Graham Freudenberg was born in Brisbane in 1934. A journalist in Sydney and Melbourne, he was appointed press secretary to the Leader of the Australian Labor Party, Arthur Calwell, in 1961.

In that capacity, he developed his best-known role as speechwriter to a succession of Labor leaders, including Gough Whitlam (1967-77); New South Wales premiers Neville Wran (1976-86), Barrie Unsworth (1986-88) and Bob Carr (1991-2003); and Prime Minister Bob Hawke (1983-1991).

His principal publications are A Certain Grandeur (1977), A Figure of Speech: A Political Memoir (2005) and Churchill and Australia (2008).