George Campbell (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Labor Party. What, are you suggesting that I might have joined some other parties! Stephen, wash your mouth out! That was a period of continuous activism for me of some 42 or 43 years and I hope that that activism is not coming to a conclusion. In fact, this is the first year since 1966 that I have not been a delegate to a Labor Party conference, other than when I have not been in the country. It is the first time that I have not represented the union at a Labor Party conference either in Victoria of Sydney for some 43 years. It may be the end of my political contribution in that sense, but hopefully it will not be.

I have been fortunate, I think, because I lived through what was a very exciting period in the labour movement during the late sixties and the seventies and eighties. There were many other exciting things that happened in Melbourne, and I am particularly talking about union activities, that I did not necessarily want to live through but which I did, as some of my colleagues would know from the stories I have told them of those times. I was involved in issues such as the anti-conscription campaign in Victoria, which was also a national campaign, during the Vietnam War. I do not know if I am exposing myself or not, but I did harbour a couple of activists—that is, people who were avoiding the draft—during that period. I spoke to a bloke out at the Department of Labour and National Service, as it was back in those days, when, I think, Billy Snedden was the minister. I spoke to this bloke back in the seventies when I became secretary of the union. He said, ‘You know, we knew you were harbouring those people.’ I said, ‘What people?’ He said, ‘Those blokes that were avoiding the draft. We didn’t want to arrest you. We didn’t want to arrest them. You were more trouble than you were worth. As long as we knew where you were, then we were confident we had the situation under control.’ All the hopes I had of being a martyr, all for the cause, all went down the drain!