The term was first used in 1963 by Alan Reid, a journalist working for Sir Frank Packer's conservative Sydney "Daily Telegraph", to refer to the 36 members of the Australian Labor Party's Federal Conference, which at that time decided elements of the party's election policy. In the run-up to the campaign for the 1963 federal election, Reid commissioned a photograph of Labor Leader Arthur Calwell and his Deputy Leader Gough Whitlam standing outside the Kingston Hotel in Canberra, where the Conference was meeting, waiting to be told on what policy they were to fight the election. Neither Calwell or Whitlam were delegates to the Conference, which then consisted of six delegates from each of the six states. Reid commented that the ALP was ruled by "36 faceless men". In actual fact, there was a woman, Phyllis Benjamin of Tasmania, among the delegates at the Conference at the time.