(with thanks to David Curtis)

The PRIMARY OBJECTIVE of the movement is:

To generate in ALL West Australians an IRRESISTIBLE WILL for Secession from Canberra, based on these policy points:

Policy

  • To retain our sovereign Parliament, maintain our membership of British Commonwealth and right of appeal to the Privy Council.
  • To remove W.A. from economic strangulation by Canberra.
  • To develop W.A. to become rich, strong, heavily populated with appropriate people, and powerful.
  • To build a western bastion of defence for the whole of Australia (which at the moment has no defence) by making ourselves economically indispensable to major western powers — they will have to protect us out of self-interest.
  • To prevent the Indian Ocean from becoming a Russian lake — a real danger as a result of Canberra’s present policies.
  • To raise W.A.’s standard of living.
  • To lower the cost of food to the housewife, farmer, miner and manufacturer.
  • To remove ourselves from the insufferable burden of Canberra bureaucracy, heavy taxation and declining growth rate.

Method

The PRIMARY OBJECTIVE will be achieved by:

  • Establishing Westralian Secession Movement Branch organisations throughout W.A., to understand the objective and policy. Branches will:
  1. Disseminate political, economic and secession information.
  2. Develop pride in West Australians about their State, its people, its history, its achievements.
  3. Run for public office where it is considered the Secession cause will be thereby served.
  4. Conduct public discussions, seminars, debates.
  5. Develop youth groups, emphasising character training and State pride.
  6. Conduct appropriate social functions and events.

The movement will use ALL the media, and associated means like lapel badges, car stickers, etc., to spread its message throughout Western Australia.

We DO NOT WANT to divide the Australian Nation:

  • Our language won’t change.
  • Our customs won’t change.
  • Our geographical position won’t change.

Remember we are already separated from Canberra by two thousand miles of desert and two decades of thinking.

WE ARE A MOVEMENT, NOT A POLITICAL PARTY.

Our present role is to generate the IRRESISTIBLE WILL for secession.

If the objective is achieved, W.A. political parties will work out the policies in the future.

We Can Stand On Our Own!

The greatest leap forward that W.A. has known was when the State was separate from the Commonwealth.

The decade from 1890 to 1900 comprised the ten greatest years in the history of the development of Western Australia.

The authority for this statement is Mr. Cyril Dudley, who was active in the leadership of the Secession Movement in the 1930s. Speaking in an address in 1973, he said there was “A very small population, about 150,000 people. They build railways to all parts — to the country areas, the wheat belts, south west, anywhere that it was necessary for the rural industries to be developed.”

“Fremantle Harbour was built. Gold mining was established in the Eastern goldfields, and the Murchison area, producing the richest gold lodes in the world at the time. The gold fields water scheme, an engineering development which still draws admiration from engineers world wide, was also completed by the late C.Y. O’Connor.”

Mr. Dudley then went on to remember that after years of Federation, the thinking people of this State began to check up, and said to themselves. “Now, things aren’t going too well — what are we getting out of Federation?”

The picture which emerges is that WA’s economy was self-sufficient and based on factors markedly different from that of eastern Australia.

“One of the first points to emerge was WA’s high contributions to commonwealth exports,” he said.

“Latest available figures showed that with only 8.1 per cent of Australia’s population, the State provides 19.3 per cent of total exports and consumers only 7.1 per cent of imports.”

“The State’s export strength lies in its rural and mineral production.”

“It provides 13.2 per cent of Australia’s pastoral and 12.5 per cent of agricultural producers including 21.1 per cent of all sheep, 19.8 per cent of all wool, and 8.7 per cent of all meat.”

“Mineral figures show an even greater imbalance.”

More than 77 per cent of Australia’s gold comes from WA, 85 per cent of its iron ore and nearly 35 per cent of its bauxite. With 13 per cent crude oil production, WA is also providing more than its proportionate share of this vital commodity.”

“Since 1900, WA has had an average surplus of 6.5 per cent in its overseas trade balance, rising last year to 12.1 per cent.”

“By comparison, in NSW and Victoria, imports exceed exports by 32.4 per cent.”

Mr. Dennis Horgan
November 15, 1973