The Anderson Inquiry and Its Australian Aftermath 1963–1973

chapter 9 The Anderson Inquiry and its Australian Aftermath 1963–1973

Bernard Doherty

Scientology is evil; its techniques evil; its practice a serious threat to the community, medically, morally and socially; and its adherents sadly deluded and often mentally ill. kevin victor anderson QC (1965) … The niceties of truth and fairness, of hearing witnesses and weighing evi- dence, are not for men whose ancestry is lost in the promiscuity of the prison ships of transportation. Hubbard College of Scientology (1967) ∵

Introduction

After a series of heated parliamentary exchanges in late 1963, the Bolte Gov- ernment of the State of Victoria established a Board of Inquiry into the Hubbard Association of Scientologists International (henceforth hasi), to be conducted under the supervision of Queen’s Counsel Kevin Victor Anderson. This decision and the resulting Report of the Board of Inquiry into Scientol- ogy (1965) (henceforth the Anderson Report) marked the beginning of a period of widespread debate surrounding the status of Scientology1 in Australia. Soon after Anderson’s findings were tabled in the Victorian parliament, the Government passed the Psychological Practices Act 1965. In response to fur- ther public controversy the West Australian parliament passed the Scientology Act 1968. The South Australia parliament followed suit, passing the Scientology Prohibition Act 1968 in early 1969. All three of pieces of legislation effectively

1 The Church of Scientology has been known by a variety of names in its history. For the pur- poses of this chapter I will use the abbreviation Scientology for convenience.

250 Doherty banned the practice of Scientology and each had its origins in the recommen- dations made in Anderson’s report. While these events have received passing mention from scholars (e.g. Melton 2000; 2009; New South Wales Anti-Discrimination Board 1984; Possamai & Pos- samai-Inesedy 2009; Richardson 2004; Wallis 1975; 1976), and in popular works on the Church of Scientology (e.g. Atack 1990; Miller 1988; Garrison 1974), little detailed analysis has appeared devoted to looking either at the background of the Anderson inquiry or the legislative actions which followed.2 While the Australian anti-Scientology laws were eventually repealed, they played a key role in the development of Scientology and deserve to be far better known.

Scope of Chapter

What follows is a narrative account of the some of the major events surrounding the Anderson inquiry of 1964, utilizing surviving public documentation. The public nature of the documents, a significant number of which were for- tuitously read into Hansard or later published by Scientology following government leaks and Freedom of Information requests (e.g. Church of Scientology [1969], 1973; Church of Scientology [1976]; Church of Scientology Perth [1977] Tampion 1972), offers a useful lens for seeing how a series of intertwining fac- tors prompted three state governments to act against Scientology. These events provide a useful historical case study of how Scientology’s aggressive approach to its critics, which intensified in the wake of the inquiry, developed in the important period of the late 1960s, by demonstrating how hasi responded to the media, disaffected ex-members, and three state governments. These events also help illuminate the background to Hubbard’s November 1968 declaration ‘The War’ in which he outlined a vast conspiracy of psychiatrists who he blamed for having “poured lies and slander into the press and government agencies” (Hubbard 1968:1). While as Cowan has noted conspiracy forms a major part of Scientology’s self-identity and that “claims to sys- tematic persecution and harassment have become part of its religious culture and mythistory” (2009:68), what follows below does demonstrate that mental health professionals did play a role in the events which took place in Australia. Finally, these events demonstrate how outsiders viewed Scientology’s development as a religion, and how this impacted the effectiveness on legislation against the group.

2 The major exception here is the unpublished dissertation of Stephen Mutch (2004), which contains a detailed précis of the extensive legislative debates regarding Scientology in Australia and the United Kingdom.