Paperback, 100 pages, $19.95

This new biography by Sean Jacobs, based on years of research, explores Neville Bonner’s hardscrabble beginnings and rise to become Australia’s first Indigenous federal parliamentarian. Despite a difficult start, and only a year of formal schooling, Bonner turned discrimination and setback into success, overcoming hard days in northern New South Wales and Queensland to represent Queensland as a Liberal Senator for 12 years in the national parliament (1971 – 1983). Bonner’s towering dignity to be a full participant in Australian society, and his constant capacity to see the good in all Australians, make him not only a great Indigenous Australian but one of our greatest Australians.

Sean Jacobs is a Papua New Guinean-born Australian writer, government relations and public policy specialist. He has worked at all levels of government in Australia, New Zealand and PNG, and holds a BA (International Relations) from Griffith University and Postgraduate Certificate in Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism from Macquarie University. His interest in Neville Bonner emerged after discovering Bonner’s story as a young policy adviser at the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Jacobs currently lives in Brisbane.