As Labor of NSW Council secretary, he adopted a more conciliatory approach towards the left-wing unions
John MacBean was born with the battle for workers’ rights in his blood, secured a 38-hour working week for health workers and promoted women within the union movement.
MacBean snr was elected as an honorary state vice-president of the Australian Railways Union and was a leading figure in the Adamstown branch of the Labor Party. On many nights, political discussions ranged widely at the dinner table as meals grew cold before an exasperated Eileen would call a halt. One day in 1963, walking into the union office in Newcastle, MacBean chatted with a visiting ETU Organiser from Sydney, Barrie Unsworth, a fateful encounter. They discussed unions and politics and continued the conversation over beers at the nearby Delaney’s Hotel. Unsworth, keen to find in the area someone able and reliable, asked MacBean if he would be interested in a union career. Destiny was set. In 1964, MacBean was elected NSW Organiser for the ETU in charge of the Newcastle area.
When John Ducker resigned as NSW ALP President in 1979, Paul Keating filled the breach with MacBean serving as senior vice president. With the election in March 1983 of the Hawke Labor government with Keating as treasurer, MacBean took over as party president. Shyness belied his strengths. Though influential, commanding a wide base of support, seen as honest and straight-forward, MacBean was never entirely comfortable exercising power.
The second crucial intervention came with the Keating-initiated tax summit in June 1985 and the defeat of “Option C” there. Herald economics editor Ross Gittins wrote that Keating faced one large obstacle in the form of MacBean, who feared inequities and inadequate compensation for low-income earners from inflationary impacts of a goods and services tax.
The NSW president of the ALP John MacBean fighting moves to dump him from the post following the rout of the government at the election, 1986.The Hawke-Keating era was a period of tremendous economic and societal change. Australia opened itself to the world. Along the way, the government provided a helping hand to assist, train and retrain displaced workers. It was traumatic for many of them and their families.
After the 1988 election loss in NSW, MacBean’s last, great service to his party as NSW ALP president was to advocate for Bob Carr to become leader of the NSW opposition.
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