James Ford Cairns (4 October 1914 - 12 October 2003), Australian politician, was prominent in the Labor movement through the 1960s and 1970s, and was briefly Deputy Prime Minister in the Whitlam government. Nambassa was a series of Hippie -conceived festivals held between 1976 and 1981 on large farms around Waihi and Waikino in New Zealand - Aotearoa Events 610 - Heraclius arrives by ship from Africa at Constantinople, overthrows Byzantine Emperor Phocas Year 1914 ( MCMXIV) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year Events 539 BC - The army of Cyrus the Great of Persia takes Babylon. Year 2003 ( MMIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. Edward Gough Whitlam, AC, QC (born 11 July 1916 known as Gough Whitlam (ˈɡɒf goff is an Australian former politician and 21st He is best remembered as a leader of the movement against Australian involvement in the Vietnam War, for his affair with Junie Morosi and for his later renunciation of conventional politics. The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, or the Vietnam Conflict, occurred in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia Junie Morosi (born 26 July 1933) is an Australian businesswoman who became a public figure in the 1970s through her relationship with Dr Jim Cairns He was also a prominent economist, and a prolific writer on economic and social issues. An economist is an expert in the Social science of Economics. A writer is anyone who creates a written work although the word usually designates those who write creatively or professionally as well as those who have written in many different forms
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Early days
Jim Cairns was born in Carlton, then a working-class suburb of Melbourne, the son of a clerk. Carlton is an Inner city suburb to the immediate north of the central city area of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Melbourne ( is the second most populous city in Australia, with a Metropolitan area population of approximately 3 He grew up on a dairy farm north of Sunbury. Sunbury is a large town located 35km north-west of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. His father went to the First World War as a lieutenant in the Australian Imperial Forces, but became disillusioned with the war and lost his respect for Britain. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All He did not return to Australia. Following the war he essentially deserted his family, and he travelled to Africa where he committed suicide after a stay of six or seven years.
Cairns attended Sunbury State School and later Northcote High School, where he completed his Leaving certificate. Northcote High School is a Co-educational state High school in Northcote, Victoria, Australia. Though life during the Depression was difficult with his mother having to work to provide for the family, and with himself having to make a three-hour daily commute by train, he was a very bright student, and excelled academically and in athletics.
Later Cairns had to abandon his studies to support his family, and in 1933 he joined the Police Force, becoming a detective and working in the surveillance squad. Victoria Police is the primary Law enforcement agency of Victoria, Australia. While working he studied at night and completed an economics degree at the University of Melbourne. Economics is the social science that studies the production distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The University of Melbourne is a Public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. He was the first Victorian policeman to hold a tertiary degree. In 1939 he married Gwen Robb, whose two sons he adopted.
In 1944, Cairns left the Police and was employed, successively as a tutor, a lecturer and a senior lecturer in economic history, at the University of Melbourne. The University of Melbourne is a Public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. He became a talented economist and also a convinced socialist. Socialism refers to a broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating state or collective ownership and administration of the Means of production and distribution In 1946 he applied to join the Communist Party, but was rejected. This article is about the historical Communist Party of Australia dissolved in 1991 He joined the Labor Party and became active in its left wing. The Victorian Labor Party was at this time controlled by the Catholic right-wing forces known as the "Groupers", associated with B.A. Santamaria, and Cairns was a leading opponent of this group. Bartholomew Augustine "B A" Santamaria, otherwise 'Bob' ( 14 August 1915 - 25 February 1998) Australian political
In 1955, when the federal Labor leader, Dr. H.V. Evatt, attacked the Groupers and brought on a major split in the Labor Party, Cairns sided with Evatt and came close to being expelled from the party. Herbert Vere Evatt, QC MP ( April 30, 1894 - November 2, 1965) was an Australian Jurist, politician At the 1955 elections, he stood for the House of Representatives for the working-class seat of Yarra, held by the leading Grouper, Stan Keon. History In 1949 Sir Robert Menzies founded the Liberal Party of Australia (descended from the United Australia Party) and was led by Menzies for 16 years through The House of Representatives is one of the two houses (chambers of the Parliament of Australia; it is the Lower house, the Upper house being the Senate The Division of Yarra was an Australian Electoral Division in the state of Victoria. Standish Michael "Stan" Keon ( 2 July 1915 – 22 January 1987) was an Australian politician for the Australian Labor In what is said to have been the most violent election campaign in Australian history, Cairns was elected. Cairns held Yarra until 1969, when it was abolished at a redistribution. Issues The 1969 election centred heavily on the two leaders John Gorton and Gough Whitlam He then shifted to Lalor in Melbourne's western suburbs. The Division of Lalor ( is an Australian Electoral Division in the state of Victoria.
Leading leftist
In Canberra, Cairns became a leader of the left. Canberra ( is the capital city of Australia With a population of over 340000 it is Australia's largest inland City. He was a highly effective debater and was soon feared and disliked by ministers in the Liberal government of Robert Menzies. The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party. Sir Robert Gordon Menzies, KT, AK, CH, QC (20 December 1894 - 15 May 1978 Australian politician was the twelfth person to serve He was also disliked by many in his own party, who saw him as an ideologue whose political views were too left-wing for the Australian electorate. He also struck many people at this time as cold and fanatical - a judgement which he (much later) accepted.
Nevertheless Cairns's abilities could not be denied. He completed his doctorate in economic history in 1957, and by the 1960s he was among the Labor Party's leading figures. A doctorate is an Academic degree that indicates the highest level of academic achievement At this time he also lectured on Marxist and socialist history, and taught at free seminars for working people in Melbourne unable to afford tertiary education. He was to travel overseas for the first time including to the United States and Asia. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the These experiences had a great effect on him. In 1967, when Arthur Calwell retired as Labor leader, Cairns contested the leadership, but was defeated by Gough Whitlam. Arthur Augustus Calwell (28 August 1896 - 8 July 1973 Australian politician was Leader of the Australian Labor Party from 1960 to 1967 Edward Gough Whitlam, AC, QC (born 11 July 1916 known as Gough Whitlam (ˈɡɒf goff is an Australian former politician and 21st The following year, when Whitlam resigned as leader as part of his fight with the left-wing of the party, Cairns again contested the leadership, but again narrowly failed. Whitlam appointed him shadow minister for trade and industry.
One of the reasons Cairns did not become leader of the Labor Party was that through the late 1960s and early 1970s his main focus was not on parliamentary politics but on leading the mass movement against the Vietnam War, to which the Menzies government had committed combat troops in 1965, and against conscription for that war. The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, or the Vietnam Conflict, occurred in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia Conscription (also known as the draft, the call-up or national service) is a general term for involuntary labor demanded by some established authority Until about 1968, most Australians supported the war, and opposition to it was led by the Communist Party and the trade unions. After 1968, however, opposition grew, and Cairns came to see this movement as a moral crusade. In 1969 he was bashed by a group of men who broke into his home.
In May 1970, Cairns, as chair of the Vietnam Moratorium, led an estimated 100,000 people in the largest political protest ever seen in Australia in a "sit-down" demonstration in the streets of Melbourne. The Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam was a large demonstration against the United States involvement in the Vietnam War that took place across the United Melbourne ( is the second most populous city in Australia, with a Metropolitan area population of approximately 3 Similar protests of proportionate size took place simultaneously in other Australian cities. There was none of the predicted violence, and the moral force of the (mainly young) protesters had a major effect on Australian attitudes to the war.
Cairns in Government
In 1972, Whitlam led the Labor Party into government for the first time in 23 years, and Cairns became Minister for Overseas Trade and Minister for Secondary Industry. Issues The 1972 Election was largely focused on domestic policy issues and the role of the federal government in resolving these issues The Australian Minister for Trade has been the Hon Simon Crean since December 2007 The current Minister for Innovation Industry Science and Research is Kim Carr, appointed on 3 December 2007. He had by now shed much of his socialist ideology of earlier years, though he was still a strong believer in state planning. He got along surprisingly well with the heads of industry, although critics said this was because he was sympathetic to their requests for government assistance. After the 1974 election, he was elected Deputy Leader of the Labor Party, defeating Lance Barnard, and thus became Deputy Prime Minister. Lance Herbert Barnard AO ( 1 May 1919 &ndash 6 August 1997) Australian politician was Deputy Prime Minister of Australia The Deputy Prime Minister of Australia is the second-most senior officer in the Government of Australia.
In December 1974, Whitlam appointed Cairns to the senior economic portfolio, Treasurer. The Treasurer of Australia is the minister in the Government of Australia and head of the Department of the Treasury, responsible for government expenditure This was the high-point of Cairns's political career. On Christmas Day 1974, while Whitlam was overseas, Cyclone Tracy devastated the city of Darwin, and Cairns as Acting Prime Minister impressed the nation with his sympathetic and decisive leadership. Cyclone Tracy was a Tropical cyclone that devastated the city of Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, from Christmas Eve It was during this period, however, that Cairns hired Junie Morosi as his principal private secretary, and he soon began a relationship with her which would eventually help ruin his career. Junie Morosi (born 26 July 1933) is an Australian businesswoman who became a public figure in the 1970s through her relationship with Dr Jim Cairns
Australia's economy began to decline during 1975, and Cairns (like other finance ministers around the world at this time) had few answers to the new phenomenon of stagflation, the combination of high unemployment and high inflation that followed the 1974 oil shock. Stagflation is an economic situation in which Inflation and Economic stagnation occur simultaneously and remain unchecked for a period of time
The Loans Affair
In an attempt to raise funds for a massive Keynesian pump-priming exercise, Cairns and another senior minister, Rex Connor, tried to borrow huge amounts of petrodollars from the Middle East through an intermediary, a Pakistani banker called Tirath Khemlani (the so-called "Loans Affair"). In Economics Keynesian economics (ˈkeɪnziən also Keynesianism and Keynesian Theory) is based on the ideas of twentieth-century British economist Reginald Francis Xavier "Rex" Connor ( 26 January 1907 - 22 August 1977) Australian politician was a minister in the A petrodollar is a US dollar earned by a country through the sale of petroleum Tirath Khemlani (died 1991 was a Pakistani broker who played a pivotal role in the Loans Affair which helped destabilise the Gough Whitlam Government in Australia The Loans Affair, also called the Khemlani Affair, is the name given to the political scandal involving the Whitlam Government of Australia in 1975 in When the Liberal Opposition learned of this, Cairns and Connor denied to both Parliament and to Whitlam that they had given Khemlani authority to act in the name of the Australian government. When it emerged that this was untrue, Whitlam moved Cairns from Treasury to the Environment ministry.
In addition to his involvement with Khemlani, Cairns also attempted to raise overseas funds through George Harris, a businessman and president of the Carlton Football Club. Carlton Football Club, nicknamed The Blues, is the third oldest club in the Australian Football League and one of the oldest Australian rules football Cairns provided Harris with written authorisation to raise A$2,000 million, offering him a 2. 5% commission. Cairns denied the existence of this letter, and when it was produced he denied having signed it. In July 1975, Whitlam sacked him from the ministry.
Cairns and Morosi
By this time Cairns's relationship with Morosi had become public, although the media at that time was still sufficiently discreet for its precise nature not to be mentioned. It took the newly elected Liberal backbencher John Howard to broadcast this fact under the protection of parliamentary privilege. See also Howard Government John Winston Howard AC (born 26 July 1939 was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia from 11 March Parliamentary privilege, also known as absolute privilege, is a legal mechanism employed within the legislative bodies of countries whose Constitutions are based on At the Labor Party national conference in February 1975 he gave an interview in which he confessed "a kind of love" for Morosi. Morosi considered Cairns to be sexually repressed, and evidently he found her company liberating. It is not clear when the relationship became sexual, and Cairns was not at this time directly asked if it were a sexual relationship. However, unlike other politicians of the time, he did not seek to suppress or publicly repudiate any of his private life.
In a 1982 defamation case he initiated before the Supreme Court of New South Wales, Cairns denied on oath having had a sexual relationship with Morosi. The jury in that case found that the article in question did contain "an imputation" that Cairns was "improperly involved with his assistant, Junie Morosi, in a romantic or sexual association," but that this statement was not defamatory. Cairns did not receive money for defamation, although Morosi did.
Aftermath
Cairns's Labor colleagues found his conduct in the Loans and Morosi affairs intolerable, and his political reputation was destroyed. In 1977 he retired from Parliament. He devoted the rest of his life to the counter-cultural movement, to which he had been introduced by Morosi. Counterculture (also " counter-culture " is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a Cultural group, or He sponsored a series of Down to Earth conference-festivals (known as Confests) at various rural locations, and was photographed sitting in the dust meditating. ConFest is an alternative bush Campout Festival held in the south-eastern states of Australia at New Year and Easter. He published a series of books in which he was highly critical of his former self, of conventional politics, of gender roles and Western culture generally.
Even in the counter-culture movement, however, Cairns and Morosi remained the centre of controversy, with disputes soon arising over the organisation and finances of the Down to Earth gatherings. In 1979 Cairns severed his formal links with the Down to Earth organisers. But he retained legally and financially embroiled with a failed communal settlement at Mount Oak, south of Canberra until, after a messy court case, he cut his losses and ended his involvement with what was left of the movement in 1991.
Cairns was subject to a great deal of media ridicule for these activities, but displayed his usual firm conviction about the rightness of his causes. In his later years, while remaining close to Morosi, he was reconciled with Gwen Cairns (she died in 2000) and lived at Narre Warren outside Melbourne. Narre Warren is an outer south-eastern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He became a familiar figure selling his books outside suburban markets where he would talk about politics, history or his life. In 2000 he was made a Life Member of the Labor Party. Cairns died of bronchial pneumonia at the age of 89 in October 2003. Pneumonia is an inflammatory illness of the Lung. Frequently it is described as lung Parenchyma / alveolar inflammation and abnormal He was accorded a State Funeral at St John's Anglican Church in Toorak, with a very large number of mourners. Toorak is a Suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is in the Local Government Area of the City of Stonnington
Further reading
- Paul Ormonde, A Foolish Passionate Man, Penguin, 1981
- Paul Strangio, Keeper of the Faith, Melbourne University Press, 2002
Bibliography
- G. O. and J. F. Cairns, Australia, 1953
- J. F. Cairns, Socialism and the A. L. P. , comment by Bruce McFarlane, 1963
- J. F. Cairns, Living with Asia, 1965
- Jim Cairns, Vietnam : is it truth we want?, 1965
- J. F. Cairns, Economics and foreign policy, 1966
- J. F. Cairns, Here I stand : statements, 1966
- J. F. Cairns, Changing Australia's role in Asia, 1968
- Jim Cairns, Australian foreign policy, 1968
- J. F. Cairns, Eagle and the lotus; western intervention in Vietnam 1847-1968, 1969
- Jack Heffernan, Socialist alternative : an A. L. P. view, foreword by J. F. Cairns, 1969
- J. F. Cairns M. P. , Silence kills; events leading up to the Vietnam Moratorium, 8 May 1970
- J. F. Cairns, Eagle and the lotus : Western intervention in Vietnam, 1847-1971, 1971
- J. F. Cairns, Tariffs or planning? : the case for reassessment, 1971
- J. F. Cairns, Quiet revolution, 1972
- J. F. Cairns, Impossible attainment, 1974
- J. F. Cairns, Labor Party? Dr. Evatt - the Petrov affair - the Whitlam government. , 1974
- Jim Cairns, Vietnam : scorched earth reborn, 1976
- Jim Cairns, Oil in troubled waters, 1976
- Jim Cairns, Growth to freedom, 1979
- Jim Cairns, Survival now : the human transformation, 1982
- Jim Cairns, Human growth, its source and potential, 1984
- Jim Cairns, Strength within : towards an end to violence, 1988
- Jim Cairns, Towards a new society : a new day has begun, 1990-1993
- Jim Cairns, Untried road, 1990
- Jim Cairns, Reshaping the future : liberated human potential, 1996
- Jim Cairns, On the horizon : a cultural transformation to a new consciousness, 1999
- Jim Cairns, Liberated biological function : the source of human quality, 2001
- Jim Cairns, New day : liberated biological human potential : the source of social reform to the good society there's no other way, 2002
External links
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Doug Anthony | Minister for Overseas Trade 1972–1974 | Succeeded by Frank Crean |
| Minister for Secondary Industry 1972–1973 | Succeeded by Kep Enderby | |
| Preceded by Lance Barnard | Deputy Prime Minister of Australia 1974–1975 | Succeeded by Frank Crean |
| Preceded by Frank Crean | Treasurer 1974–1975 | Succeeded by Bill Hayden |
| Preceded by Moss Cass | Minister for the Environment 1975 | Succeeded by Gough Whitlam |
| Parliament of Australia | ||
| Preceded by Stan Keon | Member for Yarra 1955–1969 | Division abolished |
| Preceded by Mervyn Lee | Member for Lalor 1969–1977 | Succeeded by Barry Jones |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by Lance Barnard | Deputy Leader of the Australian Labor Party 1974–1975 | Succeeded by Frank Crean |
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