John Wren - Political Influence

Political Influence

Unlike many Australian Irish-Catholics Wren supported Australian involvement in World War I, and although he supported conscription for the war he grew increasingly anti-British after the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916. This made him a supporter of the powerful Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne, Daniel Mannix, who became a close friend and neighbour. However, Niall Brennan tells us that Dr Mannix made a mistake with his public association with Wren as it damaged the Catholic Church, and : "He (Wren) tried hard but was never successful in buying the Archbishop as he bought politicians", and describes how Mannix refused Wren's contribution of most of a £50,000 testimonial at Mannix's departure for the USA and Rome in 1920 : "It was the last effort to wrap a tentacle around the Archbishop; and it failed".

Under Mannix's influence Wren was fiercely anti-Communist, and after the war he used his wealth to support politicians who opposed Communism and defended Catholic interests. In return he expected them to protect his business interests, both legal and illegal. By the 1920s, however, Wren no longer needed to be involved in small-time activities like illegal betting, and most of his money came from legal, if not entirely respectable, businesses such as racing and boxing promotion. It was during this period that he also became an influential patron of the Collingwood Football Club.

During the 1920s, '30s and '40s Wren controlled a political machine in Melbourne's inner suburbs, which he used mainly in the interests of moderate Catholic Labor politicians such as James Scullin, Frank Brennan and Tom Tunnecliffe. But he was also a friend and supporter of the Country Party Premier of Victoria Albert Dunstan, and it was his influence which led state Labor leader John Cain to support Dunstan's minority Country Party government through the 1930s.