THE TWENTY -SIXTH JAMES BACKHOUSE LECTURE 1990 QUAKERS IN POLITICS: PRAGMATISM OR PRINCIPLE? Jo Vallentine and Peter D. Jones The James Backhouse Lectures This is one of a series of lectures instituted by Australia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends on the occasion of the establishment of that Yearly Meeting in 1964. This lecture was delivered in Sydney on 6 January 1990 during the Yearly Meeting. James Backhouse was an English Friend who visited Australia from 1832 to 1838. He and his companion, George Washington Walker, travelled widely but spent most of their time in Tasmania. It was through their visit that Quaker Meetings were first established in Australia. The two men had access to individual people with authority in the young colonies, and with influence in the British Parliament and social reform movement. In painstaking reports and personal letters to such people, they made practical suggestions and urged legislative action on penal reform, on land rights and the treatment of Aborigines, and on the rum trade. James Backhouse was a botanist and naturalist. He made careful observations and published full accounts of what he saw, in addition to encouraging Friends and following the deep concern for the convicts and the Aborigines that had brought him to Australia. Australian Friends hope that this series of lectures will bring fresh insights into truth, often with reference to the needs and aspirations of Australian Quakerism. Joan Courtney Presiding Clerk Australia Yearly Meeting Copyright 1990 by The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Australia Incorporated ISBN 0 909885 31 1 Produced by Margaret Fell Quaker Booksellers and Publishers Printed on recycled paper by The Queanbeyan Age ABOUT HIE AUTHORS Jo Vallentine, the fourth in a family of five girls, was brought up on a farm not far from Perth, Western Australia. She attended a convent boarding school for six years before spending a year as an exchange student in the United States. This was a powerful, internationalising experience. Teaching was Jo's chosen career, interspersed with a good deal of travelling, which broadened her perspectives beyond Catholicism. Jo Vallentine discovered Quakerism and married Peter Fry at about the same time. They were married in the Perth Meeting House before embarking on a three-year journey to see the world. Activism and parenting followed, leading Jo on her unexpected path to Australia's Senate. Peter D. Jones is a member of Canberra Regional Meeting and Convener of the Australian Quaker Peace Committee. He grew up in the west of England in a family committed to Christian pacifism, internationalism and socialism. Though brought up in the Congregational Church, he started attending Quaker Meeting as a teenager and became a member in 1966, having originally encountered Friends on the early Aldermaston marches. He was active with Young Friends at Oxford University, where he developed an interest in the origins of Quakerism while doing a Modem History degree, and he went on from there to work as a volunteer with the Friends Service Council (as it then was) at the Friends Boys School at Rainallah in Palestine. Since then he has continued to travel widely around the world, visiting Friends in many countries, both from the silent tradition and pastoral. meetings. From 1983 to 1986 he was a field worker for the Australian Quaker Peace Committee, and then joined Jo Vallentine's staff as a research officer, based at Parliament House, Canberra. ABOUT THIS LECTURE Quakers have traditionally been politically active in many areas peace, social justice, prison reform, the abolition of slavery, and many other causes - but few Friends have ventured into politics. The first part of this lecture, by Jo Vallentine, tells the story of her election in 1984 as the Independent Senator for Nuclear Disarmament from Western Australia and her continued political involvement. In the second part, her research assistant, Peter D. Jones, gives an account of the involvement of Quakers who have been active in politics in Britain and the United States since the seventeenth century, particularly exploring the dilemma of whether to compromise to achieve high office, or remain independent but on the fringe. CONTENTS A Quaker Senator's story: Jo Vallentine 1 The beginning 2 Australian Friends in politics 11 Doing the job 16 The personal dimension 16 The staff team 20 Community role 22 Parliamentary work 29 Evaluation 37 Conclusion 44 The historical perspective: Peter D. Jones 47 John Bellers 51 Victorian Quakers in Parliament 52 John Bright 54 From 19th-century liberalism to 20th-century socialism 58 Covering the whole political spectrum 62 The American tradition 65 The eighteenth century - a time of separation 67 John Woolman 69 A time of withdrawal 70 Comment 72 Appendix 73 Notes 79 QUAKERS IN POLITICS: PRAGMATISM OR PRINCIPLE? "You will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free." John 8:32 A QUAKER SENATOR'S STORY: JO VALLENTINE "What's a nice girl like you getting mixed up in all this for?" This was a question from Joh Bjelke-Petersen1 to me in November 1984, during the Federal election campaign. It's as good a place to start as any. I can't even remember how I answered him then, but his question is still relevant to my present struggle, writing this Backhouse Lecture. Was I then, in fact, "a nice girl"? I can't even begin to answer that one! Why was I "getting mixed up in all this" in 1984, and why am I now, in 1990, still mixed up in it all? Joh Bjelke-Petersen's question was loaded with negativity about the political scene - and it's sobering to reflect on the increased murkiness of his political life since that time. I fervently hope never to come near the same degree of murk which has been part of recent government activities in Queensland. The fact is that to many citizens, politics is a dirty business. That is probably why Quakers, among the more critical and perceptive members of society, shy away from direct involvement in electoral politics. Of course there have been, and are, notable exceptions. But considering Quakers' general degree of activism in social affairs, surprisingly few have "gone into politics". Neither was that my intention. I, too, am cynical about political processes, 1 and especially about political parties. Reservations about the compromises one has to make, and fear of becoming tainted, at the very least by association, are not unfounded. Unfortunately, there are too many examples of individuals entering the political fray with high ideals, even with vision for the future, who become either compromised or disillusioned. Sadly, in either case, they do not reach their original goals. If I’d ever had the ambition to become a politician, I’m sure I wouldn't be in the position now. In fact, it feels very uncomfortable being called a politician. I prefer to describe myself as an activist who happened to get elected to Parliament. That's really how it was. The beginning I’d always been interested in politics. My maternal grandfather was an Independent in Western Australia's Legislative Council for 33 years, and I remember his forthrightness and his passion for truth. Although my immediate family was decidedly non-political, the George Miles experience had great influence on me. When I was a teenager, I joined the Country Party, which seemed the natural thing for a farmer's daughter to do. In a small rural community the Country Party and Junior Farmers organisations were where the action was. This short-lived involvement with the Country Party has been thrown in my face many times since, particularly by Peter Walsh, Finance Minister in the Labor Government since 1983, who frequently refers to the sanctimonious, so-called advocate for peace, who was a member of the Country Party, part of the Coalition Government which sent young Australians off to fight in the Vietnam War. Embarrassing indeed. But I was too young to vote then and my membership had lapsed before the first contingent of Australians went to engage in the battle at the behest of the United States Government. And although I wasn't an organiser of the Moratorium movement, I participated in the many marches against that war. In my defence, after one of Peter Walsh's constant reminders about that aspect of my past, I made a personal explanation in the Senate to the effect that at least my increasing political awareness had led me to move from right to left over the years- movement in an ideologically sound direction, which is more than can 2 be said for many politicians whose movement is in the opposite direction! Of course I didn't name them, but one doesn't have to look beyond several members of Cabinet, who were "feisty lefties" in their youth, and who now wallow in the company of rich mates and in the cosiness of the US alliance. During my university days, as a mature-age student, I did two units of politics, not realising how valuable that little bit of knowledge about our political system and that of other countries would be in future. I didn't immerse myself in student politics then, as I had done at Graylands Teachers' College previously, where experience as Student Council President was also to prove useful later, at least in terms of speaking to groups. The direct lead-up to the 1984 election campaign began in 1978 when two factors, occurring roughly simultaneously, galvanised me into action. The first was the very personal decision to embark on parenthood. Peter Fry and I had been married six years earlier in the Quaker Meeting House in Perth, but in our global wanderings had delayed, even decided against, parenting.