Tony Abbott and Peter Costello turned down future in Labor

As young men, Tony Abbott and former treasurer Peter Costello were wooed by the Labor Party and the trade unions.

As young men, Tony Abbott and former treasurer Peter Costello were wooed by the Labor Party and the trade union movement with a view to either man becoming a leading figure in the labour movement in its industrial wing and politically.

Mr Costello was formally ­offered a job with the Ironworkers Union, which he turned down. The same union had worked to ­attract Mr Abbott, but the move came to nothing when Mr Abbott refused to join Labor.

My new book, When We Were Young and Foolish, revealspreviously unknown details of the ­efforts by the labour movement to catch either or both of the two ­rising stars.

The offers were made in the 1980s after the pair had become prominent as university student leaders of the campaign against communist and extremist control of the Australian Union of ­Students in the late 70s.

Michael Easson, who was first assistant secretary, then secretary, of the NSW Labor Council for a decade from 1984, was involved in efforts to recruit both men.

He said this week that he thought Mr Abbott would have made a strong and effective union leader: “I thought he would be tough and effective and sensible at the same time.’’

Mr Easson also said that he discussed the option of Mr Costello joining the Ironworkers Union as a research officer.

Mr Costello confirmed the job offer.

“Coming out of university I was flattered to be offered positions by both employer groups and ­unions,’’ he said. “I was intent on starting a legal career which I did and which proved to be quite successful.”

When We Were Young and Foolish reveals Labor put in a ­sustained effort for several years from the early 80s to recruit Mr ­Abbott, even during the years when he was a student at a Catholic seminary, training for the priesthood.

These efforts were led by the legendary Johnno Johnson, who was for several years the president of the NSW upper house.

Mr Johnson had Mr Abbott as a feted guest for three special dinners in the President’s Dining Room. At one dinner then NSW premier Barrie Unsworth attended. Another was attended by Bob Carr, who was a minister in both the Wran and Unsworth governments.

Mr Carr also met Mr Abbott in his NSW parliament house office and put the case for joining the Labor Party to him, as he had put the same case to Mr Costello.

I was present at one lunch with Mr Abbott and Mr Carr in the early 80s at which Mr Carr laid out his generic case for joining the Labor Party.

Both Mr Abbott and I were ­enthusiastic anti-communists and Mr Carr made the case for Labor Party membership on those grounds.

“If you’re interested in fighting communists, there’s no point in joining the Liberal Party, because there are no communists in the Liberal Party,” Mr Carr said.

“There are other reasons to join the Labor Party. You don’t have to agree to every one of its policies.

“I say to some of those young university activists and graduates, if you join the Labor Party and continue your activism, in a few years time you could easily find yourself sitting in a state parliament, or even the federal parliament.”

Although Mr Abbott and Mr Costello have said they did not ­seriously consider joining the Labor Party, as undergraduates both had said or written things to offer some hope to Labor scouts.

Mr Costello founded a group called the Social Democratic ­Students Federation, in part to make it clear to students that all moderate groups opposed the far left.

Mr Costello said in an interview with Mr Carr for TheBulletin magazine in the late 1970s that: “We (the social democrats) are the democratic Left, the social democrats. We’re strong opponents of those on the Leninist Left and the conservative Right.”

Mr Abbott wrote an article for the Sydney University publication Democrat in 1977 in which he ­declared: “Man does not live by colour TV set alone. We of the Democratic Club believe strongly in the ideals which underlie this seemingly trite expression, given there is a shortage of resources in the world.

“It is disturbing to see so much frivolous and glutinous consumption by a privileged minority. Gross selfishness is not something we in any way admire.

“Yet neither is it just to simply hand over food and money as a salve to our consumerist consciences.’’

Labor leader Bill Shorten first worked for the AWU as an organiser in 1994, just after it had amalgamated with the Ironworkers Union.

It is one of the countless ironies of history that had Mr Abbott or Mr Costello taken up a job with the Ironworkers Union they would probably have been Mr Shorten’s boss.

The Australian Plus members can get 35% off the RRP of Greg Sheridan’s When We Were Young and Foolish