Hawke minister denies he was secretly a communist

HAWKE government minister Arthur Gietzelt openly admits that he fraternised with communists during a political career that spanned four decades.

Former Labor senator Arthur Gietzelt, at home in Sydney’s south, says he was ‘never a member of the Communist Party’. Picture: Renee Nowytarger

HAWKE government minister Arthur Gietzelt openly admits that he fraternised with communists during a political career that spanned four decades.

But the 89-year-old is quick to deny claims made in a new book that he was a dual member of the ALP and the Communist Party of Australia and was the reds' main contact inside Labor during the 1960s and 70s.

"It's an absurd suggestion. I was never a member of the CPA, and I certainly didn't do their bidding," Mr Gietzelt told The Australian yesterday at his home in Sydney's south. "In fact, it was the reverse. I was always arguing with the communists that they should lay down their arms and join the Labor movement. It was part of an evolutionary movement, not a revolutionary movement."

The WWII veteran was responding to claims made by Mark Aarons in his book The Family File, previewed in The Weekend Australian, that according to ASIO files Mr Gietzelt and another former Labor senator, Bruce Childs, were secretly loyal to the CPA while members of the ALP.

Efforts to contact Mr Childs were unsuccessful last night.

Aarons, whose father Laurie was the long-term general secretary of the CPA, wrote that ASIO files revealed Mr Gietzelt was "an important (communist) contact" within the Labor Party, and regularly conducted "secret" meetings with senior CPA figures.

Former NSW premier Bob Carr described the book's claims as a "bombshell revelation . . . something long suspected but now spelt out by the ASIO documents and Mark Aarons's family familiarity with Australian communism".

But Mr Gietzelt, who recalls being branded as part of the "pro-communist Left" by members of rival ALP factions, said he was offended by the suggestion he had somehow led a "double life", and maintained he had never tried to hide his associations with members of the CPA.

"I have no problem talking to a person with different political views to my own," he said.

"But my own political beliefs have always been clear. I'm a person that has always talked about democracy and tolerance; I'm against discrimination; I've always advocated women's rights; I have never been a member of the Communist Party."

He didn't know of any Labor politicians who were also CPA members, "but there may have been some rank-and-file Labor people who were".

The Family File refers to a 1969 meeting between Mr Gietzelt, Laurie Aarons and his brother Eric at Eric's flat in Sydney's Neutral Bay that was covertly recorded by ASIO agents. According to Mark Aarons, the meeting confirmed Mr Gietzelt's "continued associations" with the CPA well into the period in which he served as a Labor senator.

Mr Gietzelt remembers the meeting, but says it was far more innocent than the book suggests.

"When I went to see Eric, it was to tell him the wonderful news that the centre Left had won the leadership of the ACTU for Bob Hawke." he said. "It's inferred that because I spoke to Eric and Laurie, that makes me a communist . . . that's absurd. If I speak to a friend who's a priest, that doesn't make me a Catholic."

Mr Gietzelt said he has never met Mark Aarons and believes his book is an attempt to play up the achievements of his father.

"I can only imagine that Mark Aarons is trying to paint Laurie in the most favourable light. And that's fair enough -- but it shouldn't be at the expense of other people."