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A dedicated socialist, Dick Ward became known as ‘Red Richard’. He was held in high esteem by people of
every political shade and soon developed a respected reputation for compassion and tolerance. Along with several
prominent Alice Springs residents, Ward became a leader in the Northern Territory Development League, formed
to agitate for legislative and political reform. In 1946, following intense lobbying from the League, the Chifley
Labor government took the policy decision to form a Northern Territory Legislative Council. On 14 May 1947,
the government passed legislation to ‘confer a measure of self-government on the residents of the Northern
Territory’. It also took the view that as the Territory was not self supporting financially and that the greater part of
expenditure on its development had to be provided by the Commonwealth, the bill should provide that there would
be a majority of government, or appointed, members in the new Council. While this arrangement of part appointed
and part elected members met with disapproval from the League, who wanted the elected members to have the
majority, Ward saw the move as a ‘foot in the door’ to full representation. He did, however, point out that in his
view certain sections of the Act had been put there ‘with the deliberate intention of frustrating the oft-expressed
desire of the people... for self-government’.
In 1947, Ward stood for and was elected to the first Northern Territory Legislative Council, defeating
Frank W Johnson by one vote. Ward, by now with a reputation as an astute lawyer and effective orator, began what
became a long battle for improving Territory representation on the federal scene and gaining self-government.
However, when a second election for the Northern Territory Legislative Council took place in 1949, Ward did
not contest the seat, having decided to temporarily leave the Territory for a job in South Australia where he went
into partnership with Harry Alderman in the firm of Alderman Brazel and Clarke. He moved to Adelaide in early
1950 with his wife Florence and their son, Richard Dunstan. After a long illness, Florence died of leukaemia in
Adelaide. Following her death, Dick married Ruth Haddy of Adelaide, with whom he had a daughter, Rachel.
In the mid 1950s, Ward resigned from the Adelaide law firm and returned to the Northern Territory where he again
went into practice in Darwin. Ward eventually became senior partner in the firm of Ward, Keller and Rorritson.
In 1956 Ward stood for the Legislative Council and was one of the two Members elected for the seat of Darwin,
the other being unionist Paddy Carroll. On 17 April 1958, the elected members of the Council, led by Ward,
decided to take decisive action in their continual bid for constitutional reform for the Territory. They resigned
en masse in protest at the Menzies government’s failure to announce or introduce reforms. The Minister for
Territories, Paul Hasluck, wrote to the Council and offered to meet a delegation. They managed to get a few
limited concessions, including the formation of an Administrator’s Council and an increase in the number of
elected members to eight. In the subsequent by-election the ‘rebel’ members were all returned and an Inquiry
was established to determine whether their requests for reform were in line with other British territories. Their
conclusion was that the Territory raised sufficient revenue to provide most general services and that they at least
deserved the right to determine how money which was raised in the Territory should be spent. In the turbulent and
frustrating period that followed, Ward emerged as one of the most articulate, powerful and respected orators the
Territory had ever seen and his speeches drew praise from both sides of the chamber. He led a second Committee
of Inquiry into constitutional issues in 1963 when the federal Parliament was concerned about giving the Territory
member, then Labor’s Jock Nelson, full voting rights because of the possibility that that person, representing a
comparatively small number of constituents, could hold the balance of power in the case of a close election.
In addition to constitutional reform, Ward became actively involved in the fight for fairer treatment of
Aborigines. He argued for reform in a variety of ways, both legally and legislatively. One of the most renowned
cases involved a white man who wanted to marry an Aboriginal woman and was told it was against the law. When
the marriage of drover, Mick Daly, and an Aboriginal woman, Gladys Namagu, was refused, Ward moved for all
relevant documentation to be produced and for a recommendation to be made that the couple be allowed to marry.
Although both motions were defeated by a very narrow margin, the elected members were able to push through an
amendment to the Welfare Ordinance to redress the situation and the couple were subsequently married.
In the Legislative Council election in January 1960, Ward, who stood for the seat of Port Darwin as an
independent, was returned. In September, he moved a motion calling for support for a new approach to development
of the north of Australia taking into account its strong links to Asia. He called for a five-year development plan
to attract both investment and population to the Territory as a matter of urgency. The government’s appointed
members in the Legislative Council opposed his motion.
For many years, Ward was on the fringe of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and was involved in some of
its activities. But it was not until the mid 1960s that he began to formally align himself with the Party. In 1966,
Jock Nelson who had held the Territory federal seat for the Labor since 1949 and had been in the first Legislative
Council with Ward, announced his retirement from federal politics. Dick Ward was preselected by Labor to take his
place. However, in the ensuing election Ward, to many people’s surprise, lost out to the Country Party candidate,
Sam Calder. Some put it down to a lack of proper organisation on Labor’s part and an assumption that Ward
could win on his reputation without undertaking the doorknocking campaign considered by most campaigners as
crucial in the Territory. Ironically, or perhaps predictably, when Calder won the seat and the Liberal-Country Party
coalition government could be assured of another vote in the Territory, the Territory representative was granted
full voting rights in federal Parliament—one of the reforms Jock Nelson had fought for for years.
After his defeat in the federal political sphere, Ward stood for and won the seat of Ludmilla in the Northern
Territory Legislative Council and remained the Member until his appointment to the bench in 1974. The 1968
Legislative Council election was the first one really fought along fairly clear party lines. Six of the candidates stood
under the Liberal banner, eight for the Country Party, seven were for Labor and there were several independents.
Labor’s team was Dick Ward (Ludmilla), Fred Drysdale, Eric Marks, Charles Orr, Bill Mitchell, Stan Smith and
Korean War veteran and union organiser Curly Nixon. Ward, in his typical humanitarian style, had made housing