Unending struggle to make a better world was much valued

Sydney Morning Herald

12-05-2025

RACE MATHEWS March 27, 1935-May 5, 2025
My beloved husband Race Mathews died peacefully on May 5, 2025, from Alzheimer's disease, aged 90. He had a rich and fulfilling life as a family man, politician, academic, author and reformer, and served at three levels of government – local, state and federal.
Charles Race Thorson Mathews (known as Race) was born on March 27, 1935, in Melbourne to Ray Mathews, an accountant in the taxation department, and Jean Mathews, a homemaker. They came from a long line of working-class families and were passionate Labor supporters. Race had a very happy childhood, with two younger brothers, David and Bill.
Race began his political awakening by reading left-wing books in the library of Melbourne Grammar School and participating in the school's mock parliament. At Toorak Teachers' College he met his first wife, Jill, and married at 20. They had three children, Sean, Jane and Vanessa and moved to outer-suburban Croydon, where Race served on Croydon council, as well as becoming active in the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and running the Fabian Society. With his friend David Bennett, he developed Labor's policy on education and helped Gough Whitlam bring about 'Intervention' (reform) in the Victorian ALP in 1970.
From 1967 to 1972, Race worked for Whitlam as his principal private secretary, (principal adviser) which he later said was 'the most tumultuous, and by far the most rewarding' time of his career, when he helped develop Whitlam's policies on education and Medibank (later Medicare). In 1970, tragedy struck when Jill died of cancer aged only 34, soon after giving birth to a daughter, Alida, who lived for only 24 hours. Race's parents moved in to help care for the three children, who were still very young.
Race and I met in 1971 when I was a journalist at The Age, and we were married in 1972. A few months later, Whitlam became prime minister, and Race was elected MP for Casey. He served in the Whitlam government from 1972-75, chairing two parliamentary committees. During that time, we had two children, Keir and Talya.
In 1976, Race became principal adviser to Victorian opposition leader Clyde Holding and then Frank Wilkes. In 1979, Race was elected MP for Oakleigh in the State Parliament and in 1982 Labor won government with John Cain as premier. Race served in the Victorian government for a total of 13 years, including five-and-a-half years as minister for police and emergency services and minister for the arts (which The Age dubbed 'the Minister for Pigs and Prigs'), and one year as minister for community services.
While minister for police and emergency services, he modernised the police force, tightened gun laws and improved Victoria's disaster response, especially after the 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires. As minister for the arts, he opened the Arts Centre on Southbank, established the Spoleto International Festival of the Arts, the Melbourne Writers Festival and oversaw Victoria's 150th celebrations. His two portfolios of police and arts overlapped in 1986, with the theft of Picasso's Weeping Woman from the National Gallery of Victoria by the Australian Cultural Terrorists, who wanted more funding for young artists. The painting was returned two weeks later unharmed.
As Minister for Community Services, he strengthened child protection and oversaw de-institutionalisation of the intellectually disabled.