By Paul Robert Adams
They don't make politicians like 'Jack' Brookfield anymore. From mining underground in Broken Hill he 'rose like a meteor in public life' to be possibly the most extreme anti-politician ever to be elected in this country. The Great War and the years that followed saw unprecedented political turmoil in Australia, and Brookfield was in the thick of it. By the time he was fatally shot at Riverton in South Australia, Brookfield held the balance of power in NSW and had played major roles in many of the era's main political and industrial events: the Big Strike, the plot of the 'IWW Twelve' to burn down Sydney, and the bitter national conscription debate.