Tom Uren

The Honourable Tom Uren AC
Member of the Australian Parliament for Reid
In office 22 November 1958 – 19 February 1990
Preceded by	Charles Morgan
Succeeded by	Laurie Ferguson
Personal details
Born	(1921-05-28)28 May 1921 Balmain, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Died	26 January 2015(2015-01-26) (aged 93) Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Nationality	Australian
Political party	Australian Labor Party
Spouse(s)	Patricia
Occupation	Boxer, soldier

Thomas "Tom" Uren AC (28 May 1921 – 26 January 2015) was a Deputy Leader of the Australian Labor Party. Uren helped establish the heritage and conservation movement in Australia and, in particular, worked to preserve the heritage of inner Sydney.

Early life

Uren was born in Balmain, Sydney, then a working-class suburb, and was educated at Manly High School. Uren's family is of Cornish ancestry, originating in Penzance.^[1] Uren played rugby league for Manly Warringah in his youth and was a strong competitive swimmer. Uren had an early career as a professional boxer,^[2] and challenged for the Australian heavyweight championship against Billy Britt.^[3][4]

Bombardier Tom Uren (third from left, holding a tin mug and a newspaper) with some of the other members of the 2/1st Heavy Battery in 1941

In 1941, Uren joined the Australian Army's permanent forces. He subsequently volunteered for the Second Australian Imperial Force and served in the 2/1st Heavy Battery. Uren was deployed to Timor and was a prisoner of the Japanese from 1942 to 1945, during which time Uren worked on the Burma-Siam railway and served with Edward "Weary" Dunlop. Uren was later transferred to Japan where Uren witnessed the distant crimson sky resulting from the explosion of the US atom bomb on Nagasaki.^[3][4][5][6] He was discharged in December, 1945 with the rank of Bombardier.^[7]

After the war Uren spent a short time trying to revive his boxing career which included a trip to England and Uren worked for his passage on voyages through the Panama Canal. On return, Uren worked as a Woolworths manager at Lithgow which led to inspiring him to join the Australian Labor Party after attending Ben Chifley's funeral.

Uren and his wife Patricia moved to Guildford, in Sydney's west, in the late 1940s, and established two small retailing outlets on the corner of Chetwynd Road and Hawksview Street, West Guildford to gain the financial independence to pursue a political career. Uren also built a family home nearby, before transferring from the Lithgow branch of the Labor party to the West Guildford branch in 1954.^[4][8]

There is now a park in Iris Street, West Guildford, called "Tom Uren Park" in memory of the Labor Party local.

Political career

Uren won Labor pre-selection in 1957 for the House of Representatives seat of Reid in western Sydney, which he won at the 1958 election. He was to represent the electorate until his retirement before the 1990 election, thirty two years later.^[4]

Uren was a strong supporter of the left wing of the Labor Party, led at first by Eddie Ward and later by Jim Cairns, and was sometimes accused of being a secret communist, an accusation he denied. He campaigned against the Vietnam War, conscription and nuclear testing.

In 1969 Uren was appointed by Gough Whitlam to the Opposition front bench with responsibility for housing and urban affairs, which became Uren's passion for the rest of Uren's career. Uren was Minister for Urban and Regional Development in the Whitlam government from 1972 to 1975. He established the Australian Heritage Commission and consequent compilation of the Register of the National Estate. In Sydney, Uren promoted the restoration and re-use of derelict inner city areas such as the Glebe Estate and Woolloomooloo, the reclamation of Duck Creek and the creation of the Chipping Norton Lakes Scheme.^[9] He was a key player in the creation of the Towra Point Nature Reserve. Despite his rhetoric as a firebrand, Uren proved a highly competent minister and was one of the few ministers to emerge from the fall of the Whitlam government with his reputation enhanced.

In 1976 Uren was elected Deputy Leader of the Labor Party under Whitlam as Opposition Leader, but after the 1977 election, when Bill Hayden was elected Leader, Uren was replaced by Lionel Bowen. Uren succeeded Jim Cairns as leader of the ALP Left, and bitterly opposed Bob Hawke's rise to the Labor leadership. As a result, when the Hawke government won the 1983 election, Uren, despite being a former deputy leader of the party, was omitted from the Cabinet – Uren was given the junior portfolio of Minister for Territories and Local Government, and from 1984 to 1987 Local Government and Administrative Services. He became Father of the House of Representatives in 1984.

Uren stood down from the ministry after the 1987 election and retired from Parliament in 1990. Together with Queensland's Clarrie Millar, Uren was the last veteran of World War II to serve in the House of Representatives. In retirement he continued to campaign for various causes, including the protection of Sydney Harbour and its foreshores.^[9] Uren opposed Australia's participation in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.^[5]

Honours

Uren was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in the 1993 Queen's Birthday Honours.^[10]

In 2001 he was awarded the Centenary Medal.^[11]

In the 2013 Australia Day Honours he was advanced to a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC).

Death

Uren died on 26 January 2015.^[12]

State Funeral for The Honourable Tom Uren AC

Notes

References

• Coulthard-Clark, Chris (1996). Soldiers in Politics : The Impact of the military on Australian Political Life and Institutions. St. Leonards, New South Wales: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 1-86448-185-4. 
• Uren, Tom (1995). Straight Left. Random House Australia,. ISBN 0-09-182998-4.