Target for the wrath of conservative authorities
By John Sinclair
ALAN PETER (PETE) STEEDMAN December 7, 1943-July 10, 2024
Pete Steedman was a renowned journalist and editor in the alternative press, a counter-culture activist, Labor Party loyalist and an exceptional character.
Born in working-class Brunswick, but educated at Wesley, Steedman said he went to Monash University in 1962 thinking “you had a new university, you had a chance to do new things”. The student newspaper, Lot’s Wife, became the medium for this, in an era in which a new generation of students was questioning the hierarchical conformism and authority of post-World War II society.
At the same time, the innovation of web offset printing was opening access to a hands-on alternative press. Although Monash in the 1960s acquired a reputation for being “radical”, in Steedman’s view, being radical meant no more than publishing perspectives dissenting from the received wisdom and prevailing ideologies of the time, especially of pearl-clutching puritanism and anti-communism.
Above all, Australian involvement in the Vietnam War, and all that entailed, particularly conscription and the nature of the US alliance, were the key issues. Well before Albert Langer and the Maoist collective at Monash notoriously began collecting money for the Vietnamese National Liberation Front, Lot’s Wife, under Steedman and co-editor Phillip Frazer, was providing a constant stream of non-doctrinaire articles criticising and exposing dimensions of the war not being reported in the mainstream press.
Yet, by 1966, when Steedman became sole editor, he was being labelled as a dangerous radical, especially by authorities such as ASIO and the Catholic establishment. This conception was compounded by the stand that Lot’s Wife was also making against the conventional sexual morality of the time.
Pete Steedman.
It was far from alone in this: literature, theatre, and publications such as the Sydney-based Oz were being subjected to legal intimidation and suppression. Victorian Premier Henry Bolte denounced Lot’s Wife in particular for its “porno-politics”. Steedman’s provocations and struggles in favour of free speech, and against both political and sexual censorship, became defining characteristics of his emerging journalistic career.
Apart from his readiness to take a confrontational stance on a range of issues, Steedman’s personal style made him a target for the wrath of conservative authorities. He himself called it his “Melbourne street-fighting political persona”, with his signature leather jacket, aviator sunglasses, and constant curses. Yet, this style masked an exceptional intellect and a commitment to humanitarian values.
During 1967, Steedman made a seamless transition from Lot’s Wife to the editorship of Farrago, the student newspaper at the University of Melbourne. Conscription remained an editorial focus for him, along with abortion law reform, indigenous disadvantage, and police harassment. Given his established reputation as a student editor, The Age management of the time subsequently installed him as the editor of Broadside, a new venture conceived as a progressive weekly paper for a young, educated readership. However, his edgy material provoked legal problems that caused certain editions to be pulped, with consequent frustration for the hamstrung editor.
Turning his back on the ill-fated Broadside, Pete set out on the “hippy trail” through Asia to Europe, a journey so many of his generation were taking. He was joined on the way by Julie Reiter, who had been his girlfriend in Melbourne, and was to become his life partner. They arrived in London early in 1970, when it was still swinging, and mixed with celebrated expatriates such as Germaine Greer and Robert Hughes, as well as international figures such as Annie Leibovitz.
Steedman later described the fluid scene of counter-cultural artists, activists, rock musicians, and entrepreneurs as an alternative elite. With his editorial reputation and web offset experience, Pete joined the London version of Oz, whose editors were about to endure an extended obscenity trial. He went on to become managing editor of Ink, an ephemeral offshoot of Oz, and subsequently business manager of Time Out, then a modest alternative guide to London. Through the latter, he also became involved in community action, successfully opposing the redevelopment of Piccadilly Circus and other districts of London.
However, he said he was beginning to see the “cracks in the counterculture” and with Julie pregnant, the couple returned to Melbourne in 1972. Still keen to do “new things”, Steedman had a stint in book publishing before shifting to Darwin, where he co-ordinated public communications after Cyclone Tracy in 1974. Once back in Melbourne, he at last gained a university degree, by virtue of special entrance to La Trobe University’s graduate media and communication program. Thus qualified, he took on something of an intermittent academic career from around this time, lecturing at the then Swinburne and Caulfield institutes of technology.
Following the defeat of the Whitlam government in 1975, Steedman became the editor of the Labor Star, the ALP’s monthly newsletter, an unpaid position he held for many years. He extended his connections with the ALP by becoming research officer for Senator John Button, and then an official in the Municipal Employees Union. In 1982, he won preselection for the federal seat of Casey and was elected but lost the seat at the next election due to an unfavourable redistribution.
In 1975, Steedman became the editor of the Labor Star, the ALP’s monthly newsletter.
Even as a respectable member of parliament, he never compromised his characteristic persona and dress code. He looked more the part in a further role, in 1988-1996, as executive director of Ausmusic, a federal initiative aimed at fostering the popular music industry in Australia.
Pete is survived by sons Sam and Nick, daughter-in-law Abby, and grandchildren Caitlin, Sunday, and Jude.
John Sinclair was assistant editor of Lot’s Wife at Monash in the mid-1960s, and a long-time friend of Pete Steedman.