Take heart and name WA’s new federal seat Vallentine

2015 marks 30 years since took up her senate position, the first person in the world to be elected on an anti-nuclear platform. What better way to acknowledge her contribution to peace, nonviolence and protecting the planet than to name a new federal seat after her?

The official Australian parliament website describes Jo Vallentine in this way:

Jo Vallentine was elected in 1984 to represent Western in the Senate for the Nuclear Disarmament Party, running with the slogan ‘Take Heart—Vote Vallentine’. She commenced her term in July 1985 as an Independent Senator for Nuclear Disarmament, claiming in her first speech that she was the first member of any parliament in the world to be elected on this platform. When she stood for election again in 1990, she was elected as a senator for The Greens (), and was the first Green in the . … During her seven years in Parliament, Vallentine was a persistent voice for peace, nuclear disarmament, Aboriginal land rights, social justice and the environment (emphasis added)i.

Jo Vallentine’s parliamentary and subsequent career should be recognised in the named seat of Vallentine because: 1. Jo Vallentine was the first woman or person in several roles, in particular:  The first person in the world to win a seat based on a platform of nuclear disarmament  The first person to be elected to federal parliament as a Greens party politician. The Greens are now Australia’s third largest political party, yet no seat has been named after any of their political representatives

2. To acknowledge the social activism of the 1970s-1990s in which ‘new social movements’ transformed the global and Australian political and cultural landscape, in particular in relation to environmentalism, feminism, Indigenous rights and peace and nonviolence

3. To celebrate a remarkable person who is the living expression of engaged citizenship, leading a life of political passion, social commitment and personal integrity.

1. Jo Vallentine - the first woman or person to …  The first person to win a seat in any parliament in the world on a platform of nuclear disarmament (in 1984).  The first senator to win a senate seat for any political party from a ‘standing start’, i.e. not following the defection of a sitting member (such as Don Chipp creating the Australian Democracts)ii.  First and only senator to win a seat for the ‘Vallentine Peace Group’ (in 1987).  The first person to be elected to Australian parliament for the Greens political party (in 1990).  The first female and non-major Party individual to serve on the 30 person Joint Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee (from 9 October 1987 to 31 January 1992). Jo Vallentine lobbied hard for this position, seeing it as a chance to raisequestions about the environment, social justice and human rights on a committee that traditionally saw trade as its overriding concern.

2. Acknowledging a transformative period in social and political history Indicating their widespread effect on Australian social and political life, the values of the new social movements of the mid-1960s to mid-1990s were expressed first in the election of the Don Dunstan

1 government in (June 1967 to April 1968; June 1970 to February 1979) and the Gough Whitlam government federally (1972 to 1975). We believe that a federal seat in New South Wales should assuredly be named ‘Whitlam’. But a federal seat in Western Australia should also be named to commemorate the second wave of social movement activism, which in Jo Vallentine’s case focused on peace and nuclear disarmament and pursued that goal with a commitment to participatory decision-making.

Values and outlooks that were changed fundamentally by the new social movements:  Environmentalism – instead of seeing the planet as an endless economic resource, the conservation movement understood the interconnectedness of people and planet and the ‘limits to growth’ imposed by non-renewable use of land, water, minerals. Environmental understanding and commitment. Jo Vallentine wrote presciently in 1990 ‘there is an urgent need to set a limit on carbon dioxide emissions’iii but her most sustained environmental campaigning has been to ban , the cause that propelled her into political activism because of its deadly threat to humanity  Achieving a ban on mining in the Antarctic – Jo Vallentine was instrumental in persuading the government to refuse to sign the Convention on the Regulation of Antarctic Mineral Resource Activities and instead to promote the formulation of a comprehensive conservation conventioniv

 The women’s movement – transformed the rights of Australian women in work, the home and cultural life and challenged the widely accepted ways of doing things, including politics. Jo Vallentine took feminism seriously, expressing it o in the first ever all female senate ticket which also fielded the first ever female Aboriginal candidate, Gladys Yarranv (the Greens (WA) senate ticket in 1990). Western Australia can be proud of its female political firsts: Edith Cowan (recognised in the electorate of Cowan, the first woman to be elected to an Australian parliament) and Dorothy Tangney (recognised in the electorate of Tangney, the first female senator) vi followed by Jo Vallentine, the first ever Greens senator. o In a 1984 election campaign run by mothers of young children, including Jo Vallentine herself, with a positive and hopeful focus of ‘No negativity, no slanging matches’, compared with the ‘raised fists’ and ‘mushroom clouds’ of the campaign in the eastern states. Where the much more famous () was unsuccessful in New South Wales, this campaign swept people up, with with 1500 to 2000 volunteers staffing 80% of WA’s booths from Kununurra to Esperance on election day o how the team attempted a ‘non-hierarchical model, using consensus decision-making’ to run Jo Vallentine’s electorate offices in Canberra and , Jo contributing her ‘entire electorate allowance to the team, to be spent as the group decides’.

 Peace and anti-nuclear campaigning – Jo Vallentine’s passionate commitment to peace was not a commitment shared by either the Whitlam or Dunstan governments. Naming a seat of Vallentine recognises the global movement for peace in which Australia briefly led the way, at least in political representation. o The global anti-nuclear movement reached a peak in the 1970s and 1980s, expressed in the New York demonstration in 1982 of one million people protesting the arms race, ‘the largest anti-nuclear protest and the largest political demonstration in American history’. o In Australia, The Palm Sunday events were huge - about twenty thousand people marching in 1984 - and superbly organised, without the help of the internet or social media’ (Jo Vallentine).

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o The NDP was the fastest growing political party in Australian history. At the December 1984 federal election the NDP exceeded 4% in every state except Tasmania (where the NDP received 3.9%). o The yearning for peace and the fear of nuclear war was demonstrated in the re- election of Jo Vallentine in 1987 as an independent under the banner of the ‘Vallentine Peace Group’ o As Jo Vallentine likes to ask ‘how many uranium mines have we got in WA?’ Nonevii - in no small part due to her tireless energy to hold back nuclear war, nuclear accidents and halt uranium mining. During Jo Vallentine’s time in parliament, Indonesia proposed to build 10 nuclear reactors – a threat both to Indonesians and Australians in the event of a Chernobyl of Fukushima disaster.

 Aboriginal rights o In 1978 Jo Vallentine joined Community Aid Abroad, and was central in the establishment of the West Australian branch of the Aboriginal Treaty Support Group in 1979 o Jo Vallentine has been a stalwart supporter of Indigenous leaders and communities ever since, understanding that their connection with the land is a necessary approach for humanity’s survival. She has campaigned with particular vigour to oppose uranium mining on traditional land or the dumping radioactive waste near Aboriginal communities

3. A remarkable person of integrity who has made a lasting impact.  Jo Vallentine was politically engaged from a young age, joining the Country Party as a teenager and being a Labor supporter and worker (but not a member) as a young adult.

 As a senator during the Cold War, Jo Vallentine was ‘very often alone in this place, challenging the logic, the expense and the pollution of what passed for real politics and security back then. … she was often belittled by people who were never her intellectual or moral equals’. The struggle for nonviolence continues, Greens Senator going on to note her words in 2012: 'It is not in my name that you make these plans and promises in support of future wars and it is not in my name that you offer Australian facilities to the deadliest war machine on the planet'viii

 In parliament her office sought to share the resources of parliament with community groups in Australia and abroad, preparing lobby backgrounders encouraging the readers to write letters to politicians and to participate in the democratic process, writing articles and organising seminars on alternative defence strategies for Australia, receiving international delegations and putting the case of environmental groups to their government

 Introduced the first attempt in parliament to protect whistleblowers with the ‘Whistleblowers Protection Bill 1991ix

 Ensured an enduring legacy for social justice, ecological sustainability, peace and nonviolence, and participatory democracy in the foundation and growth of the third largest political party in WA, the Greens (WA). Jo Vallentine noted that the environmental and peace movements had more members than any political party in the country. Jo Vallentine was instrumental in negotiating between the groups that shared these interests but required cajoling to come together. Jo Vallentine wrote of her vision for this new party: ‘Process is deemed as important as policies, with grass-roots participation and gender' equality being fundamental’.

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 A tireless activist for peace and non-violence. As Jo Vallentine said, ‘we were basically activists who happened to get into parliament’, returning to activism in 1992 when her elder daughter reached her teens, and at a time when Jo's health was suffering from the pressure of her work and the commuting. Jo then helped to found an Alternatives to Violence Project sharing non-violence skills with people in prisons, participating in the 1997 Peace Pilgrimage as part of the anti-nuclear alliance, the campaign against uranium mining at , and continuing opposition to the Iraq war and the expansion of nuclear power and weaponry.

 Jo Vallentine forged alliances with anti-nuclear groups around the world during her time as a senator, including being arrested at an anti-nuclear protest in Nevada and being a member of the 77th Inter-Parliamentary Union Conference in Managua, Nicaragua, in 1987. She continues these international connections, including connections with groups in Russia after the Chernobyl disaster

 Possibly the most often arrested Australian senator, although following in the footsteps of George Georges of Queensland who was arrested for standing up for civil liberties. As Jo Vallentine writers: ‘Quakers are encouraged to "let their lives speak" - in other words, to act as we believe, to ensure a correspondence, between our outward, visible lives and our inward, spiritual concerns’. Jo Vallentine has been arrested at least six times, including ‘at the amazing and wonderful Mothers' Day action at the Nevada test site in the US in May 1987’x; at the "Joint Facilities" base at Pine Gap near Alice Springs in 1987, when Jo Vallentine’s refusal to pay the fine meant she served three days' hard labour in the Alice Springs gaol xi; in 1988 for a protest as the warship HMS Edinburgh docked at Fremantlexii; in 2009: arrested for a breach of the peace following her participation in an anti-nuclear and peace rally on the Fremantle wharfxiii; in 2000 for trespass at Jabiluka spending 7 days in Bandyup prison

4. Indicative of Jo Vallentine’s significance in Australian politics and history are the following awards, nominations and recognition:  2005: one of six Australian women and one of the 1000 Peace Women Across the Globe nominiated for the Nobel Peace Prize (Association 1000 women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005)xiv  2006: November, The West Australian named Jo Vallentine one of the State’s 100 most influential people of all time  2000: Nomination for Australian of the Year  1990: the Chico Mendes Award from the Open International University for Complementary Medicines  1989: American Field Service Exchanges Peace Prize Award  1999: Nomination for Nuclear Free Future Award  1999: chosen as one of fifty women recognised as ‘an integral part of the growth and development of the state. The quilters’ ‘demonstration of skills and creativity resulted in over 50 quilts depicting tales of the hard life of pioneer women, of women committed to a cause or confronting the issues of modern life’: Material women '99: Quilts that tell stories (1999) Katie Hill and Margaret Ross (eds) Perth, Curtin University of Technology, on the occasion of 100 years of WA women being eligible to vote.  One of only two honorary life members of Greens (WA)

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Photo gallery

On stage with daughter Samantha, at Palm Sunday Peace Rally Perth, 1985

Jo Vallentine, Samantha Fry, Katie Fry, Peter Fry at home, 1987. Kombi van in the background is still on the road. Photo: Geoff Fisher

Peter Garrett, Jo Vallentine, Louise Duxbury (second on Vallentine Peace Group ticket), at 1987 election campaign launch, photo: Liz Wood

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Jo Vallentine ‘unwelcoming’ nuclear powered ships to Fremantle Harbour from Gage Road in 1986. Photo: courtesy of the West Australian

Jo Vallentine arrested in 1987 at the Mothers' Day action at the Nevada test site in the US Pre-arrest at Pine Gap, 1987

JoVallentine with Rudall River kids during uranium meeting around Kintyre deposit 1988 at Rudall River in Martu country. The uranium deposit there are still not mined, but being actively pursued On stage speaking to Philippines Peace Brigades, 1989

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The only woman on the Joint Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee, 1990

At a rally in Fremantle, circa 2007

A submission to the EPA chair, Paul Vogel, to oppose uranium mining at Wiluna, 14 February 2014 with Mia Pepper and Mark Atkinson

Marcus Atkinson, Jo Vallentine, Judy Blyth remembering Hiroshima Day 2014

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i http://wifp.senate.gov.au/milestones/33/ ii Fisher, Gillian (1995) Half-Life: The NDP: peace, protest and party politics Sydney: State Library of New South Wales Press at p86 iii Jo Vallentine & Peter D. Jones (1990) Quakers in Politics: Pragmatism or Principle? Queanbeyan: The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Australia Incorporated, p38 http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.quakers.org.au/resource/resmgr/_pdf/JBhL1990_QuakersInPolitics.pdf ivhttp://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/summary/summary.w3p;page=12;query=Jo%20Vallentine;resCo unt=Default v Christabel Chamarette, Hansard, Thursday, 2 June 1994, Page: 1159, http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;page=1;query=Jo%20Vallentine;rec=11;resCo unt=Default vihttp://www.aec.gov.au/elections/australian_electoral_history/milestone.htm; http://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/austn-women-in-politics; http://australianpolitics.com/parliament-federal/general/women-members-parliament-since-1901 vii Jo Vallentine, Stepping Out for Peace, p89 viii Scott Ludlam, Tuesday, 20 November 2012, Hansard Page: 9259, http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;page=0;query=Jo%20Vallentine;rec=10;resCo unt=Default ixhttp://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/summary/summary.w3p;page=10;query=Jo%20Vallentine;resCo unt=Default x Jo Vallentine & Peter D. Jones (1990) Quakers in Politics: Pragmatism or Principle? Queanbeyan: The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Australia Incorporated, p18 http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.quakers.org.au/resource/resmgr/_pdf/JBhL1990_QuakersInPolitics.pdf xi Jo Vallentine & Peter D. Jones (1990) Quakers in Politics: Pragmatism or Principle? Queanbeyan: The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Australia Incorporated, p23 http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.quakers.org.au/resource/resmgr/_pdf/JBhL1990_QuakersInPolitics.pdf xii Jo Vallentine & Peter D. Jones (1990) Quakers in Politics: Pragmatism or Principle? Queanbeyan: The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Australia Incorporated, p24 http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.quakers.org.au/resource/resmgr/_pdf/JBhL1990_QuakersInPolitics.pdf xiii https://indymedia.org.au/2009/07/06/peace-activist-jo-vallentine-arrested-in-fremantle-protest-against-us- military xiv The six Australian nominees were: Indigenous rights campaigner Faith Bandler, social justice campaigner Stella Cornelius, peace researcher Dr Zohl de Ishtar; human rights supporter the Reverend Alexandra Gater, and a group of Aboriginal Women Elders from Coober Pedy, the . Nominations for the group of 1000 women were made by members of the public and by organisations such as peace and academic networks (http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/bandler-nominated-for-nobel- prize/2005/06/29/1119724676131.html)

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