Joy Ardill recalls her experiences from the 1979 ALP Conference held in Rockhampton and the concerted push for intervention in the ALP following the conference. She recalls the difficulty of convincing interstate unions to support this move.
Joy Ardill outlines her role in the formation of Socialist Left (SL) from the mid-1970s along with Anne Warner, Sue Yarrow, Hamish Linacre, Billie Watts, Cath Rafferty and Kath Turner who formed the Left Steering Committee before the 1979 Rockhampton ALP Conference. She states that getting left unions into the SL was important but difficult.
Joy Ardill discusses the lack of state ALP participation in the civil liberties demonstrations from the QCE despite other ALP members of parliament coming from all over Australia to participate in those marches.
Joy Ardill states that in 1974 the State Parliamentary Labor Party (SPLP) were reduced to a 'cricket team'. She recalls that some ALP members were elected to the QCE as branch member delegates - part of an early push for reform - but were shown total disrespect by ALP Party Officers.
Joy Ardill discusses the influence that senior ALP officeholders who were members of local branches had over the formation or rejection of a proposed new ALP branch on the Gold Coast. She describes how the new branch was finally formed, and its role in local ALP political life.
