Jim Saleam and others.
We expect there will be various obituaries for Graeme Campbell who left us on August 16. For our part, we knew him through the prism of politics where he lived much of his life. We cannot but feel he was dealt a few bad hands, that he could have done better than he did, that he could have opened a great door for the conduct of nationalist politics, albeit if circumstances were kinder. Then, that’s life and that’s politics. Graeme knew this better than anyone and he drew the consequences.
For us, Graeme became a significant player, when as a Labor Federal MP he spoke out against the Mabo case, attended meetings of the politically-incorrect Australian League of Rights in 1993-4 and addressed gatherings of, and recommended people vote for, the Australians Against Further Immigration party in 1994. When Graeme was ultimately expelled by the Labor Party late in 1995, he became a rallying point for many people aggrieved with immigration and multiculti. In 1996, Australia First Party was born.
This new vehicle offered Graeme a chance to become a national voice. Yet, within just some months of its foundation, Pauline Hanson was elected to Federal parliament and a new pole of attraction for masses of people came into being. Graeme established his new party on the ground in all States and located a cadre of people to staff it. He struggled to integrate Pauline Hanson into an arrangement that might bring unity of direction. As Graeme said, he knew that was hopeless, when at Albury some months after her election, they addressed a large rally together. “I gave the best speech of my life”, he said. “The reaction was enthusiastic. But then, Pauline rose and stammered on a few words and her reception was like some big performer at a concert. My thought was ‘we’re in trouble now’. I never gave up that notion.” He did observe that Pauline subordinated everything to electoral contest, but he knew any political struggle had to be waged across society. Few listened.
Pretty much by late 1999 / early 2000 Graeme’s Australia First Party was played out and in 2001 he accepted an invitation from One Nation to be its lead Senate candidate for Western Australia in 2001. He didn’t make it. From there on, Graeme became a sort of adviser to elected One Nation politicians and did a bit on the speakers’ circuit, but essentially, he was finished with politics. In the last ten years of his life, as he was sought out, he did speak at the odd meeting and do the odd interview and so on. He did maintain some contact with the follow-on Australia First Party and then with the new party under that name which was formed in 2007 – but little more. He served mainly at the level of advice. Certainly he had some issues with us, but he never let that govern the relationship. We thank him for all he did.
Jim Saleam told us: “I recall the incredible assistance he gave me when I was writing my PhD and the advice he gave at different points. I thanked him for introducing to me Alex McClelland, a POW in a German concentration camp, such that I could perform vital research for a true veteran. He also offered political advice to me a few times and it was always welcome. But Graeme had to get on with life after a major financial mishap and if he was short on time, one understood.”
In some recent years, a few groups have spoken about Graeme Campbell as “the father of modern Australian nationalism.” We cannot go that far, whatever be his achievements; the modern movement was re-born in the 1970s not the 1990s and its twin fathers were F.K. Salter (who now repudiates his former faith) and E.F. Azzopardi (who withdrew from politics in the late 1980s). However, Graeme certainly showed the importance of an electoral party being one tool of the struggle and the need for a small cadre of writers and thinkers to mould its ideas and norms. Graeme Campbell shall be a point of reference always and he deserves that. In that way he is another oracle which ‘instructs’ us how to move forwards.
At the end of the day, Graeme was an all-round decent bloke, armed with an incredibly knowledgeable mind (he had a near-photographic memory) and a true honesty. So say the vast majority of those who met him. He will be missed.