.35 Early in July, the TLCs OHS Committee noted that the Bill had passed through Parliament, and congratulated Mayman for her contribution to it.36 Improvements were made to Workers Compensation legislation in this period, too. During 1981, the TLC launched an extensive Workers Compensation Campaign. This involved widespread community consultation, meetings in city and country locations, press releases and the publication of leaflets. Bill Latter suggested that the TLC print a newspaper to publicise the hazards faced by workers in dangerous professions; for example, miners who risked contracting industrial disease, and firefighters, who suffered a high incidence of heart attacks. On 4 August, the TLC threatened a 24-hour stoppage, followed by a series of rolling strikes, in protest against the inadequacy of existing Workers Compensation legislation. This action was deferred after the Executive Officers met with R.J. OConnor, the Minister for Labour and Industry; the Premier, Sir Charles Court, and representatives from the Confederation of Industry and the Chamber of Mines on 2 August, but site

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meetings continued. A Working Party on amendments to the Workers Compensation and Assistance Bill reported to the TLC on 11 August.37 Their efforts resulted in amendments to the existing legislation being passed in Parliament later that year.38 A campaign on Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) culminated in November 1985 with Dowding launching a package for RSI sufferers.39 In March 1988, the Dowding Government announced reforms to the Workers Compensation system in order to reduce the suffering of injured workers and costs to employers. The new legislation placed greater emphasis on rehabilitation and cracked down on employers to prevent their evasion of their workers compensation insurance obligations. This announcement was the culmination of months of deliberation by the WALTCC.40 Privatisation Another major campaign began late in 1985, when the TLC attempted to educate the public on the ramifications of Government policies seeking to privatise the public sector and deregulate the labour market. In letters to branches of the Rotary and Lions organisations, Brown who had succeeded Reid as Secretary pointed out that privatisation policies pursued by overseas governments had resulted in a reduction of the levels of service and the implementation of various corporate practices that adversely affect domestic and small business consumers. Furthermore, he believed that the deregulation of the labour market threatened the continued existence of the Australian arbitration system and [had] the potential to cause major difficulties in industry at large. To stimulate public debate on the true ramifications of both policies, the TLC offered speakers to address community groups.41 Just before Christmas, Assistant Secretary Rob Meecham circulated all affiliated unions, encouraging them to contribute to an anti-privatisation campaign. The cost of the campaign, including extensive television advertising, would be considerable, so donations were urgently needed. Meecham stated that the advertising campaign was having the desired effect, for the Opposition shelved its privatisation policy before the State election campaign.42 But the Coalition retained its policy of deregulating the labour market, and the TLC objected strongly.43 The anti-privatisation campaign continued through the year, with the assistance of David Heald, an economist from the University of Glasgow. The ACTU hired Heald to act as consultant and discuss privatisation and the erosion of the public sector. He visited Perth and spoke at a gathering in the

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TLC Boardroom on 30 September. Heald also produced a report in which he suggested a number of practical initiatives including transferring some key bureaucrats to positions where they could speak out against certain policy trends, such as privatisation, and using the resources of the bureaucracy more effectively:
to ensure that specific issues are being tackled by sympathetic people who are technically competent. Amongst the many areas for attention are studies of the unemployed, tax reform, management reform, the effects of the fiscal deficit, and challenges to the fake/tactical egalitarian attacks upon the public sector.44

Heald stated that it would be disastrous if the New Right could successfully appropriate concepts such as efficiency, freedom and family.45 Early in 1987, Dowding assured TLC officials that the Government had no plans to close or privatise any of its operations during the life of the administration.46 But the TLC did not let the matter rest there. In August 1987, Clive Brown made a very forthright statement to the media, in which he declared that the privatisation debate would decide party allegiances. He said that the issue would sort out those people in the Labor Party who are closer to business than ordinary wage and salary earners. Brown was appalled that the Government had made such an about face on the issue since the last State election, so that Labor and the Opposition now held virtually the same position on privatisation. He added that it was well known that Opposition policies were closely linked to those of the New Right which strongly supported the slashing of Government operations and other policies all designed to hurt ordinary Australians.47 The Federated Municipal and Shire Council Employees Union of Australia (WA) supported Browns comments and passed a resolution totally condemning any privatisation, selling or other disposal of Federal Government enterprises. A meeting of affiliates on 29 September resolved to develop another campaign of opposition to the Federal Governments privatisation proposals, which involved disposing of such assets as the Commonwealth Bank, Australian Airlines, Qantas, Telecom and the Overseas Telecommunications Commission.48 The strategy developed at this meeting was endorsed by a Council meeting of 13 October 1987.49 The campaign, which commenced with a media launch on 11 January 1988, involved liaising with eastern states bodies, briefing the TLC Executive on developments at ACTU Executive meetings, listing documents on privatisation, discussions with unions, and creating speakers kits. An early emphasis was placed on the significance of contracting out in local government.50

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Tony Cooke represented the TLCWA at an ACTU meeting on 4 March 1988 to discuss privatisation in the public sector. There, he reported on developments with Public Sector Campaign and strategy in WA. The ACTU was keen to use the WA model in recommending to other State branches that they adopt a sustained campaign around public sector issues. At this meeting, no formal resolutions were passed, but proposals included progress reports to the ACTU on developments in the WA Campaign. It was also proposed that TUTA appoint a designated trainer with responsibilities at the national level for preparing and coordinating public sector courses to be run through TUTA state centres.51 Cooke attended a National Conference on the Public Sector, Privatisation and Social Justice on 21 and 22 March, 1988, in Sydney, to which the labour movement in Western Australia sent five representatives, including one each from the State Government and the TLC. The speakers represented welfare groups, trade unions, womens interest groups, and consumer organisations. Cooke reported to the TLC Executive on 28 April that proposed action included direct lobbying of ALP (WA) National Conference delegates, seeking their commitment to a no change policy position and asking whether they would be prepared to argue a strongly pro-public sector position if delegates from other states sought policy changes to facilitate privatisation. Mail outs were planned to Secretaries of the ALP branches and Electorate Councils, and a mass mail out to ALP members putting the union case.52 The AMWU and the AWU each wrote to the ALP expressing concern over a range of issues including the hiving off of the commercial and trading divisions of public sector departments and instrumentalities. They believed that this activity was likely to erode wages and working conditions.53 The TLC launched its public sector campaign on 25 May. Brown stated that the TLC had publicly congratulated the WA Branch of the ALP for its efforts to end the divisive debate at the national level, but noted that prominent ALP politicians continue to spur the debate. He asserted that TLC affiliates had struggled in the past to maintain and extend a strong and viable public sector. In 1986 the LiberalNational Country Party Opposition was sent packing with their privatisation proposals. He concluded that, It is not possible to tackle these issues without also tackling sections of the Labor Party.54 On the same day, a meeting of public sector unions considered the possible effects of the campaign on the 1989 State election. Letters of support from ALP members included one from Dowding, pointing out that the State Executive had decided the previous month to oppose privatisation and that he had publicly adhered to this decision.55 Meanwhile, some of the unions were less supportive. Meecham

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circularised affiliates, announcing a meeting of the anti-privatisation committee on 19 July. A previous meeting on 6 July had been suspended because only two unions sent delegates.56 At the 19 July meeting attended by representatives from five unions and Cooke as TLC delegate it was resolved that the TLC continue to coordinate an information exchange on privatisation issues for affiliates. The meeting canvassed the prospect of continuing a substantial campaign on privatisation issues. Delegates felt that, in view of the development at the ALP National Conference, a focus for organisation had been lost, although the TLCs campaign was continuing to have effect, with responses being received from ALP members and Parliamentarians. This helped to maintain an environment where unions could approach the relevant State Ministers on the issues. Some expressed concern that unions usually became involved in these issues on a reactive basis. The meeting considered the means by which unions could develop a more positive orientation.57 In March 1989, the issue came to the fore once again with the Federal Opposition releasing plans for the privatisation of many Government authorities. Public comments by Bob Hawke indicating some support for this step annoyed the TLC. At a meeting on 14 March, the TLC reaffirmed its support for the ACTU Congress decision of 1987 on public sector and privatisation policy. The resolution stated in part:
Congress is committed to the provisions through the public sector of community services integral to economic activity and to the social wage including communications, health, education, transport, banking, insurance, housing, sanitation, gas, electricity, and water, energy, emergency services and the environment. Congress is strongly committed to an effective, efficient and equitable public sector at the Federal, State and Local Government levels. This should provide modern, timely and relevant service to industry and the community on an equitable basis. Congress believes that these objectives are fully compatible with the direct interventionist role for the public sector in assisting the restructuring of the economy similar to those of the more successful European economies.58

In June, the TLC sent a further resolution to Senator Peter Walsh, reiterating opposition to the sale of Government enterprises.59 Members of a Parliamentary sub committee of the State Liberal Party met with TLC members on 5 July to discuss the issue. Brown addressed this meeting, concluding that there was an overwhelming argument for strong and viable public sector for strategic and service grounds. While some privatisation devices appeared attractive, the conditions and terms of employment simply did not compare with those in the public sector. This was a call to maintain the

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status quo, however. Brown recognised that change was ongoing, demanding new responses. In his address to the meeting, Richard Court stated that the Liberals were opposed to government involvement in the private sector. But the Party believed there was a limited role for government, for example within a mixed public and private power industry. There, the government was in a position to monitor and regulate costs with the benefits of competition. The TLC later sent a long list of questions to the Liberals but these do not appear to have been answered.60 Civil liberties issues Meanwhile, the TLC was engaged in running or supporting campaigns concerning many civil liberties issues, directly or indirectly affecting the Council and its affiliates. These included the right to demonstrate, the peace movement, Aboriginal land rights, and equal opportunity for disadvantaged groups. Of these, perhaps the most significant was the campaign to have Section 54B of the WA Police Act (197679) rescinded. Under Section 54B, it was illegal to conduct a meeting or an assembly of more than three people without first obtaining the Police Commissioners permission. It was also an offence to take part in a meeting if the participants were aware that the meeting was or might be illegal. As the Police Commissioner refused permission for groups to hold meetings or demonstrations deemed to be of a political nature, it became necessary to break the law in order to express dissent. Between June and November 1979, unionists in Karratha were arrested on at least five different occasions for organising or participating in an illegal gathering. (See Chapter Twelve).61 On 3 May 1980, shortly before some of the unionists cases were heard at Karratha, the Civil Liberties Action Group held a public forum in Forrest Place to protest against the erosion of civil liberties. Several more protesters were arrested under Section 54B. At a meeting shortly afterwards, Peter Cook and Kevin Reynolds (BLF) moved a motion reiterating the TLCs opposition to Section 54B and supporting the right of unions, citizens groups or individuals to free speech in Western Australia as a basic democratic right. The motion, which also called for Forrest Place to be returned as a public forum for the use of any group expressing any view subject only to reasonable public behaviour, was carried.62 A lengthy campaign had no effect on the Government, which legislated more amendments to the Act in November 1980, empowering them to appoint special constables during a civil emergency.63

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Throughout the 1980s, the TLC supported the nuclear disarmament movement. In June 1981, the Campaign Against Nuclear Energy (CANE) organised a State Appeal to pay the legal costs of trade unions involved in antiuranium demonstrations. The first fund-raising function was a dinner and film night at the Labor Centre Function Room.64 Bill Latter and Ruth Coleman addressed a peace rally organised by the People for Nuclear Disarmament (PND) on 2 July 1983. The rally coincided with a visit by US warships including a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. Shortly afterwards, the Executive considered a BWIU motion that nuclear-powered ships should be denied access to port facilities. A Council meeting on 12 July adopted a recommendation from the TLC Executive that the Council request Premier Burke to ask Prime Minister Hawke to place a ban on nuclear-powered ships using any facilities on the Western Australian coast.65 It is doubtful that either Burke or Hawke would have given serious consideration to such a request. In 1986, the TLC supported Independent Senator and peace activist, Jo Vallentine, in a campaign asking voters in the Fremantle electorate to write No nuclear ships on the corner of their ballot paper when voting in the 8 February State election. The TLC used the International Year of Peace theme in the annual May Day rally.66 Affiliated unions regularly took part in the annual Palm Sunday Peace rallies during the 1980s, with the 1987 march being particularly successful. An estimated 25,000 people took part. The affiliates also supported Community Aid Abroads Tools for Peace campaign.67 Other campaigns were run in support of the Chile Solidarity Movement and against the South African Governments policy of apartheid.68 Disabled and ethnic workers also gained from the increased emphasis on the need for justice and equal opportunity to be extended to all members of the community. To raise awareness of the problems faced by disabled workers, the TLC invited Sir George Bedbrook, the medical pioneer of spinal injuries and a member of the International Year of Disabled Persons (IYDP) Committee, to address the Council in 1981. The TLC resolved to participate in a tripartite inquiry into industrial law, employment, compensation and training for the purpose of providing a more sympathetic and compassionate attitude towards disabled people. A mid-year seminar on the rights of disabled persons was organised as the TLCs contribution to IYDP, along with a request to affiliates to survey their disabled members and ascertain ways in which the trade union movement could assist them.69 The disabled workers formed their own Action Group. The TLC opposed the Disabled Workers Action Groups desire to form a separate union, because the ACTUs Charter on Disabled Workers stated that they should join existing unions. It was evident, however, that some

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disabled workers felt that their needs were not being met. The TLC resolved to meet the Group and offer assistance including preparing a log of claims to improve working standards for disabled workers.70 In 1986, when the Disabled Workers Action Group applied to register as a union, Tony Beech, the Industrial Advocate for the FMWU, took their application to the WA Industrial Relations Commission. The union was registered on 29 October.71 During the 1980s and early 90s, the State and Federal Governments jointly funded an Arts Officer (Ric McCracken), an Ethnic Affairs Officer (Leo Gatica) and an Employment Centre at the TLC.72 The Employment Centre was established in 1986, with Tony Cooke as coordinator. At a Council meeting shortly afterward, Cooke reported on the Centres principle of assisting nonunionists, in particular members of ethnic minority groups, women, and the young or long-term unemployed. While Cooke believed that the TLC must look after its own, this open door policy would be an opportunity to recruit clients to union membership. Anyone who was assisted by the Employment Centre would be referred to the relevant affiliated union.73 Funding to these programs ceased when Labor lost in the 1993 State election. May Day rallies were often planned to highlight areas of injustice and omission. The last Labour Day parade had been held in Perth in 1972. New look celebrations containing elements of May Day and Labour Day were held in Fremantle in 1975 on the Sunday nearest to May Day, and continued to be held annually.74 The 1993 May Day rally, acknowledging the contribution of Aboriginal people to the union movement and their rights as citizens, was the culmination of another long campaign, including support for the Swan Valley Fringe Dwellers and other Aboriginal communities in seeking redress for their various grievances.75 In March 1980, the Executive condemned the Court Governments encouragement of Amax to drill in designated Aboriginal sacred sites. The TLC asked the ACTU to assist in imposing a ban on the movement of equipment needed for the project.76 Peter Cook, who had a long-standing interest in Aboriginal issues, played a significant role in mustering union support for the Noonkanbah Community. Union officials including AWU State Secretary Gil Barr supported him. The crew of the Richter drill that had been contracted to drill on Noonkanbah were mostly AWU members. At a meeting in Perth, the Richter crew voted to endorse the AWUs recommendation that they ban drilling on Noonkanbah. They held firm to this resolution despite attempts at coercion from their employers. The Court Government forced entry to the site, sending in a convoy of vehicles guarded by police who

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arrested the protesters. They drilled for oil but in a final empty victory for the crushed spirits of the Noonkanbah Community the survey was unsuccessful and they found no deposits.77 On May Day 1993, Carmen Lawrence joined TLC Secretary Rob Meecham, other senior parliamentarians, unionists and members of the Indigenous community in the march. Speakers at the rally included Rob Riley, representing the Aboriginal Legal Service, and the program featured a concert of Indigenous music.78 The presence of visiting speaker, Ndumison Ntshinga, a member of the African National Congress, and of South African and Chilean performers at the May Day concert highlighted the TLCs increasing interest in international labour matters. So, too, did Meechams comments that the Australian labour movement needed to take into account the developments of our neighbours, particularly in South East Asia. This trend was strengthened by the formation of an International Affairs Sub-Committee of the TLC Executive. Likewise, the TLC used the Womens Suffrage Centenary to pay tribute to the contribution of women in the labour movement in the 1999 May Day celebrations. Women had made gradual progress towards equality in the union movement. In 1984, the TLC adopted a recommendation from the Womens Affairs Committee to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and to encourage the Federal Government to recognise the Convention.79 In May 1984, Sharryn Jackson was appointed as TLC Womens Information Officer and played a significant role in the campaign to secure support for the Equal Opportunity Bill (see Chapter Fourteen). Childcare, organised by the Womens Affairs Committee, was made available at every meeting of the Council, despite some rigorous opposition by certain senior members of the Executive. Kevin Reynolds was initially a very strong opponent of Affirmative Action, but later changed his views.80 In 1986, the Womens Committee announced its intention to obtain parenting leave in State and Federal Government Awards; the funding of child care in workplaces; equal pay and opportunity for women; a greater female presence in union executives; highlighting occupational health and safety issues that specifically concerned women workers; and the establishment of a domestic violence task force.81 A Working Party was formed to examine apprenticeship opportunities for women.82 By the mid 1990s, several women held official positions in the Executive of the TLC and some of its affiliates. Stephanie Mayman became the TLCs first female Assistant Secretary in 1995. Helen Creed was the first Western Australian woman to be elected as a Vice President of the ACTU; the first

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female Secretary of the FMWU; and then, in 1999, the Unions first female National President. (In 1999, the union changed its name to the Australian Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union ALHMWU.) Among other women who became union office bearers, Diane Robertson was elected President of the CPSU/CSA, and Sharryn Jackson (ALHMWU), Simone McGurk (AMWU) and Toni Walkington (CPSU/CSA) were elected assistant secretaries of their respective unions. As at October 2000, equal gender representation had been achieved among elected officers of the TLC (now Unions WA), and three Affirmative Action positions had been created for women on the Executive.83 In 2002, Stephanie Mayman became the first female Secretary of the TLC in Western Australia. Further industrial disputes While these advances were being achieved, however, it appeared that the union movement was becoming increasingly disadvantaged by State Government policies. A Special Meeting of the TLC Executive in June 1986 discussed Burkes recently released Economic Statement. The mood of the meeting was angry. Clive Brown and Mark Smith (CSA) moved that the TLC finds abhorrent and totally rejects the decision taken by the State Government to reduce the working conditions of wage and salary earners. The Executive believed that the TLC and the entire union movement cooperated with the State Government on principles contained in the Prices and Incomes Accord. The State Government, however, had never formally endorsed the Accord, had not been prepared to consult the unions and had not used the Accord as a guide for governing relations with the trade union movement in the State. The TLC refused to passively accept a reduction in conditions of employment planned by the State Government and threatened to review its relationship with the Burke administration, with the intention of terminating its cooperative approach to economic and industrial matters. After much discussion, the resolution was adopted, together with a recommendation to form a committee to coordinate a campaign against the Government if it continued to refuse to consult and negotiate with the unions.84 At meetings between the Premier, the TLC Executive and various Ministers in July and August, discussions ranged across superannuation, shorter working hours, house rents, staff cuts and long service leave for government employees. But the TLC remained dissatisfied with the Governments response, and in October decided to activate the Campaign against the Premiers Economic Statement.85

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By the mid 1980s, the Burke Government was gaining a reputation for being as tough with unions as its conservative predecessors had been. In the Governments second term in office there were several serious industrial disputes including a strike on Woodside Offshore Petroleums North Rankin A Platform. The August 1986 Woodside dispute began when the supervisor (known as the toolpusher in the oil and gas industry) refused the workers permission to hold a stop-work meeting to discuss unresolved safety issues. The men were subsequently sacked, but there were differing accounts of their sacking. According to the workers, they were sacked because the toolpusher lost his temper when they left the drill floor to attend the stop-work meeting, but Woodside claimed that they were sacked because they left the drill floor in an unsafe condition. Shortly afterwards, the men were told they would be reinstated if they agreed to sign individual no strike agreements. Woodside and its international joint venturers had invested $11 billion in the oil and gas industry, and had recently signed a big contract to provide liquefied natural gas to Japan. The Japanese attitude to industrial unrest had already been made clear; consequently, the State government was anxious to ensure that the dispute ended quickly. When interviewed on television, David Parker stated that he had previously negotiated a continuity of supply clause not a no strike clause with Woodside, the difference being that the unionists had the right to strike but if they did so, they could not prevent Woodside staff doing their jobs. Parker and Industrial Relations Minister Dowding were anxious to demonstrate that the Burke government could and would get tough with striking unionists. When the men refused to leave the gas platform, Parker told them he would fine them $10,000 per day, and he threatened to ensure that they would never work offshore again if they did not comply. The dispute collapsed and Woodside emerged with the first peacetime essential services agreement between Government, company, unions and workforce.86 Tactics such as these resulted in the Burke Government being severely criticised for its industrial relations record. The resolution of the North-West Shelf dispute has been seen as a victory for both Woodside and the Burke Government, which had showed it could hold its head up with the best of forceful authoritarians but not for the unions.87 In December 1986, a much longer dispute erupted when 900 employees of Robe River Iron Associates (RRIA), a subsidiary of Peko Wallsend, went on strike at Cape Lambert and Pannawonica over unresolved work practices. They claimed that the pay and conditions offered by Robe River were the poorest in the iron ore industry. There was a 33 per cent annual turnover of the workforce, yet the company was seeking further reductions in workers

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conditions and increasing housing, water and power costs.88 Three workers on the picket line at Cape Lambert were charged with assaulting a company staff member. Peko Wallsend began issuing writs against individual unionists, an action which Premier Burke described as the most serious challenge ever mounted against the Australian industrial relations system. In this dispute, the Burke government supported the striking unionists, much to Peko Wallsends annoyance. The unions involved ran the dispute themselves without the TLCs assistance. The ACTU and the Hawke Government intervened in the dispute, and Peko Wallsends Chief Executive Officer, Charles Copeman, agreed not to issue any further writs and to withdraw those already issued, provided a satisfactory settlement could be reached. Initially the workers rejected a package offered by ACTU President Simon Crean, because they felt that it failed to address any of their grievances. On 24 January 1987, an agreement was reached after the company guaranteed ongoing employment to 20 temporary workers, agreed to discuss other grievances, and consented to the disputed work practices being resolved by the Industrial Relations Commission. Copeman was sufficiently frustrated to allege that Parker and Dowding had been trained in Moscow and were using their training in the dispute.89 In June 1988, RRIA announced that it wanted to cancel the existing industrial agreement. The Industrial Commission ordered that the agreement stay in place until a new Award was agreed. RRIA then made a counter claim after the Industrial Commission had granted the unions a 4 per cent rise in wages and superannuation. The workers downed tools. Meecham accused RRIA of constantly vilifying and intimidating workers and attacking working conditions. The TLC believed that Peko Wallsend was using RRIA as a vanguard for implementing the industrial relations policies of the New Right. They called for contributions to a fund to campaign to combat this move.90 The CFMEU staged a four-day strike in November involving four hundred workers. The TLC acknowledged the picket line as being in accordance with ACTU policy. In December, the TLC resolved to ask the ACTU to approach North Broken Hill Peko the company formed by the merger of North Broken Hill and Peko Wallsend and the State Government to intervene and force RRIA to accept its responsibility as a good corporate citizen.91 The company embarked on a propaganda drive to denigrate the unions in workers eyes. No union organisers were permitted in the workplace without a company supervisor; consequently, workers were reluctant to discuss their grievances. The TLC funded a thirty-minute film on the campaign, titled Assault at Robe River. When Clive Brown toured with the film and showed it at the 1989 ACTU Congress, he encountered disbelief in the eastern states that a company

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would treat workers in such a manner. Brown had seen similar anti-union tactics being used in the United States and he realised that many strategies were being imported through the Peko management. In response, he took as many cases as possible to the Industrial Commission.92 By May 1989, the unions were instigating random 24-hour strikes in protest against the constant delays to the hearing of award applications in the Industrial Commission and the Companys threats against unions, including sacking workers who took industrial action. On 12 June 1989, the TLC called a major meeting of all unions with members in the North West. On 28 July a conference of about seventy unionists at Wickham resolved to draw up a Log of Rights (or Workers Rights Charter).93 Brown urged the ACTU Secretary, Bill Kelty, to adopt a national approach to obtaining a Bill of Rights, because the strategy used by Peko at Robe River was very similar to that used by the same company at King Island in Tasmania. Even the same senior company officials were involved.94 A draft Log of Rights Draft committed the parties to a cooperative labour relations approach in which matters are resolved by discussion wherever possible. The Log declared that matters should only be referred to the relevant industrial tribunal after every effort had been made to find an acceptable solution. Consequently, if necessary, discussions would occur at the highest levels of the company and union structures. Because unilateral action taken by one party against the interests of the other could cause unnecessary tension and disruption, the parties would agree that changes sought by one party should be fully discussed before being implemented. The parties would also ensure that employees concerns or grievances were properly and adequately addressed. Accordingly it was agreed that employees should have access to management to raise matters of concern, and should be permitted to have union representatives present during any such discussions. Further, employees should be permitted to consult with their union representative during working hours where it appeared that they may be subject to disciplinary action, or where they had been instructed to carry out duties or work hours that they did not normally perform. The Log of Rights included many other provisions, such as:
Any employee who becomes an on-site union representative shall have the right to: raise issues with management on behalf of a member or group of members [whom] they represent; consult with management, including senior on-site management during working hours; be recognised by management as a representative of the members whom he or

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she represents and be advised by the management of matters which are or are likely to affect each or any of the members they represent; consult with the members they represent; meet with management in the company of union officials to try and resolve matters of concern; communicate and meet with union officials; attend hearings and conferences in the relevant industrial tribunal dealing with issues that relate to the members they represent. The parties agree that all employees will have the right to be treated fairly and equitably by their employer. Accordingly, it is agreed: An employee who raises a concern or complaint or who becomes a union or health and safety representative will NOT be discriminated against in any way.95

Brown corresponded with the Managing Director of Mitsui (a 33 per cent shareholder in Peko) and advised him of the companys obligation towards its employees. He also wrote to the Japanese Minister for International Trade and Industry, explaining that foreign investment and foreign ownership was a sensitive issue in Australia, and major industrial disputes could occur in protest. He stressed the need for an amicable solution to the workers very real grievances; they were working in appalling conditions.96 The TLC supported the Dowding Governments call for more Japanese investment in Western Australia but requested that the Government examine a code of conduct for overseas investors who employed Australian workers. Reciprocally, the Government supported the TLCs campaign for the establishment of a Workers Rights Charter. Dowding acknowledged the TLCs role of maintaining and coordinating the industrial campaign but chose to keep his Government out of the conflict.97 By October 1989, the Workers Rights Charter, which had been signed by a majority of unionists around Australia, was due to be served on Peko. Officials of the ACTU, the TLCWA and unions with members employed by Peko held meetings in Melbourne to discuss the Charter. Peko rejected the Workers Charter on 1 December. The companys lawyers had begun to institute legal proceedings against individual officers of the TLCWA over statements made in relation to the Charter. The TLC requested a national meeting of the ACTU to consider further action, and this occurred on 23 January 1990.98 Throughout 1990, various unions continued to support the Robe River workers, but some members of the TLC leadership became discouraged and embittered by the lack of support from the ACTU. The ACTUs attitude showed a lack of understanding of the local situation in Western Australia. The Executive

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believed that Peko had reacted against corrupt union practices, and that the unions were largely to blame. It was only when a dispute flared in Burnie that ACTU President Martin Ferguson finally recognising the companys strategy contacted Brown and asked his advice. The unions won at Burnie, but the relationship between the TLCWA and the ACTU remained distant for several years.99 The Robe River Iron dispute was never resolved. Dave McLean, an organiser from Queensland, was employed on the site for 12 months, but he made little progress in fostering a culture of unionisation. Eventually, the unions ran out of money, and the site became and remained largely nonunionised. Prior to the 1993 State election, Tony Cooke used the example of the ongoing intimidation of workers at Cape Lambert as an indication of the sort of industrial relations policies favoured by the Coalition.100 Relations between the Coalition and the TLC Robe River was one of several industrial disputes that occurred around Australia in the late 1980s, indicating that the Accord could no longer contain the disaffection felt by militants of both the Left and the Right. In 1989, Keating, then Federal Treasurer, and ACTU Secretary Bill Kelty had come to an agreement whereby workers would receive their promised tax cuts but wage increases over the next financial year would be limited to 6.5 per cent, during a period of high inflation and rising prices. Many unions pushed unsuccessfully for a return to cost-of-living adjustments. In 1991, the ACTU further distanced itself from some of its membership by implementing a system of enterprise bargaining to replace the failing two-tier wages system of Accord Mark III. The TLCWA and many Western Australian unions received the news with astonishment. A common attitude was that the ACTU had sold out the union movement. Others, however, were a little more philosophic, believing that enterprise bargaining was an inevitable consequence of financial deregulation by the Hawke Government in 1983, which was itself a result of the world economic situation.101 What brought the TLCWA back into the ACTU fold was the ascendancy of a powerful, common and traditional enemy. With the State election due early in 1993, the labour movement turned its attention to the proposed industrial policies of the LiberalNational Coalition led by Richard Court. On 30 November 1992, 10,000 people attended a National Day of Action protest rally at Forrest Place. The National Day of Action was called by the ACTU in response to the Kennett Governments industrial reforms in Victoria, and was organised in each state by the TLC. Helen Creed and other union officials

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addressed the gathering. Although rallies were held in several capital cities, Western Australia boasted the biggest turnout per head of population. Speaking on behalf of the TLC, Mayman said that the protest was the most significant since the anti-Vietnam demonstrations. Much of the protest was aimed at Courts proposed industrial policies as well as those already legislated in Victoria by the Kennett administration.102 It was clear from the start of the 1993 election campaign that workplace reform would be a significant issue. Richard Court challenged the TLC to support the Coalitions industrial policies so that an incoming LiberalNational Government could provide more choice, more flexibility in the system and more jobs for our people.103 Cooke, who had recently been elected as TLC Assistant Secretary, replied that the Oppositions call for TLC support was a hollow gesture. Members of the Council had met with Court and Graham Kierath (Opposition Spokesperson for Industrial Relations), but the outcome of these discussions had not been encouraging.104 In a letter to Rob Meecham on 2 February 1993, Kierath accused the TLC of irresponsibility and of perpetrating a blatant campaign of lies concerning the nature of the Coalitions industrial relations policy. He demanded that the TLC issue public statements through the media prior to polling day, refuting lies that unions would be prevented from representing employees, and that workers would be forced to sign [individual workplace agreements] or resign.105 Instances of workers being forced to sign or resign were occurring already.106 Shortly after its electoral victory, the Court Government began announcing decisions that would result in massive job losses and changes to existing industrial legislation, and weaken the bargaining power of individual workers and unions. In April, the Coalition reneged on an election promise that they would re-equip the Westrail Workshops at Midland and ensure their long term future, by announcing that the Workshops would instead be closed. The closure was part of a planned package of reforms for Westrail, which the government argued were economically necessary. The unions objected that the Government based its decision upon evidence that was flimsy and lacking in detail. Over 1,000 workers were faced with the choice of accepting either a redundancy package or redeployment. Under the leadership of Meecham and Cooke, the union movement launched an enormous public campaign to save the workshops. Activities included marches, demonstrations, petitions, media releases, videos in shopping centres and pamphleteering to raise public awareness of the issues. The railway workers received considerable public sympathy, especially because the government was obviously breaking an election promise. Court exacerbated public discontent by announcing that the

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Robb Jetty Meat Works would close on 30 June with a loss of 200 jobs, and he foreshadowed staff cuts in Bank West, the State Government Insurance Commission, and the State Electricity Commission.107 On 17 June 1993, the day the Governor, Sir Francis Burt, was due to open Parliament for the first time since the Coalition had come to office, a huge crowd assembled in Forrest Place and marched up the hill to Parliament House. Some of the invited guests were forced to enter through side doors to avoid the demonstrators. About one-third of the States government school teachers went on strike on the Day of Action, causing considerable disruption and inconvenience to the public. Despite these efforts, however, the campaign to save the Midland Workshops was unsuccessful, and one of the States oldest major industrial workplaces closed its doors in March 1994 after 90 years of operation.108 While the campaign to save the workshops was still in operation, the Coalition began introducing amendments to the existing industrial legislation in Parliament. Introduced in three separate sittings of Parliament, this legislation became known as the first wave, the second wave and the third wave.109 The first wave, introduced in December 1993, consisted of three major pieces of legislation that Yvonne Henderson, the Shadow Minister for Labour Relations, described as having the capacity to undermine wages and working conditions in this State in a way not seen in the last hundred years. The legislation replaced existing award structures and centralised bargaining with individual workplace agreements contracts of employment that [could] provide the most basic conditions in line with the Minimum Conditions of Employment Bill.110 It also curtailed the pre-existing rights of workers to claim damages in addition to entitlements under the Workers Compensation Act. The legislation forced a worker to produce evidence of a 30 per cent loss of bodily function as a result of the injury or a future earnings loss equivalent to a current prescribed amount of $104,000.111 The TLC organised a Planning Seminar in July to discuss the proposed legislation, to promote unionisation and to examine its own role in the campaign. One outcome was that the TLC prepared a document outlining the legal situation that unions faced as a result of the new legislation. The TLC also devised new strategies to help unions cope with the changes, including access consultancy services on business planning and marketing, establishing membership targets, and a draft code of ethics by which unions could voluntarily regulate their activities in the transition period after the new legislation was passed.112 In July 1995, the Government introduced in Parliament the second wave legislation, containing provisions for placing restrictions on union entry to workplaces and on unions making political donations. The TLC Executive

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established a Campaign Working Group in cooperation with the ALP. In October, members of the ALP and TLC Executives held meetings with the Federal Minister for Industrial Relations, Laurie Brereton, and with members of the ACTU Federal Executive to discuss national implications of the WA Regulations in the context of the first and second wave reforms. These meetings achieved a greater awarenss among Federal ALP and ACTU members of the sweeping nature of the Court legislation and its implications for workers around Australia. Furthermore, industrial relations was fast becoming a issue that was closing the gap in polling between the Government and the Opposition.113 Shortly afterwards, the Court Government was forced to withdraw the legislation because of pressure from the Federal Opposition, who intervened because they feared that the controversy surrounding the new Bill would jeopardise their hopes of winning the 1996 Federal election. John Howard led the Coalition to victory, after which the ALP was left with only 3 of WAs 14 House of Representatives seats. The industrial legislation revamped and presented again in Parliament by Industrial Relations Minister Graham Kierath on 20 March 1997, three months after the Court Governments second electoral victory became known as the third wave.114 On 26 March, under the leadership of State Secretary Tony Cooke and Deputy Stephanie Mayman, the TLC launched a massive protest campaign of industrial action including strikes, saturation advertising and public education. The TLC set up a web site on the third wave that contained comments on the proposed legislation from various community groups, such as churches, the International Labour Organisation and the Society of Industrial Lawyers.115 There was some encouragement for the labour movement. An unprecedented situation had occurred in Western Australian political history as a result of the Labor Governments reform of the Legislative Council. Although Courts government had been returned to power in the December 1996 State election with a larger majority than in 1993, the Upper House, for the first time, would not have a conservative majority after the new Councillors took their seats on 22 May 1997. Court promised that he would get the third wave legislation through the Upper House before that date. As in similar situations created by the Brand and Court Governments in the 1960s and 70s, much of the publics anger centred on the legislature, and many attempts were made to hold up the process of debate. Union protests from the public gallery disrupted proceedings on several occasions in April. In another parallel with the Brand Governments 1963 industrial relations reforms, the government was prepared to use the guillotine, a device to limit debate.116

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On 29 April, an estimated 30,000 people marched from the city to Parliament House. It was reportedly the largest demonstration ever to have occurred in Perth. Speakers included ACTU President Jennie George, who gave strong support to the campaign. Several years of watching the Kennett Government in action in Victoria had at last convinced the ACTU leadership that the kind of union-smashing activities practised by Peko Wallsend were not limited to the mining industry. Conservative governments such as the Kennett and Court administrations created a climate in which employers could easily launch attacks on unions. Furthermore, the industrial reforms being proposed by Federal Industrial Relations Minister Peter Reith were modelled on those achieved by Keirath in Western Australia. Consequently, the struggle in the West assumed a new significance. ACTU officials Tim Pallas, Greg Combet and Sharran Burrowes lent their support.117 The 29 April demonstration was the genesis of the most successful element of the third wave protests, the Workers Embassy. The Workers Embassy began as a caravan that three unionists parked in the grounds of Parliament House in the pre-dawn hours on the day of the march. When approached by security guards, the unionists said the caravan was a First Aid Post, and were surprised when they were allowed to leave it there. The caravan remained on site after the march. On the night of 30 April, Kim Young, Assistant Secretary of the Builders Labourers, Painters and Plasterers Union (BLPPU), and three other unionists were arrested and charged with remaining on the premises. By the time they were released it was 12.30 am on the cold, wet morning of 1 May. The unionists returned to Parliament House to find that the police had packed up the Embassy and arranged for a private contractor to tow the caravan away. They persuaded the contractor instead to tow the caravan to vacant land opposite the back of Parliament House. This site became Solidarity Park.118 The Workers Embassy was pegged out as a mining lease on land owned partly by the State Government and partly by the Perth City Council. For the next six months, it was staffed around the clock by unionists from a wide variety of trades and professions. From a temporary camp, the Embassy grew into a little settlement with even a vegetable patch (known as Solidarity Garden). It was also the focus of protest, ritual and theatre, including parades in St Georges Terrace, featuring large effigies of Richard Court and Graham Kierath. Peoples theatre was performed frequently on a truck outside Parliament House. Fund raising activities, such as concerts, were staged, too.119 Murdoch University student Jo Brown, who took part in the campaign, described the carnival atmosphere around the Workers Embassy, where

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anger, for the most part, has been replaced by subversion premised on parody or a general piss-take of the Governments plans for so-called industrial reform.120 But there were grimmer and sadder reminders of the dangers still confronting many unionists in their daily working lives, and of the seriousness of the struggle. The first solid structure erected at Solidarity Park was a 3-metre high brick memorial to Mark Allen, a 23-year-old BLPPU organiser who died as the result of an accident while he was inspecting safety breaches on a demolition site in East Perth on 6 September 1996. Later, two boundary walls were added, one of which was designated as a Wall of Remembrance to those killed or injured in workplaces.121 Allens death became a focus of unionists anger in particular for those working in the construction industry. Changes to the Occupational Safety and Health Act in 1996, and to Worksafe policy, meant that the unions no longer had a role in implementing occupational health and safety legislation, nor did industrial inspectors carry out random inspections of worksites.122 Significantly, the Mark Allen Memorial is surmounted by the triple 8 signifying the eight hour day one of the earliest struggles won by the union movement at the turn of the century. It served as a reflection of how much ground had been lost with the introduction of the new industrial relations legislation and workplace agreements, and with the decline in union membership. Although the Embassy remained open until November, the campaign to obstruct and prevent the passing of the legislation peaked on 14 and 15 May 1997, when union officials occupied the Upper House and set up a picket line. Consequently, proceedings were removed to a committee room and the legislation passed through both Houses. The TLC then changed tactics, by beginning a campaign of defiance against the new laws. In July, the ALP attempted to have an Upper House Committee on Public Administration scrutinise the legislation. The Embassy survived several attempts at eviction from the site by the Minister for Lands, Doug Shave, after the Perth City Council voted to return its portion of the site to the State Government. From the end of July, however, the TLC made plans to vacate the site, although determined to stay until after the Governments eviction notice expired on 20 September. It was resolved to occupy the site until midnight on 5 November. An increased union presence gathered in the last few days and celebrated with a Guy Fawkes-style bonfire, using an effigy of Industrial Relations Minister Graham Kierath as the Guy.123 The site had been re-named Solidarity Park in August 1997. This was appropriate as the protest created a level of unity and common purpose among the unions that formed the basis of an ongoing

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campaign in the late 1990s. This campaign included plans for an occupational health and safety structure within the union movement to parallel Worksafe WA, and a Job Summit to discuss issues of industrial policy.124 The MUA dispute Fresh from its decisive electoral victory in 1996, the Howard Federal Government, too, launched an assault upon Labors industrial laws. While commencing with a different approach, the Federal Government set out to achieve the same end reducing the power of the unions. But Western Australia had already had a taste of what could happen when the government supported the ani-union tactics of waterfront employers. In May 1995, Transport Minister Eric Charlton again raised union fury by announcing that Len Buckeridge had been granted the Stateships Stevedoring contract because his company BAAC had placed the cheapest tender. Buckeridge, whom the West Australian described as wealthy builder, strong Liberal supporter and renowned anti-unionist, was already hated in union circles for an earlier incident in which he had driven a car into a picket line. Consequently, the union movement was sceptical when Charlton denied that it was part of a government plan to smash waterfront unions. The Maritime Workers Union (MUA)125 went on strike over the issue of non-union labour being employed by Stateships. The union established a picket line near the BAAC Stevedores building. They were supported by other unionists and by the MUAs Federal Executive in calling for a 24-hour national strike on 22 May. MUA National Secretary John Coombs travelled to Fremantle to visit the picket line. The strike brought WA shipping to a halt for two days, and ended when the State Government backed down and agreed to use union labour on Stateships vessels. Wharfies sang Bye bye Buckeridge over megaphones to mark their victory as the shipping magnate left his office.126 Throughout the second half of 1997, the Howard Government turned its attention to the waterfront and the MUA. Battle lines between the MUA on the one side, and the Federal Government and waterside employers such as Patrick Stevedores on the other, were drawn at the North Queensland port of Cairns on 10 September 1997. Northern Shipping and Stevedoring the only employer of union labour on the Cairns waterfront lost its contract to load cargo for International Purveyors, a company of the mining transnational Freeport McMoran. Under the new industrial relations and anti-boycott laws,

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the MUA faced heavy fines if it set up a picket line. The union won this particular dispute only with the assistance of the International Transport Workers Federation.127 Over the next few months, rumours abounded about when and where the next attack would occur. On the night of 7 April 1998, at the beginning of Easter, Patrick Stevedores chairman, Chris Corrigan, sacked his 2,000-strong workforce. In every major port where Patrick operated, guards with dogs entered the wharf and ordered the workers to leave. Many unionists resisted. Fremantle MUA branch secretary Terry Buck and 60 unionists refused to leave until the police arrived. Picket lines were soon set up in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Fremantle in defiance of government legislation. At Fremantle, local clergy supported the protest by blessing the picket line in a candle-light service on Easter Sunday morning, and they continued to hold Sunday services throughout the dispute. An urgent meeting of TLC affiliates on 14 April received and endorsed MUA Assistant Secretary Paddy Crumblins report and MUA strategies for the campaign. This meeting directed that a 24hour roster of unions be re-established as at the Workers Embassy to support the MUA presence at Patricks Wharf. A telephone tree of union and community contacts was developed for rapid response when needed. All affiliates were mobilised to organise financial support.128 Unionists and supporters established a community at the picket line, with a creche, meeting rooms, entertainments and artists, public facilities, power, lights and even a giant TV screen. State and Federal parliamentarians visited, and Carmen Lawrence organised a benefit concert that raised $3,500 for the families of the sacked workers. At night, non-union labour was flown in by helicopter. The police played searchlights on the crowd, attempting to create an atmosphere of fear. Tactical response group units wearing riot gear tried to disperse the picket line. A participant described the scene.
When the call came that trucks were on their way, everyone lined up 50 metres from the Patricks gate, six rows, of around 120 people, seven deep. They lay prone, linked arms, legs, ankles whatever grip they could get. The police moved in. People were put in the back of the paddy wagon, driven 200 metres down the road, let out and made their way back. As soon as they saw no trucks were getting through, they linked arms and stood firm.129

Crumblin said that Western Australia was the only state to use the tactical response group against civilians, but there were violent incidents at the Sydney and Melbourne pickets, too. Two nights later, a group of farmers attempted to

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cross the Fremantle picket line. Again, helicopters and search lights were used to intimidate and confuse the crowd. Again, the tactics were unsuccessful. On 21 April, Justice North handed down his decision calling for the reinstatement of all of the Patrick workers. In Fremantle, unionists celebrated by naming their picket line The Tom Edwards Stand, in memory of another dispute 79 years previously.130 The ACTU played a significant role in this dispute, with members of the Executive visiting the docks and working alongside union and TLC officials in each state. MUA National Secretary John Coombs and ACTU Assistant Secretary Greg Combet scored a major victory in negotiating an end to the notorious 15-hour double shifts that wharfies had been forced to work. But there were compromises, too. A settlement between the union and Patrick on 5 August resulted in over 600 redundancies slightly over a third of those planned by the stevedoring company. Patrick agreed to drop all charges against the union and pay over $1.8 million in legal costs and all outstanding wages.131 That the battle was not over was proven by a further attempt to drive out unionists from the wharf in Geraldton in November. The MUA successfully launched a conspiracy case against the WA Government and the Geraldton Port Authority. The union alleged that the Port Authority, former Transport Minister Eric Charlton and his successor, Murray Criddle, conspired to rid the port of its workers because they were MUA members. On 20 November, Judge Nicholson of the Federal Court ruled that the Port Authority could not dismiss any of its employees on the grounds of redundancy. But the judgement did not oblige the Geraldton Port Authority to withdraw any existing offers of redundancy packages and a few workers accepted these.132 At the time of writing, the situation between the Federal Government and the MUA could best be described as an uneasy truce. Occurring on the eve of the labour movements official centenary in Western Australia, the war on the wharves, as it became known, inevitably drew comparisons with events of the 1890s. In 1898, before the early Trades and Labor Councils had formed their State-wide labour organisation, the Fremantle Lumpers Union went on strike to protect their working conditions and the unions closed shop on the wharves. After a century of industrial struggle and change, it seemed that some things remained depressingly similar to those early days. In 1999, the ACTU claimed that Australians were working in excess of 19 million hours of overtime (or the equivalent of 500,000 jobs) each week, and that 60 per cent of these overtime hours were unpaid. According to ACTU statistics, more than 50 per cent of full-time workers worked over 40 hours per week, and more than one-third worked over 49 hours per week.133 In view of the fact that most workers secured a 44-hour week in

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the 1920s, and a 40-hour week 50 years ago, these statistics were particularly discouraging for the union movement. They showed that working conditions had regressed in the last quarter of the twentieth century, and that just as in the political arena new tactics and strategies were required to stem this trend.

Chapter Sixteen

A New Agenda for a New Century

The history of the labour movement in Western Australia, as elsewhere, has been largely a history of struggle and reform. Had the men and women who met at the early Congresses foreseen the situation of their counterparts in the 1990s, they would doubtless have been encouraged by the advances in some aspects of industrial reform but disappointed by the regression in others. The last six years of the twentieth century were years of political and legal struggle for the Party. Electoral defeat occurred for the State ALP in 1993 and 1996, and for the Federal ALP in 1996 and 1998. At the same time, the Western Australian Branch suffered the outcomes of the royal commission into WA Inc and the Marks royal commission into the so-called Easton affair. Electoral Defeat According to public opinion polls, throughout most of her Premiership Carmen Lawrence received a much higher approval rating than the Leader of the Opposition, Richard Court. A December 1992 poll indicated that the ALP might win another term at the forthcoming State election. From September, however, the Government became implicated in a series of political controversies involving the allocation of a 150-hectare site north of Perth to the Notre Dame Catholic University; the failed Western Women Group; and the Premiers alleged misuse of travel funds, from which she was subsequently exonerated. Lawrence survived a no-confidence motion in Parliament over the Notre Dame site, while a censure motion against the government over the same matter was defeated in October.1 The election was historic for two reasons: it ended the first four-year term of a Western Australian Parliament, and it was the first time that the Liberal and National parties had campaigned as a coalition. The Labor campaign centred on making voters aware that they were choosing between the positive policies of a Carmen Lawrence Government and the divisive policies of Richard Courts Liberals. Lawrences centrepiece was her Added Value economic statement, which emphasised the need to develop more secondary industry to process the states mineral wealth another attempt by Labor to stop the State

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being used merely as a quarry for transnational companies. The Liberals Guilty Party advertising campaign exploited the findings of the royal commission as much as possible. Court accused the Government of deceit and betrayal, while playing down any ideological connection between his Party and the new, unpopular Kennett government in Victoria, and remaining vague about his own policies. He promised that there would not be any public service sackings in order to make economies. The resulting 2.9 per cent swing away from Labor on polling day was sufficient to put the conservative coalition into government for the first time in a decade. Casualties included Pam Beggs in Whitford, Jackie Watkins in Wanneroo and Keith Wilson in Dianella. Kay Hallahan made the transition to the Lower House, succeeding Bob Pearce in Armadale. Among the successful new Labor candidates was radio journalist Diana Warnock, who won the seat of Perth, defeating the Liberals candidate, Hal Colebatch Junior, whose father had been Premier during the 4 May 1919 wharf riot in Fremantle.2 Inevitably, the findings of the royal commission were central to the public perception of Labor during the campaign, but it is difficult to ascertain the extent of their impact upon the result. Had Lawrence refused to call the royal commission, that would have become the Liberal Partys main election point. Although its findings were, indeed, negative for the Party and for several individual members, the commission created standards of accountability by which politics in the State could henceforth be judged. The ALP entered Opposition with 24 Lower House seats, a creditable result considering the circumstances. In South Australia, the State ALP emerged from the election following the failure of the State Bank a fiasco comparable to WA Inc with only 11 seats.3 The 1993 Federal election saw Labor returned with Paul Keating as Prime Minister, but five Western Australians ended their political careers: Pat Giles and Peter Walsh retired from the Senate, Rick Charlesworth retired from the seat of Perth being succeeded by Stephen Smith and Carolyn Jakobsen and Ron Edwards were defeated in their respective seats of Cowan and Stirling.4 The Marks royal commission The controversies that had begun to gather around Lawrence while she was Premier continued in Opposition. On 5 November 1992, John Halden MLC had presented a petition on behalf of Brian Mahon Easton, the former Chief Executive of Exim, in the Legislative Council. It contained allegations about his former wife, Penny, and the then Leader of the Opposition, Richard Court.

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Mrs Easton committed suicide four days later. Lawrence denied any knowledge of the petition prior to 4 November the day before it was tabled in Parliament. In April 1995, however, former Health Minister Keith Wilson told a journalist that the petition had been discussed in Cabinet on 2 November, and that he and several other Ministers had strongly opposed raising it in Parliament. Wilson resigned 11 days after the Cabinet meeting over an unrelated matter. Deputy Premier Ian Taylor later testified that he had threatened to resign after the petition was tabled, but decided not to because he reflected that Lawrence was not necessarily responsible for Haldens actions. Several other Cabinet members later testified that they had opposed the petition being tabled in Parliament because it was a Family Court matter.5 On 9 May 1995, the Court Government announced that it would appoint a royal commission to investigate whether the circumstances surrounding Haldens presentation involved conduct that was an improper or inappropriate use of executive power or public office or was motivated by improper or inappropriate considerations. The royal commission was given a brief to identify all persons, Ministers of the Crown, members of Parliament, [their] staff and holders of public office who were in any way involved. Mr Justice Marks was appointed to chair the royal commission that subsequently bore his name. In Parliament, Halden attacked the Government for omitting Brian Eastons name from a list of relevant persons. He insisted that this omission indicated that the proposed royal commission would be just another witch hunt.6 Halden was alluding to the royal commission into WA Inc that some Labor members believed had turned into a witch hunt for members of the Burke and Dowding Governments. This time, it appeared, the witch was Carmen Lawrence. At Paul Keatings urging, Lawrence successfully made the transition from State to Federal politics in March 1994, winning the seat of Fremantle after John Dawkins retired. Her win was hailed in the Labor press as sweet victory.7 Lawrence went immediately onto the front bench, and was being promoted in the media as a probable Deputy Prime Minister and even the first female Prime Minister at the time the Court Government announced its royal commission.8 In the State ALP, the West Australian reported that a faction struggle was brewing over who should succeed Lawrence.9 Ian Taylor was elected Party Leader at a Caucus meeting on 4 February, but, to the medias surprise, Kay Hallahan emerged as Deputy Leader rather than either McGinty or Gallop.10 On 12 October 1994, Ian Taylor stood down from the Party Leadership in favour of Jim McGinty. Taylor stated that he was not up to the leadership.11 McGinty was Party Leader when Court announced the appointment of the

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Marks royal commission in May 1995. The day after Halden had criticised the omission of Eastons name from a list of people relevant to the investigations, McGinty attacked the proposed royal commissions terms of reference. He moved that the House express its grave concerns over the narrowness of these terms, which excluded full scrutiny of matters raised before the Family Court; and the roles of Richard Court, members of the legal profession, the Official Corruption Commission and Brian Easton. These limitations, together with Eastons exclusion, led McGinty to conclude that the terms of reference have been drafted with one person in sight that is, Dr Lawrence.12 The Marks royal commission commenced on 20 June 1995. Lawrence announced that she would challenge the validity of the inquiry in the Supreme Court, and that if this failed, she would seek leave to appeal to the High Court. Throughout her testimony before the royal commission, Lawrence maintained that she did not recall the cabinet meeting on 2 November. She had an extremely heavy work load at the time, dealing with such issues as land for the Notre Dame University, the Swan Brewery dispute, the Western Australian economy, and dissension surrounding the Collie power station. Her first recollection of the petition was the day before it was tabled. In July 1999, four years after the Marks royal commission, Dr Lawrence was finally acquitted of charges that she had given false evidence.13 John Halden had been acquitted of similar charges three months earlier. Both had suffered politically and personally, Lawrence having resigned all her Shadow portfolios in March 1996 because of the pending court case. Federal and State elections, 1996 From an electoral point of view, 1996 was a disastrous year for the ALP. The Federal election on 2 March gave the LiberalNational Coalition a sound victory. Although Smith, Lawrence and Beazley held Perth, Fremantle and Brand respectively, the ALP lost Beazleys former seat of Swan and Kalgoorlie, where ex-ALP member Graeme Campbell stood as an Independent, defeating Ian Taylor, who had resigned his State seat to stand.14 At a State by-election on 16 March, the ALP candidate, Megan Anwyl, secured the seat in a sevencandidate contest, scoring over 54 per cent of the final count. Labor retained only 3 of 14 House of Representatives seats in WA.15 In the aftermath, Keating retired from politics, and the Party leadership for the first time passed to a Western Australian-born Member of Parliament, Kim Beazley, on 19 March 1996.

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The uncertainty that the SPLP felt during 1996 surfaced in further doubts about McGintys leadership, particularly following a poll indicating that he was unpopular and unlikely to lead the Party to victory in the forthcoming election. At a Caucus meeting on 7 October, McGinty conceded that he had failed to sell the Partys image to the public. He had lost confidence in his ability to lead the Party. In a press statement, McGinty said that it was his decision to resign from the Party leadership; elsewhere, however, the move was interpreted as a victory for the Right over the Left faction. On 8 October, Deputy Geoff Gallop was elected Party Leader becoming the ALPs fourth Leader in as many years, with McGinty accepting the Deputys position. With 10 years of parliamentary experience, including 3 years in various portfolios in the Lawrence Government and a further 3 years in the Shadow Ministry, Gallop came to the position with considerably more experience than some of his recent predecessors. McGinty said that Gallop would engage the community in a debate about a vision for Western Australia heading into the twenty-first century. But others were more sceptical. Graham Edwards commented that Jim handing over the reins to Geoff is not enough unless we all become a damn sight more positive about our chances at the next election.16 At the December State election, former Speaker Mike Barnett vacated the seat of Rockingham, and Kay Hallahan, Yvonne Henderson and David Smith all retired from the Legislative Assembly. New candidates included Alannah MacTiernan in Armadale, Mark McGowan in Rockingham, Melissa Parke in Mitchell, ABC television journalist Alan Carpenter in the new seat of Willagee, and Assistant State Secretary, Lois Anderson, in the South West Region. All but Parke and Anderson were elected.17 Increasingly, candidates were preselected as a result of factional deals. The ALP won only 19 out of 57 seats in the Legislative Assembly, and 12 out of 34 seats in the Legislative Council. Ironically, the massive defeat in the Lower House was accompanied by the end of the Liberal majority in the Upper House, with the balance of power being held by minorities: the WA Greens holding three seats, and the Democrats, two.18 Of the 31 seats held by Labor, 8 belonged to women.19 The 1999 State Conference On 8 and 9 May 1999 just over 100 years since 28 men from 2 Trades and Labour Councils had met for the first Western Australian Labor Congress in Coolgardie the 38th State Conference convened at the Passenger Terminal, Fremantle, with 415 delegates attending. The issue that attracted the most media coverage was Labors policy on logging in old growth forests in the

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States South West, which had been developed by Judy Edwards as Labors spokesperson for the Environment. In the months preceding the conference, Gallop made it clear that he supported a policy of retaining old growth forests, despite incurring the anger of unionists in timber and related industries. This was exacerbated in March when the Court Government introduced its Regional Forests Agreement (RFA) which permitted continued logging in old growth forests, and which timber workers believed would prevent further job losses. The AWU, the union representing most of the States loggers, objected strongly to Gallops stance. State Secretary Tim Daly stated that a greener policy was not in the partys best interests. Another opponent was Kevin Reynolds, State Secretary of the giant CFMEU, who threatened to withhold funds and union support from incumbent politicians [who] pushed policies which put jobs last. But he expressed support for Gallop as Party Leader.20 It was obvious that the Forest debate would be the centrepiece of the State Conference, even though the entire State Platform was being overhauled. When Gallop addressed the Conference on the morning of 8 May, he began by stating that the party needed a new agenda for a new century. His opening sentences were accompanied by a salvo of horns from the timber trucks of the pro-logging lobby, parked outside the conference centre, but they were too far away to make much impact, and Gallop was able to laugh off the interference. He reminded delegates of the steps that the Party had already taken over the past century to conserve the environment, beginning with Scaddans appointment of a Conservator of Forests in 1916. Particularly significant moves were the Tonkin Governments first environment policy in 1971 and the creating of the Shannon River Basin National Park in 1983. Gallop reminded the delegates that Conference set Labors agenda, which was taken into Parliament by the Partys elected representatives. The Leaders message was clear. It was all very well to see the Court Government as protector of jobs in the timber industry, but what about the squandered opportunities, the creation of job insecurity engendered in policies of selling off government assets, contracting out government services and destroying trade unions, and the massive resources spent on the Perth CBD: the construction of the Northbridge Tunnel, and the proposed Bell Tower and sinking of Riverside Drive? Gallop also stated that a policy of preserving the old growth forest would create more jobs in national parks and tourism.21 The Forest debate occupied much of the first afternoon at the two-day Conference. Gallop moved and Edwards seconded an amendment to the Conservation and Environment Section of Labors Platform, that the Party adopt a policy of no logging in old growth forests after 2003, and of creating

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individually tailored worker assistance plans to help those whose jobs would be lost. They argued that old growth forests are irreplaceable and that both ecological and economic reasons demanded a change of policy. Supporters of the Gallop/Edwards amendment included Willagee MLA Alan Carpenter and Alannah MacTiernan, the Member for Armadale. Carpenter said that clear felling did not create majestic jarrah trees. He asked how many blue collar jobs would be lost if Labor failed to win the next election and how many had been lost since the last? The RFA did not give timber workers a future. Thousands of people demonstrated in favour of preserving the old growth forests. MacTiernan reminded the delegates that she was presently working with the AWU to relocate workers already displaced by the present governments policies. Relocation of workers was a very difficult thing to achieve, but she was certain that this was the right course of action. She had surveyed the residents of Kelmscott and found that everyone who responded wanted old growth logging stopped. The FMWU provided further support for the amendment, stating that unionists needed to look to the future and accept change as inevitable. The support of the Transport Workers and the CFMEU was vital to the amendments success.22 Tim Daly and Julian Grill moved and seconded a counter amendment. Daly claimed that saving old growth forests would cost blue-collar jobs and was a policy of support for the wealthy. Such a policy would shaft blue-collar Labor voters and would not win Labor new seats or assist present Members to retain their seats. Grill, the most convincing of the opponents, asserted that evidence (from CALM and elsewhere) showed that without old growth forests the State would not have a logging industry until 2025, and that approximately 10,000 jobs would be lost, if those in sawmills and related industries were included. After a debate lasting one-and-a-half hours, the vote was taken by a roll call and resulted in a 235 to 155 victory for the Gallop/Edwards amendment to preserve old growth forests. Immediately, supporters began handing out bumper stickers reading Save Old Growth Forest: Vote Labor.23 Although the Forest debate attracted much media and public attention, the Conference made other significant changes to the Party Platform. Delegates voted in favour of John Cowdells resolution to recommit the ALP to its longheld principle of free education, and directed Members of the Legislative Council to vote against the Court Governments Education Bill that would establish a compulsory $235 high school fee. They also voted to make discrimination on the ground of sexual orientation illegal, to lower the age of consent for homosexual sex from 21 to 16, and to consider laws to recognise same-sex couples relationships. Commitments for the next Labor Government

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included repealing the Court Governments workplace agreement legislation, and improving services for children and families, including appointing a childrens ombudsman, establishing an Office of Children, and granting funding only to child care centres that paid award wages. The Conference voted to place strict controls on the privatisation of public sector services and government business enterprises; to reappraise legislation regarding heroin and other hard drugs, and to decriminalise the possession of limited amounts of marijuana for personal use. A move by Administrative Committee member Michael Schaper and Trent Smith, of the Brentwood/Mt Pleasant ALP, to change the Partys rules so that the Leader of the SPLP could be elected by a direct vote of all party members was unsuccessful. Schaper and Smith believed that the direct-election process (already used by New Labour in Britain) would be a means of keeping our politicians in touch with the broader community and of providing members with a tangible role to play in the party. A majority vote amended Branch rules to increase the extent to which branch members influenced the selection of Party candidates.24 As befitting a centenary conference, delegates were reminded by several speakers that the Party had a long and honourable history and a significant role to play in the nations future. At the Conference dinner, Kim Beazley, as guest speaker, continued the theme of looking forward by stating:
Labor must have policies for WAs future, and not have our eyes on the battles of the past. We must stand and fight for the things we believe in, and stand firmly against a Government whose greatest and most passionate commitment is always to ideology gone mad in particular an unshakeable obsession with suppressing organised labour at any cost It is our task, all of us, as committed West Australian Labor people, to pull in behind Geoff Gallops vision of what Labor can do for WA.25

That morning, Gallop had reminded delegates of South Australian Labor leader, John McPherson, a century ago, who though dying of cancer at the age of 37 had still thought foremost of his beloved labour movement. He recalled the historical importance of the words Tell the boys to pull together to the WA labour movement.26 That evening, Beazley was giving the twentyfirst centurys equivalent: pull in behind Geoff Gallops vision of what Labor can do for WA. 18991999 If the labour pioneers of 1899 could have been present at Fremantle in 1999, would they have recognised in the proceedings the principles of the Party that

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they had set out to establish? They would certainly have agreed with concerns that Award wages were paid to workers, the on-going commitment to free education at primary and secondary level, and moves to give a greater share of decision-making to the rank and file. The Labor women, in particular, would have praised moves to provide more protection for children. So the pioneers would have recognised within the 1999 resolutions some underlying principles that were relevant in their time, but, inevitably, much would have challenged and confused them. According to Bob McMullan, the contemporary challenge for the Party lies in changing paths to traditional goals. He saw those goals as a commitment to the belief that government should continue to play a role in ensuring that social development generates jobs and creates a society of decent values, and to being pro-active about where jobs are coming from. Essentially, the ALP should continue to assist people of greatest need by creating and distributing wealth and opportunity giving people power over their lives instead of power over other people. An on-going challenge was that some of the fundamentals of the ALP were products of a different era. In a society where only 23 per cent of the adult workforce belonged to a union, to insist that the Party is no more than the political voice of the trade union movement would condemn it to being a permanent minority party.27 Geoff Gallop has observed that like the society of which it is part, the Labor Party is a more complex body than it was in its first 20 years of existence. During the first half of the twentieth century, there was a relatively straightforward connection between class and party in Australia. This is no longer the case but at its core Labor is still a party of the working class and of its three basic traditions labourism, radicalism and nationalism. Yet that core is insufficient to make a majority and Labor has to move out to convince wider social layers of its plausibility.28 In 1999, Gallop reiterated the values that he saw as underpinning the Party. These were: a strong commitment to democracy and to accountability between people and government; a need to incorporate social and environmental questions in government; justice and fairness in relations between employers and employees; and the concept of socialism as state ownership of the means of production and distribution being a means rather than an end.29 The composition of the Party has undergone great change. At the first Trades Union Congress in 1899, the group consisted of Anglo-Australian male trade unionists, mostly from the skilled workforce, with minimal formal education. The political branch of the labour movement was virtually nonexistent at first, and even after Labor held government, the Party was

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dominated by unions and organised as a loose federation of semi-autonomous District Councils. Very few women took part in industrial and political decisions outside of their own organisations. Their participation has increased slowly, although women are still in the minority in leadership positions and among the ranks of Parliamentarians. The standards of education have risen, as the movements pioneers would have hoped when they insisted upon establishing free university education. Now, many Members of Parliament and other leaders in the Party are University educated. As yet, the Ango-Australian composition of the Party is little changed. The contribution by Indigenous and other non-Anglo people in the labour movement is only just beginning to be recognised. Other changes have occurred in the areas where Labor traditionally found support. Originally, the majority of WA Labor Members of Parliament represented Goldfields seats. Later, the metropolitan area returned more Labor Members. But where does the Party stand in relation to its traditional bluecollar base? Curtin University social scientist Dr David Charnocks research has shown that unionists were still more likely to vote ALP in 1996, but as ALP Members themselves are very aware unionists are a decreasing political base in an increasingly hostile political climate.30 According to recent figures, the relative strengths of the TLC and the ALP were: TLC, 40 affiliated unions representing 200,000 members but only 23 per cent of the workforce; ALP, 20 affiliated unions (mostly blue-collar) representing 100,000 members. Both State and Federal ALP Members are eager to maintain a close relationship with the TLC and with individual unions and unionists. The TLCs 1999 Directory contained messages from Geoff Gallop and John Kobelke, Labor Spokesperson for Labour Relations. Gallop urged unionists to keep up the fight and reminded them that the ALP would restore fairness and balance upon its return to office. The ALP promised to abolish workplace agreements, restore award safety nets, create safer work places, and formally recognise the role of unions in the States industrial relations system all of which had been achieved in the past and lost in recent years.31 Kobelke stressed the mutually beneficial relationship in which the gains of the union movement were linked to the electoral success of the Australian Labor Party.32 Speaking from the TLCs point of view, however, Tony Cooke believed that the unions needed to be more separate from the Party. In 1999, only 50 per cent of the unions affiliated with the TLC were also affiliated with the ALP. White collar unions, such as the Salaried Officers, the Civil Service Association, and the Teachers, were unwilling to affiliate with a specific political party. In Cookes opinion, degrees of separation between the ALP and the union

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movement could be beneficial to both, especially in the pluralist society operating at the end of the century. But the ALP would be wise not to draw the wrong conclusions from the fact that only 23 per cent of workers in the State are unionised. Cooke said that many workers did not join unions because they were unaware of their legal rights. He quoted a recent independent survey in Western Australia, showing that 65 per cent of respondents thought unions were a very vibrant and useful aspect of society.33 Whether these differences in perspective will make any appreciable difference to the composition of the two bodies over the next few decades remains to be seen. The ALPs achievements while in government indicate its commitment to working people above all other political parties. The Partys leaders reiterate that it remains committed to giving people power over their own lives, and to pursuing common goals with the trade union movement, in cooperation with the TLC. The ALP has held government in Western Australia for 45 of the past 100 years. During that time, it has enacted legislation and introduced reforms to improve conditions for and empower the working people. These included state housing; the establishment of state enterprises; numerous acts to make workplaces safer; and to provide higher Workers Compensation benefits, better wages, a shorter working week, and free education. Legislation enacted during Labor administrations enabled women to serve as Justices of the Peace, as Magistrates on the Childrens Court bench, and on juries; to earn equal pay, and to have equal employment opportunities. Women in the labour movement in Western Australia have achieved an impressive number of firsts in Parliament and in the union movement. Other civil libertarian moves have included the abolition of the death penalty, antidiscrimination legislation, and the introduction of Freedom of Information legislation. Given that all of this legislation has been enacted despite the opposition of a conservative majority in the Upper House, it is an impressive record. A new agenda for Labor The victory of Tony Blairs New Labour Party in the British general elections on 1 May 1997 led some analysts to suggest that the ALP could learn from the British experience. Gallop remarked that the lessons of Australian Labors electoral success in the 1980s were a key element in the [British] victory, but that the reshaping of the party under Mr Blair had lessons for the Australian Labor Party in WA and nationally.34 But New Labour in Britain developed out of expediency in a climate even more hostile to parties of the Left than that in

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Australia in the late twentieth century. The ALP is the oldest of the moderate socialist parties that developed in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Worldwide, political systems have moved away from socialism in the last quarter century. At the end of the 1990s, therefore, Labor at both State and Federal level was seeking new directions out of the political wilderness. Conservation, privatisation, free enterprise bargaining, the stake that women and ethnic minorities were allowed in Labor parties, and Aboriginal reconciliation and land rights were some of the big issues of the moment. At the beginning of the decade, writing his centenary history of the Federal ALP, Ross McMullin had raised the question as to whether the HawkeKeating regime had introduced some new and alien philosophy. In the 198391 period, when the ALP enjoyed unprecedented electoral dominance in both the federal and state spheres, McMullin wrote, Labors voting share tended to fall much more heavily in its safer seats than in the marginals [M]any Labor traditionalists were disillusioned by the moderate non-threatening approach of 1980s Labor. While acknowledging that criticism of Labor administrations by the party rank and file was nothing new, McMullin observed that the Hawke government generated more grass-roots dissatisfaction than any of the governments led by Curtin, Chifley and Whitlam.35 Irrespective of considerable changes, at the end of the Australian Labor Partys first 100 years, McMullin found that the local branch activists remained the heart and soul of the party and that these stalwarts were committed to uplifting the disadvantaged and downtrodden as Labor pressed on towards its goal of a more equal, just and tolerant society for all Australians.36 As State Leader, Gallop created a new agenda for the Party, including the increased participation of the rank and file in Party decisions. He believed that factionalism while once useful because it allowed the orderly processes of government to occur without anyone being frozen out later became counterproductive because it concentrates power in too few hands, and because it stifles debate at Conference and at Executive meetings. Gallop advocated more pluralism in the centres of power in the Party and more opportunity to give members expression. He concentrated on making the preselection process more democratic, so that Party members who lacked factional backing could stand for preselection on the basis of local branch support.37 The opportunity to test these strategies and put in place the policies decided at the 1999 State Conference came when the State ALP returned to government in February 2001; however, the record of the Gallop government in the twenty-first century is outside the scope of history dealing with the Partys first one hundred years in Western Australia.

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If 1996 was the nadir of Labors fortunes nationally, by the end of 1998 there were signs that the Party was on the way up again. In the 1998 Federal election, Smith, Lawrence and Beazley were joined in the House of Representatives by new Members Jan McFarlane in Stirling, Kim Wilkie in Swan and Jane Gerick in Canning. Graham Edwards had successfully made the transition from State to Federal politics with his election to the seat of Cowan.38 Beazley ended his election night speech with a tribute to his Party:
The labour movement is a very broad Church, as some have said in the past. It consists of its political and industrial wings. We understand that the right of ordinary workers to collectively bargain is an essential part of the democratic process in this country. And we have been well supported in this campaign by all elements of the labour movement. Well, in conclusion Im proud to say the Labor Party is back in town. And we approach the next three years with great confidence.39

The ALP proceeded to electoral victory at the 2001 State poll and a narrow defeat in difficult circumstances in the 2001 Federal poll. The Party, nevertheless, remained true, as Beazley had alludedin 1988, to its historic mission. The old motto of unity is strength remained as relevant as ever.

Appendix
Officers of the WA Trades Union and Labour Congress (18991910), Australian Labor Federation (WA)(19101919) and Australian Labor Party (Western Australian Branch) (19192001)
Secretary Gilbert, F.C. (18991900) Croft, J. W. (19001901) Coatham, J.B. (19011902) Croft, J.W. (19021905) Curran, J.J. (19051907) Ardagh, R. G. (19071910) Scaddan, J. (19101911) McCallum, A. (19111921) Millington, H. (19211924) Barker, E.H. (19241933) Trainer, P.J. (19331941) Davies, T.G. (19411949) Chamberlain, F.E. (19491974) McMullan, R.F. (19751981) Beahan, Michael (19821987) Smith, Stephen (19881990) Evans, Chris (19901993) Nolan, Mark (19931997) Cuomo, Mark (19971999) Halden, John (19992001) Johnston, Bill (2001) Assistant Secretary Reid, F. (18991900) Johnson, W.D. (19001901) Bath, T.H. (19011902) Coatham, J.B. (19021905) Ardagh, R.G. (19051907) Lee, C.A. (19071910) Clementson, A. (19161922) McMullan, R.F. (19731974) Hodge, B.J. (19751977) Hill, G. (19781981) Cowdell, J.A. (19821991) Anderson, Lois (19921997) Webber, Ruth (19982001) Johnston, Bill (19982001) Talbot, Sally (2001) President De Largie, H. (18991900) Pearce, G.F. (19001901) Roberts, W. (19011902) Somerville, W. (19021904) McCallum, A. (19051907) Cornell, J. (19071910) Burrows, F.W. (19101914) Doland, J.A. (19141918) Panton, A.H. (19191922) Munsie, S.W. (19221925) Kenneally, J.J. (19261937) Mooney, P.J. (19381940) Needham, E. (19411943) Cooke, J.A. (19441947) Webb, C.H. (19481955) Gough, C.A. (1956) Pereira, J.C. (19571958) Jamieson, Colin (19591976) Bryce, Malcolm (19771979) Butler, Tom (19801990) Gallop, Geoff (19911992) Cuomo, Mark (19931997) Cook, Roger (19981999) Roberts, Michelle (2000)

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Officers of the WA Trades and Labor Council (19632001)

Secretary Coleman, Jim (19631976) Cook, Peter (19761983) Read, Ron (19831987) Brown, C.M. (19871993) Meecham, Rob (19931995) Cooke, Tony (19952001) Mayman, Stephanie (2001) Assistant Secretary Read, Ron (19761983) Meecham, Rob (19831993) Cooke, Tony (19931995) Mayman, Stephanie (19972001) President Pereira, J.C. (19631964) Cooley, Donald (19641976) Latter, Bill (19761979) Gilbert, K.B. (19801981) Brown, C.M. (19821986) Beech, A.R. (19871989) Gandini, J.R. (19901993) Reynolds, Kevin (19941995) Peckham, Keith (19962001) Pritchard, W. (2001)

Life members of the WA Trades and Labor Council (19632001)

Paddy Troy Joe Pereira Jim Coleman Don Cooley Gordon Grenfell Les Beech Harry Bluck Harold Peden Bill Latter Ruth Geneff John Gandini

Appendix

379

Life Members of the Australian Labor Party (Western Australian Branch)

The category of life membership was established by a motion of the 1965 State Conference. The next State Conference in 1967 authorised the State Executive to draft criteria, which would be used to assess nominations. The first awards of life membership were made at the 1970 State Conference. One hundred and four awards had been made by the end of the century. Appleton, Gordon (1980) Bailey, Mervyn Beazley, Kim (Snr) (1982) Beazley, Betty (1999) Bell, Ethel (1970) Bertram, Ron (1984) Boardman, Beryl (1999) Brady, Jack (1982) Brooks, Dorothy (1982) Browne, Anne (1989) Butler, Tom (1999) Byrne, Neil (1999) Cameron, Dolly (1976) Carson, James (1989) Carter, Edith (1976) Chamberlain, F. E. (1976) Chapman, William (1999) Charlick, Kenneth (1986) Church, Harry (1984) Churcher, Ronald (1986) Clark, Ben (1999) Clark, Gladys (1999) Coverley, Evelyn (1986) Davies, Eric (1999) Davies, Alma (1999) Dix, James (1982) Dominish, Matt (1988) Dominish, Vera (1988) Dowding, Keith (1991) Dunworth, John (Paddy) (1970) Edwards, Alfred (1988) Edwards, Charles James R. (1970) Featherstone, Ralph (1980) Fletcher, Alison (1982) Fletcher, John (1980) Fuhrman, Rose (1970) Girando, Kath (1999) Graham, Reg (1978) Hanlon, Owen Hartley, Bob (1984) Hawke, Albert R.G. (1970) Hewison, Winifred (1976) Hockey, Margaret (1989) Holmes, Molly (1976) Hotchin, Olga (1989) Ingleton, Neil (1980) Jamieson, Bill (1982) Jamieson, Colin (1978) Jensen, Peter (1988) Johnson, Ted (1984) Kane, Kathleen (1984) Kirke, John (1976) Konecny, Frank (1988) Korwill, Ferri (1982) Korwill, Marianne (1982) Lang, James Hill (1970) Loudon, Thelma (1970) Macleod, Elsie (1989) May, Anne (1999) May, Harry (1970) May, Wally (1999) McGovern, William (1970) McGregor, Edward (1970) McKenzie, Fred (1999) McKenzie, Helen (1999) McKerrow, Peter (1999) McLean, Jack (1991) McLean, Kenneth (Scotty) (1970) McLean, Mavis (1991) McMullan, Enid (1988) McMullan, Jim McSharer, Adie (1970) Milasich, Ivan (1978) Morgan, William John (1970) Mutton, Jim (1982) OConnor, Pat (1995) ONeil, Arthur (1984) Pervan, Alec (1988) Pervan, Dori (1988) Pugh, Ronald (1994) Quartermaine, Dorothy (1982) Shea, Francis (1988) Skidmore, Jack (1999) Soter, Frank (1991) Soter, Olga (1991) Srdarov, Miroslaw (1988) Staples, Arthur (1978) Stevens, Roy (1989) Summers, Paul (1989) Taylor, Dorothy (1982) Taylor, Frank (1982) Thompson, Pearl (1991) Tonkin, John (1976) Try, John (1989) Webb, Harry (1978) Webber, C.F. (Snow) (1976) Wheeler, Florence M. (1970) Wild, P. (1978) Wilkinson, Laurie (1976) Willesee, Donald (1999) Williams, Percy (1978) Wilson, John (1988) Wilson, May (1986) Wilson, Ruby (1999) Wise, Frank (1984) Zimmermann, Phillis (1988)

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Outstanding Service Award Holders of the Australian Labor Party (Western Australian Branch)
The Outstanding Service Award was instituted by the 1991 State Conference. Awards may be made by the State Executive in December of each year, on the basis of a members outstanding service, as defined by the Executive from time to time. Thirty eight awards had been made by the end of the century. Barry, Arthur (Tom) (1995) Beech, Les (1993) Bell, Gwyn (1993) Bell, Stan (1993) Belton, June (1993) Boardman, Beryl (1993) Bridger, James (1995) Brush, Keith (1993) Cassidy, Agnes (1999) Chapman, Norman (1997) Conochie, Enid (1999) Conochie, Ian (1999) Crake, Max (1993) Day, Herbert (1993) De Jager, Gary (1999) Ferguson, Val (1993) Foulkes, June (1999) Hughes, Shirley (1995) Johnson, Pat (1995) Johnson, William (1995) Keegan, Dick (1999) Leeuwangh, Audrey (1997) Leeuwangh, Gerry (1997) Marlborough, Ros (1995) Noid, Bill (1993) Pickering, Sydney (1993) Rochester, Edward (1993) Scaife, Roy (1999) Sealey, Barbara (1995) Sealey, Basil (1995) Sewell, Jeff (1999) Shiels, Don (1995) Shiels, Ellen (1995) Steele, Noel (Kip) (1993) Timms, Dalveen (1995) True, Jim (1997) Ward, Fred (1993) Wilkinson, Eric (1993)

Appendix

381

Leaders of the State Parliamentary Labor Party (19002001, including years of service)
Fergie Reid (19011904) Henry Daglish (19041905); Premier 19041905 W.D. Johnson (1905) Tom Bath (19061910) John Scaddan (19101916); Premier 19111916 Phillip Collier (19171936); Premier 19241930, 19331936 John Wilcock (19361945); Premier 19361945 Frank Wise (19451951); Premier 19451947 Bert Hawke (19511966); Premier 19531959 John Tonkin (19671976); Premier 19711974 Colin Jamieson (19761978) Ron Davies (19781981) Brian Burke (19811988); Premier 19831988 Peter Dowding (19881990); Premier 19881990 Carmen Lawrence (19901994); Premier 19901993 Ian Taylor (1994) Jim McGinty (19941996) Geoff Gallop (1996); Premier 2001

Members of the State Parliamentary Labor Party (19002001)

Alexander, Ian Christopher (LA; 19871993) 6 yrs Andrew, Hugh David (LA; 19531961) 8 yrs Andrews, Paul William (LA; 2001)* Angwin, William Charles (LA; 19041905; 19061927) 22 yrs Anwyl, Megan Irene (LA; 19962001) 5 yrs Ardagh, Richard George (LC; 19121917) 5 yrs Baglin, Frederick Arthur (LC; 19201923) 3 yrs Barker, Charles William Donald (LC; 19521956) 4 yrs Barnett, Michael (LA; 19741996) 22 yrs Bateman, Thomas Henry (LA; 19681986) 18 yrs Bath, Thomas Henry (LA; 19021914) 12 yrs Beggs, Pamela Anne (LA; 19831993) 10 yrs Bennetts, George (LC; 19461965) 19 yrs Berinson, Joseph Max (LC; 19801993) 13 yrs Bertram, Ronald Edward (LA; 19681989) 21 yrs Bickerton, Arthur William (LA; 19591974) 15 yrs Bolton, Harry Edward (LA; 19041917) 13 yrs Bowler, John James Mansell (LA; 2001)* Boylen, Robert Joseph (LC; 19471955) 8 yrs Brady, John Joseph (LA; 19481974) 26 yrs Bridge, Ernest Francis (LA; 19801993) 13 yrs Brown, Clive Morris (LA; 1993) 8 yrs* Brown, James McMillan (LA; 19711974; LC; 19801993) 16 yrs Brown, John Reid (LC; 19241930) 6 yrs Brown, Thomas Leishman (LA; 19061908) 2 yrs

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Bryce, Malcolm John (LA; 19711988) 17 yrs Buchanan, Pamela Ann (LA; 19831990) 7 yrs Burke, Brian Thomas (LA; 19731988) 15 yrs Burke, Terence Joseph (LA; 19681987) 19 yrs Burkett, Graham John (LA; 19831989) 6 yrs Butler, Thomas George (LC; 19861995) 9 yrs Buzacott, Richard (LA; election declared void, 1908) 2 months Carpenter, Alan John (LA; 1996) 5 yrs* Carpenter, William Henry (LA; 19111917) 6 yrs Carr, Jeffrey Phillip (LA; 19741991) 17 yrs Catania, Nicholas Mark (LA; 19891996) 7 yrs Chance, Kimberley Maurice (LC; 1992) 9 yrs* Chesson, Thomas (LA; 19131930) 17 yrs Claughton, Roy Frederick (LC; 19681980) 12 yrs Clothier, Robert Ernest (LA; 19331936) 3 yrs Clydesdale, Alexander McCallister (LA; 19211930; LC; 19321938) 15 yrs Collier, Philip (LA; 19051948) 43 yrs Corboy, Edwin Wilkie (LA; 19211933) 12 yrs Cook, Wyndham Truran (LA; 19701974) 4 yrs Cooley, Donald Walter (LC; 19741980) 6 yrs Cornell, James (LC; 19121918) 6 yrs Coverley, Aubrey Augustus Michael (LA; 19241953) 29 yrs Cowan, Peter Ernest (LA; 19281930) 2 yrs Cowdell, John Alexander (LC; 1993) 8 yrs* Cross, Charles (LA; 19331947) 14 yrs Cunningham, Edward Joseph (LA; 19882001) 13 yrs Cunningham, James (LC; 19161922; LA; 19231936) 19 yrs Curran, Henry (LA; 19601968) 8 yrs Daglish, Henry (LA; 19011905) 4 yrs Dans, Desmond Keith (LC; 19711989) 18 yrs Davenport, Cheryl (LC; 19892001) 12 yrs Davies, Evan Morris (LC; 19471963) 16 yrs Davies, Ronald (LA; 19611986) 25 yrs Davis, Frederick (LC; 19111914) 3 yrs Dean, Anthony James (LA; 2001)* Dellar, David Peter (LC; 19631965) 2 yrs Dellar, Stanley James (LC; 19711977) 6 yrs Dermer, Edmund Rupert Joseph (LC; 1996) 5 yrs* DOrazio, John Biase (LA; 2001)* Dodd, Jabez Edward (LC; 19101917) 7 yrs Dolan, John (LC; 19631974) 11 yrs Doland, James Alfred (LC; 19111912) 1 yr Donovan, Francis Anthony (LA; 19871993) 6 yrs Dooley, Bronterre Washington (LA; 19111913) 2 yrs Doust, Catherine Esther (LC; 2001)* Dowding, Peter MCallum (LC; 19801986; LA; 19861990) 10 yrs

Appendix

383

Drew, John Michael (LC; 19121918, 19241947) 29 yrs [note: served as Minister in Daglish Labor Government (19041905) and Scaddan Labor Government (19111912) as Independent; became member of Labor Party in 1912.] Dwyer, Walter (LA; 19111914) 3 yrs Edwards, Graham John (LC; 19831997) 14 yrs Edwards, Judith Mary (LA; 1990) 11 yrs* Ellery, Suzanne Mary (LC; 2001)* Elliott, Lyla Daphne (LC; 19711986) 15 yrs Ellis, Henry Augustus (LA; 19041905) 1 yr Evans, Edward Thomas (LA; 19801981) 1 yr Evans, Hywel David (LA; 19681989) 21 yrs Evans, Thomas Daniel (LA; 19561980) 24 yrs Farina, Adele (LC; 2001)* Ferguson, Valma Eileen (LC; 1993, 19951997) 2 yrs Fletcher, Harry Arthur (LA; 19591977) 18 yrs Foley, George James (LA; 19111917) 6 yrs Ford, Jonathan Robert (LC; 2001)* Fox, Thomas (LA; 19351951) 16 yrs Fraser, Gilbert (LC; 19281958) 30 yrs Gaffy, William James (LA; 19561959) 3 yrs Gallop, Geoffrey Ian (LA; 1986) 14 yrs* Gardiner, Joseph Peter (LA; 19111915) 4 yrs Garrigan, James Joseph (LC; 19541971) 17 yrs Giffard, Graham Thomas (LC; 2000)* Gill, Frederick (LA; 19041905, 19081911) 4 yrs Gourley, Hugh Alexander (LA; 19081911) 3 yrs Graham, Herbert Ernst (LA; 19431973) 30 yrs Graham, Larry (LA; 19892000) 11 yrs Gray, Edmund Harry (LC; 19231952) 29 yrs Green, Albert Ernest (LA; 19111921) 10 yrs Griffiths, James Baillie (LC; died before taking seat, 1916) Griffiths, Nicholas David (LC; 1993) 8 yrs* Grill, Julian Fletcher (LA; 19772001) 24 yrs Guise, Dianne Joy (LA; 2001)* Guthrie, Frank (LA; 19501955) 5 yrs Halden, Stanley John (LC; 19862000) 14 yrs Hall, Jack (LA; 19561970) 14 yrs Hall, William Reaper (LC; 19381963) 25 yrs Hallahan, Elsie Kay (LC; 19831993; LA; 19931996) 13 yrs Harman, John Joseph (LA; 19681986) 18 yrs Hartrey, Thomas Augustine (LA; 19711977) 6 yrs Hastie, Robert (LA; 19011905) 4 yrs Hawke, Albert Redvers George (LA; 19331968) 35 yrs Heal, Stanley (LA; 19531965) 12 yrs Heenan, Eric Michael (LC; 19361968) 32 yrs Hegney, James (LA; 19301968) 38 yrs Hegney, William (LA; 19391968) 29 yrs

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Heitmann, Edward Ernest (LA; 19041913, 19141917) 12 yrs Helm, Thomas Richard (LC; 19862000) 14 yrs Henderson, Yvonne Daphne (LA; 19831996) 13 yrs Henshaw, Ernest Percival (LA; 19041905) 1 yr Heron, Thomas John (LA; 19201928) 8 yrs Hetherington, Robert (LC; 19771989) 12 yrs Hickey, James William (LC; 19161928) 12 yrs Hill, Gordon Leslie (LA; 19821994) 12 yrs Hill, Shane Robin (LA; 2001)* Hoar, Ernest Knight (LA; 19431957) 14 yrs Hodge, Barry James (LA; 19771989) 12 yrs Holman, Edward Joseph Frederick (LA; 19391947) 8 yrs Holman, John Barkell (LA; 19011921, 19231924) 21 yrs Holman, Mary Alice (May) (LA; 19251939) 14 yrs Horan, Austin Alvis (LA; 19041911) 7 yrs Hudson, Charles Arthur (LA; 19051917) 12 yrs Hughes, Clive Matthew (LA; 19841986) 2 yrs Hughes, Thomas John (LA; 19241929) 5 yrs Hunt, John Leslie (LC; 19711974) 3 yrs Hutchinson, Ruby Florence (LC; 19541971) 17 yrs Hyde, John Norman (LA; 2001)* Jamieson, Colin John (LA; 19531986) 33 yrs Jeffery, George Edward (LC; 19561962) 6 yrs Johnson, Stephen Edward Ingram (LA; 19521959) 7 yrs Johnson, William Dartnell (LA; 19011905, 19061917, 19241948) 39 yrs Johnston, Edward Bertram (LA; 19111915) 4 yrs Jones, Beryl Lillian (LC; 19861993) 7 yrs Jones, Denis (LA; not sworn in, 1910) 2 months Jones, Thomas Henry (LA; 19681989) 21 yrs Jones, Walter Leonard (LA; 19171921) 4 yrs Kelly, Garry Kenneth (LC; 19821993) 11 yrs Kenneally, James Joseph (LA; 19271936) 9 yrs Kennedy, Maurice John (LA; 19241930) 6 yrs Keyser, Charles Christopher (LA; 19041905) 1 yr Kitson, William Henry (LC; 19241947) 23 yrs Kobelke, John Charles (LA; 1989) 12 yrs* Kucera, Robert Charles, (LA; 2001)* Lambert, George James (LA; 19161930, 19331941) 22 yrs Lamond, Alfred (LA; 19241933) 9 yrs Lander, Titus Peter (LA; 19111914) 3 yrs Lapham, Stanley Edward (LA; 19531959, 19681974) 12 yrs Lawrence, Carmen Mary (LA; 19861994) 8 yrs Lawrence, Phillip Richard (LA; 19511960) 9 yrs Lavery, Frederick Richard Hugh (LC; 19521971) 19 yrs Leahy, David Joseph (LA; 19381948) 10 yrs Leahy, Kevin John (LA; 19891996) 7 yrs Leeson, Ronald Thomas (LC; 19711983) 12 yrs

Appendix

385

Lewis, Charles Joseph (LA; 19111914) 3 yrs Logan, Frances Michael (LA; 2001)* Lutey, John Thomas (LA; 19161931) 15 yrs Lynch, Patrick Joseph (LA; 19041906) 2 yrs McCallum, Alexander (LA; 19211935) 14 yrs McCulloch, Herbert Alexander (LA; 19491956) 7 yrs McDonald, John James (LA; 19111914) 3 yrs McDowall, Charles (LA; 19081916) 8 yrs McGinty, James Andrew (LA; 1990) 11 yrs* McGowan, Mark (LA; 1996) 5 yrs* McHale, Sheila Margaret (LA; 1996) 5 yrs* McIver, Kenneth Finlay (LA; 19681986) 18 yrs McKenzie, Fred Evan (LC; 19771993) 16 yrs McLeod, George (LA; 1914) 8 months McRae, Anthony David (LA; 2001)* MacTiernan, Alannah Joan Geraldine Cecilia (LC; 19931996; LA; 1996) 8 yrs* Marlborough, Norman Richard (LA; 1986) 15 yrs* Marshall, Frederick (LA; 19561959) 3 yrs Marshall, William Mortimer (LA; 19211952) 31 yrs Martin, Carol Anne (LA; 2001)* May, Donald George (LA; 19621976) 12 yrs May, Henry Thomas (LA; 19471968) 21 yrs Millington, Harold (LC; 19141920; LA; 19241947) 29 yrs Moiler, James (LA; 19711977) 6 yrs Moir, Arthur McAlister (LA; 19511971) 20 yrs Moloney, John Daniel (LA; 19331936) 3 yrs Moore, Thomas (James) (LA; resigned before taking seat, 1913; LC; 19201926, 19321946) 20 yrs Mullany, John Francis (LA; 19111924) 13 yrs Munsie, Selby Walter (Stan) (LA; 19111938) 27 yrs Murray, Michael Philip (LA; 2001)* Needham, Edward (LA; 19041905, 19331953) 21 yrs Nelson, Wallace (LA; 19041905) 1 yr Nevill, Mark Warriedar (LC; 19831999) 16 yrs Newton, John Verdun (LA; missing in action, 1943) 1 month Norton, Daniel (LA; 19531974) 21 yrs Nulsen, Emil (LA; 19321962) 30 yrs OBrien, Bartholomew Cornelius (LC; 19001904, 19081914) 10 yrs OBrien, Everard McDonnell (LA; 19521959) 7 yrs OGorman, Anthony Patrick (LA, 2001)* Oldfield, Edward Peate (LA; 19621965) 3 yrs Oldham, Charles Henry (LA; 18971900) 3 yrs ; note: Oldham was a member of the Political Labor Party, formed before the 1st Trades Union and Labor Congress in 1899. Oliver, Cecil Thompson (LA; 19481951) 3 yrs Olney, Howard William (LC; 19801981) 1 yr OLoghlen, Peter Laurence (LA; 19081921) 13 yrs Panton, Alexander Hugh (LC; 19191922; LA; 19241951) 30 yrs Parker, David Charles (LA; 19801990) 10 yrs Pearce, Robert John (LA; 19771993) 16 yrs

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Piantadosi, Samuel Mathew (LC; 19831996) 13 yrs Potter, Percival George Charles (LA; 19561959) 3 yrs Pratt, Louise Clare (LC; 2001)* Price, (Richard) William (LA; 19091917) 8 yrs Quigley, John Robert (LA; 2001)* Quirk, Margaret Mary (LA; 2001)* Radisich, Jaye Amber (LA; 2001)* Raphael, Howard Stirling (LA; 19301944) 14 yrs Ravlich, Ljiljanna (LC; 1996) 5 yrs* Read, John Bell (LA; 19831989) 6 yrs Read, Keith John (LA; 19891993) 4 yrs Reid, Fergie (LA; 19011904) 3 yrs Reside, John (LA; 19011902) 1 yr Reynolds, Alfred George (LA; 19471950) 3 yrs Rhatigan, John Joseph (LA; 19531968) 15 yrs Riebeling, Fredrick (LA; 1992) 9 yrs* Ripper, Eric Stephen (LA; 1988) 13 yrs* Roberts, Michelle Hopkins (LA; 1994) 7 yrs* Rodoreda, Aloysius Joseph (LA; 19331958) 25 yrs Rowberry, Joseph Neon (LA; 19581968) 10 yrs Rowe, Francis James (LA; 19271930) 3 yrs Scaddan, John (LA; 19041916) 12 yrs Sewell, William Hawkins (LA; 19501974) 24 yrs Simons, John Joseph (LA; 19211922) 1 yr Skidmore, John Edward (LA; 19741981) 7 yrs Sleeman, Joseph Bertram (LA; 19241959) 35 yrs Smith, David Lawrence (LA; 19831996) 13 yrs Smith, Frederick Charles Lee (LA; 19321950) 18 yrs Smith, Philip John (LA; 19831993) 10 yrs Speed, James Montgomery (LC; 1901 1902) 1 yr. Stephens, Thomas Gregory (LC; 1982) 19 yrs* Strickland, Harry Charles (LC; 19501970) 20 yrs Stuart, Julian Alexander Salmon (LA; 19061908) 2 yrs Stubbs, Bartholemew James (LA; 19111917) 6 yrs Stubbs, Robert Henry Claude (LC; 19621980) 18 yrs Styants, Herbert Henry (LA; 19361956) 20 yrs Sulc, Paul (LC; 19961997) 6 months Swan, Herbert Graham (LA; 19081914) 6 yrs Taylor, Alexander Donald (LA; 19681984) 16 yrs Taylor, George (LA; 19011917) 16 yrs Taylor, Ian Frederick (LA; 19811996) 15 yrs Teahan, John Denis (LC; 19541965) 11 yrs Telfer, William Francis (LA; 19431947) 4 yrs Templeman, David Alan (LA; 2001)* Thomas, Robert John (LC; 19892001) 12 yrs Thomas, William Ian (LA; 19862001) 15 yrs

Appendix

387

Thomas, William Lemen (LA; 19111917) 6 yrs Thompson, Ronald (LC; 19591980) 21 yrs Toms, John Mervin (LA; 19561971) 15 yrs Tonkin, Arthur Raymond (LA; 19711987) 16 yrs Tonkin, John Tresize (LA; 19331977) 44 yrs Travers, Kenneth Dunstan Elder (LC; 1996) 5 yrs* Triat, Lucien John (LA; 19391950) 11 yrs Troy, Gavan John (LA; 19831993) 10 yrs Troy, John Robert (LA; 19771980) 3 yrs Troy, Michael Francis (LA; 19051940) 35 yrs Turvey, Philip Joseph (LA; 19111914) 3 yrs Underwood, Rufus Henry (LA; 19061917) 11 yrs Vaughan, Grace Sydney (LC; 19741980) 6 yrs Walker, Thomas (LA; 19051932) 27 yrs Wansbrough, Arthur William (LA; 19241936) 12 yrs Ware, Francis John (LA; 19051911) 6 yrs Warnock, Diana Muriel (LA; 19932001) 8 yrs Watkins, Jacqueline Patricia (LA; 19831993) 10 yrs Watson, Judyth (LA; 19861996) 10 yrs Watson, Peter Bruce (LA; 2001)* Watts, Alfred John Henry (LA; 19041905) 1 yr Wenn, Douglas William (LC; 19861997) 11 yrs Whitely, Martin Paul (LA, 2001)* Willcock, John Collings (LA; 19171947) 30 yrs Willesee, William Francis (LC; 19541974) 20 yrs Williams, Charles Bennett (LC; 19281948) 20 yrs Wilson, Arthur Alan (LA; 19081947) 39 yrs Wilson, Francis Ford (LA; 19041905) 1 yr Wilson, Keith James (LA; 19771993) 16 yrs Wise, Frank Joseph Scott (LA; 19331951; LC; 19561971) 33 yrs Withers, Frederick James (LA; 19241947) 23 yrs * Current Members as at 2001

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Leaders of the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party (19012001)

Watson, John Christian, NSW: 8-5-01 to 30-10-07 Fisher, Andrew, QLD: 30-10-07 to 30-10-15 Hughes, William Morris, NSW: 30-10-15 to 14-11-16 Tudor, Frank Gwynne, VIC: 15-11-16 to 10-1-22 (died in office) Charlton, Matthew, NSW: 16-5-22 to 29-3-28 Scullin, James Henry, VIC: 26-4-28 to 1-10-35 Curtin, John Joseph Ambrose, WA: 1-10-35 to 5-7-45 (died in office) Chifley, Joseph Benedict, NSW: 12-7-45 to 13-6-51 (died in office) Evatt, Herbert Vere, NSW: 20-6-51 to 7-3-60 Calwell, Arthur Augustus, VIC: 7-3-60 to 8-2-67 Whitlam, Edward Gough, NSW: 8-2-67 to 22-12-77 Hayden, William George, QLD: 22-12-77 to 3-2-83 Hawke, Robert James Lee, VIC: 3-2-83 to 19-12-91 Keating, Paul John, NSW: 19-12-91 to 19-3-96 Beazley, Kim Christian, WA: 19-3-96 to 22-11-01 Crean, Simon, VIC: 22-11-01 to present

Members of the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party for WA (19012001, including years of service)
Beahan, Michael Eamon (Sen; 19871996) 9 yrs Beazley, Kim Christian (HofR; 1980) 21 yrs* Beazley, Kim Edward (HofR; 19451977) 32 yrs Bennett, Adrian Frank (HofR; 19691975) 6 yrs Berinson, Joseph Max (HofR; 19691975) 6 yrs Bishop, (Thomas) Mark (Sen; 1996) 5 yrs* Blanchard, Cecil Allen (HofR; 19831990) 7 yrs Burchell, Reginald John (HofR; 19131917) 4 yrs Burke, Thomas Patrick (HofR; 19431955) 12 yrs Buzacott, Richard (Sen; 19101914, 19141917) 7 yrs Campbell, Graeme (HofR; 19801995) 15 yrs Cant, Hartley Gordon James (Sen; 19591974) 15 yrs Carpenter, William Henry (HofR; 19031906) 3 yrs Charlesworth, Richard Ian (HofR; 19831993) 10 yrs Clothier, Robert Ernest (Sen; 19381950) 12 yrs Collard, Frederick Walter (HofR; 19611975) 14 yrs Cook, Peter Francis Salmon (Sen; 1983) 18 yrs* Cooke, Joseph Alfred (Sen; 194751, 19521965) 17 yrs Corboy, Edwin Wilkie (HofR; 19181919) 1 yr Croft, John William (Sen; 19041910) 6 yrs Cunningham, James (Sen; 19371943) 6 yrs Curtin, John Joseph Ambrose (HofR; 19281931, 19341945) 14 yrs Dawkins, John Sydney (HofR; 19741975, 19771994) 18 yrs de Largie, Hugh (Sen; 19011917) 16 yrs Edwards, Graham John (HofR; 1998) 3 yrs*

Appendix

389

Edwards, Ronald Frederick (HofR; 19831993) 10 yrs Evans, Christopher Vaughan (Sen; 1993) 8 yrs* Fatin, Wendy Frances (HofR; 19831996) 13 yrs Fowler, James Mackinnon (HofR; 19011910) 9 yrs Fraser, James Mackintosh (Sen; 19381959) 21 yrs Frazer, Charles Edward (HofR; 19031913) 10 yrs Gear, George (HofR; 19831996) 13 yrs Gerick, Jane Frances (HofR; 19982001) 3 yrs* Giles, Patricia Jessie (Sen; 19811993) 12 yrs Graham, Charles Montagne (Sen; 19231929) 6 yrs Green, Albert Ernest (HofR; 19221940) 18 yrs Harris, John (Sen; 194751; 19531959) 10 yrs Henderson, George (Sen; 19041917) 13 yrs Jackson, Sharryn Maree (HofR; 2001)* Jakobsen, Carolyn Anne (HofR; 19841993) 9 yrs Johnson, Herbert Victor (HofR; 19401958) 18 yrs Kirwan, Frank McLeod (HofR; 19691972) 3 yrs Lawrence, Carmen Mary (HofR; 1994) 7 yrs* Lemmon, Nelson (HofR; 19431949) 6 yrs Lynch, Patrick Joseph (Sen; 19071917) 10 yrs McFarlane, Jann Sonya (HofR; 1998) 3 yrs* McIntosh, Gordon Douglas (Sen; 19741987) 13 yrs McKiernan, James Philip (Sen; 1984) 16 yrs* Mahon, Hugh (HofR; 19011913, 19131917, 19191920) 17 yrs Mountjoy, Donald Alfred (HofR; 19431946) 3 yrs Nash, Richard Harry (Sen; 19431951) 8 yrs Needham, Edward (Sen; 19071920, 19231929) 19 yrs Pearce, George Foster (Sen; 19011917) 16 yrs Smith, Stephen Francis (HofR; 1993) 8 yrs* Tangney, Dorothy Margaret (Sen; 19431968) 25 yrs Walsh, Peter Alexander (Sen; 19741993) 19 yrs Webb, Charles Harry (HofR; 19541958, 19611972) 15 yrs Wheeldon, John Murray (Sen; 19651981) 16 yrs Wilkie, Kim (HofR; 1998) 3 yrs* Willesee, Donald Robert (Sen; 19501975) 25 yrs Wilkinson, Lawrence Degenhardt (Sen; 19661974) 8 yrs * Current Members as at 2001

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Federal Labor Ministers (WA) (19012001) and Portfolios held

BEAZLEY, Kim Christian Portfolios held 1983 to 1996 Aviation; Special Minister of State; Defence; Transport & Communications; Finance; Employment, Education & Training; Deputy Prime Minister Portfolios held 1972 to 1975 Education Portfolios held 1975 Environment Portfolios held 1988 to 1996 Resources; Industrial Relations; Shipping & Aviation Support; Trade; Industry, Technology & Regional Development; Industry, Science & Technology Portfolios held 1941 to 1945 Prime Minister; Defence Portfolios held 1983 to 1993 Finance; Trade; Employment, Education & Training; Treasurer Portfolios held 1990 to 1993 Local Government; Arts & Territories; Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Status of Women Portfolios held 1941 to 1946 External Territories; Army Supply & Shipping; Health; Social Services; Trade & Customs Portfolios held 1910 to 1913 Honorary Minister; Postmaster-General Portfolios held 1993 to 1996 Assistant Treasurer Portfolios held 1929 to 1932 Defence; Postmaster-General; Works & Railways Portfolios held 1994 to 1996 Human Services & Health; Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Status of Women Portfolios held 1904, 190809, 191416 Postmaster-General; Home Affairs Assistant; Minister for External Affairs

BEAZLEY, Kim Edward BERINSON, Joseph Max COOK, Peter Francis

CURTIN, John DAWKINS, John Sydney

FATIN, Wendy Frances

FRASER, James Mackintosh

FRAZER, Charles Edward GEAR, George GREEN, Albert Ernest LAWRENCE, Carmen Mary

MAHON, Hugh

Appendix

391

PEARCE, George Foster WALSH, Peter Alexander

Portfolios held 190809, 191013, 191416 Defence Portfolios held 1983 to 1990 Resources & Energy; Finance; Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Public Service Matters Portfolios held 1974 to 1975 Repatriation & Compensation; Social Security Portfolios held 1972 to 1975 Special Minister of State; Minister Assisting the Prime Minister; Minister Assisting the Minister for Foreign Affairs; Minister for Foreign Affairs

Wheeldon, John Murray WILLESEE, Donald Robert

Note: Not all portfolios were held for the duration of the period that the member was a Minister; thus, the dates indicate the years in which that member held a portfolio or in which the member was a Minister.

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Present at the Second West Australian Trades Union and Labor Congress Monday August 13th 1900, held in Jocoby's Bohemia Hotel, Perth 11 am
A.W.A North Coolgardie Branch A.W.A. Abbots Branch A.W.A. Bulong Branch A.W.A. Coolgardie Branch A.W.A. Cue Branch A.W.A. Fremantle Branch A.W.A. Kalgoorlie & Boulder Branch A.W.A. Kanowna Branch A.W.A. Norseman Branch Amalgamated Certified Engine Drivers of W.A. Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners (Kalgoorlie Branch) Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners (Perth) Amalgamated Society of Engineers (Fremantle Branch) Amalgamated Society of Engineers (Kalgoorlie Branch) Amalgamated Society of Sawmills Employees Amalgamated Workers Association Executive Boilermakers and Iron Shipbuilders Society Collie Miners Association Goldfields Tailoresses Union Goldfields Trades and Labour Council K & B Shop Assistants Association K. & B. Plumbers and Gal. Ironworkers Society K. and B. Tailors Society Lumpers Union Operative Bakers' Union of W.A. Political Labour Party of W.A. Trades and Labour Council of WA Typographical Society W.A. Assistants Association W.A. Operative Bootmakers Union W.A.G. Railway Association W.A.G.R. Engine Drivers Association

Unions affiliated to the WA Branch of the Australian Labor Party as at 2001

Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AFMEPKIU) Australian Institute of Marine and Power Engineers (AIM) Miscellaneous Workers Union (ALHMWU) Australian Meat Industries Employees Union (AMIEU) Australian Rail, Tram and Bus Industry Union (ARTBIU) Australian Services Union-Railway Division (ASU) Australian Workers Union (AWU) (WA Branch) Brewery and Botteyard Employees Union (BBU) Communications Division, Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union (CEPU) Plumbing Division (CEPU)

Appendix

393

Postal Division (CEPU) Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) Coal Miners Industry Union (CMU) Forest Products, Furnishing and Allied Union (FPF) Food Preservers Union (FPU) Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) National Union of Workers (NUW) (WA Branch) Shop, Distributive and Allied Employers Association (SDA) Textile Clothing and Footwear Union (TEX) Transport Workers Union (TWU) United Firefighters Union of WA (UFU)

Unions Affiliated to Unions WA as at 2001

Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers, Australia Australian Collieries Staff Association Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union Australian Institute of Marine and Power Engineers Australian Manufacturing Workers Union Australian Meat Industry Employees Union Australian Nursing Federation Rail, Tram and Bus Industrial Union Australian Services Union Australian Workers Union Breweries and Bottleyards Employees Industrial Union Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union, Communications Division Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union, Telecom and Services Division Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union, Engineering and Electrical Division Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union, Plumbing Division Coal Miners Industrial Union of Workers Civil Service Association Community and Public Sector Union Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Workers Union Disabled Workers Union Finance Sector Union Finance Sector Union CBOA Division Food Preservers Union Forest Products Furnishing and Allied Industries Hospital Salaried Officers Association Independent Schools Salaried Officers Association Maritime Union of Australia Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance National Tertiary Education Industry Union National Union of Workers Shop, Distributive and Allied Employers Assoc State School Teachers Union Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union Transport Workers Union Union of Christmas Island Workers United Firefighters Union WA Prison Officers Union Builders, Labourers, Painters and Plasterers Union

Notes

Notes
Introduction: Unity is Strength 1

397

2 3

From its beginning, the Australian Labor Party (ALP) adopted the American spelling, although sometimes reverting to the British spelling Labour. Throughout this history, Labor indicates the Party and its affiliates, whilst labour is used for the broader labour movement. The Australian Labor Federation adopted the title Australian Labor Party in 1919. In the text, the title Australian Labor Federation (ALF) is used to refer to the body before 1919, and ALP from 1919 onwards. From 1963, there were two distinct and independent bodies, the ALP and the Trades and Labor Council (TLC). Cited in J. Moss, Sound of Trumpets. History of the Labour Movement in South Australia, Netley: Wakefield Press, 1985, frontispiece. See L. Layman & J. Goddard, Organise! Labour a visual record, Perth: Trades and Labor Council, 1988, pp. 5455. Minutes of Proceedings of the First Western Australian Trades Union and Labour Congress, 1115 April, 1899 at Coolgardie, WA [hereafter 1899 Congress Proceedings]. Westralian Worker, 8 January 1901. J.S. Battye, Cyclopedia of Australia, Perth: The Cyclopedia Company, 1913, vol. I, p. 305. In 1900, George Taylor, Secretary of the Shop Assistants Union in Perth, was convicted under the 1825 Conspiracy Act of conspiracy and of creating a disturbance after he attempted to persuade Perth workers to patronise only hotels that did not employ Asians on their staff. He was sentenced to 14 days in prison. Westralian Worker, 26 October, 2 November 1900. 1899 Congress Proceedings, op. cit., pp. 910. ibid., p. 13. ibid., p. 15. Kalgoorlie Miner, 14 April 1899. Quoted in Kalgoorlie Miner, 15 April 1899. Kalgoorlie Miner, 17 April 1899. B. de Garis, Self government and the emergence of the political system, 18711911 in C.T. Stannage, ed., A New History of Western Australia, Nedlands: UWA Press, 1981, p. 334; Census of the Commonwealth of Australia, 1911, vol. II, Part I, Ages, p. 10. G. Blainey, The Golden Mile, St. Leonards: Allen & Unwin, 1993, p. 46. de Garis, op. cit., pp. 337, 340341. R. Gollan, Radical and Working Class Politics. A Study of Eastern Australia, 18501910, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, pp. 1932; Moss, op. cit., pp. 199203. R. McMullin, The Light on the Hill. The Australian Labor Party 18911991, South Melbourne: Oxford University Press Australia, 1991, pp. 67. Gollan, op. cit., pp. 158159. I.H. vanden Driesen, The Evolution of the Trade Union Movement in Western Australia in Stannage, A New History of Western Australia, op. cit., p. 370; J. Williams, The First Furrow, Willagee: Lone Hand Press, 1976, pp. 717. Although Western Australia did not become a penal colony until 1850, young prisoners from Parkhurst Prison on the Isle of Wight were first transported in 1842. W. Somerville, An Economic History of Western Australia with Special Reference to Trade Unions and the Influence of the Industrial Court of Arbitration, Battye Library Accession no. 451A, vol. II, p. 315; also D. Mossenson, Gold and Politics: the Influence of the Eastern Goldfields on the Political Development of Western Australia, MA Thesis, UWA, 1952, p. 14. de Garis, op. cit., p. 344345. ibid.; p. 344; also vanden Driesen, op. cit., pp. 360362; H.J. Gibbney, Western Australia in D.J. Murphy, ed., Labor in Politics: The State Labor Parties in Australia, 18801920, St. Lucia:

Chapter One: The 1899 Trade Union and Labour Congress and its outcomes 18991905 1 2 3

4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

17

18 19

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Bobbie Oliver
University of Queensland Press, 1975, p. 380. David Black, Election Statistics Legislative Assembly of Western Australia 18901996, Perth: WA Electoral Commission, 1997, p. 270, lists Oldham as Oppositionist not ALP. In 1900, Oldhams seat was declared vacant. He did not stand in the 1901 election, where the Labor candidate was J.W. Diver. See also David Black, An Index to Parliamentary Candidates in Western Australian Elections 18901989, Perth: WA Electoral Commission, 1991 edition, p. 199. Somerville, op. cit., vol. II, p. 317; vanden Driesen, op. cit., p. 374; de Garis, op. cit., pp. 345346; C.T. Stannage, The Composition of the Western Australian Parliament: 18901911, University Studies in History, 1966, vol. IV, no. 4, pp. 811. Stannage gives a detailed account of the debates over these bills and the division of voting between new arrivals from the eastern states and old colonists long-term residents of WA. Gibbney, op. cit., pp. 353, 380; also A. Gill, Running the Rag. The Westralian Worker: Its Kalgoorlie Years (19001912) in C. Fox, A. Gill & L. Layman, eds, Kalgoorlie Trades Hall Centenary Issue. Papers in Labour History no. 15, pp. 7479. Westralian Worker, 7 September 1900, p. 6. ibid., 14 September 1900, editorial. ibid. Somerville, op. cit., vol II, p. 419; Layman and Goddard, op. cit., p. 223. Minutes of Proceedings of the Second Western Australian Trades Union and Labor Congress held August 1316, 1900 at Perth [Hereafter 1900 Congress Proceedings]. ibid., p. 10. Somerville, op. cit.., vol. II, pp. 426427. A. Gill, Justice for All. Jabez Edward Dodd and the Early Miners Unions of the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia (19001906), Papers in Labour History no. 15, pp 15 ff. ibid.; Gibbney, op. cit., pp. 35051; Westralian Worker, 28 March 1903. Somerville, op. cit., vol. II, p. 431; Westralian Worker, 11 January 1901. H.J. Gibbney, Hugh Mahon in B. Nairn & G. Serle, eds, Australian Dictionary of Biography [ADB], 18911939, vol. 10, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1986, p. 379. Battye, op. cit., vol. 1, pp. 30910. C.A. Hughes & B.D. Graham, Voting for the Australian House of Representatives 19011964, Canberra: Australian National University, 1974, p. 11. 1900 Congress Proceedings, op. cit., p. 14. This is a different George Taylor than the Shop Assistants Union Secretary mentioned earlier, although both were imprisoned under the 1825 Conspiracy Act. Mulga Taylor served a prison term for his activities at Barcaldine, Qld. in the 1891 shearers strike. See Gibbney, Western Australia, op. cit., p. 346. Westralian Worker, 12 July 1901. Black, Index, op. cit., p. 243; also D. Black, Legislative Council of Western Australia. Membership Register, Electoral Law and Statistics 18901989, Perth: Parliamentary History Project, 1989, p. 36. Battye, op. cit., vol. 1, p. 332; Black, Index, op. cit., p. 197. The earliest Caucus Minutes date from 1906 and cannot clarify Speeds position, and although OBrien is mentioned, he does not appear to have taken an active part in SPLP proceedings, attending only on 6 November 1908 and 27 November 1909. Westralian Worker, 5 July 1901 Somerville, op. cit., vol II, p. 328. The evils of this system were brought to public attention by J.B. Holman MLA in a speech in Parliament in August 1924. See Western Australian Parliamentary Debates (hereafter WAPD) vol. 70, pp. 449 ff, 20 August 1924.

20

21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36

37 38 39

40 41 42

Notes

399

43 See Westralian Worker, 24 January 1902, Labors True Policy and editorial by Peter Plainspeech for the first two positions outlined above, and 28 March 1902 for the third position. See Westralian Worker, 17 January 1902 for Speeds letter; also E.S. Buttfield, The Daglish Ministry 190405. Western Australias First Labor Government, MA Thesis, UWA, 1979, pp. 3 ff. 44 Westralian Worker, 21 March 1902. Throssell was Forrests successor as Leader of the Ministerial Party, Leake was leader of the Opposition, who took office after Throssells party split into two mutually hostile factions led by A.E. Morgans and F. Piesse. Rason, therefore, had changed allegiance on several occasions within a few months. See Stannage, The Composition of the Western Australian Parliament: 18901911, op. cit., p. 13. 45 Westralian Worker, 6 March 1903. 46 ibid., 26 September 1902. See also Buttfield, pp. 1117. Each union delegate was instructed how to vote on specific issues, and voted as determined by a union majority decision. When a card vote was taken, the number of unionists that each delegate represented was taken into account. The process is explained more fully in Chapter Eleven. 47 Buttfield, op. cit., pp. 2629. 48 Westralian Worker, 26 August 1904; vanden Driesen, op. cit., p. 377; also information from Andrew Gill. 49 Somerville, pp. 440457. Somerville suggests that although Crofts bankruptcy was covered up his financial circumstances brought about his lapse into drinking habits, his disgrace and death. A circular letter by J. Curran, Secretary of the Coastal TLC, dated 10 January 1904, referring to the Lobstein v. Croft case, appears in Coastal TLC Correspondence, Battye Library Accession no. 1573A. 50 Somerville, op. cit., vol. 11, pp. 460463. 51 Goldfields TLC Minute Book 19021905, Battye Library Accession no. 1704A/15, 23 February 1903, 9 March 1903, 6 April 1903; also enclosed letters: Secretary, Goldfields TLC to F. Wilson, 21 April 1903; Secretary, Goldfields TLC to Secretary Coastal TLC, 27 June 1903. 52 Somerville, op. cit., pp. 472490; vanden Driesen, op. cit., p. 376. 53 Stannage, Composition of the WA Parliament, op. cit., p. 14. 54 B. Oliver, Henderson, Christopher George in A. Millar, ed., A Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate, vol. I, 19011929, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2000, pp. 356360. 55 McMullin, op. cit., pp. 4849; J.M.R. Murdoch, C.E. Frazer: a political sketch, University Studies in History, vol. IV, no. 4, 1966, pp. 62 ff. 56 Other planks included provision for an old age pension, a maximum 8-hour working day, the local control and state management of the liquor trade, the nationalisation of monopolies and the establishment of a Department of Labour. 57 Buttfield, op. cit., pp. 3739; Westralian Worker, 1 July 1904. Of the nine new seats, BrownHill, Ivanhoe, Collie, Forrest and Mt. Leonora were mining or timber electorates. 58 Buttfield, op. cit., pp. 5153, 6970; Westralian Worker, 10 and 17 June 1904. 59 Buttfield, op. cit., pp. 78 ff. 60 West Australian, 24 August 1904. 61 Clipping from the Morning Herald, 26 August 1904, in Daglish Papers, Battye Library Accession no. 2397A/17. 62 Secretary, Coastal TLC, to Premier, 8 December 1904, in Coastal TLC Correspondence Book, op. cit.; also Secretary TLC to Secretary PLP, 1, 2 September 1904 for the first mentioned resolutions. 63 West Australian, 9 February 1905. 64 Sun, 12 February 1905.

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65 West Australian, 8 February 1905. The others concerned the conveyancing by rail of members of the defence forces and Federal charges for Savings Bank work. 66 Argus, 17 February 1905. 67 West Australian, 19 March 1905. 68 ibid., 31 May 1905; Morning Herald, 5 June 1905. 69 Southern Times, 24 June 1905. 70 West Australian, 7 June 1905; also Daglish to James (Agent General in London), 3 June 1905 in Daglish Papers, op. cit., item 19. 71 Minutes of Proceedings of the Fifth Trades Union and Labor Congress, 8 July and following, p. 3; West Australian, 11, 12 July 1905; Morning Herald, 18 July 1905. 72 Westralian Worker, 25 August 1905. 73 See Daglish to the SPLP, 9 August 1905 and 22 August 1905, Daglish Papers, op. cit., item 19; Westralian Worker, 25 August 1905; also Stannage, Composition of the WA Parliament, op. cit., p. 16. 74 Buttfield, op. cit., pp. 270 ff. For more dismissive treatments, see, for example, de Garis, op. cit., p. 350; vanden Driesen, op. cit., pp. 377378. 75 Stannage, Composition of the WA Parliament, op. cit., p. 18. 76 Newspaper clippings in Daglish papers, op. cit., item 15. 77 B. Oliver, War and Peace in Western Australia. The social and political impact of the Great War, 19141926, Nedlands: UWA Press, 1995, p. 41. Chapter Two: The Labour Movement and State Socialism 19061916 1 Gibbney, Western Australia, op. cit., p. 360. According to the Official Yearbook of the Commonwealth of Australia, No. 13, 19011919, Section XXVII, pp. 9823, WA union membership rose from 15,461 in 1905 to 26,359 in 1917 and 38,169 in 1919. During the same period, the number of unions dropped from 140 to 112, evidence of the amalgamation of several smaller unions into large unions such as the AWU. Similar figures are cited by L.M. McIntyre, Trade Unionism and Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration in Western Australia, 19001914, MA Thesis, UWA, 1972, Table 13: In 1905, there were 126 unions registered under the State Arbitration Act, representing 15,461 members, and in 1914, 141 representing 32,325 workers. Fifth Trades Union and Labor Congress, Perth, 815 July 1905, op. cit., pp. 1920. Material concerning the amalgamation of the Fremantle Trades Hall Association with the Fremantle District Council of the ALF in ALP Papers, Labor Centre, Perth, box 43. These papers were donated to the Battye Library in 2001 and reaccessioned, indicating the original box numbers. Minutes of the Second General Council Meeting under the ALF Constitution, 1913, in Minutes of ALF Congresses, Battye Library Accession no. 1573A/18, [hereafter 1913 Congress Minutes], Day 2. Gibbney, Western Australia, op. cit., p. 362. Minutes of the SPLP (hereafter Caucus Minutes), Battye Library Accession no. 1688A, item 1, 21 and 27 October 1909. Granting of pairs is an unofficial arrangement between Members, organised by the party Whip, whereby a Member on one side of the House may be absent for a vote when a Member from the other side agrees to be absent or to abstain from voting; therefore the relative voting strengths of the two parties are maintained. See J.A. Pettifer, ed., House of Representatives Practice, Canberra: AGPS, 1981, pp. 302303. WAPD, op. cit., vol. 38, 191011, pp. 948958, 13 October 1910. Minutes of the State Executive of the ALF [hereafter SE Minutes], Battye Library Accession no. 1573/2, 21 January, 18 February 1911; also Caucus Minutes, op. cit., 4, 19, 26 October 1910; Black, Election Statistics, p. 218.

2 3

4 5 6

7 8

Notes

401

9 Westralian Worker, 26 April 1907, p. 6, listing donations to timber workers. 10 1913 Congress Minutes, Day 1. 11 SE Minutes, op. cit., Battye Library Accession no. 1573A/1, 23 July, 6 August, 1910; Westralian Worker, 14 September 1900; Minutes of the Eastern Goldfields District Council (hereafter EGDC Minutes), Battye Library Accession no. 1704/1, 9 January 1911. 12 Minutes of the Northam Branch ALP, 19101924, Battye Library Accession no. 3933A/2, 15 July 1912. 13 For employment figures, see Commonwealth Census 1911, op. cit., volume III, p. 1290. 14 Western Australia. Votes and Proceedings of Parliament [hereafter V&P], 3rd Session, 4th Parliament 19034, vol. 2, Document A7, pp. 14631466; also WAPD, 19031904, op. cit., vol. 23, pp. 68, 444ff, 1414; vol. 24, pp. 3132 ff. 15 Westralian Worker, 29 November 1901. 16 Report of the Select Committee of the Legislative Assembly appointed to inquire into the Alleged Existence of Sweating in West Australian Industries, V&P, 1906, Volume II, A 12. 17 Williams, The First Furrow, op. cit., pp. 4647. 18 Westralian Worker, 11 January 1907. 19 ibid., 29 May 1942. 20 ibid., 1 and 22 February, 1 and 8 March 1907. 21 ibid., 12 April 1907; Kalgoorlie Miner, 29 July 1907. 22 Evening Star, 30 November 1907. 23 Westralian Worker, 20 November 1908; Sun, n.d. in Jean Beadle Papers, Battye Library Accession no. 3114A, item 24. 24 North Coolgardie Herald, 18 November 1908. 25 J. Buxton, Electoral Politics Past and Present in Western Australia, Table 3.4. Rural urban composition of the Australian Labor Party caucus 19011977, in R. Pervan & C. Sharman, eds, Essays on Western Australian Politics, Nedlands: UWA Press, 1979, p. 38. 26 Westralian Worker, 26 December 1913; 30 January, 27 February, 22 May 1914. 27 Information from Andrew Gill. 28 Caucus Minutes, op. cit., 27 July and 3 August, 1910. 29 D. Black, Party Politics in Turmoil 19111924 in C.T. Stannage, ed., A New History of Western Australia, Nedlands: UWA Press, 1981, p. 382. 30 C.A. Hughes & D. Aitken, Voting in the Australian State Upper Houses, 18901984, Canberra: ANU, 1986, pp. 188189. 31 B. Oliver, Needham, Edward in A. Millar, ed., The Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate Volume I, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, pp. 360364. 32 D. Black, Patrick Joseph Lynch in B. Nairn & G. Serle, eds, ADB 18911939, op. cit., volume 10, p. 177. 33 G. Bolton, Buzacott, Richard in Millar, ed., op. cit., p. 365; also Black, Election Statistics, op. cit., pp. 191192. 34 Battye, op. cit., volume 2, p. 310. 35 B. Oliver, Peacemongers. Conscientious objectors to military service in Australia, 19111945, Fremantle: Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1997, p. 16. See also, P. Weller, ed., Caucus Minutes 19011949, op. cit.; Minutes of the Meetings of the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party, Volume I, 19011917, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1975, pp. 188, 225. 36 Gibbney, Hugh Mahon, op. cit., p. 379. 37 B. Pope, The Stamp of Authority: Postage Stamp Design 18401988 in L. Layman & T. Stannage, eds, Celebrations in Western Australian History: Studies in Western Australian History X, April, 1989, p. 10; Murdoch, C.E. Fraser, op. cit., pp. 62 ff. 38 Oliver, Needham, op. cit., p. 361.

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39 Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates, Senate (hereafter CPD, Senate), vol. 21, 11 August 1904, p. 4115. See also Oliver, Henderson, op. cit. 40 Westralian Worker, 1 March 1907, p. 5. 41 See ibid., 18 October 1901; 15 and 22 November 1901; 17 January 1902. 42 ibid., 10, 31 May and 28 June 1907. 43 Gibbney, Western Australia, op. cit., pp. 3612. 44 Report of the 1910 General Congress, Bunbury, pp. 17 ff; 67. 45 See Chapter One for State Parliamentarians. In Federal politics, J.M. Fowler, who had represented Perth since 1901, stood as a Liberal candidate in 1910 and retained the seat. See Hughes & Graham, op. cit., p. 43. 46 SE Minutes, op. cit., vol. 1, 1 April, 26 August, 18 September 1911. 47 This policy was issued jointly by the SPLP and the ALF. See ibid., vol. 1, 18 September 1911. 48 Caucus Minutes, op. cit., vol. 1, 19 June 1911. 49 B. Latter, Blacklegs. The Scottish Colliery Strike of 1911, Nedlands: UWA Press, 1995, pp. 66 ff. 50 Westralian Worker, 6 October 1911, p. 1. 51 Hughes & Aitkin, op. cit., pp. 191193. 52 SE Minutes, op. cit., vol. 1, 16 October, 20 November 1911. 53 The process of transferring the Worker to Perth began in October 1911. See SE Minutes, op. cit., 25 October 1911. The first Perth issue of the Worker was 3 May 1912. 54 WAPD, op. cit., vol. 41, new series 1911, 1 November to 23 December 1911. 55 ibid., vol. 41, pp. 14651498. 56 Some of the arguments against the building of a railway to Esperance were summarised by A.E. Green in a speech in the Legislative Assembly, reprinted in the Westralian Worker, 12 January 1912. 57 WAPD, op. cit., vol. 41, p. 1314. 58 ibid., pp. 3539 ff. 59 ibid., vol. 43, pp. 2336 ff; vol. 45, pp. 38957, 47089; Westralian Worker, 13 December 1912. 60 No. 70 of 1912. An Act to authorise the raising and expenditure of moneys for, and to regulate the keeping of accounts relating to, Government trading concerns, The Acts of Parliament of Western Australia passed in the Third year of the reign of His Majesty King George V during the second session of the Eighth Parliament of Western Australia, 27 June 1912 to 31 December 1912, Government Printer, Perth, 1913, pp. 349-52; Caucus Minutes, op. cit., 12 April and 30 June 1912; Gibbney Western Australia, op. cit, p. 365; D. Black, Party Politics in Turmoil, 19111924, p. 383. 61 Westralian Worker, 25 October 1912. 62 Gibbney, Western Australia, op. cit., p. 366. 63 Black, Party Politics in Turmoil, op. cit., p. 383. 64 Caucus Minutes, op. cit., vol. 1, 19 June 1911. 65 WAPD, op. cit., vol. 43, pp. 177196 (18 September 1912). 66 ibid., vol. 44, p. 3308. 67 Caucus Minutes, op. cit., vol. 1, 11 and 16 January 1912. The engineers belonged to either the Amalgamated Engineers Association, subsequently the Amalgamated Engineers Union (AEU) or the ASE, whilst the boilermakers and the moulders belonged to their respective unions. The large numbers of unskilled and semi-skilled labourers in the railway workshops were members of the WA Amalgamated Society of Railway Employees (WAAS of RE). See Kathy Bell, The Midland Junction Railway Workshops 19201939 in J. Gregory, ed., Western Australia Between the Wars. Studies in Western Australian History XI, June 1990, p. 34. 68 Caucus Minutes, op. cit., vol. 1, 24 July 1912. 69 Westralian Worker, 23 August 1912. 70 ibid., 23 August 1912.

Notes

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71 Minutes of the Metropolitan District Council of the ALF (hereafter Metropolitan DC Minutes), Battye Library Accession no. 1319A, vol. 1, 6 February 1913. 72 Caucus Minutes, op. cit., vol. 1, 24 July 1913. 73 Westralian Worker, 2 August 1912. 74 ibid., 5 and 12 January 1912. 75 ibid., op. cit., vol. 1, 17 June 1913; vol. 2, 24 August 1915. 76 Annual Report of the State Executive of the ALF, 1914, in Correspondence Files of the ALP State Executive (hereafter SE Correspondences) Batty Library Accession no. 1688A/84. 77 Caucus Minutes, op. cit., vol. 1, 20 November 1914. 78 Gibbney, Western Australia, op. cit., pp. 3667; WA Minutes. V&P, Second Session of the Ninth Parliament 26 July 1915 to 26 November 1915, vol. II, no. 19, Report of the Royal Commission on the Control and Management of the State Implement Works. 79 L. Layman, The Country Party. Rise and Decline in Pervan & Sharman, op. cit., p. 163. 80 J. Watson, ed., Remarks of an Inexperienced Traveller Abroad. Perth: ALP, 1995, p. 4. 81 Oliver, War and Peace, op. cit., pp. 27 ff, 61. For enlistment figures see M. McKernan, War, Table WR 2-8, Enlistments in Australian Services By State, World War I in W. Vamplew, ed., Australians: Historical Statistics, Melbourne; Fairfax, Syme & Weldon, 1987, p. 412. 82 Oliver, War and Peace, op. cit., pp. 6567. 83 Metropolitan DC Minutes, op. cit., vol. 1, 3 December 1914. 84 SE Minutes, op. cit., 1573A/2, 11 August 1914, 7 September 1914; WA Premiers Department correspondence files (hereafter PDF) Battye Library Accession no. 1496/303/14; Civil Service and Retrenchment Proposed reduction of high officials, etc. 7.89 per cent [salary] reduction. Members of the Legislative Assembly, PDF 83/15. 85 Metropolitan DC Minutes, op. cit., vol. 2, 19 November, 1914; Commonwealth Year Book, op. cit., no. 9, 1915, p. 1047 for unemployment figures; Caucus Minutes, op. cit., vol. 1, 24 November 1914 for Scaddans estimate of unemployed. 86 Thomas Sedgwick, London, to Secretary, TLC, 24 June 1915, SE Correspondence, 1688A/65. 87 Correspondence between the State Executive and the Albany and Eastern Goldfields Districts Councils, and the State Executive and the SPLP, in ibid. 88 Caucus Minutes, op. cit., vol. 2, especially 4 March 1915, 9 December 1915, 3 February 1916. 89 WAPD, op. cit., vol. 51, 1915, p. 58; Report of a Select Committee of the full Legislative Assembly appointed to inquire into the inception and cancellation of the contract with Nevanas and Company for the establishment of freezing works at Wyndham, in V&P, op. cit., no. 4A, of 1915, especially pp. vix. See also Report of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the transactions between the Government of Western Australia and Mr S.V. Nevanas in regard to the Wyndham Freezing Works, together with Minutes of Evidence, Perth, 29 June 1917 (hereafter Nevanas Royal Commission), pp. iii, xvii for details of the matter. 90 WAPD, op. cit., vol. 51, pp. 526 ff. 91 WAPD, op. cit., vol. 52, p. 2389; vol 53, pp. 494 ff. 92 Nevanas Royal Commission, op. cit., p. xix. 93 WAPD, op. cit., vol. 52, pp. 181222. 94 Caucus Minutes, op. cit., vol. 2, 9 December 1915; also, J.R. Robertson, The internal politics of State Labor in Western Australia, 19111916, Labour History, no. 2, May 1962, p. 67. 95 WAPD, op. cit., vol. 51, pp. 1329 ff. 96 WAPD, op. cit., vol. 53, pp. 35-36. 97 SE Minutes, op. cit., 27 July 1916; Black, Election Statistics, op. cit., p. 50.

404
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Bobbie Oliver
SE Minutes, op. cit., vol. 2, 7 February 1917. For eastern states ALP resolutions, see, for example, Stuart Macintyre, The Oxford History of Australia, 19011942. The Succeeding Age, vol. 4. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1986, p. 167. Hughes became Leader of the ALP and Prime Minister following Andrew Fishers resignation in 1915. SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/134. Minutes of ALP Congresses 19131928, Battye Library Accession no. 1573A/18, [hereafter Congress Minutes], Kalgoorlie Congress, MayJune 1916, pp 121 ff. Metropolitan DC Minutes, op. cit., vol. 2, 19 October 1916; SE Minutes, op. cit., 18 September, 9 and 16 October, 6 November 1916. CPD, op. cit., vol. 76, 23 April 1915, p. 2593. J.L. Mordike, An Army for a Nation. A History of Australian Military Developments 18801914, North Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1992, pp. 23843. SE Minutes, op. cit., vol. 2, 21 August 1916. Correspondence Files of the State Executive and the Metropolitan District Council of the ALF [hereafter SE/Metropolitan DC Correspondence], Battye Library Accession no. 1689A/27. See Hugh Mahon Papers, National Library of Australia Accession no. M937, Series 5. ibid., Series 8, item 666, Mahon to Pearce, 20 September 1916; item 677 Mahon to Hughes, 20 September 1916; and press clippings. ibid.; press cutting from Argus, 12 November 1920. Curtin to Mahon, 7 February 1917, Mahon Papers, op. cit., Series 1, item 43; David Day, John Curtin: a life, Sydney: Harper Collins, 1999, p. 235. Clementson, circular letter to District Councils, 18 October 1916, in SE/Metropolitan DC Correspondence, op. cit., Battye Library Accession no. 1689A/27. See correspondence in PDF, op. cit., no. 228/16 (for Cameron incident); Kalgoorlie Miner, 19, 20 and 25 October 1916 (violence on the Goldfields); Perth Police Occurrence Book, Battye Library Accession no. 838/17, 27 and 28 October 1916 (damaging the Greek cafes). See also Oliver, War and Peace, op. cit., p. 103. ibid., pp. 122125. The voting figures were: Australia, Yes 1,087,557; No 1,160,033. WA, Yes 94,069; No 40,844. C.M.H. Clark, A History of Australia Vol. VI: The Old Dead Tree and the Young Tree Green, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1987, pp. 423. Kalgoorlie Miner, 21 October 1916. EGDC Minutes, op. cit., vol. 3, 13 November 1916. SE Minutes, op. cit., vol. 2, 16 November 1916, proceedings including correspondence from the Tenterden branch of the ALF and the Westonia Miners Union stating that these bodies would have nothing to do with any Labor members who supported conscription. EGDC Minutes, op. cit., 30 October 1916. ibid., 10 January 1917. ibid., 27 November 1916. ibid., 10 February 1917. Labor Impeaches the Hughes Dictatorship. Alex McCallums Great Indictment. Speech in Exposition of Inter-State Conference Proceedings, n.d., p. 4, SE Correspondence, 1688A/68. These arguments are set out in two statements to the State Executive and signed by the seven Federal Members of Parliament who supported conscription. See SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/45. Congress Minutes, op. cit., 20 March 1917, p. 205. See Geraldton DC letterheads in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/55.

Chapter Three: No one is big enough to break the labour movement 19161920

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27

Notes

405

28 Hickey to Millington, 31 October 1921, in ibid., 1688A/149. 29 Scaddan to McCallum, 6 April 1917 in ibid. 30 SE Minutes, op. cit., vol. 2, 7 February 1917, Manifesto by Doland and McCallum. The chapters title is taken from this quote. 31 SE Correspondence, 1688A/81. This file is entitled Rats. Also McCallum to OLoghlen, 19 April 1917, in ibid; Caucus Minutes, vol. 2, 9 May 1917. 32 Westralian Worker, 30 March, 1 June 1917. 33 Layman, The Country Party, op. cit., pp. 159163. 34 Pearce to Crawford Vaughan (Premier of South Australia), 20 February 1917, G.F. Pearce Papers, National Library of Australia Accession no. MS213, Part I, item 2/28 (hereafter after Pearce Papers); also Pearce to F.J. Bowden (Vic), 21 February 1917, item 2/29. 35 Correspondence in Pearce Papers, op. cit., Series I. Whether Hay knew that Hilton was corresponding with Pearce, and vice versa, is unknown, but Hay criticised Hilton to Pearce (item 2/94). 36 Pearce to Hilton, 10 March 1917, Pearce Papers, op. cit., item 2/60; Hay to Pearce, 9 February 1917 (item 2/31), concludes If these notes are of service to you I will continue them. 37 SE Minutes, op. cit., vol. 2, 18 January, 5 and 19 February 1917. 38 The RSA (Returned Soldiers Association) later adopted the title Returned Soldiers, Sailors and Airmens Imperial League of Australia (or RSL). The initials RSA are used for a breakaway body that formed in 1919. 39 Driver to McCallum, 22 January 1917, SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/67. 40 Police transcripts of Miss Pankhursts speeches at Fremantle on 19 February and 4 March 1917, WA Military Intelligence Files [MI], Australian Archives, Perth, Accession no. P14.5.4., Series 1, box 4, item 1/9/58. 41 SE Circular to District Councils, 8 February 1917, SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/67; also SE Minutes, op. cit., 5 March, 2 April 1917. 42 Circular letter, Forrest to electors of WA, 16 April 1917, Pearce Papers, op. cit., Series I, item 2/35. 43 Oliver, Henderson, op. cit.; H.J. Smith, Hugh de Largie in ADB, 18911939, op. cit., volume 8, Cl-Gib, pp. 272273. 44 Black, P.J. Lynch, op. cit. 45 Oliver, Needham, op. cit., p. 363. 46 SE Minutes, op. cit., vol. 2, 12 November 1917. 47 SE Minutes, op. cit., 19 and 28 November 1917, 3 December 1917 48 Westralian Worker, 3 August, 7 and 14 December 1917. 49 ibid., 23 November 1917, p. 2. 50 ibid., 23 November, 19 December 1917. 51 These arguments occur in the Westralian Worker, 14 and 19 December 1917 (The 19 December issue must have been put out two days early for the referendum elections then being conducted on Thursdays.) 52 Correspondence in MI, op. cit., 1/12/70. 53 MI, op. cit., 1/12/169. See also file nos. 1/12/170, 174, 183, 186, 197, 198 for transcripts of other speeches. (Tom Allen was a Methodist Minister who frequently appeared on platforms at conscription and recruiting meetings.) 54 Details of Curtins court case are from Westralian Worker, 4 January 1918. The Police Constables name was sometimes spelt as above and sometimes as Ebbotson. 55 See unheaded and unsigned notes in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/40: Recently reimbursements have been granted to Collier, Curtin, Mrs Foxcroft, Brookfield, Cunningham [the latter two not Western Australians]. An account of Curtins prosecution also appears in

406

Bobbie Oliver
Lloyd Ross, John Curtin. A biography, South Melbourne, Macmillan, 1977, pp. 6162. The note in the Correspondence file 1688A/40 appears to contradict Rosss assumption that Curtin was not reimbursed. For an analysis of Western Australian voting in the 1916 and 1917 plebiscites, see Oliver, War and Peace, op. cit., pp. 115 ff. In 1917, 1,105,159 people voted Yes and 1,181,747 voted No. The figures for WA voters were: Yes 84,116; No 46,522. Only WA, Tasmania and the Territories recorded a majority in support of conscription. Annual Report of the Fremantle ALF Executive, 1917, op. cit., p. 2. ibid.; McCallum, speaking at a meeting at His Majestys Theatre, Perth, on 4 May 1919. Precis of Proceedings at a Conference between representatives of the Oversea, Interstate and Coastal Companies on Wednesday, September 19th, 1917 in Minutes of the Australasian Steamship Owners Federation (hereafter ASOF Minutes), Noel Butlin Archives Accession no. E217, vol. 5, 191518. Membership of the ASOF in 191718 consisted of Adelaide Steamship Co. Ltd., Australasian United Steam Navigation Co. Ltd., Union Steamship Co. of New Zealand, Howard Smith Company Pty. Ltd., McIlwraith McEacharn and Company Pty. Ltd., and Melbourne Steamship Company. ASOF Minutes, op. cit., vol. 5, 21 August 1917. ibid., 22 August 1917. P. Hopper, The 1919 Fremantle Lumpers Strike, BA Honours Dissertation, UWA, 1975, pp. 1516. These tensions are discussed in a report by Fremantle Police Inspector Sellenger to the Commissioner of Police, 28 November 1917, Police Department records, Battye Library Accession no. 4092/1918. See F. Cain, The Wobblies at War. A history of the IWW and the Great War in Australia, Melbourne: Spectrum Publications, 1993. See Cain, op. cit., pp. 240245. Another account of the Westralian trial is in Williams, The First Furrow, op. cit., pp. 5763. Letters and reports in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 16881A/40, 166, 177; also Oliver, War and Peace, op. cit., pp. 8183. Sellinger to Simpson, 18 March 1918, and Sellingers Reports to Commissioner of Police, 16 and 17 November 1918, in Police Department, op. cit., 4092/1918. See correspondence in PDF, op. cit., nos. 33/19 and 111/19. ibid., 112/19; also West Australian, 18 and 23 April 1919. Typed report of deputation to Colebatch, 23 April 1919, PDF, op., cit., 112/19. SE Minutes, op. cit., vol. 2, 28 April 1919. Colebatch to Watt, 23 April 1919, PDF, op. cit., 112/19. Watt to Colebatch, 25 April 1919 in ibid. A copy of this agreement is in ibid. Shallard to Colebatch, 25 April 1919; Malloch Bros to Colebatch, n.d.; Notes re. deputation. n.d. (probably 28 April 1919), all in ibid. A detailed account of events is given in the West Australian, 5 May 1919. Inspector Manns report to the Police Commissioner, 9 May 1919, Police Department 2396/1919. The following account is largely drawn from this report. West Australian, 5 May 1919. ibid., pp. 67. Oliver, War and Peace, op. cit., p. 179. Westralian Worker, 16 May 1919, p. 4. West Australian, 6 May 1919. This is hinted at rather than openly stated in a short account of a meeting at Inspector Sellingers office on Monday evening, in ibid.

56

57 58 59

60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83

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84 ibid., (for accounts of the meetings); Sellenger to Police Commissioner, 8 May 1919, and Mann to Police Commissioner, 9 May 1919, in Police Department, op. cit., 2396/1919. 85 Inspector Manns report, op. cit., pp. 89. 86 For the political context of these meetings, see B. Oliver, The Diggers Association: A turning point in the history of the Western Australian Returned Services League, Journal of the Australian War Memorial, no. 23, October 1993, p. 30. 87 FLU to Colebatch, 5 May 1919, and Report of the compensation due on the death of Thomas Edwards, to his wife and family, SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/78. 88 Duncan to Police Commissioner, 25 May 1919, Police Department, op. cit., 3032/19. 89 Mann to Police Commissioner, 27 May 1919 in ibid. 90 Correspondence in PDF, op. cit., 203/19 and 224/19. 91 The following account is taken from the statements of witnesses at the Supreme Court, Criminal Sittings, Perth, 2 March 1920 and following days, Supreme Court of WA records, Battye Library Accession no. 4 of 1920, CLD no. 3696/19; Kalgoorlie Miner, 7 November 1919. 92 Intelligence Section to Premier, 26 November 1919, and Dispute between the CMU [FMU] and the AWU, and others engaged in the Mining Industry in the East Coolgardie Goldfield, 3 January 1920, PDF, op. cit., 398/19; Deputation from State Executive ALF re Kalgoorlie and Boulder Trouble, 18:11:19 in ibid. 93 Kalgoorlie Miner, 6 November 1919. 94 ibid., 8 November 1919. 95 Testimony of witnesses at the Supreme Court trial in Perth, March 1920, Battye Library Accession no. 3473/5007, file 1920. 96 Deputation from State Executive ALF re Kalgoorlie and Boulder Trouble, PDF, op. cit., 398/19. 97 EGDC Minutes, op. cit., Battye Library Accession no. 1704A. vol. 3, 15 November 1919; West Australian, 6 December 1919. 98 SE Minutes, op. cit., vol. 2, 17 November 1919; For press coverage see, for example, West Australian, 7 November 1919. See also Criminal Case file no. 5006/1920 Rex v. George Callanan and Others, 2.3.20, Supreme Court Files, Battye Library Accession no. 3473. For other published accounts of these events, see Oliver, War and Peace, op. cit., pp. 185186; J. Murray, The Kalgoorlie Woodline Strikes, 1919-1920: A Study of Conflict Within the Working Class, in L. Layman, ed., Studies in Western Australian History V: Bosses, Workers and Unemployed, op. cit., pp. 2237, and B. Oliver, Disputes, Diggers and Disillusionment. Social and Industrial Unrest in Perth and Kalgoorlie, 191824 in J. Gregory ed, Studies in Western Australian History XI: Western Australia Between the Wars, 191939, June 1990, pp. 1928. 99 Rex v. Callanan and Others. (The Others were Alfred Callanan, Michael Purcell, Frank Banham, Owen Bannon, Willhelm Dravis (Davis), Charles Heil, Ernest Brown, Mate Yuryevich, Ante Katich, Nicholas Turich, Martin Lillis, John Stewart, Joseph Shelley, D. McAuliffe, and Walter Bowden. 100 Intelligence Section to Premier, 26 November 1919, and Dispute between the CMU [FMU] and the AWU, and others engaged in the mining industry in the East Coolgardie Goldfield, 3.1.20, both in PDF, op. cit., 398/19. 101 Royal Commission of Nationalist Workers, 6.10.19, pp. 91422, SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/177. 102 ALF Secretary to Baglin, 18 July 1919, in ibid. Chapter Four: Only by the OBU shall workmens wrongs be righted 1 See, for example, Westralian Worker, 31 December 1920, which described an anomaly between the Awards of the AEU and the WAASRE.

408
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Bobbie Oliver
Somerville to Perth Womens Labour League, n.d., Somerville Papers, op. cit. R. Coates, Lenins Impact on Australia, Australian Left Review, AprilMay, 1970, no. 24, pp. 2829; R. Gollan, Revolutionaries and Reformists: Communism and the Australian Labour Movement, 19201955, Canberra: ANU, 1975, p. 2. J. Garden, The Workers Industrial Union of Australia. One Big Union Manifesto to Returned Soldiers and Sailors of Australia, SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/189. F. Hyett, The Advantages of the One Big Union, op. cit., pp. 5, 6; Proposed Scheme for Closer Unionism in Victoria (1918), in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/189. Workers Industrial Union of Australia Preamble, Classification and Rules, adopted at the All-Australia Trades Union Conference, Melbourne, January 1919, copy in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/189. Barker to McCallum, 21 January 1919, in ibid. ALP (WA Division), Fourth General Council (Tenth Congress) Official Report and Proceedings, (hereafter Fourth General Council Report), pp. 43, 49. ibid., pp. 4358. ALF Special Congress Minutes, op. cit., vol. 18; Minutes of the 1919 Labor Congress, op. cit. SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/188 and 189. Suggestions considered by the OBU Committee, dated 11 September 1919, SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/189. The chapters title is taken from this quotation. ALF Special Congress Minutes, op. cit., 25 May 1920. ibid., 26 May 1920 and One Big Union Draft Constitution and Rules, p. 3, in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/151. One Big Union: Draft Constitution and Rules, op. cit., pp. 2, 4, 5. Duncan to Commissioner, 6 December 1920, in Police Department, op. cit., 8564/1920. West Australian, 30 November 1920. Correspondence in Police Department, op. cit., 8564/1920; PDF, op. cit., no. 576/20. Gallo to Premier, 4 December 1920, in ibid. The Kalgoorlie race riots occurred after Thomas Northwood, a returned soldier, was fatally stabbed with a kitchen knife. It was claimed that an Italian had been responsible for his death. The RSL attempted to have all the Italians driven out of Kalgoorlie. Details of the riot in Police Department files 3032/1919, 3871/1919 and 5850/1919. Murray, The Kalgoorlie Woodline Strikes, 19191920, op. cit., pp. 3133. WAPD, op. cit., vol. 63, 2 December 1920, p. 2086. ibid., p. 2087. The actual cost of hiring approximately 600 special constables at 12/6 per day and feeding them was 4,930/12/6. See Inspector Duncan to Police Commissioner Connell, 13 November 1919, and further correspondence in Police Department 5850/19. WAPD, op. cit., vol. 63, p. 2091. Westralian Worker, 31 December 1920. ibid., 28 January 1921. Secretary, AWU Boulder, to Premier, 22 January 1920, PDF, op. cit., 29/21; EGDC Minutes, op. cit., vol. 3, 18 July 1921. AWU Records. Pastoral Industry Conference, Trades Hall, Melbourne, 20 November 1920. On Microfilm. NBA Accession no. 44 PD5, Item 85; West Australian Pastoralist and Grazier, vol. 1, no. 1, 26 January 1925, p 16. The Conference sought an Award of 9.10s. for shearers and 5.10s. for station hands. ALF Deputations to Premier Mitchell, 29 July and 17 August 1921, PDF, op. cit., no. 342/21. Commissioner Connell to Sgt. Leen, Carnarvon Police, 16 July 1921, Police Department, op. cit., 4403/1921. PGA to Connell, 8 September, and Scaddan to Connell, 14 September 1921, in ibid.

21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

30 31 32

Notes

409

33 ALP General Secretarys Circular, 17 October 1921. 34 See correspondence between the AWU and the State Executive in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/36. 35 Gollan, Revolutionaries and Reformists, op. cit., p. 10. 36 Williams, The First Furrow, op. cit., pp. 8493. 37 AWU (WA) Secretarys Annual Report for Year Ending May 31, 1922, AWU Papers, op. cit., E154/64/. 38 H. E. Boote, OBU. Why it Failed! Sydney, 1924, AWU Papers, op. cit., file no. E15/37/11. 39 McMullin, The Light on the Hill, op. cit., p. 119. 40 See M. Hearn and H. Knowles, One Big Union. A history of the Australian Workers Union, 18861994, Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1996, chapter 6. 41 Supreme Court of Western Australia Records, Criminal Indictment Register, 1915 to 1936, on Microfilm, Battye Library Accession no. CONS 3422, pp. 183, 197; also West Australian, 18 April 1923. 42 M. McEntyre The Callanan Case in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/257. 43 SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/259; also Ives to Trainer, 27 July 1937, re withdrawing of Callanans and Moilers credentials, SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/419, and information from Andrew Gill. 44 Black, Party Politics, op. cit., Table 12.2. 45 Truth, 26 November 1927; SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/244 and 359; Westralian Worker, July 1941. 46 SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/217; R. Pervan, James Joseph Kenneally in ADB, op. cit., vol. 9, pp. 564565. 47 See EGDC Minutes, op. cit., 1 September 1919 for Cliffords and correspondence in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/394 for Taylor. 48 See SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/213, 313 and 419. Lawler was succeeded briefly by C. Kenneally, who did not like office work and soon left. H. Ives then became Secretary (file 419). 49 EGDC Minutes, op. cit., vol. 4, 17 December 1923, 14 January 1924; Westralian Worker, 21 and 28 December 1923, 14 January 1924; Police Departments, op. cit., 5850/1919 and 579/1920; Callanan to editor, Westralian Worker, 21 January 1934, SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/402. 50 SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/297, 395. 51 Clunas to Trainer, 27 August 1935, in ibid., 1688A/440. 52 This appears to be a perception held by the women themselves. The Labor Womens Silver Anniversary Souvenir, October, 1937, pp. 1819 lists Landmarks in the History of Western Australian Labor Women. Nothing is listed as occurring between 1914 and 1924. 53 Dawn, 16 September 1925, in Beadle Papers, op. cit., item 27. 54 Information from John Cowdell MLC. 55 The debates surrounding the passage of both these Bills are described in M. Choules, Women in Western Australian Parliamentary Politics, 1921 to 1968, BA Hons Thesis, Curtin University, 1988, pp. 25 ff. See also WAPD, op. cit., vol. 60. 56 Choules, Women in Western Australian Parliamentary Politics, op. cit., p. 36. 57 Details are in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/70. Shelley was nominated by Etta Hooton, presumably one of the two people who voted for her. 58 ALP Secretary to Brown, 22 November 1922; also correspondence between ALP Secretary and Miss McEntyre, 4 and 22 November 1922 in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/170. 59 W. Brady, Serfs of the Sodden Scone? Women Workers in the West Australian Hotel and Catering Industry 1900-1925 in P. Crawford, ed., Studies in Western Australian History VII: Women in Western Australian History, December 1983, p. 37.

410
60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73

Bobbie Oliver
C. Shelley, interviewed by J. Williams, 1970, cited in J. Williams, The First Furrow, op. cit., p. 84. Brady, op. cit., pp. 3536. State Executive Circular to District Councils, 4 July 1921 in SE Correspondence., 1688A/33. Brady, op. cit., p. 38. SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/26. Typed notes, n.d., unsigned, in ibid. SE Minutes, op. cit., vol. 3, 17 June, 1 July 1921. SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/33. Unidentified, undated newspaper clipping Esplanade Dispute in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/83. Serle to McCallum, 6 April 1921, SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/52. SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/33. Brady, op. cit., pp. 3842. F. Farrell, International Socialism and Australian Labor: the Left in Australia, 19191939, Sydney: Hale & Iremonger, 1981, pp. 1445. There are numerous sources on the Group Settlement Scheme. Labors reaction to it is discussed in Oliver, War and Peace, op. cit., Chapter 6. See G.D. Snooks, Development in Adversity, 1913 to 1946 in Stannage, ed., A New History of Western Australia, op. cit., Table 7.6 Trade union unemployment, Western Australia and Australia (%) p. 246. For details of the divisions within and between the conservative parties, see Oliver, War and Peace, op. cit., pp. 240242. Black, Election Statistics, op. cit., passim. FSU to ALP, Fremantle, 7 February 1924, SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/172. This rule had been instituted when the State Disputes Committee and Industrial Disputes Committees for each District Council were formed at a special conference in 1920, after a proliferation of disputes in which unions were taking it upon themselves to declare all manner of goods and individuals black. Once a black ban had been placed, union members could not transport, buy, work upon or in any way deal with the object so declared. See Minutes of a Conference convened by the State Executive to consider the question of the Black Doctrine held at Trades Hall, Perth, 29 May 1920, SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/20. West Australian, 26 November 1924; Westralian Worker, 21 November 1924; 2 and 23 January 1925. Minutes of the Perth Chamber of Commerce, Batty Library Accession no. 882A, vol. 7, 16 December 1924. Cited in the Daily News, 5 December 1924. See for example, Who Rules Australia? King George or King Tom?, Sunday Times, 7 December 1924. Westralian Worker, 25 January 1925; Oliver, War and Peace, op. cit., pp. 239, 250258. SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/213, 224, and 271. Daily News and West Australian, 9 December 1924. West Australian, 12 December 1924. Oliver, War and Peace, op. cit., pp. 257258. See SE Minutes, op. cit., 6 May 1925, 1 June 1925; Metropolitan District Council Minutes, op. cit., 21 May 1925; Midland District Council Minutes, op. cit., 27 April, 11 May, 8 June 1925 in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/213, 271. The Seamens Union did not apply for re-affiliation with the Fremantle District Council until 1928, by which time the union had

Chapter Five: Unity, Organisation and Continuous Propaganda 19241929 1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Notes

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16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32

33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41

dispensed with Tom Houghtons services after he formed a separate seamens union. See SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/326. See E. Clapham to Secretary, Metropolitan District Council, 10 September 1925, SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/239. Typed notes of a meeting of the Labor Womens Organisation, n.d., not signed, referring to Mrs Greens deposition and the summoning of the LWO before the State Executive, in ibid. Report of a committee appointed to inquire into the affairs to the Labor Womens Organisation and charges made by a number of members of that organisation against Mrs Brain and Miss Shelley; also relevant correspondence in ibid. Notes of an inquiry re Womens Organisation held Trades Hall 6th October 1925 2.15 pm; also Clapham to Secretary, Metropolitan Council, in ibid. SE Minutes, op. cit., 23 November, 7 December 1925; also Report of the Committee appointed to inquire into affair of the Labor Womens Organisation, op. cit. Minutes of the Labor Womens Organisation (hereafter LWO Minutes), Battye Library Accession no. 2011A, volume 1, 26 January 1926. See SE Circular to District Councils, 21 July 1927 in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/340. Australian Timber Workers Union no.5. Branch, WA. Mr Justice Drapers Judgment, in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/377. Burge to Barker, 5 May 1925, SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/281. Barker to J. Close, Secretary of the SWDC , 4 August 1925, SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/271. W.D. Fletchers notes, SE Meeting, 1 March 1926, SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/281. Correspondence in ibid. Barker to Ulrich, 12 June 1928, SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/346. Barker to Burgess, 21 August and 5 September 1928; Burgess to Barker, 24 August 1928; Barker to Bogan, 1 October 1928, SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/326. Barker to Lawler, 7 November 1929, and other correspondence in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/313. See, for example, Joe Tankard (Secretary, Avon District Council) to Percy Trainer, 28 November 1933 in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/395. See AWU to Barker, 14 July 1927, SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/293, for AWU affiliation and membership figures; also Macintyre, Oxford History of Australia, op. cit., p. 234, and G. Withers, A.M. Endres & L. Perry, Labour, Table LAB 209-226 in Vamplew, ed., Australians. Historical Statistics, op. cit. Australian Worker, (Sydney), 4 July 1928. ibid. See correspondence between Barker and C. Crofts (ACTU Secretary), SE Correspondence, op.cit., 1688A/296; also Macintyre, The Oxford History of Australia, op. cit., p. 234. Gibson to Barker, 21 November 1928, SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/296. Barker to Crofts, 16 December 1929 in ibid. Peter OLoghlen. Obituary. Westralian Worker, 16 November 1923. J. Watson, ed., We hold up half the Sky. The Voices of Western Australian Women in Parliament, Perth, Australian Labor Party, 1994, p. 13; also McMullin, The Light on the Hill, op. cit., p. 138. For a detailed description of the process of getting this legislation through Parliament, see B. Oliver, Lives of Misery and Melancholy. The Rhetoric and Reality of Industrial Reform in Post-World War I Western Australia, Labour History, no. 73, November 1997, pp. 105122. LWO Minutes, op. cit., 19 March, 13 and 29 April, 30 June, 14 July 1926.

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Bobbie Oliver

42 Chairman of a Special Committee on Child Endowment. Report presented at a Special Conference of Unions to consider Child Endowment, Trades Hall, Perth, 27 July 1927, especially pp. 5, 10. Beadle Papers, op. cit., item 19. 43 Westralian Worker, 22 March 1929. 44 Labor Womens Silver Anniversary Souvenir, op. cit., p. 18. 45 Labor Womens Central Executive Minurtes (hereafter LWCE Minutes), Battye Library Accession no. 2011A, volume 1, 4 October 1932. (These Minutes are in the same volume as the LWO Minutes). 46 See Mooney to Trainer, 13 September 1935, SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/462. 47 LWCE Minutes, op. cit., 13 October 1932. 48 Official Statement re First Federal Conference of Labor Women, March 4th8th 1929, dated 25 May 1929, in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/321. 49 LWCE Minutes, op. cit., 7 August 1934. 50 Report of a conference between the PLP and the State Executive 23 September 1923, SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/255. The chapters title is taken from this quotation. 51 McDonald to Millington, 28 October and 20 November 1923, in ibid 52 Lowry to Barker, 30 September 1924, SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/227. 53 Circular letter from the Chief Electoral Officer to Group foremen, 8 February 1926, SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/215. 54 See Black, Election Statistics, op. cit., under the above named seats for the names and party allegiances of candidates throughout the 1920s and 30s; also Oliver, War and Peace, op. cit., chapter 8 for details of this process. The United Party was not the same as the United Australia Party, formed federally in 1931. 55 McCarthy to Barker, 10 January 1927, in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 688A/215a; 22 May 1926, in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/251; 16 April and 24 May 1927, in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/353. 56 Black, Election Statistics, op. cit., pp. 300301. 57 ibid., pp. 300301 (Roebourne) and pp. 170172 (Kimberley). 58 See Minutes of Meeting of the Organising Committee, 4 July 1933, and Kimberley Electoral Roll up-date 20 June 1933 in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/450. 59 See list of applicants, including biographical notes, SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/355(1). 60 See relevant correspondence in ibid., 1688A/313 and 329. 61 Hawke to Barker, 21 January 1929. See also Organisers reports to the State Executive, 5 November 1928, 2 and 24 November 1928, 14 December 1928, 22 December 1928, 22 January 1929, in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/355 62 Report, 22 January 1929 in ibid. 63 Barker to Hawke, 24 January 1929 in ibid., 355 (1). 64 Report, 12 April 1929 in ibid. 65 Barker to Collier, 18 October 1927 and 20 January 1928 in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/360, my emphasis. 66 See Atkinson to Barker, 1 August 1929, and related correspondence in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/370. 67 The Collier Governments Record in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/ 343. 68 P. Collier, Foreword in H. Colebatch (ed), A story of a hundred years. Western Australia 1929, Perth, 1929, p. ix. 69 Macintyre, Oxford History of Australia, op. cit., p. 241. 70 McMullin, The Light on the Hill, op. cit., p. 130. 71 The Vote No, 18 August 1926. See also Be a BIG Australian. Vote Yes Twice in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/266.

Notes

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72 D. Jaensch and C.A. Hughes, Politics, op. cit., Table POL 2937 National Referendums, Australia 19061977 in Vamplew, ed., Australians. Historical Statistics, op. cit., p. 396. There appears to be an error in this table, for the polling date is given as 26 July 1926 and not 4 September as indicated in contemporary sources such as those quoted in the preceding footnote. According to this table, 43.5% of voters were in favour of the first proposal and 42.8% in favour of the second. The only states to record a majority of Yes votes were NSW and Queensland. 73 Cited in the Westralian Worker, 22 July 1927, p. 1. 74 See resolutions from the Printing Industry Employees Union, 9 August 1927 and Metropolitan Council to State Executive, 12 August 1927 in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/345. 75 State Executive of WA, Sinister Attack on Trade Unionism, pamphlet, n.d. in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/324. 76 T. Fox, Fremantle Lumpers Union. The Case for the Waterside Workers in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/372. This was published in the Westralian Worker, 21 September 1928, p. 1. 77 Beeby, writing to Attorney-General, J.G. Latham, cited by Macintyre, The Oxford History of Australia, op. cit., p. 245. 78 ibid., p. 246. 79 D. van den Broek, The 1929 Timber Workers Strike: the role of Community and Gender, School of Industrial Relations and Organisational Behaviour, University of NSW Working Paper Series, vol. 104, July 1995, UNSW, Kensington, 1995. 80 Westralian Worker, 28 June 1929. 81 Curtin to Barker, 2 September 1929, SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/323. For number of working days lost in strikes, 192331, see Macintyre, The Oxford History of Australia, op. cit., p. 245, Table 10.1. 82 ibid., pp. 24750. 83 Labor did not have a majority in the Senate, so any attempt to alter the Defence Act would have failed. See Oliver, Peacemongers, op. cit., pp. 5556. For Greens daughter, see Caucus Minutes, op. cit., vol. 2, 23 January 1917. 84 Curtin to Kenneally, 4 November 1929, SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/323. 85 See McMullin, The Light on the Hill, op. cit., pp. 153154; Day, John Curtin, op. cit., p. 308. Chapter Six: Engulfed in the maelstrom of today Depression, Secession and Unemployment during the 1930s 1 See Oliver, War and Peace, op. cit., pp. 205 ff; D. Black, The Era of Labor Ascendancy, 19241947 in Stannage, A New History of Western Australia, op. cit., pp. 417419. See also Black, Election Statistics, op. cit., Index for a list of the seats and their dates of creation and abolition. Black, The Era of Labor Ascendancy, op. cit., p. 417. See G.D. Snooks, Depression and Recovery in Western Australia, 1928/291938/39: A Study in Cyclical and Structural Change, Nedlands: UWA Press, 1974, p. 8, for the percentage of trade unionists unemployed. Mitchells incompetence in dealing with delegations of unemployed men was commented upon by his deputy, Sir Charles Latham, cited in G. Bolton, A Fine Country to Starve In, Nedlands: UWA Press, 1992 edition, p. 149. ibid., pp. 106108. Typed notes, n.d., p. 4 in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/424. West Australian, 7 March 1931, p. 13. Westralian Worker, 13 March 1931, p. 1. Bolton, A Fine Country to Starve In, op. cit., pp. 15055.

3 4 5 6 7

414
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

Bobbie Oliver
Metropolitan DC Minutes, op. cit., vol. 6, 193033, 17 March 1931; SE Minutes, op. cit., vol. 5, 13 March 1931. Snooks, Development in Adversity 1913 to 1946, op. cit., pp. 263264. Metropolitan DC Minutes, op. cit., 15 September 1932; also Black, The Era of Labor Ascendancy, op. cit., pp. 417419. Westralian Worker, 21 August 1931, p. 6; also 10, 17 and 24 April and 8 May 1931 for clothing appeals. SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/455. Lowry to Trainer, 13 September 1933, in ibid., 1688A/404. McMullin, The Light on the Hill, op. cit., p. 170. Westralian Worker, 13 February 1931. ibid., 13 March 1931. ibid., 20 and 20 February, 6 and 13 March 1931. CPD, op. cit., vol. 130, 24 June 1931. See also McMullin, The Light on the Hill, op. cit., p. 174; Curtin to Boote, 22 December 1931, in H.E. Boote Papers, National Library of Australia Accession no. MS 2070 (Boote Papers), Series 1, item 49. Curtin to Anstey, 9 March 1934, in Lloyd Ross Papers, National Library of Australia Accession no. MS3939, box 33. Typed notes, Policy speech, n.d., referring to the 1933 election, in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/476. Notes in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/270. Notes on the official case relating to the disabilities of Western Australia under Federation, in Pearce Papers, National Library of Australia Accession no. MS213/16/128; also photograph of the Dominion League executive, Sunday Times, 12 March 1933, in ibid., 213/16/330 and typescript WAs Dangerous Movement by David G. Stead, in ibid., 213/16/332. Resolution of the Dominion League of Western Australia, 22 February 1932, ibid., 213/16/127a; and Pearce to Watson, 2 March 1932, ibid., 213/16/128. Boas to Pearce, 31 December 1932, and Boas to Threlfall, 19 January 1933, ibid., 213/16/157. Black, The Era of Labor Ascendancy, op. cit., p. 422. Typed notes The Labor Movement of Western Australia opposes Secession from the Commonwealth because: in 1688A/483, n.d., written before the December 1931 defeat of the Scullin Federal Labor Government. Bolton, A Fine Country to Starve In, op. cit., pp. 250254; West Australian, 29 March and 5 April 1933. Latham to Pearce, 12 April 1933 in Pearce Papers, op. cit., 213/16/480; also Black, The Era of Labor Ascendancy, op. cit., pp. 422423, and Election Statistics, op. cit., p. 253. Resolutions of the Midland District Council, n.d,. with a letter J. Brady (Secretary) to the ALP Secretary, 24 April 1934, in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/461. Kenneally to Trainer, 8 November 1933, in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/424 Tankard to Trainer, 28 November 1933, in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/395. Lowry to Trainer, 20 September 1933 in ibid. Willcock to Trainer, 23 October 1935, SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/424; also Caucus Minutes, op. cit., vol. 7, 17 July 1933. Kenneally to Trainer, 24 November 1933, SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/424. Snooks, Development in Adversity, op. cit., p. 261. C. J. Fox, The Relief and Sustenance Workers Union, 193334. An anti-Labor, political and industrial organisation, BA Honours Thesis, UWA, 1977, pp. 21 ff. ibid., pp. 2930.

24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38

Notes

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39 Unidentified clipping, n.d. (probably December 1933) in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/404. 40 Fox, op. cit., p. 40. 41 ibid., p. 26. 42 ibid., pp. 5051. 43 ibid., p. 50. 44 Westralian Worker, 23 February 1934. 45 Fox, op. cit., pp. 5468. 46 Westralian Worker, 23 February 1934, AWU Notes, p. 3, and 30 March 1934, editorial. 47 Douglas Credit Movement leaflet, Who Says So?, n.d., in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/415. 48 Report of the Douglas Credit Committee signed by Elliott and Hodsdon, and hand-written draft of the Committees Report, in ibid. 49 Curtins report, n.d.; also Curtin to Trainer, 25 August 1933, in ibid. 50 State Executive circular to District Councils, 16 August 1934, in ibid. 51 Black, The Era of Labor Ascendancy, op. cit., p. 429. 52 Lowry to Trainer, 10 July 1933 and reply 18 July, in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/404. 53 Lowry to Trainer, 24 July 1933, in ibid. The chapters title is a quotation from this letter. 54 L.W. Johnson, A History of the Collie Coalmining Industry, MA (History), UWA, 1956, pp. 236, 240. 55 ibid., pp. 13. 56 ibid., pp. 202 ff, 243. 57 Notes of a deputation from the State Disputes Committee, ALP, Collie Miners Union, and Locomotive Enginemens Union to Commissioner of Railways, 15.12.33 and Notes prepared for the Hon. Premier for deputation, 5.12.33; Lowry to Trainer, 28 December 1933, thanking him and the State Disputes Committee for the satisfactory settlement of this dispute, in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/404. 58 Synopsis of trouble at Collie in connection with the working of places to the dip of the seam, n.d. typed report in ibid. 59 See General Secretary to Willcock, 20 September 1934, General Secretary to Lowry 17 September and 19 October 1934 in ibid. 60 Lowry to Trainer, 7 February 1935, in ibid. 61 Amalgamated Collieries to Trainer, 18 February 1935, in ibid. 62 Correspondence between Lowry and Trainer, 15 March, 2 April, 26 April 1935 in ibid. 63 Johnson, A History of the Collie Coalmining Industry, op. cit., pp 205206. 64 Keating to Trainer, 28 November 1933 in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/440. 65 Taylor to Kenneally, 31 July 1934 in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/393. 66 Trainer to Taylor, 6 November 1934 in ibid. 67 Pike to Taylor, 4 September 1935, in ibid. 68 See correspondence in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/ 393 and 394. 69 Trainer to Boote, 21 December 1935, in ibid., 1688A/397. 70 Typed, undated notes, 8 pp. in ibid., 1688A/424. The table on p. 8 shows the Basic Wage as 3.11s. per week, which dates the notes at or after 27 February 1935. 71 Pervan, James Joseph Kenneally, op. cit., pp. 496497. 72 Trainer to McCallum 19 March 1935, in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/457. 73 McCallum to Trainer, 25 March 1935 in ibid. 74 R.F. Pervan, The Western Australian Labor Movement, 19331947 MA Thesis, UWA, 1966, pp. 15 ff; also W. Birman, McCallum, Alexander in ADB, 18911939, volume 10, pp. 209211. 75 Caucus Minutes, op. cit., vol. 7, 17 July 1933.

416

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76 N. Doohan, Willcock, John Collings in ADB, op. cit., vol. 12, 18911939, pp. 494495. 77 See lists of attendance at SPLP meetings in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1719A/26 (1946) and 1719A/29/2 (1940). See also D. Black, Collier, Phillip in ADB, op. cit., vol. 8, 18911939, pp. 70-72; Pervan, The Western Australian Labour Movement, op. cit., p. 30. 78 Barker to Williams, 28 February 1929 and reply 4 March 1929, SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/313. 79 Lawler to Trainer, 1 August 1933, and further correspondence in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/417. 80 See Attendances at Caucus, 1934 and 1935 sessions, SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/474 81 EGDC Minutes, op. cit.., 1704A/5, 193753, especially 4 September 1939 and 15 September 1941. 82 State Executive Circular letter, dated 3 October 1928 in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/305; Oliver, Peacemongers, op. cit., pp. 58 ff.. 83 LWCE Minutes, op. cit., 5 August 1929; SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/422. 84 Watson, ed., Remarks of an Inexperienced Traveller Abroad, op. cit., pp. 56. 85 LWO to West Australian, 11 January 1939. The motion was moved at the LWO meeting of 9 January 1939. See LWO Perth Labor Womens Organisation Papers, in Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 3. 86 Westralian Worker, 31 May 1939; also J. Carter, Bassendean. A Social History, 19281979, Bassendean: Bassendean Town Council, 1986, p. 157. 87 Watson, We Hold Up Half the Sky, op. cit., p. 39. 88 Circular from the Spanish Refugee Relief Committee, in LWO Papers, Labor Centre, op. cit. 89 SE Circulars, 2 August and 29 September 1939, in ibid. 90 See, for example, resolutions passed on 7 April and 1 December 1936, 5 July 1938, and placed on the Agenda of the Twelfth Labor Womens Annual Conference in 1937, in LWCE Minutes, op. cit., 193743, op. cit. 91 Westralian Worker, 15 March, 1935; also B. Oliver, Peacemongers, op. cit., p. 64. 92 Westralian Worker, 15 March 1935, p. 1. 93 CPD, op. cit., vol. 157, pp. 138139. 94 The ALP was not unified on the issue. See Day, John Curtin, op. cit., chapter 30. Chapter Seven: The one outstanding man in Australia John Curtin and the State ALP, 193545 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Non-Indigenous Australians, 466,000; Indigenous Australians estimated at 27,000. P. Hetherington, Introduction: Western Australia in the Commonwealth 19391945 in J. Gregory, ed., On the Homefront. Western Australia and World War II, Nedlands: UWA Press, 1996, p. 3. McMullin, The Light on the Hill, op. cit., pp. 1856; L.F. Crisp, Ben Chifley. A biography, Croydon: Longmans, 1960, pp. 99100; D. Black, ed., In His Own Words: John Curtins Speeches and Writings, Bentley: Paradigm Books, 1995, p. 122; Day, John Curtin, op. cit., p. 342. Curtin to Trainer, 24 October 1935, in SE Correspondence, 1688A/429. Curtin to H. Boote, 22 December 1935, Boote Papers, op. cit., file 1/97 See Weller, ed., Caucus Minutes 1901-1949, op. cit., vol. 3, 19321949, Appendices. State Executive ALP, Report and Balance Sheet for the Year ended January 31, 1940. Oliver, Peacemongers, op. cit., pp. 79 ff; Sara Buttsworth, Women Colouring the Wartime Landscape, op. cit., pp. 5964; B. Oliver and W.S. Latter, Spooks, Spies and Subversives! The Wartime Security Service, op. cit., pp. 176185; and M. Bosworth, Internment, pp. 20011 in Gregory, On the Homefront, op. cit.

Notes
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417

39

Lindsay J. Peet, The Men who Stayed Behind in ibid., p. 43 and Appendix I, pp. 293297; Buttsworth, op. cit., p. 58; SE Correspondence, 1719/30/6 for details of Labor members serving and losing relatives. F.R. Lees How to Vote card (1943) in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1719A/17/2; Black, In His Own Words, op. cit., pp. 172173. Vote of condolence to Margaret Green and her family, SE Minutes, op. cit., 7 October 1940. EGDC Minutes, op. cit., 6 October 1940; SE Minutes, op. cit., Special Meetings, 15, 18 and 21 October 1940. Murchison DC Minutes, op. cit., 20 October 1940. SE Minutes, op. cit., 21 October 1940, 25 November 1940. Hughes & Graham, Voting for the Australian House of Representatives, op. cit., p. 221. Metropolitan DC Minutes, op. cit., 9 January 1941; McMullin, The Light on the Hill, op. cit., pp. 206207; Hughes & Graham, op. cit., p. 214; Ross, John Cutin, op. cit., pp. 200201. McMullin, The Light on the Hill, op. cit., p. 207; G. Serle, For Australia and Labor. Prime Minister John Curtin, Perth: The John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library, 1998, p. 22. SE Minutes, op. cit., 6 and 13 January 1941; State Executive Officers submit the following replies to the charges made by J. Dinan included with SE Minutes, op. cit.; Metropolitan DC Minutes, op. cit., 21 and 23 January 1941. CPD, op. cit., vol. 161, 6 September 1939, pp. 3639. See Black, In his own Words, op. cit., pp. 170171. Metropolitan DC Minutes, op. cit., 27 June 1940, Report of President, T.G. Davies. Metropolitan DC Minutes, op. cit., 9 January 1941; M. McCarthy, War on the Doorstep in Gregory, On the Homefront, op. cit., p. 110. See Black, In his Own Words, op. cit., pp. 177 ff; Crisp, Ben Chifley, op. cit., pp. 132 ff; K. Tennant, Evatt: Politics and Justice, Sydney, Angus & Robertson, 1972 edition, p. 134. Metropolitan District Council Minutes, op. cit., 23 January, 4 February 1941. Williams, The First Furrow, op. cit., pp. 85 ff. Oliver, Peacemongers, op. cit., pp. 6466. Statement by Trainer, unidentified newspaper clipping (probably West Australian), dated 9 September 1937, pasted in the back of the FDC Minutes Book, op. cit., vol. 9 193242. See Oliver and Latter Spooks, Spies and Subversives!, op. cit., pp. 179180; also circular letters dated 24 October and 24 November 1941, to Affiliated Organisations of the ALP, SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1719A/29. Metropolitan DC Minutes, op. cit., 12 June, 26 June, 1 July 1941. ibid., 21 August 1941. ibid., 4 September 1941. SE Correspondence, op. cit., 2890A/349. State Secretary to Secretary, Midland District Council ALP, 18 October 1945, in ibid., 1719A/52; also Rulings given at a meeting of the State Executive, 6 November 1944, in ibid., 3504A/55. Menzies to Trainer, 8 September 1939 in ibid., 1719A/29/1. Willcock to Acting State Secretary, 25 September 1939, in ibid., 1719A/29/1. Ross, op. cit., pp. 214219. Arthur Fadden became Prime Minister after Menzies resigned in August 1941, following Curtins repeated refusal to join in forming a national government. Murchison DC Minutes, op. cit., 28 September 1941, 29 November 1942. ibid., 22 February 1942. For State Government position on gold mining, see Willcocks comments in Minutes of a Special Meeting of delegates to, and officers of, the State Executive, members of the SPLP, and members of the West Australian section of the FPLP, held at the Trades Hall, Perth, on October 26th, 1942, SE Minutes, op. cit., 1704A/43(iv), p. 5. Murchison DC Minutes, op. cit., 5 April 1942.

418

Bobbie Oliver

40 See SE Minutes, op. cit., 19 February 1942 for discussion of air raid precautions. SE Minutes indicate that the full Council and the Executive Officers each continued to meet fortnightly. 41 Johnsons address to the Fremantle District Council, 24 June 1942. The chapters title is taken from this quotation. 42 Caucus Minutes, op. cit., 1313A/9, 1 July 1942. 43 ibid., 19 and 26 August, 2 September, 7 October 1942. 44 ibid., 28 October, 1942. 45 Crisp, Chifley, op. cit., pp. 156 ff; Black, In his Own Words, op. cit., pp. 211212. 46 Metropolitan DC Minutes, op. cit., 9 July 1942. 47 Caucus Minutes, op. cit., 30 September 1942. 48 Minutes of a Special Meeting of delegates to, and officers of, the State Executive, members of the SPLP, and members of the West Australian section of the FPLP, held at the Trades Hall, Perth, on October 26th, 1942, Battye Library Accession no. 1704A/43(iv), 7 pp. 49 Willcocks speech, ibid., pp. 46. 50 See D. Jaensch & C.A. Hughes, Politics, Table POL 29-37 National Referendums, Australia 19061977 in Vamplew, ed., Australians. Historical Statistics, op. cit., p. 396; Black, In his Own Words, op. cit., pp. 246247. 51 For details of the State Executives organisation of the Federal referendum campaign, see circular letter to affiliated unions, 8 July 1944, in Amalgamated Metal Workers Union [hereafter AMWU] Papers, N.G. Butlin Archives Accession no. Z63, box 8. 52 Official Report of Proceedings of Special Commonwealth Conferences, held at Melbourne 6 November 1942 and 4 January 1943, pp. 23, 3235, 4042; Ross, op. cit., pp. 301305; CPD, op. cit., vol. 173, p. 26 ff. 53 Black, In His Own Words, op. cit., pp. 214216; Weller, Caucus Minutes, op. cit., vol. 3, pp. 312313; Day, John Curtin, op. cit., p. 458. 54 Election posters, SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1719A/17/7 55 Cited in Black, In His Own Words, op. cit., p. 226. 56 ALP Secretary (Davies) to H. McCulloch, Secretary, Eastern Goldfields District Council, 19 July 1943, in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1719A/19/1. For Mrs Curtins speaking schedule, see file 30/12. 57 Nash and Mountjoy to Davies, 26 July 1943 and Davies to Dodd, 3 August 1943, in ibid. 58 M. Kerley, Tangney, Dorothy Margaret in Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate 19011970, Canberra: Senate, forthcoming. 59 Labors How to Vote Card for Western Australia, in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1719A/17/6; Black, In His Own Words, op. cit., p. 230. 60 Burke to Davies, June 1943, SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1719A/30/6. 61 Details in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1719A/30/15. 62 West Australian, 22 November 1943. 63 T.G. Davies, Report to all Affiliated Organisations, 24 August 1943 in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 19719A/17/3. 64 Secretary, Metropolitan District Council, to State Secretary, 16 September 1939, in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1719A/29/1. See also Minutes of meeting of union representatives held on Monday March 27th, 1945, at the Trades Hall, Perth ... in AMWU Papers, op. cit., box 8. 65 State and Federal Basic Wage figures from 1939 to 1946 in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 3504A/65. On 28 February 1944, the WA Basic Wage was reduced from 5.1s.1d. to 4.19s.8d. and the Federal Basic Wage from 4.14s. to 4.13s.. 66 State Executive circular letter to all unions, 3 May 1945, in Fremantle Waterside Workers Federation [hereafter Fremantle WWF] Papers, N.G. Butlin Archives Accession no. N28, item 173. 67 Curtin to Cooke, 8 December 1944 in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 3504A/55.

Notes
68 69 70 71 72 73 74 1 2 3 4 Day, John Curtin, op. cit., pp. 555575. Metropolitan DC Minutes, op. cit., 1 and 8 July, 27 November 1941. Westralian Worker, 29 May 1942; also FDC Minutes, op. cit., 27 May 1942. ibid., 26 May, 21 June, 7 July 1943. Serle, For Australia and Labor, op. cit., p. 43. McLaughlin to Davies, 28 June 1945, in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1719A/45. T.G. Davies, Voice of Labour, n.d. in ibid.

419

Chapter Eight: Postwar Deconstruction Party Structures 19451950 Labor Victory election Special in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1719A/20/14; Mountjoy to Chamberlain, 24 March 1958, in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 2890A/85; Commonwealth Parliamentary Handbook, Canberra, 1953, p. 431. Jaensch & Hughes, Politics, op. cit., Table POL 29-37, in Vamplew, op. cit., pp. 396397. Hearn & Knowles, One Big Union, op. cit., p. 146; also SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A, items 47, 167. State Executive to Metropolitan and Fremantle District Councils respectively, 12 February 1952, in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 2890A/315; Minutes of a Special ALP Congress (1952) to settle affiliation fees, in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 2890A/385; T. Sheridan, Mindful Militants. The Amalgamated Engineering Union in Australia, 192072, Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1975, p. 164; For 191921 union membership figures, see SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/155; See letters from G. Strickland, Secretary of the Bootmakers Union, SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1719A/52 and 3504A/7. SE Correspondence, op. cit., 2890A/50. Agenda Items for the 19th Congress, in ibid., 3504A/55. See Brenda Love, Communist Party Industrial Activity in the post-war years 19451953 in Western Australia in Papers in Labour History, no. 17, December 1996, p. 25. ibid., p. 26; S. Macintyre, Militant. The Life and Times of Paddy Troy, St. Leonards: Allen & Unwin, 1984, pp. 103105. M. Hess, The Pilbara Pastoral Workers Uprising of 1946 in Papers in Labour History, no. 3, May 1989, pp. 1834. See, for example, Chief Secretary, W.H. Kitsons, assurance to the SPLP, 21 November 1933, that the government lacked the legal power necessary to introduce an improved and effective system relating to the employment of natives throughout the State, in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/474, and a resolution by Midland District Council, dated 26 July 1938, protesting against dictatorial powers being granted to the Protector of Aborigines, in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1688A/463. WAPD, op. cit., 1944, vol. 113, pp. 825 ff (second reading). Hess, op. cit., p. 27. Davies to Coverley, 18 June 1946 and related correspondence, SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1719A/42. S. Hawke & M. Gallagher, Noonkanbah. Whose Land? Whose Law? Fremantle: Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1989. K. Barry, Labour Divided: The Garratt Strike of 1946 in Papers in Labour History, P. Bertola, ed., no. 17, December 1996, p. 49. West Australian, 8 September 1946. Barry, op. cit., pp. 46 ff. ibid., p. 54. WAPD, op. cit., 1946, vol. 118, p. 1855. Metropolitan DC Minutes, op. cit., 12 November 1946.

5 6 7 8 9 10 11

12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

420
22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45

Bobbie Oliver
West Australian, 13 November 1946; Barry, op.cit., pp. 5859. ibid., p. 62. ibid. West Australian, 6 November 1946. SE Minutes, op. cit., 17 January 1947. Lenore Layman, Continuity and Change, 19471965 in D. Black, ed., The House on the Hill. A History of the Parliament of Western Australia, Perth: WA Parliamentary History Project, 1991, p. 168. Report by T.G. Davies, Campaign Director, in Fremantle DC Papers, Battye Library Accession no. 1802A/63. Harris to Davis, 13 March 1947, in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 3504A/9. Hearns biographical notes and policy statement are in ibid. Black, Election Statistics, op. cit., p. 317. SE Correspondence, op. cit., 3504A/9; Black, Election Statistics, op. cit., pp. 207210; also, letter from SPLP Secretary to Mrs V. Beadle, 10 April (?) 1954, Caucus Correspondence, Battye Library Accession no. 1313A, box 2, file 3. Daviess Report, op. cit. E.M. McDougall, Secretary, Great Southern District Council, to Secretary, State SPLP, 24 April 1947, in Caucus Correspondence, op. cit., box 1, folder 3. Industrial Digest, January, 1947. Daviess Report, p. 3. Love, Communist Party Industrial Activity, op. cit., p. 22. This is plausible, considering the actions of the Federated Clerks Executive in 1949 described later in the chapter. SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1719A/16 and 20/3. Quoted in Report of F.E. Chamberlain, delegate to Federal Conference ALP held in Canberra, on September 27th 1948 and ensuing days, p. 2, in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 2890A/93. Chamberlain, Report, op. cit., p. 6. Clerk, 4 May 1950, pp. 14. (A copy is in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1718A/41/2. Westralian Worker, op. cit., 27 January 1950, 11 May 1951. See correspondence for 194750 in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1718A/41/1. WAPD, op. cit., 1947, vol. 120, pp. 2195 ff, 2443 ff.; L. Layman, Continuity and change, 19471965, op.cit., p. 166; also S. Ward, The Labor Party in Western Australia during the 1950s, with reference to the Hawke Government 195359 the end of an era?, Honours Thesis, Curtin University, 1998, p. 9; D. Black, Liberals Triumphant The Politics of Development 19471980 in Stannage, A New History of Western Australia, op. cit., p. 442. SE Correspondence, op. cit., 2890A/43. ibid., 2890A/228, Labor Womens Organisation. Report of a social in honour of Miss Hooton, 31 May 1948, Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 3, file 4. F.E. Chamberlain, My Life and Times, Sorrento: Harold Chamberlain, 1998, pp. 115; D. Mitchell, F.E. Chamberlain. The Trade Unionist in L. Hunt, ed., Westralian Portraits, Nedlands: UWA Press, 1979, pp. 253 ff. Len Owens, interview with the author, Perth, 29 July, 1998. Mitchell, op. cit., pp. 256258. Somerville to Chamberlain, 7 December 1953, Somerville Papers, op. cit. See McMullin, The Light on the Hill, op. cit., pp. 254 ff; K.Tennant, Politics and Justice, op. cit., pp. 248 ff, for analyses of the 1949 election result. See Hughes and Graham, op. cit., pp. 282283.

46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54

Notes

421

55 State Executive circular to all District Councils, 5 January 1950, and subsequent correspondence in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 2890A/315. 56 Midland District Council to State Executive, 17 July 1951, and reply, 24 July 1951, in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 2890A/317. 57 ibid., op. cit., 2890A/322. 58 ibid., 2890A/325. See also Minutes of Special ALP Congress (1952), op. cit. 59 Report of the Reorganisation Committee, Congress, December 1952, in SE Correspondemce, op. cit., 2890A/253. 60 ibid., Section 1, p. 2. 61 SE Correspondence, op. cit., 2890A/228. Chapter Nine: A vexed issue for WA Unions The Creation of an Independent Trades and Labour Council 19471963 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Macintyre, Militant, op. cit., p. 94. For details of a typical working week, see ibid., pp. 7576. Davies to Schrant, 24 March 1948, in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1719A/2. See also Love, Communist Party Industrial Activity, op. cit., p. 26, concerning Ron Hurd. Constitution and Rules of the Trades Unions Industrial Council, adopted at the Fourteenth General Council, Twentieth Labor Congress, 1947 (hereafter TUIC Constitution), in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 2890/17. Davies to Monk, 3 November 1949, and WACTU to Monk, 13 October 1948, in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1719A/2. Minutes of a Special Meeting of the State Executive Officers, 15 November 1948 in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 2890/17. Official Report of Proceedings of the ALP (WA) Conference, 1949, in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1704A/45. State Secretary to Monk, 24 March 1949, in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1719A/2. Macintyre, Militant, op. cit., pp. 99100; see also Davies to Monk, 21 December 1948, regarding Currans resignation, in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1719A/2. TUIC Constitution, op. cit. AEU to Chamberlain, 15 May 1950, in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 2890A/17. Chamberlain to T.H. Jones, Secretary, CMU, 25 February 1952, in ibid. CDRHWU to State Executive 29 May 1951 and ACTU circular letter in ibid. See correspondence from unions to ACTU Federal Executive in ibid., 2890A/122. J. Read, Marksy. The life of Jack Marks, South Fremantle: Read Media, 1998, chapter 7. Also coverage by the local press from February to August 1952. Many of these clippings have been collected in a scrap book. See Westrail Workshops (Midland) collection, Battye Library (yet to be accessioned at time of publication). 1957 Constitution of the WA TUIC in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 2890A/17. Chamberlain to Affiliated unions, TLCs, the ACTU Federal Executive and the Head Officers of the Federal unions, 27 August 1957, with a copy of Rule 8 attached, in ibid. Statement by J.C. Pereira in ibid. Correspondence, dated 12 December 1957 in ibid. See Macintyre, Militant, op. cit., pp. 140 ff for details of the CDRHWUs deregistration. Text of Rule 8(c). Affiliated unions and the Industrial Council in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 2890A/17. See also Transcript notes of address by F.E. Chamberlain re: ACTU affiliation, n.d. (probably 11 September 1959), pp. 6-7. This argument is put forward by S. Sassine, A Study of the Authority of a Trade Union Centre: the TLC of Western Australia, 19631981, Ph.D., UWA, 1985, p. 96. See also, S. Ward, The Labor Party in Western Australia during the 1950s, op. cit., pp. 7791.

16 17 18 19 20 21

422
22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35

Bobbie Oliver
Chamberlain, address pp. 79 in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 2890A/17. ibid., p. 8. ibid., pp. 1, 10. Fremantle District Council to State Executive, 22 September 1959 and reply 21 October 1959, in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 2890A/17. Metropolitan District Council to State Executive, 15 October 1959 in ibid. Notes of a meeting at the AEU Rooms, 17 September 1959, in ibid. The J. McMullan referred to was the father of R.F. McMullan, Chamberlains successor as ALP State Secretary. Correspondence dated 23 September 1959 in ibid. Troy to General Secretary, SPDU, 24 September 1959; Souter to Chamberlain, 8 December 1959 in ibid. C. Menagh, A Vexed Issue for WA Unions, West Australian, 20 November, 1959. The title of this article is the quotation in the chapter title. Lippiatt to Secretary, Electrical Trades Union, 15 February 1960 and South Western District Council to State Executive, 16 January 1960 in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 2890A/17. Carpenter and Joiner, 1 February 1960. Lippiatt to Secretary, Electrical Trades Union, 15 February 1960 in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 2890A/17. West Australian, 21 March 1960. Minutes of a State Executive Meeting held at Trades Hall, Perth, 4 April 1960, in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 2890A/17. Gavin Ryce was the son of George Ryce who was expelled in 1925 (information given to the author by Bill Latter). The Rev. Keith Dowding, a Presbyterian Minister who was active in the ALP, had recently come to the State from NSW. See Chapter Ten. Fremantle District Council to State Executive, 27 October 1960, and Minutes of State Executive Meeting, 17 July 1961, in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 2890A/17. Minutes of a Special affiliated unions conference, at Unity Theatre, 28 August 1961, and F.E. Chamberlain, Establishment of a Separate Industrial Organisation in WA, in ibid. Proposed Constitution and Rules of the Western Australian Trades and Labor Council in ibid. Preface in Proposed Constitution & Rules of WA Branch ALP in the event of the establishment of a separate Trades & Labor Council to be submitted to the 1962 General Council by F.E. Chamberlain on behalf of the Rules Committee in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 2890A/17. ibid. Minutes of the final meeting of the South Western District Council, 9 December 1962, in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 2890A/148.

36 37 38 39

40 41

Chapter Ten: Dr Evatt has split the Party the length and breadth of the Commonwealth or was it Mr Chamberlain? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Quoted in Senator R.H. Nash, The Communist Party Dissolution Bill (typed notes), ALP Metropolitan DC Correspondence, op. cit., 1718A/31; Tennant, Evatt, op. cit., pp. 259 ff; McMullin, The Light on the Hill, op. cit., pp. 258 ff. Quoted in Nash, The Communist Party Dissolution Bill, op. cit., p. 2. ibid., p. 6. CPD, op. cit., 18 May, 1950, p. 2905. See Troys correspondence in Metropolitan DC Correspondence, op. cit., file 1718A/31. L.F. Crisp, Ben Chifley: A biography, Croydon: Longmans, 1960, p. 391; B. Peachey, The Burkes of Western Australia, Woodlands, Peacheys Holdings, 1992, pp. 6970. SE Minutes, op. cit., 21 August 1950.

Notes
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

423

23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44

ibid. Cited in Crisp, op. cit., p. 392. Cited in McMullin, The Light on the Hill, op. cit., pp. 258259. SE Minutes, op. cit., 2 October 1950. SE Minutes, op. cit., 12, 26 and 30 October 1950, 9 November 1950 (SE Officers); also Fremantle DC Minutes, op. cit., 1198A/12, 1 November 1950. McMullin, op. cit., p. 259; Crisp, op. cit., pp. 394397. SE Minutes, op. cit., 30 October 1950. Cited in Crisp, op. cit., p. 396. ibid., p. 395. The case is described in detail by Tenant, op. cit., pp. 262269. Robert Murray, The Split. Australian Labor in the Fifties, Sydney: Hale & Iremonger, 1984 edition, p. 84. Hughes & Graham, op. cit., p. 302. West Australian, 28 August 1951, p. 3. A copy is in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 1718A/20. The final edition of the Westralian Worker appeared on 22 June 1951. The only reasons given for the papers demise were the current shortage of newsprint and other almost insurmountable difficulties, which probably meant lack of local support and finance. In its last years, the paper had adopted a smaller format and had shrunk to eight pages. ALP Federal Executive circular letter to State Branches, 28 November 1951, in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 2890A/324. Notes, n.d., in Metropolitan DC Correspondence, op. cit., 1718A/20. Wise to Hegney, Chairman, SPLP, 26 June 1951 in Caucus Correspondence, op. cit., 1313A, box 1, folder 7. Black, Index to Parliamentary Candidates, op. cit., p. 202. List of Cabinet Ministers, 10 March 1953; SPLP to Mrs Coverley, 23 March 1953; SPLP to Rhatigan, 9 June 1953, all in Caucus Correspondence, op. cit., 1313A, box 2, folder 2; Ward, Hawke Government 195359, op. cit., p. 10. ibid., pp. 1112. Watson, We Hold up Half the Sky, op. cit., p. 39, also Ward, op. cit., p. 12, and handwritten notes by Hutchison, n.d, in SE Correspondence, 2890A/198(a). Rev. K. Dowding, interview with Stuart Reid, 1991, Battye Library Oral History Transcript OH 2538, p. 63, used with permission. McMullin, op. cit., p. 269. Minutes of a meeting of the Campaign Directors, 23 July 1953 in Caucus Correspondence, op. cit., box 2, item 2. McMullin, op. cit., p. 270; Tennant, op. cit., chapter 21. Dowding, op. cit., interview transcript, p. 55; Hughes & Graham, op. cit., p. 321. Senator Don Willesee, conversation with the author, 11 May 2000. McMullin, op. cit., pp. 273, 275. ibid; Also SE Correspondence, op. cit., 2890A/198(a). Peachey, op. cit., p. 73. South Western District Council Minutes, 12 December 1954, in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 2890A/148. Peachey, op. cit., p. 74. Peachey described Chamberlain as a member of the extreme Left. ibid. List of items from WA Branch in SE Correspondence, 2890A/512. SE Minutes, 16 and 20 December 1954.

424

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45 ibid., 1 February 1955 46 McMullin, op. cit., pp. 278279. 47 ALP Official Report of Proceedings of the 21st Commonwealth Conference, Hobart, 15 March 1955 and following, pp 3 ff; statements by Beazley, Burke and James to the WA State Executive on 28 March 1955. Copies of these statements are reproduced by appendices in Ward, Hawke Government 195359, op. cit., pp. 102110, and F.G. Clarke, The Democratic Labor Party in Western Australia, MA (History), UWA, 1969, pp. 286297; R. Hutchison, Report of the Hobart Conference, presented to the State Executive, n.d., in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 2880A/512. 48 West Australian, op. cit., 17 March 1955. 49 SE Minutes, op. cit., 28 March, 1955. 50 ibid. 51 Clarke, op. cit., pp. 6970. 52 McMullin, op. cit., pp. 280 ff; Murray, The Split, op. cit., pp. 236 ff and 308 ff. 53 Clarke, op. cit., pp. 69-77. 54 Tennant, op. cit., pp. 336 ff. 55 Hughes & Graham, op. cit., p. 340. 56 Clarke, op. cit., p. 101, Table 3.1 DLP (WA) electoral performance; Peachey, op. cit., pp. 107110. 57 Australian Democratic Labor Party (WA Branch), This is Our Policy Is it Yours? n.d., copy in Metropolitan DC Correspondence, op. cit., 1718A/41/1. 58 Cited in Ward, op. cit., p. 65. 59 Ward, op. cit., pp. 7178. 60 Figures are from Clarke, op. cit., p. 101, Table 3.1. 61 Record, 20 June 1957. 62 West Australian, 8 July 1957; also related correspondence and pamphlet, Disaffiliate! in Metropolitan DC Correspondence, op. cit., 1718A/41/1. 63 Chamberlain to Harris, 24 July 1956 in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 2890A/527. 64 Worker reprint, 24 September 1956, in ibid. 65 Sheet Metal Workers Union (Victoria) to Chamberlain, 30 October 1956 in ibid. 66 Chamberlain to Jepson, 28 November 1957 in ibid. Emphasis in the original. 67 Correspondence and pamphlets in ibid. 68 F.K. Crowley, State Election: The Fall of the Hawke Government, Perth: Author, 1959, p. 8. 69 Lippiatt to Hartley, 12 October 1961 in Metropolitan DC Correspondence, op. cit., 1718A/103. 70 Chamberlain to Hartley, 6 November 1961 in ibid; Official report of Proceedings of the 23rd Commonwealth Conference of the Australian Labor Party, 11 May 1959 and following. 71 Kalgoorlie Miner, 14 August 1957. The chapters title is taken from this quote. 72 Hand-written notes by Bob Hartley on Minutes of State Executive Officers Meeting, 17 October 1957, p. 4. See also, relevant correspondence in Metropolitan DC Correspondence, op. cit., 1718A/41/2; West Australian, 17 October 1957, p.1 . 73 Burke to Chamberlain, 12 December 1957 in Metropolitan DC Correspondence, op. cit., 1718A/41/2. 74 Copy of letter to the West Australian, 20 November 1957; also F.E. Chamberlain, Report Re. Position of T.P. Burke, 13 June 1960, enclosed with SE Minutes, of 9 June 1960, Accession no. 1802A/125. 75 Chamberlain to Golding, 6 May 1960, in Metropolitan DC Correspondence, op. cit., 1718A/41/2. 76 SE Minutes, 3212A/2, 14 December 1964. 77 Peachey, op. cit., p. 140.

Notes

425

78 F.E. Chamberlain, Labors Road Back, typescript, 10 January 1956, Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 18, p. 1. 79 See ibid. and F.E. Chamberlain, Democratic Socialism, typescript dated 1957, and What is to be Done? dated October 1961, in Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box. 18. 80 Chamberlain, My Life and Times, op. cit., pp. 6, 286. 81 ibid., pp. 300 ff. 82 The following paragraphs are based on documents in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 2890A/49. 83 Text of Labour Day address by Premier Hawke, in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 2890A/49. 84 Hand-written notes by F.E. Chamberlain, in ibid. 85 See papers of the Perth LWO for 195459, Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 23. 86 SE Minutes, op. cit., 4 April 1957. 87 SE Minutes, op. cit., 7 October 1957. 88 Lippiatt to TUIC, 6 June 1958 in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 2890A/49. 89 Jamieson to Lippiatt, 27 June 1958 in ibid. 90 Chamberlain to Lippiatt, 21 July and 27 August 1959 (circulated to District Councils) in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 2890A/49. 91 Clarke, op. cit., pp. 179 ff. 92 B. Peachey, interview with Michael Pal, Battye Library Accession no. OH 1854, transcript, p. 1; Clarke, op. cit., pp. 222 ff. 93 Clarke, op. cit., p. 195. 94 Peachey, interview transcript, op. cit., p. 4. 95 Ward, The Hawke Government 195359, op. cit., p. 90. 96 Clarke, op. cit., pp. 222224. 97 Synopsis of Michael Pals interviews with Mr Sullivan, David Milne and Ms Lorrimer, op. cit., OH 1854. Chapter Eleven: Decline of a Labor Strongman 196374 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 See ALP, Official Proceedings of the 26th Commonwealth Conference, Sydney, 1965, p. 103. A.R.G. Hawke, interview with Philip Pendal, 30 August 1971, Battye Library Oral History transcript OH 2444, pp. 3637. West Australian, 15 February 1965. Hawke, interview transcript, op. cit., p., 37. Chamberlain, My Life and Times, op. cit., pp. 224227. Hawke, interview transcript, op. cit., p. 39. SE Minutes, 22 February and 8 March 1965, and relevant correspondence in Federal ALP Papers, National Library of Australia Accession no. 4985, box 36; also Lyla Elliott, interview with Ronda Jamieson, JulyOctober 1987, Battye Library Accession no. OH1761, transcript, pp. 100 ff. . Copy of Hawke to Wyndham, 9 June 1965 (part of Federal Executive Agenda, 24 May 1965, Appendix I) in Federal ALP Papers; also Canberra Times, 26 May 1965. Caucus Minutes, op. cit., 1313A/14, 4 March 1965. ibid., op. cit., 22 April, 29 June, 29 July, 10 August, 1965 ibid., op. cit., special meeting, 11 August 1965. Hawke interview transcript, op. cit., pp. 4445. Chamberlain, My Life and Times, op. cit., p. 227. Elliott, interview transcript, op. cit., p. 78. F.E. Chamberlain, Report to the WA State Executive on the Proceedings of the Federal Executive Meeting 911 February 1966, p. 8, and Whitlam to Wyndham, 11 February 1966, in Federal ALP Papers, op. cit., box 120, folder 41.

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16 Transcript of Interview with Mr. E.G. Whitlam on Programme Seven Days ATN7, Tuesday 15 February 1966. Interviewers are Peter Westerway and Richard Croll in ibid. 17 Answer by Mr. E.G. Whitlam to the Federal Executive 3 March 1966 in ibid. 18 ALP. Recommendations of the National Advisory Committee on Education, (1966), op. cit., pp. 1416. 19 ibid., pp. 52. 20 Extract from CPD, 4 May 1965, Calwells speech in response to the Governments decision to send the First Battalion, Australian Regular Army, to Vietnam, in Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 8, file 1. 21 Federal Executive meeting 28 July 1965, Minute 270, in Federal ALP Papers, op. cit., box 36, Correspondence with Western Australia. 22 Melville ALP to Chamberlain, 5 July 1966; Jamieson to Wyndham, 12 July 1966; UWA Branch ALP to State Executive, 22 July 1966, and reply 25 August 1966, in Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 8; SE Minutes, op. cit., 13 June 1966. 23 West Australian, editorial, 1 December 1966; also McMullin, The Light on the Hill, op. cit., pp. 313322, for details of the 1966 electoral defeat and the subsequent power struggle, which resulted in Whitlam and Barnard becoming FPLP Leader and Deputy Leader. 24 F.E. Chamberlain, Do We Need a New Policy for Vietnam? circular letter, 30 May 1967, in Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 8. 25 Whitlam to WA Executive, etc., dated 6 June 1967, in LWO Papers, Labor Centre, op. cit., box 3, file 13. 26 Typed report of 24th State Conference, 711 July 1969 highlights the public reconciliation between Chamberlain and Whitlam. A copy is in Labor Centre Papers, box 25, folder 5 (1967). See also D. Cooley, Memories of my life as a Trade Union Official in M. Hess, ed., Papers in Labour History, no. 3, p. 55; Chamberlain, My Life and Times, op. cit., p. 281. Chamberlains version of events is somewhat different from Cooleys. He states that Whitlam refused to speak to him, but that Barnard, who was also present, was quite friendly towards me. 27 Chamberlain, My Life and Times, op. cit., p. 281. 28 Elliott, interview transcript, op. cit., p. 15. 29 See Perth Trades Hall, Account Book of Affiliation dues and numbers affiliated, 196365 in Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 17. 30 Elliott, op. cit., pp. 3639. 31 Elliott, op. cit., pp. 1518. 32 These letters are contained in two bound files, numbered 64 and 6465 in Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 6 33 Reale to Chamberlain, 12 April 1961, in ibid. 34 Reale to Chamberlain, 20 November 1966, in ibid. 35 Chamberlain to Mrs Law, 8 April 1963, in Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 6, file 64. 36 Hartley retired when the District Councils were disbanded at the end of 1962. See R. Hartley, transcript of interviews with Stuart Reid, 198990, Batty Library Accession no. OH2444. 37 This point was made to the author by Bill Latter. But see also I. Monk, Labors Temple. A History of Perths Trades Hall, Murdoch University Public History Project, 1998, pp. 5 ff for details of how the land was acquired and built on. 38 The following is based on file 1, Union Correspondence, in Labor Centre Papers, box 29. 39 Commissioner for Public Health to Chamberlain, 31 December 1965 in ibid. 40 Monk, Labors Temple, op. cit., p. 67. 41 Western Sun, March 1975; file Curtin House opening, and file 6 containing letter from McMullin to C. Taylor, Secretary of the Australian Railways Union, 9 July 1974, regarding the occupancy of the building, in Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 27; also information from John Cowdell MLC.

Notes

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42 Copy of script of This Day Tonight program, 1 November 1972, in Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 27. 43 State Executive to E.E. de Jong, Secretary, Albany District Council, 27 July 1962 in ibid. 44 F.E. Chamberlain, Establishment of Electorate Councils. Comments and recommendations of the General Secretary in ibid. 45 Circular letter from Chamberlain to all Electorate Councils, 19 July 1965 in ibid.; ALP (WA), Official Proceedings of the Special State Conference, 12 & 13 October, 1975. p. 23. 46 Report on the Interstate Executive meeting, Melbourne, 31 March 1959 in Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 27. 47 WA Labor Womens Organisation, Constitution in LWO Papers, Labor Centre, op. cit., box 25, file 4(c). 48 Correspondence in LWO files held by Mrs Thelma Louden and conversation with Mrs Louden, 14 March 2000. 49 LWO to SE 24 September 1952 resolutions from Womens Conference in Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 23, file 9. 50 LWO Secretarys Report for 1953, in Labor Centre Papers, box 3, file 5. See also Minutes of a meeting of the Perth LWO, 3 December 1959 in ibid., file 4. 51 WAPD, op. cit., vol. 146, 1957, pp. 434 and 601 ff, and vol. 147, 1957, pp. 1517 ff. 52 Minutes of the Equal Pay Conference, Trades Hall, Sydney, 2021 March 1958 in Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 25, file 2(a). 53 Correspondence (Sept/Oct 1967) relating to standards being set for child minding centres and extract from Hansard 7 September 1967, in ibid. 54 Watson, We Hold Up Half the Sky, op. cit., pp. 3943. 55 Quoted in ibid., p. 48. 56 ALP, Committee of Enquiry. Discussion Paper no. 4. Women in the ALP, Canberra, 1978. 57 G. Hawkes, The Western Australian Legislative Council, pamphlet, 21 pp. in Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 39. 58 Arthur Tonkin, discussion with the author, 11 October and 30 November 2000. 59 Summary of industrial achievements by the Tonkin Government since 1971 typescript, 3 pp, in Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 30, file 5. 60 For details of these projects, see Progress 19711974. A Report by the Government of Western Australia, Perth, Government Printer, 1974. 61 Initially, the Speaker was Merv Toms (the Member for Ascot), who died in October 1971. Parliament was prorogued until after the by-election, which was won by Mal Bryce. 62 Arthur Tonkin, 11 October 2000. 63 H. Graham, Biographical Notes, dated January 1971, in Labor Centre Papers, box 30, file 9(f); John Hamilton, Burkie: A Biography of Brian Burke, Perth: St George Books, 1988, pp. 80 ff; SE Minutes, op. cit., 3212A/12, 21 May 1973; also Bob Hetherington to the author, 16 August 1999. 64 Robert McMullan, MHR for Fraser (ACT), interview with the author, Canberra, 19 June 1999. 65 K.C. Beazley, cited in Peter Fitzsimons, Beazley, Sydney: Harper Collins, 1998, pp. 120121. 66 Daily News, 1 August 1973. 67 R. Hetherington, Two choices for Labor, Daily News, 1 August 1973. 68 A. Giles (Secretary YLO) to State Secretary ALP 6 August 1973, and reply, dated 24 October 1973, Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 33, file 1004B. Mal Bryce, conversation with the author, 20 September 2000. 69 Hamilton, Burkie, op. cit., pp. 9496; Black, Election Statistics, op. cit., p. 124. 70 Philip Pendal, Curtain fall for Labor strongman, Daily News, 8 October 1974. 71 West Australian, 17 December 1974.

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72 Richardson Report and related correspondence in SE Correspondence, op. cit., 2890A/365(a). 73 See newspaper clippings in Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 18, file 12 (Daily News, 6 April and unidentified clippings dated 21 and 30 April 1964.) 74 Rev. K. Dowding, interview transcript p. 61. See also pp. 6768. Dowding supported the abolition of the White Australia policy when it was not ALP policy. He was expelled for continuing to belong to a Reform Organisation which advocated rescinding the legislation, although he was representing the Presbyterian Church not the ALP at the time. 75 Elliott, interview transcript, op. cit., p. 89, and conversation with the author; Hartley, interview transcript, op. cit., pp. 30-34; C. Jamieson, interviewed by Stuart Reid, Battye Library Oral History Accession no. OH 2265, transcript, pp. 21 ff. Chapter Twelve: The Trades and Labor Council 19631979 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 Sassine, op. cit., p. 94. Cooley, op. cit., pp. 39, 40. Sassine, op. cit., p. 110. Trades and Labor Council of WA (TLC) Papers, Battye Library Accession no. 3492A, (herafter TLC Papers), box 10, file 24/1967. ibid., box 17, file 8/1969. Sassine, op. cit., pp. 103105. WAPD, op. cit., vol. 165, 1963, especially pp. 2269 ff; also Sassine, op. cit., pp. 106107. ibid., pp. 109110. Sassine states that there was no evidence of collusion. The following account of events is taken from ibid., pp. 114127; Cooley, op. cit., pp. 4042. West Australian, 21 November 1963; WAPD, op. cit., vol. 166, 1963, 20 November, pp. 2981 ff. Cooley, op. cit., p. 40; Sassine, op. cit., pp. 118 ff. ibid., pp. 126128. R. Clohessy, interview with S. Sassine, 14 May 1982, cited in Sassine, op. cit., p. 132. Sassine, op. cit., p. 133. West Australian, 28 April 1964; Sassine, op. cit., pp. 163 ff. Hawke replaced Monk as ACTU President in 1969. Correspondence and press cuttings in TLC Papers, box 10, file 137, and box 12, file 137. Damien Cash, Equal pay in G. Davison, J. Hirst & S. Macintyre, eds, The Oxford Companion to Australian History, Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 1998, p. 222. PKIU Circular W4/68 dated 10 January 1968 in TLC Papers, op. cit., box 14, file 34, TLC General. ibid. Kosmas Tsokhas, Beyond Dependence: Companies, Labour Processes and Australian Mining, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1986, pp. 1826, 149. Boilermaker, September 1965, p. 1. Report on North-West Organising Trip by Marks, Bastow and Quinn, August 1967, in TLC Papers, op. cit., box 11, file 81. Copy of an address by Senator Cant (April/May 1969) in ibid. From Northwest Survey report to the Chairman of the Factory Welfare Board, 27 February 1968, by W. Davidson, Inspector, in ibid., box 42. J.W. Coleman, Factories and Shops Act: Extension of the Act to 20th Parallel in Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 42. ibid. WA Employers Federation Inc. circular to members, dated 3 March 1965, in TLC Papers, op. cit., box 21, file 121 Indentured labour. ibid.

Notes

429

28 Sassine, op. cit., pp. 181190; Cooley, op. cit., p. 53. 29 Higgins to Coleman, 24 January 1966 and Coleman to Higgins, 16 and 21 December 1966, TLC Papers, op. cit., box 16, file 175A, correspondence with the US Navy 1968/69. 30 See Bury to Whitlam 11 October 1967; extract from Hansard. Senate. Question no. 129 n.d. (May 1968) in and extracts from House of Representatives Hansard, 13 June 1968, pp. 22613, in file 175b. 31 G. Barr, Gil Barrs Story, Part 2, Papers in Labour History, no. 5, ed. C. Fox and M. Hess, pp. 2223. 32 PIEU/APTEUA pamphlet. 33 Reports dated March 1970 and Annual Report for 1969 of the Secretary of the SPD in the Seamens Union of Australia Papers, Noel Butlin Archives Accession no., Z435, box 1. 34 Boilermakers and Blacksmiths Journal, March 1971; AEU Monthly Journal, February 1971. 35 Sunday Australian, 8 August 1971. 36 TLC Circular no. 71/71, dated 10 August 1971; FEDFU to TLC, 11 August 1971; BWIU to TLC, 11 August 1971 and AWU to TLC in TLC Papers, op. cit., file 55 Iron Ore. 37 F. Wagner to Coleman 23.8.71 in ibid. See also Barr, op. cit., p. 23. 38 Minutes of meetings of the Iron Ore Industry Unions 24 August, 5 October, 20 December 1971 in TLC Papers, op. cit., file 55. 39 Australian Mines & Metals Assn to TLC, 30 May 1972, in ibid. 40 Minutes of a meeting of Unions re Mt. Goldsworthy Mining Co. dispute 15 August 1972 in TLC Papers, op. cit., box 44, file 122. 41 Tsokhas, op. cit., p. 154. 42 West Australian, 19 April 1969. 43 Minutes of a Special Meeting of Union Executives, Shop Stewardes and Job Representatives convened by the TLC of WA, 7 November 1968. 44 ACTU Circulars 43/69, dated 16 June 1969 and 73/69 in TLC Papers box 17, file 9. 45 Sassine, op. cit., pp. 192 ff; also WAPD, op. cit., 1970, pp. 2,92224. 46 ibid., pp. 305311. 47 FEDFU to TLC, 25 March 1969, in TLC Papers, op. cit., box 21, file 122. 48 TLC circular to affiliates 8 August 1969 and correspondence in reply, in ibid. 49 Lippiatt to TLC, 5 September 1969, in ibid. The letters are identical for the two unions. 50 Barr, op. cit., pp. 2931. 51 TLC Papers, op. cit., 1970, file 55. 52 Barr, op. cit., p. 29. 53 Butler to Coleman, 11 February 1972, Report of conditions at Seventh Day Adventist Mission at Wiluna, in ibid. 54 Minutes of a meeting of the TLC Aboriginal Affairs Committee, 7 March 1972 in ibid. 55 Willesee to Coleman, 14 December 1971, in TLC Papers, op. cit., box 51, file 135. 56 WAPD, op. cit., 1972, vol. 194, pp. 1548 ff, 2001, 2011. 57 See WAPD, op. cit., 1974, vol. 203, pp. 667668. 58 ibid., p. 1678. 59 Sassine, op. cit., pp. 327388; West Australian, 11 and 17 September 1974; 11 June, 10 July, 1976. 60 T. Rynn, The Hamersley Iron Dispute 1979, cited in Sassine, op. cit., p. 405, footnote 25. 61 Sassine, op. cit., pp. 405407. 62 ibid., pp. 408411. 63 TLC Papers, op. cit., box 144, file 67. Also information from Bill Latter. 64 Sassine, op .cit., p. 440. 65 Tsokhas, op. cit., p. 161.

430
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Bobbie Oliver
C.J. Lloyd & G.S. Reid, Out of the Wilderness. The return of Labor, North Melbourne, Cassell Australia, 1974, passim. Fitzsimons, Beazley, op. cit., pp. 162 ff. Henceforth in the text, Kim Beazley refers to the younger Beazley, whilst his father is designated Beazley Senior; Commonwealth Parliamentary handbook 1975; Hetherington to author, 18 August 1999; Stephen Smith, Federal Member for Perth, conversation with the author, 21 September 2000. R.F. McMullan, resume, in Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 49, file no. 3. McMullan, interview with the author, 19 June 1999. C. Jamieson, interview with Stuart Reid, Battye Library Accession no. OH 2265, transcript, pp. 44, 46. ibid., pp. 8892. Official Report of Proceedings of the Special Rules Conference 12 & 13 October 1975. Fatin to McMullan, 26 October 1976 in Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 38. See correspondence in Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 39, Policy Committees. Watson, We Hold Up Half the Sky, op. cit., pp. 5152. ibid., pp. 6567. Minutes of the National Executive of the ALP 1984/85; also National Executive Reports in Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 50. Minutes of the National Labor Womens Conference 23-27 January 1981 in Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 49, file National Executive 1981. Report to State Executive. National Executive meeting 23-24 July 1981 and Attachment F: Guidelines for Implementation of an Affirmative Action programme in the ALP in Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 49, file 3. Minutes of National Executive Meeting, 5 February 1982, in Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 49, file 5, National Executive, FebMay 82. Report on progress on an Affirmative Action Programme, Labor Centre Papers, box 48, file 9 Womens Affairs. Minutes of Special State Conference, March 1982. Minutes of the ALP Discrimination Committee 21 January and 16 July 1976 and Report to State Conference, August 1976 in Labor Centre Papers,op. cit., box 38. See, for example, Bentley ALP to Tangney Electorate Council, 7 April 1980, in ibid. Minutes of the National Executive at John Curtin House Canberra, 78 September 1980 and 1 June 1981. The TLCs reaction is discussed in Chapter Fifteen. Bastow to McMullan, 6 October 1978; also Parker to McMullan, 12 October 1978, and Thomas to McMullan, 11 May 1978 in Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 53, file 25(ii) Charges/Allegations 197180. Daily News, 1 March 1978. WAPD, op. cit., vol. 218, 1978, pp. 156ff (Young) and pp. 348351 (Troy). Minutes of the Administrative Committee of the ALP State Executive, Battye Library Accession no. 3658A, vol 4, 3 April 1978, and vol. 5, 23 October 1978. Bill Latter, communication with the author, 28 July 2000. R.F. McMullan, statement to affiliated bodies, dated 13 December 1978, and McMullan to Inkster, 21 November 1978, in Charges/Allegations 197180, op. cit.; also telephone conversation between Dr John Troy and the author, 4 July 2000, and subsequent correspondence. Labor Voice, April 1979, cited in West Australian, 18 April 1979; Daily News,19 October 1977. Charges/Allegations 197180, op. cit. Also West Australian, 5 May 1980. Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 45, file 4 Correspondence May 80 to April 91; TLC Papers, op. cit., file 1980/55.

Chapter Thirteen: Fundamental Shifts in Power 197482

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

26 27 28

Notes

431

29 R. Clohessy (BWIU Secretary) to Chamberlain, 5 April 1974, and McMullan to Burke, 4 June 1974, in Labor Centre Papers, box 33, file 1003A. Electoral Organisation. General. (197477). 30 Draft for Officers Meeting, n.d., in Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 33, file 1004G. 31 Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 33, file 1004(a), State Secretarys Visit to the Great Southern, 28.4.77. 32 Hawkes was later advisor to the Minister for Electoral Reform in the Burke Government. This post was held by Arthur Tonkin and then by Bryce. 33 West Australian, 14 March 1975. 34 Conversations with Arthur Tonkin, 11 October and 30 November 2000. 35 West Australian, 10 September 1975; Canberra Times, 11 September 1975. 36 Unidentified, undated (1975?) documents Democracy in Western Australia and Proposed Amendments to the Electoral System in Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 39, file: Electoral Reform Committee. 37 West Australian, 3 March 1976 38 G. Hawkes, The Western Australian Legislative Council, pamphlet, 21 pp. in Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 39. 39 Charter for Electoral Reform. The special assistance included larger electoral allowances, additional staff, free transport, telephone and postage, provision for more than one electorate office where necessary, and subsidised city accommodation when required for Parliamentary purposes. 40 Proposed amendments to the Electoral system (1975); Dr D Rumley, WA electoral boundaries have built in bias, West Australian, 15 April 1980; also correspondence from Kim E. Beazley and newspaper clippings in Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 33, file 1004G. 41 Labor Voice, vol. 3, no. 4, May 1981, p.1. 42 Unsigned, undated typescript Some Thoughts on re-organisation for 1976. Strengthening the Partys base in box 33, file 1004A. (The author is probably McMullan); Michael Beahan, conversation with the author, 23 June 2000. 43 See comments by Bob Hawke, Gareth Evans and B. Galligan cited by R.A. Graham, The Burke Government and the Labour Movement: Labor transformed 19831988, BA Honours, Curtin University, 1994, p. 23. 44 See, for example, 28th Commonwealth Conference of the Australian Labor Party, Melbourne, 1969, pp. 910; 32nd National Conference of the Australian Labor Party, Perth, 1977, pp. 45; 1982 Platform and Rules of the Australian Labor Party, pp. 12. Copies are held at the ACP, 79 Stirling Street, Perth. 45 Jamieson, interview transcript, op .cit., pp. 8593. After the anti-Whitlam demonstration, the Court Government refused to permit any further political demonstrations in Forrest Place. 46 B. Hodge, Report on the Adoption of Country Branches, presented to the Administrative Committee meeting of 22 November 1976; R.F. McMullan, Draft Proposal re Members visiting major centres and branches, dated 25 October 1974, in Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 33, file 1004C. See also undated list of ALP Branch visits in file 1004E. The listing of Mal Bryces name second to Colin Jamiesons suggests that this was after Bryce became Deputy Leader in 1977. 47 From Senator Gordon McIntosh. Report on tour of the North West 49 September 1974 in Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 33, file 1004G. 48 See correspondence and reports in Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 33, file 1003C. 49 Kimberley by-election Dec 1977 file, in Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 46. 50 Ridge to Quilty, 3 March 1977 in ibid. 51 Tony Thomas, How red tape tied up the black vote, Age, 16 and 17 November 1977. 52 WAPD, op. cit., vol. 217, p. 3151.

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53 ibid., p. 3320. 54 ibid. 55 West Australian, 14 and 19 December 1977; Black, Election Statistics, op. cit., pp. 173174. In the 1996 election, Bridge stood as an Independent after a difference of opinion with the ALP. 56 Jamieson, interview transcript, op. cit., pp. 9192. 57 Correspondence between Jamieson and McMullan in Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 38, file Jamieson Appeal. 58 Malcolm J. Bryce in Senate Team 1970 in Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 30, file 1; also Jamieson interview transcript, op. cit., p. 89; Arthur Tonkin, interview with Ronda Jamieson, 1988, Battye Library Accession no. OH 2091, pp. 191 ff. 59 File National Executive, 1981 in Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 30, file 1; Education Committee; box 47, file 10, information from M. Beahan; McMullan, interview, 19 June 1999. 60 Hamilton, Burkie, op. cit., pp. 109115; Tonkin, interview pp. 193 ff. 61 Newspaper clipping, n.d, unnamed, Key man walks out on Burke in Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 53, file 28 Complaints. Chapter Fourteen: The best new Leader in Australia Brian Burke and his Successors 198393 The slogan was adapted by Darcy Farrell from a John F. Kennedy campaign. R.F. McMullan, interview, op. cit., 16 June 1999. Black, Election Statistics, op. cit., p. 245. In the 1983 election, however, Court was returned with a comfortable margin over Labor candidate Sam Sassine. 4 Burke, interview 11 August 1999. 5 Hamilton, Burkie, op. cit., pp. 121122; Black, Election Statistics, op. cit., p. 245. Sir Charles successor in his constituency of Nedlands was his son, Richard. 6 R.A. Graham, The Consensus Legacy: The Burke Government and the Trade Union Movement: 19831987, in P. Bertola, ed., Papers in Labour History, no. 17, December, 1996, p. 70. See also 1983 State election newspaper reports in Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 55. The entire campaign is preserved in press cuttings ranging from the beginning of January until after polling day 19 February 1983. 7 Black, Election Statistics, op. cit., passim. Tonkin, interview transcript, op. cit., pp. 200201. See also D. Black, Political Chronicles: Western Australia in Australian Journal of Politics and History [hereafter AJPH], vol. 29, 1983, pp. 518519. 8 ibid. 9 Quoted in Watson, We Hold Up Half the Sky, op. cit., p. 124. 10 G. Gallop, Meeting the Challenge: the achievements of the Burke Labor Government 198387. Text of the extended version of a speech given to the Darling Range Branch of the ALP, 18 March 1987. Used with permission. The continuing problem of the hopeless dependence of primary producers upon unstable and uncertain export markets is discussed by R.N. Ghosh, Economic Development and Population Growth in Western Australia since 1945, in Stannage, A New History of Western Australia, op. cit., pp. 267293. 11 Bryce, conversation with the author. On the eve of the 1974 election, the Tonkin Government had advertised for non public service staff for a Policy Secretariat. 12 Department of Premier and Cabinet paper, March 1983, Improving the Quality of Government, op. cit., pp. 1 ff; M. Rock, Executive Government and Public Administration in Western Australia during the 1970s and 1980s, BA Honours thesis, Curtin Univesity, 1990, pp. 59 ff. For a discussion of the perceived role and failings of advisers, see A. Peachment, Ethical Behaviour and Senior Public Managers in Western Australia in A. Peachment, ed., 1 2 3

Notes

433

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

30

31 32 33 34 35 36 37

Westminster Inc. A survey of Three States in the 1980s, Sydney: The Federation Press, 1995, pp. 116 ff. Rock, op. cit., p. 61. Cabinet Record. Burke Government, 2 December 1985. Gallop, op. cit., p. 3. Burke, interview 11 August 1999. See, for example, A. McAdam and P. OBrien, Burkes Shambles: Parliamentary Contempt in the Wild West, Burke Press, Melbourne, 1987. Rock, op. cit., pp. 53 ff, and Appendix 2. See also Cabinet Record. Burke Government, 19 and 16 September 1983 regarding the purchase of the Argyle Diamond Mine. Also Gallop, op. cit., pp. 27 ff; Graham, The Burke Government, op. cit., p. 47. Burke, interview, op. cit. Caroline Simmonds, Real Socialists had better sit down, Sunday Independent, 13 February 1983. State Executive Minutes, op. cit., 24 August 1987. ibid., 29 September, 26 October 1987. Hawke to Smith, 2 June 1988 in Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 57, file 5. Dowding to Smith 25 July 1988. in ibid. State Executive Minutes, op. cit., 27 June 1987. Elliott to delegates, 21 February 1991, in State Executive Minutes, Agendas and State Secretarys Newsletters, 1991. Joint Submission to the royal commission into Parliamentary Deadlocks from the Australian Labor Party (WA Branch) and the State Parliamentary Labor Party (WA Branch), (1984), p. 22. Material on local government in Dr Geoff Gallops files [hereafter Gallop papers], located at his electorate office in Victoria Park and used with permission. See Cabinet Record. Burke Government 10 March 1986 to 23 February 1988 and Dowding Government 29 February 1988 to 30 January 1989, 21 April 1986. The first provision stated: The State Constitution to contain the principle that at a re-distribution, the enrolment in each of the 57 Assembly districts shall be set within a range of 10% either side of the average district enrolment and that each district shall be represented by the same number of Members, whether that be one or more than one. ibid. The Cabinet Minutes do not contain an account of the difference between Burke and Tonkin. This account is based on conversations between the author and Arthur Tonkin and Mal Bryce, Tonkins letter of resignation (Tonkin to Burke, 22 April 1986), Tonkins interview transcript, op. cit., pp. 382402; also Australian, 24 April 1986. H. Phillips, The Modern Parliament in D. Black, ed., The House on the Hill. A History of the Parliament of Western Australia, 18321990, Perth: Western Australian Parliamentary History Project, Parliament of Western Australia 1991 p. 234. Burke, interview, op. cit., 11 August 1999; conversation with Arthur Tonkin, 30 November 2000. Progress Report on Affirmative Action 1984 in Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 56, file 18. The ALP and Women Towards Equality, Progress Report on Affirmative Action 1984, Yvonne Henderson to Beahan 25 August 1983, and n.d. report, Child Care at ALP Meetings in Labor Centre Papers, op. cit., box 56, file 18. Summary of Mr. Paul Seaman, Q.Cs report, The Aboriginal Land Inquiry, op. cit., p. 1. Gallop, Meeting the Challenge, op. cit., p. 17; Burke interview, op. cit. M. Beahan, typed notes Background in preparation for the 1986 election and other documents of the Party Campaign Committee, 1985, in M. Beahans private papers, used with permission; also D. Black, Political Chronicle, 1986 in AJPH, vol. 32, p. 493.

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38 B. Burke, The Last Two Years and the Year Ahead. The Burke Government Main Achievements, February 1983February 1985, Government of Western Australia, 1985, pp. 1011; Record of Government Achievements, 19831988, Government of Western Australia, 1988, pp. 93103. 39 H.J.C. Phillips & D. Black, Political Chronicle, 1993: Western Australia, AJPH, vol. 39, 1993, pp. 413423; WAPD, op. cit., 1985, vol. 253, pp. 4950; 1176; Bryce, conversation with the author. 40 ibid. Also Burke interview, op. cit.; Government of WA, Master Record of the Governments role in Australias defence of the Americas Cup, 1987. 41 Black, Election Statistics, op. cit., passim. 42 In April 1988, Colin Jamieson received the Order of Australia. He died in March 1990, aged sixty-seven. See Labor Voice, May 1990, p. 12. 43 Black, Political Chronicle, 1987, AJPH, 1988, vol. 33, pp. 294295; and Phillips, The Modern Parliament, op. cit., p. 229. 44 Speeches made on the announcement of the retirement of Hon. Brian Burke, Premier and MLA and Hon. Mal Bryce MLA, Deputy Premier of Western Australia in the Legislative Assembly, Tuesday 22 December 1987, Hansard extract, pp. 25; also authors conversations with Mal Bryce, op. cit., and with Stephen Smith, Federal Member for Perth, 21 September 2000. 45 West Australian, Big Weekend, 11 November 1989; conversation with Bryce. 46 Norman Aisbett, David Parker at the Crossroads and Judgment time, West Australian, Big Weekend, 31 May 1997; also information from Michael Beahan. 47 Phillips, The Modern Parliament, op. cit., p. 231. 48 Commission on Accountability. Report to the Premier the Hon. P. MC. Dowding, January 1989, pp. 4143. 49 ibid., pp. 6566. 50 Franz Oswald, Political Chronicle, 1989, AJPH, vol. 35, pp. 46566. 51 P. Kennedy, Managing the Media in A. Peachment, ed., The Business of Government. Western Australia 19831990, Annandale, The Federation Press, 1990, p. 78. 52 Dowding to Members of the SPLP, 5 August 1988 in Gallop Papers, file marked WA Inc. 53 Conservation Council to Gallop, n.d., in ibid. 54 David Parker, Media Statement, 18 January 1989, in Gallop Papers. Emeritus Professor Webb was a member of the Geography Department at UWA. 55 M.J. McCusker, QC, Report of Inspector on a Special Investigation into Rothwells Ltd. Part I, October 1989, pp. 30 ff. 56 ibid., p. 22. 57 ibid., pp. 26, 30 ff. 58 Stephen Smith, in conversation with the author, 21 September 2000. 59 Caucus Minutes, op. cit., 5 December 1989, kept by the SPLP and used with permission. 60 Paul Kelly, The end of certainty: The story of the 1980s, St. Leonards: Allen & Unwin, 1992; also conversation with Stephen Smith. 61 Caucus Minutes, op. cit., 19 January 1990. 62 Lloyds career from 198387 exemplifies the many hats worn by a number of Burke Government staff and associates. The Age [Melbourne], 21 December 1987 listed Lloyds various appointments as adviser to Burke; former Director of Policy, Department of Premier and Cabinet; promoted to senior Treasury position; executive director of WADC; also director of FundsCorp, SGIC; part-time chair of the State Superannuation Board; Director of Western Collieries, a subsidiary of Rothwells Merchant Bank. 63 West Australian, 5 February 1990; also Aisbett, Parker at the Crossroads, op. cit.; Neil Byrne, AMWU delegate, conversation with the author, 26 June 2000; information from Geoff Gallop, 5 June 2003.

Notes
64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98

435

Caucus Minutes, op. cit., 12 February 1990; Kelly, op. cit., p. 560. Administration Committee Minutes 1990, op. cit., vol. 1, 18 April 1990. Labor Voice, vol. 12, no. 2, May 1990, p. 23. ibid., pp. 1617. ibid., March, 1990, pp. 89. ibid., May 1990, cover, pp. 611. Cabinet Record. Lawrence Government 19 February 1990 to 21 January 1991, vol. 1, 19 March 1990. West Australian, 12 June (Steven Loxley, Liberals in a bomb crater) and 23 June 1990 (We have lost our way: Mackinnon), and Australian, editorial 12 June 1990. Oswald, Political Chronicle, 1990, op. cit., p. 451. See, for example, WAPD, op. cit., vol. 283, 1990, passim. ibid., pp. 2199 ff (for Legislative Assembly debate); vol. 284, pp. 272021 for Legislative Council debate and Cashs statement. Caucus Minutes, op. cit., 20 November 1990. Cited in Amanda Watkins, The Appointment and Construction of the royal commission into WA Inc, BA Honours Thesis, Curtin University, 1992, p. 1. Caucus Minutes, 29 January 1991; Oswald & Black, Political Chronicle, 1991, AJPH, 1991, vol. 36, p. 498; Labor Voice, December 1990, p. 3. Labor Voice, December 1990, p. 2. ibid., December 1991, p. 3; MarchApril 1992, p. 3. Brian Burke, interview. Other Left Wing supporters included Jim McGinty and Bob Pearce. Quoted in Fitzsimmons, Beazley, op. cit., p. 161. Jamieson, interview transcript, op. cit., p. 107. Dr Geoff Gallop, interview with the author, 26 November 1999; also comments to the author by Bob Hetherington and Michael Beahan. See green folder titled Admin. elections, 1984 in Labor Centre Papers box 38; information from John Cowdell MLC and Michael Beahan; G. Gallop, Political Chronicle AJPH, vol 32, 1986, p. 301. A. Sayers, Western Australia: picking up the pieces in J. Warhurst & A. Parkin, eds, The Machine: Labor confronts the future, Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 2000, p. 163, Kim Beazley. Federal Leader of the Opposition. Biographical details published by the ALP (WA Branch); FitzSimons, passim. P. Walsh, Confessions of a failed Finance Minister, Milsons Point, Random House, 1995, pp. 125, 140; Michael Beahan, It just wont be the same without Walshie, Labor Voice, MayJune 1993, p. 11. Rsum of Senator Peter Cook, supplied by his Parliamentary office; information from Michael Beahan. See also ibid., pp. 88, 116119; Ann Millar, Trust the Women: Women in the Federal Parliament, Canberra, Department of the Senate, 1994, p. 117. ibid., pp. 142, 159. FitzSimons, op. cit., p. 332. Oswald & Black, op. cit., p. 498. Edwards had been Executive Director ofthe Policy Division of the Department of Premier and Cabinet during the Burke administration. B. Pearce in the West Australian, 16 July 1994, p. 8. S. Loxley in ibid. Aisbett, Parker at the Crossroads, op .cit. Sunday Times, 2 March 1997; Burke, interview 11 August 1999 D. Black & H. Phillips, Political Chronicle, 1994, AJPH, 1995, p. 484. Smith, conversation with the author, op. cit.

436
99 Burke, interview, op. cit. 100 Labour Voice, May 1990, p. 23. 101 ibid., March 1991, p. 3. 102 Gallop, interview, 26 November 1999.

Bobbie Oliver

Chapter Fifteen: Industrial Challenges for the Trades and Labor Council, 19801999 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Information from Tony Cooke, 25 May 2000; also TLC Minutes Battye Library Accession no. 3516A/35, 10 December 1985. Black, Political Chronicle, 1987, in AJPH, vol. 33, p. 294. See, for example, Item 28, Prices and Incomes Accord on the Agenda for the ALP State Executive meeting, 28 July 1986, in State Executive Minutes and Agendas, 29 July 1985 to 28 July 1986. Media statement, 28 March 1988, TLC Papers, op. cit., 4442A/73; Minutes of the Tripartite Council, 198385, Battye Library Accession no. 4443A/14. Gallop, Speech to the Darling Range ALP, op. cit., pp. 1920. See, for example, R.A. Graham, The Burke Government and the Labour Movement: Labour Transformed, 19831988, BA Honours Thesis, Curtin University, 1994, p. 39. Graham, op. cit., p. 43. ibid., p. 38. D. Black, Political Chronicles Western Australia in AJPH, vol. 31, no. 3 (1984), p. 433. P. Dowding, Labour and Employment Achievements, Government of Western Australia, 1988; Australian Bureau of Statistics Bulletin, no. 6322.0, 198284, Part A, p. 5; 198588, Part A, Diagram 3. See Cabinet Record, Burke Government 1 August and 31 October 1983; Hamilton, Burkie, op .cit., pp. 140141. Cabinet Record, Burke Government, 3 March, 6 April, 2 May, 1983. M. Rock, Executive Government and Public Administration in Western Australia during the 1970s and 1980s, Curtin University, BA Honours Thesis, 1990, pp. 65, 67. TLC Minutes, op. cit., 3516A/35, 10 December 1985; conversation with Rob Meecham, 4 April 2001. J. Warhurst & A. Parkin, The Machine: Labor confronts the future, op. cit., pp. 161163; conversation with Tony Cooke and Stephanie Mayman, 27 November 2000. TLC WA Officers Minute Book, Battye Library Accession no. 3516A, file 20, 25 March 1980, 22 April 1980. TLC Minutes, op. cit., 30 June 1981. ibid., 8 February, 8 March and 14 June 1983. See, for example, WAPD, op. cit., vol. 250, 1984, p. 1544. Judyth Watson, conversation with the author, 30 January 2001. Minutes of the Occupational Health & Safety (OHS) Committee, in TLC Papers, op. cit., MN 117711, Series 4442A/33 Occupational Health & Safety 1984-89. OHS Committee Minutes, op. cit., 18 July, 15 September 1984. D.K. Dans, Occupational Health, Safety and Welfare Legislation. A Public Discussion Document, October 1983, p. 5. ibid., p. 9; Judyth Watson, conversation with the author, 30 January 2001. WATLCC, Report on Proposed Occupational Health, Safety and Welfare Act 1984. OHS Committee Minutes, op. cit., 19 September 1984; also WAPD, op. cit., 1984, vol. 251, p. 2984. ibid., 12 June 1985 ibid., 14 October 1985. ibid., 9 October, 1985; TLC Minutes, 15 October and 12 November 1985, 28 January 1986. OHS Minutes, 14 October 1985.

Notes
31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75

437

ibid., 13 November 1985. ibid., op. cit., 16 April 1986, and correspondence with various unions April-June 1986 in file 33. ibid., 8 July 1987 WAPD, op. cit., vol. 263, 1987, p. 545. ibid., vol. 267, p. 5523. OHS Committee Minutes, op. cit., 8 July 1987. TLC Minutes, op. cit., 7 July, 4 and 11 August 1981. WAPD, op. cit., vol. 235, 198182, pp. 4829 ff, and vol. 236, p. 6072. Information from Judyth Watson. Minutes of the Tripartite Council, 198385, op. cit. Brown to branches of Rotary and Lions, 17 December 1985, in TLC Papers, op. cit., Series 4442/114 Privatisation. Circular dated 24 December 1985 in ibid. Brown to Anne Marie Heine, Secretary, SSTU, 6 February 1986, in ibid. David Heald, Privatisation and Public Sector Reform in Australia: Regaining Control of the Agenda, unpublished report, p. 53, in ibid. ibid. Brown to Burke, 17 February 1987, in TLC Minutes, op. cit., file 114. West Australian, 19 August 1987 and copy of press statement, dated 1 September 1987, in TLC Minutes, op. cit., file 114. Minutes of a meeting of TLC affiliates, 29 September 1987 in TLC Minutes, op. cit., file 114. Minute from Brown to Cooke, 21 October 1987 in ibid. TLC Minutes, op. cit., 13 October 1987. Cooke to TLC Executive, 17 March 1988, re ACTU Meeting on Public Sector & Privatisation in TLC Minutes, op. cit., file 114. Report T Cooke to TLC Executive, 28 April 1988, in ibid. AWU to ALP, 13 May 1988; also AMWU to ALP, same date, in ibid. Media Statement, 25 May 1988, in ibid. Dowding to Brown, 21 June 1988, in ibid. Circular Meecham to affiliates, 8 July 1988, in ibid. TLC Minutes, op. cit., 19 July 1988, file 114. Meecham to Brown, 14 March 1989, in ibid. Resolution from TLC to Senator Walsh, 8 June 1989 in ibid. Court to Brown, 24 May 1989; handwritten notes by Cooke, and further correspondence in ibid. TLC Papers, op. cit., file 67, box 144, JanJuly 1980. TLC Minutes, op. cit., 6 May 1980. WAPD, op. cit., vol. 230, pp. 2330 ff; vol. 321, p. 4301. TLC Minutes, op. cit., 2 June 1981. ibid., 28 June, 12 July 1983. ibid., op. cit., 4 February 1986. Circular, dated 13 October 1989, in TLC Papers, op. cit., file 4442A/87. See correspondence and other material in TLC Papers, op. cit., 4442A/81 Civil Liberties. TLC Minutes, op. cit., 24 February 1981. ibid., 6 April 1982. ibid., 11 November 1986. ibid., 9 March 1982, 14 June 1983. ibid., 4 February, 4 March 1986. TLC Papers, op. cit., box 69, file 107 May Day. See, for example, ibid., 4442A/86, Aborigines 198490.

438
76 77 78 79 80

Bobbie Oliver

TLC Minutes, op. cit., 25 March 1980. Hawke & Gallagher, Noonkanbah, op. cit., pp. 228-229, 290, 326-327. Labor Voice, vol. 15, no. 2, MayJune 1993. TLC Minutes, op. cit., 16 June 1981. ibid., 15 May and 11 December 1984; information from Stephanie Mayman, 27 November 2000. 81 TLC Minutes, op. cit., 27 May 1986. 82 ibid., 22 July 1986. 83 TLC 1999 Directory: Mayday. The Workers bite back, op. cit., pp. 2223; also information from Tony Cooke, 27 November 2000. 84 TLC Minutes, op. cit., 3516A, file 37, 24 June 1986. 85 ibid., 5 and 19 August, 14 October 1986. A search of the Minutes for the ensuing months, however, reveals no further reference to this campaign. 86 W. Mann, Mr Parkers Peacetime Essential Services Agreement, in P. Bertola & J. Bailey, eds, Frontiers of Labour. Proceedings of the Fifth National Conference of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, Perth, WA, 24 October 1997, pp. 142146. 87 ibid., p. 146. 88 TLC Papers, op. cit., 4442A, file 67, Robe River Dispute, 198889. 89 Black, Political Chronicle, 1987, AJPH, vol. 33, p. 293. 90 Press statement 10 June 1988, and Circular 187/1988, in TLC Papers, op. cit., file 67. 91 Minutes of a TLC Council meeting, 6 December 1988, in ibid. 92 Telephone conversation with Clive Brown MLA, 11 April 2001. 93 Brown to Delegates of Wickham Conference 9 August 1989, in TLC Papers, op. cit., file 68. 94 Brown to Kelty, 7 August 1989, in ibid. 95 Log of Rights Draft One, in ibid. 96 Brown to Tsuji, Managing Director Mitsui, 4 July 1989; Brown to Kajiyama, Japanese Minister for International Trade and Industry, and to S. Uno, Prime Minister of Japan, 19 June 1989 in ibid. 97 Press statement. 26 July 1989; also Office of the Premier to Brown, 27 September 1989, in ibid. 98 Minutes of a Meeting of the ACTU Federal Council, 23 January 1990, in ibid. 99 Conversation with Tony Cooke and Stephanie Mayman, 27 November 2000, and Clive Brown, 11 April 2001. 100 Media release, The Offer you dare not refuse, 5 February 1993, in TLC, op. cit., 4442A/75; conversation with Brown. 101 Kelly, op. cit., pp. 255, 492493, 669670; conversations with Cooke, Mayman and Meecham. 102 Labor Voice, vol. 15, no. 1, JanuaryFebruary 1993, p. 13. 103 Richard Court, statement on 96FM, 7 January 1993 in TLC Papers, op. cit., 4442A/75. 104 Cooke, media release, 7 January 1993, in ibid. Cooke was elected Assistant Secretary after Rob Meecham replaced Clive Brown as TLC Secretary. Brown won the seat of Morley in the election. 105 Kierath to Meecham, 2 February 1993 in TLC Papers, op. cit., 4442A/75. 106 See Creed to Kierath, 5 February 1993, re. conditions required by some employers offering contracts to enrolled nurses, in ibid. 107 TLC media release, 29 April 1993 in ibid. For a published account, see Carmel Gosper, WAGR Midland Workshops Closure in B. Oliver, ed., Papers in Labour History, no. 22, December 1999, pp. 57 ff. 108 TLC Minutes, 15 June and 13 July 1993 (held by Unions WA); Gosper, op. cit., p. 60.

Notes

439

109 Chris Power, Storming Bullshit Castle: A Dialogue Analysis of the Third Wave Campaign in J. Bailey & D. McAtee, eds, Papers in Labour History, no. 20, The Workers Embassy Scrapbook, August 1998, p. 87. 110 Yvonne Henderson, Unfair and unjust: Courts industrial relations, Labor Voice, vol. 15, no. 3, p. 1. 111 TLC Minutes, 3 March 1998 (held by Unions WA). 112 ibid., 10 August 1993. 113 TLC Executive Minutes, op. cit., 24 October 1995. 114 J. Bailey & D. McAtee, Sundials, Sandbags and Scarecrows: A Cultural Analysis of the Third Wave Campaign, in L. Batterham & P. Bertola, eds, Papers in Labour History, no. 21, January/February 1998, p. 45. 115 TLC Minutes, op. cit., 25 March and 8 April 1997. 116 ibid.; Power, Storming Bullshit Castle, op. cit., p. 88. 117 Rob Meecham, conversation with the author, 4 May 2001. 118 Nick Devine, interviewed by Janis Bailey, and Kim Young, interviewed by Di McAtee, in The Workers Embassy Scrapbook, op. cit., pp. 1718. 119 Details of these events emerge in the interviews conducted by Bailey, McAtee and Jo Brown. See The Workers Embassy Scrapbook, op. cit., passim. 120 Jo Brown, The Politics of Pleasure and the TLC, in ibid., p. 102. 121 J. Bailey & D. McAtee, A Hard-Tied Knot: The Significance of Solidarity Park, in ibid., p. 77. 122 Bailey & McAtee, Sundials, Sandbags and Scarecrows, op. cit., p. 19. 123 ibid., p. 20; TLC Minutes, op. cit., 14 October 1997 (held by Unions WA). 124 ibid., 22 July and 19 August 1997. In 2002, Solidarity Park was listed on the States Register of Heritage Places. 125 The MUA was formed in 1993 by the amalgamation of the Seamens Union and the WWF. 126 West Australian, 23, 24 and 27 May 1995. 127 First skirmish, from the MUAs web page <http://mua.tlp.net.au>. 128 TLC Minutes, op. cit., 28 April 1998. 129 Mobilisation: pickets, priests and public protest in <http://mua.tlp.net.au>. 130 ibid. 131 Peace Treaty in ibid. 132 WA Conspiracy Inc in ibid. 133 Why are we working such long hours? TLC 1999 Directory: Mayday. The Workers bite back, op. cit., p. 9. Chapter Sixteen:A New Agenda for a New Century 1 2 David Black and H.C.J. Phillips, Political Chronicle, 1992 in AJPH, vol. 39, 1993, p. 257. Labor Voice, vol. 15, no. 1, JanuaryFebruary 1993; vol. 16, no. 2, September 1994; Black, Election Statistics, op. cit., p. 12; Black & Phillips, Political Chronicles, 1993, in AJPH, vol. 39, pp. 413 ff. 3 Gallop, interview, 26 November 1999. 4 Labor Voice, vol. 15, no. 2, MayJune 1993. 5 West Australian, 9 and 10 July 1999. 6 WAPD, op. cit., vol. 322, 216 May 1995, pp. 23289. 7 Labor Voice, vol. 16, no. 1, April 1994, pp. 45. Lawrences State seat, Glendalough, was retained for the ALP by Michelle Roberts. 8 See, for example, Kerry-Anne Walsh, The Reluctant Saviour, Bulletin, 15 November 1994; Weekend Australian, 1213 March, 1994. 9 West Australian, 20 January 1994. 10 Black & Phillips, Political Chronicles, AJPH, vol. 40, 1994, p. 403.

440

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11 West Australian, 13 October 1994. 12 WAPD, op. cit., vol. 322, pp. 258990. 13 West Australian, 15 July 1999; also Black & Phillips, Political Chronicle, AJPH, vol. 41, 1995, nos. 23, p. 474. 14 Black & Phillips, Political Chronicle, AJPH, vol. 42, 1996, p. 434. 15 ibid., p. 435. 16 West Australian, 9 October 1996; also Sayers, Western Australia, op. cit., p. 164. 17 Black & Phillips, Chronicles, AJPH, vol. 42, 1996, p. 438. 18 See Lists of Members of the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council, 27 May 1997. 19 WA ALP web page <http://www.wa.alp.org.au/> 20 Mark Mallabone, Reynolds backs Gallop as leader, West Australian, 20 March 1999. Under the RFA, the Court Government announced a $41 million package, at the cost of about 400 jobs in the timber industry. 21 Authors notes taken at the ALP State Conference, 8 May 1999. See also West Australian, 10 May 1999 for a published account of conference proceedings. 22 Authors notes. 23 ibid.; West Australian, 10 May 1999. 24 West Australian, 10 May 1999; Labor Herald, June 1999, WA Centenary State Conference insert pp. 23; also Elect the Leader!, document circulated at Conference. 25 Cited in Labor Herald insert, op. cit., p. 3. 26 Authors notes of Dr Gallops speech, Centenary State Conference, 1999, 8 May. 27 McMullan, interview, op. cit. 28 Geoff Gallop, The Labor Party: Ideologies and Traditions Talk to Labor Unity Seminar, Sunday 17 May 1987, in Gallop Papers. Used with permission. 29 Gallop, interview, 26 November 1999. 30 Cited from D. Charnock, Spatial Variations, contextual and social structural influences on voting for the ALP at the 1996 Federal election: conclusions from multilevel analyses, draft of a paper presented at the APSA Conference at UWA, 24 October 1996, and used with permission. 31 A message from Geoff Gallop, 1999 Directory: Mayday, op. cit., p. 77. 32 John Kobelke, Into the new Century with solidarity, in ibid., p. 41. 33 Cooke, interview, 22 November 1999. 34 West Australian, 3 May 1997. 35 McMullin, The Light on the Hill, op. cit., p. 411. 36 ibid., p. 446. 37 Gallop, interview with the author, 26 November 1999. 38 Information on <http://www.alp.org.au/> 39 Kim Beazley, election night speech on <http://www.alp.org.au/>

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Index

Index

455
Australian Labor Federation xi, 25, 53, 85 1899 Trades Union Congress 122, 25, 187 1902 Trades and Labour Congress 13 1905 Trades Union and Labor Congress 25 1916 Interstate Congress 59, 61 Second Trades and Labour Congress 9 Western Australian Division of the ALF 26 Australian Labor Party (Anti-Communist) 219 Australian Labor Party 1925 Labor Congress 92 1932 ALP State Congress 138 1939 State Executives Annual Report 152 1944 State Congress 174 1948 Federal Conference 208 1948 State Congress 174 1949 State Congress 189 1955 ALP Federal Conference, Hobart 214, 218, 219, 254 1957 Federal Conference 254 1957 Special Conference of Unions 199 1959 Federal Conference 224 1967 WA State Conference 240 1975 Special State Conference 246 1977 National Conference 293 1981 National Conference 293, 302 1982 Special State Conference 286 1987 National Conference 308 1988 National Conference 341, 342 1999 State Conference 367, 368, 374 Aboriginal Affairs Policy Committee 287 Broad Left 324 Campaign Committee 64, 95, 202, 313 Centre faction 324 Discrimination Committee 286 Disputes Committee 71, 75, 76, 83, 93, 97, 103, 104, 108, 178, 196, 197, 273 Douglas Credit Committee 138 East Perth ALP 185 Electoral Reform Policy Committee 291 factionalism 323, 324 General Council 205 Industrial Labor Conference 89 Labor Alliance 334 Labor Tripartite Council 332 Labor Unity 324 Leaders Fund 306, 326 Left Wing 325, 334, 367 Maylands ALP 174 Merredin ALP 135, 243 New Right 340, 349

A
Aboriginal Affairs Planning Authority 276 Aboriginal issues 113, 129, 130, 175, 176, 249, 258, 275, 276, 284, 331, 345 Aboriginal Legal Service 315, 346 Affirmative Action 285, 286, 311, 329, 346, 347 Agricultural Bank Board 145 Agricultural Board 95 Albany 39, 86, 115, 294, 312 All Australian Trade Union Conference 84, 90 Allen, Mark 357 Alluvial Rights Defence Association 3 Amalgamated Collieries 140 Amax 287, 345 Americas Cup 313, 329 Anderson, Lois 323, 367 Anderson, Marcelle 291 Anderson, R. 261 Angwin, W.C. 18, 43, 45, 61, 171 Anstey, Frank 114 Anstey, Olive 220 Anwyl, Megan 366 apprentices 42, 186 Arbitration Commission 262 Arbitration Court 7, 15, 19, 20, 36, 44, 45, 68, 76, 80, 84, 98, 111, 124, 137, 140, 141, 142, 158, 159, 177, 178, 184, 186, 193, 195, 258 Ardagh, Reginald G. 39, 61 Argyle Diamond Mine 306, 315 Armadale 364, 367, 369 Armistice Day 147, 148 Ashburton 322 Assault at Robe River 349 Atkinson, J.H. 119 Atlantic Charter 165 Australian Consumers Association 249 Australian Council of Trade Unions 109, 193, 338, 341, 342, 346, 349, 351, 352, 355, 356, 360 1957 ACTU Congress 198 1989 ACTU Congress 349 ACTU Congress resolutions 274 ACTU Federal Executive 196, 197, 201 Charter on Disabled Workers 344 Australian Democrats 309 Australian Imperial Force 48, 153, 156, 161, 166

456

Bobbie Oliver
White Australia Policy 254 Worksafe policy 357 Australian Trade Union Training Authority 298, 341 Australian Worker 91, 109, 167 Avon 39 Avon Valley 246

Northam Branch ALP 29 One Vote, One Value Committee 292 Peace Committee 147, 148 Right Wing 323, 334, 367 Special Rules Conference 283 State Executive 29 State Political Labor Party 11 WA Labor Tripartite Consultative Council 336, 339 Australian Labor Party policy 26, 83, 370 Added Value 363 AustraliaUS defence alliance 325 Bunbury 2000 Development Strategy 303, 312 business 306 Charter for Electoral Reform 292 children 42, 43, 371 compensation 41 conscription xii, 51, 53, 54, 63, 64, 67, 86, 125, 150, 153, 166, 239 disclosure of financial interests 329 discrimination 293, 310, 329, 369 Discrimination Platform 287 East Perth redevelopment 329 education 42, 43, 312, 329, 369, 371 education allowance 329 electoral reform 308, 329 factionalism 334 Federal Triennial Conference 210 forward defence 325 health 42, 43 housing 37 industrial 332, 333 industrial accidents 41 industrial diseases 41 land 37, 50 Land Rights 311, 331, 343, 374 Medicare 325 Middle East 289 North-West 39, 42 old growth forests 368 paid public holidays 179 pensions 18, 31, 42, 169, 216 privatisation 306, 307, 308, 342 railway system 329 redistribution of seats 2 Seniors Card 329 sexual orientation 369 university fees 325 Vietnam War 238, 240

B
Baglin, Fred 85, 92 Baker, Chitty 7 Bank West 354 Barker, Ernest H. 84, 85, 92, 93, 122, 146, 147, 170 Barnard, Lance 240 Barnett, Mike 367 Barr, Gil 269, 298, 345 Bartlem, D. 278 Basic Wage 112, 134, 136, 139, 144, 164, 165, 169, 179, 185, 196, 198, 216, 261 Bastow, Frank 264, 288, 289 Bateman, Tom 314 Bath, Thomas 8, 15, 33 Beadle, Harry 31 Beadle, Jean 29, 31, 32, 55, 95, 106, 112, 129, 171, 180 Beahan, Michael 285, 298, 301, 309, 311, 313, 315, 323, 324, 326 Beazley, Kim Jnr 252, 281, 282, 288, 325, 366, 370, 375 Beazley, Kim Snr 173, 187, 188, 210, 214, 215, 217, 218, 220, 292, 293, 312, 324 Bedbrook, Sir George 344 Beeby, Justice 122, 123 Beech, Les 331 Beech, Tony 332, 345 Beggs, Pam 149, 303, 314, 319, 364 Bell Group 315 Bell Tower 368 Berinson, Joe 281, 282, 302, 314, 317, 318, 319 Bevan, J.W. 264 Bin-bin, Dooly 175, 176 Black Tuesday stock market crash, 1987 315 Blackboy Hill Army Camp 128 Blackburn, Maurice 131, 151, 166 Blair, Tony 373 Blanchard, Alan 320 Bluck, Harry 331 Board of Arbitration 44

Index
Board of Reference Award 140 Boas, Harold 132 Bolton, Harry 27 Bond Corporation 306, 315, 321 Bond, Alan 306 Boote, H.E. 91, 109, 131, 143, 166, 167 Boucaut, J.P. xi Boulder 6, 10, 78, 89, 146 Boulder Municipal Council 32, 80 Boulder Town Hall 57 Bracks, A.H. 168 Bradley, Thomas 78 Brady, J. 155 Brain, Muriel 105, 106 Brand, David 366 Brand Government 258, 262, 265, 271, 297, 355 Brentwood 370 Brereton, Laurie 355 Bridge, Ernie 295, 296, 297, 319 Bridges, Harry 228 Brinsden, Peter 322 Broken Hill Proprietary (BHP) 263 Bropho, Robert 321 Brown, Clive 331334, 339343, 347, 349352 Brown, Edward 72 Brown, J.M. 243 Brown, J.R. 58, 79 Brown, Jo 356 Bruce, Stanley Melbourne 101, 121, 124 BrucePage Government 121, 124 Brush, Brenda 287 Bryce, Mal 250, 252, 281, 291, 292, 298, 299, 302, 308, 309, 315, 329 Buchanan, Pam 149, 303, 319, 322 Buck, Terry 359 Buckeridge, Len 358 Bullock, L.F. 136 Bunbury 39, 86, 103, 115, 118, 119, 260, 294, 303, 312 Burchell, R.J. 55, 59 Burge, C.J. 107 Burgess, J.W. 74 Burke Government 282, 303, 306, 310, 312, 317, 332, 333, 348 Burke, Brian 252, 253, 281, 296, 298, 301, 306, 314, 322, 323, 326, 327, 328, 329, 344, 347, 349 Burke, Terry 314, 322

457
Burke, Tom 153, 168, 173, 187, 188, 208, 209, 210, 214, 215, 216, 218, 219, 220, 222, 224, 225, 254 Burnside, Justice 45, 50, 69, 91, 92 Burracoppin 119 Burrowes, Sharran 356 Burrows, Fred 28 Burswood Casino 313 Burt, Sir Francis 316, 354 Butler, Tom 54, 86, 114, 298, 323, 332 Buzacott, Richard 34, 37 Byford 119 Byrne, Kevin 187

C
Cain Government 219 Cairns, Dr Jim 240, 281 Callanan, Alfred 69, 79, 80, 91, 98 Callanan, George 58, 69, 77, 78, 79, 80, 85, 94 Calwell, Arthur 166, 234, 238, 239, 240 Cameron, Don 51, 54, 56, 57, 66, 130, 166 Campaign Against Nuclear Energy 344 campaigning 37, 38, 44, 47, 5456, 64, 86, 118, 125, 139, 148, 151, 154156, 166168, 173, 175, 176, 180182, 185, 186, 202, 210214, 231, 234, 243, 248, 249, 252, 291, 294, 302, 303, 306, 313, 316, 331, 341, 343, 347, 364 Campbell, Graeme 366 Canning 51, 314, 375 Cant, Hartley 191, 239, 268 Cant, William 229 Cape Lambert 348, 349, 352 Carmichael, Laurie 278 Carnarvon 90, 337 Carpenter, Alan 367, 369 Carpenter, William Henry 16 Carr, Jeff 281, 291, 297, 298, 322 Cash, George 321 Casson, Adelaide 95 Casuarina Prison 328 Catania, Nick 319 Catholic Action 182 Catts, Arthur 65 Central Province 39 Chamber of Mines 78, 79, 338

458

Bobbie Oliver
Cooke, Tony 331, 332, 341, 342, 345, 352, 353, 355, 372, 373 Cookernup 119 Cooley, Don 241, 257, 258, 260, 267, 274, 276, 279, 331 Coolgardie 1, 4, 88, 89, 127, 367 Coombs, John 358, 360 Cooperative Labor Press Printing Company 4 Copeman, Charles 349 Cornell, James 39, 53, 56, 58, 61 Corrigan, Chris 359 Costello, J. 136 Costello, Mick 86 Country Party 17, 47, 51, 62, 88, 115, 121, 134, 155, 167, 173, 187, 221, 230, 234 Court Government (19741982) 278, 279, 287, 291, 292, 334, 335, 345 Court Government (19932001) 353, 355, 365, 368 Court of Disputed Returns 296 Court, Richard 302, 343, 352, 353, 356, 363, 364 Court, Sir Charles 267, 276, 277, 292, 293, 296, 297, 302, 327, 338 Coverley, Aubrey Augustus 117, 175, 176, 212 Cowan 326, 364, 375 Cowan, Dame Edith 95 Cowan, Hendy 312 Cowdell, John 282, 323, 369 Coyne, William 222 Crean, Frank 281 Crean, Simon 349 Creed, Helen 346, 352 Criddle, Murray 360 Crockenberg, E. 205 Croft, J.W. 9, 14, 16 Crofts, C. 110 Crowley, Frank 223 Crown Law Department 197 Cruickshank, Archibald 180 Crumblin, Paddy 359 Cue 90 Cuffley, R. 220 Cullen, J.F. 51 Cunderdin 118 Cunningham, James 147, 152, 155, 171 Cuomo, Mark 323 Currambine 329 Curran, Harry 194, 195 Curtin House 244

Chamberlain, F.E. 183, 185, 186, 196198, 200203, 205, 209, 214217, 219, 222, 223, 225, 226, 228, 231, 233236, 239243, 247, 250, 252, 253, 257, 298 Chaney, Fred 220 Charlesworth, Ric 364 Charlton, Eric 358, 360 Chifley Government 173, 187 Chifley, J.B. 163, 207, 208, 209, 222, 374 Childrens Court 95 Citizens Protection League 76 Civil Liberties Action Group 343 Civil Service Association 332, 372 Clarey, Percy 194, 195, 197 Clementson, Andrew 56, 86, 148 Cleveland Cliffs Iron Company 264 Clifford, R.E. 93 Clohessy, R.W. 261 Clothier, Robert 152, 162 Clunas, J.C. 94 Clune, Rosemary 96 Clydesdale, Alex 133, 146, 147 Cockburn 307 Cockburn Cement 221 Cole, R.C. 191 Colebatch, Hal 70, 76, 120, 134 Colebatch, Hal Jnr 364 Coleman, Jim 245, 257, 259, 261, 266, 269, 274, 279, 331 Coleman, Ruth 275, 284, 285, 344 Collie 103, 115, 136, 139, 140, 336, 366 Collier, Philip 28, 46, 61, 88, 101, 134, 145, 146, 147, 148, 151, 181, 185, 283 Collier Government 92, 102, 103, 104, 108, 135, 144, 146 Combet, Greg 356, 360 Commission on Accountability 316 Commonwealth Bank 307, 340 Communist Party of Australia 83, 90, 104, 128, 157, 159, 160, 174, 178, 182, 183, 184, 188, 193, 194, 200, 207, 208, 210, 223, 227, 229 Eighth Conference of the WA State Committee of the CPA 159 Confederation of Industry 338 Connell, Laurie 306, 317, 318 Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Workers Union 321, 331, 349, 368, 369 Cook, Peter 279, 283, 325, 331, 333, 343, 345 Cooke, Joseph 215, 216, 219

Index
Curtin University of Technology 312 Curtin, John 56, 61, 6466, 93, 104, 107, 112, 118, 122, 124, 125, 130132, 138, 149151, 213, 222, 227, 374 Curtis, A.T. 216, 219

459
Fremantle 25, 26, 92, 97, 108, 136, 163, 178, 179, 201, 202, 203, 209, 215, 228 Geraldton 25, 60, 146, 154, 189, 202, 228 Great Southern 25, 94, 117, 155 Metropolitan 2, 25, 26, 27, 45, 48, 54, 62, 92, 97, 108, 128, 129, 134, 155, 157, 159, 163, 164, 169, 178, 186, 190, 201, 215, 222, 224, 229, 247 Midland 25, 94, 104, 110, 128, 155, 159, 189, 209, 228 Murchison 25, 39, 154, 161, 189 North Coolgardie 25 South Western 25, 92, 114, 135, 138, 202, 205, 215 Diver, C.E. 31 Diver, Leslie 221 Dixon, George 96 Dodd, Jabez 10, 33, 43, 55, 61 Dog Collar Act 124 Doheny, J.P. 86 Doland, J.A. 33, 39, 46, 61, 83 Dominion League 132 Donnes, Mick 74, 75 Doodlakine 325 Douglas Credit Movement 136, 137 Dowding Government 315, 316, 328, 332, 339, 351 Dowding, Peter 308, 315, 319, 320, 324, 327, 328, 329, 336, 337, 338, 339, 340, 341, 348, 349 Dowding, Reverend Keith 203, 212, 254, 315 Drake-Brockman, Judge 122 Draper, Justice 107 Drew, J.M. 18, 39, 61, 146 Dumas House 337 Dunphy, Justice E.A. 177, 178, 195 Dwyer, Justice 141

D
Daglish Government 18, 20, 22, 39, 50 Daglish, Henry 11, 17, 22, 28 Daly, Fred 211 Daly, Tim 368, 369 Dampier 264, 265, 275, 278, 279 Dampier Combined Unions Committee 271 Dans, Des 314, 335, 336 Davidson, W. 265, 266 Davies, A.B. 263 Davies, A.R. 177 Davies, John 102 Davies, Ron 225, 287, 288, 297, 298, 314 Davies, Tom 153, 169, 171, 179, 181, 185 Davis, Fred 2, 33 Davy, T.A.L. 95 Dawkins, John 282, 287, 325, 365 de Largie, Hugh 1, 9, 10, 16, 33, 34, 35, 37, 55, 58, 63 Democratic Labor Party 200, 201, 206, 219, 220, 221, 226, 230, 235, 236 Democrats 367 Denmark 37 Dennis, G.F. 54 Department of Community Welfare 276 Department of Land Administration 321 Department of Premier and Cabinet 304, 305 Depression (1930s) xii, 101, 119, 130, 136, 139, 140, 187 Dianella 364 Dinan, James 154, 155, 156 direct bargaining 270 Disabled Workers Action Group 344, 345 District Councils 25, 26, 28, 29, 54, 60, 63, 81, 90, 93, 97, 106, 112, 128, 147, 164, 173, 174, 176, 178, 185, 189, 190, 191, 196, 201, 205, 206, 243, 284, 372 Albany 25, 54, 93, 143, 189, 202, 228 Avon Valley 94, 155, 229 Eastern Agricultural 25, 54, 63 Eastern Goldfields xi, 6, 25, 26, 27, 29, 39, 54, 57, 58, 79, 92, 93, 94, 104, 110, 117, 147, 154, 189, 227

E
Easton affair 363, 364 Easton, Brian Mahon 364, 365, 366 Easton, Penny 364 Edmunds Award 139 Education Ministry 312 Edwards, Graham 314, 367, 375 Edwards, Judy 320, 368, 369 Edwards, Kevin 326 Edwards, Ron 364 Edwards, Charles (Tom) 73, 74, 76, 104

460
eight-hour day 45 elections 1894 7 1897 6 1901 9, 11 1903 16 1904 16 1906 33, 34 1907 32 1908 32 1910 33 1911 25, 28, 33, 37, 39, 47 1912 39 1914 46 1917 62, 146 1919 63 1921 92 1922 63, 120 1924 99, 101, 111, 114 1926 114 1928 110, 118, 124 1930 127 1933 117, 134 1934 131, 138 1936 145 1939 148, 151, 153 1940 154 1943 167 1946 171, 173 1947 173, 179, 181 1949 182, 187, 207 1951 210 1953 211 1954 212, 213 1955 220, 222, 226 1956 221, 250 1958 221, 226, 230 1959 199, 221, 223, 230 1962 246 1965 230, 233, 246 1966 239 1971 230, 231, 250 1974 252, 253, 276, 294, 304 1975 293 1977 294, 295, 297 1980 297 1983 301, 303, 326, 327, 332 1984 325, 326 1986 309, 311, 313, 328, 334 1989 318, 341

Bobbie Oliver
1990 325 1991 326 1993 329, 345, 352, 353, 363, 364 1996 355, 358, 363, 366 1998 363, 375 Electoral Commissioners 310 Electorate Councils 205, 246, 283, 284, 286, 307, 320, 341 Curtin 308 Pearce 319 Pilbara 307 Elliott, E. 138 Elliott, Lyla 237, 241, 242, 249, 254, 308 Elliott, Samuel 88 Empire Air Training Scheme 156 Enderby, Kep 281 equal opportunity 262, 263, 311, 329, 343, 344, 346, 373 Equal Opportunity Commission 310 equal pay 31, 248, 262, 263 Equal Representation 247, 285, 309 equal rights 284 Esperance 40, 119 Ethnic Affairs 334 Eureka Youth League 174, 178 Evans, Chris 323, 329 Evans, Dave 283, 298, 299 Evans, Thomas 250, 276 Evatt, Dr H.V. 155, 157, 207, 210, 213, 214, 220, 222, 224, 231 EventsCorp 320, 321 Export-Import (Exim) Corporation 306, 316, 320, 364

F
Factory Welfare Board 265, 266 Fadden, Artie 160 Fagan, Carol 275 Fatin, Wendy 284, 326 Federal Arbitration Court 89, 91 Federal League 132 female employment 29, 30, 96, 108, 262, 263, 331 female wages 29, 31, 113, 169, 185, 248, 261, 262 Ferguson, Martin 352 Field, M. 29, 30 Fighting Platform 3 Filing, Paul 320

Index
Finucane Island 271 Fisher, Andrew 15 Fisher, L. 278 Fletcher, W.B. 107 Forde, Francis 151 Forrest 115 Forrest, Sir John 4, 6, 7, 74 Forwood Down 264, 273, 275 Foulds, W.S. 183 Fowler, James 10 Fox, Thomas 123, 219, 225 Foxcroft, Lilian 67, 148 France 65 Frankland River 128, 129 Franklin, J.T. 132 Fraser Government 291, 302 Fraser, A.J. 107 Fraser, J.C. 136, 152, 155, 166 Fraser, Malcolm 327 Frazer, Charles 16, 34 freedom of speech 331 Fremantle 6, 10, 128, 136, 320, 366 Fremantle District Trades Hall 26 Fremantle Engineering Works 197 Fremantle Gas and Coke 328 Fremantle Harbour 146 Fremantle Harbour Trust 72 Fremantle Trades Hall 15, 104 Fremantle Wharf 104 Fuhrmann, Rose 185, 211 Functional Review Committee 333

461
gerrymander 292 Gibson, H.C. 84 Gilbert, K.B. (Barry) 331 Giles, Pat 285, 286, 291, 326, 364 Gilligan, N. 278 Goldberg, Yosse 328 Goldfields Water Supply Act 40 Golding, Charles 226 Golding, Rae 214 Gough, C.A. 218 Gourley, Hugh 27 Government Employees Superannuation Board 317 Government Printing Office 262, 263 Graham, H.E. 178, 250, 251, 252 Graham, Rose 332 Great Boulder Goldmine 46, 91 Green, A.E. Texas 58, 124, 151, 152, 154 Green, Margaret 105, 138 Gregory, Henry 10, 16, 155 Grenfell, Gordon 331 Greville, Eden 148 Greypower 316 Grieve, Louis 94 Griffiths, E. 183 Griffiths, M. 262, 263 Grill, Julian 312, 315, 318, 319, 321, 323, 328, 369 Group Settlement Scheme 99, 101, 114, 129, 182, 183, 186, 220 Grouper influence 214, 215, 216, 217, 218, 223, 230, 257 Guildford 30 Gwalia 41, 89

G
G. Wills and Company 49 Gair Government 219 Gallipoli 55, 66 Gallop, Geoff xii, 314, 317, 321, 323, 324, 365, 367, 368, 369, 370, 371, 373, 374 Gandini, John 331 Garden, Jock 84 Gardiner, Joseph 47 Gatica, Leo 334, 345 Geneff, Ruth 333, 378 George, Jennie 356 George, W.J. 49 Geraldton 39, 146, 181, 312 Geraldton Port Authority 360 Gerick, Jane 375 Germans 48, 57, 58, 153

H
Halden, John 323, 364, 365, 366 Hallahan, Kay 303, 314, 319, 364, 365, 367 Halls Creek 295 Hamersley Iron 264, 270, 271, 275, 277, 279 Hammond, C.W. 120 Handcock, G.M. 219 Hankey, Sir Maurice 150 Harman, John 299, 315 Harris, Gordon 218, 222, 257 Harris, Harry 180 Harrison, Thomas 88 Hartley, Bob 198, 203, 224, 225, 243 Harvey 118, 119 Hasluck, Sir Paul 187

462

Bobbie Oliver
Hyett, Frank 84

Hassell, Bill 313 Hastie, Robert 11 Hawke Government (1950s) 199, 211, 212, 221, 223, 248, 250 Hawke Government (1980s) 285, 302, 311, 325, 349 Hawke, A.R.G. 117, 134, 162, 190, 205, 211, 226, 228, 234, 235, 236, 246, 254, 260, 261, 306 Hawke, R.J.L. (Bob) 261, 301, 307, 324, 342, 344 Hawkes, Graham 250, 291, 292 Hay, J.G. 62, 63 Hayden, Bill 324 Heald, David 339, 340 Healy, Jim 200 Hearle, L.E. 263 Hearn, Robert 180 Hegney, Bill 136, 209, 212, 249, 260 Heitmann, Ernest 27, 28, 55, 60 Henderson, George Brown 16, 35, 37, 55, 63 Henderson, Yvonne 149, 303, 315, 354, 367 Henley, Tom 184, 258, 261 Henshaw, E.P. 20, 21 Hetherington, Bob 252, 253, 281, 312, 324 Hickey, James 60, 86, 117 Hill, Gordon 282 Hilton, John 55, 58, 62 Hodge, Barry 282 Hodgson, June 310 Hodsdon, W. 138 Hoffman Mill 107 Holloway, E.J. 151 Holman, J.B. 10, 111 Holman, May 36, 45, 47, 55, 61, 105, 107, 111, 112, 118, 148, 149 Holmes, Molly 247 Holt Government 237, 240, 248, 268 Hooton, Etta 95, 106, 112, 148, 185 Hopetoun 16 Horgan, John 306 Hospital Employees 202 Houghton, Tom 104 Howard Government 120, 355, 358 Hughes, P.W. 159 Hughes, T.J. 83, 89, 106, 107, 108, 114, 136, 137, 158 Hughes, W.M. 53, 56, 57, 60, 64, 95, 121, 133 Hurd, Ron 194 Hutchison, Ruby 149, 203, 212, 215, 219, 248, 249

I
Inchcape Shipping Combine 102 indentured labour 266 Industrial Appeal Court 258 industrial awards 2 Industrial Board 178 Industrial Commission 258, 262, 263, 270, 271, 278, 349, 350 industrial disputes 2 (see strikes) Industrial Registrar 197 Industrial Relations Commission 332, 349 Industrial Unrest Conference 95 Industrial Vigilance Committee 62, 97 Inkster, Ron 289 International Labour Organisation 355 International Purveyor 358 International Year of Disabled Persons 344 International Year of Peace 344 Irish Easter 1916 Uprising 56 Italians 87, 88, 153

J
Jackson Award 197 Jackson, Sharryn 346, 347 Jakobsen, Carolyn 326, 364 James, Dan 215 James, Walter 7, 30 Jamieson, Colin 225, 235, 282, 283, 287, 294, 297, 299, 314, 324 Japanese Steel Corporation 263 John Curtin Foundation 306 Johnson, G. 263 Johnson, Jessie 29, 30, 31 Johnson, L.W. 139, 147 Johnson, Vic 154, 155, 162, 173, 187, 188, 210, 214, 224 Johnson, William Dartnell (W.D.) 2, 8, 9, 11, 15, 30, 49, 50, 94, 95, 102, 155, 181, 185 Johnston, E.B. 43, 50, 325 Johnstone, William 69 Jones, Ben 66 Jones, Tom 299

K
Kaiser Steel Corporation 264

Index
Kalgoorlie 4, 6, 10, 16, 40, 78, 87, 136, 260, 366 Kalgoorlie Mine 78 Kalgoorlie Municipal Council 76 Kalgoorlie Trades Hall 14 Kambalda 264, 272 Karratha 343 Karridale 12 Katanning 291 Keating, Geoff 143, 186 Keating, Paul 323, 352, 364, 365, 366 Keenan, Norbert 132, 168 Kellerberrin 118 Kelmscott 369 Kelty, Bill 350, 352 Kenneally, James Joseph 93, 106, 122, 125, 134, 135, 142, 144 Kennedy, Geoffrey 322 Kennedy, Justice Toni 310 Kennelly, Pat 234, 235 Kennett Government 352, 356 Kenny, J.D. 203 Kenwick 316 Kernot, Cheryl 323 Kierath, Graham 353, 355, 356, 357 Kimberley 4, 117 Kirup Mill 107 Kitson, W.H. 120, 143 Kobelke, John 372 Korean War 208 Krantz, H.D. 184 Kurrawang 37, 88 Kwinana 312, 316, 321

463
Lamond, Alfred 102 Lancefield 89 LandCorp 320, 321 Latham, C.J. 113 Latham, Charles 134 Latham, J.G. 121 Latter, W.S. (Bill) 278, 279, 289, 298, 324, 331, 338, 344 Lawler, Joseph James 108, 147 Lawrence Government 320, 329 Lawrence, Dr Carmen 310, 314, 315, 319, 320, 321, 322, 324, 329, 346, 359, 363, 364, 365, 375 Lazzarini, Bert 155 Leake, George 7 Lee, F.R. 154, 168 Lefroy, Sir Henry 70 legislation 329, 335, 336, 338, 354 1928 Waterside Workers Award 123 Aboriginal Affairs Planning Authority Act 275 Aboriginal Heritage Act 321 Aboriginal Land Bill 311 Acts Amendment (Constitutional and Electoral) Bill (1983) 309 Acts Amendment and Repeal (Statutory Bodies) Act 1985 305 Agricultural Bank Act 39 Anti-Communist legislation 207 Arbitration Act 39, 45, 205, 260 capital punishment 310 Commonwealth Arbitration Act 273 Commonwealth Bank Bill 210 Commonwealth Employees Compensation Act 193067 268 Communist Party Dissolution Act 209211 Compulsory Arbitration Act 9 Conciliation and Arbitration Act 36, 107 Conspiracy Law 5 Constitution Alteration (Essential Services) Act 121 Constitution Alteration (Industry and Commerce) Act 121 Crimes Act 196, 259 Criminal Code Act 39 Defence (Citizen Military Forces) Bill 166 Defence Act 34, 59 Divorce Act 39 Education Act 237 Electoral Act 17, 296, 309 Electoral Districts Act 184, 291, 293

L
Labor Daily 15, 32, 39 Labor Journal 190 Labor Voice 243, 329 Labor Womens Organisation 29, 31, 106, 111, 129, 148, 149, 185, 191, 205, 214, 228, 246, 247, 248, 284, 286 1912 Labor Womens Conference 42, 43, 94, 111, 112 1952 Labor Womens Conference 247 1981 Labor Womens Conference 285 Goldfields Labor Women 92, 95 Labor Womens Central Executive 26 Labour Day 77, 159, 174, 227, 228 Lachberg, Maurie 157, 158, 159, 175, 289 Lambert, George 54, 88, 170

464

Bobbie Oliver
Timber Industry Regulation Act 111 Timber Regulations Act 337 Timber Workers Award 124 Trades Union Regulation Act 7 Transcontinental Railway Bill 40 Transport Workers Act 123 Truck Act 18 Unfair Trading and Profit Control Act 221 United States Naval Communication Station (Civilian Employees) Bill, 1968 268 WA Labor Tripartite Consultative Council [WALTCC] Act, 1983 332 WA Police Act (197679) 343 WADC Act 320 WADC Act Repeal and Amendment Act 320 War Precautions Act 65, 68, 69, 122 Western Australian Development Corporation (WADC) Act, 1983 305 Workers Compensation Act 40, 164, 165, 268, 354 Workers Compensation Amendment Bill 41 Workers Compensation and Assistance Bill 339 Workers Housing Act 40 Workmens Wages Act 7 Lemmon, Nelson 168, 173, 187 Leonora 27, 127 Liberal Party 47, 51, 57, 187, 188, 221, 292, 296, 306, 311, 328, 342, 343, 364 LiberalCountry Party Coalition 184, 212, 220, 276 LiberalNational Coalition 352, 366 LiberalNational Country Party 341 Lippiatt, Don 201, 202, 203, 224, 229, 274, 324 Lloyd, Tony 304, 318, 320, 326 Lobstein, Emmanuel 14 log of claims 271, 278 Long, Eileen 147, 154 Lonnie, William 153, 187, 188 Lowry, Tom 138, 139, 140, 141, 170 Loxley, Steven 327 Lukin, Justice 124 Lynch, Paddy 33, 36, 37, 55, 57, 58, 63 Lyons Government 132, 150 Lyons, Dame Enid 168 Lyons, Joseph 131, 133

Electoral Reform Acts Amendment Bill 309 Employers Liability Act 2 Equal Opportunity Bill 310 Factories Act 5, 11, 30 Factories and Shops Acts 265 Family Law Act 326 Federal Arbitration Act 122 Federal Engineers Award 122 Federal Navigation Act 102 Financial Administration and Audit Act 316 Financial Agreement Enforcement Bill 132 Freedom of Information Act 329 Fuel and Energy Bill 276 Industrial Arbitration Act 13, 38, 262, 272, 332 Industrial Arbitration Act Amendment Bill 258 Industrial Arbitration Bill 40 Iron Ore Production and Processing (Hamersley Iron Pty. Ltd.) Agreement 277 Iron Ore Production and Processing Award 270 Justices Act 95, 248 Land Act 95 Master and Servant Act 2 Militia Bill 166 Mines Legislation Act. 46 Mines Regulation Act 46 Mining Laws 11 Minimum Conditions of Employment Bill 354 Municipal Corpus Act 95 National Security Act 153 National Service Act 241 Native Welfare Act 275 Natives (Citizenship Rights) Bill 175, 176 Noise Abatement (Hearing Conservation in Workplaces) Regulations, 1984 336 Norseman to Esperance Railway Bill 40 Occupational Health, Welfare and Safety Act 335, 336, 338 Occupational Safety and Health Act 357 Payment of Members Act 3, 7 Police Act 278 Prices Control Bill 212, 221 Prices and Incomes Accord 332, 347 Profiteering and Unfair Trading Act 221 Redistribution of Seats Act 17, 28, 38 Referenda Powers Bill 51 Regional Forests Agreement (RFA) 368, 369 Riot Act 73 Secessionist Bill 134 Shops and Factories Act 9, 112, 113 State Childrens Act 95

M
MacArthur, General Douglas 161, 166, 167 MacTiernan, Alannah 367, 369

Index
Mahon, Hugh 10, 38, 55, 56 Malone, A.F. 220 Mandurah 119 Manea, Dr Ernie 312 Manjimup 118 Manning, I.W. 260 Marble Bar 307 Marks Royal Commission 363, 364, 365 Marks, Jack 261, 264, 278 Marks, Juliet 174 Marks, Justice 365 Marlborough, Norm 334 Marshall, William 116, 177 Martin, Carol xii Marwick, T.W. 155 May Day 227, 344, 345, 346 May Day Committee 228, 229 May, H. 205 Maylands 127, 307, 320 Mayman, Stephanie 331, 334, 335, 346, 347, 353, 355 McCallum Smith, J. 132, 145 McCallum, Alexander 14, 27, 46, 53, 58, 59, 61, 68, 73, 75, 83, 98, 103, 104, 151 McCallum, Jessie 9, 30 McCarthy, James 115, 116 McClelland, Doug 239 McClelland, Jim 281 McCracken, Ric 345 McCusker, M.J. 317, 318, 321, 322 McDonald, Peter 114 McEachran, Sir Malcolm 35 McEntyre, Helen 95, 113 McEntyre, Mary 92 McFarlane, Jan 375 McGinty, Jim 298, 319, 320, 322, 338, 365, 366, 367 McGowan, Mark 367 McGurk, Simone 347 McHugh, Jeanette 326 McIntosh, Gordon 295 McIver, Ken 314 McKenna, Clancy 175, 176 McKenzie, Fred 319 McLartyWatts Government 184, 185, 212 McLaughlin, F.A. 171 McLean, Dave 352 McLeod, Don 175, 176 McMillan, Sir Robert 91 McMoran, Freeport 358

465
McMullan, R.F. (Bob) 244, 252, 254, 281, 282, 283, 284, 285, 288, 289, 290, 291, 294, 298, 301, 371 McMullan, J. 201 McPherson, J.A. 8, 370 Meckering 119 Medicare 291 Meecham, Rob 331, 333, 334, 339, 341, 346, 353 Melbourne Argus 210 Melbourne Trades Hall 89 Menagh, Clarrie 201, 202 Mensaros, Andrew 276 Menzies Consolidated 89 Menzies Government 158, 215, 223, 239 Menzies, Sir Robert 127, 150, 151, 155, 156, 157, 160, 187, 207, 208, 210, 211, 213, 220, 238 Merredin 117, 119 MerredinWickepin Railway 45 Michael, Mark 306 Middle Swan 127 Midland Private Railway 21 Migrant Interpreter Service 334 Millars Karri and Jarrah Company 17, 20, 36 Miller, Monty 69 Millington, Harold 39, 92, 93, 95, 127, 162, 180 Mills of the Gods 239 Mines Department 335 Mitchell Government 95, 101, 127, 144 Mitchell, Douglas 282 Mitchell, Frank 267 Mitchell, Sir James 76, 94, 127, 134, 145, 367 Mitsui 351 Modern Womens Club 178 Moiler, Jim 250, 282 Monk, Albert 194, 195, 198, 201, 203, 242 Mooney, Peter 105 Moore 320 Moran, C.J. 11 Morley 331 Morning Herald 18 Mornington 107 Morrison, John 186 Mount Goldsworthy 265, 271 Mount Hawthorn 127 Mount Leonora 33 Mount Margaret 28, 127 Mount Newman 272 Mountjoy, D.A. 168, 173

466
Mt Magnet 294 Mt Pleasant 370 Mullaney, John 102 Multiplex 306 Mundijong 119 municipal elections 32 Munsie, Stan 93, 105 Murphy, Lionel 281 Mutton, Jim 259, 271

Bobbie Oliver
North West 37, 38, 116, 258, 263, 264, 265, 267, 268, 331, 350 North, Justice 360 Northam 94, 117, 119, 136 Northbridge Tunnel 368 North-East Province 39 Northern Rivers 316 Northern Shipping and Stevedoring 358 North-West Cape 268 North-West Shelf 265, 348 Notre Dame Catholic University 363, 366 Nulsen Haven 249 Nulsen, Emil 211, 248 Nungarin 119

N
Narrogin 291 Nathan, Sir Charles 132 National Advisory Committee on Education 238 National Civic Council 231, 234 National Coalition 57, 63, 92 National Conference on the Public Sector, Privatisation and Social Justice 341 National Day of Action 352, 354 National Labor Party 53, 62 National Party 59, 61, 88, 95, 99, 101, 115, 120, 131, 134, 309 National Security Regulations 153, 169 National unions 68, 70, 78, 83 National War Council 156, 157 Native Welfare Department 276 Nedlands 127 Needham, Edward 33, 35, 37, 57, 64, 65, 93, 138, 162, 164 Needham, Maude 117 Negotiating Committee 278, 279 Nelson, Wallace 8, 13 Nevanas and Company 49 New Labour 370, 373 New South Wales Labor Council 84 Nolan, Mark 323 Nomads 176 non-Australian labour 266, 267 non-English speakers 331, 334, 337 non-strike clause 272 Noonan, Tim 334 Noonkanbah dispute 287, 345 Noonkanbah Station 176, 287 Norseman 16, 40, 119 Norseman to Esperance Railway 38 North Broken Hill Peko 349 North Coolgardie 28 North Dandalup 119

O
OBeirne, Thomas 10 OBrien, Bartholomew Cornelius 11, 12 OConnor Government 333, 334 OConnor, Ray 'Rocky' 263, 302, 328, 338 ODea, D. 220 OLoghlen, Peter 111 ONeil, D.H. 273, 296 OShea, Clarrie 273 Oakhill 318 Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) 331, 334, 339 Occupational Health and Safety Committee (TLC) 334, 335, 338 Occupational Health and Safety Commission 332, 335, 336, 337 Occupational Health and Safety education program 337, 338 Occupational Health Division 334 Office of Children 370 Office of Regulatory Review 305 Official Corruption Commission 366 Official Labor Party 53 Oldham, Charles 6 Oliver, Grace 211, 228 Olney, Howard 323 One Big Union 58, 81, 83, 87, 88, 91, 98 1920 One Big Union Congress 86 One Big Union Preamble 86 Ongerup 168 Onslow 116 Overseas Shipping Representatives Association 72

Index
Overseas Telecommunications Commission 307, 340 Owens, Len 186

467
Premiers Conference, 1931 128, 130 Premiers Plan 130, 131 Prichard, Katherine Susannah (Throssell) 90 privatisation 331, 333, 339, 340 Progressive Political League 6 pro-logging lobby 368 Proprietary Mine (Collie) 141 Protector of Aborigines 176 Public Health Department 244 Public Servants 277

P
Page, Earle 121 Palestine 65, 157 Pallas, Tim 356 Pankhurst, Adela 63 Pannawonica 348 Panton, Alex 75, 77, 93, 97, 102, 127, 211 Paraburdoo 278 Parke, Melissa 367 Parker, David 288, 289, 315, 317, 319, 320, 324, 326, 328, 348, 349 Pastoralists and Graziers Association 89 Patrick Stevedores 358, 359, 360 Payne, Gordon 289 Peachey, Brian 214, 220, 221 Pearce, Bob 281, 327, 329, 364 Pearce, George 9, 10, 31, 33, 34, 36, 37, 55, 56, 57, 63, 65, 121, 132, 133, 150 Peckham, Keith 331 Peden, Harold 331 Peel Estate 119 Peko Wallsend 348, 349, 350, 351, 352, 356 People for Nuclear Disarmament 344 Pereira, Joseph 198, 257, 259, 331 Perseverance Mine 80 Perth Chamber of Commerce 71 Perth City Council 49, 356 Perth Dental Hospital 333 Perth Town Hall 222, 239 Perth Trades Hall 14, 86, 164, 241, 243, 244, 247 Perth Zoo 313 Petrochemical Industries Project 316, 317, 321, 328 Petrov Affair 213, 214 Pike, R.A. 142, 143 Pilbara 175, 264, 269, 277, 303, 315 Pilbara Iron Ore industry 335 Pilbara Railway 21 Pindar 90 Pinjarra 37, 119 Political Labor League 5, 31 Political Labor Party of Western Australia 6, 7, 25 Popanyinning 37 Port Hedland 265, 266, 267, 272, 275

Q
Qantas 307, 340 Quilty, P.J. 295 Quinn, Jack 264

R
racism 88, 153, 275, 295 Rank and File Rights Committee 222 Raphael, Howard 164 Rapley, Alice 95 Rason Ministry 20 Rason, C.H. 13 reconciliation 374 Reece, E.E. 217 referenda Fourteen Powers 165, 167 1916 86 1917 57, 61, 64, 86 1946 173 1951 210 Federal powers 122 Reid, Fergie 3, 11 Reid, Ron 331, 333, 336, 337, 339 Reid, Sir George 19, 20 Reith, Peter 356 Renton, William 68, 71, 73, 75 Reside, John 11 Returned Services League 76, 87 South Fremantle RSL 75 Reynolds, Kevin 331, 343, 346, 368 Rhatigan, J.J. 212 Ridge, Alan 295, 296 Riley, Rob 346 Ripper, Eric 322 Robb Jetty Meat Works 354 Robe River 350, 351 Robe River Iron Associates (RRIA) 348

468

Bobbie Oliver
Skidmore, Jack 299 Smith, David 367 Smith, H. Teesdale 20, 36 Smith, Mark 332, 347 Smith, Stephen 307, 316, 318, 323, 328, 364, 366 Smith, Trent 370 Snedden, Billy 210 Socialism 25, 41, 188, 288, 293, 374 Solidarity Park 356, 357 Somerville, William 6, 84, 187 Souter, Harold 198, 201, 203 South East Asia Treaty Organisation 220 South West 99, 112, 129, 135, 136, 367 South West Development Authority 312 Southern Cross 119 Spanish Refugee Relief Committee 149 Special Conference of Unions to Consider Child Endowment 112 Speed, James Montgomery 11 Squance, H.E. 136, 137 State Brickworks 41 State dairy 41 State Electricity Commission 354 State Engineering Works. 170 State Government Insurance Commission 315, 354 State Housing Commission 276 State Implement Works 41, 49 State Mills 50 State Public Works Department 160 State Shipping Service 37, 41, 42 State Steamship Service 72 Stateships Stevedoring 358 Steere, Sir Ernest Lee 16, 306 Stirling 364, 375 Storer, J.W. 272 Stout, J.V. 218 Strelley mob 176 Strickland, George 194, 195 Strickland, Harry 212, 235 strikes Aboriginal pastoral workers strike, 1946 175, 176, 177 Albany Lumpers strike 35 Australian Council of Trade Unions policy 273 Australian Standard Garratt strike (1946) 177, 181 Austrlian Workers Union (1967) 267

Roberts, John 306 Robertson, Diane 347 Robinson, R.T. 51, 102 Roche, Hugh 221 Rockingham 367 Rodoreda, Aloysius Joseph 116, 211 Roebourne 47, 90, 115, 116 Rothwells Bank 315, 317, 318, 319, 321, 326, 328 Rottnest Island 48 Rowberry, J. 205 Royal Commission on Miners Lung Disease, 1911 46 Royal Commission on National Workers 80, 81 (see also Marks Royal Commission and WA Inc) Ryce, Gavin 203 Ryce, George 83, 90, 98, 104

S
Salmon Gums 119 Sassine, Saliba (Sam) 257 Sawtell, Mick 69 Sawyer, W.R. 183, 201, 203 Sayers, Anthony 324 'scab' labour 58, 72, 80, 81, 83, 102, 136, 266, 287 Scaddan, John (Jack) 15, 33, 47, 49, 50, 61, 88, 97, 187, 368 Scaddan Government 37, 39, 42, 46, 69, 101 Scaddan, Tom 187 Schaper, Michael 370 Scottish Colliery 38 Scullin Government 130, 131 Scullin, James 124, 151 Seaman Aboriginal Land Inquiry 311 Secessionist League 132, 139 Section 54B (Police Act) 280, 281 Selby, R. 189 Select Committee to inquire into the practice of sweating in Western Australian industries 30 Serpentine 119 Sewell, Bill 181, 246, 281 sex discrimination 287 Shannon River Basin National Park 368 Shave, Doug 357 Shelley, Cecilia 83, 95, 96, 97, 104, 105, 106, 108 Simmonds, Caroline 306

Index
Building Workers Industrial Union (1974) 276 Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Workers Union (1988) 349 Esplanade Hotel workers strike 96 firewood cutters strike 76 Fremantle Lumpers strike 68, 70 general strike (1917) 68 general strike (1974) 277 Goldsworthy (1969) 272 Hamersley Iron (1969) 272 Hamersley strike (1979) 277 Lumpers strike 71 Kambalda (1969) 272 Medibank (1976) 277 Merchant Service Guild strike 267 Muja Power Station (1969) 272 OBU members strike 87 political strikes 276 Robe River (1986) 348, 352 shearers strike 89 Stateships (1995) 358 timber workers lock-out 29, 35 timber workers strike 124 TLC general strike 259 waterside workers strike 123 Woodside (1986) 348 Styants, Harry 153 Styants, Herbert 147 Subiaco 314 suffrage Aboriginal 175 adult 1, 37 illiteracy 295, 296 manhood 5 Superdome 313 Swan 366, 375 Swan Brewery 321 Swan Brewery dispute 366 Swan Hills 316 Swan Valley Fringe Dwellers 321, 345 Swanton, Mamie 30, 31

469
Taylor, Sam 142 Teachers Credit Society 326 Technology Park 312 Teesdale, Frederick 88, 115, 116 Telecom 307, 340 Temby, Ian 302 Tenterden 54 Theodore, E.G. 131 Thomas, Bill 288, 314, 332 Thompson, Ian 296 Thornlie 316 Thornton, E. 194 Tom Edwards Stand, 360 Tom Price 278 Toms, Merv 250 Tonkin Government 250, 252, 273, 290, 368 Tonkin, Arthur 281, 289, 291, 298, 308, 309, 310, 329 Tonkin, John 138, 162, 163, 211, 235, 238, 250, 251, 282, 283, 291, 299, 306 Tourism Commission 321 Trades and Labor Council xi, 193, 204, 245, 257, 265, 266, 267, 269, 270, 271, 273, 275, 276, 279, 303, 306, 308, 331, 367 Aboriginal Affairs Policy Committee 289 Campaign against the Premiers Economic Statement 347 Campaign Working Group 355 childcare 346 Employment Centre 345 Executive 204 Goldfields TLC 29 Kalgoorlie and Boulder District TLC 2 Metropolitan TLC 2 Occupational Health and Safety Campaign 334, 335, 338 Perth TLC 19 Workers Rights Charter 350, 351 Trades Hall Associations 244 Trainer, Percy 110, 135, 139, 141, 148, 152, 158, 159 Treloar, J. 183, 184 Troy, Dr John 288, 289 Troy, Gavan 322, 332 Troy, Michael 43, 129, 148 Troy, Paddy 193, 198, 201, 229, 257, 258, 260, 261, 269, 331 Try, J. 258

T
Tangney, Dorothy 148, 168, 173, 176, 214, 248 Tankard, Joe 94, 136 Taylor, Don 273, 281, 282, 288 Taylor, George Mulga 11, 13, 28, 37, 61 Taylor, Ian 314, 319, 365, 366

470

Bobbie Oliver
Builders Labourers, Painters and Plasterers Union 356 Building Workers Industrial Union 184, 271, 274, 331, 344 Bunbury Lumpers 90 Carpenters and Joiners 70, 157159, 174, 175, 178, 184, 194, 195, 264 Clerks Union 62 Coachbuilders Union 110 Coastal Docks, Rivers and Harbour Workers Union 175, 193, 199 Coastal Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union 96 Collie Miners Union 38, 90, 115, 130, 136, 138, 139, 140, 141, 174, 178, 193, 203, 260 Commonwealth Public Servants Union 347 Eastern Goldfields Tailoresses Society 30 Electrical Trades Union 331, 338 Employers Federation 91, 102, 181, 260, 262, 266, 267 Federal Shipwrights and Ship Constructors Association 269 Federated Clerks Union 174, 182, 183, 201, 277 Federated Engine Drivers and Firemens Union 270, 273, 274, 331 Federated Engine Drivers Association 84 Federated Ironworkers Association 182, 210 Federated Miners Union 46, 77 Federated Municipal and Shire Council Employees Union of Australia 340 Federated Seamens Union 102, 103, 104 Federation of Waterside Labour 69 Fremantle Lumpers Union 6, 102, 360 General Workers Union 14 Glass Workers Union 170 Hotel and Restaurant Workers Union 108 Hotel, Club and Caterers Workers Union 194 Hotel, Club, Caterers, Tearooms and Restaurant Employees Union 96, 98, 104 Industrial Workers of the World 57, 58, 60, 69, 83, 91 International Transport Workers Federation 359 Laundry Employees 190 Leather Workers 190 Locomotive Engine Drivers' and Firemen's Union 6, 278

U
Underwood, Rufus 102 unemployment 46, 99, 101, 119, 127, 134, 303 unions and professional associations Albany Lumpers Union 93, 142, 143 Amalgamated Certificated Engine Drivers Association 2 Amalgamated Engineers Union 12, 45, 170, 197, 157, 174, 182, 264, 270 Amalgamated Metal Workers Union 270, 347 Amalgamated Miners Association 10 Amalgamated Printing Trades Employees Union of Australia 269 Amalgamated Railway Employees Union 19 Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners 6 Amalgamated Workers Association 1 Association of Employers of Waterside Labour 72 Australasian Steamship Owners Federation 68 Australasian Workers Union 91 Australian Journalists Association 334 Australian Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union 347 Australian Mines and Metals Association 271 Australian Railways Union 182 Australian Society of Engineers 45, 170 Australian Timber Workers Union 106 Australian Tramway and Motor Omnibus Employers Association 273 Australian Workers Union 14, 86, 109, 137, 143, 173, 174, 176, 202, 271, 282, 334, 341, 345, 368 1921 AWU Annual Convention 91 Barmaids and Barmens Union 54 Boilermakers Society 190, 262, 264, 269 Boilermakers and Blacksmiths Union 270, 272, 273 Boilermakers Union 197, 206 Boot Trades Union 179 Bootmakers Union 176, 178, 194, 195 Breweries & Bottleyards Employees 274 Brick and Pottery Workers 190 Bricklayers and Plasterers 6 Builders Labourers Federation 287, 288, 334, 343

Index
Locomotive Engine Drivers, Firemen's and Cleaners Union 174, 177, 178, 186, 193 Lumpers 35, 68, 70, 71, 120 (see also Fremantle Lumpers and Albany Lumpers) Maritime Workers Union of Western Australia 269 Maritime Workers Union 358 Master Caterers Association 96 Meat Industry Employees Union 262 Mental Nurses 108 Miners Federation 182 Miners Union of WA 16 Miscellaneous Workers Union 269 National Waterside Workers Union 68, 69, 72, 76, 81 Painters and Decorators Union 200, 275 Plasterers Union 159 Police Union 198, 257 Postal Workers Union 182 Printing and Kindred Industries Union 262, 263, 269 Printing Industrial Employees Union of Australia 269 Railway Officers Union 55 Relief and Sustenance Workers Union 136, 137 Restaurant Employers 96 Road Board Workers Union 170 Salaried Officers 372 Seamens Union 182, 194, 196, 199 Sheet Metal Workers Union 223 Ship Painters and Dockers 199 Shipwrights 269 Shop Assistants and Warehouse Employees 103, 110, 174 Shop Assistants Union 202, 260, 277 Society of Industrial Lawyers 355 State School Teachers Union 333 Steamship Owners Federation 124 Tailoresses Union 9, 29, 30 Timber Workers Association 15, 202 Timber Workers Union 215 Tobacco Twisters 6 Tobacco Workers 190 Tramways Union 178, 179, 186 Transport Workers Union 269, 334, 369 Typographical Society 6 United Labourers 6 United Licensed Victuallers Association 96, 98

471
Victorian Labour Union 84 WA Amalgamated Society of Railway Employees 142, 143, 174, 202 WA Chemical and Allied Trades Industrial Union of Workers 274 WA Timber Industry Industrial Union of Workers 337 Waterside Workers Federation 68, 103, 142, 178, 182, 190, 193, 194, 196, 200, 203, 210, 211, 222, 270, 289 Westralian Goldfields Federated Miners Union 14 Workers Industrial Union of Australia 84, 86 Unions WA xii, 347 United Australia Party 127, 131, 157, 160, 187 United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women 346 United Palestinian Workers 288 United States Navy 267 Unity Tickets 222, 223 Utah Mining 277 Utah-Jild 267

V
Vallentine, Jo 344 Vanguard 38 Vaughan, Grace 284, 286 Victoria Park 127, 314 Vietnam Action Committee 239 Vietnam War xii, 231, 237, 239, 315, 353 voting Aboriginal 295, 296 compulsory 151 pairs 27, 155 plural 1 proxy 1

W
WA Anti-Conscription League 54 WA Government Holdings 306, 316, 321 WA Government Railway Workshops 44, 160, 259, 353, 354 WA Greens 316, 367 WA Inc 305, 318, 319, 321, 322, 326, 363, 364, 365 WA Industrial Commission 258, 262

472

Bobbie Oliver
Westralian Worker 8, 9, 12, 13, 30, 32, 36, 38, 39, 41, 43, 46, 55, 56, 58, 61, 62, 64, 65, 74, 89, 102, 104, 107, 128, 129, 130, 137, 143, 149, 150, 158, 184, 190, 211, 288 Wheeldon, John 239, 281 Whitcombe, F. 11 White, J.G. 158, 200, 203, 257 Whitford 364 Whitlam Government 241, 281, 301 Whitlam, E.G. (Gough) 226, 237, 238, 240, 253, 254 Whitlam, W. 281, 294, 374 Wickham 350 Wild, G.P. 258, 259 Wilkie, Kim 375 Willagee 367, 369 Willcock Government 151, 153, 160, 164 Willcock, John Collings 88, 135, 146, 148, 164, 165, 166, 181 Willesee, Don 214, 215, 281 Willesee, W.F. 275 Williams, C.B. (Charlie) 54, 146, 147, 241 Williams, Joan 241 Williams, T. 220 WilliamsNarrogin 39 Willmot, W.H.F. 180 Wilson Government 28, 37, 51, 62 Wilson, A.A. 135 Wilson, A.J. 9, 14, 15, 17, 18, 27, 61 Wilson, Frank 51 Wilson, Keith 364, 365 Wilson, May 95 Wilson, Sir Ronald 322 Winrow, F. 107 Wise Government 176, 177, 179 Wise, Frank 162, 173, 178, 211, 235, 306 Wittenoom 335 Wokalup 119 women in the labour movement 25, 29, 55, 84, 85, 94, 104, 112, 118, 147, 148, 149, 185, 211, 246, 248, 253, 284, 303, 311, 314, 323, 326, 329, 346, 367, 372, 373 Women Justices Association of Western Australia 95 Womens Affairs Committee 346 womens auxiliary services 154 Womens Labor League 31, 84 Womens Labor Union 85 Womens Suffrage Centenary 346 Woodside Offshore Petroleum 348

WA Industrial Relations Commission 345 WA Institute of Technology 312 WA Liberal League 23 WA Organisation of Labor Women 92, 105, 106, 247 WA Trades Union Industrial Council 194 Wagerup 119 wages 29, 31, 35, 36, 44, 68, 77, 84, 89, 90, 98, 102, 113, 124, 129, 130, 140, 141, 157, 169, 175, 197, 262, 264, 277, 278, 279, 302, 333, 347, 352, 371 1974 National Wage Case 262 Wagin 291 Wagner, Frank 271 Walker, Thomas 41, 45, 50, 61, 69, 146, 147 Walkington, Toni 347 Wallwork, W.J. 178, 221 Walpole 291 Walsh, E.W. 54 Walsh, Peter 342, 364 Walsh, Tom 103, 104 Wanneroo 364 Wansborough, Arthur 102 Ward, Eddie 166 Warnock, Diana 364 Water Corporation 310 Watkins, Jackie 149, 303, 364 Watson Government 16 Watson, Dr Judyth 314, 322, 332, 335, 338 Watson, H.K. 132 Watt, William 71 Watts, A.J. 17, 86, 91, 105 Webb, Harry 187, 188, 210, 214, 215, 216, 219 Webb, Martyn 317 Welshpool 314 West Australian 19, 20, 49, 65, 66, 73, 87, 128, 137, 168, 186, 201, 203, 221, 224, 225, 233, 235, 239, 277, 288, 289, 327, 358, 365 Western Australian Council of Trades Unions 193 Western Australian Development Corporation 305, 306, 316, 317, 320, 321 Western Australian Epilepsy Association 249 Western Colleries Limited 318 Western Mining Corporation (WMC) 263, 264 Western Women Group 363 Westland Broadcasting Company 247

Index
Wooroloo 328 Workers Hall, Boulder 8 Workers Compensation 331 Workers Compensation and Rehabilitation Commission 332 Workers Compensation Campaign 338 Workers Compensation Committee 334 Workers Embassy 356, 359 working conditions 263, 264, 265, 266, 275, 336, 349, 360 working week 42, 124, 179, 182, 264, 271 Workplace Agreements 270, 271 Worksafe WA 358 World Economic Forum 318 World War I xii, 14, 46, 47, 64, 69, 70, 83, 98, 124, 165, 186 World War II 151, 153, 159, 160, 161, 169, 170, 213, 227, 329 Worthy, Frank 93 Wran, Neville 294 Wyard, William 38 Wyndham 42, 49

473

Y
Yandeearra 176 Yarloop 15, 107, 118, 119 Yilgarn 27, 127 York 37, 117 Young Labor League 157 Young Labor Organisation 253 Young, Kim 356 Young, Raymond 288 Young, W.K. 205 Yungngora Community 287