Junie Morosi
Encyclopedia
Junie Morosi is an Australia
n businesswoman, who became a public figure in the 1970s through her relationship with Dr Jim Cairns
, Deputy Prime Minister
in the Whitlam
Labor government. Morosi's appointment as Cairns's Principal Private Secretary, and the nature of her relationship with him, aroused intense media interest, and the affair contributed to Cairns's eventual dismissal from office and the fall of the government.
, China
, and educated in the Philippines
. Her father was Italian and her mother Portuguese, and both were of part-Chinese descent. The family moved to Manila
when she was a child. She worked as a journalist, becoming political correspondent at the Manila daily newspaper Voz de Manila. She also worked in advertising and travel consultancy. She married a Filipino as a teenager and had three sons. In 1958 she was employed by Qantas
, the Australian national airline. In 1962 she moved to Australia
, where she married an Australian businessman, David Ditchburn.
Morosi continued to work in the airline and travel industry until 1974, when she was employed as an assistant to Al Grassby
, the Commissioner for Community Relations. Grassby had been a minister in the Whitlam government before losing his seat in the May 1974 election
. Morosi's new job brought her into contact with other Whitlam government ministers. In Canberra
she read and was impressed by one of Jim Cairns's books, The Quiet Revolution, and arranged to meet him.
and Treasurer
in the Whitlam government. Tom Uren
, another Whitlam minister and one of Cairns's closest friends, later recorded that "Jim and Junie were attracted to each other from the first time they met." She was attracted to his intellect and personal charisma, and he responded to her emotional warmth and unorthodox attitudes. The attraction soon became sexual, although whether and when their relationship became a sexual one remained a matter of controversy until 2002 when it was confirmed as such by Cairns.
In December 1974 Cairns appointed Morosi as his Principal Private Secretary, a job traditionally held by a senior public servant. Her business background made the appointment at least defensible, but she had no knowledge of Australian politics or economics, and not much experience of managing a large and complex office.
The appointment aroused an immediate storm of sensationalist media coverage. The fact that Morosi was "exotic" (the media's code-word for "Asian"), youngish (she was 41) and attractive was given much prominence. To this were soon added allegations that both she and Ditchburn had questionable business associates. It was also soon alleged that Ditchburn was using Morosi's position to further his business interests.
Cairns's friends urged him to end the Morosi appointment, but out of both personal loyalty and a refusal to be bullied by the anti-Labor tabloid press, he refused. He said that there would have been no media outcry "if I had appointed a man, or even a woman who was not good-looking." He and others pointed out that Elizabeth Reid, who had been appointed Whitlam's advisor on women's issues in 1973, had received the same sort of media attention. But after a few days Morosi took the initiative and resigned, pending an investigation into the business affairs of herself and Ditchburn.
When at the end of December the investigation found no irregularities, Cairns promptly re-appointed Morosi, and the media circus resumed. It was aggravated by Morosi's decision to give interviews to the Sydney
tabloid the Sun and the mass-circulation Woman's Day. Morosi said: "If I had been a white Anglo-Saxon male there would have been no story at all. One day, I was the most sinister, deadly enemy of Australia - a member of the KGB, the Chinese mafia, you name it." In February 1975, Cairns was at the Labor Party's national conference, and told a journalist that he felt "a kind of love" for Morosi.
The more serious aspect of Morosi's appointment was that she used her position to cut Cairns off from his political associates and from alternative sources of advice. This seems to have been the genesis of the crisis that later erupted over Cairns's dealings with the Melbourne businessman George Harris. Harris claimed that Cairns had given him a letter authorising him to investigate overseas loans, and promising him a 2.5% commission. Cairns denied having given him such a letter. When the letter was produced, Cairns said he had no memory of signing it. The most likely explanation was that the situation arose from poor communications in his office.
After Cairns was dismissed from the Ministry in July 1975, he kept Morosi on his backbencher's staff as a research assistant. She published her version of events in a book, Sex, Prejudice and Politics, later in the year. Together they worked on a new project for an alternative lifestyles festival to be held near Canberra. Morosi was a devotee of the ideas of the German sexologist Wilhelm Reich
, and Cairns had become an unlikely convert as a result of their relationship. The Down to Earth Festival in December 1975 attracted 5,000 people. Cairns and Morosi continued to work on developing the movement until 1977, when Cairns retired from Parliament.
By 1981 Morosi had moved on to a new project, the Wyuna Co-operative, a "community housing project" in Canberra involving Morosi and Ditchburn as well as Morosi's brother and sister-in-law, with some financial support from Cairns. In 1985 the co-operative received a $133,000 grant from the Community Housing Expansion Program of the federal Territories Department. When the National Times newspaper revealed this, Prime Minister Bob Hawke
intervened and the program was wound up. Morosi complained that the controversy was entirely because of her involvement, and indeed an inquiry later found that there was nothing improper about the grant, although it was critical of Wyuna's management.
Despite the inquiry's findings, the government took legal action to recover the $133,000. The resulting proceedings dragged on until 1988, and the strain ruined both her business interests and her marriage to Ditchburn. In 1986 she was hospitalised suffering from stress and exhaustion. These events also effectively ended her relationship with Cairns, who was reconciled with his wife, although the two remained friends until Cairns's death in October 2003.
In the National Times case Morosi told the court: "I felt insulted, angry, upset and hurt. It was very demeaning to me as a woman [to be called Cairns's 'girlfriend']. I saw myself as a professional, as a competent person doing her job. It was cheap. It was as though it had nothing to do with business but everything to do with sex." The jury decided the article in question did imply a sexual relationship, but was "not defamatory."
In 2002 Cairns admitted his relationship with Morosi had been sexual.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n businesswoman, who became a public figure in the 1970s through her relationship with Dr Jim Cairns
Jim Cairns
James Ford "J. F." Cairns , Australian politician, was prominent in the Labor movement through the 1960s and 1970s, and was briefly Deputy Prime Minister in the Whitlam government...
, Deputy Prime Minister
Deputy Prime Minister of Australia
The Deputy Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the second-most senior officer in the Government of Australia. The Deputy Prime Ministership has been a ministerial portfolio since 1968, and the Deputy Prime Minister is appointed by the Governor-General on the advice of the Prime...
in the Whitlam
Gough Whitlam
Edward Gough Whitlam, AC, QC , known as Gough Whitlam , served as the 21st Prime Minister of Australia. Whitlam led the Australian Labor Party to power at the 1972 election and retained government at the 1974 election, before being dismissed by Governor-General Sir John Kerr at the climax of the...
Labor government. Morosi's appointment as Cairns's Principal Private Secretary, and the nature of her relationship with him, aroused intense media interest, and the affair contributed to Cairns's eventual dismissal from office and the fall of the government.
Early life
Morosi was born in ShanghaiShanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, and educated in the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
. Her father was Italian and her mother Portuguese, and both were of part-Chinese descent. The family moved to Manila
Manila
Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...
when she was a child. She worked as a journalist, becoming political correspondent at the Manila daily newspaper Voz de Manila. She also worked in advertising and travel consultancy. She married a Filipino as a teenager and had three sons. In 1958 she was employed by Qantas
Qantas
Qantas Airways Limited is the flag carrier of Australia. The name was originally "QANTAS", an initialism for "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services". Nicknamed "The Flying Kangaroo", the airline is based in Sydney, with its main hub at Sydney Airport...
, the Australian national airline. In 1962 she moved to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, where she married an Australian businessman, David Ditchburn.
Morosi continued to work in the airline and travel industry until 1974, when she was employed as an assistant to Al Grassby
Al Grassby
Albert Jaime Grassby, AM , Australian politician, was Minister for Immigration in the Whitlam Labor government. He initiated sweeping reforms in immigration, human rights, and is often known as the father of Australian "multiculturalism".-Early life and state politics:Born Albert Grassby in...
, the Commissioner for Community Relations. Grassby had been a minister in the Whitlam government before losing his seat in the May 1974 election
Australian federal election, 1974
Federal elections were held in Australia on 18 May 1974. All 127 seats in the House of Representatives, and all 60 seats in the Senate were up for election, due to a double dissolution...
. Morosi's new job brought her into contact with other Whitlam government ministers. In Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
she read and was impressed by one of Jim Cairns's books, The Quiet Revolution, and arranged to meet him.
Jim Cairns
Cairns was then Deputy Prime MinisterDeputy Prime Minister of Australia
The Deputy Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the second-most senior officer in the Government of Australia. The Deputy Prime Ministership has been a ministerial portfolio since 1968, and the Deputy Prime Minister is appointed by the Governor-General on the advice of the Prime...
and Treasurer
Treasurer of Australia
The Treasurer of Australia is the minister in the Government of Australia responsible for government expenditure and revenue raising. He is the head of the Department of the Treasury. The Treasurer plays a key role in the economic policy of the government...
in the Whitlam government. Tom Uren
Tom Uren
Thomas Uren, AO was a Deputy Leader of the Australian Labor Party. He helped establish the heritage and conservation movement in Australia and, in particular, worked to preserve the heritage of inner Sydney.-Early life:...
, another Whitlam minister and one of Cairns's closest friends, later recorded that "Jim and Junie were attracted to each other from the first time they met." She was attracted to his intellect and personal charisma, and he responded to her emotional warmth and unorthodox attitudes. The attraction soon became sexual, although whether and when their relationship became a sexual one remained a matter of controversy until 2002 when it was confirmed as such by Cairns.
In December 1974 Cairns appointed Morosi as his Principal Private Secretary, a job traditionally held by a senior public servant. Her business background made the appointment at least defensible, but she had no knowledge of Australian politics or economics, and not much experience of managing a large and complex office.
The appointment aroused an immediate storm of sensationalist media coverage. The fact that Morosi was "exotic" (the media's code-word for "Asian"), youngish (she was 41) and attractive was given much prominence. To this were soon added allegations that both she and Ditchburn had questionable business associates. It was also soon alleged that Ditchburn was using Morosi's position to further his business interests.
Cairns's friends urged him to end the Morosi appointment, but out of both personal loyalty and a refusal to be bullied by the anti-Labor tabloid press, he refused. He said that there would have been no media outcry "if I had appointed a man, or even a woman who was not good-looking." He and others pointed out that Elizabeth Reid, who had been appointed Whitlam's advisor on women's issues in 1973, had received the same sort of media attention. But after a few days Morosi took the initiative and resigned, pending an investigation into the business affairs of herself and Ditchburn.
When at the end of December the investigation found no irregularities, Cairns promptly re-appointed Morosi, and the media circus resumed. It was aggravated by Morosi's decision to give interviews to the Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
tabloid the Sun and the mass-circulation Woman's Day. Morosi said: "If I had been a white Anglo-Saxon male there would have been no story at all. One day, I was the most sinister, deadly enemy of Australia - a member of the KGB, the Chinese mafia, you name it." In February 1975, Cairns was at the Labor Party's national conference, and told a journalist that he felt "a kind of love" for Morosi.
The more serious aspect of Morosi's appointment was that she used her position to cut Cairns off from his political associates and from alternative sources of advice. This seems to have been the genesis of the crisis that later erupted over Cairns's dealings with the Melbourne businessman George Harris. Harris claimed that Cairns had given him a letter authorising him to investigate overseas loans, and promising him a 2.5% commission. Cairns denied having given him such a letter. When the letter was produced, Cairns said he had no memory of signing it. The most likely explanation was that the situation arose from poor communications in his office.
After Cairns was dismissed from the Ministry in July 1975, he kept Morosi on his backbencher's staff as a research assistant. She published her version of events in a book, Sex, Prejudice and Politics, later in the year. Together they worked on a new project for an alternative lifestyles festival to be held near Canberra. Morosi was a devotee of the ideas of the German sexologist Wilhelm Reich
Wilhelm Reich
Wilhelm Reich was an Austrian-American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, known as one of the most radical figures in the history of psychiatry...
, and Cairns had become an unlikely convert as a result of their relationship. The Down to Earth Festival in December 1975 attracted 5,000 people. Cairns and Morosi continued to work on developing the movement until 1977, when Cairns retired from Parliament.
Life after politics
By 1977, however, the same allegations that had been made against Morosi in the political world were being made in the alternative lifestyle movement: specifically, that she was manipulating Cairns, and that her husband was manipulating both of them for financial gain. By 1979 the movement had fizzled out, leaving a legacy of ill-feeling and disputes over money which eventually led to litigation in the New South Wales courts.By 1981 Morosi had moved on to a new project, the Wyuna Co-operative, a "community housing project" in Canberra involving Morosi and Ditchburn as well as Morosi's brother and sister-in-law, with some financial support from Cairns. In 1985 the co-operative received a $133,000 grant from the Community Housing Expansion Program of the federal Territories Department. When the National Times newspaper revealed this, Prime Minister Bob Hawke
Bob Hawke
Robert James Lee "Bob" Hawke AC GCL was the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia from March 1983 to December 1991 and therefore longest serving Australian Labor Party Prime Minister....
intervened and the program was wound up. Morosi complained that the controversy was entirely because of her involvement, and indeed an inquiry later found that there was nothing improper about the grant, although it was critical of Wyuna's management.
Despite the inquiry's findings, the government took legal action to recover the $133,000. The resulting proceedings dragged on until 1988, and the strain ruined both her business interests and her marriage to Ditchburn. In 1986 she was hospitalised suffering from stress and exhaustion. These events also effectively ended her relationship with Cairns, who was reconciled with his wife, although the two remained friends until Cairns's death in October 2003.
Defamation case
Morosi gradually faded from public attention, but her tumultuous years in the spotlight continued to haunt her. Media outlets continued to make allegations about her relationship with Cairns, and she successfully sued the Sydney tabloid the Mirror, commercial radio station 2GB, and the National Times for defamation. She won $17,000 in damages from the Mirror and $10,000 from Radio 2GB. On 2GB a commentator had said that "Junie Morosi is an immoral adventuress who has slept with a variety of notable politicians."In the National Times case Morosi told the court: "I felt insulted, angry, upset and hurt. It was very demeaning to me as a woman [to be called Cairns's 'girlfriend']. I saw myself as a professional, as a competent person doing her job. It was cheap. It was as though it had nothing to do with business but everything to do with sex." The jury decided the article in question did imply a sexual relationship, but was "not defamatory."
In 2002 Cairns admitted his relationship with Morosi had been sexual.