One Australia Movement | |
|---|---|
| Founder | Rev. Cedric Jacobs |
| Founded | c. 1985 |
| Dissolved | c. 1992 |
| Headquarters | Midland, Western Australia |
| Political position | Christian right |
TheOne Australia Movement was a minor Australian political party established in 1985. It was founded by Cedric Jacobs, anIndigenous Australian minister in theUniting Church of Australia associated with theAboriginal Evangelical Fellowship. The party was primarily known for its opposition toIndigenous land rights. It contested the1987 federal election and several state elections inWestern Australia without success.
The One Australia Movement was active in Western Australia by 1985. Its founder and chairman was Cedric Jacobs, anIndigenous Australian minister in theUniting Church of Australia.[1] Jacobs was president of theAboriginal Evangelical Fellowship at the time of the party's foundation and was a former chairman of theNational Aboriginal Conference.[2] Other members included Anne Brinkworth, a member of theBassendean Town Council.[3]
The party was formally registered with theAustralian Electoral Commission (AEC) on 3 October 1986.[4] The One Australia Movement fielded threeSenate candidates in Western Australia at the1987 federal election, with its ticket headed by Jacobs and his wife Margaret. It polled 1.6 percent of the statewide vote in Western Australia. At state level, the party contested theLegislative Council at the1989 Western Australian state election and two by-elections (1987 in Morley-Swan and1988 in Dale).[5]
The One Australia Movement published a newsletter titled theLink from its headquarters inMidland, Western Australia.[6] The party was deregistered by the AEC on 21 October 1992 for failing to maintain at least 500 members.[7]
The One Australia Movement attracted attention for its stance againstAboriginal land rights, with its members "firmly opposed to land rights legislation on the grounds that it purportedly contains strong elements of an apartheid policy with separate geographical areas designated for whites and non-whites".[8] It considered "that the Aboriginal struggle for land rights was a divisive elementin Australian society and that Aborigines should forgive and forget the past".[9] Jacobs himself said that "Australian Aborigines ought to thank God that white men brought the Christian faith to the Aboriginal people" and proclaimed that the party was "attracting wide support from both blacks and whites in every state".[2] He also accused theDepartment of Aboriginal Affairs of discriminating against Aboriginal Christians and stated that it should be abolished with funding instead distributed to local governments.[1]
Jacobs' views brought him into conflict with other Aboriginal leaders. In 1985,Ken Colbung called for an "official investigation" into the OAM, accusing it of "misusing Christianity to belittle their own race". Colbung's associate Neil Phillips accused Jacobs of "brainwashing the Aboriginal people" and said the OAM was a "white-dominated organisation".[1] Jacobs was the national treasurer and a founding member of the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress, but in response to his activism with the OAM he was removed from the national committee and withdrew from the organisation.[9]Charles Enoch Harris, the president of the congress, issued a public statement denouncing the views of the OAM.[10]
Outside of its views on land rights, the party also professed support for themonarchy, a biblical system of morality, immigration reform and social security reform, and opposition to union strike movements.[11]
In 1988, federalLabor MPKeith Wright alleged that the OAM was aNeo-Nazi organisation associated with the far-rightAustralian League of Rights.[12] In 1990 he called for a parliamentary inquiry into neo-Nazi groups in Australia to include the OAM and the League of Rights.[13]
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