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Mr Big, the Big Fella and the Split: Fault Lines in Bankstown's Labor Politics, 1955

Andrew Moore*


Rodney Cavalier has shown how useful micro local studies can be in shedding light on broader events such as the Labor Split of 1954–55. This returns to one of his case studies in south-west Sydney. The redoubtable figure of Raymond Fitzpatrick, newspaper proprietor and contractor of Bankstown is introduced to Australian labour historiography. Known as the 'Mr Big of Bankstown' Fitzpatrick serves as an uncomfortable reminder that the labour tradition in Australia includes racketeers and gangsters. The article also examines the enduring legacy of the 1931 Split in the Australian Labor Party in New South Wales. Twenty-four years later the considerable shadow of former premier J.T. Lang must also be taken into account in negotiating the terrain of Labor politics in Sydney. So must the role of local movers and shakers like Ray Fitzpatrick. Local tensions impacting upon Charles Morgan, MHR for Reid, the federal seat surrounding Bankstown, shaped one of Australia's constitutional landmarks, the Fitzpatrick and Browne privilege case of 1955. This article relates how the scheming politician responded to threats to his position posed by Fitzpatrick, Lang and the Split.


In the wake of a disastrous fire on Easter Monday 1955 which destroyed the premises and plant of a crusading local newspaper, the Bankstown Torch, the suburb of Bankstown, located in south-western Sydney and then the fastest growing area in Australia, occupied centre stage in the national media's attention. The newspapers dug deep for hyperbole. The suburb had become 'another Chicago' or 'Little Chicago'. The Melbourne based Herald and Weekly Times sent a special reporter, E.W. Tipping, to the blighted Sydney suburb to cover the fire and its legal aftermath. He reported as though he was in a distant war zone – present-day Bagdad – rather than Bankstown. In this 'prosperous, sprawling fast-growing suburb 13 miles south-west of Sydney', Tipping wrote, 'We've heard some hair-raising stories. They're stories which are difficult to write – because of the laws of libel'. According to Tipping, the locals were scared. Sir Keith Murdoch's man in Bankstown conceded: 'You can't blame them. Men have been nearly broken in Bankstown because they've talked'.1 As was its wont, Ezra Norton's The Truth led the way in dramatic overstatement. Its 'Special Investigator' visited 'little Chicago by George's River'. Observing 'confidential little groups at street corners and hotel bars', the reporter concluded that it paid to 'mind your own business in Bankstown because someday someone is bound to get on to the cement-boat idea', especially with 'the George's River so handy'.2 1
      The district's representative in Commonwealth Parliament, Charles Morgan, fanned the agitation. Known locally as 'Hoppy', because he walked with a limp as a result of a rare bone disease, Morgan dramatically announced that he believed a price of £3,000 had been offered 'to get him out of the way'. Therefore he was taking steps to secure his personal safety and had increased the insurance on his home in the suburb of Granville, near Parramatta on the northern border of Reid. Morgan claimed Bankstown and district had been subjected to a reign of 'terrorism and gangsterism'. According to the Labor Member of Parliament (MP), the situation warranted the establishment of an FBI-style organisation, or, at the very least, a joint state and Commonwealth Royal Commission to investigate Bankstown's 'reign of terror'.3 2
      Inhibited, at least initially, by legal constraints, Morgan referred to the perpetrator of the local mayhem anonymously as the 'big man' or 'Mr Big'. It was quickly alleged that the gangster enjoyed broader political connections. The Daily Telegraph claimed that Bankstown's 'Big Boy ... influenced most Labor Party affairs in the area'. One Murt O'Brien, president of the Bankstown Municipal Assembly of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), claimed that the district's 'Big Boy' had approached him in regard to an ALP ballot to decide the order of candidates for the municipal elections. Following a formal ballot O'Brien was placed at No. 1. The 'Big Boy' had other ideas. The 'Big Boy's brother and another man' had evidently called at O'Brien's house proposing that he accept No. 2 position on the ticket. If he did so 'a group of business people were [sic] willing to subscribe to ... campaign funds'. When rebuffed the 'Big Boy's' emissaries reputedly called at the homes of other ALP activists in Yagoona and Bankstown, allegedly offering a sum of £100 if the ballot ticket could be changed.4 Given that these approaches concerned an election for the West Ward of the Bankstown Municipal Council, the amount of lobbying for other more glittering prizes in the state and Commonwealth parliamentary arena may well be imagined. Morgan's stand was all the more surprising because in Bankstown it was seemingly commonplace for ALP politicians in all spheres of government to defer and pay tribute to this local warlord, to 'stay on side'.5 3
      In NSW Labor politics, the nomenclature of 'Mr Big' might well have applied to the former premier, J.T. Lang, more normally styled the 'Big Fella'. Dismissed from office in the infamous gubernatorial coup of 13 May 1932, Lang spent much of the 1930s struggling for power. A great hater, he was disinclined to smooth over the waters of the bitter ALP Split of 1931 he had provoked arising from divergent responses to the plans for economic recovery proposed during the Depression. This Split, of course, had brought down the Labor government of James Scullin. It had also created the situation whereby across New South Wales there were separate branches of the ALP representing the state and Commonwealth ALP, each claiming to be the authentic voice of social democracy. 4
      Throughout the 1930s Lang continued to despise and challenge his federal colleagues, especially J.B. Chifley who, in 1934, had the temerity to challenge him in the state seat of Auburn. In the 1934 Commonwealth elections Lang Labor won nine seats, trouncing their federal opponents (known as the NSW branch of the ALP) who won only one seat. Though Lang's political fortunes declined throughout the 1930s, in 1936 the state's federal party was abolished. Lang's group became the official branch of the ALP. In reality the Split, however, endured until 1939 when the ALP's Federal Executive called a unity conference to resolve the divisions in New South Wales. Even then, though many Langites rejoined the main party and the conference succeeded in putting in place the measures that would allow W.J. McKell to form a Labor government in New South Wales in May 1941, the cracks remained.6 5
      Finally expelled from the ALP in 1943, Lang responded by starting his own Lang Labor Party the following year. Such was his personal following that between 1946 and 1949 the 'Big Fella' was able to fulfil his long-held ambition to join Commonwealth Parliament as the member for Reid, the federal electorate embracing Bankstown. Lang's period in Canberra, however, was largely spent as a Cold War warrior denouncing the Chifley government.7 As Duncan Waterson suggests of Lang's stint in Canberra, 'Between 1946 and 1949 the lonely black figure of the "Big Fella", exercising "his excessive indulgence in malevolence" in Federal parliament, was one of Menzies' best weapons against Chifley'.8 According to David Day, Lang's attacks on Chifley, especially when amplified by the delighted Murdoch press, were the final nail in the coffin of Chifley's chances of winning the 1949 elections.9 Fittingly, they did Lang no good either. A redistribution of federal electorates meant that the 'Big Fella' contested Blaxland, adjoining the seat of Reid. He lost, receiving his lowest support in a virtually continuous 36-year career in state and Commonwealth parliaments. 6
      Despite this rebuff and the clear suggestion that Lang's star was waning, in 1955 the 'Big Fella' still commanded significant support in the strongly working-class south west of Sydney. His son Chris kept the flame alive as Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Auburn between 1946 and 1950.10 In 1955 Lang Labor was sufficiently organised to run candidates in the City of Sydney council elections. In the 1956 state elections Lang Labor promulgated a manifesto which attacked the 'Official Labor Party', calling for, among other things, the abolition of the Upper House of Parliament and the outlawing of imperial honours. Lang Labor also advocated a plan to limit housing loans to a maximum of three per cent interest. Even though the party's results in the 1956 poll were derisory,11 signalling that Lang Labor's day as a mainstream political force had passed, the Lang legend as the 'People's Champion' remained strong in Bankstown, especially at the ALP branch level, throughout the 1950s and 1960s. As late as the 1970s the legend of the Big Fella as the blue-collar iconoclast and friend of the workers who had stood up to the British bondholders in 1931 remained alive in well in Bankstown's ALP circles. It was in this context that a young Paul Keating, born and bred in Bankstown and later Australia's prime minister between 1991 and 1996, was mentored by the aging demagogue.12 7
      As the Split engineered by B.A. Santamaria and his followers unfolded in 1954–55 and the related Industrial Groups also asserted their muscle, it is not widely recognised how imperfectly NSW Labor had recovered from the ructions engineered by Lang 24 years earlier. Peter Love is right. Collective memory of the last great Split in the ALP in New South Wales – that precipitated by Premier J.T. Lang in 1931 – was a factor preserving unity in New South Wales.13 8
      The allegations about a 'Big Boy' who had exercised a strong, perhaps malign influence in Bankstown ALP politics and torched the Torch, did not, however, relate to Jack Lang. Instead they referred to another large hulking man, local businessman Ray Fitzpatrick. Six feet tall and powerfully built, the so-called 'Mr Big of Bankstown' was a contractor, a sand and gravel merchant, as well as a newspaper proprietor and a self-made millionaire. After World War II, his bulldozers flattened most of the trees in south-western Sydney to allow suburban housing and roads to expand through suburbs like Revesby and Panania, while his ruthless excavation for sand and soil eroded the banks of the nearby Georges River. Although he once claimed 'I never robbed a worker in my life', Fitzpatrick – or 'Fitzie' as he was known universally – was a villain and a shyster. His customary method of settling business disputes was to bludgeon rivals with his fists. Morgan's allegations that Fitzie or his brother Jack, a disgraced local government officer, caused the fire that destroyed the Bankstown Torch were probably not that far wide of the mark.14 9
      Ray Fitzpatrick was notoriously corrupt and regarded the Bankstown Municipal Council as his personal milch cow. Because of this the council had been sacked and its affairs placed in the hands of an administrator in March 1954. Enjoying the support of powerful friends in Macquarie Street and also in the judiciary, Fitzie's influence, however, spread far beyond southwestern Sydney. Apparently influenced by their long term friendship as boys growing up together in Bankstown, Stanley Cassin Taylor, President of the NSW Industrial Commission from 1944 to 1969, used his influence as a Supreme Court judge to shield Fitzpatrick from the consequences of his corrupt behaviour.15 In state parliament, C.A. 'Gus' Kelly, Chief Secretary in J.J. Cahill's Labor government and Clive Evatt, at one time the minister for housing, were strong Fitzpatrick supporters.16 In Canberra, another Bankstown Lang Labor man, Senator Stan Amour, was always willing to corruptly assist 'Mr Big'.17 As Charlie Morgan alleged in 1955, it seemed that big Fitzie was untouchable and immune from prosecution. 10
      In many respects Ray Fitzpatrick was the Sydney counterpart of Melbourne's John Wren. Described by no less an authority than Jack Lang as 'a champion wire-puller', Wren had a formidable reputation for political manipulation. Frank Hardy's 1950 novel, Power Without Glory, had exposed the well-connected entrepreneur's shady activities. Thanks to the ongoing controversy stemming from the criminal libel charge the book had faced and overcome, the grimy underbelly of Labor politics remained in the public mind.18 Like Wren, Fitzpatrick was a 'good Labor man' with all of the Tammany Hall resonances this implied in the dubious world of NSW Labor politics in the 1950s where corruption was rampant.19 Controlling Bankstown in much the same fashion as Wren ran Collingwood, in Commonwealth and state elections Fitzpatrick generously supported ALP candidates, as well as organising financial backing from within Bankstown's local business community. During election campaigns his large fleet of trucks and cars was at the disposal of the ALP.20 With Fitzie, however, there were always strings attached. If he scratched a back, in return he expected a farrow of reciprocity to be gouged. Nonetheless, according to C.J. McKenzie, a journalist who began his working life at Fitzpatrick's newspaper, the Bankstown Observer, the 'almost mystical loyalty' Fitzpatrick inspired in Bankstown was not solely based on intimidation.21 11
      In particular Ray Fitzpatrick was a strong Lang Laborite. How or why this happened initially is difficult to know. Perhaps as a young man Fitzpatrick heard Premier Lang speak at the height of his powers in 1931, denouncing the British plutocrats while swearing his unswerving devotion to the toiling masses of New South Wales. If he did, Fitzie would almost certainly have identified with Lang's machismo or admired his truculence and staying power, as well as his capacity for visceral hatred. Both men took pride in their physical presence and used it to intimidate. Both were, or became wealthy. 12
      For whatever reason, the sand and gravel magnate remained a strong Langite well into the 1950s. In the 1946 Commonwealth elections Fitzie was Lang's campaign manager. Reputedly he even organised Liberal Party preferences to flow to Jack Lang. This was a surprising feat, but far from impossible. Another member of the extensive Fitzpatrick clan, Bernie, was a prominent Liberal and aspiring politician in the area. In 1950 Bernie Fitzpatrick ran as a Liberal candidate against the ALP's J.J. McGirr for the state seat of Liverpool. Though soundly defeated, he won three booths, one being Liverpool, while McGirr won 17 booths.22 13
      Ray Fitzpatrick's principal contribution to Lang's cause in 1946 was to organise the publication and distribution of an anonymous smear sheet. This discredited the Big Fella's principal rival, the previously mentioned ALP candidate Charles Albert Aaron Morgan. It was alleged that Morgan (who was a solicitor in private life) had corruptly engaged in 'immigration rackets', accepting fees as an immigration agent, which allowed prospective migrants of non-British background to jump queues and migrate to Australia. Morgan believed that the smear sheet, distributed just before the elections, was the decisive factor in causing his defeat in 1946.23 When elected Jack Lang continued the allegations from the House of Representatives protected by parliamentary privilege.24 That the allegations related to 1939, before Morgan was an MP and were therefore irrelevant to his work as parliamentarian, was never emphasised. 14
      As this suggests, Charlie Morgan had a long history of less than amicable dealings with both Lang and Fitzpatrick. In relation to the Big Fella, these dated back to 1931. At this time Morgan belonged to a group of younger activists within the ALP which was committed to ensuring that the party remained loyal to its 1921 socialisation objective. Their meetings were usually held in his city offices in Liverpool Street. Morgan thus became a target for Premier Lang's campaign against the socialisation groups and was expelled from the party in March 1931. The other reason Lang detested Morgan is that he was a spanner in the works of the Big Fella's mounting federal aspirations.25 In 1931 Morgan actually won the preselection ballot to stand as Lang Labor candidate for Reid, only to have the Langite executive overrule the ballot. Premier Lang required a seat warmer until he himself was ready to make the move to Canberra through the seat of Reid.26 Thus, as one of his advertisements in the Bankstown Torch on 20 May 1954 suggested, Morgan was 'selected seven times in 1931 by rank and file plebiscite in Reid' but rejected because he was not 'persona grata with the then ruling faction of the Movement'. 15
      Morgan's relationship with Mr Big was also tainted. Initially, however, it seems Ray Fitzpatrick and Morgan were allies. In the 1940 elections, when Morgan successfully rode the wave of Lang's diminishing power in NSW Labor politics, first securing and retaining preselection and then becoming Member of the House of Representatives (MHR) for Reid, Fitzie had financially supported his campaign and provided him with motor vehicles on election day. Reputedly Morgan had represented Fitzpatrick when the businessman divorced his first wife, as well as in several legal cases involving petty thefts from construction sites. Evidently they had fallen out in the midst of another legal case involving one of Fitzpatrick's competitors in the sand and gravel industry in the Bankstown district, Morgan reputedly switching sides in the course of the hearing.27 16
      Before 1955, the low water mark of the relationship between Morgan and Fitzpatrick came in 1944. Using parliamentary privilege the politician exposed the businessman's shady dealings and corrupt behaviour. This particularly related to the construction of Bankstown aerodrome during World War II. Morgan alleged that Fitzpatrick systematically rorted the haulage contracts for the construction of this important wartime facility. Mr Big had even erected a hanger intended for the aerodrome at his haulage depot in Meredith Street, Bankstown.28 Notwithstanding strong evidence that Fitzie was guilty as alleged,29 Mr Big did not enjoy hearing his calumnies trumpeted from parliament and then reported in lurid headlines in the national press. Like the Big Fella, Mr Big was unlikely to forget Morgan's self-evident treachery. His revenge was the smear sheet he printed and distributed for Lang in 1946. Nor did the 1946 smear sheet exhaust Mr Big's desire to get even. 17
      If Charlie Morgan reflected upon what he had done to deserve enemies like Ray Fitzpatrick and Jack Lang, the situation became even more complicated in 1954–55. When the Great Labor Split orchestrated by Bob Santamaria and the Movement happened, hundreds of power plays were enacted across Australia. Bankstown was no different. Yet things were more complex there than the former politician Rod Cavalier allows.30 In an attempt 'to penetrate the ALP as a living entity of branches and branch members', Cavalier is at pains to describe rank and file responses to the Groupers and the Split in three Sydney ALP branches, Hunters Hill, Guildford and Panania. But writing about Panania in 1955 without mentioning Ray Fitzpatrick from nearby Milperra is as flawed as a history of Australian bushranging that omits Ned Kelly. Moreover, if the Panania ALP branch was so solidly Grouper orientated that this caused benign acquiescence, this was not so across the electorate of Reid. The peak organisation of Labor politics in the area – the Reid Federal Electorate Council – remained loyal to the ALP leader Dr Evatt. As reported in the Bankstown Observer on 28 April 1955, at Revesby a 'Pro-Evatt' Labor meeting on 15 April 1955 heard a Waterside Workers Federation official denounce the 'abnoscious [sic] activities of the Industrial Groups within the A.L.P'. The meeting adopted three resolutions that involved both a domestic and international focus. Apart from demanding that no Australian troops be sent to Malaya and calling for the recognition and admission of China to the United Nations, Revesby's social democrats also urged the banning of the ALP Industrial Groups. 18
      Yet elsewhere in the electorate – in Padstow – it was feared that the Revesby branch had succumbed to the Santamaria-ites.31 At Lakemba one party official reported 'an atmosphere of deep personal bitterness and hate' between the opposing factions. A Grouper holding a cross studded with lights aloft in one hand, and a hammer and sickle in the other, thus inferring all the available options, had disrupted one branch meeting.32At Guildford West, too, the Groupers were still causing friction in 1956. At one branch meeting there was an angry exchange between Tom Uren, a Woolworths store manager who later succeeded Morgan in the seat of Reid, and another activist who resented Uren's imputation that he was aligned with the Industrial Groups. Amidst much crossfiring Uren stated that he 'thought everyone knew' that the gentleman in question 'was sympathetic with the Groups' and charged him with disruption. A month later the Grouper was expelled from the ALP.33 19
      In Bankstown, however, Labor politics were not always what they seemed. In August 1953 A.E. Abel, ALP mayor of Bankstown, lost party pre-selection. So did fellow members of his left-wing ticket. At first glance this looks like a classic Grouper operation. Indeed the replacement ALP candidate (who did not win the ensuing local government elections) was an Electrical Trades Union activist whose profile and credentials certainly look like a Grouper man.34 20
      As emerged in 1954, in 1953 Abel went to the police to report public corruption. He informed detectives that he had rejected a bribe of £100 in 1952. Ray Fitzpatrick was quickly named as the perpetrator. Summonses were served and Fitzie faced three charges of attempting to corrupt a public official under the Secret Commissions Prohibition Act. At the ensuing trial it transpired that Fitzpatrick had been experiencing trouble supplying Bankstown Council with gravel. As a result the council had made alternative arrangements. Fitzpatrick had allegedly visited the mayor at his home, proffering an envelope that contained £100, and promising more if need be, providing the decision was reversed. Abel claimed he lost ALP preselection when he had rejected the approach from Fitzpatrick to 'stay on side' or his 'political life would be very short'. Clearly it was. Essentially Abel was replaced because he did not toe the Fitzpatrick line. This was, therefore, one of many events in Bankstown ALP affairs that had nothing to do with the Santamaria Split.35 21
      Labor politics in Bankstown was a complex mosaic. The area was honeycombed with ALP branches in all the major suburbs. In Reid alone there were 15 branches and 634 members, some 400 of whom active enough to participate in the preselection process.36 Sometimes 'Pro-Evatt' ALP groups in Bankstown were aligned with the Communist Party of Australia (CPA). In a working-class area where notorious 'Reds' such as Pat Clancy (state and later national secretary of the Building Workers Industrial Union) and Jack Hughes (later president of the NSW Labor Council) were local men who commanded significant respect and (in Clancy's case) held office in community organisations such as the board of the Bankstown Community Hospital, the standard Cold War critique of communist devilry commanded less weight than in many other areas. At large worksites in the area such as the Chullora railway workshops, the CPA commanded significant authority. Notorious leftists such as Tom Wright sometimes spoke at ALP meetings. According to Charles Morgan, up to 1,000 communists had taken out ALP membership tickets in 1956.37 22
      Ray Fitzpatrick, that shining knight of private enterprise and the opportunities it provided to shonky entrepreneurs, was deeply opposed to the local 'Commos', and they to him. By and large Fitzie sought to control the pro-Evatt forces in the area, particularly in respect of local Bankstown matters and commercial affairs attendant to the council. Many, however, suspected him of playing a double game. Clearly big Fitzie was capable of painting on a broader canvass. According to the journalist Alan Reid, in 1955 Bankstown's Mr Big was plotting with Grouper elements at the highest level to depose W. Colbourne as ALP party secretary in New South Wales.38 If this was true it is a delicious complication that, within Bankstown, at least some Grouper elements followed an anti-Fitzpatrick line. In 1954 two aldermen, the Irish born McCann brothers, thought to be Catholic Actionists by the Commonwealth Investigation Service (CIS), were part of a power bloc within Bankstown Municipal Council which opposed Ray Fitzpatrick's power and influence in local government.39 In any case when that body was placed into the hands of an administrator the basis of Fitzpatrick's somewhat personalised methods for exerting power and influence was undermined. In his view and as argued in the Bankstown Observer, a state of 'fascism' had been inflicted upon Bankstown.40 On top of everything else that was happening in Labor politics, big Fitzie did not need Charlie Morgan to again start making trouble. After the politician's comments about Bankstown's purported descent into 'terrorism and gangsterism' at the hands of its Mr Big, some form of reprisal was inevitable. 23
      When the hue and cry associated with the Santamaria-inspired Split and the activities of their related brethren within the ALP reached its peak in 1954–55, only the politically adroit – such as Charlie Morgan – would survive. Morgan's ducking and weaving involved adopting a pro-Evatt position in Canberra and, having appreciated that the Industrial Groups would survive the 1955 NSW State ALP Conference, an anti-Evatt position within the NSW Grouper machine. In the branches within his electorate he often sided with the Groupers.41More than likely in Canberra he fed the Labor apostates Bourke and Keon information about corruption in the NSW ALP.42 Close to deputy ALP leader Arthur Calwell but not to Evatt, Morgan managed this two or three card trick with ease. 'Charlie Morgan was a wily bloke', writes Tom Uren, 'typical of many politicians in that he played both ends against the centre'.43 Ironically, for Morgan, the Split of 1954–55 was less of a threat than the Split whose origins lay in NSW-Commonwealth tensions within the ALP initiated more than 20 years earlier, as well as in matters attendant to the business empire of Ray Fitzpatrick. 24
      Dealing with the 'Mr Big of Bankstown' Morgan hit upon a novel strategy. Fitzpatrick had engaged the services of the journalist Frank Browne to 'get stuck into' Morgan through the pages of his local newspaper. A larrikin, hard-drinking journalist of extreme right-wing views – he subsequently established the basis of Australia's first post-war Neo-Nazi party – Browne was best known as the editor and proprietor of Things I Hear, an often defamatory newsletter for 'political insiders'.44 On 28 April 1955 he wrote a front-page article attacking Morgan in the Bankstown Observer. This revisited the allegation that had been so effective in the 1946 elections, pertaining to Morgan's purported 'immigration rackets'. There was nothing new, no fresh or startling disclosures. All that was added were the names of 21 migrants for whom Morgan had reputedly organised landing permits, as well as the identities of two colleagues. Fitzie had simply dragged out the 1946 smear sheet and given it to Browne to reshape. For a man of Browne's considerable journalistic talents this was an easy task. He made only a cursory attempt to update the piece, situating it in the maelstrom of the ongoing Santamaria-induced Split. According to Browne:
In the present Labour faction fight, all sorts of charges are being bandied about. Some are no doubt true, and some are without foundation.
     Nobody expects politicians fighting for their political lives to be fair.
     However the anti-Evatt group in N.S.W. are making charges that deeply concern the residents of this area.
     They claim that Mr C.A. Morgan, M.H.R., who is supporting Dr Evatt, is or was, mixed in what can only be described as an Immigration Racket.45
 Having misrepresented the source of anti-Morgan sentiment, insinuating that the charges were derived from Grouper elements rather than his employer, Browne also muddied the waters regarding the historical character of the charges. The imputation that Morgan 'is, or was mixed up in what can only be described as an Immigration Racket', was that Morgan continued to derive income from sharp or illegal practice. The headline was suitably dramatic. Spread across the front-page this read, 'M.H.R. and Immigration Racket. Investigation Necessary'.46		 25
      In the House of Representatives on 3 May 1955 Charles Morgan raised the Bankstown Observer article as a matter of parliamentary privilege. Invoking a little known aspect of parliamentary procedure dating back to the origins of representative government in England and the Bill of Rights in 1689, in essence Morgan argued that this was a blatant attempt to intimidate him and stop him from doing his work as a member of parliament. Thus it became a matter of contempt of parliament.47 'Some individuals', Morgan solemnly informed his parliamentary colleagues on 3 May, 'attempt to ride rough-shod over the people and to dictate who shall be their representatives and what those representatives shall do in the places to which they have been elected'. With a certain Bankstown businessman, one 'Raymond Edward Fitzpatrick of 191 Chapel Rd, Bankstown, contractor' in his sights, Morgan asserted 'such people must not be allowed to take the law into their own hands and exercise a tyrannical dictatorship over the people'. With the support of the Speaker, A.G. Cameron, the matter was referred to the House of Representatives Committee of Privileges for further investigation and report.48 26
      On 8 June 1955 the Privileges Committee confirmed 'a serious breach of privilege' had taken place and called upon the House to take 'appropriate action'.49 On 10 June Fitzpatrick and Browne were summonsed to Canberra to outline any mitigating circumstances before the House. That same day, in a breathtaking violation of due process, as well as their fundamental rights and democratic liberties as citizens, the two men were sentenced to three months gaol on a vote of members of the House of Representatives. There were no lawyers involved, no trial and no right of appeal. Writing some years later Fred Daly aptly characterised the privilege case as 'an all-time low for Parliament...a travesty of justice, with Parliament appearing in the role of judge, jury and prosecutor all rolled into one'.50 Among other things the incident is a significant blot on H.V. Evatt's reputation as a civil libertarian, as it is on Gough Whitlam's, both of whom seemingly believed that this was a genuine act of contempt of parliament, or felt obliged to defend Morgan. The Member for Werriwa was one of four ALP members who crossed the floor to vote with the Menzies government in favour of imprisonment.51 Despite Harry Evans' recent suggestion that both Evatt and R.G. Menzies were 'eminent constitutionalists' and above pursuing personal vendettas, it seems likely that the prime minister and other members of parliament – especially Arthur Calwell, deputy ALP leader – joined in Charlie Morgan's successful reprisal against Ray Fitzpatrick principally because they sought revenge against his partner in 'crime', Frank Browne. Because of Things I Hear and its frequent, scurrilous attacks on parliamentarians on both sides of the house 'Brownie' had few friends in Canberra.52 Standing before parliament on 10 June 1955, Browne presented a stirring defence of free speech, significant enough to be reprinted in several documentary collections.53 Only the parliamentarians were unimpressed. Alan Reid later remembered, 'You could feel the waves of hate going out from the Parliament to Brownie standing at the Bar of the House'.54 27
      The enormity of the injustice visited upon Fitzpatrick and Browne is emphasised by how unlikely it is, as his colleague Les Haylen believed, that Charlie Morgan was ever genuinely intimidated by the Bankstown Observer article. By 1955 the 'immigration racket' allegations had been raised many times in a number of forums. There can have been few electors in the division of Reid who were not apprised of the ancient charges against their generally popular local member. As Fitzie suggested, in Bankstown 'the dogs are barking it'.55 Moreover, in the wake of the Torch fire and his exposures of Bankstown 'gangsterism' Morgan had fired every shot in his barrel against Fitzpatrick. There was nothing further about which to be coerced into silence. If there was any political threat in the allegations raised by the Bankstown Observer on 28 April, this lay precisely in the course of action upon which Morgan embarked. Rather than remaining in the domain of a local throwaway newspaper, wrapping up fish and chips the following day and largely forgotten, Morgan provided the issue with oxygen. It dominated national politics for several months and persisted as a matter of debate for much of the year. There were also complaints within the local branches of the ALP about Morgan's warm praise for Prime Minister Menzies during the privilege case. Unusually indeed for a Labor man, Morgan congratulated the prime minister for the 'deep sense of responsibility and sense of justice' he had displayed throughout the privilege case.56 Despite all this Morgan did not suffer. After surviving a preselection contest in September, in the elections held in December 1955 he was returned with a comfortable margin of 62.89 per cent of the vote, an increase of some 3000 votes.57 28
      In short, raising the 'immigration racket' allegation as an issue of parliamentary privilege was no more than a tactical contrivance to address a private feud. More than likely the strategy occurred to him amidst unusual circumstances the previous year. On 11 August 1954 Morgan was himself appointed to the House of Representatives Committee of Privileges.58 A fortnight later that august group met to deliberate upon another matter of contempt of parliament. In this case the accused was none other than Jack Lang. The charge was that he had improperly accessed and printed the parliamentary 'flats' (the galley-proofs) of Hansard of a speech by Prime Minister Menzies in The Century. That the matter was 'a storm in a tea cup' there can be no doubt. Nonetheless, it seems likely the Big Fella came perilously close to preceding Mr Big as a prisoner of Commonwealth Parliament. Perhaps only his considerable powers of persuasion saved him.59 29
      At the outset of the case against Lang, the prospect of exacting revenge on his old political adversary must surely have appealed to the energetic MHR for Reid. Morgan later stated that certain of his colleagues had encouraged him to settle accounts with Lang, suggesting that, 'Now is your opportunity to get even with him'. Morgan, however, claimed to have chosen a high moral path – to judge the case solely on its merits, to be fair and impartial. Lang, however, believed that Dr Evatt directed Morgan not to allow his personal prejudices to effect his judgement.60 30
      Whatever his motives Morgan energetically defended Lang in parliament. He pointed out that 105 copies of 'flats' were issued regularly and it would be a costly exercise to find out who had provided The Century with same. (It seemed likely that the prime minister, in any case, was the source.) The Privileges Committee, Morgan suggested, had been invited to embark upon a 'witch hunt' that was 'a futile waste of time'. Morgan declaimed, 'For the first time in the history of the Commonwealth Parliament, a newspaper has been taken to task for publishing the truth and the whole truth about something that occurred in this House. 'This is a sorry state of affairs'. With apparent conviction Morgan remarked, 'It appears to be a new kind of crime to publish the whole truth'.61 31
      The 1954 Century case sheds light on the Bankstown Observer privilege case the following year. It provided Morgan with direct experience of how the issue of contempt of parliament worked, of the legal precepts and constitutional justifications which underpinned it, as well as an insider's view of how such charges were deliberated and adjudicated upon. As a member of the Privileges Committee, (from which he withdrew before the Bankstown case because of the obvious conflict of interest), Morgan indubitably appreciated how close Lang had come to being made a prisoner of the Commonwealth. Another of those present, the Clerk of the House Frank Green, was astonished by the gung-ho 'lock-him up' atmosphere that prevailed within the committee room.62 32
      For Morgan the 1954 Century privilege case drew a line under his protracted dispute with Lang. The Big Fella was certainly grateful. Charlie Morgan quickly became a pin up boy in The Century.63 More than likely it had been a light-bulb moment for Morgan, suggesting a strategy for dealing with his other local adversary, Ray Fitzpatrick. When the Bankstown Observer appeared on 28 April 1955 with its defamatory allegations about his 'immigration rackets', Morgan grabbed the opportunity with both hands. He sought and secured revenge. Morgan's claim in parliament, following the sentencing of Fitzpatrick and Browne to gaol, that 'probably I am the saddest man in the place' was disingenuous. 33
      For Morgan the ramifications of the 1955 privilege case were ongoing. Though some local branches initially supported the stand he had taken, as did the Bankstown ALP state electorate council,64 in other ALP branches within the electorate of Reid Morgan faced mounting criticism. His praise of Menzies and Speaker Cameron during the debate on 10 June 1955 was especially galling to many rank and file members. When Morgan turned up uninvited on 27 June 1955 to address the Guildford West ALP branch on the 'Brown Fitzpatrick gaoling and events leading up to same', the branch passed a motion thanking him for his attendance but also admonishing him for his statements to the press in praise of Menzies.65 Coupled with continuing suggestions that he was aligned with Groupers in the branches, discontent mounted with the ALP's local Commonwealth parliamentarian, even leading to suggestions that he should be called before the party's state executive to account for his behaviour.66 34
      On 28 October 1955 a meeting of the Reid Federal Electorate Council broke up in uproar when Morgan, who was not a delegate to the meeting, tried to speak. The business of the meeting was to focus on the imminent Commonwealth election campaign. With Morgan on his feet and demanding to be heard the chairman closed the meeting, calling another to discuss 'Campaign Business for the coming Federal election' on 4 November. Morgan tried to paper over the cracks but this internal rancour presaged a serious problem in terms his ability to rally sufficient troops for the elections on 10 December. In the event, the voters of Reid responded more warmly than Morgan's ALP comrades. Despite a shortage of workers in some branches and polling booths, forcing him to act as his own 'Principal Campaign Director', Morgan achieved a spectacular victory. His absolute majority of 10,641 was 'one of the best results in the Commonwealth achieved by a Labor candidate'.67 35
      Despite the result Morgan continued to face determined opposition within his electorate. In May 1956 he issued a circular to rank and file members of the ALP within the electorate of Reid calling for an end to disunity. Morgan argued that 'The very essence of Labor's philosophy and Way of Life ... brotherly love and Christian charity' was 'unattainable in an atmosphere of hatred and intolerance, suspicion and distrust'. In some circles the circular went down like a lead balloon. One Granville ALP member angrily responded by returning the letter unopened. In her view Morgan continued to feed off Grouper elements within the branches. His plea for unity was, therefore, 'amusing at this late hour'. Morgan, she said, was not 'a Labor man at all. You are only in the Party for your own benefit, to keep your seat in Parliament'.68 36
      Morgan referred to such opponents as 'young crusaders'. Despite their opposition the wily politician knew how to work the numbers and retain control. Even at the height of the privilege case in June 1955 Morgan had been able to organise a group claiming to represent 90 ALP groups in western Sydney on both sides of the Santamaria fault line to congratulate him 'on his courageous fight to preserve the rights of the people's elected Parliamentary representatives against the vicious newspaper attacks aimed at gagging freedom of speech inside and outside Parliament'.69 This was a piece of spin worthy of Frank Browne, a pioneer of the public relations industry in Australia. 37
      A bare knuckles scrapper par excellence at the local level, between 1955 and 1958 Charlie Morgan remained a plodding back bencher in Commonwealth Parliament. Delivering solid, uninspiring speeches on a variety of topics from banking, defence and international affairs, he never again made waves as he had done in May-June 1955. Nor was Morgan dissuaded from expressing further support for Menzies and implied criticism of Evatt in relation to the privilege case. In June 1957 he repeated his claim that 'the Prime Minister acted magnificently, and with dignity and restraint throughout the whole proceedings'.70 Many rank and file locals were again dismayed. Morgan was defeated in the Commonwealth elections of 22 November 1958. 38
      Having seen off Lang and Fitzpatrick, Charlie Morgan's political career was blighted from a new and unexpected quarter. This was the rise of another ambitious politician from Guildford West. At the end of 1954 Tom Uren, a store manager and former boxer, moved from Lithgow to Guildford and became active in ALP circles. Cultivating anti-Grouper activists and leftists in the area, using the Guildford West branch as his power base, Uren organised a clean sweep of the Reid Federal Electoral Council in 1956. Having proselytised vigorously throughout the seat, the following year Uren contested a preselection ballot. Morgan had no intention of giving up without a fight. Issuing a pamphlet, which stressed his positive contribution to public life, Morgan was also proud of his role in defending 'a vital principle of democracy' during the 1955 privilege case. As its 'Central figure' Morgan believed he had 'vindicated the right of the people's representative to speak up for them without fear or favour' – and free from any outside influence or intimidation'.71 39
      It was to no avail. Uren won the preselection ballot by a margin of 64 votes.72 Morgan was stunned. Hoping to upset the result of the ballot he appealed to the ALP's NSW state executive claiming that his newest rival 'had not fully stated his industrial and political background'. Therefore, Morgan argued, the ballot's result was not 'a true reflex of the wishes of the rank and file members'. In Canberra it was alleged that Uren was supported by Ray Fitzpatrick. Uren denies this, suggesting that Fitzpatrick's opponents in the Bankstown area were left-wingers and that his only support from Mr Big came in the form of a cheque in which his name was misspelled as 'Urrin'.73 Morgan also implied that Tom Uren was part of a sinister communist Trojan Horse seeking to infiltrate the seat. The 'SUBVERSIVE FORCES' in Reid, he claimed, 'COULD BECOME A PATTERN FOR ALL AUSTRALIA IF ALLOWED TO GO UNCHALLENGED'.74 40
      Four months later Morgan's appeal was rejected and Tom Uren was endorsed as the preselected Labor candidate for Reid. Morgan remained unreconciled to the loss of his parliamentary sinecure. In his view, that he had not been reindorsed was a 'barefaced and unadulterated robbery by a ruling junta determined to get rid of me'. Undaunted, Morgan stood as an independent in the 1958 elections issuing campaign literature claiming to be the 'Locally Endorsed Australian Labor candidate'. Morgan had not forgotten about the 1946 elections and alerted his supporters to 'BEWARE FOUL BLOWS'. 'Over the years', Morgan's publication, the Reid Recorder, advised, 'a small mercenary clique operating from Bankstown has sought to oust Mr Morgan from public life because of his stand against their anti-social activities during the war period'. Anticipating a return of the 'immigration rackets' allegations Morgan counselled, 'Usually their activities involve some last minute foul blow such as a scurrilous illegal pamphlet issued furtively under the cloud of anonymity to stampede the electors before any effective reply can be made to same. The electors will thus have to be on their guard against any such disreputable methods and treat same with the contempt it deserves'.75 41
      In the event no such smear sheet was forthcoming. Perhaps the electors of Reid had already decided that the increasingly irascible Morgan was unsupportable. In any case this was a blue ribbon seat where the ALP candidate necessarily won. Uren secured a 13,000 majority and represented the seat for the next 31 years, rising to be a respected cabinet minister in the Whitlam government of 1972–75. For running against an endorsed ALP candidate, Morgan was expelled from the party, his humiliation further underlined by the fact that his octogenarian mother remained loyal to the ALP and worked on Tom Uren's campaign team.76 42
      In 1955 the Cahill Labor government faced challenges on a variety of fronts. The Split that brought down the Victorian Labor government was one of them. Yet, as is well known, the Great Labor Split was far less traumatic in New South Wales than Victoria. In general the Sydney Catholic hierarchy adopted a more benign attitude towards the party. Premier Cahill's personal friendship with Cardinal Norman Gilroy also assisted. So did the fact that the ALP's NSW leadership was less ideological and broadly 'Grouper' in orientation. In any case the price of the collaboration between Cahill and 'Bluey' Gilroy was a restructuring of the ALP's Right-dominated state executive that gave the pro-Evatt, left-wing group a short-term working majority.77 43
      The Fitzpatrick and Browne affair also provided weight in the state Labor government's saddlebags. When the initial allegations of corruption relating to the 'Bankstown affair' broke it was feared that further disclosures about Fitzpatrick's untoward influence in Macquarie Street would visit disgrace upon and perhaps even topple the Cahill Labor government from office. Frank Green even speculates that, as a further legacy of the 1931 Split, 24 years later Dr Evatt and his federal colleagues were happy to promote knowledge about Ray Fitzpatrick's calumnies because this was likely to impact negatively upon the state Labor government.78 'Old Smoothey', Joe Cahill, however, quickly went into damage control, ensuring, for instance, that the calls for a royal commission into Bankstown's affairs were not acceded to and instead a less far-reaching coronial inquiry into the Bankstown Torch fire was established. Despite bleats of complaint from Fitzpatrick-ites like Clive Evatt, because the Commonwealth did not possess appropriate detention facilities other than in the Northern Territory, it fell to the state Labor government to gaol Fitzpatrick and Browne, in a decidedly chilly Goulburn Training Centre. More than likely Cahill did not find his role as gaoler too distasteful. He was among the legion of politicians Browne regularly slandered in his weekly scandal sheet, Things I Hear. As has been suggested, sundry politicians from Prime Minister Menzies down enjoyed exacting revenge against the volatile journalist.79 44
      Not surprisingly, given his own experiences in 1954 and his long-term relationship with Ray Fitzpatrick, Jack Lang was among the most vocal critics of the gaolings. In The Century he roundly denounced 'the terrible misuse of the sanctions of the Commonwealth Parliament to deprive two citizens of their liberty without giving them the basic processes of a fair trial'. In Lang's view the Fitzpatrick and Browne case might prove a harbinger to the 'total destruction of the freedom of expression in this country'.80 Only a Bill of Rights could safeguard citizens' democratic liberties. However, neither in The Century at the time, nor in any of his subsequent autobiographical reminiscences, was the Big Fella moved to mention his connections with the Mr Big of Bankstown. 45
      Lang's silence is eloquent. The career of Ray Fitzpatrick is a reminder of an uncomfortable truth; the labour movement contains sinners as well as saints. Writing about John Wren, historian John McLaren elegantly situates Melbourne's version of Raymond Fitzpatrick within the radical nationalist tradition. According to McLaren, there are 'two voices that radical nationalists have always recognised as coming from the Australian people'.81 One puts its faith in industrial action and is democratic and inclusive, espousing cooperation and solidarity. Another tradition, represented by John Wren, is more exclusive. Placing the individual before all else, it is the tradition of the racketeer who places his trust in money made by fraud. 46
      The same applies to Ray Fitzpatrick and the 'almost mystical' spell he exerted over Bankstown. In the final resort it remains deeply ironic that Mr Big's one gaol sentence, for contempt of parliament rather than the more serious crimes he had committed in the course of his career as Labor kingmaker and Sydney businessman, was so richly undeserved. 47


Andrew Moore teaches Australian history at the Bankstown campus of the University of Western Sydney. His most recent book was Francis De Groot: Irish Fascist Australian Legend (2005). His research interests include labour biography, the social history of sport, Irish-Australian history and right-wing politics in Australia. With the support of an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant he is researching the 'little people' of inter-war fascism in Australia.
<a.moore@uws.edu.au>


Endnotes

*  To preserve the integrity of the blind-refereeing process, this article was peer reviewed independently of the procedures generated by the editorial working party of Labour History to which I belong. For this I am grateful to Greg Patmore. I am also indebted to the two anonymous referees for their useful comments. Research for this project was assisted by an Internal Research Grant from the University of Western Sydney. The task of writing it up was greatly helped by my secondment to the Social Justice and Social Change Research Centre in the College of Arts. For research assistance I am grateful to Dr Beverley Firth and to April Chesher. I also owe a special debt of gratitude to my friend and colleague, Dr Drew Cottle, for sharing his remarkable fund of Bankstown/Ray Fitzpatrick stories with me.

1. Melbourne Herald, 16 June 1955.

2. Truth, 17 April 1955.

3. Daily Telegraph, 16, 17, 21 April 1955.

4. Daily Telegraph, 21 April 1955.

5. Daily Telegraph, 16 April 1955.

6.  The complications of Labor politics and J.T. Lang's machinations in the 1930s and beyond are best dealt with by Bede Nairn in The 'Big Fella', MUP, Melbourne, 1986, chs 12 and 13 and various writings by D.W. Rawson. See D.W. Rawson and Susan M. Holtzinger, Politics in Eden Monaro, ANU Press, Heinemann, Melbourne, 1958, p. 28. See also the unsatisfactorily hostile I.E. Young, The impact of J.T. Lang on the N.S.W. Labor Party, MA thesis, University of New South Wales, 1963.

7.  John Iremonger, 'Cold War warrior' in Heather Radi and Peter Spearritt (eds), Jack Lang, Hale & Iremonger, Sydney, 1977, pp. 227–248.

8.  D.B. Waterson, 'Chifley, Joseph Benedict', in John Ritchie (ed.), Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 13, MUP, Melbourne, 1993, p. 414.

9.  David Day, Chifley, Harper Collins, Sydney, 2002, pp. 499–501. See also Frank Browne, 'The Chifley legend', unpublished MSS in Browne papers, Mitchell Library (ML) MLK MSS 1090.

10.  Mark Latham, 'The forgotten Lang ', The Hummer, no. 34, August 1992. The former ALP leader's interest in Lang Labor is also recorded in the list of readers of Irwin Young's thesis, The impact of J.T. Lang on the N.S.W. Labor Party, in the library of the University of New South Wales.

11.  Michael Hogan and David Clune (eds), The People's Choice: Electoral Politics in 20th Century New South Wales, vol. 2, Parliament of New South Wales, Sydney, 2001, pp. 209, 220, 225, 228, 254, 264, 292, 336, 351.

12.  Paul Keating declined an invitation to be interviewed about this period in his life. Geoffrey Bolton, 'Two Pauline versions' in Scott Prasser, J.R. Nethercote and John Warhurst (eds), The Menzies Era: A Reappraisal of Government, Politics and Policy, Hale & Iremonger, Sydney, 1995, pp 36–37 provides an excellent account of the Keating family's fortunes in Bankstown in the period.

13.  Peter Love, 'The Great Labor Split of 1955' in Brian Costar, Peter Love and Paul Strangio (eds), The Great Labor Schism: A Retrospective, Scribe, Melbourne, 2005, p. 14.

14.  On Fitzpatrick see Andrew Moore, 'Fitzpatrick, Raymond (1909–1967)' in John Ritchie (ed.), Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 14, MUP, Melbourne, 1996, pp.181–182 and C.J. McKenzie, draft autobiography in author's possession (no pagination).

15.  Aspects of Taylor's connections with Fitzpatrick are discussed in Andrew Moore 'Stanley Cassin Taylor 1942–1966' in Greg Patmore (ed.), Laying the Foundations of Industrial Justice: The Presidents of the Industrial Relations Commission of NSW 1902–1998, Federation Press, Sydney, 2003, pp. 195–211. Taylor incriminated himself in various interviews with the CIS in 1955. See National Archives of Australia (NAA), M1505, 456.

16.  Frank Browne, 'A season of discontent', p. 6, Browne papers MLK MSS 1090; Kevin Barry Morgan, The Charlie Morgan story, unpublished MSS, notes in author's possession. Gus Kelly's career is discussed in David Hickie, The Prince and the Premier, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1985, pp 124, 125.

17.  NAA, A472/6 W20132 Part 1.

18.  Frank Hardy, John Wren and the Power Without Glory case have encouraged an extensive literature. A recent combative contribution is provided by James Griffin, John Wren: A Life Reconsidered, Scribe, Melbourne, 2004, ch. 21. J.T. Lang's description of Wren is from Griffin's brilliant ADB entry on Wren: James Griffin, 'Wren, John (1871–1953)', John Ritchie (ed.), Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 12, MUP, Melbourne, 1990, pp 580–583.

19.  On corruption in New South Wales public life see Hickie, The Prince and the Premier; Peter J. Tyler, Humble and Obedient Servants. The Administration of New South Wales, vol. 2, 1901–1960, UNSW Press, Sydney, 2006, pp. 217–218; Alfred McCoy, Drug Traffic: Narcotics and Organized Crime in Australia, Harper & Row, Sydney, 1980.

20.  NAA, A472/6 W20132 Part 1 attachment.

21.  McKenzie, Draft Autobiography; Things I Hear, 26 May 1955.

22. Bankstown Torch, 2 August 1950.

23.  NAA, A11866/6.

24. Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates (CPD), vol. 189, 28 November 1946, pp. 744–754, 3 December 1946, pp. 852–859.

25.  Nairn, The 'Big Fella', p. 270; Nick Martin, '"Bucking the machine": Clarrie Martin and the NSW socialisation units 1929–35', Labour History, no. 93, November 2007, p. 193n; Robert Cooksey, Lang and Socialism, ANU Press, Canberra, 1976, p19n.

26.  Rodney Cavalier, 'The Australian Labor Party at branch level: Guildford, Hunters Hill and Panania branches in the 1950s', in A Century of Social Change, Pluto Press, Sydney, 1992, p. 104.

27.  McKenzie, Draft Autobiography; Things I Hear, 26 May 1955.

28. CPD, vol. 177, 7 March 1944, pp. 1055; 14 March 1944, p. 1297.

29.  See the extensive files compiled by CIS investigator Jack Magnusson at NAA, A472/6 W20132 Part 1.

30.  Cavalier, 'The Australian Labor Party at branch level', pp. 123–124.

31.  ALP (NSW), Records, ML MSS KH7201 item 496.

32.  ALP (NSW), Records, ML MSS KH7305 item 171.

33.  Tom Uren papers, National Library of Australia (NLA) MS 6055 box 19 item 1 and box 27 folder 3.

34. Bankstown Torch, 20 August 1953, 3 September 1953.

35. Ibid., 15 July 1954.

36.  ALP (NSW) Records, ML MSS KH 7305, item 768; KH 7308, item 774.

37. Daily Mirror, 12 March 1957.

38. Daily Telegraph, 8 May 1955.

39.  NAA, M1505, 456.

40.  See Bankstown Torch, 18 March 1954.

41.  ALP (NSW) Records, ML MSS KH 7017 item 20.

42.  ALP (NSW) Records, ML MSS KH7197 item 486.

43.  Tom Uren, Straight Left, Random House, Sydney, 1995, p. 92.

44.  Peter Henderson, 'Frank Browne and the Neo-Nazis', Labour History, no. 89, November 2005, pp. 73–86.

45. Bankstown Observer, 28 April 1955.

46. Ibid.

47.  On this subject see Enid Campbell, Parliamentary Privilege, Federation Press, Sydney, 2003. The principal scholarly account of the 1955 privilege case is provided by Harry Evans, 'Fitzpatrick and Browne: imprisonment by a House of Parliament' in H.P. Lee and George Winterton (eds), Australian Constitutional Landmarks, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, 2003, pp. 145–159.

48. CPD, vol 6, House of Representatives (H of R), 3 May 1955, pp. 352–355.

49.  NAA, A11866/1; CPD, 8 June 1955, vol. H of R 6, p. 1561.

50. Sun, 14 May 1976.

51.  E.G. Whitlam declined to be interviewed about the privilege case on the basis of his advanced age and many commitments. More than likely Mr Whitlam's reasons for supporting the view that a genuine act of contempt of parliament was involved were spelled out in an address to the 21st Summer School of the Australian Institute of Political Science in Canberra, five months before the parliamentary debate about the Bankstown Observer case. The text of this address, essential arguing that defending parliament from unwarranted outside attack was paramount because parliament's right to untrammeled free speech was the basis of all democratic liberties, is located at the Whitlam Forum, Radio National, 2 February 2003, www.abc.net.au/rn/bigidea/stories/s773620.html (accessed 13 July 2007).

52.  Both sides of this debate are canvassed in Evans, 'Fitzpatrick and Browne' pp. 145–159 and Frank Green, Servant of the House, MUP, Melbourne, 1969, pp. 157–162.

53.  Michael Fullilove, 'Men and Women of Australia!' Our Greatest Modern Speeches, Random House, Sydney, 2005, pp. 116–118; see also F.K. Crowley, Modern Australia in Documents 1939–1970, Nelson, Melbourne, 1980, pp. 309–311.

54.  C.J. Lloyd, Parliament and the Press, MUP, Melbourne, 1988, p. 201.

55.  Les Haylen, Twenty Years Hard Labor, Macmillan, Melbourne, 1969, p. 158.

56.  The full debate on the incarceration of Fitzpatrick and Browne, including Morgan's crocodile tears, is at CPD, vol. H of R 6, 10 June 1955, pp. 1625–1664.

57.  ALP, NSW records, ML KH 7197, 486. Colin A. Hughes and B.D. Graham, Voting for the Australian House of Representatives 1901–1964, ANU Press, Canberra, 1974, p.329.

58.  Commonwealth of Australia, Parliamentary Handbook, 12th edition, 1957, p. 199.

59.  J.T. Lang, The Turbulent Years, Alpha Books, Sydney, 1970, pp. 217–219; Frank Green, 'The punches I pulled', Sunday Mirror, 3 July 1960.

60.  Lang, The Turbulent Years; CPD, 10 June 1955, vol. H of R 6, p. 1659.

61. CPD, 12 October 1954, 21st Parliament, 2nd Session, pp. 1871–1875.

62.  Green, 'The punches I pulled'.

63. Century, 29 October 1954; 5 November 1954; 15 April 1955.

64.  ALP (NSW) records, KH 7264 ML MSS 2083/264.

65.  Uren papers, NLA MS 6055 box 19 folder 1.

66.  ALP (NSW) Records, ML MSS KH 7003 item 5.

67.  ALP (NSW) Records, ML MSS KH 7003 item 20.

68.  ALP (NSW) Records, ML MSS KH 7003 item 20.

69. Sun News Pictorial, 17 June 1955.

70. Sydney Morning Herald, 15 June 1957; Uren papers, NLA MS 6055 box 27 folder 3.

71.  Uren papers, NLA MS 6055 box 27 folder 3.

72.  ALP (NSW) Records, ML MSS KH 7305 item 768.

73.  Personal interview, Tom Uren, Balmain, 18 September 2007.

74.  Uren papers, NLA MS 6055 box 27 folder 3; ALP (NSW) Records, ML MSS KH 7308, item 774.

75.  Uren papers, NLA MS 6055 box 27 folder 3.

76.  Uren, Straight Left, p. 96; see also J.J. Ring, ALP Campaign Director's Report, 22 November 1958 in ALP (NSW) Records, ML MSS KH 7307, item 772.

77. Sydney Morning Herald, 26 April 1985; Love, 'The Great Labor Split', p. 14

78. Sunday Mirror article, and, NAA A11866/1.

79.  Green, Servant of the House, pp. 157–162.

80. The Century, 17 June 1955.

81.  John McLaren, 'The shame of cultural warriors', Overland, vol. 186, Autumn 2007, p. 34.

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