Hugh Schmitt, “MILLIONAIRE PUTS MONEY BEHIND SECESSIONISTS,” The Sun-Herald, May 5, 1974, p. 7.

PERTH, Saturday. — Mining millionaire Lang Hancock said this week that he and his partner were financially backing four secessionist candidates for the Senate election.

He said that he and Peter Wright were paying out tens of thousands of dollars on advertisements campaigning on behalf of the Westralian Secessionist Party but would not say exactly how much it was costing them.

“I wouldn’t have a clue, I’m not an accountant,” he said.

We’re worried about a lot of things, but money’s not one of them.

Full-page newspaper advertisements supporting the candidates have been appearing lately.

Asked if he thought they were effective, Mr Hancock, 65, said, “I’m not a politician, buy if they don’t put them in they’re sunk. Western Australia will be hog-tied forever.”

He said Australia was “at the crossroads.”

He added: “The Canberra road leads Australia directly into the communist camp, with Russian military bases on WA soil helping the Indian Ocean to become a Russian lake.”

Mr Hancock said he feared that federalism would eventually mean confiscation of properties, nationalisation of industry and abolition of State parliaments.

Under secession he forecasts security of tenure for West Australians, freedom from “Canberra’s socialist controls,” lower taxes, abolition of death duties, and cheaper airfares.

Mr Hancock said there was no doubt that Western Australia could support itself economically if it seceded.

On defence he said: “We’re a minus quantity now. This place could be taken by telephone anyway. We’ve got 20,000 soldiers and about 10,000 civil servants to look after them.

For a successful defence of the Western seaboard his solution would be: “Buy an F-111 and arm it with a nuclear warhead so that the militarily stronger nations on our borders will know that if they should feel tempted to attack us, they will be handling a fairly prickly hedgehog.”