AustLit

'Liam Byrne’s biography of James Scullin and John Curtin was launched online in July 2020 by the ACTU1 Secretary Sally McManus and former Labor treasurer Wayne Swan. It was an exciting time to launch a book about the labour movement and its fledgling parliamentary wing. Walter Scheidel’s The Great Leveller listed pandemics among the catastrophes that had upended the status quo of gross inequality over the course of history. Could COVID-19 be such a catastrophe? McManus, together with former ACTU secretary Greg Combet and other labour leaders, had worked cooperatively with the Coalition Government and business in responding to the pandemic. Optimistic progressives were wondering if the unfolding crisis might provide an opportunity for fundamental reform, such as John Curtin and Ben Chifley had seized for the period after the Second World War. Stuart Macintyre’s account of the postwar reconstruction, Australia’s Boldest Experiment, was on the reading list of Labor parliamentarians.' 

 (Introduction)