True Believers : The Story of the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party

At 11a.m. on Tuesday 8 May 1901, one day before the first federal Parliament of Australia convened, 24 members of the House of Representatives and Senate met in a stuffy basement room in Victoria's Parliament House. Their purpose? 'That we form ourselves into a Federal Labor Party.'From these small beginnings opens the big story of the nation's oldest political institution, the federal Caucus of the Australian Labor Party. Barely three years after that meeting, Labor was at the helm of the new Commonwealth. One hundred years later, the Caucus remains the heart of the Party and the place where federal Labor is made and remade.Both in and out of government, Caucus has been the scene of some of the most dramatic events in our political history - from the walkout of Billy Hughes during the Great War to the Hawke/Keating leadership battles of the early 1990s. Three times the Caucus has been on the brink of self-destruction - and survived.Here is a story of resilience, great achievements and self-inflicted wounds, unity and faction. True Believers shows how the Caucus has dealt with events that have shaped the nation, and issues that have challenged the very principles on which the ALP was founded. Here, too, is the history of federal Australia, told through the 607 men and women who expressed the hopes, fears and prejudices of those they represented in Parliament. True Believers brings to life the remarkable story of Caucus since that initial resolve in May 1901, a story that continues into the ALP's second century.Faulkner, John is the author of 'True Believers : The Story of the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party', published 2001 under ISBN 9781865086095 and ISBN 1865086096.