Donald Leslie Chipp, AO (21 August 192528 August 2006) was an Australian politician who was the inaugural leader of the

Australian Democrats The Australian Democrats is a centrist political party in Australia. Founded in 1977 from a merger of the Australia Party and the New Liberal Movement, both of which were descended from Liberal Party dissenting splinter groups, it was Australi ...

, leading the party from 1977 to 1986. He began his career as a member of the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

, winning election to the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

in 1960 and serving as a government minister for a cumulative total of six years. Chipp left the Liberals in 1977 and was soon persuaded to lead a new party, the Democrats who, he famously proclaimed in 1980, would "keep the bastards honest". He was elected to the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the ...

on 10 December 1977 and led the party at four federal elections. From

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...

it held the sole balance of power in the Senate.

Early life

Don Chipp was born in Melbourne and educated at Northcote Primary School,

Northcote High School Northcote High School is a co-educational, state secondary school in Northcote, Victoria, Australia. It is situated at the southern end of the City of Darebin, on St Georges Road, Northcote. The school teaches from Years 7 to 12 and has a curre ...

and the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb no ...

, where he graduated in commerce. After playing

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

for Heidelberg, he played briefly in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

with the Fitzroy Football Club (playing three games in 1947, for one goal). He also played for

Prahran Prahran (), also pronounced colloquially as Pran, is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 5 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Stonnington local government area. Prahran recorded a ...

in the VFA and was a member of their 1951 premiership side. A champion sprinter, he was narrowly defeated in the 1953

Stawell Gift The Stawell Gift is Australia's oldest and richest short-distance running race. It is the main event in an annual carnival held on Easter weekend by the Stawell Athletic Club, with the main race finals on the holiday Monday, at Central Park, S ...

foot race. After serving in the

Royal Australian Air Force "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...

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 Summer Olympics The 1956 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVI Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, from 22 November to 8 December 1956, with the exception of the equestrian events, whi ...

in Melbourne. Later, he worked as manager of the Victorian Promotion Committee, and he also ran his own management consultancy. From 1958 to 1961, he was a member of the

Kew Kew () is a district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its population at the 2011 census was 11,436. Kew is the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens ("Kew Gardens"), now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace. Kew is a ...

City Council.

Early parliamentary career

Chipp entered federal politics in 1960 as the

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and ...

member for Higinbotham in Melbourne's southern bayside suburbs. After a redistribution in 1968, he transferred to the less safe seat of Hotham. He was given the Navy and Tourism portfolios by Prime Minister

Harold Holt Harold Edward Holt (5 August 190817 December 1967) was an Australian politician who served as the 17th prime minister of Australia from 1966 until his presumed death in 1967. He held office as leader of the Liberal Party. Holt was born in ...

in 1967. After Holt's sudden disappearance in December 1967, Chipp retained those portfolios in the brief interim government of Country Party leader

John McEwen Sir John McEwen, (29 March 1900 – 20 November 1980) was an Australian politician who served as the 18th prime minister of Australia, holding office from 1967 to 1968 in a caretaker capacity after the disappearance of Harold Holt. He was the ...

, but he was dropped from the ministry by the new Liberal Prime Minister,

John Gorton Sir John Grey Gorton (9 September 1911 – 19 May 2002) was an Australian politician who served as the nineteenth Prime Minister of Australia, in office from 1968 to 1971. He led the Liberal Party during that time, having previously been a lo ...

. That was partly because Chipp had supported another candidate,

Billy Snedden Sir Billy Mackie Snedden, (31 December 1926 – 27 June 1987) was an Australian politician who served as the leader of the Liberal Party from 1972 to 1975. He was also a cabinet minister from 1964 to 1972, and Speaker of the House of Represe ...

, in the Liberal leadership ballot and partly because Chipp did not support a second Royal Commission into the 1964 ''Voyager'' disaster, which Gorton felt reflected badly on the Royal Australian Navy. After the 1969 election, Gorton appointed Chipp as Minister for Customs and Excise. In that portfolio, he gained national attention by largely abolishing the censorship of printed material, unbanning many novels, including

Henry Miller Henry Valentine Miller (December 26, 1891 – June 7, 1980) was an American novelist. He broke with existing literary forms and developed a new type of semi-autobiographical novel that blended character study, social criticism, philosophical ref ...

's ''

Tropic of Cancer The Tropic of Cancer, which is also referred to as the Northern Tropic, is the most northerly circle of latitude on Earth at which the Sun can be directly overhead. This occurs on the June solstice, when the Northern Hemisphere is tilted toward ...

'', as well as allowing the sale of ''

Playboy ''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. K ...

'' magazine. He also oversaw the introduction of the R certificate for films in 1970, which allowed previously banned films to be rerated and shown to adults. The actions made him widely popular but were disapproved of by more conservative Liberal Party colleagues who identified him as a " small-l liberal", along with Snedden and

Andrew Peacock Andrew Sharp Peacock (13 February 193916 April 2021) was an Australian politician and diplomat. He served as a cabinet minister and went on to become leader of the Liberal Party on two occasions (1983–1985 and 1989–1990), leading the par ...

. Following the Liberal Party's defeat at the 1972 election by the Labor Party's

Gough Whitlam Edward Gough Whitlam (11 July 191621 October 2014) was the 21st prime minister of Australia, serving from 1972 to 1975. The longest-serving federal leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1967 to 1977, he was notable for being the he ...

, Chipp served as Shadow Minister for Social Security. He was a strong supporter of Snedden, who had become party leader following the 1972 defeat but lost the 1974 election against Whitlam. When

Malcolm Fraser John Malcolm Fraser (; 21 May 1930 – 20 March 2015) was an Australian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Australia from 1975 to 1983, holding office as the leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. Fraser was raised on hi ...

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

on 11 November 1975, he gave Chipp three portfolios in his caretaker ministry:

Social Security Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifical ...

Health Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organiza ...

, and Repatriation and Compensation. However, when Fraser won the election the next month, Chipp was not included in the ministry.

Resignation from Liberal Party

In his book ''The Third Man'', Chipp considered the effects of a "whispering campaign" to discredit him within the Liberal Party. That came to a head on 8 March 1977 when he spoke at a heavily attended ''Citizens for Democracy'' meeting at the

Sydney Town Hall The Sydney Town Hall is a late 19th-century heritage-listed town hall building in the city of Sydney, the capital city of New South Wales, Australia, housing the chambers of the Lord Mayor of Sydney, council offices, and venues for meetings an ...

with other controversial speakers including

Frank Hardy Francis Joseph Hardy (21 March 1917 – 28 January 1994), published as Frank J. Hardy and also under the pseudonym Ross Franklyn, was an Australian novelist and writer. He is best known for his 1950 novel '' Power Without Glory'', and for his ...

Patrick White Patrick Victor Martindale White (28 May 1912 – 30 September 1990) was a British-born Australian writer who published 12 novels, three short-story collections, and eight plays, from 1935 to 1987. White's fiction employs humour, florid prose, ...

Donald Horne Donald Richmond Horne (26 December 1921 – 8 September 2005) was an Australian journalist, writer, social critic, and academic who became one of Australia's best known public intellectuals, from the 1960s until his death. Horne was a pro ...

and

Faith Bandler Faith Bandler (27 September 1918 13 February 2015; née Ida Lessing Faith Mussing) was an Australian civil rights activist of South Sea Islander and Scottish-Indian heritage. A campaigner for the rights of Indigenous Australians and South Se ...

. He writes "Liberals thought it was intolerable that any member of the party should appear with 'those people'". Chipp concluded: "It was then, I believe, that I concluded I could not stay in such a party any longer. I resented the tag of 'rebel' which was being applied to me by my own colleagues."Chipp D. and Larkin J. ''Don Chipp: The Third Man'', Rigby 1978, The rebellious image was heightened by the fact that Chipp omitted to attend a Parliament House reception for Queen

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

. He had decided to honour his prior speaking engagement, which had been widely publicised. The meeting, attended by 5,000, "almost went out of control when I stated that Sir John Kerr had no alternative than to act as he did on 11 November 1975. Donald Horne pleaded for order, saying "This man deserves a hearing; he is putting his political career on the line by speaking here." Chipp decided to resign from the Liberal Party on 24 March 1977 and concluded his speech that day with the following:

I have become disenchanted with party politics as they are practised in this country and with the pressure groups which have an undue influence on the major political parties. The parties seem to polarise on almost every issue, sometimes seemingly just for the sake of it, and I wonder if the ordinary voter is not becoming sick and tired of the vested interests which unduly influence political parties and yearns for the emergence of a third political force, representing middle-of-the-road policies which would owe allegiance to no outside pressure group. Perhaps it may be the right time to test that proposition.

Leadership of Democrats

Even before the resignation, he received an invitation to join the amalgamated Centre-Line Party, which predated the

. He resolutely turned down a series of such leadership offers until, on 9 May 1977, he was accorded an overwhelming standing ovation by a 3,000-strong audience at the

Melbourne Town Hall Melbourne Town Hall is the central city town hall of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, and is a historic building in the state of Victoria since 1867. Located in the central business district on the northeast corner of the intersection between ...

. The meeting was attended by former prime minister John Gorton and chaired by South Australian Governor Sir

Mark Oliphant Sir Marcus Laurence Elwin Oliphant, (8 October 1901 – 14 July 2000) was an Australian physicist and humanitarian who played an important role in the first experimental demonstration of nuclear fusion and in the development of nuclear weapo ...

. Speakers included

Robin Millhouse Robin Rhodes Millhouse, QC (9 December 1929 – 28 April 2017) was, at various times, the 39th Attorney-General of South Australia, the first Australian Democrats parliamentarian, and the Chief Justice of both Kiribati and Nauru and a judge o ...

Charles Birch Louis Charles Birch (1918–2009) was an Australian geneticist specialising in population ecology and was also well known as a theologian, writing widely on the topic of science and religion, winning the Templeton Prize in 1990. The prize recogn ...

and John Siddons.Hewat, Tim; Wilson, David (1978). "Don Chipp". Widescope International Publishers, Melbourne. Page 81 Chipp concluded, "... I was committed ... and it was a good feeling”. At the December 1977 election, Chipp was elected to the

Australian Senate The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. There are a to ...

as a Democrats candidate, 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 The Franklin Dam or Gordon-below-Franklin Dam project was a proposed dam on the Gordon River in Tasmania, Australia, that was never constructed. The movement that eventually led to the project's cancellation became one of the most significant ...

project. At the 1980 election, the Democrats gained three more senators, giving them a total of five. They held a potential balance of power, which they retained for most of the time until 1 July 2005, after a total lack of success at the 2004 election. Their theoretical ability to reject or amend government legislation was seldom applied, as it was dependent on rare support from other non-government senators. It was, however, a useful avenue for publicity and effective Senate committee dealings outside the chamber.

Later life

Chipp resigned from the Senate on 18 August 1986, being succeeded as leader by

Janine Haines Janine Winton Haines, AM (née Carter; 8 May 1945 – 20 November 2004) was an Australian politician who was a Senator for South Australia from 1977 to 1978 and again from 1981 to 1990. She represented the Australian Democrats, and served as t ...

and replaced as a senator by

Janet Powell Janet Frances Powell AM (née McDonald, 29 September 194230 September 2013) was an Australian politician. A native of Nhill, Victoria, Powell was educated at Ballarat Grammar School and Nhill High School. She graduated from the University ...

. From 1988 to 1990, Chipp conducted a regular talkback program on Melbourne radio station 3AK. He ran unsuccessfully for election as the Lord Mayor of Melbourne in 2001. In his later years, he suffered from

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms beco ...

, but he still made a number of public appearances, most notably on the ABC chat show ''

Enough Rope ''Enough Rope with Andrew Denton'' (often shortened to ''Enough Rope'') is a television interview show originally broadcast on ABC1 in Australia. The title of the show came from the phrase " give someone enough rope and they'll hang themselves ...

'' with Andrew Denton. He also gave an opening address to the Democrats' national conference in Melbourne in May 2006. Chipp died of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severit ...

in August 2006 at Epworth Hospital in Melbourne. A

state funeral A state funeral is a public funeral ceremony, observing the strict rules of protocol, held to honour people of national significance. State funerals usually include much pomp and ceremony as well as religious overtones and distinctive elements o ...

service was held on 2 September 2006 for him. Australian flags were flown at

half-mast Half-mast or half-staff (American English) refers to a flag flying below the summit of a ship mast, a pole on land, or a pole on a building. In many countries this is seen as a symbol of respect, mourning, distress, or, in some cases, a salut ...

all day in Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory in his honour.

Personal life

Chipp was married twice. On 27 October 1951 he married Monica Lalor. With her support, Chipp stood and won a seat on the Kew City Council which he held from 1955 to 1961, and was encouraged- at that time – to become an active member of the

. They had four children. Chipp and Lalor divorced in 1979, and Chipp married Idun Welz later that same year. They had two children. His eldest son, Greg Chipp, established Drug Law Reform Australia, a political party focused on the

decriminalisation Decriminalization or decriminalisation is the reclassification in law relating to certain acts or aspects of such to the effect that they are no longer considered a crime, including the removal of criminal penalties in relation to them. This refo ...

of illegal drugs, and contested the

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...

and 2016 federal elections. Don Chipp's youngest daughter, Laura Chipp, contested the 2017 by-election in the Victorian electorate of Northcote, representing the Reason Party (formerly known as the Australian Sex Party).

References

External links

*Australian Parliament
Parliamentary biography CHIPP, the Hon. Donald Leslie, AO
*Australian Parliament
Speeches of Senator the Hon. Don Chipp
with

Andrew Denton Andrew Christopher Denton (born 4 May 1960) is an Australian television producer, comedian, Gold Logie-nominated television presenter and former radio host, and was the host of the ABC's weekly television interview program '' Enough Rope'' an ...

on the

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

's ''

''
Interview
with Peter Thompson on the

's ''Talking Heads'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Chipp, Don 1925 births 2006 deaths Australian Democrats members of the Parliament of Australia Political party founders Fitzroy Football Club players Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Australia Australian monarchists Independent members of the Parliament of Australia Liberalism in Australia Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Higinbotham Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Hotham Members of the Australian House of Representatives Leaders of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Australian Senate for Victoria Members of the Australian Senate Members of the Cabinet of Australia Politicians from Melbourne People with Parkinson's disease Prahran Football Club players Australian sportsperson-politicians People educated at Northcote High School Delegates to the Australian Constitutional Convention 1998 Australian rules footballers from Melbourne Leaders of the Australian Democrats 20th-century Australian politicians Australian memoirists Officers of the Order of Australia 20th-century memoirists Australian Ministers for Health Royal Australian Air Force personnel of World War II