Labor Party activist Joy Ardill was the first woman elected as Vice-President of the Queensland Branch of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) in 1981. In this interview she discusses her time as a Socialist Left (SL) activist in the ALP through the 1970s and 1980s in the lead up to intervention in the party by the National Executive.
Ian Brusasco joined the Australian Labor Party (ALP) in about 1960, representing it as an Alderman on the Brisbane City Council for 14 years. He subsequently guided the ALP Inner Executive in turning around the fortunes of their radio station 4KQ, and management of the ALP's finances. In this interview he speaks about those years and about his continued influence after the 1980 intervention by the National Executive into the affairs on the Queensland Branch of the ALP.
Unionist Bob Gleeson is from Longreach, where he was a shearing contractor, grazier and staunch Australian Workers Union member. In 1962 he joined the Australian Labor Party (ALP) holding many positions within the party, standing twice for the seat of Kennedy and on the ALP's Queensland Senate ticket on two occasions. He was active through the years of reform and intervention in the party and shares his memories of those turbulent years.
George Britten was a Plumbers Union delegate across various workplaces in Mount Isa, Townsville and Brisbane from 1950 until the mid-1980s. He was a member of the Communist Party of Australia. He reflects on the changing nature of unionism in Queensland and his involvement in industrial campaigns including the Springboks tour of 1971, the Plumbers Union campaign for the 38 hour week in 1982 and the strike calling for the Federal Award to apply in Queensland from 1976-79.
Robert (Uncle Bob) Anderson was the first Indigenous Australian to work as the State Organiser for the Building Workers Industrial Union (later amalgamated with other unions into the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union) from 1963 to 1978. He took an active part in many industrial disputes including the Mount Isa Copper Mine Lock-Out 1964-65, mines in Papua New Guinea in the late 1960s, and the controversial South African Springboks rugby tour in 1971.
Trade Unionist Jack Hutton, as a delegate for the Boilermakers and Blacksmiths Union (later the Amalgamated Metal Workers Union) from 1951-91, was the longest serving Trades and Labour Council member in Australia. He reflects on his many years of union involvement, from the railways in Townsville to the Burdekin Bridge, and recalls the events and personalities which shaped his career.
Public servant Leo Hielscher reflect on his long career in the Treasury Department and in the Queensland Treasury Corporation, serving fifteen different treasurers.
