Footnotes
*The authors would like to thank Labour History’s two anonymous referees. They also thank Westfund for providing access to archival materials held at their head office in Lithgow. This article is based on materials collected as part of a larger project charting the history of Westfund which was funded by that organisation.
1.Maurice Glasman, “Labour as a Radical Tradition,” in The Labour Tradition and the Politics of Paradox: The Oxford London Seminars 2010–2011, ed. Maurice Glasman, Jonathan Rutherford, Marc Stears and Stuart White (London: London Oxford Seminars, 2011), 23.
2.Andrew Gale and David Watson, Adventures in Health Risk: A History of Australian Health Insurance (Melbourne: Institute of Actuaries of Australia, 2007), 18.
3.Johnston Birchall, People-Centered Businesses: Co-operatives, Mutuals and the Idea of Membership (Houndsmills, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), 6.
4.Ibid.
5.Nikola Balnave and Greg Patmore, “Rochdale Consumer Co-operatives in Australia: Decline and Survival,” Business History 54, no. 6 (2012): 987; Johnston Birchall, “A ‘Member-Owned Business’ Approach to the Classification of Co-operatives and Mutuals,” Journal of Co-operative Studies 44, no. 2 (2011): 4–15; Birchall, People-Centered Businesses, 3.
6.Race Matthews, Jobs of Our Own: Building a Stake-Holder Society: Alternatives to the Market and the State (Annandale, NSW: Pluto Press, 1999), 168–73.
7.Dan Weinbren and Bob James, “Getting a Grip: The Roles of Friendly Societies in Australia and Britain Reappraised,” Labour History, no. 88 (May 2005): 87, 96.
8.Leslie Falk, “Coal Miners’ Prepaid Medical Care in the United States - and Some British Relationships, 1792–1964,” Medical Care 4, no. 1 (1966): 38.
9.Robin Gollan, The Coalminers of New South Wales: A History of the Union, 1860–1960 (Parkville, Vic.: Melbourne University Press, 1963), 28.
10.David Green and Lawrence Cromwell, Mutual Aid or Welfare State: Australia’s Friendly Societies (North Sydney: George Allen & Unwin, 1984), 79.
11.Nikki Balnave and Greg Patmore, “The AMWU: Politics and Industrial Relations, 1852–2012,” in Organise, Educate, Control: The AMWU in Australia 1852–2012, ed. Andrew Reeves and Andrew Dettmer (Clayton, Vic.: Monash University Publishing, 2013), 5.
12.Sidney Webb and Beatrice Webb, Industrial Democracy (London: Amalgamated Society of Engineers, 1898), 159. More recently, in 1987, the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) argued that “[i]ncreased pressure on public spending in areas such as social security, health benefits, education, etc, may make it worthwhile to look at the provision of membership services to fill the gaps. Unions should also give consideration to the provision of insurance and financial services; superannuation advice; topping-up of health benefits; arts, cultural and social services, and credit facilities.” ACTU, Future Strategies for the Trade Union Movement (Melbourne: ACTU, 1987), 19.
13.Webb and Webb, Industrial Democracy, 152.
14.Ibid., 154.
15.Ibid., 161.
16.Ibid., 155.
17.Ibid., 171.
18.Ibid., 767.
19.A. M. McBriar, Fabian Socialism and English Politics, 1884–1918 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1962), 69.
20.T. Horton, “A Short Guide to the Minority Report,” in From the Workhouse to Welfare, ed. E. Wallis (London: Fabian Society, 2009).
21.G. D. H. Cole, The British Co-Operative Movement in a Socialist Society (London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd, 1951), 15.
22.Glasman, “Labour as a Radical Tradition,” 21–23.
23.Peter Beilharz, “The Labourist Tradition and the Reforming Imagination,” in Australian Welfare: Historical Sociology, ed. R. Kennedy (Melbourne: Macmillian, 1989), 137.
24.Peter Beilharz, “Australian Laborism, Social Democracy, and Social Justice,” Social Justice 16, no. 3 (1989): 15–29.
25.Beilharz, “The Labourist Tradition and Reforming Imagination,” 132–53.
26.Humphrey McQueen, “Laborism and Socialism,” in The Australian New Left, ed. Richard Gordon (Melbourne: William Heinemann, 1970), 43–65.
27.Beilharz, “The Labourist Tradition and Reforming Imagination,” 137.
28.Francis G. Castles, The Working Class and Welfare: Reflections on the Political Development of the Welfare State in Australia and New Zealand, 1890–1980 (Wellington: Allen and Unwin, 1985), 77–79.
29.Ibid., 103.
30.Jim Hagan, The History of the ACTU (Melbourne, Vic.: Longman Cheshire, 1981), 14.
31.Castles, The Working Class and Welfare, 104.
32.Greg Patmore and David Coates, “Labour Parties and the State in Australia and the UK,” Labour History, no. 88 (May 2005): 123–24; Leighton James and Ray Markey, “Class and Labour: The British Labour Party and the Australian Labor Party Compared,” Labour History, no. 90 (May 2006): 31–36.
33.Brian Dickey, No Charity There: A Short History of Social Welfare in Australia, 2nd ed. (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1987), 128–29; James Gillespie, The Price of Health: Australian Governments and Medical Politics 1910–1960 (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 105–109; Hagan, The History of the ACTU, 173–74.
34.Green and Cromwell, Mutual Aid or Welfare State, 160–70; Newcastle Morning Herald, 1 July 1953, 4; Gillespie, The Price of Health, 277; Sidney Sax, A Strife of Interests: Politics and Policies in Australian Health Services (North Sydney: George Allen and Unwin, 1984), 60–65; Sydney Morning Herald, 1 July 1953, 5.
35.Ann-Marie Boxall and James Gillespie, Making Medicare: The Politics of Universal Health Care in Australia (Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2013), 35; Commonwealth of Australia, Health Insurance: Report of the Commonwealth Committee of Enquiry (Canberra: Australian Government Printing Office, 1969), 7; Jennifer De Voe and Stephanie Short, “A Shift in the Historical Trajectory of Medical Dominance: The Case of Medibank and the Australian Doctors’ Lobby,” Social Science and Medicine, no. 57 (2003): 348–49; Gale and Watson, Adventures in Health Risk, 4; Sax, A Strife of Interests, 75–96.
36.Boxall and Gillespie, Making Medicare, 37.
37.Australian Women’s Weekly, 9 July 1975, 15; Boxall and Gillespie, Making Medicare, 36–77; Canberra Times, 18 November 1974, 6; 24 December 1974, 3; 24 March 1975, 3, 18 April 1975, 9; De Voe and Short, “A Shift in the Historical Trajectory of Medical Dominance,” 349–50; Dickey, No Charity There, 173; Stephen Duckett, “Making a Difference in Health Care,” in The Hawke Government: A Critical Retrospective, ed. Susan Ryan and Troy Bramston (North Melbourne, Vic.: Pluto Press, 2003), 215–16; Gale and Watson, Adventures in Health Risk, 5; Heather Gardner, “Political Parties and Health Policies,” in The Politics of Health: The Australian Experience, ed. Heather Gardiner, 2nd ed. (Melbourne, Vic.: Churchill Livingstone, 1995), 167–68; Sax, A Strife of Interests, 108–22; Richard Scotton and Christine MacDonald, The Making of Medibank (Kensington, NSW: School of Health Services Management, University of NSW, 1993), 19–29, 41–44, 50–146. Data from Commonwealth Department of Health, Operations of the Registered Medical Benefits and Hospital Benefits Organizations: Annual Reports for the respective years.
38.Boxall and Gillespie, Making Medicare, 79–89, 101; Sax, A Strife of Interests, 129–30, 136–38, 155–56; Scotton and MacDonald, The Making of Medibank, 249–57.
39.Australian Trade Union Training Authority, Statement of Accord by the Australian Labor Party and the Australian Council of Trade Unions regarding Economic Policy, February 1983 (Wodonga: TUTA, 1983), 17.
40.Duckett, “Making a Difference in Health Care,” 216; Gillespie and Boxall, Making Medicare, 143–44.
41.Gale and Watson, Adventures in Health Risk, 6–7.
42.Andrew Metcalfe, For Freedom and Dignity: Historical Agency and Class Structure in the Coalfields of NSW (North Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1988), 61.
43.Joseph Carne, Geology and Mineral Resources on the Western Coalfield with Maps and Sections (Sydney: NSW Government Printer, 1908), 190; Greg Patmore, “Localism and Labour: Lithgow 1869–1932,” Labour History, no. 78 (May 2000): 60; Metcalfe, For Freedom and Dignity, 61–63.
44.Patmore, “Localism and Labour,” 61–64.
45.John Benson, “English Coal-Miners’ Trade Union Accident Funds,” Economic History Review 28, no. 3 (1975): 401–12; Ray Christison, A Light in the Vale: Development of the Lithgow District Miners’ Mutual Protective Association 1875–1900 (Lithgow, NSW: City of Greater Lithgow Mining Museum, 2012), 26–27, 63; Eskbank Lodge Minutes, 2 December 1889, MLMSS 1692, Mitchell Special Collections, State Library of NSW; Falk, “Coal Miners’ Prepaid Medical Care in the United States”; Lithgow Mercury, 3 March 1905, 4; Lithgow Valley Collieries Yearly Sick and Accident Fund Minutes, 27 February 1909, 17 March 1911, City of Greater Lithgow Mining Museum Collection; National Advocate (Bathurst), 7 October 1896; Vale of Clwydd Lodge Minutes, 6 May 1881, E165/33/1A, Noel Butlin Archives Centre, Australian National University.
46.Lithgow Mercury, 11 May 1917, 4; 15 June 1917, 6; 3 August 1917, 3; 17 August 1917, 6; 24 November 1917, 2; 25 January 1918, 6; 6 February 1918, 2; 10 May 1918, 6; 22 May 1918, 2; 14 June 1918, 6; 16 August 1918, 6; 19 August 1918, 2; 18 November 1918, 2; 16 December 1918, 2; 23 December 1918, 2; 20 January 1919, 2; 31 January 1919; Public Hospitals Act, NSW Act no. 8, 1929, section 40; Sydney Morning Herald, 13 October 1919, 7.
47.Common Cause, 25 June 1938, 8; 23 July 1938, 4.
48.Barrier Daily Truth, 25 July 1946, 3; Gillespie, The Price of Health, 201; Mudgee Guardian and North-Western Representative, 18 July 1946, 16; Steelworks Mine Lodge Minutes, 23 July 1946, City of Greater Lithgow Mining Museum Collection.
49.Common Cause, 6 June 1953, 6; Western District Board of Management Meeting Minutes, Australasian Coal and Shale Employees Federation (ACSEF), 13 September 1952, 1 June 1953, Lithgow City Library.
50.Common Cause, 26 February 1955, 3; Interview by authors with Len Ashworth, Editor of Lithgow Mercury, Lithgow, 13 January 2015; Letter, G. Danaher to M McNamara, 18 March 1987, Westfund Archives Lithgow (hereafter WAL; Lithgow Mercury, 27 July 1955, 1.
52.Memo, Medibank, 19 June 1978, WAL; Westfund, Annual Report: 1976–1977, no page numbers.
53.Boxall and Gillespie, Making Medicare, 82–83.
54.Ibid., 85–87.
55.Westfund, 29th Annual Report: 1981–82, 1; Interview by authors with Grahame Danaher, CEO of Westfund, Lithgow, 13 January 2015; Interview by authors with Howard Fisher, Chair of Westfund, Lithgow, 13 January 2015; Telephone interview by authors with Ross White, Director of Westfund, 19 January 2016; Lithgow Mercury, 23 November 1981, 4; The Press, 22 June 1982, 3; Western District Board of Management Meeting Minutes, ACSEF, 17 October 1975, Lithgow City Library; Westfund, 1953–1993 (Lithgow, NSW: Westfund, 1993), no page numbers; Data from Commonwealth Department of Health, Operations of the Registered Medical Benefits and Hospital Benefits Organizations: Annual Reports for the respective years; Boxall and Gillespie, Making Medicare.
57.Westfund, Annual Report 1985/86.
59.Lithgow Mercury, 4 April 1987; Grahame Danaher’s Report to WDHF Board Meeting, 23 September 1988 and 22 June 1990, WAL.
60.Letter from Simmons to Blewitt, 28 September 1983, WAL.
61.Healthdate, 23 November 1987; Lithgow Mercury, 5 March 1988; Letters from Simmons to Blewett dated 28 September 1983, 16 November 1983, WAL.
62.Healthdate, 19 January 1988; Letters, McPherson, Town Clerk, Council of the City of Greater Lithgow to Executive Officer, WDHF, 28 January 1988; WDHF to Jim Angel, Mayor City of the Blue Mountains, 17 February 1988; WDHF to R. J. Hawke, 29 March 1988, Prime Minister; Press Release, VHIAA (Voluntary Health Insurance Association of Australia), 9 March 1988, WAL; Lithgow Mercury, 5 March 1988.
63.Gale and Watson, Adventures in Health Risk, 4.
64.Ibid., 6.
65.Media Release, “Wrong Advice Forces Up Health Insurance Costs,” NIB Health Funds, 28 February 1990; Letter, D. Simmons to G. Danaher, 20 March 1990, WAL.
68.Lithgow Mercury, 26 May 1987; Wellington Times, 14 June 1995.
69.Media Release, “Wrong Advice Forces Up Health Insurance Costs.”
70.Letter WDHF to Member, undated; Facsimile of press advertisement, 21 March 1990; Facsimile, NSW Teachers Federation, “A Threat to Union Based Health Funds,” 1 March 1990; Letter, HIRMAA (Health Insurance Restricted Membership Association of Australia) to Editor, Lithgow Mercury, 16 March 1990; Letter, Government Employees Health Fund to Editor, Lithgow Mercury, 9 March 1990; Facsimile copy (1 March 1990) of letter Labor Council of New South Wales to N. Blewett, 29 March 1989; WDHF, Reply to Blewett and Simmons Statement, undated, WAL; Lithgow Mercury, 1 March 1990; WestCare, March 1990, December 1990.
71.Fund Management Report to WDHF Annual General Meeting, 29 September 1992, WAL.