BILL O’DONNELL

I have always had an interest in law - since I was a kid. I was always really interested in the equality of people and the needs of people. So I went to Melbourne University to study Law/Arts. At the same time, I had a job in Sunshine (VIC) managing a youth hostel. The Federal government of the day had set up a system where money was given to communities to support kids rather than send them to detention centres. Some of these kids were criminals. Some were orphans. We basically taught them how to live. A lot of them simply lacked the social skills necessary to get a job. Fortunately at the time, you could get a person a job - there was lots of employment around. Things are a bit different these days …

It was the Whitlam government that accepted and understood you could get good results from putting money into kids. Whitlam started a lot of things, including putting money into social change.

So what was your life like growing up Bill?

I was lucky. I was born into a large and loving family and was the eldest of seven kids. I was educated and I was taught cooking, cleaning,