Born in Maryborough, Victoria, he was educated at East Brunswick and Thornbury state primary Schools,[1] before becoming a clicker in a shoe factory in Collingwood, and later an official with the Victorian Boot Employees' Union, of which he was Federal President in 1944 and 1945.
In 1952, was awarded a Commonwealth Bank Scholarship for six months, to study unionism and working conditions in the UK, Europe and the US.
On losing his seat in 1958 he purchased a newsagency in Reservoir, Victoria, which he ran until his election to the Australian Senate in 1968.
[citation needed] Little successfully contested DLP preselection for the Senate in 1958, in which he defeated the original leader of the ALP (Anti-Communist) Les Coleman.
[5][6] Little was defeated at the 1974 federal election, along with the other three DLP Senators (the fifth, Vince Gair, did not re-contest), when the party's vote collapsed.