Lawyer, politician, High Court judge, alleged corrupter of justice. The first biography of Lionel Murphy recasts his public image after his fall from grace and recognises him as a passionate defender of democracy.

Strange how an alleged off-the-cuff remark can inveigle itself into a nation's consciousness, and along the way attach a regrettable footnote to a public life. But that was exactly the fate that befell Lionel Murphy, best remembered today by many Australians for the deathless line: "And now what about my little mate?"

The comment, reported in 1984 during a Senate Committee Inquiry into Murphy's alleged behaviour, was supposed to have been made to a NSW magistrate in support of a friend before the courts. However, it did more than raise the question of corruptibility in the minds of many Australians: reaction to the alleged remark signalled the slide into public derision of one of the country's greatest legal reformers.

Eleven years after his death, there is now hope that many Australians are about to learn the whole truth about Lionel Murphy: Labor senator, first Attorney-General in the Whitlam Government, High Court judge, passionate defender of democracy.

"We are told all the time by politicians that nothing is possible, it's all too hard. For Lionel Murphy, nothing appeared too hard. He achieved much in a very short time, not through self-interest but through a desire to see people live in a civilised society."

The speaker is Dr Jenny Hocking, author of the first biography of one of Australia's most controversial political figures. Her new book, Lionel Murphy: A Political Biography, traces Murphy's career from his initial success as one of NSW's leading labour lawyers to his rise through Labor's parliamentary ranks and a seat on the High Court.

For most Australians, Murphy's story begins with the election of the Whitlam Government in 1972. With his appointment to the ministry, the new Attorney-General embarked on an ambitious program of reform. "He introduced a phenomenal amount of legislation," Dr Hocking says.

In scarcely two years Murphy presided over the introduction of legal aid, the Racial Discrimination Act, the Trade Practices Act, the Family Law Act, the abolition of the death penalty and Australia's opposition in the International Court of Justice to French nuclear tests in the Pacific.

Dr Hocking, a senior lecturer in the National Centre for Australian Studies at Monash, first became aware of Murphy's influence on Australian political life during research for her first book, Beyond Terrorism: The Development of the Australian Security State. In 1991 her growing curiosity became public when she co-wrote 'Mr Neal is Entitled to be an Agitator', an award-winning ABC documentary based on Murphy's career.

The book, says Dr Hocking, not only gave her an oppotunity to recast the public image of Murphy, it also acted as a vehicle for understanding the huge shifts in Australian politics between the 1950s and the 1980s. "It provided a wonderful opportunity to go back through Australian political history."

It seems Australians share Dr Hocking's interest and enthusiasm: three print runs of her book have already sold out. "I have always felt that people were interested in Murphy. Those who experienced the Whitlam era remember him intensely and see the final period of his life as one of injustice."

The legacy of the bitter disputes that split Labor politics during the 1950s was still evident during Murphy's period as Attorney-General, Dr Hocking says. "Murphy had positioned himself in such a way that he would never be safe in the right-wing NSW Labor machine, which tried to have him expelled on more than one occasion.

"While the conservative elements had split from Labor in the rest of the country to form the Democratic Labor Party, in NSW they stayed with Labor. As a result, Murphy didn't have complete support, even within his own party, for his more liberal reforms."

By the time he moved to the High Court in February 1975, Murphy was tired of arguing, Dr Hocking says. "His influence on the High Court is now more marked in the 10 years or so since he died than it was during his period on the bench. For instance, under the leadership of Chief Justice Anthony Mason from 1987 to 1995, the Court took it as a given that an important part of its role was to achieve justice, not just to apply the law.

"Murphy introduced many reforms in parliament, but his achievements on the bench were intellectual and therefore slightly different. Even so, his contribution to Australian legal thought and jurisprudence has been increasingly acknowledged and is now seen as equal to his parliamentary reforms.

Anti-Murphy campaign

Murphy's public fall from grace came at the peak of his influence on the High Court; in fact, by 1983 it was rumoured he would become the next Chief Justice. But in that year a hostile, and very public anti-Murphy campaign began. It was still continuing when Murphy died in October 1986.

"At the time of his downfall, Murphy took the view that he wasn't going to dignify any charges with comment. But the sense of doubt circulating made it easy to pick up on some sense of alleged corruptibility."

Judging by the turn-out at the launches of Dr Hocking's book, however, Lionel Murphy remains a respected, albeit controversial, figure in Australian politics. Former NSW premier Neville Wran launched the book in Canberra before an audience that included Gough Whitlam, Al Grassby and Murphy's wife, Ingrid. Former Attorney-General in the Hawke Labor Government Senator Gareth Evans attended the Melbourne launch, and in Sydney the book was launched by Justice Michael Kirby, a current High Court member.

During her research, which was supported by the Lionel Murphy Foundation and Melbourne and Monash universities, Dr Hocking was unable to access Murphy's private papers. Papers held at the Australian Archives Office relating to his tenure as Attorney-General proved to be the most important primary source. It was the first time that these papers had been made public.

She also interviewed 20 of the major political identities associated with the period, including Malcolm Fraser, Neville Wran, Jim Cairns, John Gorton and Andrew Peacock.