07 May 2025
(27 March 1935 – 5 May 2025)
Dr Race Mathews was a former Victorian and federal politician, a labour historian and an Australian co-operative economist. Dr Mathews was born in Hawthorn, Victoria in 1935. His first job was as a clerk for the Shell Oil Company, before going on to work as a primary school teacher, and a speech therapist. A long career in politics and academia followed. Dr Mathews held numerous positions in the Australian Labor Party and the co-operative and credit union movements and wrote extensively on their history, attributes and accomplishments.
Dr Mathews joined the ALP in 1956 and served as chief of staff to Gough Whitlam and Labor leaders in the Victorian Parliament before he was elected to the House of Representatives in 1972. From 1972 to 1975, Dr Mathews was the Federal Member for Casey in the Whitlam Government, where he served as chairman of the House of Representatives Select Committee on Specific Learning Difficulties and chairman of the Government Members’ Committee on Urban and Regional Development.
From 1979 to 1992, Dr Mathews served in the Victorian Legislative Assembly as the Member for Oakleigh. During the Premiership of John Cain, he served as chairman of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Co-operatives, and held a number of portfolios including Minister for Community Services, Minister for Police and Emergency Services and Minister for the Arts.
In his academic career, Dr Mathews held positions at Government and Business Schools at the universities of Monash, Deakin and Kent State in the United States. A major focus for his research was the complex of worker-owned co-operatives of the Mondragon Corporation in the Basque region of Spain and its origins in the social teachings of the Catholic Church. Mondragon was extensively referenced in his book Of Labour and Liberty: Distributism in Victoria 1891-1966 and was the core focus of his previous work, Jobs of Our Own: Building a Stake-Holder Society.
Referring to Mondragon, Dr Mathews stated:
All my life I’ve been on the hunt for good ways of making a better world – making life more rewarding for ordinary people … [I was delighted to hear in the 1980s that] something extraordinary was going on in an obscure valley in the Basque region of Spain.”
Dr Mathews also wrote important works on credit unions including Credit Unions and the New Mutualism, Where Credit Is Due, Reinvigorating Credit Union Mutuality and A Future or No Future: Credit Unions in a Globalising Economy.
Dr Mathews was a significant contributor to numerous topics including Mutualism, Distributism, Labour Movement History and Public Policy. These books include:
- Building the Society of Equals: Worker Co-operatives and the A.L.P. and
- Turning the Tide: Towards a Mutualist Philosophy and Politics for Labor and the Left.
Dr Mathews mentored many emerging co-operative leaders over the years. Away from the limelight, Dr Mathews quietly responded to many invitations to inspire grass-roots groups and their members struggling to make a better life for themselves through the promise of co-operation. Dr Race Mathews had an extensive and varied career.
His wife, Iloa Mathews, wrote Race Mathews: A Life in Politics, about him.
The Hon. Dr Race Mathews’ service to public and political life will be celebrated at a State Memorial Service.
At the BCCM’s Taste of Australia Dinner on 17 November 2022, held during the 2022 Leaders’ Summit, a special mention was made to acknowledge the significant contribution of the Hon Dr Race Mathews to the co-operative and mutual movement in Australia.
Dr Mathews had a distinguished and varied career, and his tireless advocacy and scholarly work on co-operation became a defining part of his legacy. His commitment to the co-operative and mutual model, both as a policymaker and as a historian, left an enduring impact.
The BCCM is deeply grateful for Dr Mathews’ leadership, his intellect, and his lifelong dedication to the principles of co-operation. His legacy will continue to shape and inspire the sector for generations to come.
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