John Hatton Making A Difference

– John Hatton, 1994 The life-story of an honest politician. John Hatton AO was born in poverty but by his indomitable tenacity served seven parliamentary terms as Independent Member for South Coast NSW and brought about the Wood Royal Commission which exposed endemic corruption in the NSW Police Force.

They had tried to squash Hatton like a worrisome fly over the Winchester murder. Now it is his turn... Mr Wran: ‘If you are a member of the Liberal Party, you are a crook; if you are a member of any other party, you are a crook. The only person who is not a crook is the honourable member for the South Coast himself, this man as pure as the driven snow, this whited sepulchre who is willing to make every possible accusation, however unfounded, however ungrounded, against anybody, anything, or any organization.’ – Hansard, NSW Legislative Assembly, 15/09/1982 p.759

‘Secrecy is the tool of organized crime and corruption, disarmed only by transparency in the bureaucracy and judicial system.’ – John Hatton, 2007

A$29.95 RRP ISBN: 978-0-646-52183-1 RUTH RICHMOND

Ruth Richmond

John Hatton took on the Mafia, exposed the Underbelly of organized crime and its links with corrupt police. Threatened with death, living in a safe house John and Vera survived.

The stench in this Parliament

The Stench in this Parliament is so great that I, as a citizen, cannot stomach it any longer… Blind Freddy knows that crime is organised. Why is it protected?

RUTH RICHMOND

The

in this

STENCH

Parliament

The story of the Independent nobody who brought down a Premier

The Authorised Biography of John Hatton AO

Ruth Richmond

About the author Ruth Richmond spent sixty seven years of her life, first enjoying a country childhood in Mulwala NSW, then training as an Infant Teacher in Melbourne. The following years were devoted to the role of wife and business partner to her husband Peter Richmond, becoming mother of four children, Amanda, Jennifer, Stephen and Andrew, grandmother to ten grandchildren, and great grandmother to one. During this time she trained in various aspects of the visual arts and taught scripture in schools. At sixty seven, upon retirement from business in Vincentia, she ignored the 80ks travel involved and enrolled full time in the Master of Creative Arts program at University of Wollongong. In 2003 she gained a Master of Creative Arts with distinction. The work A Certain Man, written during this time, received a Wild and Woolly commendation at the Sydney Writers’ Festival in 2004. When John Hatton offered her the task of writing his biography another right hand turn led her into the labyrinth of political research. Realising the project would require skills she did not have she returned to the University of Wollongong and was accepted full time into the Master of Arts program. There she wrote the biography as a political thesis titled The Little Bloke. After graduating in 2006 with a Master of Arts Research Politics, she spent another three years rewriting the thesis to form a biography for general readership, titled The Stench in this Parliament…’. At 73, with excellent health and a zest for life, her future is full of promise and uncertainty.