Chap 10 People Power

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• What have been some important political

developments in post-war Australian history?

• How have significant individuals and groups

exercised their democratic rights in the post-war

period?

A student:

5.1 explains social, political and cultural

developments and events and evaluates their

impact on Australian life

5.2 assesses the impact of international events and

relationships on Australia’s history

5.3 explains the changing rights and freedoms of

Aboriginal peoples and other groups in Australia

5.7 explains different contexts, perspectives and

interpretations of the past

5.8 locates, selects and organises historical

information from a number of sources,

including ICT, to undertake historical inquiry

5.10 selects and uses appropriate oral, written and

other forms, including ICT, to communicate

effectively about the past for different

audiences.

INQUIRY

The term ‘people power’

emerged in 1986 to

describe mass non-violent

demonstrations against

the government of Filipino

leader Ferdinand Marcos

when people accused himof rigging the voting in

presidential elections. The

protests forced Marcos to

give way to Cory Aquino,

who took up her rightful

position of President.

Since that time, the

term ‘people power’ has

been used to describe actions both past and

present where people apply pressure to bring

about change and demand an end to a situationthey think is unjust. ‘People power’ can be a

powerful force within a democracy ; it can

change government policy and influence public

debate. In the context of the current NSW 7–10

History syllabus, it is also used to describe the

actions taken by individuals in positions of

authority.

A wide variety of groups have engaged in

protest to change society. These include

suffragettes, returned soldiers, anti-nuclear and

anti-war protesters, indigenous rightscampaigners, women’s liberationists, gay rights

activists and environmentalists.

In this chapter, students learn about:

• the roles of significant individuals in

expressions of ‘people power’

• the significance of these specific expressions of

‘people power’ for Australia in the post-war

period.

PEOPLE

POWER

Chapter 10

Hundreds of thousands of Filipinos joined the four-day ‘people power’ revolution in 1986.


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CHAPTER 10: PEOPLE POWER

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Bill: a proposed law introduced into parliament and notyet passedconservation: the process of preserving somethingeither by keeping it in its existing state, restoring it oradapting it to a new usedemocracy: a government ruled by the people throughthose they have elected to represent themdesegregation: the process of removing segregationfrom public places and organisationsFederation: the uniting of the six colonies of Australiaunder a central Federal Government on 1 January 1901feminist: someone who believes in equal rights andopportunities for womenglobalisation: the processes that make it easier forfinance, trade and investment to operate on aninternational level. Its critics claim that it results in anation’s economy and people being controlled byinternational corporations.green ban: the refusal of building workers to demolishproperty they judged to be of historical or environmentalsignificanceheritage: all things that we have inherited fromprevious generations and which we value

House of Representatives: the lower house inFederal Parliamentparliamentary democracy: a political system witha government that rules on behalf of the people andwhich is formed from an elected parliamentreferendum: a vote in which the people are askedwhether they agree to a proposed law, change to alaw or a change to Australia’s constitutionrepublic: a democracy in which the head of state isappointed or electedreserve powers: powers granted by theConstitution to the Governor-General to use thediscretionary powers of the Crown, such aswithholding royal assent on legislation anddismissal of a Prime MinisterSenate: the upper house in Australia’s FederalParliamentSupply: the money for which parliament votes tofund the expenses of the government in powerwomen’s liberation movement: the movementthat began in the United States in the late 1960s,and which aimed to achieve recognition of women’srights

This man was one of many who protestedagainst the construction of a beach volleyballstadium at Bondi in May 2000.


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245CHAPTER 10: PEOPLE POWER

Perkins was particularly interested in King’semphasis on ‘non-violent direct action’ and estab-lishing ‘creative tension’ by dramatically high-lighting examples of discrimination so that peoplecould not continue to ignore them. Whereas the1961 Freedom Rides in the United States hadspecifically focused on the desegregation of inter-state transport, in Australia the focus was on the

desegregation of leisure facilities in country townsand information-gathering on race relations in ruralNew South Wales.

The first two stops were at Wellington andGullargambone, where the Aboriginal people sur-veyed spoke of their need for housing and access tofresh water on the reserves. Racial discriminationwas a major problem and not one that the localindigenous people felt they could work with SAFA to fight. The bus moved on to Walgett.

Walgett

In Walgett, the local RSL club refused entry to

Aborigines, including Aboriginal ex-servicemen whohad participated in World Wars I and II. They wereoccasionally allowed entry on Anzac Day. Perkinsled the Freedom Riders in forming a picket lineoutside the club (see source 10.1.3). They held upposters proclaiming ‘Aborigines also fought’, ‘Bulletsdid not discriminate’ and ‘Good enough for Tobruk,why not Walgett RSL?’ Perkins addressed the crowdof onlookers to try and convince the RSL committeemembers to change their policy. Members of thelocal Aboriginal community joined in.

The Anglican minister evicted the students fromtheir lodgings in the church hall because of people’shostility to their actions. A line of cars and trucksfollowed the bus out of Walgett. One of the trucksforced the bus off the road. The scene reminded thestudents of the three American student activists

who had been murdered on a country road whilecampaigning in Alabama. They saw four or five carssurrounding them and were relieved to find thatthese were driven by local Aborigines who had comeout to offer protection. The other trucks and carsdisappeared.

A journalist witnessed the incident and it becameheadline news in the Sydney Morning Herald, the

Daily Mirror and the Australian. Mirror reporterGerald Stone and his editor Zell Rabin highlightedthe parallels between the racist attitudes andbehaviour they observed from their work as

journalists in the United States and the racistattitudes and behaviour in New South Wales.

Moree

The bus moved on to Moree and a new issue of dis-crimination — a 1955 council by-law prohibiting

Aborigines and those with ‘a mixture of Aboriginalblood’ from using (except during school hours) thelocal artesian baths and swimming pool. Other

examples of racism in the town included the refusalto allow Aboriginal patients to share hospital facil-ities with white patients and the insistence thatthey be buried in a part of the local cemetery thatwas separate from the section for white people.

SAFA’s protest began with a demonstration out-side the council building. They then got families’permission to take eight children and try to gainentry to the pool. Charles Perkins got more childrenfrom the reserve. The manager refused to sell thementry coupons, saying ‘darkies not allowed in’. A large crowd gathered and after an hour the man-ager, four police and the local mayor came up withanother answer: Aboriginal children were allowedin as long as they were ‘clean’. The children wentswimming and the Freedom Riders left Moreethinking that the ban had been overturned.

The mayor and the pool manager re-imposed theban. Three days later, about six children from the

Moree Reserve joined the FreedomRiders in another attempt to break theban. They tried without success forover three hours. A crowd of about 500angry locals, including a group fromthe pub across the road, shoutedabuse, spat at them and threwtomatoes and rotten eggs at them and

the bus. Perkins later said he fearedfor his life during this incident.

The confrontation received hugepress coverage and also televisioncoverage from a BBC crew and a teamfrom Channel Seven’s investigativeprogram Seven Days. Many journalistsmade comparisons between the racistattitudes shown in Moree and thoseevident towards African Americans inthe United States.

A photograph of the picket line formed by the Freedom Riders outsideWalgett RSL club in 1965

Source 10.1.3

C I V I C S A N D C I T I Z E N S H I P F O C U S


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Finally, the police escorted the Freedom Ridersout of Moree. The bus continued on to Lismore,Bowraville and Kempsey before returning toSydney.

An extract from Gerald Stone’s newspaper account of theFreedom Riders’ experiences in Moree

Photograph of Charles Perkins and local children in theMoree pool, 1965. Perkins’s simple act of swimming in thepool was a stand against racial discrimination.

Source 10.1.4

MOREE, Saturday. Mob violence exploded here today asstudent freedom riders were attacked by a crowd crazedwith race hate.

White women spat on girl students and screamed filthywords as the students tried to win Aboriginal childrenadmission to the town baths.

Several people were arrested and the town’s mayor,Alderman William Lloyd, pitched into the battle,grabbing students by the scruff of their necks and hurlingthem out of the way. Throughout the fighting a barrageof eggs and rotten fruit rained on the students.

Mr Jim Spigelman, a 19-year-old student from

Maroubra, was smacked to the ground while the500-strong crowd roared its approval.

Sunday Mirror, 21 February 1965.

Source 10.1.5

A photograph showing Charles Perkins being led away fromthe Moree pool in February 1965 after locals confronted thestudent demonstrators and violence broke out

The Freedom Riders had an impact on the local Aboriginal communities they met during the trip,

and they did not want to abandon them when theyreturned to Sydney. In August 1965, SAFA cam-paigned with the Walgett branch of the AboriginesProgressive Association (APA) to end segregation atthe Luxury Theatre and the Oasis Hotel. The APA continued and eventually won a long struggle toachieve this. Students kept up the visits to countrytowns, going to Bega, Dareton, Bowraville andCoonamble, where they publicised many instances of racism and pressured communities and authoritiesto change their ways.

Lyall Munro, one of the Aboriginal children

who swam in the Moree pool as part of the

Freedom Ride protest, was later inspired by

these events to become an activist himself.

In March 2004, he was a spokesperson for

the Aboriginal community at Redfern

following the death of teenager T. J. Hickey.

He spoke out against the overpolicing and

police mistreatment of Aboriginal youth in

the Redfern area.

Source 10.1.6

ONGOING EFFORTS


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The Freedom Ride occurred at a time when Aus-tralians were beginning to see the injustice of obvious examples of racism like those evident in

the segregation of facilities in many country towns.It generated discussion and debate throughout Aus-tralia about the plight of indigenous communities,and media coverage stimulated national and inter-national pressure for reform. Through the FreedomRide, Charles Perkins became a national figure anda role model for Aboriginal people throughout

Australia. His Freedom Ride showed Aboriginal Australians that non-violent action could result inchange. His organisation of protests and publicdebate demonstrated both his leadership skills andhis willingness to take action to demand change —characteristics that continued throughout his life.

The Freedom Ride became part of the campaignmovement that resulted in the 1967 referendum(see page 190) giving citizenship to Aboriginal people— a result supported by 89 per cent of voters. Thetwo events and Australia’s economic prosperity at thetime stimulated expectations that governmentswould intervene to address problems of inequality.This process began in 1972 when the Whitlamgovernment took office (see page 272). In the late1960s, student activism focused more on protestagainst Australia’s involvement in war in Vietnam.

Charles Perkins continued throughout his life tocampaign for Aboriginal rights. He protested against

the reluctance of authorities to allow self-determi-nation for Aboriginal Australians and againstgovernment failure to effectively address the

THE SIGNIFICANCE OFCHARLES PERKINS AND THEFREEDOM RIDE

inequalities in Aboriginal Australians’ access toeducation, health, housing, employment and the law.

Charles Perkins died of kidney failure on18 October 2000. He was granted a state funeral —an honour usually given only to those who haveheld significant government office. ABC televisionbroadcast the funeral, and traffic in George StreetSydney came to a temporary standstill as a crowd

gathered outside Sydney Town Hall to watch on alarge screen the funeral service taking place inside.

Check your understanding1. Write a paragraph of 10 to 15 lines to summarise the

Freedom Ride. Use the ‘W’ questions (what, when,where, who, how and why) to guide the selection ofyour information.

2. What impact did the Freedom Ride have on different

groups at the time?3. What were the results of the Freedom Ride?

Using sources1. In what ways do source 10.1.1 and the description of

his early sporting career indicate that Charles Perkinsmight have had special qualities?

2. Use source 10.1.2 to describe the participants in theFreedom Ride.

3. What message were the protesters in source 10.1.3trying to convey through their placards outside WalgettRSL Club?

4. What does source 10.1.4 indicate about how people inMoree responded to SAFA’s campaign?

5. What captions could you create for source 10.1.5 toexpress:(a) its significance to Charles Perkins(b) the attitudes of the pool’s manager?

6. What stage of the Freedom Ride protest at Moree doesthe photo in source 10.1.6 seem to be showing? Whataspect of the protest does the photo not reveal?

7. Describe the scene in source 10.1.7, commenting onthe diversity of faces among the mourners, thesignificance of the occasion and what it indicates aboutpublic feeling and respect for Charles Perkins’s life andachievements.

Researching and communicating

1. Use the Internet to review some of the obituarieswritten at the time of Charles Perkins’s death. Selectfrom them what seem to be the most significantfeatures of his life and work. Use these as the basis of abrief biography of Perkins suitable for publication in adictionary of biography.

2. What would you have done? Imagine yourself in 1965as either a Sydney University student or a resident ofone of the country towns that the Freedom bus visited.How would you have responded to SAFA and theFreedom Ride? Give reasons for your answer.

Mourners at the state funeral of Charles Perkins on25 October 2000 hold up photographs of him as they walkfrom Sydney Town Hall to the Opera House.

Source 10.1.7


http://../technology/retro-2-2e-activities/chap10/act-10-01.doc


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GERMAINE GREER AND THE

WOMEN’S LIBERATION MOVEMENT

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Germaine Greer is a noted writer, academic andbroadcaster. She began lecturing at Warwick Univer-sity in the UK in the late 1960s, taught during the1990s at Cambridge University, and later becameProfessor of English and Comparative Studies at theUniversity of Warwick. She is best known as afeminist and writer and for her views on women’sliberation and socialissues generally.

Greer was born inMelbourne on 29 Jan-uary 1939 and edu-cated at the all-girlsStar of the Sea Conventat Gardenvale. Sheattended the Univer-sity of Melbourne on ascholarship and gradu-ated with a BA (Hons)in English and FrenchLiterature. She movedto Sydney where shebecame part of theSydney ‘Push’, a pubsub-culture of non-conformist intellectualswho were critical of

authority. After graduating

from Sydney Universitywith an MA in 1963,Greer took up a Com-monwealth scholarshipto study at the Univer-sity of Cambridge andwas awarded a PhDthere in 1968. Greerwrote for the contro-versial London maga-zine Oz under the name

‘Dr G’ and becameknown internationallywith the publication of her book The Female

Eunuch in 1970. Herother books include Sexand Destiny: The Politicsof Fertility (1984), The Change:Women, Ageing and the Meno-

pause (1991) and The WholeWoman (1999).

The women’s liberation movement began to havean impact in Australia the same year that The

Female Eunuch was published.Women began to consciously thinkof their rights and to demandliberation from the confines of their traditional roles. The Female

Eunuch addressed this audienceand established Germaine Greer’sposition as a spokesperson forradical feminism and women’ssexual liberation. Greer contrib-uted to the creation of a climate inwhich people questioned thestereotypical view of a ‘woman’splace’ and the value to society of having women live in passivesubservience to men.

According to Greer, The Female Eunuch was ‘advocating delin-quency among women’. In it shediscussed the biological differences

between men and women and thosethat resulted from socialconditioning. Greer saw women ashaving no sense of their ownsexuality and encouraged them todiscover and experience life as lib-erated sexual beings so that having emerged from sexual repressionthey could move on to liberationand self-fulfilment in all areas of their lives.

The Female Eunuch presented aview of women as victims of a

male-dominated society, who wereculturally, psychologically andsocially subservient to men. Forher, marriage was a form of slavery for women. She criticisedfemale stereotypes, recognised

women’s subservience and did notcredit them with the strength tobreak free of their own social con-ditioning to overcome these barriersto freedom.

THE FEMALE EUNUCH ANDTHE WOMEN’S LIBERATIONMOVEMENT

Source 10.2.1

1965 photograph of GermaineGreer taken when she was studyingat Cambridge University andappearing in a play put on by theCambridge Footlights company


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An extract from an unauthorised biography of Germaine Greer

The Female Eunuch was more an account of Greer’s views and an analysis of sex roles withinsociety than a blueprint for action. Her influence wasas an example of a woman who clearly moved beyondthe framework of women’s traditional roles. At thesame time, she was often hostile in her attitudes toother feminists — attacking them for campaigning against sex-segregated employment advertisementswhich she saw as a meaningless reform. While peoplewithin the women’s liberation movement found

Greer’s book inspiring, Greer herself never became aleader of the movement or worked within it to bring about social change. She was and is an individualist.

The Female Eunuch has sold more than amillion copies and has never been out of print since its publication in 1970.

Source 10.2.2

The Female Eunuch triggered a shock of recognition inthe tens of thousands of Western women who read it,and in the hundreds of thousands of women whoreceived Greer’s analysis via the media. It wasfeminism’s smash-hit book, generating scores of

photographs, television and radio interviews andthousands of column-centimetres of newspaper andmagazine copy, and making Greer popularlysynonymous with women’s liberation across theWestern world. It prompted an untold number ofwomen to rethink their self-perceptions, their relationswith men, the entire basis of their existence. ‘It changedmy life’ is the most common anecdotal response whenthe book is mentioned to women who read it in theearly 1970s. Middle-class dinner parties broke up inbitter arguments on the book’s contentious themes.Some women bought The Female Eunuch and hid itfrom their husbands, fearing the consequences of beingfound with such an inflammatory tract.

Christine Wallace 1997, Greer: Untamed Shrew , MacMillan(Pan MacMillan Australia), Sydney, p. 190

Photograph of Germaine Greer taken in 1972, when she wasemerging as an outspoken commentator on feminism andwomen’s roles in society

Source 10.2.3

Check your understandingWrite a paragraph of approximately 15 lines to explainGermaine Greer’s contribution to the women’s liberationmovement.

Using sources1. What image of Germaine Greer do you think the

photographer and Greer herself were trying tocreate for the photograph shown in source 10.2.1?

Do you think this reflects the message of Greer’s bookThe Female Eunuch? Give reasons for your answer.

2. According to source 10.2.2, Greer’s book caused bitterarguments at ‘middle-class dinner parties’. Why do youthink the ‘middle class’ reacted in this way?

3. Why might women have hidden The Female Eunuch from their husbands?

4. A ‘shrew’ is defined as ‘a woman of violent temper andspeech’. Why might Wallace have titled her bookGreer: Untamed Shrew ?

5. What image of Greer is conveyed in source 10.2.3?

Researching and communicating1. Borrow a copy of The Female Eunuch from the library.

(a) Read a chapter from the book, and summariseGreer’s argument in the form of a poster for displayon the class noticeboard.

(b) Alternatively, create a poster of quotations from Greer’sbook. Illustrate it with clippings from magazines ornewspapers or with images from the Internet.

2. The film Ten Things I Hate about You is based onShakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew . Watch a video orDVD of the film, and summarise the plot. Explain in moredetail the link between the title of Christine Wallace’s bookGreer: Untamed Shrew and the film and play.



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JACK MUNDEY

AND THE GREEN BANS

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In the 1970s, Australians began to show active con-cern for the conservation of significant parts of their natural and built environment. Sydney’s 1960sbuilding boom had already seen many of its grand,nineteenth-century sandstone buildings demolishedto make way for buildings symbolising progress anda modern outlook. Often these were office and com-mercial buildings in the central business district.The government planned major redevelopment of inner-city residential areas, involving demolition of low-cost public housing. The potential loss of theseareas and the break-up of their communities was asource of anger for protesters, who feared thedestruction of Sydney’s built heritage.

Individuals and groups began to take action. Therewere calls to protect native plants and animals,minimise pollution, preserve forests and identify andprotect the heritage of our built environment.

In varying degrees, Australia’s union movementresponded to these changed community attitudes.

In New South Wales, Jack Mundey led the BuildersLabourers Federation (BLF) in implementing greenbans — refusing to work on developments thatwould destroy important heritage areas in andaround Sydney. Their aim was to work with localcommunities to save areas of Sydney’s built andenvironmental heritage that had come under threat.

An extract from the Sydney Morning Herald , 12 May 1962

Source 10.3.2

The wreckers of buildings have carried off many a sombre

sandstone structure and are now demolishing their biggest

prize, the old AMP Building, which was built at the northern

end of Pitt Street 79 years ago. This building is one of the

largest of the older sandstone commercial buildings which

are giving way to new buildings of lighter and brighter struc-

tural materials such as steel, aluminium and glass.

Photograph of Jack Mundey of the BLF being carried by police from a blockade in The Rocks, 23 October 1973

Source 10.3.1


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Jack Mundey was born in 1929 in the Atherton Table-land in northern Queensland. In the 1950s he came toSydney, where he played rugby league for Parramatta.He worked in the metal industry as a builder’s labourerand became a member of the Communist Party. His

involvement in trying to improve safety conditions onbuilding sites made him well known in the 1960s, andhe was elected Secretary of the BLF in 1968.

In his position as BLF Secretary, Mundey, along with union organiser Joe Owens and BLF PresidentBob Pringle, led the New South Wales branch of theBLF in campaigns that went well beyond tra-ditional union concerns with wages and conditions.Their activism saw the BLF use its power in arange of social and political issues, including anti–

Vietnam War and anti-apartheid protests and sup-port for gay rights, land rights and feminist issues.The most famous of the BLF’s campaigns was JackMundey’s early 1970s green bans campaign.

An extract from a 1998 interview with Jack Mundey inwhich he explains why the term ‘green bans’ was used

The BLF imposed the first green ban on the Kelly’sBush area of Hunter’s Hill in 1971.

Kelly’s Bush was one of the few areas of naturalbushland still adjoining Sydney Harbour. A majorhousing company had purchased the site, operated

The BLF protest was originally going to becalled a ‘black ban’. These words usually referto action a union takes to improve its members’wages and working conditions. BLF PresidentBob Pringle chose the term ‘green ban’ as amore positive sounding way of expressing theBLF’s concern with broader social issues.

JACK MUNDEY

Source 10.3.3

They became ‘green’ because we felt it was moredescriptive of what we were doing. It wasn’t workersstopping the job to up their wages and conditions. Theywere saying we should have a social conscience and weshould be concerned about community interests. Of coursethe union had to fight for wages and conditions, but wealso felt it had a wider obligation of social responsibility.

And moving from black to green it meant that we hada new constituency. People who were normally hostile tounions came on-side. It was a very positive example ofunion activism, but going beyond normal unionism.

KELLY’S BUSH

by the Sydney Smelting Company, and obtainedapproval from Hunter’s Hill Council to develop thesite as well as some of its adjacent bush and park-land areas. This meant that the council had to rezonesome of the land from its ‘open space’ classificationto one allowing residential development. Angrylocals began voicing their opposition to this plan.

The campaign to save Kelly’s Bush began in 1970

when 13 local women formed an activist group called‘Battlers for Kelly’s Bush’. They appealed to both thecouncil and the building company to abandon plans forbuilding. When these appeals failed, the residents tooktheir case to the BLF to see if it could convince itsunion members to refuse to work on the site. The BLFagreed, on condition that the majority of residentssupported the issue. When this support was obtainedat a meeting of local residents, Jack Mundey notifiedthe building company that BLF members would notwork on the Kelly’s Bush site and that if any building work was begun at Kelly’s Bush, they would not workon any of the building company’s other sites either.

The Kelly’s Bush protest attracted support from awide range of groups, including heritage groupssuch as the Hunter’s Hill Trust, the New SouthWales branch of the National Trust of Australiaand the Australian Conservation Foundation, andprofessional groups such as the Civic DesignSociety of New South Wales and the Royal Instituteof Architects. Well-known writer Kylie Tennant lenther support to the protest with the words: ‘Theunborn Australian will ask for his birthright and behanded a piece of concrete’.

In 1977, Neville Wran, then New South WalesPremier, announced the end of any building plansfor Kelly’s Bush. In 1983, his government pur-

chased the land for use as a ‘state recreation area’.In 1994, the New South Wales Government put thesite under the care of the Hunter’s Hill Council.

A photograph taken in 1996 at a reunion of the activists inthe Kelly’s Bush campaign of 1971. Some of the 13 localwomen who became the ‘Battlers for Kelly’s Bush’ are shownwith Jack Mundey and their campaign banner, on the landthey fought to keep as open space.

Source 10.3.4



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In 1968, the New South Wales Government estab-lished the Sydney Cove Redevelopment Authorityto plan a scheme for revitalising Sydney’s historicRocks area. Many of the houses and streets of the

area were of a low standard and in poor repair.However, the area contained some of Sydney’soldest buildings and was unique in having kept itscharacter as a nineteenth-century residential area,despite being near the busy Circular Quay andHarbour Bridge. The proposal included demolishing many of the existing buildings and replacing themwith high-rise office towers, hotels and shopping malls. Rocks residents feared that the area wouldlose its unique character and that they would beforced out of their homes. Again in 1971, the BLFsupported residents of a heritage area by imposing green bans on a development judged to be out of character for the locality.

The inner-Sydney suburb of Woolloomooloo alsocame under threat at this time. The CommonwealthGovernment planned to demolish large areas of itsterraced housing for offices. The State Planning

Authority seemed to be encouraging development

THE ROCKS ANDWOOLLOOMOOLOO

proposals for large-scale office, hotel and housing complexes, and the Department of Main Roads hadbegun evicting tenants from existing housing inorder to clear land for the construction of an easternexpressway. Locals were concerned about the loss of character which terrace houses gave to the area andabout the loss of public housing. Once again, theimposition of green bans was effective. In late 1975,

the federal and New South Wales governments andthe local council jointly agreed to provide 600 homesthrough renovation and new building work.Seventy-five per cent of these homes were allocatedas public housing.

BLF green bans in support of local residents werealso imposed on developments at Centennial Park,

Victoria Street, Potts Point and the East LakesHousing Estate.

The national leadership of the BLF dis-agreed with the green bans imposed by the

New South Wales branch. In 1974, it took

over the branch and ended its role in

imposing green bans.

This photograph, taken in the 1990s, shows an area of the Rocks in Sydney. Buildings like these were under threat inthe late 1960s, but were saved by residents and the BLF.

Source 10.3.5


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In the period between 1971 and 1974, 42 greenbans delayed or prevented more than $3000 millionworth of building development in areas where theNew South Wales branch of the BLF sought toconserve features of the natural and built heritage.

Before the green ban era, people tended to thinkthat only upper-middle-class and wealthier Aus-tralians cared about the environment and that theenvironment really only meant ‘nature’. The greenbans showed that the built environment was impor-tant too and that its development was a concern for

Australians of all classes and walks of life.Jack Mundey, the BLF members and their green

bans supporters demonstrated:• the impact of people working together for a

common cause• Australian citizens’ concern with maintaining

their built and environmental heritage.

The green bans also provided evidence of theNew South Wales BLF’s commitment in the early1970s to using its union strength in support of causes beyond pay and conditions issues.

While green bans demonstrated the value of ‘peoplepower’ and played a significant role in preserving ourbuilt and natural heritage, they also cast the developer(often unfairly) in the role of villain. They have alsounintentionally produced many anti-developmentlobby groups but have not necessarily helped to createinformed debate on the nature of ‘good’ development.

In the years since the first green bans, town plan-ners, developers and councils have become more

aware of the impact of building plans on streetscapesand more concerned with the overall impact of theirprojects. At the same time, people continued to pro-test. Jack Mundey chaired the 1990s Save East Cir-cular Quay Committee in its unsuccessful attempt toprevent new development adjacent to Sydney’sOpera House. In 1995 he took up the position of Chair of the New South Wales Historic Houses Trust.

Check your understanding1. What did Sydney lose during the 1960s building boom?2. What signs were there in the 1970s that Australians

wanted to conserve their natural and built heritage?3. What was unusual about the involvement of the BLF in

the green bans campaigns?4. Write a paragraph of 10 to 15 lines outlining the

actions and achievements of the 1970s green banmovement and the role of Jack Mundey and the BLFwithin it. You should imagine you are writing to informan audience that knows nothing about this topic.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THEGREEN BANS

Using sources1. Write speech balloons or thought bubbles and Blu-Tack

them to source 10.3.1. You should aim to express threeor four different responses to the event shown.

2. What does the author of source 10.3.2 regard as theadvantages of Sydney’s new buildings over those of theprevious century?

3. Read source 10.3.3. What characteristics of the BLF in

the early 1970s does Jack Mundey’s comment display?4. Write three to five lines to explain the significance of thephotograph shown in source 10.3.4.

5. What would the author of source 10.3.2 have thought ofthe demolition of buildings such as those shown in source10.3.5. Would you agree? Give reasons for your answer.

Researching and communicating1. Write the speech that Jack Mundey might have given to

convince his fellow builders’ labourers of the value ofimposing a green ban on one of the following sites:Kelly’s Bush, The Rocks, Woolloomooloo.

2. Try to see Film Australia’s Australian Biography: JackMundey (2001) to reinforce and extend your

understanding of this topic.3. Examine the photograph in source 10.3.6. Choose

either an area, a building or another structure thatinterests you in the photograph, and research:(a) its age and stages of development or renovation(b) any controversies or protests that affected its future(c) its value for our heritage, from environmental and

historical viewpoints.Present a three-minute report to the class on yourfindings, using PowerPoint.

Worksheets

10.1 Heritage: the QVB

A photograph of the area around Circular Quay in Sydneytoday, showing The Rocks and its many heritage buildings,the Museum of Contemporary Art, the beginning of theCahill Expressway and the Harbour Bridge, the ferryterminals, East Circular Quay, the Botanic Gardens,Government House and the Sydney Opera House

Source 10.3.6




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SIR JOHN KERR

AND THE WHITLAM DISMISSAL

10.4

RETROactive 2

254

John Robert Kerr (1914–91) graduated in law fromSydney University and was admitted to the NewSouth Wales Bar in 1938. While a student, he hadbeen a protégé of Dr Herbert Vere Evatt, then aHigh Court judge and later Labor Party leader.From the late 1940s, Kerr practised industrial law,often representing trade unions. He was active inLabor Party politics until he resigned from theparty in 1956. In 1966, Kerr became a judge of theCommonwealth Industrial Court and in 1972 Chief Justice of the New South Wales Supreme Court.

In December 1974, John Kerr became Australia’sGovernor-General and in November the following year he committed one of the most controversialacts in Australian politics when he dismissed theWhitlam government.

Gough Whitlam became Prime Minister of Aus-tralia on 5 December 1972. Many Australiansbelieved that after 23 years in Opposition, theLabor Party would lead Australia into an exciting new era of reform and achievement (see chapter 11for more on this topic).

The Labor Party was in government because itwon a majority of seats in the House of Repre-sentatives. It did not have a majority in theSenate, so it could not guarantee that its Billswould be passed there.

The composition of the Senate following the 1972 election

In March 1974, the Liberal and Country partiesthreatened to refuse to pass the government’sSupply Bills in the Senate. Over the 74-year his-tory of Federal Parliament, it had become thecustom for the Senate to always pass Supply, evenif it had the numbers to reject it.

KERR’S BACKGROUND

THE COMPOSITION OF THESENATE

Source 10.4.1

ALP 26

Liberal Party/Country Party coalition 26

DLP 5

Independents 3

In early 1974, Whitlam responded to this threatby calling a double dissolution — the dissolving of both houses of Parliament so as to call an early elec-tion. He hoped to win his party a majority in bothhouses so that its Bills would be passed more easily.

The composition of the Senate following the 1974 election

The problem of the composition of the Senateremained even after the May 1974 election. Laborcontinued to have a majority in the House of Representatives and not in the Senate.

The custom in Australian politics was that if asenator either died or resigned in the periodbetween elections, then this ‘casual Senate vacancy’should be filled by someone else of the same party.This custom was broken twice in 1975. Firstly, inFebruary 1975, the Liberal Premier of New SouthWales, Tom Lewis, replaced retiring Labor senatorLionel Murphy with Cleaver Bunton, who was not

from the Labor Party. Secondly, in June 1975, theCountry Party Premier of Queensland, Joh Bjelke-Petersen, replaced deceased Labor senator BertMilliner with senator Albert Field. Senator Fieldwas openly critical of the Labor Party and voted insupport of the Liberal Party.

The composition of the Senate in July 1975

Labor Party Treasurer Bill Hayden introduced theBudget into Federal Parliament on 19 August 1975.It required the passage of Supply in both houses of Parliament to become operable. On 14 October 1975,Opposition leader Malcolm Fraser decided to try toforce the government to hold an early election by

Source 10.4.2

ALP 29


Independents 2

Source 10.4.3

ALP 27


Independents 2

THE ROLE OF THE OPPOSITION


14/26


having Liberal Party and Country Party senatorsdefer the vote on Supply in the Senate, thusblocking Supply. Fraser’s strategy led to a crisis,as the government needed Supply to carry out itspolicies and to pay Commonwealth Governmentemployees. Whitlam’s government had onlyenough funds to govern until 30 November 1975.

The role of Governor-General has been torepresent the British monarch in Australia.

At the time of his appointment, Kerr spoke of his hope that the position would enable himto do ‘interesting and useful things’. During the crisis over the Senate’s refusal to passSupply, Malcolm Fraser began trying to influ-ence Kerr to intervene. Fraser wanted Kerrto break the deadlock by sacking the PrimeMinister and his government. The Shadow

Attorney-General, Bob Ellicott QC, issued astatement claiming that the Governor-General had the right to do this if thegovernment could not guarantee Supply.

On 10 November 1975, Kerr asked SirGarfield Barwick, the Chief Justice of theHigh Court, for advice regarding the reservepowers of the Constitution and whether ornot these should be used to dismiss the PrimeMinister. Whitlam had not discussed the issueof reserve powers with Kerr, having assumedthat Kerr would act only on his advice.

On 11 November 1975, Sir John Kerr dismissedPrime Minister Gough Whitlam and his federalLabor government and appointed the Oppositionleader, Malcolm Fraser, as caretaker PrimeMinister until a new election could be called. The

Australian people had voted Labor into office inDecember 1972 and again in May 1974. PrimeMinister Whitlam had appointed John Kerr asGovernor-General the same year. Many Australiansviewed Kerr’s dismissal of the government as

undemocratic and unconstitutional. No-one hadvoted him into office, whereas Whitlam hadachieved the position of head of government inaccordance with the rules of the Australian Consti-tution and as a result of a democratic election. On11 November 1975, Kerr exercised great individualpower, after holding the position of Governor-General for just under 12 months.

Public opinion turned against Kerr after theevents of 1975 and he resigned in 1977. He retiredto London and died in 1991.

THE ROLE OF THEGOVERNOR-GENERAL

THE DISMISSAL

Check your understanding1. Why was the Labor Party concerned about the composition

of the Senate after the 1972 and 1974 elections?2. What was the custom with regard to filling casual

Senate vacancies? How was this contravened in 1975?

3. What criticisms did people make of Kerr’s actions indismissing the Whitlam government?

Using sources1. Use sources 10.4.1, 10.4.2 and 10.4.3 to explain how

the Labor Party was affected by the composition of theSenate during its term of office.

2. Identify the people shown in source 10.4.4 and writefive to eight lines to explain the meaning of theheadline ‘The Queen’s man strikes’.

Worksheets

10.2 What were they thinking?

Source 10.4.4

The cover of Time magazine, 24 November 1975




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PAUL KEATING

AND REPUBLICANISM

10.5

RETROactive 2

256

Paul Keating (born 1944) was Prime Minister of Australia from December 1991 until March 1996. Heentered Federal Parliament at the age of 25 andserved briefly as Minister for Minerals and Energyin the Whitlam government. He was Treasurer inthe Hawke government from 1983 to 1991, andbrought about considerable reform of the Australianeconomy. As Prime Minister, Keating addressedthree key issues:• reconciliation and rights for Australia’s

indigenous peoples• the promotion of closer ties with Asia• his vision of Australia as a republic, rather than

a constitutional monarchy.

As a constitutional monarchy, Australia’s head of government was its Prime Minister and its head of state was the British monarch, represented in Aus-tralia by a governor-general. The Australian Constitu-tion outlined the ways that Australia’s political systemwould operate as a parliamentary democracy. For

Australia to become a republic, all that would have tochange would be the practice of having Britain’shereditary monarch as our head of state.

The idea of Australia as a republic has existed indifferent forms for many years. Some people say

AUSTRALIA AS A REPUBLIC that indigenous Australians lived in a form of republic before the arrival of the British in 1788. In

the early twentieth century, republicanism waslinked to nationalism and the idea of a ‘White

Australia’.

The achievement of Federation in 1901began a long period in which repub-licanism appeared to have died as anissue. Australians enjoyed a sense of independence at the same time as fighting two world wars alongside Britain. Some

Australians associated breaking with themonarchy as a communist idea and foundthat unacceptable. The republican issuebegan to revive in the early to mid 1960s

through the writings of pro-republicanslike Geoffrey Dutton and Donald Horne.The 1975 dismissal of the Whitlamgovernment (see pages 255 and 282) led toincreased discussion of the issue, and in1977 Geoffrey Dutton published Repub-lican Australia, containing essays giving the arguments for and against change.Most Australians, however, continued tosupport the British monarch as our headof state until the 1990s.A photograph of Paul Keating visiting a school in Parramatta, 1997

Source 10.5.1

A 1992 video ‘grab’ showing Australia’s head of state,Queen Elizabeth II, being given some gentle guidancefrom the head of government, Prime Minister Paul Keating

Source 10.5.2


16/26


The republican issue revived in the early 1990swith the establishment of two groups:• The Australian Republican Movement (ARM) was

formed in 1991 under the leadership of MalcolmTurnbull and former New South Wales PremierNeville Wran. Its main goal was to have an

Australian as the nation’s head of state ratherthan a foreigner.

• Australians for a Constitutional Monarchy(ACM) was formed in 1992 with Lloyd Waddy asconvenor and Kerry Jones as executive director.Its goal was to convince Australians to retain theBritish monarch as our head of state.By the 1990s, many Australians had begun to

question the role of the Queen’s representative in Australia and the appropriateness of having theBritish monarch as Australia’s head of state.Britain’s economic interests lay more with theEuropean Union than with the nations of its former

empire. Following the fall of Singapore to theJapanese in 1942, Australia had begun to look tothe United States for military protection and, overtime, became more influenced by the culture of theUnited States than that of Great Britain.

By the late twentieth century, there seemed littlereason for Australians to seek cultural, political andeconomic leadership from a land thousands of kilo-metres from Australia in a different hemisphere.The Australian government’s post–World War II con-cern to ‘populate or perish’ had seen the arrival of migrants from northern and southern Europe, Asia,the Middle East and South America — all with

different cultural contributions to make. Similarly,in the last quarter of the twentieth century, manynon-indigenous Australians became aware of theculture of their country’s ‘first peoples’. The Britishmonarch was no longer a cultural figurehead for

Australia and it became obvious that Britain wouldsupport its own economic interests when it competedwith Australians in the same market.

By the late 1990s, the difference between the oldand the new Australia was very obvious inchanging attitudes to the British monarchy and itsrole and relevance to Australian life. For many Aus-tralians, reverence for power, position, pomp andceremony had been replaced by cynicism towards asystem which promoted people on the grounds of birthright rather than merit. Many Australiansquestioned whether we should show loyalty to asystem based on values that were contrary to thoseassociated with Australia’s identity.

Following the Labor Party victory in the 1993 elec-tion, Paul Keating took the lead in promoting the

CHANGING ATTITUDES

PAUL KEATING’S ROLE

republic by forming a committee to investigate the‘minimal constitutional changes’ needed to make

Australia a republic while retaining the presentsystem of government. In October 1993, the com-mittee issued its report, An Australian Republic,and the following year the Opposition leader,

Alexander Downer, suggested holding a people’sconvention to investigate the key issues further.

In June 1995, Keating announced his goal that Australia should become a republic with an Aus-tralian head of state (see the weblink for a fulltranscript). He hoped that this could be achievedby the time Sydney hosted the Olympic Games in2000 or, otherwise, by the time of the centenary of Federation on 1 January 2001. A 1995 opinion pollshowed that only 35 per cent of Australians sup-ported the idea of Australia remaining a consti-tutional monarchy. The issue of Australia as arepublic was back on the national agenda.

Prime Minister Keating also informed Australia’shead of state, Queen Elizabeth II, that Australia

was moving towards becoming a republic while alsoremaining within the British Commonwealth.Prince Charles, the heir to the throne and to theposition of Australia’s head of state, stated his viewthat debate on this was a sign of Australiamaturing as a nation.

Keating’s Labor government lost the 1996 election.The new Howard government decided to hold aconstitutional convention to discuss the issuesinvolved in Australia becoming a republic.

The delegates discussed four main models for theway an Australian republic could work. Themajority supported the bipartisan appointment of the president model (see source 10.8.1, page 267).Supporters of the ARM were especially thrilledwith this result and looked forward to thereferendum, which would put the question to the

Australian people.

At this time, and since Federation, only eight out of 42 proposals for constitutional change have everbeen successful. On this basis, a ‘yes’ vote seemedunlikely. In the final weeks preceding the6 November vote, the Australian Electoral Com-mission (AEC) provided for people’s democraticrights by issuing every voter with a booklet out-lining the official ‘yes’ and ‘no’ cases (summarisedon page 258) and the proposed changes to theConstitution, and showing sample ballot papers.

THE CONSTITUTIONAL

CONVENTION

THE REFERENDUM AND

BEYOND



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18/26


19/26

BOB BROWN

AND GREEN POLITICS

10.6

RETROactive 2

260

‘Green politics’

is a term used torefer to the issues that ‘Green’parties throughout the worldfocus on: protecting the environ-ment for future generations andsupporting human rights andsocial justice. Green politicsbecame a global phenomenon inthe late twentieth century. Today,Green parties exist in over 100countries across Europe, Africa,

Asia, the Pacific region and in the Americas, and they play signifi-cant roles in a number of parlia-ments and city councils.

Green parties believe in ademocratic process that incor-porates consultation with thepublic. They take a non-violentstand in advocating their goals,and they promote respect fordiversity: the idea that there isno ‘correct’ view against which to

judge people’s behaviour andway of life.

An extract from the transcript of a radio interview withAustralian Greens leader Senator Bob Brown, in which heoutlines the key principles uniting Green parties

Source 10.6.1

Alexandra de Blas: What are the fundamental principlesunderpinning these parties that make them Green?

Bob Brown: Well, Alexandra, the Greens around theworld will speak of the four pillars, which are social

justice, the environment, peace and the pursuit ofdemocracy but I can put it in a simpler way. It’s a reactionto the failure of the two party system around the worldto provide opposition to economic rationalism. And the

other thing that is singly different between the Greensand the other established parties is our basic dictum thatwe work for future generations. Everything we do isbased on this question, will people a hundred years fromnow thank us for doing that. And if we can’t say yes, weshouldn’t be doing it. That’s extremely different toestablished political parties which are, of course,working for the here and now and at the most have atrajectory going out to the next elections.

Alexandra de Blas interview with Bob Brown on Earthbeat ,Radio National, 24 April 1999.

Senator Bob Brown (b.1944) is the leader of the Australian Greens and represents the state of Tasmania in the Senate. He is a respected figure in

Australian politics for his commitment to andchampioning of environmental issues.

Bob (Robert James) Brown grew up in Oberon inrural New South Wales and later attended secondaryschool at Blacktown Boys’ High, where he was schoolcaptain. He graduated in Medicine from Sydney Uni-versity in 1968 and practised as a GP until 1980,mainly in Launceston. Brown’s move there in 1972began his great love of the Tasmanian wilderness

and his increasing awareness of environmentalissues. He became involved in protests against thedamming of Lake Pedder and entered politics as ameans of campaigning for environmental protection.

Brown made an unsuccessful attempt to gain aSenate seat in 1975 and from 1979 to 1984 wasDirector of what was then the Tasmanian Wilder-ness Society. It was in this position that he becamea leader of the successful 1982–83 campaign toprevent the Tasmanian Hydro-Electric Commission(HEC) from damming the Franklin River.

BOB BROWN AND GREEN

POLITICS IN AUSTRALIA

Photograph of environmental activist Senator Bob Brown, 18 March 2004

Source 10.6.2


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In 1974 the Whitlam government had organised for Australia to sign the international ConventionConcerning the Protection of the World Culturaland Natural Heritage.

In December 1982, the World Heritage Committee

accepted the Australian Federal Government’snomination of the Western Tasmanian NationalParks for entry into the World Heritage List. Beforethe parks could be listed, the Tasmanian Govern-ment intervened by passing the Gordon River

Hydro-Electric Power Development Act 1982. The Actallowed the Tasmanian Hydro-Electric Commissionto construct a dam on the Franklin River within thenominated heritage area. This would assist the HECin supplying Tasmania’s electricity.

Environmentalists throughout Australia beganprotesting against the actions of the TasmanianGovernment.

THE FRANKLIN DAM ISSUEBob Brown and the Tasmanian Wilderness

Society campaigned to increase public awarenessof the beauty of the proposed heritage area. Itinformed people of the negative impact that exca-vation, building work and ongoing use of the damwould have on this unique wilderness. It also usedphotographs such as source 10.6.3 to show thepublic what would be lost if the dam went ahead.

There were already at least 20 dams in Tasmania.The area that would be flooded to create theFranklin Dam contained caves that had been usedby Aboriginal people for thousands of years andwere therefore of significant cultural value.

Early in 1983, the Tasmanian Wilderness Societyled a blockade of the proposed construction site.More than 2000 people took part in this action;1500 were arrested and 600, including Bob Brown,went to jail.

The Labor Party won the federal election in March1983. It came to government with a commitment toprevent the construction of the Franklin Dam.

Photograph by Peter Dombrovskis, 1979, showing the Franklin River — part of the area nominated forinclusion on the World Heritage List © Liz Dombrovskis

Source 10.6.3



21/26

RETROactive 2

262

First, the Commonwealth Government usedexisting legislation to prevent any work occurring on the dam without its approval. Second, thegovernment passed the World Heritage PropertiesConservation Act 1983. This Act classified the wholearea as ‘natural heritage’ and some of the areasclosest to the site as ‘cultural heritage’ as well. The

heritage classification of these areas meant thatthey could not be built on.The Tasmanian Government claimed that the

Commonwealth Government was acting outside thepowers granted to it in the Constitution and tookthis issue to the High Court. The High Court sup-ported the Commonwealth Government’s right tointroduce legislation to stop construction of the dam.

In 1990 Bob Brown was one of six recipients

of the Goldman Environmental Prize in its

inaugural year. This is an annual inter-national award created to increase public

awareness of global environmental issues and

the initiatives that individuals take to address

them. The winners receive both a monetary

award and a bronze sculpture representing an

Ouroboros — a serpent biting its tail. The

Ouroboros symbolises nature renewing itself.

Bob Brown used his prize money to establish

the Australian Bush Heritage Fund.

The Franklin Dam issue made Australians aware of the importance of their natural environment and theneed to protect it. Bob Brown spent 19 days in jail,

emerging in time to be elected as the first Greenmember of the Tasmanian Parliament. He put forwardBills on freedom of information, euthanasia, the needto decrease politicians’ salaries, the maintenance of Tasmania as a nuclear-free zone, the banning of bat-tery hens and, in 1987, a Bill to ban semi-automaticweapons. This Bill — seven years before the Port

Arthur massacre — failed. Brown also led a successfulcampaign to have another 650000 hectares added toTasmania’s World Heritage Area. He continued hisparticipation in non-violent protests against threatsto Tasmania’s environmental heritage.

Bob Brown served in the Tasmanian Parliament

until 1993. He gained a seat in the Senate in 1996 andwas re-elected in 2001.

Bob Brown has gone on to campaign for manyother Green issues: he protested at Australia’sinvolvement in war in Iraq; the United StatesGovernment’s detention, without charge, of two

Australians at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba; and atwhat he saw as the negative impact of the Common-wealth Government’s 2004 Free Trade Agreementwith the United States. Within the Senate, he intro-duced Bills concerning forest protection, greenhouse

BOB BROWN AND THE IMPACTOF GREEN POLITICS

Photograph showing protesters blockading the site of the proposed Franklin Dam, 1983

Source 10.6.4


22/26


gases and the dumping of radioactive waste. He putforward a Bill leading to the end of mandatory deten-tion of children for petty crimes in the NorthernTerritory, and he delivered the casting vote leading to the establishment of a convention on Australiabecoming a republic. Although he is the leader of asmall party, Brown is committed to providing a viablealternative to Australia’s two main political parties.

A photograph of Bob Brown being manhandled by loggers

during a protest against forest clearing at Farmhouse Creekin the Tasmanian wilderness in 1986

Source 10.6.5

Check your understanding1. What types of issues do the advocates of Green politics

support?2. Write 20 to 25 lines to support the statement that

‘Bob Brown has made a significant contribution tothe cause of Green politics in Australia’. Do someadditional research from your library and go towww.jaconline.com.au/retroactive/retroactive2,where you can click on the Bob Brown weblinks.

Using sources1. Use source 10.6.1 to answer the following questions:

(a) What four goals do Greens have in commonall around the world?

(b) According to Bob Brown, what are twodifferences between Greens and other politicalparties?

2. In source 10.6.1, Brown refers to ‘economicrationalism’. Find out what it means.

3. Devise a new caption for source 10.6.3 so as toexpress its significance to Bob Brown’s politics.

4. Use sources 10.6.3 and 10.6.4 to illustrate aparagraph of 15 to 20 lines in which you explain:(a) the heritage value of the area shown(b) what people have done to help conserve this

heritage.5. What is happening in the photograph in source

10.6.5? How many loggers and how manyprotesters are involved in the scene and what arethe motives for their behaviour?

6. In what ways do Bob Brown’s views in source10.6.6 demonstrate what Green politics is about?

An extract from the transcript of a television interview with Bob Brown, in which he outlines the short-term and long-termgoals of the Greens

Source 10.6.6

Nikki Dwyer: What are the key issues for the Greens at themoment and in the short term, for our region?

Bob Brown: It is that Australia be a good neighbour in theregion. We’re a wealthy country. We need to share. Weneed to not just be connected to the United States and toEurope — which is important and part of our history — butwe are part of the Asian region. We need to be able to becooperating with countries to our north.

I’ve recently been in East Timor, the poorest country inour region and I’m very strongly in favour of the WestPapuans and their right to self-determination, the same forthe Tibetans and, of course, democracy in Burma.

It’s important for Australia to speak up for democracy butthat it also give the best assistance we can to see that weend poverty, we end the imprisonment of people who speakup for political beliefs and we ensure that children have

access to schools, to good food and to clean water, in placeswhere they don’t.

Nikki Dwyer: What about the future of the Greenmovement, broadly speaking, as an international politicalpower?

Bob Brown: It’s very important. We are a global movement.We’re small but we’re growing and we’re an alternative tothe big parties who are allowing the gap between rich andpoor, both within countries and between countries, to growon this planet. If we’re going to have a secure planet in thefuture, we need everybody to have their basic needs met,their ability to get an education and a job and, of course,to be able to defend their environment and their culture intheir own places.

Nikki Dwyer interview with Bob Brown on Talking Point ,ABC Television, 8 December 2003.


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PAULINE HANSON STIRS UP

FEARS IN THE COMMUNITY

10.7

RETROactive 2

264

Pauline Hanson (b.1954) entered Federal Parlia-ment in March 1996 as the Member for Oxley, aQueensland seat. She had initially campaigned asthe official Liberal Party candidate for the seat.Two weeks before the election, the Liberal Partydisowned her because of comments she had madeon race and immigration issues. She contested andwon the seat as an independent.

Oxley had been Queensland’s safest Labor seat,and the victory of the ultra-conservative Hansonwas a shock. The greater shock came on 10 Sep-tember 1996 when Hanson delivered her maiden(debut) speech in the House of Representatives. In

it she expressed her view that Aboriginal Austral-ians were being given benefits that they did notdeserve and that Australia was ‘in danger of being swamped by Asians’. She spoke out stronglyagainst multiculturalism, saying that ‘a trulymulticultural country can never be strong orunited’ and she called for ‘one people, one nation,one flag’.

An extract from Pauline Hanson’s maiden speech in FederalParliament, delivered on 10 September 1996

The media played an important role in the spread of Pauline Hanson’s controversial ideas. She was frontpage news, a sought-after guest on talkback radioand her public appearances became a frequent itemon the evening news.

The Australian community was divided in itsresponse to her. People from both sides of politicsspoke out against the speech. Church leaders,human rights activists and many journalists con-demned her views. Many people considered her

Source 10.7.1

. . . I come here, not as a polished politician but as awoman who has had her fair share of life’s knocks. Myview on issues is based on common sense and myexperience as a mother of four children, a sole parentand a businesswoman running a fish and chip shop. Iwon the seat of Oxley largely on an issue that hasresulted in me being called a racist. That issue related tomy comment that Aboriginals received more benefitsthan non-Aboriginals.

RESPONSES TO HANSON’S

MAIDEN SPEECH

racist, misinformed and a serious threat to har-monious relations among Australia’s peoples. A vocal minority supported her views, took Hanson’soften stumbling and uncertain replies to reporters’questions as evidence of her ‘battler’ status, andsaw her critics as elitist.

Photograph of Pauline Hanson with the Australian flagdraped around her

Hanson’s comments had found a receptive audi-

ence among Australians who felt that the majorparties ignored their concerns about unemploy-ment, declining facilities in regional areas and theimpact of globalisation. Many of her supporterswere men over 50, educated to early secondary leveland reliant on full-time employment in unskilled orsemi-skilled jobs. This was a group suffering at atime of economic downturn and decreased employ-ment opportunities for the low-skilled.

Hanson’s naivety, inarticulate speech and lack of general knowledge made her an easy target for

Source 10.7.2


24/26


satirists and for reporters whose questions oftenmade her look foolish and unprepared. In a famousOctober 1998 interview, reporter Tracey Curroasked Hanson whether she was xenophobic (having a fear or hatred of foreigners). Hanson, not under-standing the meaning of this word, responded bysaying, ‘Please explain’ — two words that immedi-ately became a humorous addition to everyday

speech.

In April 1997, Hanson founded her own politicalparty, which she named One Nation. Over the next18 months, she continued to gather support anddraw large crowds — some cheering and othersvehemently protesting against her views. On25 November 1997, she recorded a video message tobe broadcast in the event of her assassination (seesource 10.7.3).

At the Queensland state elections in March 1998,One Nation gained 23 per cent of the vote and 11 of the 78 seats in the Queensland Parliament. Themajor parties feared that this success could berepeated at the forthcoming federal elections andtheir leaders appeared reluctant to alienateHanson supporters by speaking out against herpolicies. The Liberal and National parties, who hadlost many supporters to Hanson, moved further tothe right of the political spectrum. This wasespecially evident in their policy of refusing asylumseekers access to Australia.

An extract from the text of Pauline Hanson’s video messageof 25 November 1997

In the October 1998 federal elections, One Nation

did not win a single seat in the House of Represen-tatives and won only a single seat in the Senate.Hanson claimed this failure occurred because theHoward government had stolen her policies.

Hanson’s party had begun to self-destruct. Rankand file members claimed its methods were undem-ocratic; five of its Queensland MPs left the party forthe same reason; and One Nation lost another of itsQueensland seats in a by-election.

Hanson’s decline continued amid allegations thatshe had committed fraud by illegally obtaining

PAULINE HANSON AND ONENATION

Source 10.7.3

Fellow Australians, if you are seeing me now, it meansI have been murdered. For the sake of our children andour children’s children, you must fight on. Do not letmy passing distract you for one moment. We must goforward together as Australians. Our country is atstake.

nearly $500 000 in electoral funds to establish OneNation when she did not have the required mem-bership base to do so. Hanson announced her with-drawal from politics in January 2002 to fight thecharges against her. In August 2003, a jury in theBrisbane District Court found her guilty of fraud,and the judge sentenced her to a three-year jailterm. She served 11 weeks of this sentence before

the Court of Appeal quashed the conviction andordered her release.

Pauline Hanson emerged on the Australian politicalscene at a time when many Australians felt threat-ened by the changing nature of their work and of

Australian society. She offered victim status tothose whom the major parties appeared to neglect.To her critics, Pauline Hanson represented adanger to Australia and to the respect for tolerance,

human rights and social justice that the nationclaimed to value.

Hanson turned race and immigration into policyissues in Australian politics. While she triggeredfear rather than informed discussion and debate,she also exposed hostility towards policies thatassist immigrants and Aboriginal Australians.These remain an issue for the nation to resolve inthe early twenty-first century.

Check your understanding1. Name two events made Pauline Hanson a well-known

figure in Australian politics.

2. How did different groups of Australians respond toher?

3. Why did people support/oppose her?4. What were the main ideas expressed in Hanson’s

maiden speech?

Using sources1. Read source 10.7.1. How does Hanson describe

herself? What aspects of this description might appeal

to her listeners?2. To read the analysis of Pauline Hanson’s maiden

speech by Melbourne Age reporter Laura Tingle, go towww.jaconline.com.au/retroactive/retroactive2 andclick on the Hanson’s Maiden Speech weblink. Whatinformation does Tingle provide to refute PaulineHanson’s claims?

3. What impression of herself does Hanson want to createwith the photograph shown in source 10.7.2?

4. What does source 10.7.3 indicate about how Hansonsaw herself?

HANSON’S ROLE INAUSTRALIAN POLITICS


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RETROactive 2

266

Review & exam practice

SCHOOL CERTIFICATE

PRACTICE

Multiple choice

Note: There is at least one question below for each of thetopics in this chapter. If you have studied only ONE exampleof people power in your class, work in groups using thesequestions as a guide and write a new set of questionsfocusing entirely on the individual you have studied.

Choose the letter that provides the most correct answer.1. The term ‘people power’ refers to:

(A) groups of people protesting in order to pressuregovernments to make changes

(B) people raising the community’s awareness ofissues they consider unjust

(C) individuals who use their position of authorityto bring about change

(D) all of the above.2. The New South Wales Freedom Ride was:

(A) a free bus trip through rural New South Wales(B) part of a campaign to win rights for Aboriginal

Australians(C) part of a campaign to desegregate buses(D) part of a campaign to force authorities to

recognise the rights of Aboriginal Australians.3. The main aim of the women’s liberation movement

was to:(A) encourage all women to join the paid

workforce(B) improve women’s education

(C) liberate women from their traditional roles(D) make The Female Eunuch compulsory readingin all schools.

4. In The Female Eunuch, Germaine Greer:(A) encouraged ‘delinquency among women’(B) provided guidelines for action to achieve

women’s liberation(C) demonstrated her power as a leader of the

women’s liberation movement(D) sought to end sex-stereotyping in job

advertisements.5. The green bans were introduced:

(A) to save areas of our built and natural heritage(B) to prevent development(C) by environmentalists to prevent global warming(D) to achieve higher wages for builders’ labourers.

6. The BLF implemented green bans by:(A) refusing to work on developments that

threatened to destroy Sydney’s built andenvironmental heritage

(B) going on strike until governments introducednew laws protecting the environment

(C) wrecking developments that they did notapprove of

(D) joining the Kelly’s Bush resident action group.

7. The Whitlam government held office because:(A) it had a majority in the Senate(B) it controlled both Houses of Federal

Parliament(C) it had a majority in the House of

Representatives(D) it had been appointed by the Governor-General.

8. Many Australians judged Sir John Kerr’s dismissalof the Whitlam government to be undemocraticbecause:(A) the Whitlam government held office as a result

of a democratic election(B) they believed that Kerr did not have the

authority to do so(C) they believed that the Liberal Party had created

the crisis that Kerr took action to resolve(D) all of the above.

9. Bob Brown currently campaigns for Green politics

through his position:(A) in Tasmanian Parliament(B) in the Senate(C) in the House of Representatives(D) as Director of the Wilderness Society.

10. Paul Keating wanted Australia to:(A) become a republic by 2001(B) continue to have a British head of state(C) have a British head of government and an

Australian head of state(D) make significant changes to Australia’s

Constitution so that Australia could become arepublic.

11. Pauline Hanson’s supporters were mainly:(A) young Australians working in the businesscommunity

(B) human rights activists(C) people over fifty(D) older men, with limited formal education.

Extended response

Choose an individual who demonstrated ‘people power’within Australia in the post–World War II period. Use yourknowledge of this individual to explain how he or shedemonstrated people power, and outline the significanceof his or her actions for Australia in the post-war period.Your response should be 20 to 25 lines in length.

INDEPENDENT LEARNING —

BE A STEP AHEAD

Extend your understanding of this topic by findingcurrent examples of people power from newspapers andmagazines. Display these on the class noticeboard witha brief comment to explain the link between the personor group your article depicts and the idea of peoplepower.

Peoplepower

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DEVELOPING YOUR

HISTORICAL SKILLS

Collect five primary and five secondary sources thatprovide information on the ‘people power’ role of theindividual you have studied. For each of your sources,list its creator; date and origin; the creator’s motive and

purpose; the nature of the information it provides; andits perspective.

Analysis and debate1. In the lead-up to the dismissal of the Whitlam

government (see pages 280–3), Sir John Kerr couldbe criticised for taking advice from Sir GarfieldBarwick on two counts:• Firstly, any dispute over the Constitution would

have to be heard in the High Court, so Barwickwas effectively giving advice on a matter onwhich he may later have to sit in judgement.

• Secondly, the Liberal Shadow Attorney-General,

who had also expressed his view on theGovernor-General’s power, was in fact a relativeby marriage of Sir Garfield Barwick.

Explain in your own words why Kerr might havebeen accused of bias for consulting Barwick.

2. The flowchart in source 10.8.1 illustrates a modelfor appointing a president. How does this modelprovide for public involvement in the choice of apresident and protection against the wrongful use ofthe Prime Minister’s power?

3. What issue from the 1999 referendum campaigndoes the cartoon in source 10.8.2 illustrate? Writefive to eight lines to explain your answer.

4. Read the extract from the article in source 10.8.3.According to Richard Woolcott, what was wrongwith having the United Kingdom’s head of state asour head of state? What aspects of the Britishmonarchy does Woolcott say go against the valuesthat are important to Australia?

Flowchart showing the main features of the ‘bipartisan appointment of the president’ model

The person chosen aspresident has a 5-year termof office and the samepowers as the Governor-General. The Prime Ministercould remove the President

but would have to gainHouse of Representativesapproval of this action within30 days. Non-approval by thelower house would beequivalent to a vote of noconfidence in the PrimeMinister.

The Prime Minister selectsone nominee on the basis ofthe committee’s report. Thischoice must be seconded bythe leader of the Oppositionand receive the approval of

two-thirds of a joint sittingof both houses of FederalParliament.

All members of theAustralian community cannominate candidates whowill be considered by acommittee.

Candidates must beAustralian citizenswho agree to beingnominated.

Source 10.8.1

Source 10.8.2

An extract from ‘How the Republic will make us relevant’,by Australian diplomat Richard Woolcott

Source 10.8.3

How the Republic will makeus relevantby Richard Woolcott

The Crown is not an Australian institution. Under present

constitutional arrangements we have as our head of state

whoever is the head of the state of the United Kingdom.

There are . . . elements of the British monarchy that are con-

trary to cherished Australian values, such as equality of

opportunity, religious tolerance . . . and non-discrimination on

the basis of gender. The monarch occupies the throne on the

basis of heredity, not merit. The king or queen of England

must be an Anglican, and preference for male descendants

over females to occupy the throne is mandatory. Such out-moded restrictions on the occupant of the British throne are

completely outside of contemporary Australian egalitarian

thinking, values and practices.

Weekend Australian, 19–20 October 1996.

A cartoon from the Sun-Herald , 22 August 1999

Chap 10 People Power

Documents

Transcript of Chap 10 People Power