Monday, July 22, 2019

Tom Uren




Born 1921, Sydney NSW

Tom Uren is one of the most respected Labor politicians of his generation. His youthful plans for a career as a boxer were derailed by the outbreak of World War Two. 

His experiences as a P.O.W. slaving on the Burma-Thai Railway instilled in him a lifelong opposition to militarism and a belief in socialism and peaceful co-existence. 

At war's end, he joined the Australian Labor Party, entering Federal Parliament in 1958. In 1972 he became Minister for Urban and Regional Development in the Whitlam Government, setting up the Australian Heritage Commission and the National Estate and creating new national parks.

No comments: