Labor powerbroker Graham Richardson has died aged 76.
The former politician died at 3.50am on Saturday after weeks of influenza and pneumonia, 2GB Breakfast host Ben Fordham announced after speaking to his wife and son.
“Darcy and Amanda have asked me to share the news with everyone that, sadly, Richo has passed away in the early hours of this morning,” Fordham said.
Politics was an integral part of Richardson’s life, from the time he dived headlong into Labor’s factional brawls in the 1960s to his final days.
Cutting short his university degree to learn from the party’s toughest powerbrokers, he emerged as the youngest ever general secretary of the NSW Labor Party at the age of just 26.
At Labor’s Sydney headquarters, Richardson became known as the “numbers man” for the right-wing faction.
By 1983, Richardson’s influence reached to the top of Labor, as he delivered the numbers to dump leader Bill Hayden in favour of Bob Hawke.
At 33, he negotiated his own way into parliament to become the youngest senator ever elected at the time.
He was later installed as the minister for environment and sustainability.
Mr Hawke needed Richardson’s deal-making skills to secure an alliance with the Australian Democrats and early Green parties to win a tight election in 1990.
In exchange, Richardson blocked Tasmania’s Wesley Vale pulp mill and saved the Daintree rainforest, staring down angry timber workers at ugly demonstrations.
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