Long-ago night of faceless men still Labor's albatross

Whitlam, foreground, and Calwell in the famous 1963 picture.

FIFTY years ago, journalist Alan Reid arranged for photographs to be taken of Labor's then federal leader, Arthur Calwell, and his deputy, Gough Whitlam, waiting outside under a street light as ALP powerbrokers met in a Canberra hotel to determine a key item of ALP policy.

There could be no clearer evidence of their subservience to the party machine. Five damaging photographs appeared in Sydney's The Daily Telegraph on Friday, March 22, 1963.