A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away there were purposeful, progressive and committed Labor Governments.
The recent biography of Race Mathews, A Life in Politics, by his wife Iola Mathews, describes a career long commitment to trying to ensure Labor would recapture that moment.
Race Mathews was a municipal councillor, educator, community activist, John Menadue’s successor in 1967 as Gough Whitlam’s Principal Private Secretary, backbench Federal MP, Victorian Opposition Leader’s Chief of Staff, holder of a number of Victorian Cabinet posts and an indefatigable campaigner for reform of Labour’s faction-ridden structure.
The above Star Wars sci-fi reference in Race’s case is particularly apt given that he has dozens of index references in the first volume of Leigh Edmonds’ book, Proud and Lonely, a history of science fiction fandom in Australia.
The A Life in Politics biography is in two parts. The first comprises an edited version of four chapters of memoir on Race’s family and childhood written when he was 81. The rest is written by his wife Iola Mathews.
He grew up in Hampton and went to Croydon after he married – a Melbourne suburb with the unmade roads and lack of sewerage which were typical of the day and which the Whitlam Government transformed when it came into power. He attended Melbourne Grammar School where he was a member of the school’s Parliamentary Society in which students were propagandised about the need for compulsory military training, White Australia, opposition to nationalisation and increasing the numbers of security police to check on places of........