Don Chipp

Donald Leslie Chipp (21 August 1925 – 28 August 2006) was an Australian politician, and founder of the Australian Democrats. Image File history File linksMetadata No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File linksMetadata No higher resolution available. ... August 21 is the 233rd day of the year (234th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar). ... August 28 is the 240th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (241st in leap years), with 125 days remaining. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... The Australian Democrats (in regular parlance, just the Democrats), is an Australian social liberal party formed in 1977 from the earlier Australia Party by Don Chipp, who left the Liberal Party of Australia to do so. ...

Early life

Don Chipp was born in Melbourne and educated at Northcote High School and Melbourne University, where he graduated in commerce. After playing Australian Rules Football for Heidelberg in the Victorian Football Association, he played briefly in the (higher-grade) Victorian Football League with the Fitzroy Football Club (playing three games in 1947, for one goal). He was also a finalist in the Stawell Gift. Melbournes CBD has grown to straddle the Yarra River in three major precincts. ... Northcote High School is a high school in Northcote, Victoria, Australia, teaching from year 7 through 12. ... The University of Melbourne, located in Melbourne, in Victoria, is the second oldest university in Australia (the University of Sydney is the oldest). ... High marking is a key skill and spectator attribute of Aussie Rules Precise field and goal kicking using the oval shaped ball is the key skill in Aussie Rules Football Australian rules football, also known as Australian football, Aussie rules, or simply football or footy is a code of football... Heidelberg Shops Heidelberg Arms Heidelberg Shops Artists Trail sign at Heidelberg Heidelberg is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. ... See also Australian Football League. ... The Victorian Football League, formerly known as the Victorian Football Association (VFA), is a second-tier Australian rules football league. ... The Fitzroy Football Club, latterly known as the Lions, was formed in 1883 and was a foundation member club of the Victorian Football League on its inception in 1897. ... The Stawell Gift is Australias oldest and richest foot race. ...

After serving in the Royal Australian Air Force in World War II, Chipp worked as registrar of the Commonwealth Institute of Accountants from 1950 to 1955. In 1955 he was appointed chief executive officer of the Olympic Civic Committee, which was involved in organising the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne. After the Games he worked as manager of the Victorian Promotion Committee, and also ran his own management consultancy. From 1958 to 1961 he was a member of the Kew City Council. The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) is the air force branch of the Australian Defence Force. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... The 1956 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVI Olympiad, were held in 1956 in Melbourne, Australia, although the equestrian events could not be held in Australia due to quarantine regulations. ... Kew is a suburb of Melbourne, Australia, in the state of Victoria. ...

Political career

Chipp entered federal politics in 1960 as the Liberal member for Higinbotham in Melbourne's southern bayside suburbs, before a redistribution in 1968 moved Chipp to the less safe seat of Hotham. He was appointed Minister for the Navy and Minister in charge of Tourist Activities by Prime Minister Harold Holt in 1967. After Holt’s sudden December 1967 death, he retained his portfolios in the short-lived Country Party-led government of John McEwen, but he was dropped from the Ministry by the new Liberal Prime Minister, John Gorton. This was partly because Chipp had supported another candidate, Billy Snedden, in the Liberal leadership ballot, and partly because Gorton disapproved of Chipp's decision to hold a second Royal Commission into the 1964 Voyager disaster - a decision which Gorton felt reflected badly on the Royal Australian Navy.^[1] The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party. ... The Division of Higinbotham was an Australian Electoral Division in Victoria. ... Hotham is an Australian federal electoral division located in the outer south eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. ... Harold Edward Holt CH (5 August 1908– presumed dead 17 December 1967) was an Australian politician who became the 17th Prime Minister of Australia from 1966 to 1967. ... Sir John McEwen (March 29, 1900 - November 20, 1980), Australian politician and 18th Prime Minister of Australia, was born at Chiltern, Victoria, where his father was a pharmacist. ... Sir John Grey Gorton GCMG AC CH (9 September 1911 – 19 May 2002), Australian politician, was the 19th Prime Minister of Australia. ... Rt Hon Billy Snedden Sir Billy Mackie Snedden (31 December 1926 _ 27 June 1987), Australian Liberal politician, was born in Perth, Western Australia, the son of a stonemason. ... In states that are Commonwealth Realms a Royal Commission is a major government public inquiry into an issue. ... The second HMAS Voyager (D-04) was a Daring class destroyer laid down by the Cockatoo Docks and Engineering Company Limited at Sydney in New South Wales on 10 October 1949, launched on 1 May 1952 by Dame Pattie Menzies, wife of the Prime Minister, and commissioned on 12 February... The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the naval branch of the Australian Defence Force. ...

After the 1969 elections Gorton brought Chipp back into the ministry as Minister for Customs and Excise. In this portfolio he gained national attention by largely abolishing the censorship of printed material, unbanning many novels including Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer, as well as allowing the sale of Playboy magazine. These actions made him popular with many people but placed him at odds with many of his fellow party members, who considered his actions too liberal. During this period Chipp became identified as part of a "small-l liberal" faction of the Liberal Party, along with Snedden and Andrew Peacock. Henry Miller photo taken by Carl Van Vechten, 1940 Henry Valentine Miller (December 26, 1891 – June 7, 1980) was an American writer and, to a lesser extent, painter. ... Tropic of Cancer is a novel by Henry Miller, first published in 1934 by Obelisk Press in Paris and still in print (Grove Press 1987 paperback: ISBN 0-8021-3178-6). ... The first issue of Playboy. ... The term small-l liberal is used, particularly in reference to Australian and Canadian politics, to distinguish between holders of an ideology of liberalism and adherents to either the Liberal Party of Australia or the Liberal Party of Canada (capital L). ... Andrew Sharp Peacock AC (born 13 February 1939), Australian Liberal politician, was born in Melbourne, Victoria, the son of a wealthy company director. ...

Following the Liberal Party's defeat at the 1972 federal election, Chipp served as Shadow Minister for Social Security. He was a strong supporter of Snedden, who had become party leader following the defeat but failed to win the 1974 election against the Labor government of Gough Whitlam. When Malcolm Fraser displaced Snedden as leader in March 1975, Chipp retained his position, but it was no secret that the two men did not get on. When Fraser was appointed Prime Minister following the dismissal of Gough Whitlam on 11 November 1975, he gave Chipp three portfolios in his caretaker ministry (Minister for Social Security, Minister for Health, Minister for Repatriation and Compensation), however when Fraser won the December 1975 election, Chipp was not included in Fraser's ministry. Edward Gough Whitlam AC QC (born 11 July 1916), known as Gough Whitlam (, pronounced Goff), Australian politician and 21st Prime Minister of Australia. ... This article is about the former Prime Minister of Australia; for the Western Australian public servant, see Malcolm Fraser (surveyor). ... Edward Gough Whitlam AC QC (born 11 July 1916), known as Gough Whitlam (, pronounced Goff), Australian politician and 21st Prime Minister of Australia. ... Edward Gough Whitlam AC QC (born 11 July 1916), known as Gough Whitlam (, pronounced Goff), Australian politician and 21st Prime Minister of Australia. ... November 11 is the 315th day of the year (316th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 50 days remaining. ... 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday. ...

Creation of the Democrats

After a year as an increasingly discontented backbencher, Chipp resigned from the Liberal Party in 1977, citing the need for a new moderate political party. Later in the year he founded the Australian Democrats, and at the December 1977 elections he was elected to the Australian Senate, with one colleague (Colin Mason of New South Wales). As Democrats leader, Chipp was involved in various high profile environmental and social justice causes, including playing an important role in stopping the Franklin Dam Project. The Australian Democrats (in regular parlance, just the Democrats), is an Australian social liberal party formed in 1977 from the earlier Australia Party by Don Chipp, who left the Liberal Party of Australia to do so. ... Australian Senate chamber Entrance to the Senate The Senate is the upper of the two houses of the Parliament of Australia. ... The photograph Morning Mist, Rock Island Bend, Franklin River, by Peter Dombrovskis, was used by the Tasmanian Wilderness Society in advertising. ...

At the 1980 federal elections, the Democrats gained the balance of power in the Senate, which they retained until the 2004 elections. This gave Chipp and his party, in conjunction with other non-government senators, the power to reject or amend government legislation.

Post-political life

Chipp retired as the leader of the Democrats in 1986, to be succeeded by Janine Haines. He ran unsuccessfully for election as the Lord Mayor of Melbourne in 2001. In his later years, he suffered from Parkinson's Disease, although he still made a number of public appearances, most notably on the ABC chat show Enough Rope with Andrew Denton. He also gave an opening address to the Democrats national conference in Melbourne in May 2006. Janine Haines AM (8 May 1945 – 20 November 2004), Australian politician, was the first woman to lead a political party in Australia. ... Councillor Patrick (Pat) John Stannard, Lord Mayor of Oxford (2004). ... Enough Rope with Andrew Denton (or simply Enough Rope) is a television talk show broadcast on the ABC network in Australia. ...

Chipp died of pneumonia in August 2006 at Epworth Hospital in Richmond [1]. A state funeral service was held on 2 September 2006 for him. Australian flags were flown at half-mast all day in Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory to mourn and honour him. Pneumonia is an illness of the lungs and respiratory system in which the alveoli (microscopic air-filled sacs of the lung responsible for absorbing oxygen from the atmosphere) become inflamed and flooded with fluid. ... Richmond is an inner city suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. ... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... National flag and state ensign. ... // The United States flag flying at half-staff over the White House. ...

References

1. ^ Alan Reid, The Gorton Experiment, 36-37

External links

• Interview with Andrew Denton on the ABC's Enough Rope

• Interview with Peter Thompson on the ABC's Talking Heads