On November 6, Australians voted on whether or not Australia should become a republic. But Phil Cleary, former Federal Member for Wills, believed the proposed model ensured that the result was never in doubt: in his opinion, Australians were always going to vote against a republic.
“I think we should become a republic but this model is profoundly flawed - and it’s not just that its flawed technically... but that it does nothing to capture the imagination of Australians,” he says at his Brunswick home in the lead up to the referendum. “It denies that fundamental right - the right to vote - and it locks people out of the process.” Cleary also thinks that the large migrant population living in Moreland would have been particularly disadvantaged by the Australian Republican Movement’s proposed model in which the president is selected by a 2/3 majority of the Australian parliament.
“It’d be great to say that this republic on offer was to do special things for reconciliation and for multiculturalism but the truth is it wouldn’t,” he says. “It’s such a superficial model... How can we have a model that’s got elitism and control by the major parties stamped all over it actually reach out and touch the Greek and the Italian and the Arab living in the northern suburbs - or the Turk? Because it says to the Turkish immigrant, you can’t be trusted with the vote. The only people who can be trusted are the people in the Parliament... and the only person who can become president is someone from White Australia, because look at all the names they throw up - bar Lois O’Donoghue or Zelman Cowen.”
Cleary, who grew up in Coburg, has been a passionate spokesperson for the people of the northern suburbs for many years. In 1992, he penned ‘New Ways in Wills’, a paper which spoke of the need to develop a regional industrial policy to creatively address the problems of unemployment within the area. “In this document I identified the fact that Moreland is well placed geographically - it’s between the airport and the CBD - it has great cultural diversity and an experienced workforce,” he says. “Areas such as cultural tourism, the musical festival, the arts, niche textile industries can all be significant. And a lot of the things I said are developing in a fledgling sort of way.
“I think Moreland is a really rich entity and we need to be thinking creatively about how we can make it a place of greater life - we should really draw on this great cultural diversity,” he continues. “People from places all around the world settled in Moreland and they brought with them some great cultural and economic knowledge. We’ve got language and musical diversity, and people with great political experiences. You come to Moreland and you can be talking to a Palestenian about the problems of Palestine and then you’ll talk to a Greek and he’ll talk to you about the Balkans War and put another spin on it because of his deep understanding of European history. When I was a Federal Member I found that these were the great times. You just acquired so much knowledge.”
Cleary, however, was privy to the stories of Moreland residents long before this: as a child he would go to his father’s popular butcher shop in Elizabeth Street, Coburg and listen to the customers’ stories of their lives. “He used to make these great sausages and they were just fantastic. People loved the sausages... they had a distinctive flavour... and I suppose the beauty of the sausage was that it wasn’t made with a recipe. I said one time to him, ‘Don’t you bloody go to the grave with that recipe!'"
The kitchen of his grandfather’s former home in Major Road, Fawkner was the scene for another of Cleary’s strong childhood memories. “My father’s father was a significant figure in my life,” says Cleary, pointing to a photograph on the wall of his study. “When I was a kid - about 10 - I had a sense... I knew him. I’ve got these memories of seeing him play the violin in the kitchen and I’ve never forgotten that. I’d learnt about him and I heard about him so he’s part of my Irish dreaming.”
Cleary adds that dreaming places - like the Merri Creek - have always been important in his life. “I like reflective times... to reflect on the world... Over in the Merri Creek as a kid you could wander - there were no authority figures to impose on you - and you could be a free spirit,” he says. “I’m always imagining something else - I don’t know whether its a product of growing up Catholic - so [at the creek] I spent a lot of time dreaming about how things could be... I imagined a peaceful, beautiful world of freedom. I think as much as anything, this experience of freedom is one of my strongest traits: I’m very heavily disposed to people not being controlled.”
A beneficiary of the Whitlam Government’s decision to abolish university fees, Cleary sharpened his free thinking mind at LaTrobe University, where he studied Politics. “I and the Mercer family [childhood friends] and a host of other kids went off to university. That was big... it meant that working class kids could actually get their minds around formalised theoretical knowledge,” he says. “That enabled us to take our place with the middle class that previously had looked down on us and had all the social and cultural knowledge to go places... But I can still be a bit brazen at times - I’m not into doffing my hat.”
Cleary also associates his university education with his decision - as the well known coach of the Coburg football team, teacher at St John West High School and all-round “political being” - to run for Parliament as an Independent. “University freed my mind,” he says. “I studied politics, political philosophy, I grappled with universality and pure logic: and that seemed at odds with party machinery that controlled your thinking.
“I was the right mix, the right person at the right time,” he continues, “if anyone was going to win Wills in ‘92 it was me: the circumstances were right for me”.
Cleary is evidently pleased with his achievements as Federal Member for Wills. “On a lot of the big issues I feel quite proud of what I did: I spoke out about industry policy and the need to look after territories, I preceded all of this acceptance of independents. I articulated the disenchantment - not in a populist , racist way but I think in a decent and thoughtful way,” he says. “In a way, I brought the national cameras to Coburg.”For more on Cleary in Wills, look for Cleary: Independent (Harper Collins, 1998: $19.95)
