The Boy from Baradine by Craig Emerson

Author:Craig Emerson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: BIO010000, BIO026000, BUS069000
Publisher: Scribe Publications
Published: 2018-02-26T05:00:00+00:00

IF THE ADELAIDE BY-ELECTION DEBACLE was a setback for Labor, even worse was to come. Immigration minister Mick Young also held the position of president of the ALP. One of many environmental battlegrounds for the government was the south-east forests of New South Wales, where the conservation movement opposed forestry operations by Japanese company Harris-Daishowa, which supplied woodchips for export to Japan. Nothing to do with Mick, you might think. As it happened, the New South Wales Labor Party secretary had received a cheque for $10,000 as a donation from Harris-Daishowa, but the donation had not been disclosed publicly, as required by law. The secretary erroneously told the media that Mick had given him the cheque with no accompanying letter. Later, when he found the letter, the secretary conceded that his recollection had been wrong and that Mick was not involved.

But the damage had been done. Mick could not immediately explain what had transpired at the New South Wales party office, since he did not know and could not reasonably have been expected to know. He walked around to the prime minister’s office to tell us that the press gallery was demanding he hold a media conference to explain his actions. We implored him not to do so that day, since he would not be able to answer the media’s questions about what had gone on. We suggested instead that he spend some time working out what had happened with the cheque, and then appear in front of the media to explain.

But Mick insisted on holding the press conference that day. He did so, but was unable to explain the sequence of events that had led to the donation’s non-disclosure. The baying media immediately called for his resignation. An investigation by the Australian Federal Police soon cleared Mick of any wrongdoing, but he decided he’d had enough, and resigned.

Although the public perception was that the key reason for Mick’s decision was that he had been stood down from the ministry twice before, in truth he did not want to put his wife, Mary, and their children, Michael and Janine, through more trauma. And he told his family he did not want to be a distraction for the Labor government, believing that no one person was bigger than the Labor cause.

Bob had spent a night at the Lodge with Mick, trying to talk him out of resigning, but to no avail. Mick had talked it over with his family on the weekend and had already made his decision. He announced his resignation just days after the Adelaide by-election. Mick had held the seat of Port Adelaide by the whopping margin of 16.3 per cent. While Labor subsequently retained the seat, we suffered a huge swing of 11.1 per cent against us.

Following these two bad by-election results, Bob’s media critics wrote him off. He was fed up with the constant criticism. He had received an informal approach about his possible interest in being appointed director-general of the International Labour Organisation. At Melbourne’s

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