'Bob Hawke once said that Don Dunstan was Australia's most influential Australian politician. This is the first comprehensive biography of Dunstan, the transformative and muchloved former Premier of South Australia from 1967–68 and 1970–79. He was a larger than life character and, unlike most state premiers, had a huge national profile. People still remember Dunstan for his pink shorts and championing of sexual rights, but his impact was much wider than this. Against stiff opposition from Adelaide's conservative establishment, he pioneered legislation of Aboriginal land rights and consumer protection laws, abolished the death penalty, relaxed censorship and drinking laws, and decriminalised homosexuality. He is recognised for his role in reinvigorating the social, artistic and cultural life of South Australia during his nine years in office, remembered as the 'Dunstan Decade'.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
'Following the death of South Australia's former long-serving premier, Don Dunstan, Gough Whitlam remarked:
'It is difficult to rekindle the brightness of the light which seemed to shine from Adelaide around Australia during the Dunstan years. The fact is that no one has done more to transform his own community and society and, by his example, the whole of Australia. (xii–xiii)
'Dunstan's biographer, Angela Woollacott, set herself the task of rekindling the brightness of the light, and she succeeds admirably in this comprehensive biography of one of South Australia's – and the Australian Labor Party's – most progressive figures.' (Introduction)'Is there more to the story of the great reforming premier, Don Dunstan?'
'Observers of premiers conferences, as they were then called, in Canberra in the first half of the 1970s often remarked that the outstanding participant among the federal and state politicians attending was South Australian premier Don Dunstan.' (Introduction)
'When I immigrated to Australia in 1986, this country was notably forward-looking compared with the United States and Britain, where Reagan’s and Thatcher’s neoliberal policies were busily dismantling civil society and social welfare. Here was universal healthcare, free tertiary education and a decent safety net for society’s most vulnerable. I found palpable excitement about Australian film, popular music and literature. With Uluru recently returned to its traditional owners, it seemed that Indigenous land rights and the redress of historical wrongs were only a matter of time.'(Introduction)
(Introduction)
'Observers of premiers conferences, as they were then called, in Canberra in the first half of the 1970s often remarked that the outstanding participant among the federal and state politicians attending was South Australian premier Don Dunstan.' (Introduction)
'Following the death of South Australia's former long-serving premier, Don Dunstan, Gough Whitlam remarked:
'It is difficult to rekindle the brightness of the light which seemed to shine from Adelaide around Australia during the Dunstan years. The fact is that no one has done more to transform his own community and society and, by his example, the whole of Australia. (xii–xiii)
'Dunstan's biographer, Angela Woollacott, set herself the task of rekindling the brightness of the light, and she succeeds admirably in this comprehensive biography of one of South Australia's – and the Australian Labor Party's – most progressive figures.' (Introduction)
