He was a political adviser to New South Wales Premier Bob Carr.
Aarons was born in Newcastle, New South Wales, but he was brought up in Sydney.
He is the son of the late Laurie Aarons, former secretary of the Communist Party of Australia.
[1] Aarons' activism started at North Sydney Boys High School in the mid-1960s, especially in organising students to protest the Vietnam War.
His 1986 ABC radio documentary series Nazis in Australia prompted the Bob Hawke government's inquiry into war criminals and formation of Special Investigations Unit.