Cook stood for Federal parliament twice, unsuccessfully: in 1966 for the seat of Parramatta on behalf of the Liberal Reform Group on an anti-conscription ticket, and in 1969 for Bennelong as an Australia Party candidate. A Catholic of liberal views, he opposed the Church’s stand on the Vietnam War. He expressed his passionate opposition to the war in the novel The Wine of God’s Anger (1968), and—couched as government oppression at Eureka—in the musical play Stockade, first performed in 1971. Stockade and Wake in Fright were released as films. First Edition, pp. 155 #0517