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Ross McMullin, ‘Yes Mr. Watson’ Our First Labor PM

Did you know that Australia was home to the first labour national government in the world? As the first Labor PM and first Federal leader of the ALP, Chris Watson is seldom remembered as more than the answer to a trivia question. Yet this should not be the case, as he has a remarkable story that reveals the Labor perspective on the emergence of our enduring party system. Hear how a humble boy born in odd circumstances off the coast of Chile ended up rising to the highest position in our nation. Joining us this week on the Afternoon Light Podcast is Watson’s biographer Ross McMullin.

Want to learn more? Listen to the other side of the story from Watson’s contemporary & Liberal Prime Minister Joseph Cook.

Ross McMullin is an award-winning historian, biographer, and storyteller. His biographies include Pompey Elliott, which won multiple awards, and Will Dyson: Australia’s radical genius, and he also assembled Elliott’s extraordinary letters in Pompey Elliott at War: in his own words. His political histories comprise The Light on the Hill and So Monstrous a Travesty: Chris Watson and the world’s first national labour government. His book Farewell, Dear People: biographies of Australia’s lost generation was awarded the Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian History.