John Button was leader of the government in the Senate and industry minister from 1983 to 1993. He was a professorial fellow at Monash University and a frequent contributor to magazines and newspapers. He edited Look Here: Considering the Australian Environment, and wrote Flying the Kite, On the Loose and As it Happened.

Mr Button died in April 2008 from pancreatic cancer. Bob Hawke, who visited Mr Button days before he died, described him as ‘a giant in the history of the Labor Party’.