Mick Young

This article is about the Australian politician. For other people, see Michael Young (disambiguation).

Michael Jerome Young (9 October 1936 – 8 April 1996) was an Australian politician. He rose through the Australian Labor Party (ALP) to become its National Secretary, before serving as a Labor member of the House of Representatives 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.

The Honourable Mick Young
National President of the Labor Party
In office 3 July 1986 – 7 April 1988
Preceded by	Neville Wran
Succeeded by	John Bannon
Leader of the House
In office 21 January 1984 – 12 February 1988
Prime Minister	Bob Hawke
Preceded by	Lionel Bowen
Succeeded by	Kim Beazley
In office 11 March 1983 – 14 July 1983
Prime Minister	Bob Hawke
Preceded by	Sir James Killen
Succeeded by	Lionel Bowen
Manager of Opposition Business
In office 29 December 1977 – 11 February 1980
Leader	Bill Hayden
Preceded by	Gordon Scholes
Succeeded by	Chris Hurford
Member of Parliament for Port Adelaide
In office 18 May 1974 – 12 February 1988
Preceded by	Fred Birrell
Succeeded by	Rod Sawford
National Secretary of the Australian Labor Party
In office 2 April 1969 – 10 July 1973
Preceded by	Cyril Windham
Succeeded by	David Combe
Personal details
Born	Michael Jerome Young (1936-10-09)9 October 1936 Sydney, Australia
Died	8 April 1996(1996-04-08) (aged 59) Darlinghurst, New South Wales, Australia
Political party	Labor
Spouse	Mary Young (née Dollard)
Occupation	Shearer, unionist

Early life

Young was born in Sydney on 9 October 1936. He was the sixth of eight children born to Kathleen Bridget (née Shanahan) and Ray Barnard Young. His father was a travelling salesman.

Young was educated at Marist Brothers Mosman. He left school at the age of 15 and began training as a wool classer, moving to western New South Wales. He later became a shearer and became involved with the labour movement in Broken Hill, at a time of frequent industrial conflict within the industry. Young was elected secretary of the Broken Hill Pastoral Workers' Committee at the age of 20. He attended the 6th World Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow in 1957, also visiting China in the same year.

In 1958, Young moved to Adelaide and began working as a paid organiser with the Australian Workers' Union. He soon came under the influence of Clyde Cameron and later working as an organiser in Port Pirie.

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 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, then Opposition Leader, 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 and was comfortably elected to parliament at the 1974 election. Labor under Whitlam suffered its worst-ever electoral defeat in late 1975; 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 as the most effective baiter of Liberal politicians, although Young "was much funnier, but gentler as well". One of Young's attacks on the Liberals targeted Alexander Downer, who was seen as a wealthy snob by the ALP; Young said "His gatehouse 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 (and Vice-President of the Executive Council 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 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. 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, 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. ISBN 0-7322-5876-6
• McMullin, R. The Light on the Hill: The Australian Labor Party 1891–1991, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1991. ISBN 0-19-554966-X
• Faulkner, J. et al. (ed.) True believers : the story of the federal parliamentary Labor Party, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW., 2001. ISBN 1-86508-609-6