Next month's Melbourne celebration of the "outrageous life "of the late and great activist, Pete Steedman , is likely to be bigger than Ben-Hur . Already there have been 200 respondents to the curiously worded invitation to attend the event in the Trades Hall on September 7
Friends, villians and foes would be welcome to attend the farewell, said the RSVP.
It seems former Prime Minister Julia Gillard will contribute , possibly via a video.
Another former prominent Australian politician, international policymaker and academic, Gareth Evans, has also been mentioned as a likely participant. The number of potential speakers is growing. Serious Pete shown below .
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The following press release , composed by Max Dumais , a longtime friend of Pete's , with him at the end of his days, highlighted his colourful life and many achievements.
Former Federal MP from the 1980’s and student leader and activist from the 1960’s, Pete Steedman, has terminal cancer at the Olivia Newton John Cancer Centre in the Austin hospital in Melbourne.
Steedman has lived through more significant careers than
most. As revealed through the release of Cabinet documents, discussions
were held to charge him with sedition by Billy McMahon’s government (over opposition to the Vietnam War .)
Apart from his signatory role in student journalism, he took
his career overseas to Asia and Europe. On the way, he was instrumental in
exposing the torture of women in the prison camps on Crete by the Greek Junta,
and found himself being followed all the way to Romania.
In Asia he was involved in the troubles in the Punjab and
with separatist movements in Kashmir.
Arriving in London, he took part in the Oz Trials, the longest running obscenity trial in British history. He soon found himself involved in the opening of the dialogue over the troubles in Northern Ireland. He played an active role in disallowing the second British television channel to be allocated to Lord Harlech.
In another activist campaign, he organised
brothel owners of Soho into a resident action group which contributed to the
abandonment of plans by property developers to demolish Piccadilly Circus.
While Business Manager at Time Out, an information and political
magazine, he was approached by MI6 concerning the case of a British Commando
executed with his hands tied and a bullet in this head in Saigon. The
significance was Pete’s connection with him during his trip through Asia and
the Commando’s involvement in the heroin trade from Asia to America which was facilitated
by Senior NCOs of the US Forces, using the CIA through Air America, the largest
private airline.
Returning to Australia, he took up a position with a middle
level printing and publishing company producing such papers as Nation Review, Digger
and Australia’s Rolling Stone as well a number of University and local Ethnic
publications.
On Christmas Eve 1974, following Cyclone Tracy destroying
Darwin and its community, Pete was invited to manage and edit a Community
Newspaper as part of the revival of civil society. He was subsequently recruited
to write a definitive report on the disaster for the Federal Government, which
was completed in October 1975.
Leaving Darwin and following the 1975 election, he worked as
an apparatchik and edited the Labor Star for seven years. He worked closely
with Victorian State Secretary Bob Hogg who changed the culture within the
Victorian ALP and enabled an historical electoral success in 1982.
He became a Federal member in the First Hawke Labor Parliament.
Upon leaving parliament, he organized and founded AUSMUSIC, which
championed and promoted the cause of live Australian music including a three-hour
national live concert emanating and televised from every mainland State capital.
It involved all of the top Australian artists of the time.
Given a track record in finding acceptable solutions, Pete chaired
the Industry transition task force established by the Victorian government to
close down 30% of the Hard Wood industry and to ensure sustainability of that
industry.
At the same time, he was tasked to chair the Victorian Firearms Consultative Committee which managed to bring together judiciary, law enforcement and gun owners’ associations to form policy for the sector. This led on to a national involvement as Chair of the Commonwealth Consultative Committee on Firearms which survived until Tony Abbott became Prime Minister.
The farewell will be followed by a month long exhibition of items from his fabulous files and large book collection in the adjoining gallery .
It is not known if the display will include his valuable collection of old Australian car numberplates, an early Tasmanian one the subject of some controversy .
If the original Gerald Carr drawing of Fabula , the curvaceous , whip wielding private secretary of the thinly disguised Prime Minister of Australia , who confronted devious Tricky Dicky of the USA for her boss , is included in the exhibition it will certainly attract much attention.
She featured in a well-read comic strip in Broadside, a ground breaking publication Steedman edited in l969 in Melbourne . Fabula was similar to the sexy French science fiction strip Barbarella.
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A more modestly attired and lady- like posed version of Fabula than the shocking original one is shown above .
