1973 Murphy raids

Global terrorism and Australia The Whitlam government came to office shortly after the terrorist attack at the 1972 Summer Olympics and the Sydney bombings involving Croatian separatist groups in Australia. One of the first acts of the new government was to help US-led efforts in the United Nations General Assembly to counter the rise of 'political violence' to person and property around the globe. These efforts failed because the Non-aligned Movement states believed that political violence or terrorism was not inherently illegitimate, given resistance and revolutionary activities in the former colonies. A planned visit by Džemal Bijedić, the Yugoslavian Prime Minister, in March 1973 generated considerable angst within the government about the security situation and the safety of the visiting dignitary. There was also much concern in Yugoslavia, which was a member of the Non-Aligned Movement. The President of Yugoslavia Josip Tito said before the visit: "We will send more agents to Australia. We will crush these people [Croatian separatists]. We will destroy them root and branch". This indicated the possible presence of Yugoslavian secret service spies operating in Australia. Labor and the Whitlam government were highly suspicious of ASIO and perceived the organisation to be a partisan tool of the Liberal governments in the 1950s and 1960s. At the 1971 Federal Labor Party conference, only a single vote (22 in favour, 23 against) had defeated a proposed motion "that ASIO be abolished". The raids Murphy, with the help of his advisor Kerry Milte—a former Commonwealth Police official and barrister—gained entry to the Canberra office of ASIO, which was then a regional office, at midnight on 16 March. They located a document which implied that ASIO and "the departments of Foreign Affairs, Attorney-General's and Immigration" had conspired to withhold information from him about Croatian separatists in Australia. Murphy wanted to fly immediately to the ASIO headquarters in Melbourne but was delayed at Canberra Airport for several hours. According to Murphy the press had been alerted to the investigation of ASIO's headquarters by George Negus, who was then Murphy's press secretary. Footage was obtained of Murphy arriving at the building surrounded by plain clothed police officers. ==Responses==

Immediate reaction Politically, the raids on ASIO are said to have ended the new government's 'honey-moon' period by throwing its competency into question. The raid also improved ASIO's image as it was shown that ASIO was not engaged in conspiracy. It also damaged the bilateral relationship between the United States and Australia because of the intelligence exchange between the two states. The speech did not substantiate the raids nor did it discuss ASIO in depth. It was "a statement on terrorism and a political attack on the previous government" the same "conclusion reached by the United States, which had followed parliamentary debates and press coverage closely". In Parliament, Whitlam and Murphy said that ASIO has made no official complaint about the raids. Under legal oath, before a Senate Committee erected by the hostile Senate to uncover more information about the raids, the Director-General said no complaint has been made. In August this was contradicted by a leaked letter revealing that the Director-General had made a complaint. This lie eroded the press' view of ASIO. In an interview with David Frost Whitlam said "The greatest mistake the Government has made has been to take the police into ASIO headquarters". Longterm consequences The Murphy raids meant that the Whitlam government could not instigate the changes it wanted in ASIO in the short term. By September 1973 Whitlam indicated that an inquiry was likely to be commissioned. Labor took the policy of an inquiry to the election in 1974 and, after the controversy surrounding ASIO's leaked views on Deputy Prime Minister Jim Cairns, the Royal Commission on Intelligence and Security was launched. This would result in a lasting bipartisan consensus on ASIO. == See also ==