The family soon moved to Melbourne, and Percy attended South Yarra State School and the Working Men's College.

Katherine was also prominent in the labour movement, and was the Labor candidate for the Victorian Legislative Assembly seat of Caulfield in 1935, although she withdrew shortly before the poll.

[citation needed] As ACTU president, Clarey formed a partnership with his eventual successor, secretary Albert Monk, and resisted the various attempts by the Communist Party of Australia to gain control of the trade unions.

[citation needed] In 1948, Clarey publicly supported the White Australia policy following criticism from the World Council of Churches.

He said that allowing non-white immigration would introduce racial tension similar to South Africa and United States and lower the national standard of living, as "Australia does not desire the colored peoples of the world to be brought into this country to be hewers of wood and drawers of water".

[3] He was defeated for the deputy leadership in 1951 by Arthur Calwell, losing by nine votes on the third ballot and outpolling veterans Eddie Ward and Allan Fraser.

[citation needed] Sometimes accused of being a "bosses' man" and a "strike breaker" by union opponents, Clarey was nevertheless a supporter of the Indonesians against Dutch colonialism.