Australian politics - I confess, it's not a topic I'm an expert on. I'm not an expert
on anything really, but when it comes to politics, of any kind, count me out. Every few years
I hear about the American elections but that's just because Americans are loud and I complain
about my own government quite regularly because they're a useless shower of bastards, but
that's about the height of it. As for Australian politics, I can't imagine
it's too interesting. Well, their Prime Minister disappeared in 1967. Yes, the Australian head
of government just vanished one day while he was swimming in the sea. He has never been
found. They dedicated a swimming centre to his memory. That's rather strange. But other
than that it's probably all fairly boring stuff right? Worker's protections and the
right to smoko, regulations upholding the nation's proud tradition of awful haircuts,
probably some laws about kangaroos or something - nothing to kill a man over, surely?
Peter Kocan was born in 1947 in New South Wales, Australia. His father was an engineer
who sadly died in a car crash before he was born. Kocan had a challenging childhood which
saw the arrival of a violent stepfather and a few relocations around the country. This
left Kocan feeling somewhat disconnected from the outside world, and he spent much of his
youth in loneliness. By the age of 14, Kocan left school and soon
he became a sort of drifter, working menial jobs and moving from place to place to find
them. For a while he was a hired hand out in the country, another time he was a factory
worker in the city. He was often homeless. This did nothing to improve his alienation.
According to Kocan, the adults in his life had done little to prepare him for the world,
and he spent so much time alone with his thoughts that it was affecting his mental state. As
he progressed to adult life, his world view became skewed to the point that he had basically
given up on life, and taken to living in his imagination.
Although his thoughts swirled around death and darkness, the lost youth was still clinging
onto the idea that there must be more to life, there must be some reason why he was here,
some role for him to fulfil in this world - and when he found it, everything would make
sense. The world was a puzzle, and he was a piece, he just needed to find how he fit.
In his ponderings, he decided he should buy himself a gun.
By 1966, Australia is having another federal election. The leader of the Australian Labor
Party, Arthur Calwell is campaigning. On the 21st of June 1966, Calwell addresses an anti-conscription
rally at Mosman Town Hall in Sydney. The left-leaning Calwell was against Australia's involvement
in the Vietnam war, and although he had an audience at this rally, the anti-war stance
was not yet fully embraced by the wider public. Give it a few years.
One such person who did not agree with Calwell's politics, was 19-year-old Peter Kocan, who
was hanging around the crowd with a sawn-off .22 rifle concealed under his coat. After
his adress, Calwell makes for his car, and Kocan follows.
Calwell then enters the car on the passenger side and sits beside his driver. Kocan approaches
the car from behind. Seeing Kocan walking up to the window, Calwell assumes he is another
supporter come to wish him well in the election, and begins to wind down the window. Before
he can finish, Kocan draws his rifle, and fires.
Dropping his rifle, Kocan turns to run, but is caught and apprehended by the crowd. He
is soon handed over to police. In his car, Arthur Calwell's face is a bloody
mess of shattered glass, but he has survived. After striking the window, the bullet lodged
in the lapel of his coat. He is injured, but will recover.
When police asked him about the assassination attempt, Peter Kocan had this to say;
"Unless I did something out of the ordinary I realized I would remain a nobody all my
life. I came to the conclusion that however hard it was I would have to do something that
would set me apart from other nobodies. I would not have done anything so cruel as shoot
someone if I had any alternative. That's why I shot Mr Calwell. I'm sorry I caused pain
to Mr Calwell... I went there with that intention and when I fired a shot I didn't care if I
hit him or not. I just wanted to get it over with".
He explained the shooting was partially inspired by the recent assassinations of JFK, Malcolm
X, South Vietnam's president and South Africa's prime minister. Although the assassination
attempt was not politically motivated, and he just wanted to shoot a public figure, Kocan
said Calwell's politics made it easier to target him. He had assumed he would be shot
dead after killing Calwell.
The 19-year-old was found guilty of attempted murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.
It wasn't long before he was transferred from prison to a psychiatric hospital for the criminally
insane. Doesn't really sound like the sort of place you'd want to end up, especially
in the 60's, not long after the crowning achievement of mental health work had been a lobotomy,
but Kocan turned his life around here. In conversation, someone at the hospital had
referenced English poet Rupert Brooke. Kocan, who already had a lifelong interest in reading
and history decided to investigate the poet's work. This lead him down a rabbit hole of
poetry, literature, history and philosophy, and Kocan sort of dedicated his life to it
all. His interest lead him to correspond with poets,
and eventually he got writing his own works. The world started to make sense to him. No
longer the alienated teenager, Kocan was finding his role in the world. Arthur Calwell even
visited Kocan and forgave him for the whole attempted murder business. They struck up
a regular correspondence and Calwell encouraged Kocan's progressing rehabilitation.
In 1976, after ten years imprisonment, Kocan was set free. He continued studying and writing
- poetry, drama, fiction, autobiographies. His works saw international publication, numerous
awards, and critical acclaim. He pursued this academically and obtained a doctorate in creative
arts. I'm understating it, but he's been doing all this for decades, he really did turn his
life around and he's made more of a name for himself now than he probably would have as
a successful assassin.
As for Arthur Calwell, the Labour Party went on to get absolutely trashed in the 1966 election,
literally their biggest defeat in decades. This was largely attributed to Calwell's anti-war
stance being at odds with the public opinion of the time. So the man took a bullet at an
anti-conscription rally, got destroyed at the elections for opposing the Vietnam war
and then in a few years everyone changed their minds about the whole thing anyways. Probably
wished he'd had rolled the window down faster after all that.
So there you have it - Australian politics. It's serious business. I don't regularly keep
up with it so I assume the country has just been trapped in some sort of political limbo
after the head of government disappeared, and nothing can happen until he returns. By
the way, he disappeared just a year after the shooting so I guess Australian politics
are a fairly reliable source of entertainment for the people over there when they're not
being eaten by giant spiders. If you'd like to see another video about Australia,
why not watch my video on the Sheraton hotel incident, where Australia's Secret Intelligent
Service conducted a hostage rescue training scenario in a hotel, without informing the
guests, the staff, or the police, who all assumed a real terrorist attack was taking
place. If you are impressed by the fact I have two equally strange stories from Australia,
well, you haven't seen anything yet, pal, so you'd better subscribe and strap yourself
in.