No Holds Barred, Hughie Williams: Olympic Wrestlers and Trade Union Heavyweight

Description

Hughie Williams overcame tremendous odds to reach the top. He was reserve for the Australian wrestling team at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and represented his country in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. From the late 1960s he stood up as a staunch left-wing opponent of the Joh Bjelke-Petersen government. Involved in reforming the Queensland Labor Party in the 1980s, he became a senior vice-president, before becoming embroiled in a decade-long dispute within the Transport Workers' Union. He was subjected to 'witch hunts' and death threats, attacked under parliamentary privilege, gave evidence against corruption at the 1990-91 Cooke Inquiry into Trade Unions, and in May 2000 was elected Federal President of the Transport Workers' Union.