Michael Jerome Young (9 October 19368 April 1996) was an Australian politician. He rose through the
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms the f ...
(ALP) to become its National Secretary, before serving as a Labor member of the
House of Representatives
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...
from the
1974 election to 1988. He was a senior minister in the
Hawke government, and was a prominent political figure during the 1970s and 1980s. Young was also President of the Australian Labor Party from 1986 to 1988.
Early life
Born in Sydney to
Irish Catholic
Irish Catholics are an ethnoreligious group native to Ireland whose members are both Catholic and Irish. They have a large diaspora, which includes over 36 million American citizens and over 14 million British citizens (a quarter of the British ...
parents, Young attended school at
Marist Brothers
The Marist Brothers of the Schools, commonly known as simply the Marist Brothers, is an international community of Catholic religious institute of brothers. In 1817, St. Marcellin Champagnat, a Marist priest from France, founded the Marist Brother ...
College in the Sydney suburb of
Mosman
Mosman is a suburb on the Lower North Shore region of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Mosman is located 8 kilometres north-east of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local governm ...
. After his high school days he worked as a shearer and roustabout before becoming an organiser with the
Australian Workers' Union
The Australian Workers' Union (AWU) is one of Australia's largest and oldest trade unions. It traces its origins to unions founded in the pastoral and mining industries in the 1880s and currently has approximately 80,000 members. It has exerci ...
in South Australia.
Early political involvement
He was appointed as the party's South Australian state organiser in 1964, and his role in the first Labor electoral win for 30 years at the
1965 state election (the election resulted in
Frank Walsh
Francis Henry Walsh (6 July 1897 – 18 May 1968) was the 34th Premier of South Australia from 10 March 1965 to 1 June 1967, representing the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party.
Early life
One of eight children, Walsh was b ...
becoming Labor Premier) led first to his election as Secretary of the state branch in 1968 and later secretary of the federal party in 1969.
Gough Whitlam
Edward Gough Whitlam (11 July 191621 October 2014) was the 21st prime minister of Australia, serving from 1972 to 1975. The longest-serving federal leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1967 to 1977, he was notable for being the he ...
, then
Opposition Leader
The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the opposition is typically se ...
, hired Young as an adviser during this period.
Young again showed his substantial campaign management skills in the
1972 federal election, playing a significant role in the first ALP federal election win since 1946. He devised Labor's ''"It's Time"'' slogan, still considered one of the most effective vote-winning phrases in Australian history.
Federal politics
Touted as a potential successor to Whitlam as Labor leader, Young gained preselection for the safe Labor seat of
Port Adelaide
Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is the main port for the ...
and was comfortably elected to parliament at the
1974 election. Labor under Whitlam suffered its worst-ever electoral defeat in late
1975
It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe.
Events
January
* January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...
; Young was promoted to the shadow ministry in 1976, and was given the Immigration and Ethnic Affairs portfolios.
Young has been credited with keeping Labor's spirits up during its time in opposition from 1975 to 1983. A future party leader,
Kim Beazley Jr., considered Young on a par with
Paul Keating
Paul John Keating (born 18 January 1944) is an Australian former politician and unionist who served as the 24th prime minister of Australia from 1991 to 1996, holding office as the leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). He previously serv ...
as the most effective baiter of
Liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
politicians, although Young "was much funnier, but gentler as well". One of Young's attacks on the Liberals targeted
Alexander Downer
Alexander John Gosse Downer (born 9 September 1951) is an Australian former politician and diplomat who was leader of the Liberal Party from 1994 to 1995, Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1996 to 2007, and High Commissioner to the United King ...
, who was seen as a wealthy snob by the ALP; Young said "His
gatehouse
A gatehouse is a type of fortified gateway, an entry control point building, enclosing or accompanying a gateway for a town, religious house, castle, manor house, or other fortification building of importance. Gatehouses are typically the mos ...
is bigger than
The Lodge" (the official home of the Australian Prime Minister).
Following the landslide ALP victory at the
1983 federal election, Young was initially appointed
Special Minister of State
The Special Minister of State (SMOS) in the Government of Australia is a position currently held by Don Farrell since 1 June 2022, following the Australian federal election in 2022. The minister is responsible for various parliamentary, elector ...
(and
Vice-President of the Executive Council
The Vice-President of the Executive Council is the minister in the Government of Australia who acts as the presiding officer of meetings of the Federal Executive Council when the Governor-General is absent. The Vice-President of the Executiv ...
until July 1983), but was forced to stand down in 1983 when he breached Cabinet security, as part of the
Combe-Ivanov affair. This did not do him lasting political damage, though, and five months later he became Special Minister of State again. He was forced to step down again in 1984 when he neglected to declare at Customs a large stuffed
Paddington Bear
Paddington Bear is a fictional character in children's literature. He first appeared on 13 October 1958 in the children's book ''A Bear Called Paddington'' and has been featured in more than twenty books written by British author Michael Bond, a ...
toy that was in his wife's suitcase. He resumed his place in Cabinet when he was cleared of wrongdoing by a judicial inquiry.
In February 1987 he was appointed
Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs
The Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs is a ministerial post of the Australian Government and is currently held by Andrew Giles, pending the swearing in of the full Albanese ministry on 1 June 2022, following the ...
. He was also made
Leader of the House of Representatives. He became Minister for Immigration, Local Government and Ethnic Affairs in July 1987, when he also took on the position of Vice-President of the Executive Council again. While immigration minister, he introduced the custom of conducting formal briefings for the press gallery, based on the idea that it was preferable to freely provide information to the media with your own spin than for them to gain the information from other sources and put their own spin on it.
As a member of parliament, Young remained actively involved in social justice issues. In 1984, during a contentious national ALP conference where nuclear issues were under debate, he openly spoke out against uranium mining, and invited anti-uranium mining activists to use his office as a base. He also made available copies of the secret Fox Report on Ranger Uranium to anti-nuclear protesters and supported their campaign to have the City of Port Adelaide declared a Nuclear Free Zone. In addition he was active in supporting refugees and multiculturalism, and launched an inquiry on immigration policy aimed at reforming the system during his term as minister.
In 1987, Young faced controversy over his alleged handling of campaign donations during the
1987 election. He subsequently resigned from parliament on 12 February 1988, sparking the
1988 Port Adelaide by-election, though he was later cleared of any wrongdoing.
Later life
Following his resignation from parliament, Young worked as a lobbyist, chaired the Federal Government Multicultural Advisory Council and completed a review for the ALP following the 1995 Queensland state election. He also continued to serve as guide to promising Labor politicians, including Beazley, who considered Young his best friend.
Young's premature death in Sydney, of
leukaemia
Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...
, on 8 April 1996, was felt greatly by the Labor Party and his state funeral was well attended. An annual scholarship was set up in his name to assist disadvantaged children and adults in furthering their education.
References
* FitzSimons, P. ''Beazley: a Biography'', HarperCollins, Pymble, NSW, 1998.
* McMullin, R. ''The Light on the Hill: The Australian Labor Party 1891–1991'', Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1991.
* Faulkner, J. et al. (ed.) ''True believers : the story of the federal parliamentary Labor Party'', Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW., 2001.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Young, Mick
1936 births
1996 deaths
Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia
Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Port Adelaide
Members of the Australian House of Representatives
Leaders of the Australian House of Representatives
Members of the Cabinet of Australia
Australian trade unionists
Combe–Ivanov affair
20th-century Australian politicians
Australian Labor Party officials