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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-05-15 Daily Xml
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Apap, Mr G.

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (15:16): Many were saddened to hear on 3 May of the death of George Apap, the former secretary of the Storemen and Packers' Union, South Australia Branch. George was born on 10 June 1939 in Malta, the son of Louis Apap, a fodder store worker, and Josephine, nee Camillero. The website Labour Australia tells us that George was educated at Gharb Gozo public school before arriving in Australia in August 1953.

He began work on the Melbourne wharves for ANL aged 20. As a job delegate in the 1960s, he refused, for safety reasons, to allow a demonstration of the first 20-tonne crane introduced to the Melbourne docks. It seems George was a born activist, and in the late 1950s he organised weekly Melbourne strikes, prompted by the refusal of a company to pay a union levy. In 1967, after exhaust systems were upgraded, he led the campaign against ANL's attempt to get rid of the 'puffer man', where ships' holds were tested for car and truck fumes. George addressed workers on safety aspects, resulting in a strike which won the case.

He remained an active union organiser for the Victorian Storemen and Packers' Union until 1973, when he was sent to South Australia by the union's national executive. On his arrival, he started the May Day Committee with Ron Barclay, with the first march taking place in 1974. He was also instrumental in the establishment of the Semaphore Workers Club. George reviewed the SA branch's operations and resolved its financial problems. He then stood for the position of secretary and won with 84 per cent of the vote.

In 1974, George campaigned for a 35-hour week at the then Adelaide Oil Refinery, Port Stanvac. The ensuing strike lasted 3½ weeks. South Australia ran out of fuel and George required a 24-hour police guard. The dispute was eventually won, though, seeing Port Stanvac workers become the first group to get the 35-hour week. In 1976, he led a wool stores dispute that ran for six weeks with a 24-hour picket for the duration of the dispute.

George's time as secretary also included a titanic struggle against the Shop Assistants Union to gain membership coverage in the retail warehouses of Coles and Woolworths. The Storemen and Packers' Union involvement led to a situation where the wages of workers in warehouses were higher than those of the workers in the retail shops at the time.

George was a great champion for his union members, and he increased branch membership from 1,200 to 3,000 in 18 months and eliminated a starting debt of $12,000 while at the same time increasing assets to about $1 million at the time of his departure some 20 years later.

Internationally, George also worked to stop injustice. In August 1975, he was a member of a five-person ACTU delegation to Athens to assist in rebuilding Greek trade unions after their disbandment. During his stay in Athens, he marched with 500,000 workers against Franco's political killings in Spain and, no doubt because of this experience and others, he joined the Peace Committee in the early 1980s.

In 1985, he went to the Philippines for a visit to trade unions and donated money and organised Australian support for the Nestlé workers who had been on strike for 12 months through a ban on the unloading of containers. George helped to win the strike and was carried through the factory on the shoulders of Filipino workers.

George was a member of the United Trades and Labor Council of South Australia (UTLC), on executive from 1975 to 1983 and president from 1981 to 1982. His union work extended into broader community work and in 1980, he became a union representative at the Correctional Services Board on Community Orders.

George joined the ALP in 1960 and was president of Young Labor and the Broadmeadows sub-branch in 1965. He was an active election campaigner and fundraiser. In 1979, George successfully sought ALP selection for the state seat of Semaphore, a campaign that delivered a rare loss, as it saw Norm Peterson elected to the South Australian parliament as an Independent. George was elected to the ALP executive and held positions of junior vice-president in 1986 and senior vice-president in 1987. In a rare departure from tradition, he did not succeed to the presidency. In 1988, he was expelled from the ALP for challenging premier Bannon for not doing enough for workers and for criticising the Hawke leadership.

I am told that before expulsion George once faced charges of disloyalty to the ALP. He was charged with the details in writing and told to appear in person with his response to the charges in writing. George, in typical style, produced his response written in Maltese and refused to translate it, incurring the further wrath of the many who eventually saw him off.

In the late 1980s, a number of small state and federally-based unions amalgamated and saw the Storemen and Packers become part of the National Union of Workers. That union paid tribute to George in The Advertiser last week. George retired from the workforce in December 1992 and, unsurprisingly, remained active in the community. He stood for election again in 1995, this time for a federal seat for the Greens. Our former state parliamentary colleague Peter Duncan reminded me that his law firm, Duncan Basheer Hannon, had the privilege of being lawyers for George and the union for many years and that together they scored some notable victories for working people.

George has been described to me variously as colourful, loveable, irascible, incorrigible and unpredictable. He had his differences with people and was a formidable foe, but as a comrade and friend he was faithful to a fault, and in response his members showed him great loyalty. Vale George Apap, a good bloke and a great champion of the working class and the labour movement in South Australia. To his family and many friends, our sincere condolences are extended to you all in this time of sorrow and loss.

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