Public suggestion 19
People for Nuclear Disarmament (WA)
4 pages
Western Australia secretariat Phone 08 6363 8043 Email [email protected]
VALLENTINE – an appropriate name for new Federal seat in WA
This suggestion is from Judy Blyth on behalf of People for Nuclear Disarmament WA.
SUMMARY
Jo Vallentine’s guiding principles of peace, social justice and care for the environment.
Her special interestin human rights for Aboriginal people.
Her election on platform of nuclear disarmament, a “first” in world history
Her personal warmth and communication skills
Some personal reflections on Jo Vallentine
Her strength in the Senate, despite her solo role there
Bill to amend the Australian Broadcasting Act
Her liaison and support for community groups & resourcing positive action campaigns
Her work to establish a culture of peace in strategies used by the social change movement in WA and beyond
Her arrests for her causes
Her anti-militarism beliefs and practices
Her part in the Alternatives to Violence Project
How her activism continued unabated in her post-Senate life- including The Pilgrimage Project
RECOMMENDATION that VALLENTINE be the name of WA’s new Federal seat.
I have worked with Jo Vallentine for the past 29 years on issues of peace, experiencing at first hand her
enormous strengths and commitment to those causes. Her passion for a world without nuclear weapons and war
has always been so consistently and clearly expressed through her words, spoken or written, and her actions so
often courageous and sometimes, in Parliament, so solitary. Always all these expressions were backed up by a
deep inner spiritual life which revolved about her love and respect for all life on this planet.
Her stand for the rights of Australia’s First People is legendary and her support for their right to take care of
country unwavering, especially in regard to their wish to keep uranium safely in the ground or to resist
radioactive waste being dumped on their land such as at Muckaty in the NT. Well prior to her years in the
Senate, she had joined Community Aid Abroad through which she was very influential in the formation of the
WA branch of the Aboriginal Treaty Support Group.
Right from the beginnings of her years as a Senator, firstly representing the Nuclear Disarmament Party, Jo
Vallentine seemed extraordinarily different from any other politician. This was during the Cold War and when
people were more aware of and fearful of it hotting up into a nuclear war. The Palm Sunday peace rallies were
hugely supported back then reflecting the prevalence of this concern. In 1987, she was re-elected as an
Independent representing the Vallentine Peace Group. In 1990, she was again re-elected, but this time under the
banner of The Greens (WA) on an all-woman ticket, including the first ever Aboriginal candidate, Glenys
Yarran. Jo’s strong support for Aboriginal rights and for women’s rights was loud and clear! By her early
warnings of greenhouse gas in the planet’s atmosphere leading to climate change, she showed her understanding
of the dynamics of global warming.
Her powers of directly communicating with people via public speaking has always been outstanding. Her
opening phrase, accompanied by a glorious smile, was often simply “Friends!” She always spoke from the heart
with such beguiling sincerity, capturing attention, earning devotion, and inspiring active political engagement. .
She seemed to cut through the complexities to the essential, important matters that needed addressing and acting
upon. What a skill she had, and still has, in distilling complex ideas into such a simple and digestible form.
The first time I met Jo Vallentine (shortly after my family arrived in WA in early 1986) was near Fremantle
Port. It was during a campaign to stop nuclear-powered and nuclear–armed warships from visiting. Formerly a
Victorian, I was well aware of her election to the Senate on a platform of nuclear disarmament in 1984 and from
television news footage, I had detected that she was a woman of great internal strength and principle.
Amazingly this election win was achieved while she had two small daughters. Her husband Peter Fry came to
be their primary carer when Jo had to be off on those long flights to Canberra (and other places around the
world) throughout her years as a Senator.
I can still recall what Jo was wearing that first sunny day I met her – a long pure white gathered skirt and top
decorated with a colourful brooch of a white dove flying across a rainbow. It all seemed to symbolise her purity
of purpose and method of applying peaceful means to achieve her goal of a peaceful world. There was often
something a little theatrical in the way Jo presented herself – but her warmth always was so genuine. This
helped to make her words and appeals stick firmly in the minds and hearts of her supporters of whom I was
quickly becoming but one of thousands.
Jo was the sole voice in the Senate for many principled stands. After determined lobbying, she became the first
woman MP on the Joint Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee (from 1987 to 1992). There, her
presence was strongly felt, although she was outnumbered 29 to ONE as she expanded the Committee’s vision
beyond its focus on trade vision as it had to address her questions on environment, social justice and human
rights.
Of the many issues she acted upon, I would like to draw attention to one that might be overlooked - her early
efforts to amend the Australian Broadcasting Act so that children’s television entertainment would not promote
violent attitudes and behaviours in child viewers. Influences in those early formative years are germinal to each
individual’s development and Jo felt the importance of addressing that issue of children’s entertainment. For
some months I worked with Jo on that initiative, gathering a large body of data about the effects on children of
exposure to violence in entertainment to justify this proposed legislative change. For the new Senator, getting
her Bill onto the Senate agenda proved very difficult and in the end, she did not succeed in this. However her
good intentions were a boon to the National Action Against War Toys which at the same time was pursuing that
same goal through community work throughout Australia. All this happened before electronic interactive games
became available and entered children’s lives. Violence is embedded all too often in these games and concern
continues about how this influence will be conditioning them to violence in their own behaviours as they grow
to adulthood.
Typically Jo Vallentine’s office shared its resources with community-based groups such as the NAAWT,
helping to make events happen to move campaigns for positive social change, for peace, and for defending the
environment. Her office churned out informative background leaflets to encourage people to write to politicians
and companies urging they work towards responsible outcomes across a wide range of issues on the times.
One such leaflet was aimed at reserving that Antarctica for scientific research and preserving it from resource
exploitation. Her strident advocacy was very influential in the government not signing the Convention on
Regulation of Antarctic Mineral Resource Activities.
Because of her unbending philosophy and practical example, she has had a remarkable impact on the way the
peace movement has carried out its activities in Western Australia. She has ploughed the seeds of that belief
into ‘the movement’ by her example throughout her Senate years and beyond them. ‘Civil disobedience’ – or
rather ‘civil obedience’ to a higher cause – was one expression of this, leading her to being arrested several
times as she took peaceful action to oppose violence used in war, or to defend the human rights of Australia’s
First People.
As a senator, Jo was first arrested during a 1987 Mothers Day event at the Nevada nuclear test site in the US.
This spectacular stand against nuclear weapons was right on line with her nuclear disarmament platform that
had landed her into the Senate. Later that year, she was arrested at Pine Gap due to protesting at that “Joint
Facility” base which implicates Australia in militaristic actions of the US. For Jo it was three days in Alice
Springs Goal doing hard labour – but her bearing of this ‘punishment’ only served to bring more attention and
concern about the role of Pine Gap, and more admiration, respect and interest in her methods for achieving this.
In 2000, another arrest in the NT occurred while Jo was peacefully defending the rights of the Mirrar people to
keep Jabiluka and country free of uranium mining. The traditional owner, Yvonne Margarula, knowing well the
harm that such mining could inflict because the nearby Ranger uranium mine had been operating for years, had
invited people like Jo to help them prevent more uranium mining establishing and harming the environment and
its people. Only peaceful methods were used in the long campaign to stop the mine, and that included deep
respect for Mirrar belief and culture. As a consequence of her support for the Mirrar, Jo spent seven days in
Bandyup Women’s Prison near Perth. Despite the harshness of this prison experience, Jo discovered a
captivating book in its library. Not quite finished when she was due for release, she ask to stay just a little
longer to do so. Not allowed! Twice Jo has been arrested by Fremantle wharf protesting the presence and
preparedness of navies (the British in 1998 and US in 2009) to use their nuclear weapons in war. All arrests had
been driven by a strong conscience and served to increase the devotion people felt for this extraordinary woman
whether in or out of Parliament. Due to stress-related health problems, she had to resign before her third term in
the Senate was complete – but after a refreshing bush holiday with her family, she went straight on into further
activism for her many causes.
Anti-militarism has been a strong theme in Jo Vallentine’s life. Of course women did not want their fathers,
husbands and sons to succumb to wars that had called them for centuries and never “solved” the problems that
had incited each war in the first place. The fact that she became a Quaker in her adult life is part of this
consistency. That faith is based on peace, and involvement in war for a Quaker is confined to rescuing the
wounded and comforting the bereft. Hence Jo’s strong objections to the war in Iraq which started in 1991 under
the first Bush presidency over non-existent weapons of mass destruction. Similarly after the “9/11” atrocity in
2001, Jo opposed war as a response as war itself is terror. In that case she called a meeting through People for
Nuclear Disarmament (WA) for anyone interested in a non-militarised response to those horrific events. Deep
discussions followed at these gatherings, and a Charter of Principles was mutually drawn up to guide our
response. An important part of the strategy agreed upon was to hold public peace vigils each Tuesday (as the
attacks in the US had occurred on that day of the week.) The message emanating from those peace vigils urged
that law, not war, be applied, justice not revenge so that all Afghanis not be terrorised through a war for what
happened on September 9th that year. It was about understanding the root causes of war and bringing healing
solutions respectful for both sides so that humanity moved onto a higher plain in dealing with our relationships
when they became mired in distrust and anger. With Jo, we all wanted to play our part in preventing the cycle
of “pay back” being perpetuated by both sides. At first people came to support the vigils in their hundreds with
their home-made placards. For 5 or 6 weeks we used the space outside Perth’s main railway station, pleading
that Afghanistan not be invaded. The day that war started, a spontaneous gathering of vigil supporters happened
in Forrest Chase to protest the start of this war, the repercussions still affecting people within and outside
Afghanistan to this day. Many refugees have had to flee that beleaguered country for their safety and many are
here in Australia now. After the invasion, numbers at the vigils diminished, and it was transferred to “Wesley
corner” by the Hay St/William Street intersection, continuing for about 12 years. Jo was faithfully present
whenever it was possible for her. Of course Jo was actively protesting the 2003 war in Iraq on false grounds of
its possession of weapons of mass destruction. Again, the legacy of that war has been terrible. More protests
from this determined former Senator when Australia was recommitted to military engagement again in Iraq in
late 2014.
Shell shock, now called post traumatic stress disorder, has always been a consequence for soldiers returning
from the horrors of battle, and the repercussions for the families and communities of those soldiers too has been
a heavy burden. Jo’s perennial concern about this is being expressed currently as Australia faces the mental
health outcomes of the ADF’s involvement in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq ads they return to Australia and try
to adapt to civilian life. Her anti-war principle has imbued in all of Jo’s public life as well as private life.
I think that the government and certainly the police force here in WA have much to thank Jo Vallentine for. She
has in her own inimitable way spread a culture of peaceful means to achieve peace-filled goals. Much of this
culture has been absorbed from her personal example of practice. Her enthusiastic promotion of the
Alternatives to Violence Project was a more direct, concentrated strategy towards spreading the art of positive,
peaceful protest which involves respect for others and recognition of one’s own vulnerability to going astray.
Within us each, the AVP tells us, are the seeds for violence – as well as the seeds for peaceful cooperation to
make progress. Through the AVP prism, Jo with others, ran series of workshops to train others to practise its
method of making progress peacefully. These AVP courses have helped countless numbers of Western
Australians to grow their ability and practice of building peaceful relationships and advancing peace in our
communities, and apply those principles in all peace movement events. Hence there has been very little violent
behaviour at peace movement protests in WA – so very little for overseeing police presence to attend to. To this
day, Jo still goes into prisons to cultivate the AVP attitudes and practices.
In post-Senate life in 1992, Jo Vallentine became directly active again in People for Nuclear Disarmament WA
(started in early 1980s) and the Anti-Uranium Coalition of WA which had formed while she was in Parliament.
(AUCWA was later renamed the Anti-Nuclear Alliance of WA as its concerns had expanded when international
company Pangea decided that somewhere in remote WA there would be a repository for a large proportion of
the world’s medium- to high-level radioactive wastes. ) Both PND and AUCWA/ANAWA are dedicated to a
non-nuclear future with the first focussed more on nuclear disarmament and the second more on stopping
uranium mining and nuclear power. Jo regards nuclear power as a huge and dangerous folly of the twentieth
century – and that it is our task in the twenty-first to close down the global nuclear power industry because of its
unacceptable risks.
In 1997, Jo Vallentine was instrumental in establishing the Pilgrimage Project which involved an 18,000 km
journey around Australia visiting sites linked in some way to Australia’s involvement in nuclear issues. A white
bus, with STOP URANIUM - RECLAIM THE FUTURE emblazoned in red along its side, and carrying 20
“pilgrims” set off from Perth on Hiroshima Day for a 55 day respectful journey to places of significance to
Australia’s First People who are the custodians of “Poison Fire” (uranium). This included uranium mine sites,
nuclear weapons test sites, and potential nuclear waste dump sites. At each site, there were events to draw the
attention of local people and of the nation, to their significance, and Jo was always instrumental in these events.
Throughout the pilgrimage, a small lantern alive with a flame ignited in Hiroshima accompanied these Pilgrims.
Two from Novozybkov, the town nearest Chernobyl, were able to tell their experiences of life after that nuclear
reactor accident of 26 April 1986. The bus drove north to the Parrngurr community near the proposed Kintyre
uranium mine which is still threatening the Martu people to this day. Then on to Port Hedland, close to the
Monte Bello Islands where post-WW2 British nuclear tests had taken place; to the N.T. and Ranger uranium
mine and nearby Jabiluka where a new mine was being strongly resisted; to the Pine Gap joint US-Australian
facility near Alice Springs, to Uluru, the red heart of this continent, and south through country like Maralinga
where British nuclear tests had taken place; to Roxy Downs operating uranium mine and Woomera. Then on to
Sydney to visit Australia’s only nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights before turning westwards again to Perth.
Jo Vallentine’s strong stand against militarism and the nuclear fuel chain does not mellow. Her whole being
and life seem to me to be of the highest standard of consistency to something so pure and important for the
future of humanity. Throughout all this, she retains her impish sense of humour, her feisty expressiveness, her
keen sense of inner self, her openness to spiritual guidance and her warmth and care for her fellow human
beings. Jo is the first to fly to people who are going through an illness or a distress. Her inner life and outer life
are in accord with one another. She is one strong woman and a role model for many. The numerous awards
recognising her enormous contribution to Australian political life, peace work and environmental activism add
up to a picture of the width and depth of her reach into the consciousness of people in this country and globally.
For Jo there is no “resting on her laurels”.
Now a devoted hands-on grandmother of a one-year-old, Jo is enjoying this new stage in her life while
maintaining a huge volume of voluntary community work to promote peace and environmental sense in many
different circumstances.
I recommend that Western Australia’s new Federal electorate be named VALLENTINE in her honour
and to preserve the history of her remarkable positive contribution to political and civil life in
Australia.
Submitted by Judy Blyth
Co-Convener of People for Nuclear Disarmament (WA)
9 April 2015