Jim Cairns

James Ford Cairns (4 October 1914 - 12 October 2003), Australian politician, was prominent in the Labor movement through the 1960s and 1970s, and was briefly Deputy Prime Minister in the Whitlam government. He is best remembered as a leader of the movement against Australian involvement in the Vietnam War, for his affair with Junie Morosi and for his later renunciation of conventional politics.

Aftermath

Cairns's Labor colleagues found his conduct in the Loans and Morosi affairs intolerable, and his political reputation was destroyed. In 1977 he retired from Parliament. He devoted the rest of his life to the counter-cultural movement, to which he had been introduced by Morosi. He sponsored a series of Down to Earth conference-festivals (known as Confests) at various rural locations, and was photographed sitting in the dust meditating. He published a series of books in which he was highly critical of his former self, of conventional politics, of gender roles and Western culture generally.

Related Topics:
1977 - Counter-cultural - Down to Earth - Confest

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Even in the counter-culture movement, however, Cairns and Morosi remained the centre of controversy, with disputes soon arising over the organisation and finances of the Down to Earth gatherings. In 1979 Cairns severed his formal links with the Down to Earth organisers. But he retained legally and financially embroiled with a failed communal settlement at Mount Oak south of Canberra until, after a messy court case, he cut his losses and ended his involvement with what was left of the movement in 1991.

Related Topics:
1979 - 1991

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Cairns was subject to a great deal of media ridicule for these activities, but displayed his usual firm conviction about the rightness of his causes. In his later years, while remaining close to Morosi, he was reconciled with Gwen Cairns (she died in 2000) and lived at Narre Warren outside Melbourne. He became a familiar figure selling his books outside suburban markets where he would talk about politics, history or his life. In 2000 he was made a Life Member of the Labor Party. Cairns died of bronchial pneumonia at the age of 89 in October 2003. He was accorded a State Funeral at St John's Anglican Church in Toorak, with a very large number of mourners.

Related Topics:
2000 - Narre Warren - Pneumonia - 2003

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