He was called up for national service with the Citizens Military Force in 1951 and served as a gunner with the 2nd Light Artillery Regiment.

He subsequently spent a year in the United States obtaining a Master of Business Administration from Columbia University.

This move proved prescient, as Johnson retook Hughes for Labor on a large swing while Dobie narrowly won Cook.

The pair met in the 1950s and initially lived in Dobie's South Yarra flat, before moving to Sydney and settling in Burniston's Cronulla apartment.

[1] Burniston died in 1992, with Dobie acknowledged in his obituary as a "life long friend and close companion".

[5] His parliamentary colleague Chris Puplick later acknowledged the "deep personal friendship" between the pair in a eulogy for Dobie.

He was occasionally subjected to homophobic remarks in parliament,[6] and it has been suggested that his homosexuality may have inhibited his chances of a ministerial appointment.