Graham Richardson - Early Life

Early Life

Richardson, born in Sydney, was the only surviving child of Fred and Peggy Richardson, who were respectively New South Wales State Secretary and office manager of the Amalgamated Postal and Telecommunications Union. Raised as a Catholic, he was influenced as an adolescent by the factional fights that arose during the Labor split. His early years of schooling were at Marist College Kogarah, and in November 1965, he was seriously injured in a car accident at Dolls Point where his father was driving, resulting in the removal of his spleen, and a torn bowel, plus 200 stitches to his face. A Catholic priest delivered Richardson with last rites on two occasions in hospital. He later recalled:

"The worst moment – not just of my adolescence but of my life – was the day they took off the bandages and I saw myself in the mirror. I cried for hours." and;

"It made me very unsettled. It really mucked me around badly, not to the point of being psychiatrically impaired but it did me a lot of harm in terms of stability and the capacity to concentrate."

Nevertheless, Richardson completed his schooling at Sydney Technical High School, where he passed his Leaving Certificate. From 1966, he was active in the Catholic Youth Organisation – a recruiting ground for the right wing of Young Labor, where he formed friendships with Joe Hasham, Bob Scipelliti, and Brian Webb, – the latter two acting as silent business partners for Richardson later in life. Motivated by the continued factional fighting impacting on his parents' life, Richardson joined the Monterey branch of the Labor Party in 1966, aged 17. Despite earlier dropping out of an arts degree, in 1969, following his mother's encouragement, Richardson commenced studies for a Bachelor of Laws at Sydney University; however Peggy Richardson died suddenly, aged 42, distracting Richardson from his studies as he threw himself into union and Labor politics.