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Politics and Passion Essays on Don Dunstan
Politics and Passion Don Dunstan selected essays from the Adelaide review
Used hardback: .2000 edition Dust Jack paperback good condition -
Edited by John Spoehr forward by Gough Whitlam on Don Dunstan Premier of South Australia.
About the Don Dunstan
Donald Allan Dunstan was born in Suva, Fiji on 21 September 1926. After early
schooling he transferred to South Australia and attended Murray Bridge High
School, St Peter's College, and the University of Adelaide, graduating with a
law degree in 1948. For some years he practised law in Fiji and later in
Adelaide. He was appointed a QC in 1965.
Don Dunstan became involved in Australian Labor Party politics, and in 1953
successfully stood for the House of Assembly seat of Norwood. In Frank Walsh's
government Dunstan held the position of Attorney-General and Minister of
Community Welfare and Aboriginal Affairs. When Frank Walsh retired as premier in
May 1967 Dunstan was elected leader of the Australian Labor Party (South
Australian Branch) and became Premier. The Labor Party was defeated in the 1968
election but in 1970 Dunstan was re-elected Premier, and thus began the
so-called "Dunstan decade" of political reform. Dunstan resigned from politics
due to ill health, in early 1979. Dunstan was awarded The Companion of the Order
of Australia in June 1979.
During Dunstan's premiership South Australia was socially transformed. Among
Dunstan's many reforms were those concerned with Aboriginal land rights, equal
opportunities, consumer protection, town planning and the environment and the
restructuring of electoral law. He also encouraged a flourishing of the arts,
with support for the Adelaide Festival Centre, the State Theatre Company, and
the establishment of the South Australian Film Corporation.
After leaving politics Dunstan published his political memoirs "Felicia" in
1981. He became the first director of Tourism Victoria in 1982, and then
chairman of the Victorian Tourism Commission until 1986. He was national
president of the Freedom from Hunger Campaign 1982-87, president of the Movement
for Democracy in Fiji from 1987, and national chairman of Community Aid Abroad
1992-93. Always interested in food, and the author of a cookbook in 1976, he
established, in 1994, the Don's Table restaurant, The Parade, Norwood, with
partner Steven Cheng. He was an Adjunct Professor at Adelaide University from
1997-1999.
Dunstan was married twice: to Gretel in 1949, with whom he had a daughter and
two sons; and to Adele Koh in 1976.
Don Dunstan died in Adelaide on 6 February 1999.
Don Dunstan's Australia
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