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Brian Harradine, the Honourable Independent
It’s good that Brian Harradine’s life is being remembered, and his work brought enduringly to the attention of the many who should be interested, through Keith Harvey’s crisply written and well researched monograph. A fine man and a great servant of Tasmania deserves no less, especially as he represented an important political and cultural tradition, and—as a balance-of-power senator—had more impact on our parliament and its laws than just about any other backbencher so far.
This review appears in the latest Quadrant.
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Harradine was a serious Catholic, who briefly studied for the religious life, and who came deeply under the influence of the National Civic Council, though possibly more its union mainstay, John Maynes, than its moving spirit, B.A. Santamaria; and consequently—despite for a time being a member of the breakaway Democratic Labor Party—became a leading union official in Tasmania.
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