He was chairman of the Island Bay LEC, then operated as a member of campaign teams in Wellington Central.
Mr Farr has been a general secretary of Finsec, the finance union, but took up party leadership roles again in 2008 after retiring to Wairarapa, which did not have a Labour Party branch.
He became the chairman and later secretary of Wairarapa LEC, campaign manager in the 2011 general election, and a member of the campaign team for the 2014 election.
"And here's a little gem for you -- I was an actor in 1972 and I and three others formed Actors Equity," he said.
That formation suited his Labour philosophies, "of decent terms and conditions for actors", and he worked on negotiations for employment agreements for television and radio -- a link to gaining political support.
He said he has "never wavered" from Labour, and he talks of "characters" like Richard Prebble who took "fairly right-wing positions".
He believes "enormous divisions" in Labour in the '80s was the end of Prime Minister David Lange.
But he is particularly scathing of former Labour Party faithful -- "b*******" -- who saw an opportunity to try their hand when MMP came along.
"I really resented those people who left Labour to form other parties in order to teach Labour a lesson," he said.
"As a result, we got a conservative government.
"My focus was to stay in the Labour Party and try and fix it. You don't walk off and join other parties. It's slog, it's hard slog."
But he said he valued the diversity of MMP.
"When you only have two parties, it forces people into moulds that they were unhappy with."
