Autobiography

Chapter 1

From MP to Missionary.
Where is Mongolia?

Chapter 2

Around the world
Home after 8 months.
New South Wales Parliament
Mercy Ships Texas
Mercy Ships UK

Chapter 3

My Early years.
North Sydney Boys’ High School
Sydney University 1964-1967.

Chapter 4

Conscripted !
Officer Training Unit Scheyville.
Vietnam?

Chapter 5

On Active Service.

Chapter 6

Living in America.
Home again: Collaroy Surf Life Saving Club.

Chapter 7

Nock & Kirbys
Warringah Council 1977 election.
Collaroy Surf Shop.
Council Sacked by Wran Government.

Chapter 8

Engaged and married.
Wakehurst Liberal Preselection.
The Gold Coast.
Shopping Centre Tenants Association.

Chapter 9

Liberal candidate for Surfers Paradise
Federal Member for McPherson.

Chapter 10

Parliamentary Christian Fellowship
Lyons Forum.

Chapter 11

Promoted by Downer
Genocide in East Timor
Croatia
Under fire in Sarajevo.
The Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade

Chapter 12

Overseas travel.
India, Bangladesh and Nepal
Vietnam. South Korea and USA.
France, Kenya, Ethiopia and Eritrea.
Travelling in Australia.

Chapter13

Taiwan.
Sri Lanka and the Tamil Tigers.
Gun Control
Pauline Hanson and One Nation
Native Title

Chapter 14

Resignation from the Liberal Party.
John Howard, PM in waiting
National Crime Authority

Chapter 1

From MP to Missionary.

Where is Mongolia? Judy asked, typically under reacting to my bombshell. Our marriage had been punctuated by crisis and change. She had been married to a politician for 15 years so nothing really fussed Judy too much. But it was nevertheless a pertinent question.

My failure to secure a Senate seat at the 1998 election was not surprising. But the day after the election the realisation soon set in that my Parliamentary career was over. I had been the Member for McPherson in the House of Representatives for almost nine years. Now I was unemployed. A rooster one day; a feather duster the next! John Howard had been right.

I had met with the Prime Minister in his office at 4.00 on the afternoon of Tuesday 7 April 1998 to inform him of my decision to resign from the Liberal Party. I had accepted the invitation of Rev Fred Nile to become the Federal Parliamentary Leader of the Christian Democratic Party of which Fred was the founder. I also informed Mr. Howard of my decision to stand for the Senate at the next election that was due within 12 months.

Our meeting lasted about 45 minutes. Naturally Mr Howard was unhappy. He wanted me to defer my decision but the dye had been cast and as I left his office after about 45 minutes he shook my hand nevertheless warning me that I would not win a seat in the Senate under the CDP banner.

Politics is exciting. At the national level the adrenalin starts pumping the moment you walk through the doors to that wonderful building that is our National Parliament. To have served in the House of Representatives is to belong to a very exclusive club.
Former MP’s, particularly long serving ones, often struggle to adjust to life after politics. Many only leave reluctantly having been defeated at elections or in party preselections. Some stay on way beyond their use by dates but manage to retain their party preselections mainly by having built up solid support bases over the years. They have the power of patronage.

So waking up on that Sunday morning we were faced with another big decision. I was only 53 years old. Our three children were still at a private school and our income was about to be more than halved. But the real challenge was not so much a financial one. We really had to make a fundamental decision about our future or more correctly, my future. Would I go back into business or teaching? Or would we do something different.

I was aware that there were many missionary organizations that needed qualified staff particularly for service overseas. I met with a number including my old friend Tom Hallas, South East Asia Director for Youth With A Mission. Tom suggested a few possibilities one of which would eventuate much later.

In the meantime I also met with others, including Tom Tresseder, General Secretary of the Bible Society of NSW. Tom and I were close friends having met at the Southern Cross Ski lodge in Smiggin Holes shortly before I went to Vietnam in 1969. We skied many seasons together after I returned from the war. We worked together at Scripture Union in the early 1980’s so Tom knew me well. I think he knew my capabilities.

Tom asked me if I would consider a stint in a country where the United Bible Societies (the umbrella organization for the Bible Societies world wide) was having “some difficulties”. He described a problem that was essentially one where the translation work had become bogged down in a mire of controversy and personality conflicts.

Two “camps” had developed over time disputing key issues for the translation effort and the young church was divided. Tom thought and the United Bible Societies agreed, that I had the “people” and diplomacy skills to assist with a resolution to the problem that had been ongoing for a number of years.

Naturally I was keen to keen to find out more. I imagined, as Tom outlined the situation, that I might find myself in some tropical paradise in the South Pacific. But no, it was in Mongolia! I had some vague idea of where Mongolia was but had to consult a world atlas to be sure.

So I was able to answer Judy’s question when I went home and told her I had been asked to consider going to Mongolia for a minimum time of 6 months. It was not going to be an easy decision. We decided that if I was to go the whole family should go. That, of course, meant taking the children, Tim, aged 14, Sally aged 13 and Lisa aged 6 years out of school. Fortunately the United Bible Societies agreed to pay for the children to attend the small International School in Ulaanbaatar.

A number of meetings with United Bible Society’s South East Asian Director David Thorne sealed the deal. We would leave for Mongolia almost immediately. Fortunately the school year was almost over. I spent many hours in briefing sessions with David Thorne and others in preparation for what was obviously to be a difficult task.

Numerous senior UBS executives from the UK and USA had visited Mongolia on different occasions in an attempt to resolve the issues. But it had been realised that a much longer effort was needed and no one could be spared to focus exclusively on the situation.

Things moved quickly. The decision to go was taken in early November. We left Australia on 23rd December. We spent Christmas in Hong Kong. It was an exciting experience. Our children had travelled overseas to the United States with us previously but this was their first exposure to Asia.

There was a strong Christian presence in vibrant Hong Kong so the city was spectacularly decorated for Christmas. Many buildings were lit and Christmas Eve main streets were closed as hundreds of thousands of people celebrated out doors despite the cool weather. Christmas Day was much quieter and we experienced the loneliness that would be a feature of our time away from friends and family.

We departed Hong Kong on Boxing Day for Beijing where we planned to spend a few days acclimatising. I was surprised that Beijing was a big modern city. Our hotel was modern and comfortable. It was awesome to see Tiananmen Square and the famous Forbidden City. It was however very cold. It was the first time we had experienced sub zero temperatures and we were able to try out the extreme weather clothes we had purchased in Hong King in preparation for Mongolia.

Between Hong Kong and Beijing Judy had become quite ill with a “tummy” bug. Lisa, with impeccable timing succumbed as we arrived at Customs and Immigration in Beijing. Next day Tim and I were also vomiting. Only Sally remained well.

We arrived in Ulaanbaatar on New Years Eve 1998. We were unsure whether we would be met. The Mongolian Bible Society representative John Gibbens had made it clear that our involvement was not welcomed. This man was the cause of the problems that existed in Mongolia.

Fortunately, Interserve, another Christian ministry represented in Mongolia had been helpful in assisting us with the logistics of our transition. Interserve representatives were at the airport and quickly located us and helped us through the throng of unfamiliar faces.

The two-hour flight north from Beijing on Mongolian Airlines was uneventful despite the reputation for the airline rarely maintaining its schedules. This, as we found out, was often because of the weather conditions in Ulanbatar in winter where high winds made approaching the airport in the mountains hazardous.

As we approached Ulaanbaatar, which is at 1500 meters above sea level it was already late afternoon and we peered through the gloom for a glimpse of this mysterious place that was to be home for the next 6 months. The pilot announced that the temperature at the airport was –30 centigrade. Of course we knew it would be very cold in this city situated just 200 kms south of the border with Siberia. But only a week or so before when we left our home on the Gold Coast it had been +30 centigrade!

The airport terminal was quite modern. We were soon approached by the inevitable gaggle of beggars pushing and shoving for our attention. One particular poor man comes to mind. He handed us a note in English on a tattered piece of paper telling the sad story of how his ger (home) had burned down and his family had to survive without shelter or food. It was a moving story. But every time we visited the airport afterwards we saw this same man with the same note approaching new arrivals with his tale of woe.

Leaving the airport terminal we soon realised how cold 30 below is. In a word, life-threatening! Our first challenge was to find accommodation. We had not anticipated this being a problem but it was. Not only was it New Years Eve but we had not anticipated the fact that there were very few hotels and none was recommended. Fortunately our Interserve friends suggested we stay temporarily in an apartment of one of their staff that was away at the time.

We struggled up a few flights of stairs in the Russian apartment building with our many bags and tired children in tow. Judy sprung into action, as she would many times in the ensuing months, to prepare a meal with what few provisions were readily available. Sally was the last member of the family to become sick and she did so right on cue as we walked in the door. So much for us teasing her about her resilience to date!

We awoke and looked out in utter amazement at the snow and ice covered scenery sparkling in the weak sunshine outside our window. It was time to get rugged up and to go out exploring. It was New Years day 1999.

Mongolia is a truly enigmatic country; it is unique for its history, its culture, its geography and its climate. Today it is amongst the World’s poorest nations. But it was once a rich nation. Under the legendary Chinggis (Genghis) Khan the Mongolians established the largest empire in the history of the world between the years 1206 and 1367.

Even the great wall couldn’t keep them out of China. Chinggis Khan’s army was not the largest in the world at the time but it was superior in military tactics. The Mongols were excellent horsemen and were skilled with bow and arrow. They became the most formidable war machine the world had ever known. At its height the Mongol empire stretched from the South China Sea to the Danube River

Mongolia today is a bridge between Asia and Europe. It is bordered on the south by China and on the north by Russia. It was under Chinese rule for many years after 1732. In 1924 it became the word’s second communist state dominated by the Soviet Union. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union the Mongolians elected Communist Government in 1990. At the 1996 election however the Democratic Coalition achieved a landslide victory.

Mongolian culture was all but destroyed by successive periods of domination by China and Russia. The legacy of the Russians is readily apparent in the bureaucratic structures and in the rows of drab, poorly constructed apartment buildings. In some parts of the country these buildings have been abandoned. Now many Mongolians feel threatened by Western influence.

Like a land outside of time Mongolia was one of the last countries in the world to gain a Christian Church of any kind. A very few Christian missionaries had stayed in Mongolia between 1700 and 1900 but had very few converts. One missionary lamented “ it would be difficult to find another instance in which any religion has gripped a country so universally and completely as Buddhism has Mongolia.”

During the years after the country was closed after 1924 religious belief of any kind was actively discouraged and most symbols of religion including almost all Buddhist temples were destroyed. Many monks were murdered. It was not until after the country was reopened in 1990 that the first Christian converts appeared.

The Mongolian Bible Society was formed shortly after this time mainly due to the influence of John Gibbens. John was an Englishman who had been drawn to Mongolia during the late 1970s. He had returned to England and begun work on the translation of the New Testament into Mongolian. He convinced the United Bible Societies to support his translation work.

Later, Gibbens was divorced from his English wife and married a Mongolian woman he had met on one of his earlier visits. Gibbens became very fluent in the Mongolian language. He had also studied theology and trained as a linguist in the UK. John Gibbens started what was probably the first Christian church in Mongolia early in 1990.

Early missionaries to Mongolia were rugged, independent individuals. Otherwise they probably would not have survived. John Gibbens was that type of man. Some might have called him uncouth. Another was Rick Leatherwood, an American evangelist. On 28th April 1990 Rick led the team that publicly baptised 34 new Mongolian believers.

The Gibbens/Bible Society translation of the New Testament was published in August 1990.By 1993, as a number of missionary began to better understand the Mongolian language, significant mistakes and inaccuracies in the Gibbens translation became apparent. The translation read more like a commentary with the translator’s comments intertwining the translation rather than as footnotes.

However the most significant bone of contention was Gibbens’ refusal to use the traditional Mongolian word for God, Burkhan. Instead Gibbens used a term that meant “master of the universe” which was meaningless, particularly to older Mongolians.

It is not unusual for translation workers to face such difficulties. Usually they are resolved by consensus between the representatives of the various churches in the country. No such consensus emerged in Mongolia and there was serious tension between the two camps that had developed around the two main protagonists, Gibbens and Leatherwood who had an aversion to each other. A surprising degree of animosity existed between the two.

In the summers of 1992 and 1993 the Campus Crusade Jesus Film was shown in Mongolia. It used the unfamiliar terminology of the Bible Society translation. This further added to the confusion. Mongolians had never heard of the Master of the Universe. After the film was shown a Mongolian Christian would have to explain the movie using the traditional terminology.

In November 1993 a group of missionaries began to contemplate starting an entirely new translation project. All had long given up on having a dialogue with John Gibbens about their concerns. A year later the Mongolian Bible Translation Committee produced its translation of the books of John and then Mark in May 1995.These were widely accepted by the churches and missionary organizations. The whole New Testament was published by the MBTC in November 1996 and the whole Bible in July 2000.

Over time John Gibbens relationships with most of the young church leaders and with other missionary organizations deteriorated. Most aligned themselves with Rick Leatherwood and the MBTC. The Bible Society of Mongolia formed by John Gibbens and backed by UBS failed to meet the requirements of UBS for affiliation. UBS credibility was increasingly undermined.

Attempts by UBS executives to manage the situation proved fruitless in the face of John Gibbens intransigence. Gibbens skilfully manipulated any who attempted to mediate. With his knowledge of the Mongolian culture and language he was more than a match for anyone UBS despatched to meet him.

When John Gibbens was informed of the plan for me to go and stay in Mongolia for six months to “assist” him resolve some of the issues he was indignant and refused to cooperate. He wrote warning of the dangers that lie ahead for my young family and me. We were consequently not surprised when Gibbens failed to assist with our arrival despite the fact that he had at least two serviceable 4wd vehicles provided by UBS at his disposal.

On Sunday January 2nd we paid John Gibbens a visit at his fortress like apartment on the 6th floor of an apartment building close to the centre of town. He was quite hostile, refusing initially to even speak to us. I received a similar reception when I arrived at the Bible Society office early next morning. The “office” was in a dilapidated old building. Gibbens was reluctant to speak to me and refused me any accommodation in the office.

Over the next few days I persevered and John Gibbens finally realised that I was not going to go away and that his interests might be best served by cooperating. We developed an “understanding”. I would assist with improving the management of the office. There was also a need to carry out a stock take of the Mongolian language resource material published by the Bible society and others that had accumulated over a number of years and to consider ways in which it could be sold or dispensed. A review of distribution methods to remote parts of the country was also needed.

The staff at the office consisted of an English lady by the name if Liz Hart. Liz (who sadly passed away in 2004) was in her 60’s but had been in Mongolia for a number of years and was obviously a survivor. She lived in a small apartment cluttered with her few possessions. Liz assisted with the administration of a small humanitarian organization that operated a small orphanage and facilitated visas for a few other expatriate missionaries. There were some Mongolian staff working in the office as well but they were paid very little for whatever they were employed to do.

In the following days I spent many hours talking with John Gibbens on the occasions he made himself available. I tried to understand his perspective on the situation in Mongolia. I tried to be open and honest with him about my desire to help him. But only on rare occasions did he relax with me. To him I was a threat and nothing I could do or say was going to change that.

As I visited with pastors both indigenous and expatriate as well as other missionaries it did not take me long to realise that there had been a serious breakdown in communication. Gossip and innuendo was rife. Few people I met had a high regard for John Gibbens. Some held him responsible for many of the challenges the young church was encountering. There was a great need for a ministry of reconciliation.

Shortly after arriving I received a call from the American, Rick Leatherwood whom I had been anxious to meet. He came to my apartment and spent many hours giving me his side of the “story”. Rick was a fascinating man. He and his wife Laura had been hippies in North Carolina before becoming Christians. Rick had first visited Mongolia in 1988 and he and Laura had moved to Mongolia in August 1992 with their four young children and had lived for a number of years in a ger in the countryside ministering to the nomad population.

I formed a close relationship with Rick Leatherwood and our families became friends. Increasingly I found Rick to be credible. Ulaanbaatar was a small city yet John Gibbens had refused for years to meet with Rick Leatherwood to discuss their differences. He would cross the street to avoid any contact with him. Yet he wrote letters to anyone who would listen blaming Rick Leatherwood for the problems the church was encountering.

Judy and I had received work visas for Mongolia in miraculous circumstances. At the time we left Australia it was not clear to us how we were to proceed beyond Beijing. We had arranged to meet there with a Mongolian man named Basanhu, who we hoped would be able to assist us. It turned out he was a person with considerable influence. He had become a Christian in 1990, one of the first known Mongolian converts. This man took us to the Mongolian Embassy in Beijing and negotiated our entry to the country.

The plan was for us to be employed by a local television station, Eagle TV, which had been established by a group of American Christians. The station had been instrumental in providing Mongolians with their first uncensored news broadcasts and had assisted the Democratic Coalition to its stunning victory in the country’s second democratic elections in 1996.Judy with her excellent computer skills created a data base for the station’s video library and I recruited and trained a small sales staff to assist them with the selling of advertising to raise revenue.

Advertising was new to Mongolia. So was sales and marketing. It sounds incredible but it has to be remembered that this country was just emerging from 70 years behind the iron curtain. The American station manager of Eagle TV,Paul Swartzendruber and his wife Ann were amazing people who were so helpful to us. Their contribution to the spreading of the gospel in those early days cannot be understated. They laboured under great difficulties.

Judy and I struggled to complete two weeks of language training soon after we arrived. We managed to say enough words to be able to catch a taxi and get by at the markets and cafes though ordering was sometimes hit and miss. Sally celebrated her 13th birthday in 28 February. A few of her friends from the international school slept over in the comfortable little apartment we had moved into soon after we arrived. The only real problem with apartment living was that the Mongolians staple diet was mutton and when they were cooking a dreadful smell permeated the whole building. It literally made our children feel ill. We found there was no such thing as Mongolian lamb!

Soon it was springtime and the warmer weather brought fresh snow. The ice on the roads began to melt as daytime temperatures edged closer to 0 centigrade. The river that ran through the city began to flow. It was still as cold as –20 centigrade at night. But we had become acclimatised. On Sundays we attended the Catholic Church. Most of those attending weren’t any more Catholic than us but some of the mass was in English. The short sermon was preached in both English and Mongolian.

The old Catholic Priest whom I visited on a number of occasions had been a missionary in Japan for 30 years prior to his arrival in Mongolia, He well understood the difficulties being encountered by the United Bible Societies. His advice to me was invaluable.

In March I travelled down to Najing in China for as meeting with the Asia Pacific Regional Committee of the United Bible Societies. The meeting coincided with the celebration of the printing of the 20 millionth Chinese Bible at the Bible Society’s Amity Press. The Amity Press had opened with cooperation of the communist Government in 1987.

I reported in detail on my initial 3 months in Mongolia and made a number of recommendations. I explained that the situation in Mongolia was untenable. It was agreed that John Gibbens should be encouraged to return to England with his family at UBS expense to continue the translation work there where he could be properly supervised and where he would not continue to be a divisive force in Mongolia. In the meantime his financial support was to be curtailed.

When I returned to Ulaanbaatar and informed John Gibbens of the UBS decision he was contemptuous. He would not consider leaving the county. He closed the office and removed all of the equipment including the computers. He also took possession of the motor vehicles that had been provided by UBS. He refused to negotiate and as per usual began a tirade of email communications to any one who would listen berating UBS and me as its evil representative!

It had also been decided that I would proceed to go about the establishment of a properly constituted, broadly based and supported Mongolian Bible Society to carry on the translation work with or without John Gibbens’ cooperation. However Gibbens refused to hand over any of the translation work he had completed and which he kept securely in his home. He had on a number of occasions, accused other translation groups of stealing and publishing portions of his work though this was never substantiated.

UBS had invested a substantial amount of money in the translation work. However, the copyright effectively belonged to John Gibbens and he knew it. This was despite the fact that it was UBS who had paid him to the translation work. Disputing this matter in a court in Mongolia, even if that was contemplated, was not possible because Mongolia had no copyright laws. Whether English law might prevail in the circumstances was a moot point.

UBS generously offered us a short vacation in Beijing during April. We travelled down on the Trans Siberian railway. It took 30 hours to travel the 1500 kms. The train was very comfortable. It clattered slowly along for a night and two days through the ever-fascinating countryside. I sat for hours just taking in the sights. Children waved as we passed. Peasants were oblivious as they tended their gardens. We had two cabins with Tim and I sharing one and Judy with the girls the other.

It was fantastic experience. The train even travelled very close to the Great Wall for some of the way and at one time train stopped and we all disembarked to touch the remains of the wall. We didn’t venture far because we were unsure why the train had stopped or when it would start again. Not that it was too much of a problem because it went so slowly most of the time.

There was the usual bureaucratic drama as we dealt with Customs and Immigration formalities on both sides of the border. It was late at night. The Chinese officials insisted everybody be awake to check their passport photos against them. Lisa was not very cooperative. Then we had to contend with remaining on board while each carriage on the train was jacked up for a wheel change! There was a different rail gauge in China to Mongolia. It was like that in Australia until fairly recently.

In Beijing we enjoyed McDonalds, KFC and Baskin and Robbins! Our hotel had a 10-pin bowling alley and a swimming pool as well as some wonderful restaurants. There was nothing like that in Ulaanbaatar. The only takeaway food there was MFC (Mongolian Fried Chicken) but it was rumoured to be GI rations left over from the first Gulf war and was not very palatable.

We returned to Ulaanbaatar by air. It had been good to have a weeks respite from the stressful situation we faced. There was a lot more work to be done before our planned departure in July. I set about establishing a new Steering Committee, which was representative of the all the churches and missionary groups in the country. The plan was for that Steering Committee to eventually to appoint an Advisory Board and a new translation committee.

Of course that potentially meant starting the translation work all over again. But all along it was hoped that John Gibbens might cooperate with the new board. However, to the contrary, he made it known that he would continue with his translation work and publish it himself if necessary in due course. He appealed to friends and supporters in England to assist him financially and by making representations on his behalf to UBS headquarters in Reading, England. He maintained his barrage of rambling emails to all and sundry.

In the meantime the Bible Society Steering Committee came together well. They were focused on the development of a constitution for the new Bible Society of Mongolia. Even in that respect John Gibbens was being troublesome since he had proceeded to register himself as the Bible Society in Mongolia.

David Thorne, Regional Secretary of UBS visited in May and seemed pleased with the progress we had made. He did not seek to meet with John Gibbens. We agreed to appoint Korean Pastor K.S. Ahn to replace me as UBS Representative in Mongolia. Pastor Ahn had been in Mongolia for a number of years and was well regarded there.

David became quite ill while he was in Ulaanbaatar and we were fortunate to be able to take him to see a doctor at the German Embassy who suggested David return to Beijing for medical attention as soon as possible. We recognised David’s illness as a Satanic attack on him. We were acutely aware of the spiritual warfare being waged in Mongolia. Our work and that of other missionaries was opposed and frustrated at every turn.

The health of our family was always a concern. Thank God, we had no major problems. Medical facilities in Mongolia were very poor and the nearest decent hospital was in Beijing. Evacuation to Beijing of ex-patriot accident victims or those with life threatening illnesses was not uncommon.

An amazing transformation of the city and the surrounding mountains and countryside took place before our eyes as summer approached. Everything went from dirty white to brown to vibrant green. Flowers bloomed. The whole atmosphere in Ulaanbaatar changed as outdoor restaurants and market stalls opened to cater for the tourists who started to arrive in small numbers.

Local kids after being cooped up indoors for months swum in the rivers. The water was freezing but the sun was warm and the days longer. At least life became more bearable for the homeless who had lived underground during the cold weather. Many people kept warm huddled against the underground pipes system which the Russians had installed to carry steam to heat the apartments in the city. It was fairly basic but it worked most of the time.

I had joined an amateur theatre group called the UB Players. We rehearsed at the American Embassy for a play called the Matchmaker. It is the story on which the musical “Hello Dolly” is based. I had a couple of minor parts and it was a lot of fun. Judy helped sew the costumes for the play that was set in about 1900. We performed two nights in an old theatre in Ulaanbaatar. Just about every expatriate in Ulaanbaatar and a number of Mongolians saw the show.

Late in June we went camping in the countryside. It was long and bumpy journey in an old Russian jeep. We camped by a river and befriended some local nomads who loaned Judy and the children horses to ride. They had western saddles that we had taken with us. The Mongolians use roughly crafted wooden saddles. I was happy just to sit and read in the warm sun.

One evening a big storm came up over the mountains and from a distance it looked like it was snowing. But it turned out to be a heavy hailstorm and it turned the mountains all white again. Just like in winter but not so cold. We were sad to hear next day that our new friends had lost about 100 recently shorn sheep, killed by the sudden cold and hail that fortunately stayed away from our campsite.

The Mongolians started rounding up horses about 4.30 each morning. We would be wakened by the sound of pounding hooves. What magnificent horseman they are. Even the young boys are expert and many were preparing for the annual Naadam celebration. The main event is the 30 km horse race that is one of the most spectacular sporting events in the world. Between 300 and 600 horses take part. The jockeys are children aged between 4 and 11.A huge crowd gathers at the finish line with over 5000 of them on horseback.

It was amazing how little the Mongolian nomads had in terms of material possessions. They had lived in much the same way for centuries. Yet they seemed satisfied. Some had built summerhouses to use in the warmer weather but it was back into the heavily insulated gers with cow dung powered fuel stoves for winter! Men on one side and women on the other. No wonder families were close!

We left Mongolia on 3 July for Beijing. Many friends came to the airport to say goodbye. It was quite emotional. We were sad to leave behind a number of the missionary friends we had made. For many, Mongolia was their adopted home and they were committed to the task of telling Mongolians about Jesus. What a calling and what special people they were to survive there with few of the comforts we take for granted.

Chapter 2

Around the world.

We stayed at our favourite hotel in Beijing and departed early next day for London. Soon we were in Mongolian airspace. Revenue from the use of airspace was a significant source of foreign earnings for the Mongolian Government. Most airlines traversed Mongolia when flying from Asia to Europe.

Often we had been impressed by the magnificent jet streams in the clear freezing sky above Ulaanbaatar and envied those sitting back up there enjoying the view. Now it was our turn to contemplate the beauty of Mongolia looking down as we moved across the vast Gobi desert and the green steppes. I wondered whether we should have stayed longer. Maybe in time, I might even have become used to drinking airag, Mongolia’s national drink made of fermented mare’s milk.

Mongolia was an unforgettable experience, but ahead lay the exciting prospect of travelling in the UK and Europe and finally the USA before we returned to Australia. The British Airways flight from Beijing to London non-stop takes about 12 hours. It was mid afternoon when we landed at London Heathrow airport.

Before we went any further there was the urgent need to offload some luggage. We located the unaccompanied baggage department of BA and sat on the floor packing and repacking until we had only one bag each which was about half of what we arrived with. We arranged to send the other bags on back to Sydney where we would have to rely on Judy’s father Ian Lamrock to clear customs for us and store the bags until we arrived home. The cost of sending all of this unaccompanied baggage amounted to about the cost of a ticket to fly to Sydney but we had no option.

By now it was late afternoon and we were faced with the challenge of finding affordable accommodation in the city. We managed to find a room at a Holiday Inn that all five of us could share. Having made the reservation we were given directions from the nearest Underground station from where we were assured it was a “short walk”. I would not recommend taking the Underground with a lot of luggage from London Heathrow in the middle of rush hour. Or at any other time really. Despite the fact that the Underground services LHR the trains have little room for baggage.

LHR is on the Piccadilly line. This meant changing trains twice. Moving between stations on the Underground is not always straightforward particularly with suitcases. Then, the trains are only stationary for a short time before the loud speakers blare out the warning to “stand clear, doors closing” which is alarming when only half the bags are aboard.

It was wonderful to be in London in July. The weather was warm and the city sparkled in the sunshine. We did all the tourist things. The best way to see the sights is to buy a ticket on one of the many “topless” buses. A ticket lasts 24 hours and you can get on and off as often as you want.

One of the things we had missed most in Mongolia was the sea. Judy, enterprising as ever, had located, on the Internet, a seaside holiday park at Mersea Island close to London. To get there we took the train to Colchester and then a taxi. A causeway called “The Stroud” which is covered at high tide accesses the island. We rented an onsite van and enjoyed the facilities that included a small golf course and a large swimming pool. The ocean was disappointing though. There was not a ripple of surf in the English Channel. I don’t know what we had expected.

It was nevertheless a very relaxing week. Then it was back to London Kings Cross station for the train to Edinburgh. We had planned to visit there with Judy’s friends, Bob and Jenny Okenden. Bob and Jenny had worked with Judy as teenagers at Teen Ranch, a Christian campsite at Cobbitty near Sydney. Bob and Jenny had departed Australia in 1984 feeling called by God to establish a similar ministry in England.

However, the search for a suitable property led them to Ballindean House a 29 room Georgian mansion on 26 acres at Inchture near Dundee in Scotland. The property was derelict and with financial assistance from friends in Australia they were able to purchase it. Bob and Jenny were motivated by their desire to serve God and to reach young people with the Christian message. Now they are blessed with a fruitful ministry, which has since expanded to France, Poland and Romania.

We enjoyed a great time at Teen Ranch with Bob, Jenny and their five very Scottish boys, Ben, Abe, Dan, Tim and Zac. Only Ben was born in Australia. Our children, Tim, Sally and Lisa joined in the camp activities which included horse riding, canoeing, trampolining and swimming in the large lake.

We returned to London and took a British Airways flight to Istanbul. We had selected Turkey for a vacation because of its location and history spanning 10,000 years. We were not disappointed. Turkey is surrounded by sea on three sides, by the Black Sea in the north, the Mediterranean in the south and the Aegean Sea in the west.

The accommodation Judy had located in Istanbul on the Internet was almost adjacent to Sultanahmet Mosque more familiarly known as the Blue Mosque because of its magnificent interior panelling of blue and white Iznik tiles. We were not prepared for the early morning call to prayer that blared out from the mosque’s loudspeakers.

One could visit Istanbul for the shopping alone. The Kapali Carsi, or Covered Bazaar, in the old city is a labyrinth of streets and passages that house more than 4,000 shops. We visited most of them!

However the highlight of our visit to Turkey was our pilgrimage to Gallipoli. We headed south by bus from Istanbul to the town of Gelibolu and from there to the famous Anzac Cove. It was a memorable experience for us and the children to experience first hand the famous World War 1 battlefield.

Today Anzac Cove is tranquil and the scenery is stark but beautiful. It was a perfect July day, hot without a breath of wind. The children paddled on the edge of the sparklingwater. We didn’t think it would be right to go swimming there. There is something sacred about the place where the Anzacs landed at dawn on 25th April 1915. The water that day was stained red with the blood of those brave “diggers”.
Next day we visited the ruins of the famous biblical town of Ephesus (Efes) that was once the commercial centre of the world. It was quite surreal to wander the ancient streets in the footsteps of the Apostle Paul. The city, whose wealth and patronage supported its splendid architectural program, was dedicated to the goddess Artemis.
Her enormous temple, once considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, was rebuilt several times. Ephesus was an important port city until with the passing of time and erosion, the bay gradually filled with sand. Also, earthquakes damaged the city and by 527 A.D. it was deserted.
We enjoyed everything about our vacation in Turkey. It was inexpensive. The food was interesting and the people friendly. The crystal clear warm water of the Aegean Sea was wonderful for swimming. We were sad to leave but it was time to return to our home on the Gold Coast which friends had been minding for us.
We travelled via the USA where we visited friends including Australian, Stuart Gregor, whom I had first befriended during my time in San Francisco in 1972 –73. Stuart is Pastor of a large church in Stockton, California. Then it was on to Hawaii.
What a great place for a vacation. I re-introduced Tim to the surf at Waikiki and he hasn’t looked back. It was summer so there were no waves on the North Shore of Oahu. When you see it virtually flat at places like Pipeline, Sunset and Waimea Bay its hard to believe what its like when the winter swells hit the island’s coast.
Home after 8 months.
We had been away almost eight months. Now we faced the challenge of deciding what to do next. Our time in Mongolia had certainly whet out appetites for missionary work and we were encouraged by the fact that we had survived in the most difficult circumstances. I declined the opportunity to apply for the position of Federal Secretary of the Bible Society in Australia despite the prompting of a number of friends including Tom Tresseder who was still at the time General Secretary of the Bible Society in NSW.
A number of other missionary organizations asked us to consider positions but they were often in remote areas where high schools were not available for our older children. We did not want to put them into boarding school, which was an option. Nor did home schooling appeal to them or us. In the meantime we invested in a small telecommunications business to help supplement our income.
New South Wales Parliament
Just before Easter 2000 Fred Nile phoned me. It was a surprise, as we had not heard from him since our defeat at the 1998 election. Fred informed me that his wife Elaine was unwell and intended to resign her seat in the New South Wales Legislative Council. Fred told me that, after a great deal of prayer, they felt led to invite me to take Elaine’s place in the Parliament. It was a matter for the Party concerned to nominate a replacement when a casual vacancy occurred in the Upper House. This averted the need for a by-election.
Judy and I were in the process of making some long-term decisions about our future. We had planned a trip to Bundaberg, 375 km north of Brisbane over Easter to investigate whether we might like to move there to live. Kerry Blackman who had run for the Senate with me in 1998 was based in Bundaberg and had offered us the opportunity to become involved with him and a local aboriginal group in the development of a commercial property near Bundaberg.
Over Easter we thought and prayed about Fred’s offer. It would mean moving back to Sydney to live. At the time I had I neither desire nor inclination to re-enter politics. However this was an exciting opportunity. We telephoned Fred and told him that we felt that we should accept his invitation.
Judy and I travelled to Sydney soon after to attend a meeting of the NSW branch of the CDP where I was formally endorsed to take the seat at the time Elaine retired. We agreed on a timetable for this transition. We expected it to occur soon after the middle of the year, which allowed time for Elaine and Fred to complete a Parliament funded overseas study tour together.
It was agreed that I would move to Sydney in advance of my family to allow our children to complete the school year in Queensland. I enrolled as a NSW elector, as I was required to do, by setting up a self-contained flat at Judy’s parents home in Narrabeen
The Sydney press, generally hostile to the Niles, criticised this arrangement as I was still spending a good deal of time with my family and business commitments in Queensland. However the NSW Electoral Commissioner with whom I met to discuss my plans was completely satisfied.
However, Elaine Nile became increasingly unsettled by the press assault and felt it was damaging Fred and the CDP. A few days before Elaine was formally to resign she faxed me a short letter advising me that as she was now feeling better she did not intend to proceed with her retirement plans. Many people were shocked to hear of her decision. The NSW CDP Management committee asked her to proceed with her retirement plans but she refused.
In a speech to the NSW Legislative Council on 29th August 2000 Elaine criticised me for not following her instructions to move my family to Sydney sooner. However, I felt I had honoured my commitment and that the Niles’ understood and accepted the fact that we wanted our children to complete the school year in Queensland.
Judy and I were devastated by the way Elaine had treated us. I felt humiliated. A number of others were hurt and sorry that the Niles could not bring themselves to accept the change that many people welcomed as the way froward for the Christian Democratic party.
But there was nothing left for us to do but to move on. We sought some compensation from the Niles for the expenses we had incurred and for the fact that our business had suffered and we had declined the opportunity to move to Bundaberg. The matter of compensation was settled subsequently, though unfortunately not without the involvement and expense of solicitors. Elaine continued in the Parliament for some time and Rev Gordon Moyes took her place in 2002. Gordon was certainly an outstanding and worthy replacement.
Footnote: After returning home from England shortly before the 2004 election I was asked by the Christian Democratic Party to run under their banner for the Senate in Queensland. I declined. It seemed that the new Family First Party was more likely to be supported by Christians than the CDP. Many Christians are uncomfortable with Fred’s aggressive manner. Nevertheless despite our disappointment with the ways things turned out in 2000 I still have a high regard for him.
Mercy Ships Texas
Soon after the end of the Nile saga I chanced to call Tom Hallas at Youth With A Mission. Tom reminded me of our discussion 18 months earlier about Mercy Ships. Tom introduced me via email to Mercy Ships President Don Stephens. Don invited me to meet him in London where he was headed for a Mercy Ships International Board meeting.
Don and his wife Deyon were delightful and they, along with other Board members,encouraged me to accept the role of Vice President for Development at the Mercy Ships International Operations Centre in Garden Valley, Texas. The role would predominantly focus on developing relations with major donors with a particular emphasis on the funding for a new hospital ship. More about that later.
From London I flew to Dallas and then took a commuter flight to Tyler, Texas. The Mercy Ships base is on the outskirts of Tyler, which is about 150 km East of Dallas. It is a delightful, rural part of Texas. However it is something of a step back in time. Most people went to church on Sundays and Wednesdays. Local police were respected. Store staff was polite. Children heeded their elders.
Patty Driggs, HR Director assisted me with our visa applications and showed me around the Garden Valley area that encompassed the small villages of Van and Lindale. Patty sadly passed away in 2004 as a result complications from an illness she had contracted while serving with Mercy Ships in Sierra Leone.
I returned home excited by the prospect of going to live in the USA for the second time in my life. Judy shared my enthusiasm so we packed up again, secured tenants for our Gold Coast home and arrived in Texas early in 2001.It was winter but Texas does not experience the same harsh cold of the Northern US. In fact it was quite mild and to my absolute delight I was soon out playing golf on one of Texas better courses almost next door to the Mercy Ships base. Now that’s God’s provision!
I had been appointed to my job with little experience in fund rasing. However I understood that there were other qualified staff in the department who would respond well to good leadership and motivation. In reality I found the “department” I had been recruited to lead was almost non-existent!
We settled into temporary accommodation on the Mercy Ships base while we looked for a suitable home to rent in the surrounding area. The Mercy ships base located next to the YWAM Twin Oaks property covers over 100 acres and consists of a number of buildings some of which were office space and others accommodations and there was a large dining room and kitchen. The property had been used for a number of different purposes in the past before Mercy Ships acquired it.
Tim and Sally were soon enrolled at the High School in Van and Lisa at the Elementary school. The schools were just like we had seen on TV. Unlike in Australia the students did not wear uniforms. But discipline was good. The children settled in quickly and soon made friends. There were also many families working for Mercy Ships so there were numerous other children frequenting the base.
We were made welcome and despite a number of frustrations soon felt at home particularly after we rented a sprawling farmhouse about 15 minutes from the base. There was a large dam on the property and we soon found it was well stocked with hungry bass which were great fun to catch but not too good to eat. We were fortunate to have met the owner of this empty house and to find that he was sympathetic to our work and prepared to rent it to us for about half of what it was really worth.
Mercy Ships, like so many ministries, was strapped for cash. Maintaining two aging ships was extraordinarily expensive. Each required annual dry-docking. Funds were not available to properly maintain the Garden Valley base. My job suddenly became more crucial than I had imagined.
We also found that we had walked into a hornet’s nest with the decision having been taken to remove Mercy Ships from under the YWAM umbrella with the formation of a Board of Directors independent of the YWAM leadership. Many YWAMers who had been involved in the acquisition of the Anastasis felt that the ship had been “stolen” from them.
I had actually been aware before leaving Australia that the Mercy Ships organization in Australia and New Zealand led by David Cowey had defected. David had at one time been a close friend of Don Stephens and they had worked together for a number of years on the Anastasis. But now David was extremely antagonistic towards Don Stephens. A number of attempts were made to mediate the situation but in the end no agreement was reached. The result was the formation of Marine Reach, which successfully operates a small hospital ship under the YWAM banner in the South Pacific.
Many missionary organizations including Mercy Ships rely heavily on volunteer staff. This often meant productivity was low. People were sometimes unable to perform the tasks for which they had been engaged. Training was expensive and not always available. Fortunately I was able to associate myself with the Christian Stewardship Association and attend a number of their excellent seminars on fund raising and major donor development.
Some staff joined without having raised sufficient financial support from their churches, families and friends. For those living on one of the ships this was not so much of a problem but the living costs for land based staff, who usually also found it harder to raise support because they were not front line missionaries, were much higher. This meant that there was often a great disparity in living standards.
Poorly supported staff often lived in substandard housing and relied on the weekly food bank for their food. This was a Texas state system whereby low-income earners could receive stable food items at little or no cost. But it meant living on breakfast cereal, chocolates and cookies or out of date canned fruit or vegetables. At the same time others lived in very comfortable homes and drove expensive cars.
It would be difficult to describe the management style of Don Stephens and other Mercy Ships leaders. They would see it a being very “relational” i.e. high on the “concern for people’ scale of the management grid. I actually found Don, in particular, to be more on the autocratic end of the scale.
Peter Drucker, in his excellent book “Managing the Non-Profit Organization” (Harper Business 1990), writes about what he calls the “need for dissent.” Drucker says every organization “needs a non conformist”. I readily admit that was I a non-conformist. Unfortunately I think that was interpreted as obstinacy.
A number of talented people had become disenchanted for a variety of reasons and left Mercy Ships during our time there. At about the same time we joined Mercy Ships Don Stephens recruited Rob Gluskin who was to take over Don’s role as President. This was intended to free up Don to concentrate on public relations and fund raising.
Rob, a retired Corporate CEO was to be fully responsible for the day-to-day management of Mercy Ships. I had met Rob and his lovely wife Dianne in London at the time of my visit there to meet with Don Stephens Rob was a member of an auxiliary Board, which had responsibility for fund raising.
The Gluskins lived in a fashionable suburb of Chicago where they had a many friends. Rob was reluctant to pack up and move to Texas. However Don at his persuasive best won the day and Rob and Dianne arrived in Garden Valley early in 2001. They were, like us, the first of only a few new staff to escape the requirement to undertake a 3-month Discipleship Training School. Instead a special 3-week abridged program was devised.
Rob and I found as we got to know each other that we had much in common. One thing we enjoyed doing together was playing golf at the nearby Garden Valley Country Club. Soon after his much-heralded arrival as President, Rob was effectively demoted to Chief Operating Officer. Rob endured this humiliation and got on with the job. However, he became increasingly disillusioned and towards the end of 2001 he told me he intended to resign. I was devastated. Rob had begun to bring a degree of professionalism to the management of Mercy Ships.
Meanwhile the UK office of Mercy Ships in Stevenage was experiencing difficulties. The CEO had resigned. A number of the Mercy Ships UK Board members had also resigned over the conflict with YWAM. UK Board Chairman, Lord McColl was struggling with the situation. Lord McColl was himself a renowned surgeon who frequently visited the Anastasis and performed surgeries on board as volunteer.
Mercy Ships UK
One of Rob Gluskin’s last acts was to offer me the role of Mercy Ships UK CEO. This took me by surprise as we were already making plans to return to Australia with the possibility of me becoming CEO of the fledgling Mercy Ships Australia. Judy and I prayed about the matter. The irony was that we had on previous occasions turned down job offers in the UK. It was simply not a place we desired to reside mainly because of the miserable weather.
However, this time we felt it was God’s calling for us. The decision was made a little more difficult because Tim, not yet 18 years old, was soon to graduate from High School in Texas wanted to live back in Australia. This we understood and supported. Only Sally and Lisa would move to London with us
I met with Lord McColl in Washington DC. Also with Ann Gloag, the charity’s largest benefactor in the UK who had a great deal of influence. They endorsed my appointment and I went to London soon after to have the decision approved by the UK Board.
The Mercy Ships UK office in Stevenage was the biggest outside of the USA and substantial funds were raised there mainly to be repatriated to the USA where all accounts were centralised. The UK Charity Commission had investigated and approved this practice. Our move to London was planned for June of 2002 and as the time came closer I made a number of trips across the “pond” to familiarise myself with the operation there.
There was also the high priority of finding housing in the town of Stevenage about 20 minutes by train north of London and also suitable schools for the children. After we departed the USA in June we travelled via London back to Australia for some furlough. Judy finalised arrangements for us to rent a small semi detached house close to the Mercy Ships office.
Morale in the office was low since the departure of the former CEO. A number of staff had left or were in the process of leaving at the time of my appointment. My first priority was to restore confidence by providing leadership and vision for the future. Staff numbers had dwindled and those remaining were having difficulties coping with the workload.
After a wonderful vacation in Sydney and on the Gold Coast we returned to London. I found it liberating to have a great degree of autonomy as I got on with the job. Lord McColl the UK Board Chairman to whom I reported was very busy with his role in the House of Lords and rarely became involved.
Ian McColl had introduced former UK Prime Minister John Major to Mercy Ships and was instrumental in him becoming co-Patron along with his wife Norma, who was a Dame in her own right. John Major undertook a number of speaking engagements for Mercy Ships mainly in the USA where he, being a former PM, fascinated Americans.
One of John Majors speaking engagements in the US coincided with the front-page revelation in the UK newspapers that he had had a long-term affair with one of his female ministerial colleagues when he was PM. Everyone was shocked by this news since the mild mannered Mr Major was thought to be an unlikely philanderer. The world’s press converged on the hotel where Mr Major was staying and Mercy Ships received a large amount of unwelcome publicity.
On one occasion early in 2001 John Major visited the Mercy Ships International Operations Centre in Garden Valley to officially open a new Warehouse facility. Nobody quite so important had ever visited the area and the who’s who of Tyler Texas attended the opening and the dinner later in the evening at the prestigious country club. The Van High School band provided a Texas rendition of the British national anthem, God Save the Queen.
John Major was clearly impressed, as never was such a fuss made of him back home. In fact these days he is regarded as having been a very poor Prime Minister described towards the end of his tenure as being “in office but not in power.” Tony Blair replaced him as PM in 1995 and the Conservative Party was consigned to the political wilderness where it has remained ever since.
The financial difficulties facing Mercy Ships had been significantly exacerbated by the new ship project I mentioned earlier. In 1999 wealthy Scottish businesswomen Ann Gloag donated 4 million pounds to purchase the 16,572 tonne Droning Ingrid, a Danish rail ferry built in 1980. The ship was formally renamed “Africa Mercy” by Mercy Ships Patron Dame Norma Major, wife of former PM John Major.
However the cost of converting the ship into the state of the art hospital ship she was planned to become was significantly underestimated. The Africa Mercy was to have 6 operating theatres, a 78-bed ward including an intensive care unit, cargo space and cabins for 400 crew. The ship was relocated to Newcastle upon Tyne in the north of England where the conversion work was to be carried out. Shipyard costs were huge and the whole project came to a complete stop at one stage for many months when the shipyard went bankrupt.
The cost of the project frequently had to be revised to the point where in 2004 it was approaching 30 million pounds. The launch date for the new ship was put back and back. Raising funds for the project was very difficult. Many high net worth individuals as well as Trusts both in the UK and USA did not see the merit of such a venture particularly when there were so many cost effective alternatives for the provision of medical services in Africa.
Recently Ann Gloag convinced her friend Sir Richard Branson to “loan” a substantial amount to the project. Sir Richard attended a fund raising dinner I organised in London. His mild manner belies his reputation as a tough businessman. Mrs Gloag, no slouch herself, must have had to do some fast-talking. I ran into Sir Richard in the private lounge at Sydney Airport recently and reminded him of the dinner he had attended at the Haberdashers Hall in London. He graciously told me how much he had enjoyed the evening.
Hopefully the Africa Mercy will be commissioned in London in 2006. No doubt it will be a gala affair and again much credit will go to Don Stephens who pressed on with the project often against the advice of colleagues and in the face of great difficulties.
Our two years in the UK went quickly. There were many highlights. Living near London was wonderful. It is such an exciting and interesting city. The proximity to Europe allowed us to enjoy a number of inexpensive vacations. Dr Keith Thomson a UK Board member, who became a good friend, owned a villa in the Algarve in Portugal that he generously allowed Mercy Ships staff and other friends to use. We did so on two occasions. We also had a wonderful holiday in the south west of France. France is a great place to visit. The countryside is beautiful and the people are friendly especially if you speak or try to speak a little francais.
I also thank God that the UK office prospered under my leadership. Staff numbers grew from 8 to 22 as we recruited people from as far away as South Africa and Australia. Donation revenue increased by over 50%. We made some wonderful friends amongst the staff. Also Peter Barnes our Vineyard Pastor and his wife became special friends. Peter and I played tennis most weeks. We moved indoors in the colder weather. Dave Morris the Baptist Pastor in Stevenage also became a close friend and he shared my passion for golf.
During my time at Mercy Ships I was privileged to visit the “Caribbean Mercy” in Honduras and Nicaragua. Also the Anastasis in Benin and in Sierra Leone on a number of occasions. It was always a great privilege to see the ministry in action serving the poor in the name of Jesus. The dedication and professionalism of the staff was awesome.
Settling down back in Australia has not been easy but we believe it’s the right place for us at the moment. Who knows what the future holds. Maybe the best is yet to come. Recently Australia’s richest man Kerry Packer died at the age of 68. He had suffered a number of serious illnesses. But even his billions could not buy him health. So we thank God for our good health. I recently heard someone describe happiness as: having something to do, having someone to love and having something to look forward to. I am a happy man!

Chapter 3

Early years.

I was born on 3rd January 1946 a few months after the end of the Second World War. I often joked that my dad, Walter had come home from the war early or at least I hoped he had! In fact he had returned home from the Middle East on 4 August 1942 and married my mother Rita in Sydney on Christmas Eve 1943.

My first home was in Newport Beach on Sydney’s northern beaches in an old “weekender” which was owned by father’s mother and stepfather. Newport at the time was a sleepy little hollow. My father had been a member of the Newport Surf Life Saving Club in the years before the war. The first school I attended was a kindergarten in the old surf club building. I still have wonderful memories of it.

My father had volunteered for service in the Second World War and was always proud that he had done so. His service number NX3221 reflects his early entry into the 2nd AIF and volunteer status. He enlisted in the AIF on 24 October 1939 at the age of 27 years and left Australia on 10 January 1940 with the 2/1 Field Regiment bound for the Middle East. His service records indicate that he was something of a larrikin. Not that that was so unusual for a “digger”. He had refused an offer to attend Officer Training at one point preferring to remain with his “mates.”

Dad’s service in the Artillery caused serious hearing damage that was to plague him for the rest of his life. This problem caused him to be transferred to Signal Corps. Like so many young soldiers he also took up smoking tobacco and was unable to quit throughout his life eventually succumbing to throat cancer in 1987.

After returning to Australia Wal, as father was best known, was posted to Queensland where he met my Mother, Marguerite (Rita). Dad was discharged from the Army on 19 October 1944. He had done his bit. Before the war he had been a salesman. The were called “travellers” at the time because I suppose that is what they did.

Wal turned out to be a very good salesman and eventually joined the American soap and toothpaste giant Colgate Palmolive. He frequently sold more soap and toothpaste than any of his peers and rose through the ranks to become General Sales Manager for the Company in Australia at a young age and was eventually made a Director. It was expected he would become the next Managing Director.

Unfortunately my father’s lack of education caught up with him. It was about the time younger men with degrees in marketing or finance started to dominate senior executive ranks and Dad was passed over. He was very disappointed but at least the company continued to employ him on a substantial salary and we continued to live well as we had done for many years.

It hadn’t always been easy. The early post war years must have been a struggle. My dad still liked to drink with his mates down at the local pub after the war. The way my mother tells it she gave him an ultimatum on this activity and to his credit he stopped and I rarely remember him going to a hotel to drink. It was a different story at home where he still liked a few drinks but he never got drunk and he was a good father in many ways. My mother never worked outside the home after she got married. She was fully occupied caring for my father, my two brothers and myself. Mother is now 90 years old and lives at the RSL War Veterans Retirement Village on Collaroy Plateau in Sydney

My father was adamant that his three sons should have an education, which he insisted was essential to get on in business or any other field. After completing primary school in Roseville on Sydney’s exclusive North Shore where we had moved when I was about 9 years old, I went to North Sydney Boys’ High School. This was one of the best public high schools in Sydney and was one of a small number of “selective” high schools that required a fairly high score in an IQ test for entry. The academic standard was high and I rarely rose to any great heights. I did rather better at sports, particularly swimming.

The North Sydney Boys’ High School motto in Latin is “Vincit que se Vincit” which means in English: “He conquers who conquers himself.” Like most school mottos it probably means little to the students who wear it on their pockets. I have realised over time how true it was. Many of life’s real battles are battles with one’s self.

I became a Christian when I was twelve years old. I had not been blessed by having been born into a practicing Christian family. My parents were strictly Christmas and Easter churchgoers. But they were good people and they sent me to Sunday school at a young age. There I first heard all of the old Bible stories. I also first heard about Jesus.

In 1958 I first attended a boys’ camp called Camp Howard run by the Church of England youth department. It was based in the Royal National Park, south of Sydney. For years the church had struggled with the government which had set about resuming all of the other privately owned properties in the park. I was later to serve for a number of years on the Council of the Youth Department of the Church at the time some of the battles were being waged and ultimately won. The properties on the shores of Port Hacking are still in use today. Hundreds of thousands of people have enjoyed them.

Camp Howard was named after the Archbishop of Sydney at the time, Howard Mowll. The camp was modelled on similar camps in Canada, which a young Sydney clergyman named Neville Bathgate had visited in the early 1950’s. Neville convinced Archbishop Mowll that similar camps should be conducted at Port Hacking.

I loved Camp Howard with its outdoor activities including canoeing, swimming and archery. There were also daily scripture lessons. By the end of my first week at Camp Howard I had decided to follow Jesus. This decision had a significant impact on my outlook on life. The Christian walk I began that day in 1958 has continued until this day.
Neville Bathgate passed away on September 7 2005 a few weeks short of his 80th birthday. He had taken early retirement from the ministry in 1975 and moved to Byron Bay where he lived a simple lifestyle. I visited him there regularly. When we returned for living in England in 2004 I found that he had suffered a serious stroke and was living at a nursing home in Bangalow in northern NSW. I found him there but he was in very poor health and unable to communicate. Shortly before he died I told him how much he had meant to me in my younger years and that I owed him a debt of gratitude for his faithful ministry to me and many other young boys and girls.

North Sydney Boys’ High School

My first day at North Sydney Boys’ high school was awe-inspiring. My mother accompanied me and=we were escorted by one of the prefects into the school assembly hall where the Headmaster, Tom Mason, welcomed us.

I joined the Inter School Christian Fellowship group at school and was an enthusiastic participant in its weekly lunchtime meetings and annual camps. It was 1959, the year of famous evangelist Billy Graham’s first Australian crusades. I was involved in the “follow up” of fellow students who had “gone forward” at the crusades in Sydney, which were held over a number of nights.

I was very enthusiastic about my faith in those early days. I was certain I would become a clergyman. Many of the Leaders I encountered at Camp Howard were students at Moore Theological College in Sydney and some afternoons after school I would take the train to Newtown to visit them at the college and would stay for evening chapel and for dinner.

I also spent most of Sunday in church related activities in Roseville singing in the choir and eventually teaching in the Sunday school. My parents never said too much about me being so “religious’ but they must have wondered about it. By choice I declined to participate in sport on Sundays. Not that there was much sport on Sundays in those days when even the movie theatres were closed and there were certainly no hotels open.

God seemed very real to me through these years. I never went to sleep at night without having a “quiet time”, a time of Bible reading and prayer. Perhaps I was something of a “goody two shoes” but it didn’t seem to stop me from being popular with my friends. I spent a lot of time at the beach. Generally we hitchhiked to get there and back.

I first rode a surfboard in 1961 just as the surfing era was beginning. I was given my first surfboard for Christmas in 1962. I don’t know where dad had got them for myself and my younger brother Chris. The were crudely made of fibreglass covered polystyrene foam.Most of the boards at that time were made of balsa wood. We strapped out new surfboards on the top of the car somehow and tried them out at Manly beach before going home for our Christmas lunch. I remember it was an unusually cold and wet Christmas day but no such things as wetsuits then.

It was quite a thing to become a Prefect at school. The prefects were generally more feared that the teachers for their capacity to delve out all sorts of devious punishments for just about everything from running in the play ground to having your coat off outside of the school grounds. As we entered our fourth year of high school we had two years to go and there was growing speculation as to who would comprise the prefect body from our year. The selection process was complicated involving ones peers, the incumbent prefects and the teachers. As the time grew near it seemed increasingly likely that I would be appointed a Prefect.

My award of a school Blue for swimming during 1962 had enhanced my chances considerably. I rarely got into much trouble and that probably helped a bit as well. In addition I was one of the highest-ranking members of the school cadet corps at that time. Almost everyone joined the cadets and most of the prefects were amongst the senior ranks of the Cadet Corps.

When the Prefects were announced I was there amongst them. It was then up to the elected Prefects and once again the Staff to select the School Captain and Vice Captain. Again there was a lot of speculation about who would fill those esteemed roles. In those days the School Captain was revered particularly by the younger students and had enormous powers. Some of my friends had told me they thought I was well in the running to be Captain but the possibility had never really occurred to me. The position went most often it seemed to someone much more academically able than I was.

My main rival for the position was the dux of our year and also a good athlete and an officer in the cadet corps as well! The day for the Assembly at which the big announcements were to be made arrived. Minutes before we were to file into the school assembly hall I was called aside and told to have a speech ready. I couldn’t believe it. It was the proudest day of my life to be named as Captain of this great school. It only seemed a short time before that I had walked through the gates for the first time. I was on cloud nine as I travelled home to Roseville to tell Mum and Dad. But Chris, my younger brother who was two years behind me at the school had beaten me home to break the news.

I don’t think I did a great job as school captain but I learned a lot of valuable lessons. It was a very busy year and as the end of the year approached I was badly prepared for the Leaving Certificate and nobody expected me to pass. Yet a miracle occurred and when the results were published I had not only scraped through but had actually done well enough to make it into Sydney University with a Teachers College scholarship.

After completing school I went to work at my usual Christmas sales job in the Sydney Nock and Kirby’s store. My cousin Graham Nock was the Managing Director of the Nock and Kirby’s, a chain of hardware stores which was virtually a household name in NSW. Ironically a young John Howard had also had a Christmas job at Nock and Kirby’s.

My uncle, Sir Norman Nock, was at that time still Chairman of the Board of Directors. He had also been Lord Mayor of Sydney in 1938 and 1939 and was married to my father’s sister, Ethel. Sir Norman had also served as Chairman of the Board of the Royal North Shore Hospital for many years and as President of the National Roads and Motorists Association (NRMA).

It had occurred to me that a career in retailing was a possibility and my father had arranged for me to meet with both Woolworths and Coles where he had a lot of friends. However my cousin offered me an opportunity to join the Nock and Kirbys and study full time. My only obligation was to work some of my holidays and in return I received an allowance as well as my tuition fees and other expenses.

Sydney University 1964-1967.

I enrolled in the faculty of economics at Sydney University and my university years started at the beginning of 1964.My passion was for surfing rather than studying. Two of my classmates were John Hewson and Nick Greiner who was to become Premier of NSW. Both were much more studious than I was. At the time John Hewson was an enthusiastic Christian and was active in the Sydney University Evangelical Union. We never spoke about it when we were in the Parliament together. He was by no means the only person I had known who had apparently given up or lost their enthusiasm for their faith.

It is said of John Hewson that it was his ambition, which caused him problems. God only knows but many prayed for him while he was Leader of the Opposition. One of my Christian colleagues told him he would never become Prime Minister in his own strength. John Hewson was very likeable. We played golf together on a number of occasions while he was Leader. He was a very good golfer with natural ability.

I spent a lot more time surfing than I did studying. That was probably the main reason it took me four years to complete the three-year course. The course was not that demanding as far as attendance was concerned as it required only about three and a half days attendance each week. And there were the long vacations. During those years we surfed at every beach from Noosa Heads in Queensland to the South Australian border. We did it in old Peugeots, Volkswagens, FJ Holdens and my own Morris Mini. We never spent much money and when the money ran out we headed home with just enough for the petrol.

The surfing movement was cultist then as it is today. It was a way of life. It was absolutely addictive. I still surf today though I have other priorities. Also age does catch up a bit, as it requires super fitness. Nevertheless there are many of those who started surfing in the sixties and seventies still enjoying it as a sport. I don’t think I’ll ever stop entirely.

In 1995 I had a bad accident at Snapper Rocks on the Southern end of the Gold Coast. I collided with some rocks and smashed my wrist badly. I spent a few days in hospital and have a steel plate and several screws still in place to keep it together. It was very embarrassing to be recognised by the ambulance driver and the staff at the hospital.

On another occasion in 1998 I had a incident occur in the surf at Currumbin on the Gold Coast. It was during the 1998 election campaign. I was stressed and tired and shouldn’t have tackled the fairly big waves but it led to a highly publicized and embarrassing incident of short term memory loss which has never really been explained. I didn’t get hit on the head, as I had no obvious injuries. But I don’t remember what happened and friends found me wandering along the beach in a confused state of mind.

It lead to another night in hospital and numerous tests. The ultimate diagnosis was that I had suffered an episode of transient global amnesia. This condition was not uncommon though the cause was unknown and there was no treatment. My neurologist told me it might occur again though it often didn’t. In fact I did have another episode again while I was surfing at Cornwall while we were living in England. The cold water may have been a factor there.

My obsession with surfing was not shared by many of my Christian friends during my years at university. My non Christian surfing friends all knew well where I stood and I think they respected me for my beliefs even though I was occasionally the butt of jokes. I managed to stay out of trouble most of the time. As serious surfers, when we were away we surfed all day and were too tired to do much else except eat and sleep, generally in cars or on the beach. We’d be up before dawn ready to paddle out at first light. When the waves weren’t right we’d have to find some other form of excitement such as jumping off cliffs into the ocean or even fishing if we got desperate. Anything that didn’t cost much.

Occasionally we’d sit around a country pub exchanging surf stories. Back in the sixties and early 70’s there weren’t a lot of surfers around and we mostly knew each other. On country roads it was usual to pull over if a car with surf boards passed by to say “g’day” and check out what the surf was like up ahead. Some surf spots were closely guarded secrets but it wasn’t long before most surfers knew where to look. Some of the best spots were almost inaccessible by today’s standards. We didn’t have four wheel drive vehicles and it often meant a long walk struggling with a heavy surfboard.

Surfing in winter or in colder places like Victoria was a real test of endurance and commitment. Wet suits were primitive if you were lucky enough to have one. These were crudely made and caused problems with chafing which became very painful. But that didn’t stop us if the waves were good.

I was about 18 or 19 years old on one trip down the South Coast of NSW where I was enticed into the local pub for a few beers probably for the first time in my life. I was so sick the next day I had to sit and watch my friends enjoying themselves in the surf. I didn’t have another drink of beer for many years. It had the same effect on me as when my great school friend Rick Bloore and I smoked a packet of cigarettes after dancing classes one night when we about fourteen. I was so sick I never smoked again.

One feature of the sixties in Australia was that we had hardly heard of marijuana or any other drugs. I’m thankful I didn’t have to contend with that temptation. All of that was to change rapidly in the next decade.

Chapter 4

Conscripted !

I turned 20 on January 3rd 1966 and my marble came out in the National Service ballot. The Vietnam war was at its height and the Menzies Liberal government had introduced selective conscription in 1964. This was not the first compulsory national service scheme introduced in Australia. In fact it was the Labor Government of John Curtin that had first introduced national service in 1943.

It came as a bit of a shock to get that letter in the mail. As I was a student I immediately applied for a deferment. This was granted but it was only until I completed my degree, which should have been at the end of 1966. However the slow progress I had made meant I was left with two subjects to complete part time in 1967. The deferment until the end of that year was approved.

One option to avoid full time service was to join the Citizens Military Force for a period of six years part time service. I decided that the full time option was better and once I become used to the idea it seemed like it would be an adventure if nothing else.

I started dating my first serious girlfriend in 1964. She was the sister of a close school friend. I had turned 18. Gail was just 15. We went out for almost five years. Gail had left school to work with Qantas and went off around the world with a girl friend in 1966. She returned as a seasoned traveller. I was jealous. In those days airline staff were able to travel extensively at a very low cost. Meanwhile I struggled as a penniless university student.

Early in 1967 I entered a competition to raise money for the Spastic Centre of NSW. The prize was a trip to London courtesy of Qantas as part of a promotion to introduce a special “pacesetter” fare. I was already a budding entrepreneur. My big project was a large harbour cruise on Sydney harbour for which I hired the two biggest harbour ferries available. Thousands of people turned up and the whole thing almost ended in disaster as drunken revellers caused some damage to the boats. It was reported in the Sydney press the next day. But even after I’d paid the damage bill there was still a big profit and I won the trip to London.

In June 1967 I headed off having been granted leave from my studies for a month and permission from the Government to leave because of my pending national service. I was working virtually full time at Nock and Kirbys doing some special projects and taking the bus up to the University to attend lectures. Coincidentally, my cousin Graham Nock was leaving for the USA on business at about the same time so it was agreed that I would meet him there after we had finished in London.

In those days it took over thirty hours to get to London on the Boeing 707. We travelled via Jakarta, Singapore, Bangkok, Bahrain, Cairo and Amsterdam. We were on the ground in Cairo in the early hours of the morning as the Six Day War between Israel and Egypt erupted. We were told that we were lucky to be able to leave.

The flight was Qantas’ inaugural flight to Amsterdam so it was part of the plan to spend a week in Holland, which we did before going on to England. We left by ship from the Hook of Holland. It was the first time I had slept on an ocean going vessel and it was exciting to wake up next morning with the coast of England coming into view through the mist.

There was considerable interest in the group of young Australian “pacesetters” in London and we undertook a number of Public relations commitments as part of the deal with Qantas. Our escapades were covered in Australia in Today’s People magazine under the headline “Our youth jets off to see the world”.

Leaving London I flew to New York and then on to Montreal where I connected with Graham Nock and we spent two or three days at Expo 67. It was an exciting experience for a 21 year old. We then visited a number of cities in the USA calling on businesses similar to ours looking for new ideas.

At the time there was always a lot to learn from America. This was America only twenty years after the McDonald brothers had first opened their doors for business. For me it was a vibrant and stimulating country. Graham had attended university in Boston so we visited friends of his there before driving on to New York City where we were guests of the National Retail Merchants Association as Graham at the time was President of the Retail Traders Association of NSW.

On the West Coast we had meetings with retailers including one at the department store where Graham had also worked for a period of time in the 1950s. We met the Personnel Director there, Howard Henderson, and discussed the possibility of my joining them at some time in the future.

In southern California I couldn’t wait to get to the beaches I’d heard so much about. But they were disappointing compared to ours in Australia. On the way back to Sydney I stopped off in Hawaii, rented a surfboard and paddled out at Waikiki. Not much of a surf and there were no waves at all on the already famous North Shore of Oahu either. The big swells came in the northern winter and it would be a few years before I’d experience them.

Back home there was the serious task of completing university and passing final exams. As soon as this was over the Army was waiting. I’d hardly walked out the gates of the University when I received my orders to report to the Recruiting Depot.

I said goodbye to the family and Dad drove me out to the depot. I wonder what he was thinking as he dropped me off. Although he never said much about his own service I was proud of him for what he had done in the war. He never cared much for ANZAC Day reunions but he always wore his Returned from Active Service badge on his lapel. We waited around most of the day in true Army style and finally climbed aboard the waiting buses and headed for the Army camp at Puckapunyal in Victoria.

We spent our first night in the Army on a bus en route. We arrived at the 2nd Recruit Training Battalion in time for breakfast. Then it was uniforms, vaccinations and haircuts. Pop star Normie Rowe was in our intake and there was a rush to collect his valuable locks from the floor of the barbershop. By the time all of this was finished we looked more like prisoners than soldiers with our close-cropped hair. We were prisoners in a sense. There was no escape for the next two years.

My years in the school cadets meant that I was not a stranger to army life. Nevertheless there was a huge adjustment to be made. After a few weeks the opportunity was presented to apply for officer training. After having endured a number of psyche tests, interviews and practical exercises I was selected and sent to the Officer Training Unit at Scheyville in NSW . It was good to get out of “Pucka”. It was extremely hot and dusty at that time of year.

Officer Training Unit Scheyville.

The Officer Training Unit, Scheyville had been established in 1965 to train selected national servicemen to be infantry platoon commanders. The rapid build up of numbers in the Army created the need for a substantial number of additional junior officers.

Neither the Royal Military College, Duntroon nor Officer Cadet School, Portsea was able to meet the demand and were designed to provide the Army with career officers. The OTU course, based on that at Portsea, was an intensive 6-month program. From each intake of around 2000 around 100 were selected for OTU. There was a 30% failure rate.

From the moment we stepped off the bus on to the parade ground at Scheyville, near Windsor, north of Sydney we were subject to almost constant physical and psychological harassment. It was a life changing experience for all of us.

From dawn until late in the evening six days a week we were engaged in training activities. Some of it was in the classroom, some in the bush and some on the parade ground. We were never away from the scrutiny of the elite staff of Officers and Warrant Officers who had the task of preparing us to lead men into battle. Everything was done with a sense of urgency. We were constantly reminded that our lives and the lives of others depended on us getting it right.

The sheer physical demands were exhausting and yet minor misdemeanours were punished with extra duties or parades which meant an even earlier start to the day and for some it became a vicious circle from which there was no way out. Some of the most testing times were classroom sessions on hot afternoons or in the evenings. It was an offence to fall asleep and despite our efforts to help each other there were some who just couldn’t stay awake. As a Christian I felt that I had that God was helping me to make it through.

On Saturday afternoons we played sport with the same intensity we did everything else. Rugby Union was the favoured sport. I had played rugby at school and throughout my time at university but never reached great heights. At Scheyville I made an impact and was selected in the rugby team that played a few games against other similar establishments. It probably improved my ratings.

If you survived the week without being confined to barracks (CB) or were not out on an exercises, leave was granted from Saturday evening until Sunday night. I was fortunate to live in Sydney because it meant I could go home. Those from interstate often had nowhere to go other than into Sydney but given the chance nobody stayed at the camp. It was a relief to get back into civilization even for a few hours and to see my family and girlfriend, Gail.

The course at Scheyville was divided into two halves. The initial period was junior class, which was designed to recognize those who had the potential to graduate. After three testing months the Senior class graduated making way for a new intake of Juniors. OTU was designed as a Battalion with a number of Companies. The Officer Cadets in senior class were given non commissioned officer (NCO) and Warrant Officer rank and were responsible for some of the activities of the Junior class.

Seniors without rank were assigned as “fathers” to the new officer cadets to assist them to assimilate. In their early days any misdemeanour by the junior class man led to the senior being punished so there was plenty of motivation for the senior to do his job well and plenty of aggravation if the junior let him down.

I was promoted to Sergeant. Sergeants had some special privileges including their own shower block. Small things counted! I was proud to sew on my three stripes. It also encouraged me that I was on track to graduate. Senior class was a lot easier than junior class. Perhaps it was because one had learned how to survive. I also had made some friends amongst the staff who could be helpful.

The course climaxed with a harsh 10 day exercise. By this time of year it was winter and we had to contend with the freezing temperatures. It also rained most of the time and to say it was uncomfortable is an understatement. My good friend Jock Holland from Melbourne had broken his leg playing rugby so he was fortunate not to have to participate in the exercise other than to be there. But he had the advantage of living with the staff who were relatively comfortable in their tents and with their prepared meals. I saw Jock once during the ten days and almost envied him his plaster cast.

The exercise was designed to simulate battle conditions with new challenges each day. Everyone had turns at taking different responsibilities. The pressure was really on when one was called upon to act as platoon commander or sergeant with the instructors breathing down your throat creating one disaster after another to contend with.

Finally it was over and we waited for that familiar and welcome sound of the helicopters coming to pick us up and take us back to Scheyville and a few days leave. Everyone had lost weight and had not changed clothes or showered for the whole time. Most of us had not taken our boots off for the ten days because you never knew when you might have to move out immediately and the idea of stumbling off into the bush in the middle of the night with no boots was not very appealing.

We had a couple of weeks to go. This required a few more practical exercises and formal examinations. Then the night before graduation when we were actually invited to the Scheyville Officers’ mess. Most of us had never been in an Officers’ mess before and it seemed so luxurious.

If this was the sort of thing we had to look forward to it had all been worthwhile. Graduation Day was a big event for which we drilled for hours. Dad and Mum were there. I wonder if they were as proud of me as I was of myself. That night we had the graduation ball. Just before midnight Gail pinned on my “pips”. I was now an Officer in the Australian Army.

The Scheyville experience was unique. Many of those who survived it would say it made them as men. Many went on to successful careers in a range of fields including politics. Tim Fisher, Deputy Prime Minister at one stage and Jeff Kennett a former Premier of Victoria are Scheyville graduates. At Scheyville we learned to be survivors and we learned to be Leaders. It was serious business though one of the secrets to success was not to takes oneself too seriously.

It has been said that leaders are born. I don’t think so. Those born with outgoing personalities or above average height seem to have a start. But there is much more to leadership and many of the behaviours exhibited by leaders can be instilled with training. At Scheyville there was a diverse group of men with all different personalities and all shapes and sizes. They had been identified as potential leaders but that latent potential had to evolve. Scheyville was a place where that was made to happen.

Although we were all trained to be infantry platoon commanders we were posted to all different corps either by choice or because of our qualifications. Graduating 23rd in my class I could have chosen any corps but being an accountant I was posted to the Ordnance Corps which was essentially responsible for the provision of supplies of everything from arms and ammunition to uniforms and food. I thought I might gain experience which would be useful in my intended business career.

My first posting after Scheyville was to Victoria Barracks in Sydney. I could choose to live out and commute to work in an office each day. I didn’t have to wear uniform every day. Victoria Barracks was the Command Headquarters and senior officers frequented the mess. The General Officer Commanding Eastern Commend(as it was then called) had his own quarters on the base so we didn’t see so much of him but there was enough brass around to ensure a young Second Lieutenant kept a low profile.

However the Officers mess was like a five star hotel and for a while I chose to live in. It wasn’t bad having a cup of tea delivered in the morning and leaving your shoes outside the door each night to be polished. It was also only a few minutes from some of the Eastern suburbs beaches so I was often able to go down for surf before work.

However, before I reported to Victoria Barracks I had to endure six weeks of Corps training at Bandiana near Wodonga on the NSW/Victoria border. It was still winter and it was the coldest place I had ever been. I made a token effort in the course and was glad to get out of the place.

The most vivid memory I have of it is the serious car accident I had rushing home to Sydney one Friday night. I rolled my MGB sports car down an embankment after losing on a bend. I’d narrowly avoided a head on collision as I slid across the road and the car ended up upside down and wrecked. I was still in my army uniform as I stumbled up on to the road but I was unhurt.

The hitchhiker I’d picked up for company somewhere along the way was likewise unhurt. I left him on the side of the road to mark the spot and hailed a ride into the next town where I reported the accident to the local constable. The policeman took me back out to the site of the wreck where we located my passenger waiting by the side of the road.

We organised to have the vehicle towed and then it my turn to hitchhike the rest of the way to Sydney. It was in the early hours of Saturday by the time I got home and it wasn’t much of a weekend. I should have died that night. When we saw the car in the panel beater’s yard it was hard to know how I had survived.

Victoria barracks was too good to last and sure enough it wasn’t long before they gave me a real job at the Ordnance Depot at Moorebank near Holsworthy in NSW. Here I was designated as a Supply Officer and had responsibility for the maintenance of supply of a range of products. It was like being a buyer in a retail store so it suited me. The Army had a large computer to assist with stock control and accounting and this was my first real exposure to that technology.

It was the forerunner to the modern point of sale systems now widely in use in the retail industry. Basically the computer tracked inventory levels and usage patterns and taking account of delivery lead times and other variables, generated orders automatically.

I lived in the Officers mess at Moorebank and went home at weekends. I coached and played in the unit rugby team, which played midweek and continued to play sub- district on Saturdays. It was a lot of fun and the end of my national service was in sight as the end of 1969 loomed.

Vietnam?

I had, when asked at one stage, indicated my preparedness to go to Vietnam if the opportunity arose. It now seemed unlikely. But one morning my Commanding Officer called me in and told me there was a posting available to the Headquarters at Vung Tau. If I wanted it I should let him know before lunch. As I only had three months to go I’d have to sign on in order to complete the twelve months in Vietnam. I phoned Dad to tell him and my Uncle Norman to make sure he’d be happy to do without me in the business for the extra nine months.

Suddenly I was flat out with preparations to leave for Vietnam within a month. I had to complete two weeks of a Battle Efficiency course at Canungra Jungle Training Centre. That done, it was vaccinations and dozens of other formalities including the making of a will, which was part of a checklist. Then a week of pre-embarkation leave. Most of it I spent skiing at Smiggin Holes in the NSW snowfields

My close friend Tom Tresseder was involved with the Southern Cross Ski Lodge, owned by the Anglican Church, at Smiggins and it was there I met him for the first time. In subsequent years I spent many happy winter weeks there. Tom says I skied so recklessly that week he was sure I was actually trying to break my leg to avoid going to Vietnam. I don’t think that was the case but I only knew one way to ski and that was as fast as I could and generally the quickest way from top to bottom.

Then it was time to go. I said goodbye to the family and reported to Watson’s Bay staging depot after lunch to prepare to fly out that night for Saigon. Formalities completed it was time to wait again. I had long become used to the Army’s unique way of doing things. It was always hurry up and wait.

Anyway I decided to wander down the road to where my old friend Neville Bathgate from Camp Howard days was the Anglican Rector. It seemed like a good way to spend those last few hours before leaving for the war with the person who had been my spiritual mentor years before. We talked and prayed together.

Soon it was time to head to the Sydney airport, which was awash with military activity with the contingent of replacements and reinforcements leaving that night. My father had organised a private room for my farewell. There were a large number of friends there. It was a moving occasion as the time drew near and the room hushed as my friend from Camp Howard days the Reverend Jim Doust prayed for me and for my safe return. Then it was off to war just like my dad had done only 30 years before.

On the Qantas 707 I found myself sitting next to another young Lieutenant, David Earley who was leaving behind a pregnant wife. He was an army helicopter pilot who was heading for the Task Force base at Nui Dat. I hadn’t met him before but I soon found he was a committed Christian. We had some good fellowship through the night before landing in Singapore and that fellowship was shared on a number of occasions in the following year. I took opportunities to go up to Nui Dat and stay with Dave and went out with him on some of his helicopter patrols. It was exciting stuff and a welcome break from my desk job at Vung Tau 50 kms down the road.

It was a weird feeling as we descended into Tan Son Nhat airport in Saigon. It was obvious there was a war going on. There was military hardware everywhere. On disembarking the two things that struck me most were the smell and the oppressive heat. This was to be my home for the next year. What had I let myself in for? After the usual long delay I climbed aboard the “Wallaby Airlines” Caribou crewed by the RAAF for the trip to Vung Tau.

Chapter 5

On Active Service.

Vung Tau airport was very busy with aircraft movements almost 24/7. The Australian Logistics Support Group base was situated close to the airport in the sand dunes and on the edge of the beach that went all the way to the Long Hai hills. It would have been idyllic were it not for all the barbed wire and other evidence that there was a war going on. The little town of Vung Tau had been a favourite resort at the height of the French occupation. The South China Sea is warm all year round.

The ALSG had rarely come under direct attack but the way the Viet Cong operated it was always a possibility. Personal weapons were required to be carried everywhere on the base. The base housed the Australian Field Hospital so there was the constant reminder of the war going on around us as the sirens sounded to alert the hospital staff of an incoming medivac helicopter.

As Administrative Officer of Headquarters Company my role was that of was an Adjutant/Quartermaster. The position was usually filled by a Captain as it involved some important responsibilities, particularly so for a young Second Lieutenant. My immediate superior was a Major who was Company Commander and I was 2IC. Eventually in recognition of this fact I was promoted to 1st Lieutenant, which was very unusual for a “nasho”. I never did get the Captains pay however.

Vung Tau was also the site of the Badcoe club named after one of Australia’s VC winners. This facility was for soldiers from the Task Force base to enjoy some R&R. It had a large swimming pool as well as equipment including surfboards and sail craft for beach activities. There were also a couple of speedboats for water skiing.

Incredibly there was actually surf here. I couldn’t believe it. There were a number of keen surfers and it was a rush during the mid-day break to get the best boards. It seemed so unreal to be surfing here on a barbed wire enclosed beach in the middle of a war. There were no sharks but there were nasty little sea snakes which could inflict a painful bite. But that wouldn’t deter a surfer with good waves and no crowd to contend with.

On other days the surf was flat but it was perfect for sailing or water skiing. The Base Commandant, Colonel Max Simkin was a keen water skier and we became friends because of my interest in water sports. One day I was driving the boat for the Colonel when I took off too quickly and he damaged his knee. He was limping for days and I was the butt of many jokes about my future. Max retired as a Brigadier after a stint in Washington as military attaché. He retired to Queensland to grow tea trees but passed away a few years ago.

Another surprise was to find a surfboat donated by the Collaroy Surf Club on the beach. My family had been heavily involved with the Collaroy club with my two brothers Chris and Mike amongst the star surf swimmers there. Chris was a powerful pool swimmer so surf swimming suited him well. He won two individual Australian Surf Championships. Personally I had not been involved with the “clubbies” as they were called. The surfers and the “clubbies” were often in conflict with each other on the beach. More about that later.

However my loose connection with surf lifesaving and my own swimming prowess and still water life-saving experience led to my appointment as Captain of the Vung Tau Surf Club. Besides being a bit of fun I had the task of mounting a beach patrol each day. It was easy to find volunteers to spend the day at the beach but often difficult to get them released from other duties, as everyone was very busy. Nevertheless we had a core group of keen lifesavers that did what they could. In lifesaving parlance, “no lives were lost on our beach.”. We also had an old surf reel and line but it was never used and soon rusted away.

For another extra curricular activity I became an announcer on the Australian Forces Radio station.. The station was well equipped with donated apparatus and was situated on the RAAF Base a few kilometres from the ALSG. I presented the “Top 40” each afternoon after a minimal amount of training from a few professional DJs who were also doing their “nasho “ time. For obvious reasons I really enjoyed Robin Williams performance in the movie “Good Morning Vietnam”.I actually met the real Adrian Cronauer, whom Robin Williams played, in Washington in 2002. He is real character.

There was of course a very serious side to life in Vung Tau. Although we were back from what you would call the front line we were still very much involved in the war effort. Each day we would be briefed on the situation and on activities involving ANZAC and American forces. As information was received that our troops were in action it became tense especially as news of casualties came through. Our HQ Company had the task of processing the personal effects of those who were killed and sending these back to Australia. It was a job handled personally by the Major and myself and obviously was a sad task.

There was a chapel on the base and I attended services there on Sundays where I met a number of other Christians. But everyone was busy during the week often working day and night so it was hard to organise any regular meetings. There were both a Roman Catholic and a Protestant Chaplain based at Vung Tau. I came to know them well and often dropped in on them for a tea or coffee. The YMCA also had a facility where I made some friends. Other than that it was a lonely time.

But God was close and I came to realise how personal He is. Many nights when I would go to my quarters after dinner and read or write. I studied for and sat the exams for entry into the Chartered Institute of Secretaries and Administrators to add to my accounting qualification. My year in Vietnam was a time of great spiritual growth.

Officers had individual rooms in long huts, which gave some privacy. It was always hot despite plenty of natural ventilation. The buildings were sandbagged up to the widow sills. Sleeping under a mosquito net was obligatory. I always slept with my loaded 9mm Browning pistol under my pillow and hoped the sentries were vigilant as they patrolled throughout the night.

The shower block featured cold water only and it was rationed in the dry season. There was no shortage of water in the wet season as the skies opened every afternoon for a few hours. I was working in a hut with a corrugated iron roof and the pounding of the rain made it impossible to have a conversation.

“Prickly heat”, a nasty and painful rash under the arms and in the crotch was a common affliction with the constant heat and high humidity. I suffered one or two bouts. Dysentery, a much more serious illness was not uncommon.

One afternoon after vigorous game of rugby in the inter unit competition I suffered a broken nose. Later, while I was getting patched up at the hospital I complained of a nagging backache. This was duly recorded on my medical records as “war caused”. Rugby was played in sand shoes late in the afternoon or early morning to avoid the heat as much as possible. Games were generally followed by a barbecue and a few cans of beer.

Alcohol was unrestricted for those who were off duty although it was not allowed in the barracks. Loaded weapons and alcohol did not mix and there were a number of incidents. Unauthorized or accidental discharge of a weapon was a serious offence. One night as Duty Officer a drunk soldier waving his loaded rifle around confronted me. The situation was critical until I convinced him to put it down. This same soldier had caused some problems up at Nui Dat and was subsequently sent home with serious psychological problems.

Vung Tau was a so-called free town. This meant soldiers could go there unarmed and in civilian clothes if they were not on duty. The town itself was filled with bars and prostitutes. Many soldiers spent all their free time there and were frequently at the Hospital needing shots of penicillin.

I rarely went into Vung Tau on leave. It seemed like a good place to stay away from. It was sad to see married men with Vietnamese girlfriends with whom they even stayed over-night despite the strict prohibition on doing so. This led to problems with their wives back in Australia.

One of my jobs was to deal with personal matters affecting soldiers. Sometimes a wife reported that her husband was not corresponding with her. Sadly the reverse was sometimes true and an investigation back in Australia would reveal a problem. This had to be communicated to a soldier who was already in a stressful situation. I learned a lot from handling these sensitive matters.

On Christmas Eve 1969 there was a tragic incident at the main gate to the ALSG. I had just attended a Christmas service at the chapel when I was summoned to the hospital. There I was confronted with the grim task of identifying the body of one of the young soldiers in my unit who had been accidentally shot in the head as he returned from leave in Vung Tau. I had seen the young private earlier that day. What a Christmas present.

The subsequent investigation revealed that Corporal Chris Wallace was manning the M60 machine gun. Corporal Wallace, upon recognising his mate had jokingly pointed the gun at him in a mock challenge at the same time apparently cocking the gun. The gun discharged a number of rounds one of which hit Private Malcolm Robertson in the head and killed him instantly. Members of the guard had been consuming alcohol.

Chris Wallace was court marshalled on a charge of manslaughter. I regarded him as a good soldier who had never been in trouble. He played in our unit rugby team. I think he was a regular soldier as opposed to a “nasho” and up until that time had good career prospects. Corporal Wallace was discharged from the Army and spent some time in a civilian prison back in Australia. In a sense he was a casualty of the war and no doubt he has lived to regret the events of that Christmas Eve.

I had to identify Private Robertson’s body prior to a formal autopsy being performed at the morgue in Saigon. The body of another Australian who had been killed on Christmas day was also there awaiting the process of being prepared to return to Australia for burial, as was the practice. Almost all of the 500 Australian killed in Vietnam were returned home for burial. Only a few, at the request of their families were interred at a war cemetery in Malaysia.

At the morgue I was horrified at the number of mutilated bodies awaiting preparation for return home mostly to the United States. The reality of the war hit me very hard. I stood silently outside in front of a large stack of metal coffins. The Australian Doctor who was to carry out the post-mortem asked me if I wanted to stay and watch him perform the autopsy but I couldn’t get out of the place quickly enough.

Everyone arriving in Vietnam started counting backwards to their RTA (Return to Australia) date. On day one you had 365 days to go and most of the men routinely marked off the days. It was a good feeling to “get some time up” and start to look forward to five days of R&R outside of the country after six months. The alternatives were Hong Kong, Bangkok, Taipei or back to Australia. Many soldiers chose to meet wives or girlfriends in one of the Asian cities.

I chose to go back to Sydney to see my family. I remember the Pan-Am pilot coming on the PA just out of Sydney with a plane full of Americans paging one soldier by name to announce that there was good news for him. His mother and father had flown from the USA and would be there to meet him. I don’t think it was what the GI had in mind. It caused a good laugh and of course it wasn’t true. Sydney and Kings Cross in particular was a popular R&R destination for the Americans. My 5 days R&R was quickly over and soon it was back to the war.

The second half of my tour of duty went quickly. I took numerous opportunities to travel to other parts of the country including some of the American bases. It was obvious the Americans were suffering some severe morale problems. Drug use was rife. This contrasted with the Australian bases where drug use was not such a problem.

Many Americans I met at Vung Tau and other places were severely traumatized by their war experiences. At this time the American losses averaged one hundred killed-in-action per week. Many young Americans I met were terrified of being sent back into action. So many of them felt that their political leaders were just using them as pawns.

Much has been written about the Vietnam war. Perhaps it could or should have been won. I believed then and still do that the Communist threat was real at the time and that the war was justified. The South Vietnamese people didn’t want Communism. Unfortunately their own political leaders were corrupt and inept and they didn’t do much to help their own cause.

The war came to an end on April 30th 1975 when North Vietnamese tanks triumphantly entered Saigon. There was graphic TV coverage of the final few hours as the American Embassy was evacuated. Many civilians who had worked for the Americans would have been in grave danger had they not been allowed to leave. Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City though it has never a popular name for the freewheeling city.

I have been astounded on the occasions I have been back to Saigon to see it growing at a fast pace with apparently few constraints imposed upon it from the North. Communism never really sat well with the people of this city which now has treble the per capita income of the rest of the country, earns half of the whole county’s export earnings but has less than 10% of the country’s 77 million population.

I have often been asked how as a Christian I felt about being involved in the Vietnam War. Wasn’t it wrong for a Christian to kill? There is a difference between killing and murdering and all killing is not murder as CS Lewis points out in his book Mere Christianity. He goes on to say that in his opinion “it is perfectly right for a Christian judge to sentence a man to death or a Christian soldier to kill an enemy” The Communists were our enemies as far as I was concerned.

We know now that communism was a flawed ideology not least because of its promotion of atheism. Religion has always been an integral part of humanity. It could not be legislated away or simply banned. Despite the Communist dogma religion is still real to large numbers of people in China and Vietnam. Both official and underground Christian churches are thriving.

The other major post world war two conflict on the Korean peninsular led to the division of that country into two. The South is prosperous and has the highest proportion of practicing Christians of any nation on Earth. The Communist North is an economic and social disaster.

There’s not much point in speculating how the world might have been different were it not for the Vietnam War. It would have made a lot of difference to a lot of lives of course. It would have changed the course of American history with President Johnson serving a second term and maybe then no President Nixon or Watergate.

Suddenly for me there was one day to go I packed up and said my good-byes. I hardly slept at all and was ready to leave the base at the appointed time before daybreak. It was to be a long day beginning in the usual style of having to hurry up and wait. We waited at Vung Tau for the flight to Saigon and then at Saigon for the Qantas flight home. It was a strange feeling to see a whole new contingent arrive on the flight that was to return us to Australia. I was profoundly thankful to be going home in one piece.

Finally, soon after lunch the plane lifted off. There was a subdued cheer as we left the war behind. Yet, many did not. They took it home with them. Others, including a number of my friends didn’t make it home alive. Later that night we arrived in Sydney. My family and friends were waiting. It was a wonderful occasion. I proudly sported my two “pips” and my campaign ribbons. The next morning I woke up and realised Army life was over for me. I was entitled to an immediate discharge. One day the war in Vietnam, the next the streets of Sydney. I proudly wore my uniform for the last time as I completed formalities and walked out into civvy street.

Many veterans have made a pilgrimage back to Vietnam although some have vowed never to return. A number have become involved in aid programs in Vietnam. Relations between the Governments of Vietnam and Australia are now very good. A recent study of the health and morbidity of Vietnam Veterans has confirmed what many of us feared. Many Vietnam Veterans are in poor health and the evidence is that the rate of certain types of cancers amongst Vietnam Veterans is much higher than the incidence of those same cancers in the general population.

A few years ago the average age at death of Vietnam veterans was only 53.5 years. There is also conclusive evidence of higher rates of birth deformities and other medical conditions in Vietnam veteran’s children. Veterans of all wars are liable to pay a price for their service of their country for their whole lives. Although compensation may appear to be generous it can never replace the good physical and mental health or normal family life, which they would otherwise have enjoyed. I have been fortunate to remained in good health for which I thank God.

I believe I played a valuable role whilst I was in the Parliament as an advocate for Veterans.. I always took the opportunity to speak in the Parliament on legislation affecting Veterans. You can’t remind people often enough about how much our Veterans are owed and we also have a responsibility to educate young Australians about the roles Australian service men and women have played in every war in modern times.

It is pleasing that successive Governments have been prepared to allocate funds for education purposes. One of the highlights of my time in the Parliament was the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the end of World War 2 in 1995. The “Australia Remembers” program of events was a huge success and my friend Con Sciaaca the Labor Minister for Veterans Affairs at the time did a wonderful job.

Chapter 6

Living in America.

Being a civilian took some adjustment. It wasn’t that I was conscious of any aggression towards me because I was a Vietnam Veteran. It was simply the challenge of coming down off such an adrenaline high. Everything seemed dull in comparison. There was nevertheless a lot to look forward to.

I went off to New Zealand for a few days with some friends for a short break. I think I looked a bit like a native. My skin tans easily but after a year in the sun it was very dark with a yellow tint from all of the anti malarial tablets I had consumed.

Then it was time to report back to Nock and Kirbys. Before I returned home from Vietnam I was invited to stay in the Army. I had certainly enjoyed it and it was tempting but I had a job to which I was committed to return. Nock and Kirbys had already invested a fair amount of money in me. Some Scheyville graduates who stayed in the Army did well. At least three I know of made the rank of Brigadier.

I began work as Assistant to the Managing Director. This was a new position, which had been created for me. My cousin Graham was Managing Director so it looked a bit like I was going straight to the top. The truth is I’d been working in the stores since I was fourteen and had done most of the basic jobs.

In the role that had been created for me I was given the opportunity to closely observe the day-to-day management of the Company that by this time was in a strong growth phase. Regional shopping centres had just begun to appear in Australia and well-established and successful retailers were in demand as tenants. Being based in the George Street, Sydney store also enabled me to spend some time each day dealing directly with customers that was after all what our business was all about.

At the beginning of 1971 I turned 25 years of age. The family had moved to Collaroy to live in a large home overlooking Long Reef headland. I got right back into surfing and playing rugby this time at Lindfield Sub- District Club where I played in the first grade side. I was playing well and enjoying it. Towards the end of that year with Graham Nock’s approval I made contact with my friend Howard Henderson at the Emporium Department store in San Francisco to discuss the possibility of my going to work there for a period of time.

The Emporium conducted a very highly regarded Executive Trainee program into which it was difficult to gain selection. Howard agreed to employ me in the program and we begun the long process of gaining permission from the American authorities to work there. I was finally granted a visa and again said goodbye to everybody and headed for the USA in mid 1972. I had arranged to have some vacation time in Hawaii on the way so I had my surfboard with me.

Again this time in Hawaii it was summer as it had been on my previous visit in 1967. However I did manage to find some reasonable surf. Then it was on to San Francisco where I was met at the airport by Howard and taken to the guesthouse in the city where I was to live for the time being.

I started work immediately. It was an exciting environment. The training program started from the basics, as a number of participants were straight out of college. There was a combination of classroom sessions combined with on the job training. It was very competitive. I was impressed with the quality of these people who had chosen a career in retailing.

In Australia the retailing industry at the time was seen as a provider of jobs only as a last resort. Very few University graduates were employed in the industry. Salaries were poor and hours were long generally including Saturday mornings. In America trading hours had been almost completely deregulated. I found myself working a five-day week, which usually included Saturdays.

However I came to appreciate a day off during the week as the local municipal golf course wasn’t crowded. It was really too cold for surfing in Northern California although there were a few intrepid surfers who frequented the beaches near San Francisco. It was the first time I had seen surfers using crude leg ropes to save them from a long swim in icy waters if they took a wipeout. I thought at the time what a dangerous practice it was but it soon revolutionized surfing. Later I was to find good surf not too far down the coast at places near Santa Cruz although the water was still painfully cold.

I soon found myself as Manager of the Sporting Goods Department and later at Christmas time the Toy Department as well. The Emporium in San Francisco was highly regarded and had a number of branch stores in the Bay area. The Downtown Store was situated on Market Street at the bottom of Powell Street where the cable cars start the journey over to Fisherman’s wharf and back.

Most of the major retailers including Macys were on the famous Union Square but locals and tourists always found their way to the Emporium. It was an impressive building with a large atrium into which a giant Christmas tree was manoeuvred at Christmas. I was saddened to find on my last visit to the city that the old building had been closed down.

The Emporium had by the standards of the time sophisticated management systems particularly when it came to inventory control. These days computers and point of sale data capture make the task easier but it still surprises me to find modern retailers still experience the age old problems of being out of stock of their best sellers. It is still as simple as having the right merchandise in the right place at the right time and at the right price.

Working in San Francisco was a great experience. It was and still is one of the World’s great cities. In the early 70’s the hippie movement was in full swing especially in the Haight-Ashbury district. It was also the centre in the USA of what became known as the Jesus Movement. Sadly,many church doors were closed to these newly converted hippies and in some respects a revival was going on despite the established church at the time.

San Francisco was also well known as a haven for homosexuals. There was plenty of evidence of that and I soon found them amongst my work mates. I realized how easy it was for young men to find the lifestyle attractive and how vulnerable they were if the environment was right when they were introduced it. I also encountered drugs for the first time in my life. Marijuana was offered to me at a party with friends from the store. However, like Bill Clinton I didn’t inhale it.

I became friendly with a number of my fellow Trainees and one, Tom Benz, made me aware of the availability of lakeside apartment in Oakland where he also rented. Tom was actually from Portland, Oregon and I went home with him on a few occasions. So I moved in over the Bay Bridge to Oakland and took the bus each day into San Francisco.

San Francisco is only three hours drive from the spectacular Lake Tahoe area in the Sierra Nevada mountain range. From November until March the mountains around the lake are snow covered and the skiing is excellent The Winter Olympics were held there at Squaw Valley in 1960. I took every opportunity I could to go skiing even if it meant leaving before dawn and returning late in the evening of the same day. On other occasions I had friends whose families had cabins near the lake where we spent weekends.

Jock Holland, my close friend from Scheyville days, was doing post graduate engineering studies at Stanford University just south of San Francisco at the same time so it was always good to catch up with him and we had some fun times together. Jock’s father Sir John Holland was the Chairman of the big construction company that bore his name in Melbourne.

On one occasion Sir John and Lady Holland were visiting and treated us to a memorable dinner at the Pebble Beach Golf Club. My own parents visited on the way back from attending the Olympic Games in Munich in 1972. It was of course great to see them and they entertained Howard Henderson, my boss at the Emporium, and me at one of the finer restaurants at Fisherman’s wharf.

Shortly after moving to live in Oakland I made it a priority to find a church to join. I attended the beautiful Grace Episcopal Cathedral in San Francisco a number of times but it wasn’t really a church you could belong to. Friends introduced me to St. Johns Episcopal Church at Montclair in the Oakland Hills. This was a beautiful part of the bay area with some of the big homes having magnificent views over the bay to San Francisco. The fires that devastated the area in 1995 destroyed many of these homes.

I started attending St. Johns regularly. Finding that there was no youth ministry at the church I started a Youth Group with the help of some young people who attended the Oakland Covenant Church. This was a very large evangelical church nearby with a range of programs in many of which I became involved.

Susie Hill became a close and dear friend at the time and we spent many hours together. Her parents had a vacation cottage on the edge of a beautiful lake where the water skiing was great. Stuart Gregor also helped with the youth group. Stuart was Australian and had arrived in the USA with his parents about the same time I did. His sister was married to an American. Stuart is now Senior Pastor at a church in Stockton, California.

The youth group grew slowly but a number of the young people became Christians. This caused some bewilderment in the church as sons and daughters started to talk openly about their faith and to show evidence of it in their changed lives. I was also invited to lead a Bible study for adults. This had not happened before and again a lot of eyebrows were raised.

I had to work hard at the Emporium. It was a very competitive environment and taught me a lot about the American work ethic. I was only entitled to one week of paid leave, which I looked forward to. A couple of Australian surfing friends arrived and we packed up my 1967 Mustang and headed for Mexico. We had heard there was surf in Mexico but we didn’t know exactly where.

As it turned out we went the wrong way following the coast down the eastern side of the Gulf of California rather than heading down the Baja California Peninsular. We drove for twenty-four hours non-stop and finally reached the resort of Mazatlan near the entrance to the Gulf about one thousand kilometres from the US border. Unfortunately the surf was very small. We pitched our tent on the edge of the beach and lived it up for three days. Finally we headed back, crossing over into Arizona at Nogales. At the border we were searched for drugs. Three Australians with surfboards on top of the car looked a bit suspect.

As my year at the Emporium drew to a close plans were made for one of the Nock and Kirby executives to join me on a fact finding trip through the USA, Canada and Europe. The task we had been given by the company was to have a close look at the latest trends in Do-it Yourself and self-service. There were already many very large stores operating in the USA with huge ranges of hardware and house wares with just about everything passing through a checkout just like a grocery store.

Before leaving the West Coast we attended a conference organised by the National Retail Merchants Association held on the old Queen Mary, which is permanently docked at Long Beach. It was a great experience to see the grand old ship and I took Judy back there in 1983 on our delayed honeymoon.

Home again:Collaroy Surf Life Saving Club.

Back in Australia it was time for a change and I was appointed as the Buyer for a number of departments. The Company was growing and had about 20 branch stores and a large modern Distribution Centre. There was a central buying office in the city store where Buyers had responsibility for selecting merchandise for the whole chain.

Whilst I was working in America I developed an interest in politics. In 1972, Richard Nixon ran for re-election against Democrat George McGovern and swept to victory in a landslide with 60 percent of the popular vote, winning in every state except Massachusetts. However by the time I left America the Watergate drama was in full flight. I actually stayed at the Watergate Hotel in Washington in 1973 and it seemed odd to be staying there and watching live on TV the Watergate Enquiry hearings that lead to Nixon’s resignation in 1974.

It wasn’t long before I became involved in the life of the Anglican Church in Narrabeen on Sydney’s northern beaches. Many surfers lived in the area and I was surprised how many Christians there were amongst them. As a lay-preacher,I often presided over services at St Faiths and made subtle changes to the old fashioned language of the old Prayer Book that our minister insisted on using.

Also shortly after returning to Australia I was encouraged to join Collaroy Surf Life Saving Club. The animosity between the surfers and the “clubbies” had diminished over the years. Most Surf Clubs avoided confrontation and attempted to accommodate both body surfers and surfboard riders as far as possible in the management of the beaches

In the early days as surfboard riding caught on surfers were often antagonised when lifesavers prevented them surfing where the best waves were breaking. There were even attempts at some beaches to exclude the board riders completely.

In Warringah Shire, which extended from Manly to Palm Beach, surfboards were required to be registered and to have a current sticker displayed on the surfboard. An unregistered surfboard could be confiscated. The policy made absolutely no sense other than as a revenue raising measure and it led to some fiery confrontations between board riders, lifesavers and Council Beach Inspectors, as the professional lifeguards were called.

At the time the Surf Clubs were finding it increasingly difficult to attract recruits. The regimentation of the surf club was not attractive and for young boys having fun was much more important than doing community service. Surf Clubs consequently had to change if they were to survive.

I did not yet have my surf Bronze Medallion when I was pressured into becoming Club Captain. It was thought that my heavy involvement in surfboard riding and my experience as a leader would make a big difference to the Club’s success in attracting new members.

The Bradford name was already somewhat legendary at Collaroy Surf Club with both of my brothers having won a number of State and Australian Championships. However I was on a steep learning curve having stayed away from surf clubs for so many years. Nevertheless I did realise that surf clubs gave young people the opportunity to do something useful in their local community. They were on a par with the local highly respected volunteer bushfire brigades.

I decided that it was still a big ask for young boys spend hours of their leisure time on the beach doing patrols while their mates were out surfing. Consequently, we had to find ways of making membership rewarding and fun. The first step was to make the surf club building itself a place where the members would enjoy coming.

In a sense that had always been the case but some things had changed. In the old days most clubs had bunkrooms because members usually lived some distances away. They generally stayed at the club all weekend. Now most clubs built their membership from their local communities.

Many surf club buildings occupied prime positions on the beach. Often the clubs had these facilities granted to them by the local community but they were not often shared with other groups. I decided that members who surfed should be allowed to leave their surfboards at the club. Hot water showers were provided for them. We installed table tennis and pool tables. Nothing radical by today’s standards.

Surfing competitions were organised and these were later to become part of the long established competition between clubs. I also advocated female membership as I saw no reason to exclude girls at all. At the time this was quite controversial. Today there are probably as many girls as boys in surf clubs.

There was also a need for patrols to be more interesting and challenging. This has been an ongoing feature of surf clubs with the introduction of the motorised surf rescue craft and helicopters.

At Collaroy I also went out of my way to develop good relations with the local surfboard riders many of whom were my friends anyway. As a result a number joined the surf club. One recruit was a boisterous young man named Rod MacQueen who later distinguished himself both as a local businessman and coach of the Australian Rugby Union team, the Wallabies. Later when I became President of the Collaroy Surf Club Rod was Captain.

Whilst much of my focus as captain was on the younger members I also convinced the club committee to spend money to improve facilities for older members. Money was always hard to come by. The club had the generous financial support of the McWilliam family. But most of the senior members took their turn at doing the Friday and Saturday night “chook” raffles at the local Time and Tide hotel. It was always a lot of fun and we enjoyed a few drinks at the same time.

Some of the funds raised were used to build a comfortable lounge room and a new bar area in the Clubhouse. Dress standards were instituted for those using these facilities. Families began to frequent the club.

In addition to the Surf Club I became involved in the Collaroy Plateau Rugby Union Club both as a player in the sub-district side and as a coach of junior sides. Many of the young boys in the rugby club were also in the surf club as were their parents.

All of this local involvement gave me a good base of support for my first foray into local politics

Chapter 7

Nock & Kirbys

After returning to Australia in 1973 I had decided to join the Collaroy Branch of the Liberal Party. Meetings were typical party meetings often poorly attended and, I thought, rather pointless. Not long after joining I was elected as the Branch President.

Meanwhile, at Nock and Kirbys I moved from the buying to the selling side of the business with my appointment as Store Manager of the recently acquired Newport Beach Hardware store. Newport was only a few kilometres north of Collaroy and it was great to be working close to home and to be able to jump into the surf at lunchtime.

I also began to take an interest in the activities of the Warringah Shire Council. A Council election was scheduled for 1974. At the time there was little involvement of party politics in local government and considerable resistance to any such involvement. Nevertheless the Collaroy branch of the Liberal party was supporting a team in the local area and I agreed to be number two on the ticket. The sitting Councillor was well entrenched and voting was not compulsory. We were competitive but ultimately not successful.

In 1976 I was promoted to Store Manager of the much larger Nock and Kirby store at Warringah Mall shopping centre in Brookvale. This regional shopping centre was one of the first of its types in Sydney and was also very successful. It was still close to home for me. However, with about forty staff it was a big increase in responsibility after the smaller Newport store.

Throughout these years I continued my involvement with the church in Narrabeen. I commenced a youth group at nearby Collaroy Plateau for the young people who were largely unchurched. We aimed to make the Christian message relevant to these kids. It was all about showing them that the Christian life style was a positive one. So much of Christianity was perceived to be about negatives.

After a year at Nock and Kirbys Warringah Mall I was again promoted, this time to Manager of the company’s Distribution Centre west of Sydney. I had been involved in 1974 in the feasibility studies that had lead to the selection of the site for the centre in Liverpool.

Since its opening the Distribution Centre had been plagued with management and industrial relations problems. All of the stores relied heavily on the distribution centre filling their inventory requirements on time but they were frequently let down and sales were affected.

At the time I had not had any experience of warehousing previously however apparently my success in store management made me a good choice for the job. Many of the problems in the centre were staff problems. There was over two hundred staff all of whom were members of either the Storemen and Packers or the Transport Workers Union.

Both unions were militant and powerful and it was virtually compulsory to be a member of one or the other union. Because of the nature of the central buying and distribution system a work stoppage at the centre could quickly create serious difficulties for the business. A number of other major retailers had experienced prolonged strikes in their Distribution Centres that had adversely affected profits.

Despite my best efforts to build good working relationships with the on site Union Delegates the Union wielded considerable power and the staff frequently stopped work to attend meetings called by the union. Sometimes, with my agreement, they would meet in the staff cafeteria. If I did not agree they would simply threaten to walk outside the gate to meet.

Nevertheless I took all union requests seriously and did my best to address matters raised with me even if they were trivial. I built good relations with the staff and formed a staff committee, which included the union delegates to meet regularly. Industrial relations and productivity improved considerably.

As I learned some of the finer points of warehousing I made a number of changes to the operations that led to efficiencies and cost savings. At the time the Company owned a large fleet of trucks, which were used for the daily, re-supply of the shops now numbering over twenty and the delivery service to customers. I decided to privatise this fleet and to re-employ the drivers as owner-drivers. There would be considerable savings for the company but I bought a fight with the Union. A number of days tense negotiations finally gave us the result we wanted. I ended up giving away less than I had expected but the drivers nevertheless received generous redundancies and the new arrangements worked well.

The Distribution Centre was situated close to the light aircraft airstrip at Hoxton Park so I decided that this was an ideal opportunity to learn to fly. I began taking lessons at the flying school there and later completed my training at Bankstown Airport initially gaining my restricted Private Pilots License and later my unrestricted PPL.

This had required a substantial investment of both time and money but I enjoyed the challenge of flying training which required skill and precision. My uncle, Norman Nock, had purchased a Cessna 172 aircraft to use to visit his country property near Dubbo. He generously allowed me to use the airplane so this kept my flying costs down.

Warringah Council 1977 election.

I decided to try again for the Warringah Council in 1977. This time we were much better prepared and we formed the Warringah Civic Group in an attempt to make an impact on the Council. The Civic Group had the full support of the Liberal Party and was modelled on the Civic Reform Group that had “governed” the City of Sydney for many years.

Leading the Warringah Civic Group was Councillor Kevin Begaud, a long serving member of the Council. One of the candidates was a public relations consultant and as a result we ran a professional campaign that resulted in five of us being elected. The Labor Party ran candidates for the first time and had two of its candidates elected. From the other five members came enough support to elect Kevin Begaud as Shire President.

The Shire was divided into four ridings with three Councillors in each riding. My riding, B riding covered the area from Dee Why to Narrabeen. I had received strong support particularly in the Collaroy area where I had polled more votes than all the other candidates combined. I became heavily involved in the Council business.

The Warringah Shire at the time was one of the biggest local government areas in the State both in terms of its geographical area and it’s budget. The Shire was experiencing a strong development phase and to do the job of Councillor well was demanding. There was no remuneration other than an annual expense allowance of $1000.

I found the work at the Council very time consuming and travelling to work at the Distribution Centre in the outer Western suburbs of Sydney involved more than two hours of travel time each day. I was faced with a difficult decision. In 1976 while I was Store Manager at Warringah Mall I had, with a couple of partners, purchased the Surf Shop in Collaroy and introducing some modern retailing methods had turned it into a viable business. I now seriously contemplated going full time into the surfing business.

Collaroy Surf Shop.

I was excited about the prospect of being able to work close to home and to be able to devote time to my council duties. The idea of earning a living from surfing and being my own boss was also very appealing. It seemed to be too good to be true. The downside was that I would be throwing away the opportunity to reach the top in the corporate world. Nock and Kirbys had already invested a large amount of money in me and obviously I was being groomed to become a Director at some near time in the future.

The decision weighed heavily on my mind. Soon after, one morning after a difficult meeting with Sir Norman Nock in his Sydney office I left and wrote a letter of resignation giving as the main reason my onerous council responsibilities. My cousin, Graham the Managing Director was away overseas at the time or things may have gone differently but the response from Sir Norman was terse and to the point as he usually he was.

Sir Norman told me that there was shortly to be a vacancy on the Board of Directors for which I would be in line but if I wanted to forgo that opportunity then that was that. But I had made up my mind. One other factor that influenced my decision was that to some extent my being connected to the Nock family created a perception that this was the sole reason for my rapid promotion to the senior executive ranks. I believe I was well regarded my colleagues and I had the runs on the board as far as performance was concerned but there was still the feeling that it had been too easy.

Actually my uncle, Sir Norman, was a particularly hard taskmaster. Nevertheless there had been times when I was undoubtedly favoured. Sir Norman owned a very fine property near Dubbo in NSW and on occasions he took me away with him to the country. Prior to those times I had never experienced farm life. Uncle Norman taught me some things about farm management and I helped with many of the routine chores that had to be done around the property sometimes o horseback.It was certainly a change of pace from city life and to this day I enjoy getting out into the countryside.

After resigning from Nock and Kirbys I took steps to buy my partners shares in the surf business at Collaroy. At the time attending the Narrabeen Church were a number of well-known surfers. Gordon Barnes was one of them who had been competing around the world for a number of years. Gordon had been working for Terry Fitzgerald in his surfboard factory but had some retailing experience.

I approached Gordon and offered him the opportunity of being the Manager of the Collaroy Surf Shop. At the time I felt that although I always enjoyed working in the shop it required a person such as Gordon who was 10 years younger than I, to be the front person. I planned to do all of the accounts and work behind the scenes.

Gordon also understood much better than I the finer points of surfboard design and this was important when talking to customers. He was also more in tune with fashion trends and was therefore better to do most of the buying for the store. I set the profit margins and managed the stock levels and cash flow. Most of the profit came from clothing and surfing accessories. The business prospered and grew and it proved to be a good arrangement. We had a number of part time staff generally chosen from the ranks of local surfers.

Over time I moved into expansion mode and soon we had three shops on the northern beaches. This turned out to be a mistake. It proved to be very difficult to find reliable staff. Soon it became obvious that we were losing as much money in the other two shops as we were making at Collaroy.

To supplement my income I started doing some part time teaching at the Brookvale Technical College. Situated close to the Warringah Mall shopping centre, it offered some retail management courses that I was well qualified to teach. Also I soon found that I enjoyed teaching young adults.

A couple of times a year I took off on “business” trips visiting various suppliers of surfing equipment and clothing in Byron Bay or on the Gold Coast Sometimes I invited a couple of young Collaroy Surf club members to travel with me. I re-visited many of my favourite surfing spots on the north coast of NSW. There was never a shortage of young guys wanting to go with me and looking back now that I am a parent myself, their parents obviously trusted me to take proper care of their sons. In fact I had an ulterior motive in that I wanted to demonstrate the Christian lifestyle to these young fellows.

These were good times. It seemed ideal being able to combine work and pleasure. Being my own boss had its rewards. During winter I went skiing. I became a regular guest at the Southern Cross ski lodge at Smiggin Holes. I met the second real love of my life there. She, like me, enjoyed skiing and on one occasion we went on a skiing holiday to New Zealand, with some friends.

I was easily re-elected to the Warringah Council in both 1980 and 1983 again with strong support from the Collaroy area. Warringah Rugby club and Collaroy surf club members turned out in force to help me on election days. I was Deputy Shire President in 1983 and in 1985. It was my ambition to become President but I was judged by some members of Council to be too political. I certainly often came into conflict with the two Labor Party councillors.

I was proud to be a “curb and gutter” Councillor. I believed that the local Council should concentrate on providing the basic services and thus keep the rates to a minimum. Other members of council were more oriented towards community services and were vulnerable to pressure from the other levels of government to provide services and amenities that were not the traditional responsibility of local government. I was also unashamedly “pro development.” This sometimes brought me into conflict with environmentalists who seemed to find some reason to oppose just about everything.

The majority of the Councillors agreed most of the time. After the 1983 elections my friend Darren Jones was elected as President. Darren’s father had also been Shire President many years before. The Jones family were substantial property owners in the Shire. Darren and I were both elected to the Council in 1977 and almost always voted with each other. Darren, a builder, was a hard worker at his trade and went at his job of President boots and all. Soon after he was elected one of the most controversial developments I had encountered came before the Council.

Council Sacked by Wran Government.

This proposal was for a multi story commercial building in Mona Vale in the north of the Shire. Flamboyant local real estate agent Max Delmege who was a friend of mine as well as of other Council members planned the development. The development was not only to tower over the surrounding area it would be able to be viewed for a number of kilometres around. There was substantial community opposition and the Council was evenly divided on the issue. Each time some aspect of the development came before the Council, generally supported by the Council’s town planning staff, Darren was forced to use his casting vote as President in favour of the proposed building.

Eventually the building was approved but it remained contentious. Darren Jones completed two years as President and with the next election a year away was replaced by a former council staff member now Councillor, Ted Jackson, as President. I became Deputy President and looked forward to the run down to the election in that role. The NSW Labor State Government of Premier Neville Wran had other ideas.

Unbeknown to most of us serious allegations had been made about the council’s handling of the Delmege development and a number of other matters. Rumours were flying around that the Council was to be sacked. Television cameras arrived at the Council’s meeting on 3 December 1985 seeking confirmation of the Governments intentions from the Council members.

We were the last to know. Without warning and without consulting the Council the Minister for Local government Kevin Stewart announced on 4 December that the Council had been in fact been sacked and an Administrator was appointed. He also announced that there would be a police investigation of the allegations that had been made against a number of Councillors and some staff members.

It was not the first time the Warringah Shire Council had been sacked. The council had been sacked in 1967 for alleged maladministration. The implication of the Government’s action was that all members of the Council were corrupt. For me as a well-known Christian this was devastating even though I had done nothing wrong.

I readily agreed to be interviewed by the police and attended the Dee Why police station for an interview that went for about three hours. The police had information about my friendship with Max Delmege and of the fact that I had purchased a property from him on which I had negotiated a reduced commission. They were also aware of the fact that Max and I used the same firm of solicitors in Sydney. The solicitor concerned, Bill Berge-Phillips had been a family friend of ours for a number of years. I was completely open about these relationships but I was concerned about the implications of the questions.

The investigation into the Council went on for months without any apparent conclusion. None of the former Councillors were ever charged with any wrongdoing and my suspicions that the Wran Government’s actions were politically motivated seemed to be justified. There was never any public explanation for the Government’s actions and certainly no apology. Demands by former members of Council for an enquiry by the new government into the sacking were resisted. Eventually the NSW Ombudsman conducted an enquiry. This became public in 1989. I was completely exonerated, as were all of the other Councillors. The Ombudsman’s report said:

“On all of the facts outlined I am satisfied that the past arrangements and personal relationships which existed between Mr. Bradford, Mr. Phillips and Mr. Delmege did not corrupt Mr. Bradford’s decision to support the Development Application. This is supported by Mr. Bradford’s fellow Councillors in that they did not perceive him to attempt to exert any undue influence upon them to approve the Application. Mr. Bradford is held in high esteem by his fellow Councillors and Council staff ”.

After the election of the Liberal Government in NSW in 1986 Nick Greiner became Premier. The Minister for Local Government was David Hay a former Mayor of Manly, the neighbouring local government area to Warringah. In answer to questions about the sacking asked by Member for Wakehurst, John Booth, Mr. Hay wrote in 1989: “ …there does not appear to be any available evidence that would have justified the dismissal of the council and the only conclusion that therefore can be drawn is that it was made by the Cabinet for political reasons”

An election for a new council was held in 1987. I had a letter published in the local paper, The Manly Daily in February 1987 explaining my decision not to recontest. I wrote that my decision was taken “in deference to my family and business commitments.” Of the 12 sacked councillors 9 stood for re-election and all except one were voted back in.

Chapter 8

Engaged and married.

After my election to the Warringah Shire Council I increasingly became interested in a career in politics. The NSW State seat of Pittwater at the northern end of the Shire became vacant when the sitting Liberal member Bruce Webster quit suddenly. As this was a “safe” Liberal seat there was a scramble for pre-selection. I decided to contest the pre-selection and thought I should have a good chance. I actually believed it was a matter of turning up on the day and making a good impression.

I did not realise that without a substantial support base in the local party branches or from State Council which also sent a number of delegates as part of the panel it was impossible to win no matter how good a performance was accomplished on the day. I don’t think I even got one vote! I was disappointed but it had been a valuable lesson.

In addition to my involvement in the church at Narrabeen I became chairman of the local committee of Youth for Christ. YFC had been active in Australia for a number of years holding regular youth rallies. However these had fallen from favour and YFC had formed Campus Life. The main activities of Campus Life were weekly meetings for young people where the emphasis was on having fun. The Christian message was presented in a low-key fashion by staff that had been trained to communicate effectively with young people. Campus Life also organised annual surf camps on the far north coast.

Campus Life had a number of full time staff that were supported by a large number of part time associate staff. Amongst these was a young lady by the name of Judy Lamrock who was to become my wife. Judy and I knew each other but she was much younger than me and it did not occur to me that we might have a closer friendship. A mutual friend however hinted otherwise and I started dating Judy.

A weekend camping on the South Coast of NSW with friends from church had been planned. However the day before we planned to leave I had a bad surfing accident whilst entering the water in big surf at Dee Why. Most surfers jumped off the rocks to save time and effort but it was always hazardous and required good judgement and a bit of luck. On this particular day I had neither and was caught by a big wave and swept back across the rocks. I received a number of nasty lacerations to my legs. Judy would have to do all of the driving and to care for me for the whole weekend. She provided just the right amount of sympathy. It came as quite a shock for me to realise that I was in love.

It was, as they say, a whirlwind romance. We decided to get married and saw no reason why it should not be straight away. We became officially engaged in April and set our wedding date for June 4th. We were married at the St. Faiths Anglican church in Narrabeen we both attended and had our reception at the South Narrabeen Surf Club.

My army friend Jock Holland came up from Melbourne to be best man and Gordon Barnes was groomsman. That night we headed for Thredbo where we were to spend our honeymoon. It was the week before the official beginning of the ski season but we were fortunate to arrive with a heavy fall of fresh snow and were able to ski with no crowds. It was a perfect start for our marriage doing something together that we both enjoyed so much.

Judy had decided she would promise to “love, honour and obey” me in her wedding vows. At the time many couples were leaving out the “obey” part. We had discussed the matter together and with our minister and had decided very deliberately that this was what God intended for the marriage relationship.

We understood that the Bible was quite explicit that the husband should be the head of the household. In practice it has never been an issue for us. Women have such powers of persuasion they generally get what they want and they are usually right anyway.

God also clearly created men and women to be different. I believe that the modern tendency to blur the differences does no service to either men or women and threatens the very foundations of our society. I also believe that the Bible is God’s word and that it is literally true. It seems to me that once one takes a lesser view of scripture the whole basis for our faith is at risk of distortion.

Wakehurst Liberal Preselection.

I sold the Collaroy Surf Shop in 1981 when I accepted a position as full time Teacher of Retailing in the School of Business at Sydney Technical College. This involved mostly night classes leaving the days more or less free for other activities. In my first year however I was required to attend Teachers College on full pay. In the second year there was a limited requirement for some teaching but attendance at Teachers College was still required two days per week. At the end of two years I graduated with a Diploma of Education.

I enjoyed teaching and often made friends amongst my students. I faced the prospect of a promising career in the Technical and Further Education department. It was well paid for the limited hours and twelve weeks paid leave each year.

At the same time I was teaching I undertook a number of assignments for the Retail Traders Association of NSW. Most of these were training related but one significant assignment they gave me was to carry out an investigation of the problems that retailers were experiencing in containing their occupancy costs in shopping centres. Retailers often faced crippling rents and were at the mercy of powerful landlords. The Bradford Report as it became known led to the formation of the Shopping Centre Tenants Association.

Another exciting business venture came my way when I met Alan Adams while skiing in at Sun Valley, Idaho. Alan and his friend Ted Bainbridge, a Melbourne Surf Shop owner had conducted a very successful sailboard and surf exhibition in Melbourne in 1982. Sailboarding or windsurfing as it was also known was a new sport to Australia although it was popular in Europe.

Alan and Ted wanted to conduct the exhibition in Sydney but needed a partner based there with connections in the industry. I jumped at the opportunity and successfully conducted the Sydney Sailboard and Surf Show in Sydney in 1983 and 1984. After that time, interest in sailboarding waned. It was expensive to buy a sailboard and it was difficult for most people to learn. Ted and Alan decided not to conduct the show in 1985 so I went alone but found it difficult to attract exhibitors and I lost money as a result.

I also remained active in the Liberal Party and in 1984 the seat of Wakehurst on the northern beaches became vacant with the decision of the sitting Liberal member not to contest the next election. This time I knew I had an excellent chance of gaining pre-selection. I was actively involved in many community activities including Collaroy Surf Club of which I was still President and I was Deputy President of the Shire Council as well as President of the Liberal Party’s Collaroy branch.

Only three candidates nominated for the preselection. One was a young member of the party by the name of Jim Longley. The other was a completely unknown outsider, John Booth. I had strong support from the local branches, which included Collaroy. I had renewed my friendship with Nick Greiner who was now Leader of the Opposition in the NSW parliament and felt at the time I had his support.

However, again as I done some years before I underestimated the politics of pre-selections. There was considerable resistance to my selection in the liberal wing of the party and pressure had been applied to some of my “friends”. On the afternoon of the pre-selection Bronwyn Bishop, then a Vice President of the Party phoned me to inquire how I was faring. She was surprised by my optimism about the outcome and explained that John Booth was the favoured candidate of most of the delegates from State Council.

On the night I lost by one vote. I was very disappointed. John Booth went on to win the seat at the next election though he was never a popular member and served only two terms. Nick Greiner won the election and became Premier. Jim Longley was successful in the seat of Pittwater at the following election for the Liberal Party after a close tussle with an independent candidate, the legendary surfer Nat Young. Jim went on to become a Minister in subsequent Greiner Governments before returning to the private sector.

I decided to leave the T.A.F.E. department at the end of 1984 and spent 1985 doing consulting work and organising the Sailboard and Surf Show and the Naturally Fit Expo that I had planned with the help of a friend who was a chiropractor. This was the beginning of a continuing interest in alternative health care. The failure of the 1985 Sailboard and Surf show however put us under financial pressure so I decided to take a job in the retail industry. An opportunity was presented to take on the role of National Operations Manager for a new chain of stores by the name of Granny Mays Paper Shops. These stores were designed to appeal to the youth market with a range of cards and trendy gifts.

I helped in the establishment of a number of the stores in shopping centres around Australia. Most of the stores were franchises and it was my first direct experience with this increasingly popular way of providing business opportunities for people with capital and a desire to own their own businesses. However, to sell franchises required prime locations in shopping centres often with over optimistic projections of sales volume. Many people acquiring franchises were undercapitalised from the start and soon encountered difficulties when faced with high rents and lower than anticipated sales, particularly in new shopping centres.

The Gold Coast.

Early in 1986 my parents who at the time owned a home unit in Narrabeen decided to move to the Gold Coast to share a house with my brother, Chris and his family. We did not know at the time but Dad was seriously ill but refusing to see a doctor. Soon after they arrived in Queensland he was diagnosed with throat cancer. The cancer was advanced and surgery was ruled out as an option. He underwent chemotherapy and radiation treatment but the prognosis was not good. We decided to visit them for Christmas 1986 by which time Dad was very sick.

I suggested to Judy the possibility that we might go to live on the Gold Coast for a while. I was surprised when she readily agreed because she came from a close family all of who lived in Sydney. We drove back to Sydney early in January and begun planning to move to Queensland. I resigned my job at Granny Mays and we took the train north on 27th February 1987 arriving the next day, our daughter Sally’s 1st birthday. Our other child, Timothy had been born in September 1984.

My brother, Chris had organised a job for me in the same Real Estate Agency for which he worked in Surfers Paradise. I specialised in selling businesses though good ones were difficult to locate. Fortunately my teaching qualifications and experience enabled me to get a part time position at the Gold Coast Institute of T.A.F.E. This paid well and put food on the table in between commission cheques.

We lived at first at Paradise Point on the north end of the Gold Coast before scraping together the deposit on a small cottage on Hope Island near Sanctuary Cove Resort that had just begun construction. We were very happy and felt God had blessed us as we enjoyed simple pleasures and watched our children, a blessing in themselves, grow. We joined the Southport Church of Christ where we were made welcome and soon had a new circle of friends.

My father passed away on 23rd April 1987, aged 75. It was good that we had been able to be close by during the last months of his life. In accordance with his wishes a funeral service was held back in our church at Narrabeen. A number of his old work colleagues attended. I can’t say for certain whether or not Dad had a personal faith in Jesus Christ or not. I thanked God for my father’s life. He had served his country and his family unselfishly and had set my brothers and me a very good example and given us an excellent start in life.

At his funeral service the last post was played over the flag draped coffin. I was proud of my Dad and there are times I still miss him. Occasionally when I am in Sydney I visit the Crematorium and stand quietly in front of the little plaque beside the rose bush where his ashes were placed.

We were enjoying life on the Gold Coast and decided to stay even though my mother moved back to Sydney to live. Judy’s parents were able to able to drive up and visit a few times a year and her father, Ian, helped with renovations that eventually turned our little cottage into a comfortable home. I spent many hours in the garden and turning the grass into a lawn. We spent happy hours at the beach and in the surf. The Gold Coast has some of the best surfing beaches in the world and they are free for everyone to use. We were not materially well off but we were happy and blessed.

Shopping Centre Tenants Association.

Further involvement in politics was a long way from my mind but this was destined to change. Retailers were still experiencing serious difficulties with escalating occupancy costs and it had been decide by the various state Retail Traders Associations to appoint a National Director to the Shopping Centre Tenants Association of Australia (SCTAA) which had been formed as a result of the report I had written back in 1984.I was asked to take on the job an accepted. It promised a good salary and most importantly was based in Brisbane. At the time retailers in almost every shopping centre in Australia soon heard of the new SCTAA and wanted my help.

Most of the problems were in the newer shopping centres where retailers were enticed by the prospect of early success. Inevitably it never came as most shopping centres were completed sometimes years before the surrounding residential areas from which customers were to be drawn. Often in such situations retailers very quickly found themselves in difficulties and were clamouring for reduced rentals and other concessions from landlords.

Landlords were generally unsympathetic, as the retailers had made a business decision to enter into a lease for their premises. Often legal wrangles followed as disputes arose about the various representations that had been made by the shopping centre owners or their agents to entice retailers to take space in the centres.

The SCTAA strategy was to organise meetings of retailers to enable them to share information about landlords’ “divide and conquer” tactics. We also determined to publicise the activities of some of the more rapacious landlords and to seek political intervention. Some States had already enacted laws regulating commercial tenancies. Understandably, landlords resisted attempts to have legislation introduced or strengthened and often they placed pressure of their own on politicians.

I clashed publicly with the management of Westfield on a number of occasions. Westfield was and still is a very successful Australian company. Westfield founder, Frank Lowey immigrated to Australia from Hungary and today the Lowey family is one of Australia’s wealthiest.

There were rarely vacancies in Westfield shopping centres. This meant that there were few bargaining chips available to the retailers and when Frank Lowey was confronted by retailers complaints he merely shrugged his shoulders and said he was quite happy for them to leave as he had a long waiting list of other hopefuls waiting to get in.

For most retailers “leaving” was not a very good option. By the time they had paid all of the expenses of fitting out their stores including paying the costs of expensive shop fronts they could not afford to leave. Neither could they afford to stay. Increasingly the activities of the centre owners got out of hand.

Sometimes the lease on offer was so one sided that retailers were expected to take possession of a concrete shell and pay for it to be completed, including the cost of air conditioning ducting and plumbing. They were billed for all of the owners “outgoings” for which there was limited accountability.

But still retailers signed leases. The chain stores were often at the mercy of the shopping centre owners who when opening new centres, placed pressure on their tenants in other established centres to take space. Retailers were most vulnerable as their leases were due for renewal. They were offered renewal on terms that would threaten the viability of their businesses. Each year rents would go up by an agreed percentage.

Landlords also reserved the right to change the tenant “mix” in their centres if they so desired. Retailers almost always paid a base rent plus a percentage of their sales and were forced to divulge their trading figures. As soon as they were trading well a landlord was inclined to introduce another competitor. At times landlords carried out alterations that either impeded or altered the traffic flow in the shopping centre without offering any compensation to retailers whose business was aversely affected. Governments were reluctant to intervene in the “market” despite our contention that landlords were abusing their market power.

I soon gained a reputation as a “white knight” and did have some success negotiating with landlords on behalf of a retailer or in some cases a group of retailers. Landlords strongly resisted any attempt by retailers to band together. The terms of each lease were confidential and where there were disputes they were only settled on a secret basis. Retailers with their life savings or shareholders funds at risk were easily intimidated.

The Chairman of the Retailers Association of Queensland was Sir Robert Mathers, a prominent footwear retailer. Sir Robert was also Treasurer of the Queensland Liberal Party. As I came to know him he became aware of my previous political involvement in NSW. His friendship proved to be providential.

Chapter 9

Liberal candidate for Surfers Paradise

The Liberal Party was in disarray in Queensland in the years leading up to the scheduled 1989 State election. The dominant political force was the National Party led by Premier Joe Bjelke-Peterson. Until August 1983 the Liberals had been in coalition in Government with the Nationals in Queensland as elsewhere in Australia. However, Queensland Liberal Leader Terry White had withdrawn the Liberals from the Coalition in a dispute over the formation of a Public Accounts Committee.

At the subsequent election in October 1983 the Nationals won 41 seats and Labor, 32. The Liberals were reduced to a rump with only 8 seats. Two former Liberal Ministers, Don Lane and Brian Austin resigned from the Liberal Party, joined the National Party and retained their old portfolios. The National Party governed alone and they were successful again at the 1986 election.

Joh Bjelke-Petersen announced early in 1987 that he would stand for the House of Representatives. Bill Gunn, as Deputy Premier and Police Minister, was effectively in charge of the Government when the ABC aired its now famous Four Corners program; “The Moonlight State” on Monday 11 May 1987. The program was a “bombshell”. Bill Gunn announced there would be an enquiry into the corruption allegations and Gerald (‘Tony’) Fitzgerald was appointed to head the inquiry. Fitzgerald was given wide powers.

I only met Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen on a few of occasions. Many Queenslanders regarded him as a great leader who had made things happen in Queensland. His funeral after he died late in 1995 was a big event in his hometown of Kingaroy and he is buried at the family property, Bethany.

Lady Florence Bjelke-Petersen was a Queensland Senator when I first went to Canberra. She was active in the Parliamentary Christian Fellowship and obviously a committed Christian. She is a fine woman and I could not speak too highly of her.

Mike Ahern replaced Joh Bjelke-Petersen as Leader of the National Party on 27 November 1987. Sir Joh resisted to the last and initially refused to resign as Premier. But it was futile and he resigned as Premier and from the Parliament at 5pm on Monday, 1 December 1987.

The 1989 election was to be held in the shadow of the Fitzgerald Report that had seriously damaged the credibility of the National Party. Mike ahern was unable to stem the tide.In a desperate rescue attempt Russell Cooper replaced him as Premier two months before the election. The Liberal Party decided to run candidates in most seats throughout Queensland. It seemed that there was an opportunity for the Liberal Party to establish itself as the conservative alternative to the Labor Party. In the meantime the Labor party had considerably improved its standing with its appointment of a young, athletic lawyer, Wayne Goss as its Leader. This ended years of factional brawling which had limited its effectiveness as an Opposition.

Sir Robert Mathers introduced me to the Liberal Party State Secretary and the Liberal Party Leaders. I was asked to consider standing as the Party’s Candidate for the seat of Surfers Paradise. I would have to seek preselection but I was assured that I would have strong support and would be unopposed. The sitting member for Surfers Paradise was Rob Borbidge who was a high profile Minister for Tourism.

At the time Australia was in the grip of a prolonged and bitter airline pilots strike that was causing serious damage to the Queensland tourism industry. Borbidge as Minister gained notoriety rushing around the world seeking to lease aircraft to replace those of the Ansett and Australian Airlines fleets which had been grounded for weeks.

The airline pilots’ strike had been one of the most damaging industrial disputes to hit Australia for many years. The Pilots’ union had precipitated the strike when they made demands for substantial pay increases. In the past the airlines had caved in to the pilots and the long-suffering Australian public paid the bill. Consequently domestic airfares in Australia were very high by comparison with the USA where the industry was highly competitive.

On this occasion the Airlines resisted. One of the airlines was the privately owned Ansett. The other was Government owned. The Australian Labor government headed by Bob Hawke backed the airlines strongly with the Prime Minister describing the pilots as glorified bus drivers.

The Government allowed the Royal Australian Airforce to carry fare-paying passengers and waived all of the rules that prevented international airlines from carrying passengers between Australian ports. There was nevertheless enormous disruption and some tourist destinations were isolated completely.

Eventually the pilots were beaten and only few were offered their jobs back. Those who did receive job offers were required to sign contracts that committed them to more flying hours than they had previously been required. The Government allowed the airlines to employ pilots from overseas and permitted them to immigrate to Australia. Many Australian pilots were forced or chose to take jobs with other airlines in Asia or the Middle East.

Few people were prepared to condone the pilots’ actions in the first instance but the Labor Governments preparedness to use the Airforce and to condone other strike breaking tactics was unprecedented. Airline pilots were however seen to be elite compared with most other unionists.

As the 1989 state election approached it was clear that National members were going to have a battle to retain their seats. In the seat of Surfers Paradise Rob Borbidge had gained more than 50% of the primary vote at the 1986 election. However the seat was at the mercy of the Labor Party, which had in the past determined the outcome with its preferences.

The Labor Party usually finished third after the Liberal and National Parties .My assessment was that I would have a good chance of winning with Labor preferences. I expected that Borbidge would finish first on primary votes but well short of 50%. All I had to do was to finish second, ahead of the Labor Party and this seemed likely.

As National Director of the Shopping Centre Tenants Association I had been active on the Gold Coast and this had given me a high profile in the electorate. I had frequently received publicity in the local press for my activities. So much so that at one point in the election campaign Rob Borbidge publicly accused me of using my job to gain publicity. He must have been worried!

I was unanimously endorsed as the Liberal candidate for Surfers Paradise on 13th July 1989. In my speech to the assembled delegates I reflected the pervading optimism that the Liberals could win enough seats in the forthcoming election to become the senior partner in a Coalition Government. It was hoped that rather than turn to Labor after 32 years the electorate would switch allegiance from the National Party to the Liberal Party.

An election seemed imminent but in any case was due late in 1989.I began door knocking the electorate at every spare moment. I opened a campaign office in the Broadbeach shopping centre. Unfortunately, the Liberal Party Leader, Angus Innes was not a strong performer and this did not help our cause.

There was a lot of speculation about election dates. At one stage the election was deferred in order for the recommendations of the Fitzgerald Inquiry to be implemented. Russell Cooper later reversed this decision when he replaced Mike Ahern as Premier and the election was finally called for December.

My friend Nick Greiner came to the Gold Coast to launch my campaign. Having Nick attend was a major boost. At the time he was at the height of his popularity as Premier of NSW. There, after years of Labor government, Nick was doing a great job. My friend former Warringah Shire President, Darren Jones came up from Sydney to give me some help.

Election day was fine and hot. I felt confident as I moved around the polling booths. The Surfers Paradise branch, one of the biggest in the state had turned out in force to staff the polling booths. As the results started to come in it looked good but by the end of the night it was too close to call. The big surprise was how well the Labor party had polled. It was clear that they had won a substantial victory and that Wayne Goss would be Premier. The state of the parties before the election had been National 47, Labor 30 Liberal 12. Afterwards it was National 26, Labor 54 Liberal 9. 24 National MPs were defeated.

In Surfers Paradise it would take a week of counting and checking and waiting for postal votes to come in before the result was clear. Throughout the count I remained in third position trailing Labor by only a few hundred votes. The Independent candidate, Uniting church minister and anti gambling campaigner, Rev. John Tully had chosen not to allocate preferences as I expected him to. This was crucial. Although he only received a few hundred votes if he had allocated preferences to me I would have won the seat. In the event Rob Borbidge was re-elected on Liberal preferences. He went on to become Leader of the Opposition and later, Premier.

We were disappointed but relaxed about the result and I went back to my job with the Shopping Centre Tenants Association. We wondered what God was saying to us. To go so close and yet to just miss out yet again was difficult to understand. Perhaps there would be another opportunity. Perhaps the decision we had made when we left Sydney to leave politics behind had been the correct decision.

Member for McPherson.

The state seat of Surfers Paradise was part of the federal seat of McPherson. The seat of McPherson was formed in 1949 the first member being the then Country Party Leader Arthur (“Artie”) Fadden who was Prime Minister for one month and five days in 1941. Eric Robinson won the seat for the Liberal Party in 1972. Robinson was a Minister in the Fraser Government until his sudden death on 7 January 1981.

The current member for McPherson was Peter White who had previously been a Member of the Queensland Parliament. Before that he had been a career Army Officer having graduated from the Royal Military College, Duntroon. He had been awarded a Military Cross during his service in Vietnam. Peter White was elected to the House of Representatives at the by election held on 21 February 1981 which followed Eric Robinson’s death..

In the Federal Parliament John Howard appointed White as his Shadow Minister for Defence. White’s performances in the Parliament were lack lustre but he was well regarded. When Andrew Peacock deposed John Howard as Leader of the Liberal Party and Opposition Leader in May 1989 White refused to serve in Peacock’s shadow cabinet because of his disgust for way the coup had occurred and the role of his Queensland colleague John Moore. Shortly after Peter White announced that he would not contest the next Federal election. The seat of McPherson was and still is a “safe” Liberal seat and Peter White’s announcement took people by surprise. There was immediate speculation about a possible replacement.

After the Queensland election came the Christmas and New Years breaks. By the end of January a Federal election due by midyear seemed imminent and there had been no McPherson preselection date set. Shortly before Christmas I attended a fund raising dinner at Southport RSL Club where Shadow Treasurer, Dr. John Hewson was guest. A number of party members indicated how impressed they were by my effort in the State election and suggested I might consider standing in the McPherson preselection.

It had not occurred to me that I might ever stand for the Federal Parliament. I wondered whether this was God’s plan for me and my family. It seemed incredible that it might be so. At this time we had only lived on the Gold Coast for two years since moving from Sydney.

I received more encouragement to put my name forward. Having discussed it with Judy and prayed about it I did so. At the close of nominations there were eleven contenders. Amongst them, Gold Coast City Councillor and fellow Vietnam Veteran Peter Webber, former Federal MP for Bendigo in Victoria John Bouchier and colourful local identity Kerry Smith.

As the night grew close it became clear that Bouchier was the front-runner. He had been Government Whip in Malcolm Fraser’s government and knew how to play the game. He also had State Member and long-term party stalwart on the Gold Coast Bob Quinn and Peter White’s formidable former Secretary Mary Hartstein working hard for him. Other contenders produced glossy packages of information to impress the preselectors. I settled for a simple letter and relied heavily on my long Liberal Party association in NSW and recent performance in the state election.

The preselection was held at the Surfers Paradise Golf Club on Friday 9th February 1990. It was a long night with eleven candidates making their presentations and answering questions. My speech to the preselection panel went well. I spoke of the incredible spectacle of the dismantling of Berlin wall unfolding before our eyes. I predicted the reunification of Germany. I boldly proclaimed the failure of communism and the triumph of capitalism. I referred to the democratisation of Romania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland and “even Russia itself.”

I answered questions, mostly from friends, without any problems. I knew that I had a solid block of votes assured. If this were part of God’s plan for me and my family then it would happen. I found out later that a number of Christians were praying hard for the outcome.

At the end of the proceedings all of the candidates were paraded into the room before the assembled preselectors. The panel chairman made a few remarks and complemented everyone for their efforts and said what a difficult task it had been. Then after a pause the result was announced.

Friends said I went pale as I stepped forward to make a brief speech of thanks and it was all over. I went downstairs to the public telephone to phone Judy who was waiting at home with the children. Judy’s response was characteristically low key. What have we let ourselves in for this time? The election was called a week later for 24 March.

It seemed like we had just finished one election campaign and we were now in another. There was no Campaign Committee and not one cent in the bank. Fortunately I was able to call on most of the team which had helped me in the State campaign and most agreed to saddle up again particularly as this time they reckoned they were on a winner.

There was considerable interest from the local press in who was likely to be the next member for McPherson. We agreed to a family photograph at the beach featuring me with my surfboard. The election campaign went smoothly. There were plenty of willing helpers and we were fortunate to have a campaign office provided at no cost.

The National party candidate maintained a very low profile. He had been preselected before Peter White had announced his intention not to run again. There was speculation that the Nationals might put someone with a higher profile up against me but that did not eventuate. The Labor Party candidate was not a serious contender.

Election Day was a perfect Gold Coast day. Everything went according to plan and as the results began to come in it was apparent that I had achieved a major victory with a substantial swing to the Liberal Party. I received an absolute majority and was elected without the need for National Party preferences, as had been the case in the past.

Soon after the election result was clear a Party meeting was called in Canberra. It was thrilling to walk through that House of Representatives entrance the first time as a Member. I sat behind the big desk in my new office and could hardly believe this was actually happening to me. The class of 1990 was a large one with many new members on both sides.

Members of the House of Representatives are sworn in before the Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia either taking an oath with Bible in hand or else making an affirmation of allegiance to the Crown. It was very obvious that most members of the Liberal-National Coalition chose to take the oath whilst the reverse was true of the Labor Party. The Labor Party members however had no choice about the requirement to pledge loyalty to Her Majesty the Queen even though all were republicans.

The Labor Party has a strong working class Catholic tradition. At the time there were a large number of what one would call “practicing” Catholics in the Labor Party but very few who chose to make their faith central to their political philosophy. There was a separation maintained between private belief and public practice. Catholics in the Labor Party with few exceptions seemed to have no difficulty with belonging to a party that was pro-abortion despite their church’s unequivocal position on the issue.

The Labor Party had been at one stage strongly influenced by the Catholic Church and this had led to the split in the 1950s.The events of this period have been well documented. The pivotal figure was the late Bob Santamaria who founded the National Civic Council and was prominent in the Democratic Labor Party.

I had the privilege of meeting with Bob on a number of occasions in his Melbourne office prior to his death in 1998. His funeral in Melbourne which I was unfortunately not able to be present at was one of the largest ever seen in Melbourne. He was a figure who commanded enormous respect even from his political foes, of which there were many in the Labor Party.

I first met Bob Santamaria in 1994. He was very interested in the Lyons Forum. The Australian Family Association was closely associated with him and had its headquarters in his Melbourne office. We talked about the possibility of forming a pro family political party but nothing ever eventuated. We didn’t agree on his economic prescriptions for Australia. He had some rather far-fetched ideas about solving Australia’s debt and unemployment problems. He was certainly correct to regard high unemployment and the tension that resulted, as one of the causes of family breakdown. But I never accepted his interventionist solutions as the best ones to solve the problem.

There were now a significant number of Catholics in the Liberal and National Parties but the majority were still Protestant though there was not a large number of evangelicals. I was surprised, having joined the Parliamentary Christian Fellowship, to find very few Labor Party members either joined or attended.

I was often asked about the composition of the Fellowship by well meaning members of the public who wanted to pray for members by name. The stock answer was that the information was not to be made available, as some members may not wish to be publicly identified with the PCF. Often, when pressed, I would have to acknowledge the lack of interest in the PCF by Labor Members but that usually came as little surprise to anybody.

One Labor member who was active in the PCF when I arrived in the Parliament was Tasmanian Senator Michael Tait who had been its president at one stage. Tait had also been a Minister in the Hawke government. A Catholic, Tait resigned from the Parliament shortly after the 1993 election. He was appointed as Australian Ambassador to the Vatican. He later became a priest.

My Gold Coast Liberal colleague Cathy Martin Sullivan, herself a Catholic, once remarked to me how much she disliked the way Michael Tait “wore his religion on his shirtsleeve”. The remark was probably intended as a message for me. It was not the first time I would be chided for being enthusiastic about my faith.

Another prominent Catholic who was not ashamed of his faith and was active in the PCF was Brian Harradine. What a privilege it was for me to get to know this humble man. Brian had a spiritual depth to him I admired greatly. He had been scarred by the battles of political life. He started out as a member of the Labor Party but was first elected to the Senate as an Independent in 1975 though he maintained his working class sympathies.

Brian and his dear second wife Marion (his first wife had died) were part of a Parliamentary delegation I led to Europe and North Africa in 1996. Judy was also with us and we enjoyed the fellowship of these folk. Brian Harradine also headed up the Parliamentary Pro-Life Group. He was passionate about these causes and frequently took successive governments to task for their support of the so-called population policies of the United Nations. Brian did not recontest the 2004 election.

Chapter 10

Parliamentary Christian Fellowship

Early in my parliamentary career a friend gave me a book to read about William Wilberforce. Wilberforce and his colleagues formed the so-called Clapham sect of evangelical Christians who were devoted to social reform and the abolition of slavery in England in the early 18th Century. They had a significant impact on their country. I wondered whether I could do the same.

Many people asked me what it was like to be a Christian in the Parliament? Some were even intrigued that there were Christians in the Parliament at all. Others were dubious about the motivation of those were open about their faith.

Personally, I could only envisage a better society where Christian influence prevailed. I encouraged Christians to seek public office. But in no sense should they do so in order to impose their values on the majority. Rather they should seek to argue for them and to persuade others.

In fact, Christians span the spectrum of political ideology. Whilst the Coalition parties dominated the Parliamentary Christian Fellowship there were a few Labor and Democrat members who participated. The Presidency of the PCF was, by convention, shared annually between the Coalition and the other Parties. When I arrived in Canberra the President of the PCF was Liberal, Harry Edwards, Member for Berowra and former Professor of Economics at Sydney University. I had been one of his students,

Harry was replaced as President of the PCF by Labor left winger John Langmore. Alistair Webster became Secretary. Webster succeeded Langmore as President and after he was defeated at the 1993 election Liberal Chris Miles took over as President. Langmore then refused to attend PCF meetings because of what he saw as the conservative agenda and relations became so strained that the issue became public and it was reported that Langmore was planning to form an alternative Christian fellowship.

After Chris Miles the PCF Presidency was handed to Queensland Democrat Senator John Woodley. John was a Uniting Church Minister. At the National Prayer breakfast when former tennis star and now Pastor’ Margaret Court spoke John Woodley had walked out in protest when Margaret criticized the lesbian lifestyle of Martina Natratalova.

The difficulties we experienced in holding the Fellowship together were in some respects symptomatic of the problems that divide Christians more broadly. It surprised and disappointed me that some of my own party colleagues who professed to be Christians chose for a range of reasons not to be part of the Fellowship. They apparently took the view that their faith was a private matter.

One prominent Labor member at the time was Brian Howe who, like John Woodley, had been a Uniting Church Minister in Melbourne. Brian Howe never once in my time in the Parliament attended a Christian fellowship meeting.

The Parliamentary Christian Fellowship also organised the annual church service at the beginning of the parliamentary year. This was also a balancing act with the choice of venue and preacher. The service was however usually well attended and always encouraging and uplifting. The press attended and took a great interest in reporting who was there and who wasn’t.

The Governor General was always invited to attend and participate. Bill Hayden usually came, as did Sir William Dean. The Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition were invited to take part in the service. Bob Hawke never came. Paul Keating, despite his Catholic background, never did either. John Hewson attended as Leader of the Opposition as did Howard who also later attended as Prime Minister. Kim Beasley came as Leader of the Opposition.

I wrote to Kim after he attended the first service after the 1996 election and told him how much I appreciated him being there. I must say I always had a high regard for Kim Beasley. I don’t believe for a moment half of what Mark Latham wrote about him.

One cynical press report, which analysed the Christian “influence” in the Coalition, identified me along with Chris Miles and John Anderson, who was later to become Deputy Prime Minister, as the leaders of the “God Squad” in the Federal Parliament. The implication of this was that there was something sinister about the motivation of the active Christians in the Parliament.

I am sure a common Christian political platform is out of the question. There are so many issues on which Christians are divided and these divisions run deep. Economic issues divide Christians as much as social issues. Most Christians of the political “right” come from the evangelical end of the theological spectrum. The Christian “right” is critical of the modern welfare state not because they are unconcerned about the poor, but because they believe welfare is not the solution to the problem of poverty.

Many Christians are critical of economic rationalism. They distrust multi national corporations, object to foreign ownership and question the benefits of free trade. They also question the benefits of immigration.

Social issues divide Christians even more deeply than economics. Those of the “left” are often outspoken on human rights. This as much as any other reason seems to be the rationale for their support of homosexual “rights”. These same people support feminism and affirmative action, often more liberal drug laws and are more vocal on environmental issues. On abortion there is more harmony amongst Christians though by no means unanimity. Christians are divided more evenly on the issues of capital and corporal punishment.

My own views on many of these issues have evolved and to some extent continue to evolve. However I am pleased that when I went to the Parliament I was not afraid to express my views even if they were not popular. I would be the first to admit I wasn’t always right and that I may at time have offended people with my forthrightness.

The battles, which have raged within the Uniting Church in Australia in recent years, have been indicative of the heat, which can be generated by some issues. Sexuality is such an issue. It has virtually split the Uniting Church. There are those, some in Leadership, who have advocated the acceptance of homosexuality as an alternative lifestyle. In fact there are those within the Uniting Church who have advocated the promotion of practicing homosexuals into positions of leadership.

CS Lewis writes In “Mere Christianity” “Most of us are not really approaching the subject in order to find out what Christianity says: we are approaching it in the hope of finding support from Christianity for the views of our own party. He says further that just because a Christian society seems to be a forlorn hope we should not “ put off doing anything about society until some imaginary date in the future”.

I invited Rev Tim Costello to speak at a monthly Parliamentary Christian fellowship breakfast on one occasion. Peter was a bit apprehensive when I told him. Nevertheless he came along as he frequently did. Tim spoke eloquently as usual. Many people regard Tim as a theological liberal who, unlike Peter, has deserted his evangelical roots. Nevertheless, I have an equally high regard for both brothers.

Lyons Forum.

I determined when I arrived in the Parliament to champion the cause of families. I believed fervently that if governments focused on the problems confronting families and fixed them they would also solve many other problems. There was nothing inherently radical or new about this. Governments of all persuasions claimed to support families. The Coalition had long claimed to support traditional families.

This image had been well encapsulated in one of its earlier policy documents featuring a family comprising mum, dad and the kids in front of their neat cottage behind its white picket fence. This white picket fence was used against John Howard, who was Leader at the time the policy document had been produced. On many occasions Howard’s political foes used this image to portray him as old fashioned and out of touch. How wrong they have been.

It seemed to me that despite the lip service being paid to families not enough was being done to support traditional families. Over time intact families with children had become demonstrably worse off financially. Benefits bestowed upon them such child endowment and other tax concessions had been steadily eroded. Now there were few incentives in place to encourage couples to get married and have children. I decided that it would be helpful to form a group within the Coalition to advocate family friendly policy.

John Hewson’s “Fightback” manifesto and its centrepiece, the plan for a broad based consumption tax, dominated the years 1990 to 1993. “Fightback” was a very brave attempt to introduce a radical new tax policy from Opposition. It was conceived, framed and driven by the former Professor of Economics, Hewson. I believed in it. I believed that families would be better off because of it.

Nevertheless a group of us decided after discussing the issue for a number of months that we should form a pro family “interest group”. Those involved in the initial discussions were myself, Dr. John Herron, John Anderson, Chris Miles and National Party member Noel Hicks. After Neil Brown retired from the Parliament in 1990 there was a by-election at which Kevin Andrews became the new Liberal member for Menzies. Kevin, a prominent Catholic soon joined our group.

It was Kevin who suggested we name the group the Lyons Forum after Dame Enid Lyons, the first female member of the House of Representatives when she was elected in 1943 and a Liberal as well. Dame Enid was married to former Prime Minister Joe Lyons and they lived in the “Lodge”, the Prime Minister’s official Canberra residence, from 1932 to 1939 when Joe died suddenly.

Joe and Enid had twelve children so it was more than fitting that our pro family group be named after Dame Enid. But equally importantly Dame Enid in her maiden speech in the House had said, quoting King George V, “the foundation of a nation’s greatness is in the homes of its people”.

It was decided that all members of the Coalition would be invited to join and by doing so indicate their agreement that “the family is the God ordained fundamental unit of our society” and that by helping family life, by building strong functional families, we will strengthen the nation from the foundations up. The fact that Chris Miles became President of the Lyons Forum and me, Secretary at the same time we held those same posts in the Parliamentary Christian Fellowship caused some confusion and we were concerned that colleagues who may not claim to be Christians should not be deterred from joining the Forum if they believed in what it stood for.

However, The Lyons Forum was a great success from the start. Over forty Coalition members signed up including some of the most prominent, amongst them John Howard. John told us he was enthusiastic about what the Forum stood for and would support it strongly. A dinner was organised to officially launch the Forum and a member of the Lyons family, Brendan, one of Joe and Enid’s children came from Tasmania to Canberra to officiate.

We held regular meetings of Forum members to discuss a wide range of subjects. The meetings were always very well attended. In fact they were generally better attended than most of the numerous committees that MP’s were required to attend. The Forum attracted a lot of interest from the press, which was intrigued by it. The Forum soon came to be regarded as a de-facto Conservative faction in the Coalition.

The issue of factions did come up from time to time. The Labor Party’s faction system seemed to work quite well and was an efficient way of resolving differences. Prominent Liberals such as Senator Nick Minchin were advocates of factionalising the Liberal Party. Nick’s enthusiasm probably came from his experience in South Australia where he was Liberal Party State director before being elected to the Parliament. The South Australian branch of the Liberal Party was the most divided of any of the States. Liberals from South Australia are as different from each other as chalk and cheese.

1994 was the International Year of the Family. The founding of the Lyons forum was thus very timely and we determined to use the IYF to further our cause. We decided we would conduct a national enquiry the aim of which was to “examine the value of families and their role in the wealth of the nation.”

The enquiry was to be run along the same lines as enquiries by Parliamentary committees although we did not have the resources of those committees. Hearings were held in most capital cities and other centres. There was a lot of interest in our enquiry and almost sixty written submissions were received. At the end of the year we published a book entitled “Empowering Australian Families” summarising our findings.

The Labor Government had established a committee to promote IYF but it achieved very little. Its main preoccupation was with politically correctness. Homosexual groups and feminists were active and most of the year was spent debating the definition of “family”.

The Lyons Forum recognised the fact that there are a large number of single parent families and that their welfare was also a matter of concern. There were a lot of misconceptions about single mothers. Many had lost their husbands in tragic circumstances or against their wishes and these women struggled to balance paid work and care for their children.

Childcare was a real hot political potato and it still is. The childcare industry had grown out of control based largely on the largesse of successive Labor governments dominated as they were by feminists. The ready availability of childcare was Holy Grail for the Labor Party because it supposedly allowed women to escape the drudgery of housekeeping and caring for their children. Study after study was produced to demonstrate that institutional care for young children not only did not harm them but was actually good for them.

The Coalition promised to remove at least some of the funding from the institutions and to give it to the parents. It was an extreme irony that someone could be paid to look after someone else’s child but not for looking after their own child, I believed that parent care is best for young children. Usually the mother provided this care.

Judy and I were privileged to meet President George H Bush and his wife Barbara when they visited Australia in 1993. We also attended the official luncheon for Bill and Hillary Clinton when they visited Parliament House. President Clinton addressed a joint sitting of the Parliament on the floor of the House of Representatives.

It was fascinating to watch the feminist movement in the USA grappling with its response to Bill Clinton’s relationship with Monica Lewinsky. I believe John Neuhaus, editor of the USA publication “First Things” had it right when he wrote: “Most striking was the readiness of political feminists to stand by their man, even if it meant their movement had to commit hara-kiri. From barefoot in the kitchen to on your knees at the office, you’ve come a long way baby.”…”

Shortly after the 1996 election new members found their offices besieged by both men and women complaining about the Family Law Court and the Child Support Agency. This issue was invariably the one, which seemed to concern their constituents most. There were demands that the Government do something.

Men complained that women almost always were given custody of the children after a divorce. The non custodial parent, usually the man, was left to fight for the right to see his children and there were a hundred ways an aggrieved and vindictive woman could persecute her former husband aided and abetted by the Court and the Child Support Agency.

The other serious issue I raised in this context was the performance of boys at school. There was a fundamental cultural change occurring, which in my view did not auger well. There were many unemployed men who were reacting very badly to the fact they were no longer able to provide for their families or to assume their God ordained role of leadership in their families.

Meanwhile their sons were taking the cue and were losing their natural drive to be leaders. I frequently visited schools where almost all of the student leaders were girls. In addition, boys were not performing well academically.

There have been significant changes in recent years to the way families organise themselves and distribute the household chores. A correct understanding of the basis for a contented family life underlines the importance of pre-marriage counselling. We have found it simply makes sense in our family for Judy and me to operate as a partnership. Whilst it’s been sensible for me to go out and earn the income, Judy’s role has been to enable me to do that with her commitment to management of the household.

The Lyons Forum report on its International Year of the Family study recommended income splitting. This is where income is effectively divided between all family members taking account of the number of children in the family and the family’s total tax bill is reduced accordingly. The practical alternative to a form of income splitting is to rely on the welfare system to achieve the same goal. Proponents favour this approach because they say it enables the benefits to be better targeted to those in need.

That may be so but we did not believe that family assistance should be regarded as welfare. Society should value the willingness of couples to have children and should encourage them to do so through the tax system.

Chuck Swindoll has written some fine books and I have found his daily devotional, “The Finishing Touch” a real blessing. He writes of men as an “endangered species”.
“I’m talking about men who are discerning, decisive, strong-hearted, who know where they are going and are confident enough in themselves (and their God) to get there. Such qualities not only inspire the respect of women, they also engender healthy admiration among younger men and boys who hunger for heroes”.

The homosexual movement is militant and well organised. Over the years homosexuals have managed to find their way into positions of responsibility and influence. In the Parliament I took a strong stand against the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. In 1993 I sponsored a petition, which was signed by many MPs from both sides calling upon the ABC not to televise the spectacle early on Sunday evening as it planned to do. The response was that its charter gave it a responsibility to reflect the “diversity” of the Australian community. I described its decision as having more to do with perversity than diversity.

I also publicly advocated a boycott of the products of the many companies that chose, whether through intimidation or otherwise, to sponsor the Mardi Gras.. Unfortunately many prominent people chose to publicly endorse the event in its glossy, disgusting program. These included John Hewson on at least one occasion. To his great credit John Howard refused his endorsement both when Leader of the Opposition and as Prime Minister.

Chapter 11

Promoted by Downer

Alexander Downer became Leader of the Opposition in mid 1994 and promoted me to the position of Deputy Opposition Whip. But unfortunately it wasn’t to last long.

My appointment coincided with the Labor Government’s introduction of a second House of Representatives chamber to be called the Main Committee. This was modelled on the House of Commons and was intended to facilitate simultaneous debates on less contentious bills. I was given the task of “whipping” in the Main Committee. I was enjoying myself and I think doing a good job.

At least Chief Opposition Whip, Bob Halverson, was happy. Bob and I were good friends. He was Howard’s “numbers” man in his tilt at the leadership after Hewsons 1993 election loss. Bob and I also had our military service in common. He was a career Royal Australian Airforce officer who had retired with the senior rank of Group Captain and had received an OBE for his service.

Hewson had appointed my 1990 classmate Rod Atkinson as his Chief Whip after the 1993 election. Rod was also a Vietnam Veteran and had graduated from the Officer Cadet School Portsea after his service as a soldier in Vietnam. Halverson organised the numbers for Downer and became Chief Whip in which role he continued under Howard.

After the 1996 election Halverson was disappointed not to receive a ministry but he was elected as Speaker of the House of Representatives. He had promised to be an “independent” Speaker. When he delivered on his promise on one too many occasions he was shunned by Howard and Leader of the House, Peter Reith.

Bob Halverson eventually resigned and said very little which seemed strange since I knew he was very angry about the treatment he had received at the hands of the PM and some of his senior Ministers. He told me no “deals” had been done and I believed him. On the eve of the 1998 election I was surprised when Howard announced Halverson’s appointment as Australian Ambassador to Ireland.

A feature of Downer’s short tenure as Leader of the Opposition was his handling of the Human Rights (Sexual Conduct) Bill. This piece of legislation had been introduced by the Labor Government using its external affairs powers under the Constitution to seek to override a Tasmanian law which prohibited sodomy. This law had been on the statute books for many years but there had been no prosecutions in recent times.

Homosexual activists had successfully taken the matter to the United Nations and there was an adverse finding that the Tasmanian laws discriminated against homosexuals and was contrary to United Nations human rights principles. The Government introduced legislation to force the Tasmanian Government to repeal the law.

This presented some of us with a challenge. We argued that the Opposition should oppose the legislation when it came before the Parliament but our views did not prevail in the debate in the Party Room. The Coalition professed to a strong belief in the rights of the States and it could have been argued with some credibility that the Federal Government should not use its powers to intervene.

However the view prevailed that the law was anachronistic and out of line with the other states none of which any longer had such laws. Inevitably the ensuing debate focused on the so-called “rights” of homosexuals. For a number of us it was a moral issue on which there should have been a “free” or “conscience” vote in the House for Coalition members. There were numerous precedents for this. However the view was that Downer, already under pressure because of other issues, should show himself to be a strong leader by insisting on solidarity.

When the debate took place in the House of Representatives on 19th October 1994 a significant number of Liberal and National members spoke against the Bill. There was some speculation that when it came to a vote the Bill would be carried “on the voices” which meant the House would not divide.

However some of our National Party colleagues representing conservative rural electorates wanted to make an issue of their opposition to the overturning of the laws. When it came to the vote my good Queensland friends Bob Katter MP for Kennedy and Paul Neville MP for Hinkler called for a Division.

I chose to abstain and leave the chamber but I as left I had no option but to resign my post of Deputy Whip since I was unable to support the Leader. I hastily scribbled out the words “I resign” on a piece of scrap paper and gave it to Halverson as I left. Chris Miles was one of twenty or so others who did the same and he was also forced to resign his front bench position.

Downer survived only a few more weeks as Leader before he stood aside for Howard. His prize for this gesture was the Foreign Ministry when the Coalition won the election early the following year.

Genocide in East Timor

There are many opportunities in the Parliament to join various interest groups. One group I joined soon after I arrived was the Friends of East Timor group. Some from the Left faction of the Labor Party dominated this group. I believed that it was wrong for successive Australian government’s to condone Indonesia’s invasion of East Timor.

The East Timorese were a predominantly Christian ethnic group and had little in common with the giant Muslim nation of Indonesia. Australian troops were well served by the East Timorese during the war against Japan and I believed that we owed it to them to support their desire for self determination.

Since the Indonesian occupation there had been enormous abuses of human rights and it was claimed that two hundred thousand East Timorese had been murdered.. International pressure forced then Indonesian President Habibe to allow a referendum to proceed.

In the run-up to the referendum the pro- independence and pro Indonesian factions continued to be openly hostile to each other. After the referendum, which overwhelmingly favoured independence, there was an outbreak of violence that lead to the commitment of Australian troops as part of an International peace keeping force led by Major General (later General) Peter Cosgrove.

Croatia

I also took an active interest in the situation in Yugoslavia after I entered Parliament. I had a large number of Croatian constituents. In 1990 after the election of Franjo Tudjman as President, Croatia declared its independence from Yugoslavia. Croatia’s Serbs rebelled and a six-month war followed. It was a very unequal contest and World attention was soon focused on the area. Serb rebels backed by the Yugoslav army, one the largest in the world, seized one third of Croatia. There was widespread sympathy for Croatia’s aspirations. 10,000 people were killed before eventually, against all the odds, Croatia won through.

I joined a Friends of Croatia group when it was formed in the Parliament. It seemed to me that the Croatian people should determine their own future. Soon after the secession of Croatia war also broke out in Bosnia and Herzegovina another of the provinces of Yugoslavia. Here the population was more or less evenly divided between Croatians and Serbians. There was also a large minority of Muslims. All had lived peacefully together for many years. Bosnian Serbs lead by Radovan Karadich began the process of what is now called “ethnic cleansing” in an attempt to annex Bosnia to Serbia. A ferocious war ensued. The city of Sarajevo was under siege for many months and was virtually destroyed.

My class of 1990 classmate and member for Moore in Western Australia, Paul Filing, was in the vanguard of Croatian supporters in the Parliament. Many of my other colleagues refused to take sides in what they saw as an age-old ethnic problem. Paul suggested I accompany him on a visit to the Balkans to see first hand what was occurring.

We left Perth for London on 24th August 1992 to observe the peace conference that had been convened to seek a solution to the conflict. It gave us a chance to see the major players first hand as we managed to secure a press accreditation. The conference was a complete failure. The Commander of the United Nations Protection Force in Bosnia actually bemoaned such peace talks because the situation in Bosnia deteriorated whenever they occurred.

Under fire in Sarajevo.

We flew to Vienna where we met with Australian Embassy officials who tried to dissuade us from travelling further but seeing how determined we were helped us on to the train to Zagreb. The airport there had remained closed. Paul Filing had made excellent contacts in Zagreb on a previous visit so we were well received and were given extensive high-level briefings. We then determined to go to Sarajevo.

We had envisaged the possibility of going to Sarajevo before we left Australia. A friend had supplied us with the flack jackets that were necessary for Sarajevo, which was under constant bombardment. We walked into United Nations Headquarters in Zagreb and convinced them that it was our intention to visit Sarajevo to make contact with a number of Australian citizens who were stranded there. It worked. We were given some documentation and told to be at the airport at 0500 hours next day.

We duly reported and found we were to fly to Sarajevo courtesy of a German Airforce Hercules aircraft. I had never in my wildest dreams ever thought I’d be hitching a ride with the Luftwaffe. The plane took off initially heading southwest to the Adriatic Sea and then tuning left and tracking southeast until we reached the sea side town of Split. It all looked so serene from the air. This route had enabled us to avoid flying over Bosnia and Herzegovina. As we approached Split we were instructed to don our vests. We turned east and headed for Sarajevo. A number of U.N. aircraft had been shot down in this vicinity.

It suddenly occurred to me that I was risking my life here. I hadn’t told Judy where we were going only that we were heading into the countryside and would be out of contact for a few days. We were briefed on the procedure to be followed upon landing at Sarajevo. The airport was open but was often closed during heavy fighting. The aircraft would land and taxi rapidly towards a heavily bunkered building. The tailgate would be lowered. As soon as the aircraft came to a halt we would be ordered to run into the building about one hundred metres away.

There was shelling occurring close to the airport. We had made it that far but our next challenge was to get into the city. The road between the airport and the city was closed to other than armoured vehicles. We approached the officer in charge with the story which had worked before but it was much more difficult here. He was insistent that we would remain at the airport until he could put us on an aircraft going back to Zagreb. They didn’t want a couple of Australian MPs loose in the war zone. However we were insistent He checked with his superiors who told him to send us into town aboard the next Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC).

The UN Headquarters in Sarajevo was in the building that had been the Central Post Office. What a mess the city itself was. This was once a beautiful city. The Winter Olympic games had been held there in some years earlier. Now after months of Serbian bombardment it was reduced to rubble.

By the time we arrived in the city it was late afternoon. We were given stretcher beds and a corner of a room to sleep in. There was a large mess (dining area) set up on one floor of the building to feed the international troop contingent. It wasn’t five star but we were glad to eat. With the help of the UN official in charge we made contact with a number of Australian citizens in the city who agreed to come and see us the next day.

We were told to remain in the building and to stay away from the windows, which by this time didn’t have any glass in them anyway. Soon after dark we were treated to a fire works display as tracer bullets lit up the sky. Artillery and mortar fire began and some of the shells made a terrifying noise and must have only been landing 500 metres away. We were shown the way to the bomb shelter in the basement in the event that the building came under direct fire. It was impossible to sleep until the early hours of the morning when the firing stopped.

Next morning some of our Australian friends arrived and told us horrific stories about life in Sarajevo. They pleaded with us to get them out but there was no way. All roads were closed and only military movements were allowed through the airport because of the UN mandate. Our new friends offered to take us out and show us around. In view of the instructions we had been given we balked but on reflection thought it was an offer too good to refuse. We had already arranged to leave Sarajevo that afternoon having decided we couldn’t stand another night there. This would depend on the operational situation at the time.

We climbed into a battered old car complete with bullet holes, which wasn’t very encouraging. There was a major battle going on not far away as we could hear the shooting very clearly. The streets were almost deserted. We headed for one of the major hospitals. The freelance press photographer from Australia who had accompanied us wanted some action photographs. The hospital was chaotic as casualties were coming in from the fighting. They were mainly women and children.

Later we visited some of the wards and were photographed with children who had lost limbs. It was impossible to understand how the Serbs could justify this indiscriminate slaughter. It seemed so cowardly that they would sit behind their guns in the hills raining down terror. It would still be some time before the UN would commit enough ground troops to enforce any cease-fire. While the war was going on relief agencies had an impossible task. The whole situation seemed hopeless.

We decided to visit the Holiday Inn hotel where the international press were camped. One side of the hotel had been shelled so often it was demolished. We were warned about the danger from snipers as we moved around. While we were inside the building our driver decided it wasn’t safe to wait so he left.

We were desperate to get back to the Post Office to make sure we didn’t miss our ride to the airport. I was concerned that we would end up having another night there. We contacted the UN Headquarters and asked them to come and get us. They reluctantly agreed to send an armoured vehicle to pick us up.

We were told the Royal Airforce would take us back to Zagreb and we should wait at the airport. After a long delay the RAF Hercules finally landed and taxied to a stop. A cheerful British Wing Commander appeared on the scene and rather nonchalantly welcomed us on board. As we took off we realised it wasn’t time to relax as some shells hit the airport. Back safely in Zagreb we did relax into the early hours with some good food and wine. I phoned Judy to tell her we were safe.

Next day the Croatian Government kindly saved us the eight-hour train ride back to Vienna by providing us with a car and driver. We enjoyed the night in a fine Viennese hotel leaving next morning for Thessaloniki in Northern Greece from where we were to take another train to Skopje in Macedonia. The train ride was uncomfortable as relations between Greece and Macedonia were tense and we were subject to some harassment on the border. My friend Paul had been a Western Australian policeman so I always felt reasonably safe around him.

We eventually befriended the Greek Chief of Police at the border railway station who seemed impressed by our Official Passports and the letter of introduction we had to the Greek Foreign Ministry. I think he realised he would be at the border post for the rest of his life if he didn’t do the right thing. We saw him again on the way back and promised we would put in a good word for him when we got to Athens.

In Skopje, Macedonia, we had arranged a number of contacts with the help of our friends in Zagreb and we were met at the station and accommodated at the Grand Hotel. Most places have a Grand Hotel and most of them are anything but grand and this was no exception. Marshall Tito had cared little for this part of Yugoslavia.

We had some interesting meetings with leaders of the parties competing for power in an independent Macedonia. The biggest battle was with neighbouring Greece over the right to use the name Macedonia. Eventually the new nation became known as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

We had hoped to visit was Kosovo but were running out of time. Also petrol was so scarce we couldn’t be sure of getting back even if we managed to drive there. Even back in 1992 there was a lot of pressure on the majority ethnic Albanians in Kosovo to accept the authority of Belgrade. It was a time bomb waiting to explode which it eventually did and once again the world saw Serbian ethnic cleansing and massacre of civilians exactly as had happened in Bosnia. Only this time the West wasn’t so patient with Milosovich.

We took the train back to Thessaloniki and enjoyed some wonderful Greek food for dinner. It was hard to believe we were actually in one of the ancient towns visited by the great apostle Paul. Early next morning we flew to Athens. There was time for brief visits to the Parthenon and the Acropolis and then lunch with the Australian Ambassador. A meeting followed with the Greek Deputy Minister for Foreign affairs to pass on our impressions of what was happening in Macedonia. Later that evening we boarded the flight to Sydney via Bangkok. It’s amazing how much you can pack into eight days. It had been a memorable experience.

Now, having seen the situation first hand we moved motions in the Parliament calling for stronger action to prevent ethnic cleansing. We were angry at what Serbia was doing and getting away with. Yet the World was nervous about getting too involved in the Balkans which had already been the focal point of two world wars. A Presidential election was looming in the USA and President Bush was reluctant to take any risks. Democratic contender Bill Clinton was at least sounding like he was willing to get tough with Serbia.

The Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade

The Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade is regarded as the most important committee in the Parliament. It is difficult to secure a place on this committee and it was not until after the 1996 election that I was successful in being elected to it. There are four sub-committees of this committee and I was pleased to gain a place on the Defence Sub-committee.

I had taken a fairly active interest in Foreign affairs and defence in the Parliament. I was also active in Veterans affairs. My military experience was quite out of date but the fact that I had actually worn a uniform gave me a natural affinity with the many senior officers we came in contact with on the Defence Committee. It was a strange experience to be rubbing shoulders with Generals, Admirals and Air Marshals. During my service as a junior officer I trembled in my boots on the rare occasions I was confronted by such “brass”.

One issue the Defence Sub-committee looked into was the Government’s plans to sell off defence property no longer considered to be any strategic use. Historically the Armed Services occupied prime real estate and generally there were no military reasons for it continuing to do so. Some of the properties had historic or heritage value. The Defence Department owned large tracts of property around Sydney harbour.

Friends who were part of an action group to have these properties preserved as open space asked for my help. I later confronted my colleague and friend Defence Minister Ian McLauchlin in the Parliament on the subject and he wasn’t pleased. Ian was one of three members of the Class of 1990 who went straight to the front bench. The other two were Peter Costello and David Kemp who never sat on the Backbench.

Just prior to the 1998 election John Howard did intervene in the land dispute and the residents had a comprehensive victory over the Defence Department. A few months earlier Ian McLauchlin announced he would retire from the Parliament at the election for “personal reasons”. His family was one of the wealthiest in South Australia so he never took the job for the money. I suspect he just got fed up with all the criticism with which he had to contend. Or maybe he was disappointed that he had not become Prime Minister as some had expected he might.

Ironically good people come and go from the Parliament while mediocre ones stay and become seat warmers. There are many examples of this on all sides of politics. For this reason I am in favour of term limitation. Being an MP doesn’t require any experience and good people quickly pick up the threads and make a contribution. In fact, I think most members do their best work in their earlier years when they are enthusiastic and not too comfortable.

Chapter 12

Overseas travel.

All Federal MP’s enjoy travelling overseas and take opportunities to do so whenever they arise which is fairly often. I was fortunate to have been able to travel extensively before becoming a M.P. but by the end of my service in the Parliament my tally of countries visited had increased significantly.

Each year as a part of Australia’s commitment to the international parliamentary movement, the Inter-Parliamentary Union, there were a number of official delegations. Places in these delegations were prized. In the Coalition there were ballots conducted for places. The Labor Party had a better system of sharing the trips around. This took account of particular members geographical areas of interest and activity.

India, Bangladesh and Nepal

In October 1992 Opposition Whip Bob Halverson phoned and told me there was a vacancy for a Liberal on an outgoing delegation to India, Bangladesh and Nepal for three weeks leaving early in November. It was a trip for which I had unsuccessfully nominated. I jumped at the opportunity and begun a hectic round of vaccinations and Foreign Affairs Department briefings which I missed out on at the time they had been given to the other members of the delegation.

The delegation Leader was the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Harry Jenkins and Labor MP’s Colin Hollis and Sylvia Smith. The Deputy Leader of the delegation was my Liberal colleague Stewart McArthur. The final member was colourful Independent Victorian Phil Cleary. Phil was of the extreme Left wing as was Colin Hollis. Both were anti Christian but I soon found that despite the fact we couldn’t agree on anything we got on well.

In fact I never found too much trouble getting on with most my Labor colleagues. It was the Liberals I most often had trouble with. Phil Cleary had strong views and he didn’t hesitate to express them. There are too many in the Parliament who say very little, make a minimal contribution and just put up their hands to vote the way they are told to. Some of the time they don’t even know what they’re voting for or against.

Going to India had an ironic side to it as some of my colleagues had given me the nickname “Gandhi” because of my resemblance to the famous man. In fact, after Ben Kingsley stared in the movie more than one person asked for my autograph! I was something of a Gandhi admirer myself. I was impressed by his life of prayer, fasting and meditation and his unique achievements.

Gandhi was assassinated on 30th January 1948 as he was on his way to an evening prayer meeting. He was given a rightful place in world history. Gandhi demonstrated how much one person with character could achieve in life. However, he was never elected to political office. He is said to have been the inspiration for the civil rights movement in America led by Martin Luther King another citizen of World history who was never elected to political office.

I joined the delegation in New Delhi a couple of days late because I had been committed to a role at the National Prayer Breakfast in Canberra. I was soon absorbed in the full on schedule of meetings with Members of Parliament and Ministers including the Prime Minister. We were to visit Australian aid projects and a range of other commitments, which went from first thing in the morning until late each evening. Our schedule did provide for a day in Agra visiting the Taj Mahal and some of the other ancient historical buildings in that area.

In Calcutta we met with provincial officials but the highlight was a meeting with the famous Mother Teresa. It was a moving and memorable occasion to shake the hand of this diminutive old lady and to have her show us her work. It seemed that everything I had read her about her was true. She epitomised the love of Jesus by reaching out to the desperately poor and disadvantaged especially children who were unwanted and had been unloved by anyone.

Sadly, Mother Teresa’s death in Calcutta in September 1997 was a mere footnote to the momentous news of the same week that the beautiful Princess Diana had been killed in a tragic accident in Paris.

After all the red carpet treatment in India we flew to Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh one of the poorest countries in the world. Bangladesh is a geographic accident of recent history. It is a densely populated country of 110 million people squeezed into approximately 54000 square miles of territory. It is almost entirely reliant on foreign aid to survive.

As in India we had meetings with Government and Opposition Leaders and officials in this fledgling democracy. Some meetings focussed on the future economic development of the country and how we might assist. The answer that came through again and again was “trade not aid”.

Accompanied by the Australian Ambassador, his staff and a contingent of soldiers for our security we set off for a tour of the country. First overnight stop was in the picturesque Chittagong Hill Tracts district that was the centre of a recent small separatist uprising.

There are fourteen different tribal groups inhabiting the Hill Tracts of Chittagong. They are essentially nomadic in character, non-Muslim and of different ethnic background to the rest of the people of Bangladesh. We met with local officials and visited a number of factories where children as young as 10 worked twelve hours a day six days a week.

From Chittagong it was a full days drive to Cox’s Bazaar on the Bay of Bengal. The locals were amazed when I ventured out into the surf for a swim. They never went out beyond their knees. Anyway it was great to dive into the warm salt water after a day on dusty roads.

Back in Dhaka we were to see some of the worst side of life in such a country. We visited an Australian funded cholera hospital. There were so many sick and dying people. Most of the population did not have fresh water or fuel to boil water. When they were thirsty they drank what they could and the result was the high incidence of diarrhoeal complaints many leading to death. Infant mortality was also very high.

The third week of the trip was to be spent in predominantly Buddhist Nepal. Nepal is one of those places most people want to visit. Like Bangladesh it was a very new democracy and we were constantly asked for advice. The city of Kathmandu is heavily polluted and we were pleased to fly to the eastern city of Pokhara, in the shadow of the second highest peak in the Himalayas. It was spectacular to be up before dawn to see the sun strike its snow-covered crest.

In Nepal we visited an Australian funded re-afforestation projects. Fuel was short in the very poor countryside and almost all of the trees had been demolished. Now, with Australian expertise people were being taught how to conserve and replenish tree stocks.

On another day we journeyed many kilometres to view a Fred Hollows eye project. His colleague Dr. Ruit and others had established a mobile hospital in an old school classroom with a dirt floor. The room had been encased in plastic and with generator power they were undertaking surgery to remove cataracts.

Hundreds of people, many old and frail and being led by young relatives, had come down from the surrounding hills for the opportunity to have their sight restored. We watched the operations being performed. It was marvellous to be there when these people were given the gift of sight again. Some had not been able to see for years. I was proud that Australian aid funds had made it possible.

Finally it was time to return to Australia.It had been three tiring but exhilarating weeks. I had not left my family for that long before and it was almost Christmas. It was great to sit back in the first class compartment of the Singapore Airlines Airbus as we headed for Singapore where we spent the night and next day before connecting with Qantas flights back to our homes.

I reflected on what I had seen and experienced. Even in these poor countries except outside of the cities we had enjoyed five star accommodation. Yet outside the doors were people who lived in abject squalor. There must be some way the resources of the world could be shared to make life better for these millions.

One day I determined my children should see such places. Of course I could never have known what God had in store for us as a family when I prayed that he might not let me be complacent about life in Australia. Memories of our time with Mother Teresa came flooding back.

Study tours to Vietnam. South Korea and USA.

After serving one term in the Parliament members are entitled to one first class round the world air ticket. This is to be used by the member to travel for “study” purposes. A brief submission was required to the appropriate Minister outlining the reason for the trip and the Minister’s permission was routinely given. Details of the submissions are tabled in Parliament.

The value of this ticket is between $10000 and $12000. Members wives can accompany them at Government expense on study tours and some of the money can be spent on accommodation and other related expenses. However, travel can be arranged at economy or excursion prices which would actually enable a member to travel around the word five times for the full price of the full first class ticket. In any case members are frequent flyers and are often up-graded to Business or First Class anyway.

Many members participating in official delegations also take their wives or husbands. This is easily done by downgrading the class of travel. It’s usually quite easy for two to travel economy or even business class for the price of a full first class ticket. Accommodation was usually paid for by the host country, as were most meals. Some minor contribution might be required for spouse’s expenses. At one time some members took their children on delegations but this often caused problems and was discouraged.

I actually had concerns about spouses going on official delegations after the trip to south Asia. Some spouses attended most if not all meetings and official functions. The husband of the female member of our delegation to India seemed to regard himself as the de facto member and wanted to have his say in some of the meetings. The delegation Leader, Harry Jenkins who otherwise did what I thought was a great job didn’t seem to recognize the problem or do anything about it.

In 1993 I used part of study tour allowance to visit Vietnam to look into allegations of human rights abuses. Judy accompanied me. I gained access to some high level officials and made contact with the Christians in the “underground” church some of who had been in prison. I have since visited Vietnam on a number of other occasions.

A number of Koreans who were substantial investors on the Gold Coast lived in my electorate. I became active in the Australia/Republic of Korea Parliamentary Group and was its Chairman after we came to Government as Chairs of these groups were, by convention, Government members as were delegation Leaders. I took the opportunity to visit Seoul to address business groups and to meet prominent MPs. Judy came with me on one of a number of such visits. On one occasion I met Kim Dai Jung at his home. He became President of South Korea 1998.

I also became a friend of prominent South Korean church leaders such as Pastor Billy Kim and Dr. Cho Yongi who pastors what is purported to be the largest congregation in the world. After one visit to Korea I attended a conference on the environment in Pukhet, Thailand. The theme of the conference was ocean conservation. As a surfer and founding member of the environmental group, the Surfrider Foundation, this was an interest of mine. I attended a follow up meeting with Judy the following year in Malaysia.

After I became Chairman of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on the National Crime Authority I used study tour funds to visit the USA on two occasions. On one trip I visited the Headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). These visits were arranged for me by the NCA in Australia and were very useful to me in understanding how the “war” against drugs was being conducted in the USA.

Contrary to some of the views being put forward in Australia by the so-called “reformers” progress was being made. In the USA, where a strong prohibitionist stand against all drugs was maintained, calls for any liberalisation of drug laws were strongly resisted.

After my first visit to the FBI and DEA I came back and encouraged John Howard to involve himself in the effort to reduce drug importation and distribution. The Government subsequently increased funding for the National Crime Authority and the Australian Federal Police. Importantly the Prime Minister resisted calls form prominent politicians such as Victorian Premier Kennett to allow free heroin trials and he has continued to oppose the introduction of so called “injecting rooms” in NSW, Victoria and the ACT.

The arguments for a “soft” approach to the drug problem are seductive but experience in Europe was showing that making drugs more cheaply available or decriminalising use led to increased consumption. In 1965 Sweden experimented with a system of making previously illegal drugs freely available to addicts. At the time the move was overwhelmingly supported, as it was believed it would curtail the demand for drugs at high black market prices. The experiment failed and there has been a move back towards prohibition.

In Sweden it was found that the legal prescription of drugs to addicts does not work. It only leads to increased use and more addicts. The solution to the drug epidemic is to maintain the attack on both the supply and demand side. Effective law enforcement is the key to supply reduction. Education is the vital component in reducing demand. There is also a need for compulsory treatment of addicts. Usually this will mean they should be removed from the community for a period of time.

The proliferation of needle exchanges has been another result of the embracing of so-called harm minimization policies. The arguments for them are also persuasive but in the end rather than being “exchanges” they become distribution points and the communities where they are established degenerate.

There is also serious doubt about whether needle exchanges achieve their stated objectives of stopping the spread of diseases like AIDS. The incidence of Hepatitis C has increased dramatically since needle exchanges began and Hepatitis C is spread almost exclusively by needles.

My second visit to the USA in the capacity of Chairman of the NCA JPC concentrated on the West Coast border town of San Diego and the Texas border town of El Paso. In both of these areas enormous resources were dedicated to stopping the flow of drugs from Mexico and South America into the USA. I was impressed with the professionalism on the FBI Agents and their colleagues in other agencies like US Customs and Coast Guard which all cooperate closely. These agents were far removed from their gung ho image of TV programs.

Some told amazing stories of leading to two lives as they undertook extremely dangerous “undercover” activities. In the USA they are determined to fight the drug war at every level. They don’t underestimate the importance of education at all but they are intent on stopping importation and trafficking and it is one of their top national priorities.

Delegation to France, Kenya, Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Soon after the 1996 election a delegation was scheduled to leave for France and North East Africa. For some reason the two Liberal positions had not been filled and time was short. The vacancies were advertised to members. I nominated and by the time the deadline for nominations had closed there were only two nominations. I was lucky!

I was excited about the prospect of visiting Paris in the springtime and also, not having been to Africa, seeing Kenya, Ethiopia and Eritrea. We quickly decided that Judy would accompany me and her parents would come to Queensland to take care of the family for the month or so we would be away.

The Speaker of the Parliament, Bob Halverson, appointed me as Leader of the Delegation. This was an honour. Other members of the delegation were my Liberal colleague Christine Gallus, Labor Senator Jim McKiernan with his wife Jacqui and Gavin Connor MP from the Labor Party and Senator Brian Harradine with his wife Marion.

The purpose of the Paris leg of the trip was to represent Australia in some meetings at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) at its Headquarters in Paris. Judy and I initially flew to London to visit friends and, as Judy had not been there before, to see some of the sights. In Paris we connected with the other delegation members and met the Australian Ambassador to the OECD and his staff for briefings before the official meetings began.

I found the time at the OECD very informative and gained an understanding of how it works to benefit member countries. The OECD provides considerable benefits in analysis and encouragement of more effective economic management in its member countries.

The delegation also visited the French National Assembly. Judy, with the other ladies, visited some of the tourist attractions including the Palace of Versailles, which enthralled Judy. While we attended an official dinner at the French Parliament the ladies had a twilight dinner cruise on the river Seine.

One highlight of the visit to Paris was luncheon hosted by the Australian Ambassador to France, Alan Brown who was replaced soon after by former Liberal MP John Spender. The lunch was in the Ambassador’s residence at the Embassy that was adjacent to the Eiffel Tower. It was uncanny to stand at the huge picture window and be almost able to reach out and touch the famous landmark. Our old friend Sally Ann Atkinson was present as she was at the time in France as Australian Trade Commissioner.

We left Paris in the late evening for the overnight flight to Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. The contrast with Paris as we drove with Ambassador John Trotter from the airport to our hotel was incredible. Immediately after settling in we met with the Ambassador and his staff for comprehensive briefings on the schedule that was arranged for us. Typically it was a mix of meetings and familiarization visits.

Kenya has a democratically elected Parliament but there is frequent political violence in the country as opposition groups are barely tolerated. The country had a powerful President, Daniel Arap Moi who seemed to regard parliament as something of an irritant. Consequently the transition of the country to a multi party democracy has been slow and hesitant.

En route to visit the site of an Australian gold mining company’s operations in Migori in the South West of Kenya we spent a day and a night in the Masai Mara Game Reserve. It was so exciting it was to see all of the animals from giraffes and hippos to some majestic lions. Gavin Connor won’t forget the hippo he decided to try and photograph up close. It charged out of the water at him and we all scattered for the safety of our open topped vehicle.

We spent a night, memorable for its absolute silence, at a camp close to the border with Tanzania. We were pleased to know that an electric fence protected us from wild animals during the night until we found that the generator was turned off at some stage after midnight.

In Nairobi we visited the home of Isak Dinesen, better known as Karen Blixon, whose life story was portrayed in “Out of Africa” which starred Merryl Streep and Robert Redford. The book “Out of Africa” was written by Dinesen as a memoir of her years in Africa from 1914 to 1931.The book first published in 1937 begins with a paragraph that aptly sets the scene and in many ways:

“I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills. The Equator runs across these highlands, a hundred miles to the North, and the farm lay at an altitude of over six thousand feet. In the daytime you felt that you had got high up, near to the sun, but the early mornings and evenings were limpid and restful, and the nights were cold. The geographical position, and the height of the land combined to create a landscape that had not its like in all the world. There was no fat on it and no luxuriance anywhere; it was Africa distilled up through six thousand feet….”

Then it was on to the ancient bustling city of Addis Ababa the capital of Ethiopia. Ethiopia exists in one of the most troubled parts of the world. On the East and Southeast it is bounded by civil war racked Somalia, A UN peacekeeping force in which Australia participated had to be withdrawn because there was no peace to keep. On the West and North west Ethiopia is bounded by Sudan. Here there has been a cruel civil war prosecuted by the Muslim government in Khartoum against the predominantly Christian population in the South of the country.

The stories, which have emanated from Sudan about the atrocities and violence, are horrifying. In 1995 I met baroness Caroline Cox, UK President of Christian Solidarity Worldwide. Baroness Cox has visited Sudan on several occasions and has found that starvation and slavery are both being used as weapons in a jihad against the largely Christian southern Sudan. In our meetings in Addis we were able to obtain first hand information about this situation.

One of the most interesting segments of our visit to Ethiopia was a visit to Mekelle in the Tigray province in the north of the country where we met with local officials and with executives of Australian mining companies. We travelled early one morning a long distance through the rugged countryside and then off road to the site of an Australian funded aid project providing wells to enable people to have access to fresh clean water.

Most of the population was forced to walk many kilometres and then to carry water back to their villages. But wells gave them easy access to water, one of the fundamentals of life. As we neared our destination we could see many hundreds of tribal people gathered on the hillside and as we came close they began to chant a welcome song. We met the leaders of the villages and shared their fermented goats milk and rock hard cheese with them as they expressed their gratitude not only to us but also to the people of Australia for their generous provision of clean water.

The Tigray province was amongst the more prosperous parts of Ethiopia and there were suggestions that it was favoured because of its strong connections with the ruling party. However this part of Ethiopia remained in dispute after the long war, which led to the independence of Eritrea. Fighting has since erupted in this area and the issue has not been finally resolved.

On Sunday morning Judy and I found a Christian worship service in progress which we able to sit and observe. Our friends Brian and Marion Harradine found a Catholic mass. Almost everyday they found a mass to attend. In Canberra I know that Brian had a “prayer mountain” which he visited most mornings.

In Addis Ababa Ambassador Trotter and I visited a large war cemetery on the outskirts of the city in search of Australian war graves as there had been Australians in this area during the second world war. We found only one grave that of RAAF Flight Sergeant Leon Emile Bull whom Australian War Memorial records show was born in Coonamble, NSW on 2nd November 1918. We took photographs of the grave with the intention of passing them on to any relatives who were still living in Australia but sadly none could be found in Australia.

The Delegation visited the Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa. The Fistula Hospital had been established in 1974 by a Christian couple, the late Dr. Reginald Hamlin and his wife Dr. Catherine Hamlin. Both AusAID and the Archbishop of Sydney’s Overseas Relief Fund provide funding. The Hamlin’s had become aware of the plight of thousands of Ethiopian women suffering from childbirth fistula injuries usually to the bladder and rectum.

The Drs Hamlin perfected a surgical technique to repair these fistulas and to allow women to return to their villages where they had often been rejected by their husbands and communities on account of their incapacity. The Delegation was privileged to sit with Dr. Hamlin as she interviewed a young girl who had travelled for over five days by foot and bus to reach the clinic.

From Addis Ababa we flew to Asmara the capital of Eritrea. Australia is one of the few countries in the world where Eritrea maintains a diplomatic mission. This is in recognition of the support given by Australia to Eritrea in its long war of independence that ended in 1993. Here we were warmly welcomed and were impressed with the resilience of the people and their determination to survive and prosper as nation.

The Delegation had a full round of meetings and visits in Eritrea. One of the highlights was a visit to the Fred Hollows Intra-ocular lens factory. We were able to see the lens design and manufacturing process in operation. The factory is a showpiece for Eritrean industry and technical skills and had export orders from many countries.

The trip was memorable and a great privilege for me personally to have been Leader of such an important delegation. We tabled our report in the House of Representatives in November 1996.

Travelling in Australia.

During my time in the Parliament I travelled to every part of Australia. I served on the House of Representatives Standing committee on Employment, Education and Training for six years and we undertook numerous studies that took us to some of the remote areas. The criticism that federal MPs are ensconced in Canberra with no appreciation of what is happening outside is not true. I came to know Australia very well in my eight and one half years. I met with Australians from every corner of the country.

The Banking, Finance and Public Administration Committee of which I was also a member undertook an inquiry into the impact of Australia’s taxation regime on the tourism industry. Representing an area like the Gold Coast I took the opportunity to visit most of Australia’s main tourist destinations from Cairns to Broome.

The Committee later made some significant recommendations in its report cleverly entitled“ Taxing Relaxing”
Chapter 13

Taiwan.

Many official and unofficial “friendship” groups existed in the Parliament. The main purpose of these groups was to promote good relations with these countries on a Parliamentary level. The most popular friendship group in the Parliament was the Taiwan Group. This particular group did not have formal status under the Inter Parliamentary Union because Australia, in deference to the Peoples Republic of China, does not have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. The Taiwanese like the Koreans were significant investors in the Gold Coast.

I actually made a number of close Taiwanese friends in my electorate and had a legitimate interest in Taiwan. The Taiwanese Government offered regular all expenses paid familiarization trips to Taipei. These trips were always worthwhile in gaining a better understanding of the situation facing the small island off the coast of the PRC. Taiwan is also one of Australia’s major trading partners so Australian MPs were always given the red carpet treatment. I enjoyed a visit to Taiwan in 1996, which was duly noted on the register of members’ interests and was thus available for public scrutiny.

Sri Lanka and the Tamil Tigers.
One of my close friends on the Gold Coast was of Sri Lankan extraction and now a successful heart physician practicing on the Gold Coast and in Melbourne. Dr. Quintas De Zylva asked me to take an interest in the issue of the civil war in his country that had begun in 1983. It was already an important political issue with many members having Sri Lankan constituents usually of Tamil origin who were active in lobbying for their cause.

I began to research the situation and met a number of times with the Sri Lankan High Commissioner in Canberra. As with many of these situations I thought it was best to go and see first hand what was occurring. Dr De Sylva happened to be the representative of the Sri Lankan Cricket Board in Australia. He frequently visited Colombo and so we planned to go together in mid 1997.

Our visit coincided with a cricket test between India and Sri Lanka. We attended for a day and whilst I’m not much of a cricket fan, enjoyed lunch with the members of the cricket board and spent some time with former Australian cricket captain Greg Chappell in the commentary box where he was working. The test got off to a slow start on the first day when I was there but by the end created history with Sri Lanka setting a world record score and one of their young batsman scoring over 300 runs.

My visit to Sri Lanka had a much more serious agenda than cricket. The Australian Deputy High Commissioner briefed me on the situation in the country in the absence overseas of the High Commissioner. As usual our diplomatic post staff in Colombo were helpful to visiting MPs even if they were a little apprehensive about the agenda or what mess might be left for them to tidy up.

There was particular concern about my visit because Australian Foreign Minister Downer had been in Colombo a few days before and had been publicly supportive of the Sri Lankan Government’s “war for peace” strategy and plans for limited autonomy for the Tamil population. I did not share Downer’s view entirely and there was concern about what, as a Government member, I might do or say.

I was inundated by requests for meetings by Sri Lankans once they became aware of my presence in Colombo. I was also fortunate to meet with the Minister for Justice G.L Peiris who was charged by the President with the responsibility of finding a constitutional solution to the problems. At the same time the Government was engaged in a military campaign to defeat the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). It clearly wasn’t working as the Government troops were taking significant casualties and the desertion rate was high. The LTTE were also suffering serious losses.

Both sides were engaged in an international propaganda war as well. The LTTE lead by Velupillai Prabhakaran has established itself as one of the most feared and effective guerrilla groups in the world. Sri Lankan President Kumaratunga has publicly acknowledged that the Tamil people have legitimate grievances for which a solution must be found and has rejected the idea that military action alone could provide a lasting solution to the ethnic conflict. Yet at the time there seemed no end in sight for the bloody war. However, after two decades of fighting, the government and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam formalized a cease-fire in February 2002, with Norway brokering peace negotiations.

I visited the military hospital in Colombo with Dr. De Sylva and the Chief Medical Officer of the Sri Lankan Army. The large number of young men who had suffered serious injuries was appalling. Many had lost arms and legs. We saw one young soldier with a severed foot no doubt from stepping on a land mine carried in still conscious but in agony from his terrible wound. At least these young boys had access to good medical care within a short time of being wounded. Many LTTE soldiers in similar condition without access to proper hospitalisation would certainly be dying in the jungle. The LTTE was critical of the Government’s refusal to allow them access to medical supplies.

The LTTE controls large parts of the North and East of the country where the Tamils are seeking a separate homeland. I found it difficult to get an unbiased history of the ethnic strife but it was clear that historically there had been discrimination against the Tamils by the Sinhalese dominated Government. The Government took control of the Jaffna peninsular in the North and the city of Jaffna in 1996 but life was far from normal for the population there which was cut off from the south of the country.

The strategy of the Government was to take control of the main road from Vavuniva to the north as it has managed to do in the main routes to the east. However, as with roads to the east the Government controlled the corridor itself but not the surrounding territory. I attempted to arrange meeting with the LTTE Leader or his deputy but the Government would not give me permission to travel into the LTTE controlled areas in the North. I decided to travel covertly to the East coast and did so with the help of an international agency that provided safe travel and secure accommodation.

In the Government controlled town of Batticaloa I waited to hear from the LTTE leadership but unfortunately, as I later found out, they were unable to contact me there. The area surrounding Batticaloa is controlled by the LTTE and there is a heavy Sri Lankan military presence in the town and at the various checkpoints on the roads.

At night the Government troops withdraw to their barracks and the town is considered unsafe. There was some small arms fire during the night I spent there. Before I could leave and return to Colombo I waited for the road to be cleared of land mines. I was happy to be travelling in a prominently marked vehicle flying the flag of an international agency which shall go unnamed but whose neutrality both sides respected.

Back in Colombo I had a number of press interviews indicating my belief that the Government should accept third party mediation. I repeated this call back in Australia and raised the issue for discussion in the parliament however I was suspicious that the Foreign Minister Alexander Downer had used his influence with the Government Whip to prevent the matter coming up for debate for fear that I might embarrass the Government.

The Australian Government had been consistently supportive of the Sri Lankan Government’s approach to solving the problem and had in my view been quite unhelpful in bringing about a resolution. I reported in detail on my visit and impressions to the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade.

I continued to meet with the Sri Lankan High Commissioner in Canberra and we became good friends. But in the end the Sri Lankan government remained intransigent and would not accept any outside assistance.

Tensions between the Sinhalese majority and Tamil separatists erupted into war in 1983. Since the fighting began over 40000 have been killed. The LTTE has committed atrocities acts against innocent civilians in Colombo and other places. It has a ready supply of passionate believers in its cause ready to act as suicide bombers. Yet the war goes on and the beautiful island’s economy is in tatters. Whether the limited autonomy plan, if it ever gains acceptance will work, remains to be seen.

Gun Control
Days after the election in 1996 the worst mass murder in Australia’s history occurred at Port Arthur in Tasmania. Australians were drawn together in grief and alarm that such a thing could happen in Australia. New Prime Minister Howard was very much in the spotlight as he visited the site of the massacre and committed himself and his Government to take whatever action was necessary to ensure such a tragedy never recurred.

The first issue was gun ownership. Although laws in Australia were relatively strict there was a lack of uniformity between states. It was also possible for people to own automatic and semi automatic firearms. John Howard personally committed himself to forcing all states to adopt strict uniform laws. The issue dominated the Government’s agenda for months and caused a great deal of controversy in the community.

In the rural states of Queensland and West Australia there was considerable opposition to the proposed stricter laws and passions were aroused. Unlike in the USA there is no right to bear arms provided in the Australian constitution. Nevertheless the conspiracy theorists came out in force and portrayed the Governments actions as an attempt to disarm the population as had allegedly happened in Germany during the 1930s.

There were also those who honestly thought that it was necessary for them to retain their firearms in order to be able to defend the country in the event of an attempted invasion. Some people believed that it was the Japanese fear of an armed Australian population that actually deterred it from continuing with its plan to invade Australia in the Second World War. There were also a large number of people who wanted to retain firearms in their suburban homes to protect them from burglaries and home invasions.

The perpetrator of the horrific crime at port Arthur, Martin Bryant was arrested soon after the massacre. It was revealed at his trial that he possessed a large library of violent videos that he viewed frequently. Experts submitted that this would certainly have been a factor in his behaviour. A Cabinet sub-committee was appointed to look into this issue.

There was some attempt to prevent children from seeing certain material on their TV’s but as any parent would know it has become increasingly difficult to monitor what children are viewing on or accessing on the Internet. Much more still needs be done to control violent interactive video games.

Pauline Hanson and One Nation

The ground laid by the debate on gun ownership was fertile for the rise of a new political force in Australia which was just around the corner and which was to have a profound impact on Australia. The new Independent member for Oxley elected at the 1996 election was Pauline Hanson. She would soon become something of a phenomenon, a name on everybody’s lips not only in Australia but also around the world.

Pauline Hanson was the Liberal candidate for Oxley when I first met her. She had been preselected for the “safe” Labor seat and was given no chance of winning. Her only political experience was a short time on the local Ipswich city council. She owned a fish and chip shop in the town situated west of Brisbane.

The Liberal Party allocated candidates to sitting members for mentoring and practical help. The seat of Oxley was given to me. My office was in regular contact with Mrs. Hanson rendering advice and assistance. I travelled to Ipswich to meet Pauline and to campaign with her.

The seat of Oxley had been held by former Leader of the Opposition Bill Hayden who became Governor General after he was deposed by Bob Hawke as Leader of the Labor Party. The sitting member was Les Scott who held the seat with a 20% margin. Les was low key in Canberra but a popular local member. The current Prime Minister, Paul Keating was however very unpopular in Queensland and this was expected to impact heavily in Labor held seats in the state

Shortly after I first met Pauline the issue arose of a letter that had been published in her local paper some time before in which she was critical of preferential treatment being given to aboriginal Australians. There was a large aboriginal population in Ipswich and the surrounding area. The question was raised publicly as to whether now, as a Liberal candidate, she would retract.

The Liberal Party carefully managed campaign strategy in the 1996 election was to steer clear of controversy and to avoid making mistakes. Aboriginal Affairs was always a volatile policy area with voters. Rather than moderate her hard line views Mrs. Hanson reasserted her controversial stance and it was decided she would be sacked as candidate.

This decision taken apparently by the Leader, John Howard would be symbolic as the seat was not on the winnable list. It would portray him as a decisive leader and it would immediately diffuse what otherwise might develop into an embarrassing distraction. It would also contrast the leadership of John Howard with that of the Prime Minister Keating and the Labor Party which had taken so long to deal with it’s own trouble maker, West Australian, Graham Campbell.

At first I defended Pauline. I realised she was being made a scapegoat and it seemed very unfair to me that she was treated so summarily. I told Liberal Party State Director Jim Barron so but was informed the decision had been made. Suddenly this woman was the national focus. She was a hero amongst the many people who shared her views on aborigines and others felt sorry for her because of the way she had been treated.

Nominations for the seat had already closed so the Liberal Party did not have an opportunity to endorse another candidate. It meant that Pauline Hanson would still appear on the ballot paper as the Liberal candidate. She had the everything going for her. Some local Liberals, angry at the heavy handed treatment meted out to Pauline, left the party to help her on election day. Incredibly she won the seat and became the Independent MP for Oxley.

Pauline Hanson’s first speech in the Parliament caused furore. She asserted, “Australia was in danger of being swamped by Asians”. The speech was reported locally and internationally. Suddenly every fringe organization in Australia had someone presentable to champion their causes.

It soon became clear that there were a substantial number of mainly older Australians who agreed with the general thrust of what Pauline Hanson was saying or trying to say. The fact that she was extraordinarily inarticulate worked in her favour as people identified with her inability to express herself clearly and her nervousness when speaking in public.

Around the country Pauline Hanson support groups sprang up. On the Gold Coast prominent anti Asian Immigration campaigner Bruce Whiteside sprang into action as self-appointed national coordinator of these groups. Bruce himself an unsuccessful political candidate suddenly saw a real opportunity to make an impact.

But Bruce was a rank amateur compared to a few others who also saw the potential of using the Hanson phenomenon to their own advantage. One of these, David Oldfield, was an employee of Liberal member Tony Abbott. Oldfield himself was a failed Liberal candidate. The other, David Ettridge, formerly worked for aid agency World Vision. Ettridge had strong marketing and fund raising skills. These two came together and decided to create a Pauline Hanson “product”. It was called Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Inc. and the two David’s and Pauline were the shareholders.

One Nation struck a chord with many Australians particularly in the working classes. People were sick of politicians and here was a genuine “non politician”. Here was someone who could be portrayed as a genuine patriot, someone who could speak for and who spoke like the average Australian. All other politicians were tarred with the same brush: selling out Australia to the multi national corporations, exporting Australian jobs, kowtowing to the United Nations, creating two classes of Australians by giving special treatment to aboriginals and trying to take everyone’s guns off them. Much of it was sheer populism but it worked.

It was my strong belief that John Howard had not reacted strongly enough to Pauline Hanson’s first speech and I told him so privately and said so in the Party Room. On occasions when the Member for Oxley asked questions in the Parliament the Prime Minister’s answers were measured and polite. Many including myself felt the Prime minister was treating Mrs. Hanson with kid gloves in order not to offend her supporters

At the same time Australia was being criticized in Asia and there was some evidence that our tourism and education industries, on which the Gold Coast economy was heavily dependent, were suffering. The Prime Minister told the Liberal-National Joint Party Room that the Hanson movement would soon disappear like a meteorite flashing across the sky. How wrong he was.

Native Title

Queenslander, Dr John Herron was a surprise appointment to the Aboriginal Affairs portfolio after the 1996 election but being a compassionate man and committed Christian, he was well suited to it. However he had a tough job selling the Government’s policies. The heavy work was left to the inscrutable Nick Minchin who was given the task of finalizing the changes to the Native Title Act that the Government had promised.

The waters were muddied by a further decision of the High Court in the Wik case that native title could coexist with pastoral leases. This caused consternation in rural communities. The Government had hoped that the court would have decided otherwise. The Prime Minister put forward a “ten point plan” to deal with the issue.

However there was not adequate consultation with aboriginals and they strongly opposed some of the changes which they claimed would downgrade the value of their native title. Hanson said her party had a “one point plan” and that was to throw the whole concept of native title out the window. This certainly resonated with rural communities where many farmers felt threatened by the prospect of having to allow aborigines access to their land.

Statements from prominent politicians such as the then Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fisher that people’s suburban backyards would be in danger if the ten-point plan were not adopted fanned the fires. Over time there was “fine tuning” of the ten point plan and it became something less than ten points but the problems remained.

I had a number of Christian aboriginal friends with whom I had worked to make the first Aboriginal Praise Corroboree in Canberra in 1996 a success. I had a strong conviction that reconciliation between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians should be a top priority for the Government. Not many of my colleagues including the PM, agreed.

The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination found that the Government’s proposed legislation was in breach of Australia’s pledges not to discriminate racially. The UN committee directed the Government to reopen talks with aborigines. The Government chose to taker a hard line and dismissed the Committee’s calls and later even refused to let members of the committee visit Australia to continue its investigations.

Conservative politicians like me were not supposed to be soft on aborigines who were regarded by many as welfare dependent good for nothings. Many are in fact welfare dependent but they had been rendered so by the policies of successive governments who did little more than throw money at their problems. Most aborigines I met were adamant they did not want handouts and wanted to find ways of to becoming self-sufficient. Fortunately this has begun to happen in some communities.

Chapter 14

Resignation from the Liberal Party.

By the end of 1997 I had begun giving serious consideration to leaving the Liberal Party. I began to pray about the matter and consulted a number of friends and met on a number of occasions with Rev Fred Nile who was one Australian politician who seemed to consistently have the courage of his convictions. I travelled to New Zealand to compare notes with my good friend Hon Graeme Lee who had been a Minister in the National Party Government of Jim Bolger but was now Leader of the Christian Democrats in New Zealand.

At the beginning of my meeting with the Prime Minister on 7 April 1998 I handed him a letter outlining the reasons for my taking the radical step of resigning form the Liberal Party. I had accepted the invitation of Rev Fred Nile to become the Federal Parliamentary Leader of the Christian Democratic Party and to lead its Senate team in Queensland in the election which was due to be held within twelve months.

My appointment with the Prime Minister had been arranged the previous week. I had been discussing the possibility of joining the Christian Democratic Party with Fred Nile for a number of months. My recent public differences with the Government on a number of issues had given rise to rumours that I might resign and some newspapers were speculating about it.

Stories in the Sunday papers on 5 April 1998 prompted The Prime Minister to telephone my home on the Sunday evening. I was already on my way to Canberra and Mr Howard had left a message on our answering service asking me to phone him at the Lodge when I got to Canberra. I arrived in my office at 8.30 and telephoned my wife Judy as I always did to let her know I was safely there and to check on the children. She told me of the PM’s call. I telephoned the Lodge and was put straight through to Mr. Howard. We spoke for fifteen minutes. I told him that I had already made an appointment to see him on Tuesday and that I did not want to discuss the matter with him until then.

I felt relieved as I left the PM’s office after our meeting. He had indicated that he knew that I was to appear on the National current affairs program, “A Current Affair” later that evening. His parting words were to tell me I had no chance of getting elected under the CDP banner. He turned out to be right.

I had investigated the financial implications of my move carefully. I had a young family to support. I had just completed eight years service, which was really the magic number since the law prescribed that a member with three terms or eight years service was entitled to an involuntary retirement. The operative term was “involuntary”. It meant that in some circumstances a member with as little as eight years service or three terms could retire with full superannuation entitlement

This was the most criticized aspect of the generous superannuation scheme. A member elected at a young age could serve for that period of time and then be entitled to a substantial lump sum or pension for life indexed to around half of the MP’s salary.

The requirements for involuntary retirement are spelled out in the Act. Basically there are three circumstances: being defeated at an election, losing preselection or choosing to contest an election for another seat or for the other house. It seemed clear that I would satisfy the last criterion but in every situation the Trustees of the Superannuation Scheme, a group of MPs, had to be satisfied that the member had acted in good faith. There were a limited number of precedents but few if any circumstances in which the Trustees had not supported an application.

Some people asked why I had chosen to contest the Senate rather than the House of Representatives. I thought about recontesting my own seat under the CDP banner or even as an Independent. I believed I was generally regarded as a hard working member. I had been elected on three occasions with solid margins. Yet I was under no allusions. I knew that good local members even after many years service generally were responsible for less than 5% of their vote. Once I had decided to join the CDP it seemed that my best chance was the Senate.

There were, notwithstanding all of the advice I obtained, considerable financial costs and risks. I found that because I was not going to recontest my seat in the House of Representatives I would lose all my entitlements including salary and car virtually as soon as the election was called. If I was successful in being elected to the Senate because of the system under which Senators retire it could be as long as twelve months before I took my seat and it would be difficult to earn an income in that time.

John Howard, PM in waiting

I first met John Howard in the mid 1970s shortly after I had joined the Liberal Party in 1973. At the age of 36 in 1975 Howard had been appointed Minister for Business and Consumer Affairs. He served as Treasurer for over five years prior to the defeat of the Fraser Government in 1983.

Howard’s political career had begun at age 18 in the Young Liberals. Photos taken of John Howard at the time give the impression that he was not your average young bloke. It was also the Beatles era so anyone with short hair and black-rimmed glasses would have seemed to be a bit odd.

It wasn’t until I was elected to the Parliament in 1990 that I got to know John better. We had an affinity because although I represented a Queensland seat most of my activities in the Party had been in NSW. There was also a strong ideological bond.

John Howard became Leader of the Opposition in September 1985. Andrew Peacock deposed him in 1989 in the infamous coup later publicly revealed by its leaders,John Moore and Wilson Tuckey.

After Andrew Peacock lost the 1990 election he was replaced by the up and coming John Hewson who had been Shadow Treasurer. The other candidates were the ambitious Peter Reith, who received some support from Victoria, and Member for Macquarie, Alisdair Webster. Hewson won overwhelmingly. Reith became Deputy Leader.

At the time I was one of only five to vote for Alisdair Webster, whom I had not even met personally. I had received a letter from Alisdair announcing his candidature. In his letter he made a very clear statement about his Christian faith. We were to become good friends. Alisdair had been instrumental in the starting of the National Prayer Breakfast and was Secretary of the Parliamentary Christian Fellowship at the time I arrived in Canberra.

John Hewson had been on John Howard’s staff when he was Treasurer. Hewson made Howard Shadow Minister for Industrial Relations. Howard set about getting to know the new members in the large class of 1990.It was flattering for most new members to be asked to dine with him.

I entered into the debates both within the Party Room and the Parliament with passion. My diverse background and experience gave me a much better rounded worldview than many of my colleagues. Nevertheless I was soon criticized for my outspokenness. I concluded my maiden (first) speech in the House of Representatives on 15 May 1990 with the following words:

“Mr. Speaker, I would like to conclude by putting my remarks in this speech into a personal context. My own ethos and political philosophy has been shaped by two main factors. Firstly, my late father was a director of the Australian subsidiary of a large American multi national corporation. He got there and stayed there by working hard and he set my brothers and myself a very good example.

The second factor was that I became a Christian at a very young age. My parents were not at the time regular church attenders, but they did me a great service by sending me to Sunday school. Nothing in the intervening years has caused me to doubt that step of faith I took when I was twelve years old.”

John Hewson lost the “unlosable” 1993 election and with the encouragement and support of Andrew Peacock restood for the Party Leadership. Peacock’s main motivation was to stop Howard becoming Leader again. Peacock surely knew, as did the rest of us that Hewson was mortally wounded. In the ensuing leadership battle I voted for John Howard but Hewson won by a considerable margin. Peter Reith was the scapegoat for the election loss and went to the backbench. Dr. Michael Wooldridge had been elected as deputy leader but he proved to very ineffective.

There was soon pressure on Howard to challenge Hewson for the Leadership. Howard refused. He would only become Leader again if it were handed to him on a platter. The indomitable Senator Bronwyn Bishop emerged as a possible contender. She captured the public’s imagination with her boots and all style and simple messages.

Bronwyn was a good friend of mine and she had supported my bid for preselection for the NSW State seat of Wakehurst in 1983 when she was President of the party in NSW.I publicly supported Bronwyn as a potential Party Leader. However Bronwyn enjoyed little support from her Senate colleagues or for that matter from her NSW colleague, John Howard.

The task of unseating Hewson was eventually left to a surprise Downer-Costello ticket that was successful but only by a small margin. There were a number of colleagues who, whilst wanting to see the end of Hewson, were unwilling to support Downer. They obviously knew him better than I did and turned out to be right about his immaturity.

It was not until after Andrew Peacock resigned from the Parliament in 1994 that the way was cleared for John Howard to return as Leader in 1995 and of course he went on to the win the 1996 election.

The strategy for the 1996 election campaign was safety first. Anything controversial was to avoid at all costs and a victory was never much in doubt. I met John on the tarmac at Coolangatta airport during the campaign as he was headed for northern NSW. He was very confident. “We’re going to win,” he told me. Keating’s arrogant style caused him to be particularly unpopular in with Queenslanders.

The Election on 3 March was won and the new Government had a record majority. As a friend of the Prime Minister I was hopeful of a Ministry in the new Government. I was disappointed to see him reward his long time political foes such as John Moore and David Jull from Queensland with Ministries. Neither proved very effective.

National Crime Authority

Eventually the Prime Minister appointed me as Chairman of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the National Crime Authority. Besides the additional salary that went with this job there was also a certain amount of prestige attached to a Committee Chairmanship.

I determined to make something of it and it did actually give me some exposure to law enforcement issues of which I’d had no experience. It involved me in the so-called war against drugs and organised crime that were often of interest to the media.

The NCA was dogged by controversy. It was a covert organization legislatively endowed with wide powers. Inevitably it offended civil libertarians and others who came to its notice. One prominent citizen under investigation by the NCA was high profile Melbourne businessman John Elliot.

Mr. Elliot was charged with conspiring to defraud shareholders of Elders IXL, a company of which he was CEO, of $66.5 million. But eventually he was acquitted in extraordinary circumstances when the Judge found that the NCA had gone outside its powers and gathered evidence unlawfully. The Crown was forced to drop the case.

The Victorian Director of Public Prosecutions challenged the Judge’s rulings in the Victorian Court of Appeal, which eventually found that Justice Vincent had erred in law. However Mr. Elliot had been acquitted and could not be brought back to trial on the same charges.

During the eight months of pre trial legal argument virtually all of the proceedings were covered by suppression orders restricting media coverage. No jury was empanelled. Mr. Elliot, despite the technical nature of his acquittal, then turned ferociously on the NCA accusing its investigation of being politically motivated and launching a legal action against it for $200 million damages and calling for it be disbanded.

The Parliamentary Joint Committee on the NCA was one of those committees which generally had trouble generating enough interest among it members to get a quorum for its meetings. I determined to make the committee interesting and arranged briefings for the members of the Committee on a number of subjects. In the past relations between the Authority and its parliamentary “watchdog” had been strained to such an extent that the Authority offered little more than perfunctory briefings to the Parliamentary Joint Committee. I also developed a good working relationship with the Chair of the Authority, John Broome and his senior staff.

Mr. Broome had been a controversial Labor appointee to the position of Chairman of the NCA. Although a qualified lawyer he was not a prominent jurist as had been most of his predecessors. Mr. Broome invited me as Chairman of the PJC to attend and address the Authority’s annual senior management conference and later wrote thanking me and saying that my address was the “highlight of the conference.”

John Broome also thanked me for the “constructive way you have developed a relationship between the Committee and the Authority” and“…relations in the past had not been good and you have made a singular contribution to the important relations between the Authority and the Parliament”.

All of the members were new to the Committee with the exception of the Independent member for Moore, Paul Filing who was a former West Australia police officer. Paul was a member of the Class of 90 when he had been elected as a Liberal member but had been disendorsed prior to the 1996 election. Paul was helpful to me in getting the committee moving and generally supported my objectives.

It was the Committee’s responsibility to conduct periodic reviews of the effectiveness of the NCA. The last review had been conducted three years previously so another was timely. The Committee accepted my proposal for such a review and the announcement of the enquiry was made on 22 August 1996. It immediately attracted significant interest from the Press not the least because of the Elliot affair.

Public hearings were conducted in a number of cities. But it was the hearing scheduled for Melbourne at which Mr. Elliot was to appear which excited most interest. Mr. Elliot was considered to be the arch critic of the NCA having accused it of conducting a political vendetta against him and his colleagues.

His claims were based on the circumstances surrounding his very public arrest on the eve of the 1993 election at which time he was the high profile Federal President of the Liberal Party. He claimed that former Labor Prime Ministers Hawke and Keating and former Attorney General Bowen had been parties to a conspiracy with the NCA to damage the Liberal Party’s election prospects.

The Committee’s enquiry became controversial as it stretched its statutory responsibilities to the limit. One Labor member of the Committee, the ambitious young Victorian Senator Stephen Conroy saw the enquiry as an opportunity to retry Mr. Elliot. I had my hands full trying to contain him. He had obviously received good briefings and was much better informed about the intricacies of the Elliot case than the rest of us.

Mr. Elliot’s credibility was in fact an issue. His criticism of the NCA had been damaging and his friend, Victorian Premier Jeffery Kennett, had supported him in his attacks. However he clearly had an axe to grind and his remarks were so consistently excessive that it was inevitable that the Committee’s deliberations would focus on the aborted trial and the facts of the case that were never presented to a jury.

This situation presented me with a personal problem and a potential conflict of interest. Very few people knew that soon after my surprise preselection for the seat of McPherson in 1990 Mr. Elliot was a party to an attempt to replace me with the high profile and popular Lord Mayor of Brisbane Sally-Ann Atkinson.

Shortly after my preselection and only a few days before the close of nominations I was invited to meet with Peter Lawrence, who at the time was CEO of the Pivot group which owned a number of tourist properties on the Gold Coast including Sea World. Mr. Lawrence had been instructed to ask me to withdraw my nomination to pave the way for an emergency Liberal Party State executive endorsement of Sally-Ann as candidate for McPherson.

I was shocked. I had worked very hard to secure the preselection. The election was only a couple of weeks away. Mr. Lawrence assured me that Andrew Peacock, Federal Director of the Liberal Party Tony Eggleton and Party President, John Elliot, had endorsed the plan.

Sally–Ann Atkinson had not been a candidate in the preselection, which had taken place in January 1990. However, whilst there was little chance of losing McPherson, Peacock wanted Sally Ann Atkinson on the team to garner votes in some of the Brisbane seats he needed to win.

I was shocked by this highly irregular approach. However I refused to stand aside and went into hiding with my family for a few days until nominations had closed and my name was safely on the ballot paper as the Liberal candidate for McPherson.

When I arrived in Canberra for the first party meeting I was greeted by Andrew Peacock with that famous cheesy grin. We never discussed the Sally Ann Atkinson matter but I wondered if Andrew held me partly responsible for his close election defeat and as it turned out his last opportunity to become Prime Minister.

Ironically, the unknown Labor Candidate Jim Sorley in the March 1991 Brisbane City Council elections unexpectedly defeated Sally-Anne. She was endorsed as Liberal candidate for the Federal seat of Rankin at the 1993 election but performed poorly. Later, after a stint as Australian Trade Representative in Paris and serving for a brief time on the Sydney 2000 Olympic Organising Committee she actually sought preselection for the seat of McPherson after I vacated the seat. She was solidly rejected in that preselection which was won by one of my former staffer, Margaret May.

The Evaluation of the NCA by the Joint Parliamentary Committee was tabled in the Parliament on Monday 6 April 1998 the day before I announced my resignation from the Liberal Party. The Committee found that there was no evidence to support John Elliot’s claims that there had been a conspiracy against him. The Committee concluded that the NCA was needed more than ever and recommended a widening of its powers and increased funding.