December winners; January question
By Ross McMullin*
Posted 10 January 2010
Ross McMullin has provided another question to test and extend your knowledge of ALP history. The answer will be revealed next month.
I was born in 1891, the year the Labor Party was born. This was appropriate, as I was to become a prominent identity in it.
I worked as a boilermaker, became well-known as a footballer and boxer, and immersed myself in the labour movement. In 1915, I was state secretary of the boilermakers' union.
By then the First World War, with its immense tensions for the labour movement, was in full swing. The conscription split was devastating. A feature of it was my electoral battle with an ex-ALP defector, an old friend who had been the first Labor premier of New South Wales. My victory in this 1917 contest for the state seat of Redfern started my long parliamentary career.
I was a minister in governments led by Jack Lang, succeeded him as ALP leader in NSW, and led the party back to government in 1941. The contrast between the barren pre-1941 period and our achievements in office was stark.
In 1947, I resigned as premier and accepted another appointment. A revered Labor identity had offered it to me. Still, it was an unusual position for someone of my background, and an appointment that was not without controversy. I served in this new post for six years.
I died in 1985 after a long and fulfilling life.
QUESTIONS:
- Who was I?
- What was the controversial 1947 appointment?
- Which revered Labor identity offered it to me?
- When I won Redfern in 1917 who was my opponent (previously the first Labor premier of NSW)?
ANSWERS: Email your answers to
the editor; click HERE (please include your name, suburb
& state/territory)
PREVIOUS QUIZ: The answers to the previous Quiz are:
- Arthur Calwell
- Peter Kocan
- Neville Wran
- Les Haylen
Correct answers to all parts were received from:
John Brain, Evatt ACT
Lorie Werner, Box Hill South VIC
Philip Lee, Kambah, ACT
Andrew Anson, Golden Grove SA
Huw Phillips, Helensburgh NSW
John Butteriss, Rockhampton Qld
Morris Allen, Eden Hills SA
Ken Maher, Dickson ACT
Chris Roberts, Ararat VIC
Owen Nair-Marshall, Lima PERU
Robert Bozinovski, Keilor Downs VIC
Greg Welsh, Geelong VIC
Brian McInnes, Leura NSW
Shane Bonetti, Forest Hill VIC
David White, Ferntree Gully VIC
Joel Scrivener, Greenwich NSW
K.A. Hart, HQ 17 CSS BDE
Gary March, Mount Martha VIC
Meryl Dillon, Moree NSW
Damien Stapleton
* Ross McMullin is the author of the ALP centenary history The Light on the Hill: The Australian Labor Party 1891-1991. He has also written about ALP history in his book So Monstrous a Travesty: Chris Watson and the World's First National Labour Government. His publications also include the award-winning military biography PompeyElliott, and his most recent book is another biography, Will Dyson: Australia's Radical Genius.
__________________________________________________________________________________November winners; December question
By Ross McMullin*
Posted 8 December 2009
Ross McMullin has provided another question to test and extend your knowledge of ALP history. The answer will be revealed next month.
In June 1966, amid fervent debate about the conscription of Australians to serve in Vietnam, a disturbed loner tried to assassinate the federal leader of the ALP. The injuries he inflicted were thankfully minor.
Quickly on the scene was a university student named Wayne, whose father had been the Labor member for Parkes for 20 years. Wayne, who had been actively opposing the conscription process with the aid of a prominent barrister, chased the gunman and with assistance apprehended him.
There was a quirky sequel 17 years later, when the gunman, having blossomed into a talented writer during his decade in a psychiatric hospital, won a literary prize for a novel based on his experiences, and he was presented with this award by the Labor Premier of NSW, who had been Wayne's barrister back in 1966.
QUESTIONS: