Before entering the Senate in 1976, Harold Young was a primary producer who served as vice president of the South Australia Wheat and Woolgrowers Association and participated in the Australian Wool Industry Conference and the South Australia Wheat Research Committee.
During his terms in the Senate, Young served as joint chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on the construction of the new Parliament House, chairman of the Joint House Committee, and the Parliamentary Library Committee. He was president of the Senate from 1980 to 1983.
The Government of Korea honoured Young with the Order of Merit for services in developing relations between Australia and that nation in 1982, and he created KCMG the following year.