Maurie O'Sullivan's era - speech by John Cahill

Speech by John Cahill, Assistant General Secretary, at Maurie O'Sullivan's farewell dinner, 9 July 2003

Maurie O'Sullivan was born in County Cork in Ireland in a town called Yaull. At the age of 20 Maurie went to England where he worked for a couple of years before, in 1964, emigrating to Australia. For the next 3 years he worked in a variety of jobs in factories, on building sites and even on a sheep station in Nyngan.

In 1967 Maurie obtained a job in the clerical area in what was then known as the Department of Child Protection and is now known as the Department of Community Services, and he immediately joined the PSA.

In 1968 Maurie was promoted to the Child Protection area of the Department as a District Officer and later became a District Manager of both the Wollongong and Shellharbour offices of the Department. It was in the child protection area that Maurie was to stay during all the time he was to remain working with that Department.

Although unbeknownst to Maurie, that time was not to be as long as he originally thought.

Commencing in the early 1970's Maurie started to become active in the industrial affairs of the PSA. He became a delegate and began to attend meetings of the various Union Committees and Branches that then formed part of the PSA's structural organisation.

But the PSA that Maurie joined in 1967 and in which he became an activist was a far cry from the PSA that he now leaves.

In the late 1970's when I first joined the PSA staff the PSA was described to me as just like the Austro Hungarian Empire only more complicated and more difficult to control. The PSA was then an organisation whose structure was based on the 3 divisions of the Public Service along with a 4th division containing members working in Government Authorities and the like. The General Division appeared to be controlled by the Masonic Lodge, the A&C Division was controlled by the National Civic Council, the Government Agencies Division was controlled by the Left and no one seemed quite sure who was running the Professional Division, if indeed anyone was at all.

These 4 squabbling fiefdoms all sent delegates to the Union's Committee of Management called the Central Council, which also comprised members of the Union's Executive, representatives of the Women's Council, 12 special Country delegates and representatives of the Retired Officers Branch.

The Council consisted of over 90 people and as you might gather from its composition, it was hardly a model of unity, unanimity or quick and effective decision making.

It was against this background that Maurie started to become more involved. He and some of his colleagues in the A&C Division could see that PSA members were not being well served by the existing arrangements and he decided to so something about it. A ticket of Left activists was formed to run for the Central Council and Maurie was elected to that Council in 1985.

Changes were occurring in other parts of the Union as well and in 1986 the Left group gained a majority on the Central Council for the first time. Miraculously, the Masons and the National Civic Council put aside their long standing differences and immediately coalesced into a single right wing faction to oppose Maurie's group.

In 1987, for the first time all the senior officers of the Union (i.e the Predisnt, Deputy Prsident, Vice-Presidents) were to be elected by a ballot of the members and Maurie was pre-selected by the Left to run for the position of Deputy President. Maurie was elected to that position and the Left was again successful in gaining a majority on the Central Council.

So after many years of struggle and activism Maurie's group is in control of the Union, he is the Deputy President and the opposition Right group appears to be in disarray - what could possibly go wrong from here?

Many people in this room, if they have knocked around the Union Movement or the ALP can probably guess what I am about to say next - the Left, having struggled for all those years to gain control of the Union and having only been in power for less than 2 years, SPLIT. A group of people within the Left decided that it would be a good idea to knock-off the incumbent President and incumbent Deputy President, Maurie, both of whom were also from the Left.

This would be done by secretly undermining them amongst delegates and members and then secretly stacking the pre-selection caucus to defeat them. Three pre-selection caucuses later (the first two having produced tied votes) Maurie's group emerged triumphant. However the damage had been done by then and the Left group lost the election in 1989; Maurie lost his position as Deputy President and went back to work for the Department of Community Services.

He remained there until 1991 when he was again prevailed upon to run for Deputy President and he agreed. During its two years out of power the Left had purged itself of those who had lost it the election in 1989 and Maurie was again elected as Deputy President in 1991. In 1993 and again in 1996 Maurie was elected as the President and was then elected as the PSA General Secretary in the year 2000. In the election of that year Maurie obtained a majority of the vote, the highest ever for any elected position in the PSA and an outstanding effort in any election.

But it is not only in the PSA where Maurie has been active; he is also a member of the Labor Party and last year was pre-selected unanimously by the Left to run as a candidate for Party President of the NSW Branch. In that election Maurie achieved 44% of the vote, the highest by a Left candidate for around 20 years.

Maurie is also a delegate to Labor Council and a member of that Council's Executive and it is a tribute to him that the previously fairly acrimonious relationship between the PSA and the Labor Council has been replaced by co-operation and solidarity.

Maurie is also a member of the Board of Directors of the State Government Employees Credit Union, from which there are quite a few representatives here tonight. Around 3 and a half years ago it came to Maurie's attention that all was not well in that Credit Union and, with two of his PSA colleagues, he decided to run a ticket for the Board of Directors. Maurie used to think that PSA elections were tough but that election for the Credit Union made PSA elections look like a tea party; during the course of the election campaign there were allegations of vote rigging; destruction of ballot papers; intimidation of Credit Union staff and two appearances in the Supreme Court, both sides represented by QC's. In the end Maurie and his team were successful and since that time the Credit Union has gone from strength to strength.

Maurie has also been very much involved in Irish institutions, including the Gaelic Club, the Irish National Association and Australian Aid for Ireland.

Another of Maurie's great fortes has been his dealings with the media. I am sure there are not too many people here tonight who have not heard Maurie on the radio or television or seen him quoted in the newspapers. Journalists clamour for an interview with Maurie above all other PSA officials because they know he will be on top of his subject, he always has something interesting to say and that with any luck there might be a pertinent literary quotation thrown in as well.

I can recall a time in the late 1990's when the PSA was hammering the State Labor Government over an issue and the Government would not give in. Peter Collins was then the Leader of the Opposition and in a situation where he was desperately looking for votes, called a press conference to announce that he would give the PSA what it wanted, no doubt expecting, if not praise from the PSA, at least a begrudging acknowledgement of what he had done.

Maurie was at that press conference and was immediately besieged by reporters who all asked him whether he would now criticise the Labor Government and endorse the Liberals position, a very difficult situation for any union official to be in. But, without batting an eyelid, Maurie said "This reminds me of a quote from Murder in the Cathedral - the last temptation is the greatest treason, to do the right deed for the wrong reason". This, of course, floored the reporters. No more questions were asked and with one literary flourish Maurie had managed to turn a situation where it seemed impossible not to praise Peter Collins into one where he left Collins without endorsment, just by the use of that one quotation.

Of course, there is much more to running a Union than dealing with the media. Maurie has had the intelligence and the strength to deal with the very difficult big ticket items that affect the PSA - things such as major wage claims, redundancies, restructures of Government Departments and Authorities, complicated court cases and many other similar matters.

But Maurie also has an innate understanding that because of the very nature of Trade Unions individual cases can sometimes be just as important as the major issues, particularly to the person concerned. To give just one example, even in these last few days as General Secretary Maurie is still finalising a matter for a member that has gone on for 7 years, a matter he has personally dealt with from its inception. I know that the compassion and patience Maurie has shown in that matter is nothing short of astounding.

Maurie is also a man of great wit and good humour. Successfully administering a Trade Union with around 140 staff does requires all the attributes I mentioned earlier, intelligence, strength, patience, compassion, but the wit and good humour possessed by Maurie are qualities that make the Union run just that much more effectively and enthusiastically.

As I said at the beginning of this speech, the PSA Maurie leaves in 2003 is very different to the PSA he joined as a rank and file member in 1967. Maurie saw that the Union needed reforming and in all the PSA positions he has held he has had the courage and determination to ensure that reform came about.

Maurie leaves a PSA that is focused on its objectives, has competent and motivated staff, is in a healthy financial situation, looks after its members well both collectively and individually and has proper structures in place to make sure that all these things can occur. Maurie has played a pivotal role in all these changes. For these and for his many achievements he has, and he has earned, the respect and admiration of the Union's staff and the respect and admiration of the Union's members.

Maurie - we are all so sad to see you go and you will be sorely missed. We wish you a long retirement and a happy one.