Peter Baldwin delivered this speech in April to launch Labor’s Forgotten People: The Triumph of Identity Politics, by Michael Thompson (Connor Court, 2019, $29.95). I first got to know the author of this book, Michael Thompson, in the late 1980s, when I was the federal MP for the seat of Sydney, which includes the central part of the city—the CBD and adjoining suburbs. For a time, Michael worked for me as a research officer focusing on proposals for union-based industry superannuation funds. We both saw this as a priority since it seemed to offer the potential to mobilise an immense…