12 Nov 1987 - Features Probably the only Member of Parliament to have been elected while on the dole Robert Wood: a man committed to peace

Features

Probably the only Member of Parliament to have been elected while on the dole

Robert Wood: a man committed to peace

hair are a welcome break,

In the very insulated world of Federal Parliament, Senator Wood

is genuinely different. He is one of two members who represent a different voice in the Australian community 'and, along with independent

Western Australian senator Jo Vallentine, owes his ascendancy almost entirely to his involvement in the peace movement.

In political terms, Senators Wood and Vallentine are as close as Australia gets to the Greens Party in West Germany. They are the visible result of a grass-roots movement which has said that "enough is enough" and has been prepared to back that with votes on polling day.

• Senator Wood was sworn in as Nuclear Disarmament Party sena tor for NSW at 9am on September 25 — an hour before he was due in court to hear his appeal against a $120 fine for paddling a kayak in front of the US warship Joseph

Strauss in Sydney Harbour. That appeal, along with a challenge to his election by the Reverend Fred Nile, is still being considered.

The first hint that the new sena tor in room LI81 is different is a poem about the colour red on his office door. Senator Wood likes red. He wears red socks and ties with an old suit that matches his long hair and colourful badges. An other hint is the polite young man in stretch jeans who shares a job in Senator Wood's office as part of a work-share scheme. Senator Wood

used to be a youth worker in Syd ney and knows the value of having something worthwhile to do.

Born the son of a steelworker in Gateshead, England, Senator Wood is also different in that he is probably the only Member of Par liament to have been elected while on the dole, although he says that the media tend to play that point

up.

"There seems to be a preoccupa tion with my having gone from the dole to a senator's salary," he said, "but I haven't always been on the

dole.

"Once before I was on a fairly high salary and I did the same with

my salary then as I'm doing now and that's sharing it where it's needed. The money has not been a great change... the biggest change is the travelling."

Included in a background which he says "reads like a Monty Python

lege and is part-way through a Bachelor of Arts and law degree at Macquarie University.

He has also been spokesman for

the Nuclear Disarmament Party . since 1985, founder of the "pad

dlers forpeace" movement and a . member of various groups include ing Catholic youth organisations,' the Wayside Chapel Crisis Centre, Kings Cross Youth Refuge and the Youth Affairs Council ofNSW. .

In 1972, he spent a month in jail as a drift resister.

It is not the average background of an average' senator but in''his. success Senator Wood, along with Senator Vallentine, carries the flag of a movement which is now well

established in Australian society!- . He sees his election as testimony to the fact that the nuclear issue is still strong in the electorate despite the hype of the 1984 election havr ing long disappeared.

"People were distracted by the Peter Garrett phenomenon in '84,"

he said.

"The folk myth now is that it was Garrett that raised the nuclear disarmament issue; Garrett doesn't say that, of course, but

others do. Garrett was a great pub

licist for the party but the hype of. that election, campaign really dis

guised the fact that the electorate . / was really sold on the issue before .

the Nuclear Disarmament Party ; was formed.

• ! "The electorate was already con

vinced about the need for disarma ment ... so what was happening in '84 was -that the NDP was just riding on that wave of anti-nuclear

feeling. Although the hype is no -longer there, the fact that the NDP v managed to pick up a seat in NSW .- is testimony of the fact that the "tissue.'is still strong in the elector

ate; • .

"I was elected because people saw 'nuclear disarmament- on the ballot paper and said, 'Yes, I'll go for that'. We picked up a lot of second preferences from across.the -political spectrum after people had done their duly and voted for one of the major parties first."

In many respects, Senator Wood is a paradox. He says he thinks he

is an anarchist but he is a member ■ of Parliament; he is a Christian but : angers others such as the Reverend Nile who stand on platforms of Christianity; and he is critical of the peace movement he belongs to.

In other respects, he is typical of a "new wave" of peace activists who, like Senator Vallentine, recognise the need for the peace movement to: present a credible face to the electorate by addressing the wide range of issues inevitably

linked to nuclear disarmament and sepurity.

Senator Wood says he looks at the nuclear disarmament issue like a log jam in a river. "When there's a big logjam, they look for what's called the key log because usually there's one log that jams on some thing and all the rest pile; up on top and behind it," he said.

"What they do is remove the key log and that releases the whole jam. The way I see it, is that nu clear weapons are the key log. Un til you move them, nothing else is

going to change because until you move them their mere existence demands politicaKoppression and economic cxplpiiation.

. "When we, talk about nuclear disarmament, we're talking about changing the whole system of in justice." ...

The new senator's political ,ublo6ding" owes much to the draft resistance movement of the 1960s and 1970s although he says that social justice was "always pretty high on my agenda". , . .

, "I had a fairly poor background, so I was alwaiys pretty close to in justice," he said.

He says that becausc of national .conscription ..during the Vietnam War, young men in the 1960s and 1970s were forced to make deci sions that they do not face today.

"... You were forced to make a choice, a decision, on the war and national service before you turned twenty," he said.

"That led to an examination of where I stood. Although I started out with, a Christian pacifist pcr . speclive on the war, that was very

rapidly turned into an understand ing of injustice generally; that war is just a symptom of greater under lying injustices in society.

"Nuclear weapons depend on vast concentrations of power and vast concentrations of wealth just for their production and deploy ment. Everywhere you look where people are struggling for self deter mination, for some sort of autono my in their affairs, it is against nuclear superpower interests.

Senator Wood says that he docs not subscribe to any one ideology but supposes he is an anarchist. He justifies his current position with the rider that, "there was never a chance that the revolution was go ing to start in the Senate, anyway".

He believes that the Senate is important in the cultural life of Australia and that his ascendancy has more to do with symbolism than power.

"When you've got a body of peo ple who are symbolically impor tant in the cultural life of the coun

try saying these things, then that .adds the sort of credibility to the argument that people need.

• "As far as.I'm concerned, the • important work that will be done

• while I'm a senator will be done in

the electorate. People will come to listen to the NSW Senator for Nu clcar Disarmament where they probably wouldn't come to hear . any ordinary old peace activist.

"I suppose that that's where I'm an anarchist, in that I don't believe the answer lies in nice neat theo

ries and ideological constructs. ,The answer lies in an aware, in

formed and active population." ;

Senator Wood believes that there is a "greying" of the peace movement and that, apart from addressing broader political issues, one of the challenges the move ment faces over the next few years is attracting young people. He says that young people arc interested in peace issues but thai the move ment is more interested in talking about itself than in taking practical steps to achieve disarmament.

"While my greatest inspiration in the peace movement comes, ' without exception, from elderly

women, old campaigners from way back, there is still a lack of youth," - he said.

"And that is ironic. The peace movement has been too narrow in its focus... there hasn't been a real attempt to draw connections be tween disarmament and other is sues until now. Certain sections of the peace movement are now see ing that."

He says that Australia should be a non-aligned country with a for eign policy geared more closely to the Pacific and a defence policy geared to defending Australia against invasion rather than at tempting to defend against a nu clear war by supporting US bases.