Race Mathews was a giant force in public life. He was Gough Whitlam’s private secretary while Whitlam was in opposition in Federal Parliament. During that period he was instrumental in the development of the ALP policy of Medicare which had started life as a Fabians pamphlet by Bill Hayden published in 1972.

Then Race became Federal Member for Casey, from 1972 to 1975, where he held a number of significant government administrative roles during the Whitlam government.

He shifted his interests to State government at the end of the Whitlam years, and was Principal Private Secretary for Clyde Holding and then Frank Wilkes as Leaders of the Opposition.

From 1979 to 1992 he was a member of the Victorian State government, holding the seat of Oakleigh and three ministerial positions during the Cain government.

While undertaking these substantial roles he also acted as Secretary or President of the Australian Fabian Society from 1960 to 2006. He galvanised that organisation into becoming a real force in influencing Labor policy, after what had been a previously rather a non productive period for a time.

Some of Race’s great intellectual interests were the development of childcare as a serious educational opportunity for children, the co-operatives movement (on which he wrote both his PhDs, and which also showed the role of the Mondragon movement in the formation of the modern ALP) and he was deeply interestes in the Arts.

During his post parliamentary academic career during the 1990s he pursued interest in public management and management in government. This interest in accountability of public organisations was no doubt a motivation for his role in the beginnings of ART.

Race played a pivotal part in the foundation of the Accountability Round Table.  ART began formal organisation as a working group of the Australasian Study of Parliament Group. However it was felt that the working group was too interested in directly lobbying for change to the ethics and transparency of federal and state governments to fit with the more academically oriented investigations of ASPG.

As a result, the ART work group separated from ASPG, and the home of the meetings of the (at the time) membership (not board) of the now independent ART was also the home of Race and Iola Mathews for a good number of years after 2006.

That was where ART adopted its present name, suggested, from my memory, by Race himself.

Tim Smith, the chair of ART from that time and Race Mathews, along with Ken Coghill, played a very large role in anchoring the ideals of ART and producing our early submissions to government. “Be Honest Minister” was the first of those works.

We send our sincerest sympathies to Iola. Race was a great man. We would not be this organisation without his ability to network and build an advocacy organisation, something in which he was very well practiced.

Julia Thornton

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