Politician without a Parliament Gary Lockwood written with Sandra Kanck - Pre-Order Now Coming Soon October 2026
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"A valuable and rarely seen persepctive on the political tensions shaping SA"
How did a young man who left school the day he turned fifteen, five decades later catalyse an inquiry into one of the most tempestuous political scandals of the South Australian Parliament’s first decade of this century – the Atkinson-Ashbourne-Clarke affair?
Politics was not part of Gary Lockwood’s family, but when his beloved Catholic church in Europe was under siege by communists, after two years as an active Labor Party member, at the age of seventeen Gary instead became an election organiser in what would become the Democratic Labor Party.
Gary had a nose for politics, either sniffing it out or creating it, not just party politics but the politics of religion, private school funding, unionism, the retail industry, school uniforms, taxation and refugees.
Whether it was standing up to the hierarchy of his church, stalling shop trading hours reform, or fighting pentecostalists who were taking over South Australia’s school chaplaincy programs, in this poignant and powerful memoir written with the assistance of Sandra Kanck, Gary Lockwood’s feats read like a ‘Boy’s Own Annual’.
ISBN: 9781764341493 234 x 153mm 294pp
"A valuable and rarely seen persepctive on the political tensions shaping SA"
How did a young man who left school the day he turned fifteen, five decades later catalyse an inquiry into one of the most tempestuous political scandals of the South Australian Parliament’s first decade of this century – the Atkinson-Ashbourne-Clarke affair?
Politics was not part of Gary Lockwood’s family, but when his beloved Catholic church in Europe was under siege by communists, after two years as an active Labor Party member, at the age of seventeen Gary instead became an election organiser in what would become the Democratic Labor Party.
Gary had a nose for politics, either sniffing it out or creating it, not just party politics but the politics of religion, private school funding, unionism, the retail industry, school uniforms, taxation and refugees.
Whether it was standing up to the hierarchy of his church, stalling shop trading hours reform, or fighting pentecostalists who were taking over South Australia’s school chaplaincy programs, in this poignant and powerful memoir written with the assistance of Sandra Kanck, Gary Lockwood’s feats read like a ‘Boy’s Own Annual’.
ISBN: 9781764341493 234 x 153mm 294pp
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
In a life dominated by his mother, politicians and popes, Gary Lockwood light-heartedly says he is a religious crank and a political fool. But he is much more than this.
Born in 1938 into an unstable, sometimes impoverished and frequently transient family, his mother’s Catholic faith gave Gary the strength to deal with debilitating form of arthritis — ankylosing spondylitis — which wreaked permanent damage on his spine and lungs by the time he was eighteen.
Aged fifteen, on joining the Shop Assistants Union, the Labor Party and its related industry group, Gary assumed leadership roles in all of them. Becoming a campaign organiser for the Anti-Communist Labor Party, then the first paid employee of the Democratic Labor Party in SA, 28 years ago he returned to his political home, the Labor Party. Gary has worked for three state Labor politicians, has been employed in the retail industry, and with his wife and family ran a school uniform manufacturing and retail business.
Married to Marie, since their wedding day more than sixty years ago they have lived in their home in the Adelaide suburb of Clearview, the proud parents of three children and grandparents of four. Gary has remained a faithful and active member of his local church throughout his eighty-eight years of life, pivoting from being a hard-line anti-communist Catholic to a gentler ecumenical approach to his religious faith.
In a life dominated by his mother, politicians and popes, Gary Lockwood light-heartedly says he is a religious crank and a political fool. But he is much more than this.
Born in 1938 into an unstable, sometimes impoverished and frequently transient family, his mother’s Catholic faith gave Gary the strength to deal with debilitating form of arthritis — ankylosing spondylitis — which wreaked permanent damage on his spine and lungs by the time he was eighteen.
Aged fifteen, on joining the Shop Assistants Union, the Labor Party and its related industry group, Gary assumed leadership roles in all of them. Becoming a campaign organiser for the Anti-Communist Labor Party, then the first paid employee of the Democratic Labor Party in SA, 28 years ago he returned to his political home, the Labor Party. Gary has worked for three state Labor politicians, has been employed in the retail industry, and with his wife and family ran a school uniform manufacturing and retail business.
Married to Marie, since their wedding day more than sixty years ago they have lived in their home in the Adelaide suburb of Clearview, the proud parents of three children and grandparents of four. Gary has remained a faithful and active member of his local church throughout his eighty-eight years of life, pivoting from being a hard-line anti-communist Catholic to a gentler ecumenical approach to his religious faith.
REVIEWS
Over the course of his long life, Gary Lockwood has been an activist, organiser and factional player in some of the key battles fought within two of the great passions of his life – the labour movement and the Catholic Church. His insider’s account not only lays bare the depths of divisions he encountered, it offers a valuable and rarely seen perspective of the deep social change and political tensions that shaped South Australia in the post war years. This book looks to settle some old debates, but in doing so may well reawaken others. - - Clem Macintyre, Department of Politics and International Relations, Adelaide University
Because so much of Gary Lockwood's life is previously unknown, the inside stories of this remarkable man will make anyone with the slightest interest in South Australian history sit up and take notice. - - Allison Murchie, Oral historian
Over the course of his long life, Gary Lockwood has been an activist, organiser and factional player in some of the key battles fought within two of the great passions of his life – the labour movement and the Catholic Church. His insider’s account not only lays bare the depths of divisions he encountered, it offers a valuable and rarely seen perspective of the deep social change and political tensions that shaped South Australia in the post war years. This book looks to settle some old debates, but in doing so may well reawaken others. - - Clem Macintyre, Department of Politics and International Relations, Adelaide University
Because so much of Gary Lockwood's life is previously unknown, the inside stories of this remarkable man will make anyone with the slightest interest in South Australian history sit up and take notice. - - Allison Murchie, Oral historian
