While Radio National produced some interesting interviews in its counterculture flashback series, there were some obvious Australians who should have been consulted but , inexplicably , were not. One was surely Pete Steedman , of Melbourne , a prominent figure in the student press in Australia in the l960s , influential in activist groups in London in the l970s . Steedman , dubbed the Black Knight , and other key players in the counterculture scene were mentioned in the 2017 book Dissent The Student Press in 1960s Australia, by Dr Sally Percival Wood .
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"Seditious" Pete Steedman, counterculture warrior , motorbike and fancy car enthusiast.
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Expecting a visit from some heavies one night in Melbourne ,Steedman nearly did violence to one of the great counterculture figures of the 1960s - American protest singer Bob Dylan - recorded in the Dylan archives.
After listening to some of the Radio National counterculture interviews , Little Darwin asked Steedman , subject of much coverage in this blog , if he had been asked to contribute . No .
Pete said a very influential person in the Australian counterculture scene, seemingly also not approached, had been his friend Phillip Frazer, involved in the Melbourne university action of the l960s , who played a large part in innovative publications such as Go-Set , Revolution , The Digger and the Australian Rolling Stone .
Following the recent uproar over the Australian Federal Police raiding the media in Australia , Steedman fired off an email to the Murdoch Herald Sun on the subject , which got a run five weeks later . A copy was provided for Little Darwin . It reads :-
The current debate relating to Press freedom , while seemingly a surprise to the mainstream media, is no surprise to those of us who have been watching the slow erosion of liberties over the last couple of decades as our governments move us down the path to the totalitarian Right, deja vu the l930s.
With a new mega department taking over the duties of security agencies , as well as immigration and border security , the government has created a large bureaucracy with competing aims and objectives and a Minister who seems impervious to the concerns for empathy, compassion and has no understanding of the separation of powers or our obligations as signatories to dozens of UN conventions.
But it has always been so. Few will remember the censorship during WWl and the news blackout of the bombing of Darwin in WW2, not to mention the outrageous lies from Vietnam and our following endeavours in places such as Iraq and Afghanistan.
In 1967, I was editing the University of Melbourne student newspaper, Farrago . I had commissioned a Northern Territory Patrol Officer to do a three part series on the plight of Aboriginal communities in the Outback, with specific reference to the generations of children who were being destroyed by government policies and a racist / exploitive cattle industry.
On arriving at the printers for the bedding down of the paper featuring the second part of the Territory series , I was confronted by officers of the Federal Police who served me with a D Notice .
A D(for Defence ) Notice was a communication issued to the media by the Defence , Press and Broadcasting Committee. It outlines subjects which bear upon defence or national security -in other words , they have the right to censor and remove articles that are a threat to national security .
If you can tell me , 52 years later , how exposing the condition of Aboriginal kids living in our prosperous country was a threat to national security then you win the steak knives .
It was not uncommon for the government of the day to use a variety of police forces to threaten and stand over elements of the Press and public the government didn't agree with .
The Special Branch ( since disbanded) indulged in thuggery and often (with other services ) acted as agents provocateur , turning peaceful protests into street battles .
The government also used the Vice Squad to decide unilaterally an article or words were obscene and while student editors may have been short of cash , the authorities made it clear they would be charging the printers and , if necessary, close them down.
It was intimidation and thuggery , but it was the business of the day . When the 30 year Cabinet documents were released in l998, I was surprised to see that the government of l968 had considered changing the law to charge me with sedition , a hanging offence. Wiser minds prevailed , but it showed the extent the government would go to shut down any criticism of its political agenda, especially that involving the Vietnam War.
A free press, distorted as it often is by media magnates , is vital to a healthy democracy. Some of our politicians should reread the history of the l930s and reconsider their positions .
UPCOMING : The last l969 edition of Steedman's Broadside in which Fabula sadly used her whip for the last time on politicians , with an overview of the magazine which includes hairy Gerard Henderson , Michelle Grattan and many others .
UPCOMING : The last l969 edition of Steedman's Broadside in which Fabula sadly used her whip for the last time on politicians , with an overview of the magazine which includes hairy Gerard Henderson , Michelle Grattan and many others .
