Light on the Hill

Perhaps it was former Labor Prime Minister Ben Chifley who best expressed what it means to be part of the Labor Movement, when he spoke to the NSW ALP Conference in 1949;

'I try to think of the Labor movement, not as putting an extra sixpence into somebody’s pocket, or making somebody Prime Minister or Premier, but as a movement bringing something better to the people, better standards of living, greater happiness to the mass of the people. We have a great objective—the light on the hill—which we aim to reach by working for the betterment of mankind not only here but anywhere we may give a helping hand. If it were not for that, the Labor movement would not be worth fighting for.

If the movement can make someone more comfortable, give to some father or mother a greater feeling of security for their children, a feeling that if a depression comes there will be work, that the government is striving hardest to do its best, then the Labor movement will be completely justified.'

——Ben Chifley, 1949.

Read Ben Chifley's Light on the Hill Address