AS the tributes flowed for Lionel Bowen yesterday, all acknowledged the shrewd judgment, decency and Labor values that made him a model deputy to Bob Hawke.
All of this is true. But if political fortune had favoured him a little bit more, he could have been premier or prime minister.
If Bowen hadn't made the switch from state to federal politics, he could have played a key role in state Labor's revival after it lost government in 1965.
In 1976, after the drubbing of the Whitlam government, Bowen stood for leader. He came second with 14 votes to Gough Whitlam's 36 and Frank Crean's 13. In 1977, he narrowly lost a leadership ballot to Bill Hayden, 36-28.
Bowen was aligned with the NSW Labor Right faction but, as Hawke said, he was not "a creature" of it. As early as 1976, the NSW Right was working to make Hawke -- not yet in parliament -- leader while giving Hayden interim support.
Leadership aspirations behind him, Bowen became one of the party's most respected and longest-serving deputy leaders, from 1977 to 1990.
In a career spanning four decades, he was a mayor, state MP and minister in the Whitlam and Hawke governments. In 1973, he led the first parliamentary delegation to China.
As acting education minister, he secured parliamentary passage of changes to schools funding so it was based on need, forever linking his name with an enduring reform.
As deputy prime minister, he gave wise counsel based on his vast experience, community links and core Labor instincts.
The funeral was a tribal Labor gathering as the pews filled with past prime ministers, premiers, ministers and party stalwarts. Bowen belonged to a generation of old-school Labor politicians. He remained true to his values and never lost the faith.
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