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a horseshoe shaped table of cedar, topped in green leather.   Around this were the Premier, the Deputy Premier (Jack Ferguson), the secretary, the whip, most of the ministers, and a few other senior members.

        Pat Hills, whom Wran had deposed as the Labor leader, was a minister who chose to sit at the back of the room.

        There were other faces from the past: Jack Renshaw,   the Labor Premier who had lost to Askin; and Harry Jensen who, like Hills, had been Lord Mayor of Sydney.   These ageing   men of the Right had risen to power during the days of the "old" Labor government.   They had seen its decline and fall.

         Wran was cool and elegant, with his suit-coat on despite the heat.   He sat quietly, studying a file.   Beside him, Jack Ferguson was a craggy, dishevelled giant, chainsmoking and occasionaly hurling expletives across the table.   Ferguson was the leader of the Left in caucus.

        Frank Walker, another left-winger, leaned over the table, doodling on a note pad.   Landa was absent. As a member of the Legislative Council, he was excluded from the caucus which only admitted members of the Legislative Assembly --   the Lower House.

        Tom Webster and I hesitantly sat together in a corner.   We were to be christened "Heckle and Jeckle"-- People confused us because we were the only Labor MPs

  

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