Feeding The Chooks
My life has fallen into a few stages.
As a child, I lived in Box Hill when it was a Village. I then became Pastor to the Slums of Inner Melbourne for eight years. I was then a Country Parson and a Teacher at a One Teacher Bush School out at Jackson Creek in Western Victoria and then for thirteen years, I was a Suburban Minister in one of Australia’s largest suburban ministries.
And now, for more than 20 years I’ve been Superintendent in Sydney of Wesley Mission, Australia’s largest church ministry.
I’ve told you stories of people in each of these places.
Tonight I want you to come with me into the heart of the city.
When I first arrived at Wesley Mission in the late 1970’s as the new Superintendent I realised that I would be subject to many interviews with media journalists. I rather looked forward to that. I had had a long association with the print media in Melbourne and it had been an extremely happy one. In fact I had gone on record again and again saying that I had never been deliberately misquoted by any journalist and that if you provide a journalist with the facts they were professional and competent and would deliver the news story as they saw fit. If at times their conclusions didn’t please us who were involved then that was the price of gaining the publicity and you had to just take it upon the chin. I never took too much notice of praise I received in the press and I certainly took very little notice of the criticism, usually because the criticism was made without the benefit of all the information on the situation. When I came to Sydney and began to work with the major news media I was in for some surprises.
The first major journalist with whom I had quite a bit to do was the Sydney Morning Herald’s Allan Gill. Allan was a senior journalist and very professional in his work. What he wrote was always carefully researched and over all the years I never had any difficulty or criticisms to make at his research. There were times when I felt that Allan, who was strong on any historical event and was able to give events in perspective, should have been doing more to promote how the Church was working on the cutting edge of social change. But this wasn’t his strong point. Allan’s great gifts came to the fore in his publication of a wonderful piece of research on British children who were sent to Australia during WWII and there after. His book “Orphans of the Empire” published in 1997 was a landmark in this kind of carefully researched writing. Allan’s research brought him to Wesley Mission many times.
I also enjoyed some factual attention from the Sydney ‘Sunday Telegraph’s sports journalist Nick Yardley. For some reason Nick took up issues that I had raised, developed them himself and came up with good conclusions and much support. Unfortunately later in life Nick was cut down with a very severe stroke, which limited his mobility and his writing and speech – a very serious blow for any journalist. However I am very pleased to say that Nick is a regular member of the Sunday Night Live congregation at Wesley Mission.
Radio reporters were a different breed. This was the era when there had been infamous paybacks to disc jockeys for playing records and the ‘payola’ scandals were not far behind us. It was also an era when radio personalities were larger than life and paid extraordinarily high salaries. Radio journalists who helped make their image naturally expected to be cared for by the radio stations and by the stars themselves. I had worked with 2KY which had very strict policies concerning the ethics of dealing with reporters.
When I switched to 2GB we had over a period of years two of the most successful general managers of any radio network, Charlie Cox and Nigel Milan. Both of these were big spending general managers and knew how to cultivate positive support from radio journalists. Both of them were larger than life figures and extremely successful in what they did. They saw their job as getting the best ratings for the station, the greatest profile for their stars, and the best new coverage possible.
I was surprised by the practises that began to develop with one female reporter in order to get favourable news stories into the major papers. She was feted as if she was a princess. She never seemed to do any research except to sit at home and speak to people on the telephone. But it was well known that if you wanted a favourable story you then had to cultivate her by sending her flowers, limousines to pick her up, and invite her to exclusive luncheons with the stars. She was true to her part of the bargain and wrote glowing reports about our stars with such frequency that I really felt the public would not continue to be gullible. But she did and they were.
Over the years I saw this “feeding the chooks” as Joe Bjelke-Peterson said in Queensland, ‘refined to an art form’. It really lowered my impression of such journalists and from that time to this I have never sent them news releases nor tried to curry favour with them. I believe in the ethics of journalism, which unfortunately in the radio industry was being left far behind.
I also discovered that ethics was not a word to be associated with some other journalists. There is a senior woman journalist writing for the major press who is known for her viciousness in attacking people. She never seeks to build up, only tear down. Her name is a by-word amongst public figures. I remember on one occasion when she wanted to come and interview me that many of my friends advised me to ignore and cancel the appointment. I hadn’t found a vicious reporter previously and rather foolishly granted an interview in which I openly and frankly answered her questions. Most of what I had to say was not news worthy and consequently didn’t see the light of day. Instead she attacked my footwear, my ties, and my appearance. She actually made mistakes on all of them. She declared that I was wearing extremely expensive silk ties from overseas. The fact was I had purchased three ties from the corner store of Market and Pitt Street which had been closing down owing to a fire sale for the last three years and had been running a special on ties – 3 for $5! The image that she gave was that I was expensively dressed and possibly using money given to a charity on my own appearance. I discovered this woman over a period of time was incredibly vicious and seemed to want to destroy any person with a high profile within the community.
A senior male journalist I discovered had a deep-seated hatred of clergymen. I don’t know where this hate began but I certainly know he turned the blowtorch on me with some of the most untrue and vicious lies I have ever encountered in my life. One of his often repeated insinuations made public was his quote “He drives a gleaming gold Fairlane” as much as to say, I had the most expensive car possible and that again I was wasting charitable money. He also used to link me with American television evangelists in a way that was totally untrue and unfair. The bit about the gleaming gold Fairlane, for those who knew me was a bit of a laugh. My car is a Fairlane, a 1983 model. I guess there are not many people still driving 18-year-old cars on the road these days. And it is gleaming because both my wife and I are careful to wash it and wax it with the result that it has remained rust free over the whole period of its life. She’s a delightful looking grand old bus and we enjoy driving it. But its insured value is less than $1000. But not according to the way he writes it. Apparently he has problems with cleanliness as well as godliness.
I discovered also in the mid eighties, another kind of senior journalist who works for a respectable newspaper but whose articles I never ever now read. I discovered that he deliberately generated gossip in order to get headlines and news stories that were blatantly false but just dropped into obscurity with the next new story that came along. I remember him ringing me one morning as he was getting close to a deadline and asking me “Is it true that Neville Wran is putting together a group of people to take control of the Channel Ten network and that you are one of his key players?” I replied to him. “I don’t know what Neville Wran might be considering. All I know is that I have no comment to make. I have not spoken to Mr Wran in the last few weeks and I certainly have no intention of becoming involved in the ownership or running of a major television network. That statement was translated into a major story much to the surprise of Mr Wran as well as myself “Wran and Moyes to take over Ten TV” read the headline. I gathered he had asked Mr Wran did he know that I was considering him to be chairman of the board to take over Ten TV. I have never read his articles since discovering his techniques.
But Fathers Day 1986 was to introduce our whole family into the gutter ethics of journalism. I had always noted with some pleasure the very distinguished people who were chosen each year to be Father of the Year from the National and NSW Fathers Day Council. Usually I felt their choices were very well considered and appropriate. Never for a moment did I think that during 1985 I would be approached to consider being the NSW Father of The Year for 1986. I was approached by the Father’s Day Council in the person of the President Denis Cudworth. Mr Cudworth is a remarkably fine upright businessman with a good reputation within the retail industry. He organised a small luncheon with his personal assistant who handled most of the arrangements for the Father of the Year function and with Sir Ian Turbott, the previous Father of the Year, a diplomat of very distinguished international experience and the newly appointed chancellor of the University of Western Sydney.
At this luncheon I was surprised that the NSW Father of the Year Council had researched a number of suitable candidates very thoroughly. I was even more surprised when I discovered that the Father’s Day Council had a very serious purpose in the promotion of the Father of the Year. That purpose was expressed in the “Decalogue”, ‘10 Rules for being a good Father’, which was promoted very widely at their luncheons and other functions. They also raised money for most worthy charitable purposes. At that first meeting with the president and former Father of the Year, I must say I was most impressed with their research, thoroughness and gentlemanly approach to the whole issue. Mr Cudworth noted I was wearing cufflinks. He then informed me that he was the leading importer of cuff links into Australia.
Consequently the NSW Father’s Day Council had a luncheon of several hundred business and community leaders on Friday August 22nd at the Sheraton – Wentworth Hotel when I became the 30th Father of the Year. There was a very distinguished gathering of community leaders supporting this programme, including the Governor Air Marshal Sir James Rowland and Lady Rowland, the former Governor Sir Roden Cutler and Lady Cutler, the heads of all the churches and the Chief Rabbi, there were former Father’s of the Year including some whom I was pleased to call friends, such as the entertainer Bobby Limb the Australian Test Cricketer Alan Davidson, the medical researcher Dr Brad Norrington, the former Chief Commissioner of Police Jim Lees, the former Governor General Sir Zelman Cohen, Broadcaster Gary O’Callagahan, Major General Alan Stretton the hero of the re-building of Darwin and many others.
The presentation as Father of the Year was extremely well received by all of those present. In my speech I reflected on what my father had given to me. I explained my Father’s premature death from alcoholism and how that influenced my attitudes today. I said, “I am different from my father in every way because I don’t drink and he was never involved with the church. And I don’t swear either and the only words I can ever remember my father saying to me was “God Damn you Mick” Mick being his nickname for me. My mother and I discovered him dead one night not far from my home where he had fallen down drunk and hit his head on the gutter. I was only eight at the time and I remember the doctor saying to me “You are the man of the house now, you are responsible for the family.”
His death gave me a very strong sense of responsibility but knowing what insecurity felt like at an early age made me very responsible. It also made me ensure that my four children had a strong sense of security. I believe that children gain this primarily by having parents who are happy and loving towards each other. So my wife Beverley and I have always demonstrated our affection for each other openly.”
As part of my duties it was expected that I would travel around the state and accept speaking invitations to support the role and significance of the family within the community. This I was pleased to do and it gave me a most enjoyable year long experience.
On the morning on which the announcement was to be made, Denis Cudworth had warned me that we would have all of the television stations coming to our home for interviews, radio personalities and press reporters there by the dozen.
I thought that some of them would want to see me at work in my study, so I cleared up my desk and threw out a whole lot of papers with which I had finished. I then emptied my waste paper basket into our bin. Meanwhile Beverley was busy cutting sandwiches and preparing morning tea for the press. We did television interviews for all the major television stations and also for the radio stations. The press asked me some questions about my relationships with my children and my wife and I remember saying to one; “The best thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.”
Beverley and I did not realise it but some of the press were taking our children away by themselves. We didn’t realise it because Beverley and I were being questioned by other members of the press about a conflict between being a clergyman and being a father. I regarded it as a privilege without any areas of conflict and Beverley supported me on this. It was only afterwards that I discovered that other reporters had taken our children off one by one on the pretext of asking to be shown to their rooms and quizzed very strongly. It became quite apparent that they had been charged by their Senior Editor with the task of finding dirt on my relationships with my children which would allow them to have a headline such as “Child Abuser Father of the Year” or such like. I remembered Jenny saying with a horrified voice. They kept asking me: ‘Does your father belt you? Does he abuse you?’ Peter said that he felt like hitting one of the questioners who said to him in a very sneaky fashion “How do you feel when your mother and father quarrel?” He replied with a great deal of strength that his mother and father didn’t quarrel. David told me that in his room they asked him, “Does your father show any interest in you or is it mainly in his work?” David said he didn’t know how to reply to that question because we were all interested in my work not just me but my wife and children as well but at the same time I showed great interest in each of my children. David said, “Then I remembered something you said Dad, that we should give first commitment to God, then to our family and then to our work. The family always before work.” But it was Andrew the youngest who was most horrified. He came up to me saying, “There are papers all over the nature strip! A couple of guys are going through all the copies of letters you sent that you put in the rubbish bin. They are looking at them and then throwing them away!” Apparently someone had thought that if they investigated our rubbish bin they might find something that would incriminate me!
It was all to no avail. The chooks had scratched around every possible avenue and couldn’t find anything except a well balanced, well relating family.
The public however responded in a magnificent way with hundreds of letters, telegrams and faxes of congratulations from people that I never thought would take the trouble. I received congratulations and invitations from Municipal Councils, parliamentarians, the Lord Mayor, the Premier, from Rotarians here and overseas from other church leaders and from book publishers.
My children responded with a great deal of affection and pride. They each sent me special Father’s Day messages that year. I have kept them and only just now have looked back through them. There was one of my children, our only daughter Jenny writing, “I cannot remember a time when you haven’t been to us, the Father of the Year.”
‘Father of the Year’ was a great honour but there were those who were determined that that honour should have been turned into a story of abuse and conflict. Denis Cudworth was right. There would be a great interest by the media and the press but what I didn’t realise was that there would be a few in their number who were determined to discover the Father of the Year had feet of clay, that their role was to pull down rather than build up and to get for themselves headlines over stories regardless of the ethics used or the truth involved.
There are good journalists, but it makes me sad that ethical and competent journalists are frequently pushed aside by those who get headlines at any cost. Joe Bjelke-Peterson apparently understood that very well when he made his reference to ‘feeding the chooks’.
The city of Sydney would grow to be one of the world’s great cities and Wesley Mission would grow to be one of the world’s great churches and I was privileged to spend each day in the heart of both.