Fifty years ago in July marks the Australian Council of Trade Union’s (ACTU) organised national general strike to defend Medibank — Australia’s first universal, tax-funded public health insurance scheme, which predated Medicare.

The then Coalition government of Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser modified it and then decided to dismantle it, prompting the ACTU to organise a strike. The Gough Whitlam Labor government had introduced Medibank in 1974, after having been elected on a promise to extend public services.

Medibank was largely dismantled under Fraser, whose government was intent on cost cutting. When the Bob Hawke Labor government reintroduced Medicare in 1984, the scheme had been modified, including with Medibank Private, a government owned statutory authority which later became fully private.

The ACTU’s 24-hour nationwide general strike on July 12 was historic. Never before or since has the ACTU organised such an action. The ACTU executive’s call for it was endorsed by more than 200 delegates at a special national unions conference a few days before.

In the lead-up months, the ACTU had organised a series of stoppages, rallies, marches and meetings all over the country. Together with countless meetings on the job in many........

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