Former Democrat senator Sid Spindler died at his home on March 1, aged 75. He had dedicated his life to opposing injustice and campaigning for a more socially just world, even when this might have been unpopular. He was always prepared to stand up and be counted on social justice issues.
The stories told by his children at his funeral explain much about his life and why he was so driven to fight injustice. He came to Australia from war-ravaged Europe when he was 17. He never told his children about his experiences during the Second World War, but in the last year or two he started to write his memoirs.
As an eight-year-old growing up in the town of Lot in Poland, Spindler saw the Jewish ghetto in the town teeming with thousands of people. Then one day, as Spindler and his mother were going past the ghetto, his mother shocked to see there were only a few Jewish people left. While Spindler's mother didn't answer his questions about what had happened, the Jews from the ghetto had been taken by Poland's German occupiers to the Nazi death camps,
This and other formative experiences during the years of Nazi rule made Spindler grateful to have the opportunity to live in Australia, but it also drove him to fight for justice for others.
In the 1970s, Spindler sold his painting company and began working for social justice and community agencies. His work with Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory left him with a deep sense of the injustices committed against Aborigines. He remained committed to supporting indigenous rights throughout his life.
When the Howard Coalition government introduced legislation to attack native title rights in 1996, Spindler set up a group in Melbourne called Defenders of Native Title (DON'T). The group spawned many suburban groups that played a major role in convincing thousands of Melbournians to oppose the government's attacks on Aborigines native title rights. DON'T was later renamed Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation.
Spindler was one of the founders of the Australian Democrats in 1977 and was elected to the Senate in 1990 with the highest federal vote ever enjoyed by the Democrats in Victoria. From July 1990 to August 1991, Spindler united then-Democrat leaders Senator Janet Powell to turn the party in a progressive direction. The Powell leadership, for example, offered to pass legislation abolishing the secondary boycott provisions of the Trade Practices Act (sections45 D & E) if the Labor government was prepared to introduce such legislation. Despite the union movement calling for the abolition of the ban on secondary boycotts, Labor PM Bob Hawke refused the Democrats' offer.
It was after Spindler left the Senate in 1996 that the Democrats passed the Howard government's Workplace Relations Act and the GST. Spindler would not have supported either piece of legislation.
As a senator, he was outspoken against Australia's support for the US-led war against Iraq in 1991. He used his position as a senator to campaign in support of Aborigines, refugees, prisoners, pensioners and textile workers. He campaigned against child labour and for environmental protection. He negotiated for the Democrats with the Keating Labor government on its Mabo legislation and campaigned to end discrimination of same-sex couples, introducing the Sexual Discrimination Bill 1995.