Tom Uren

1997, 26.5 Minutes

Part of the series

Australian Biography Series 5

Tom Uren is one of the most respected Labor politicians of his generation. His youthful plans for a career as a boxer were derailed by the outbreak of World War Two. His experiences as a POW slaving on the Burma-Thai Railway instilled in him a lifelong opposition to militarism and a belief in socialism and peaceful co-existence. At war's end, he joined the Australian Labor Party, entering Federal Parliament in 1958. In 1972 he became Minister for Urban and Regional Development in the Whitlam Government, setting up the Australian Heritage Commission and the National Estate and creating new national parks.

A Film Australia National Interest Program. © 2011 National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.

Note

Classification: G

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