Ron Payne was the Labor member for Mitchell and a friend of Kleitsch’s father. Kleitsch began meeting with Payne once a week. ‘I told Ron Payne my shore story (story designed to cover real story) was that I was a disaffected Scientologist who had been declared suppressive and that I was investigating Scientology,’ says Kleitsch. ‘I told him I needed information from him so I could help destroy the cult and he bought it lock, stock and barrel.’24
Kleitsch’s weekly meetings with Payne continued for close on a year. ‘Ron told me everything the Labor Party and the government were planning on doing about Scientology,’ says Kleitsch. After each conversation, the young Scientologist would return to the Guardian’s Office around midnight for a debrief with Scientology’s intelligence operatives. While feeding internal Labor Party secrets to the Guardian’s Office, Kleitsch was also sitting on the Young Labor executive as a Senior Vice-President.
Andrew Mack, who was in Young Labor at the time, remembers both Minchin and Kleitsch. ‘Eric did a fine job of hiding his job as a Scientology agent,’ says Mack. ‘A decent enough character, he seemed very keen to get Labor up in the state and federally. Tom, to the contrary, was a single-minded protagonist for Scientology, specifically aiming to ditch the ban in South Australia and coming up with pamphlets for Young Labor people on the evils of psychiatry.’25
While his Young Labor colleagues spent most of their time campaigning against conscription to the Vietnam War, Minchin somehow managed to turn that issue into a Scientology crusade. He had been a key witness in a landmark court case in Western Australia in 1970 when Jonathan Gellie successfully claimed he was a minister of the Church of the New Faith and therefore exempt from national service. Dressed in a suit with a clerical collar, Minchin helped convince magistrate Con Zempilas that the church was a religion within the context of the National Service Act.26
Earlier that year, Scientology’s great nemesis in Australia passed away. On Friday, 7 March 1970, Phillip Wearne died aged, 44. Scientologists spread false rumours that he had been assaulted outside a nightclub,27 but Wearne’s death certificate states he died from an overdose of the sedative Methaqualone, otherwise known as Mandrax or Quaaludes. Wearne had been admitted to Sydney’s Prince of Wales Hospital four days earlier, but never recovered.28
The life of luxury that Wearne enjoyed in Melbourne in the early 1960s had evaporated in his final years. After his house was sold and his debts were paid, his estate left just over $12,000 to his wife, Jillaine, and a $30 oil painting to his friend John Willis. Phillip Wearne was living on the pension at the time of his death. His relative poverty might help explain why he signed a bizarre statement a year earlier that helped the Scientologists argue they had been victims of a conspiracy involving two intelligence agencies.
On 6 January 1969, Wearne signed an affidavit, witnessed by Scientologist Ron Segal, that stated throughout the Anderson Inquiry he kept in close contact with Earl Wilkinson, a man he believed to be a CIA agent.29 Wearne said Wilkinson ‘wined and dined’ him, helped him with ‘certain financial problems’ and would turn up at his flat regularly with a bottle of Scotch.
The affidavit was used by the Scientologists to try and prove there was a conspiracy between ASIO and the CIA to target them, leading to the banning of Scientology in three states.30 The Scientologist who organised the meeting with Wearne was Martin Bentley, the same operative from the Guardian’s Office who had recruited Rex Beaver to spy on Rupert Murdoch and 14 parliamentarians. With both Wearne and Bentley now dead, it’s unlikely we will ever know who organised that meeting and whether money changed hands to secure the statement.
As Tom Minchin continued to lobby South Australian politicians to repeal the local Act that prohibited Scientology, he also wrote letters to federal politicians asking that they recognise the Church of the New Faith as a religion under the Marriage Act and to allow him to personally conduct weddings. Recognition under the federal law was critical. In Victoria, Scientology was banned by the registration of all forms of psychological practice. An exemption was given to any religious minister recognised by the federal Marriage Act. If the Church of the New Faith could get recognition under the Act they could override the ban in Victoria.
Two successive Liberal Attorneys-General, Tom Hughes and Ivor Greenwood, rejected Minchin’s arguments.31 Senator Greenwood stated: ‘If the practice of Scientology is unlawful in Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia, I don’t believe that I should go around authorising members of that church to celebrate marriages.’32 But over 20 years of Liberal government was coming to an end and Minchin set his sights on Lionel Murphy, Labor’s Shadow Attorney-General, and leader of the Opposition in the Senate.
On 11 April 1972, Tom Minchin wrote to Senator Murphy, asking that ‘in the event of a Labor Government coming to power in Canberra, you would recommend a proclamation for our Church under the Marriage Act.’33 Four months later, Minchin got the answer he was looking for. Lionel Murphy announced that if Labor won government they would recognise the Church of the New Faith.34
For Murphy, the lawyer and human rights activist, the decision was about equal rights. ‘Under the constitution, all religions are entitled to equal treatment,’ he said. ‘Whether churches are big or small, orthodox or unorthodox, they are entitled to equal treatment.’35 But not all of his Labor colleagues agreed. Gil Duthie, Labor’s Whip in the House of Representatives and a former Methodist Minister, could not understand the decision. ‘A lot of my colleagues would also oppose it,’ he said. ‘I agree that all churches are entitled to equal treatment, but scientology is not a religion.’36
Three days after the announcement, Murphy sought to clarify his position on Scientology. In a press release he stated:
I wish to make it quite clear that I have expressed no approval of or endorsement of the beliefs of the Church of the New Faith, founded by people who call themselves scientologists.
In fact, I do not agree with their beliefs.
However, I am concerned that principles of freedom of religion be upheld.
In his press release, Murphy mentioned the incorporation of the church in 1969 and the 1970 decision in regard to the National Service Act, before launching into an impassioned defence of an individual’s right to start their own religion, even if as an atheist he considered this a form of irrational behaviour:
If certain citizens choose to found their own church, then provided they observe the law, they are entitled to equal treatment with other churches, whether their beliefs are generally approved or not, be they big or small, old or new, orthodox or unorthodox.
It is an important aspect of freedom of religion that except where there are breaches of the law, governments should not interfere in religious matters and especially not examine the validity of religious beliefs.
This must be accepted or there would be no religious freedom. If governments assume the function of deciding which are true religions and which are false religions, none will be safe. History has demonstrated this.
Murphy stressed that there were safeguards within the Marriage Act to deal with any abuses, and ended his statement by saying:
Some people are concerned that adherents of the Church of the New Faith may break the law. If they do, there are civil and criminal remedies which may be invoked to enforce the law.37
In December 1972, Labor was swept to power under the reformist leader Gough Whitlam. Lionel Murphy became Attorney-General. Two months later, it was announced that the Church of the New Faith had been proclaimed a recognised denomination under the Commonwealth Marriages Act.38
The following Sunday, Melbourne Scientologists held a special ‘Service of Thanks’ in honour of Lionel Murphy. The Church of Scientology of California in Victoria presented the Attorney-General with a blue leather-bound folder embossed in gold writing featuring his name, title and the Scientology symbol on the front cover. Inside were the signatures of 67 Scientologists who had attended the ceremony in Melbourne.39
Jane Kember, the
Guardian Worldwide, Scientology’s most senior executive, visited the office of the Australian High Commission in London to present a scroll of thanks.40 The nation, which Scientology headquarters had previously dismissed as ‘founded by criminals, organized by criminals and devoted to making people criminals’,41 was suddenly worthy of appreciation. Michael Graham, the Australian President for the Church of the New Faith, lauded the new Attorney-General. ‘All praise should go to the Senator for the bold and enlightened decision he has taken,’ he said.42 Mary Sue Hubbard was happy to report that ‘honest politicians do exist and Australia can look forward to an exciting future under the Labor government’.43
But not everyone was celebrating. TM Jensen of Essendon wrote to the Victorian Minister for Health, saying, ‘The Scientology organization is apparently wasting no time in preparing to exploit the loophole in the Psychological Practices Act brought about by the recent action of the federal Attorney-General. A member of my family who underwent a very severe and unhappy personality change at the hands of this organization some years ago has made it clear to me that she has now been induced to embark on further treatment at Scientology courses.’44
Jensen was worried his relative would hand over most of their inheritance to the local Scientologists. ‘It is difficult to understand,’ he wrote, ‘the readiness of present Labor Governments to recognize as a Church what is patently one of the most wicked financial rackets ever conceived.’45
TM Jensen of Essendon may have been onto something. A year before, Hubbard had issued a 12-point policy governing Scientology Finances. Points A and J were both ‘MAKE MONEY’, point K was ‘MAKE MORE MONEY’, the final point was ‘MAKE OTHER PEOPLE PRODUCE SO AS TO MAKE MONEY’.46
The ban on Scientology in Victoria was effectively over. As Robin Youngman, a Scientology official, said, ‘The Victorian ban against Scientology is now null and void as it specifically exempts organisations so acknowledged under the Marriages Act.’47 Malcolm McMillan, from the Australian Psychological Society, who had initially proposed the definition of ‘recognised religion’ for the Victorian bill as all those listed under the Marriage Act, says that definition ‘became the Achilles heel of the bill. It made the whole thing inoperable.’48
In the eight years after the Victorian legislation was introduced, there was not one successful prosecution against a Scientologist or a Scientology organisation.49 Two stage hypnotists were prosecuted; there were four charges of practice of hypnotism without consent (three sustained, one dismissed); and two successful prosecutions for the unregistered practice of psychology.
In May 1973, the Labor government in Western Australia lifted the ban on Scientology, despite opposition from Liberal MPs.50 In South Australia, Labor Premier Don Dunstan repealed the Scientology (Prohibition) Act the following year. Dunstan had spoken out against the legislation while in Opposition. When Labor announced its plans to overturn the legislation, L. Ron Hubbard gave all the credit to Tom Minchin. Under the Heading ‘Big Win’, Hubbard wrote:
The Adelaide Ban is to be repealed according to the Attorney General at the Adelaide Labour Convention.
This is a GO victory. The A/G there Tom Minchin did it. He is being made a Kha Khan.
So the tide rolls back the way it came.
A lovely birthday present for Mary Sue. The Telex arrived in the first few minutes of her birthday today.
LRH, COMMODORE51
The newspapers reported the first official Scientology wedding on 13 January 1974 when Reverend Michael Graham married Gary Clark and Ruth Roots in Perth.52 The following month, Hubbard released a triumphant directive titled GO-ANZO-GO:53
ANZO (Australia/New Zealand/Oceania) is free to GO-GO-GO,’ wrote Hubbard. ‘Psychiatry lost. Scientology won. When you have won you take advantage of your victories. Psychiatry wanted joyless, apathetic people totally controlled and suppressed. Scientology wanted friendliness and freedom for ANZO’s people. Scientology won … Scientology has a mission to rescue all of ANZO from the darkness that was spread by the Nazi philosophies of psychiatry and psychology.
Scientology had ‘won’ because they had convinced local politicians that either they were a religion, or that it wasn’t a government’s role to decide. Two of the key politicians they targeted, Don Dunstan and Lionel Murphy, were both social libertarians opposed to discrimination against minority groups. Sir John Foster, who had conducted an inquiry into Scientology in the UK in 1971, was opposed to the kind of prohibition that had been temporarily pursued in parts of Australia. ‘Such legislation appears to me to be discriminatory,’ he wrote, ‘and contrary to all the best traditions of the Anglo-Saxon legal system.’54
But in pursuing Hubbard’s religion angle so publicly, Scientology had caused itself a problem. Some potential young recruits who had rejected organised religion found it a turnoff. As Peggy Daroesman, a young musician who embraced Scientology in Sydney in the 1970s, recalled: ‘We were somewhat put off that it called itself the Church of the New Faith.’55
However, Scientology was expert at manipulating its image to accommodate just about anyone. ‘We were assured by almost everyone we met,’ Daroesman says, ‘including ministers of the church such as Peter Sparshott, Martin Bentley and David Graham – that it wasn’t really a religion but that it had to adopt the practices and appearance of a religion so that the government would not harass it.’56
Lionel Murphy was right to argue that if Scientologists broke the law, there were ‘civil and criminal remedies which may be invoked’. This is exactly what was happening to Hubbard elsewhere. In the same month Murphy became the Attorney-General, Hubbard was expelled from Morocco and had the French authorities pursuing him for fraud.57 He flew to New York with a briefcase full of banknotes and went into hiding in Queens for nine months with two Sea Org members.58 It was here he began planning what became popularly known as Operation Snow White, a covert mission that saw his wife Mary Sue end up in jail for her role in a massive criminal conspiracy.59
Also in that month Lionel Murphy recognised the Church of the New Faith and Scientology as a religion under the Marriage Act, a grand jury investigation in the United States showed the outrageous lengths the Church of Scientology was prepared to go to silence its critics. If Murphy the human rights activist had been aware of what was going on inside the American judicial system, he would have been appalled.
Operation Dynamite and Operation Freakout were covert missions designed to destroy Paulette Cooper, a New York journalist who had written The Scandal of Scientology. For daring to expose the inner workings of Scientology, Cooper faced 19 separate lawsuits and untold harassment.60 Her phone was tapped, a spy moved into her apartment and her psychiatrists’ files were stolen. When she moved apartment buildings, 300 of her new neighbours were sent letters that claimed she was a child molester and a prostitute who carried venereal disease.61
In February of 1973, the New York journalist was called to testify to a grand jury.62 Cooper thought she was being summoned as an expert witness on Scientology and was looking forward to it. When she arrived, she found out she was under investigation. The Church of Scientology in New York had been mailed two bomb threats; one of them had Paulette Cooper’s fingerprints on them. Cooper denied the allegations but was indicted for the bomb threats and for perjury.
The trial was delayed. Evidence eventually emerged that the Church of Scientology had attempted to frame her. Cooper believes her fingerprints were accessed as she signed a petition. ‘A mysterious girl named Margie Shepherd came by with a petition for me to sign supporting the United Farm Workers,’ she later told journalist Tony Ortega.
Margie Shepherd was wearing gloves. Cooper believes she placed a piece of stationery under the clipboard, which would have picked up her fingerprints.
That piece of stationery, the theory goes, was then used to write a bomb threat against the Church of Scientology. It was five torturous years before Cooper was exonerated. The lawsuits with Scientology continued until a financial settlement was
reached in 1985.63 They were still spying on her up until at least 2010.64
It wasn’t only Scientology’s critics who were becoming victims of L. Ron Hubbard’s paranoia. Those close to him in the Sea Org would soon face a new regime of punishment. As Hubbard found it harder to find countries that would accept him, it would be those on his ship who found themselves in the firing line.
CHAPTER 13
THE ROCK CONCERT
MIKE RINDER WAS IN deep shit. Outside his apartment on the remote Portuguese island of Madeira was a baying mob full of beer and bravado. Portugal had just undergone a coup, the locals believed Rinder was an American spook and the locals were letting him know about it.
‘Apollo is CIA! You’re CIA!’ the crowd chanted from the square below. This was no peaceful protest. The locals were armed with rocks and Rinder’s neighbour, a captain in the Portuguese army, offered some ominous advice: ‘Don’t leave the apartment,’ he told the young Australian. ‘Turn out all the lights and stay on the floor.’1 Rinder expected adventure when he signed up to the Sea Org, but not this. The captain left in haste with a comment that did little to ease Rinder’s growing anxiety: ‘Stay here,’ he said. ‘I’m going to get a helicopter and pick you off the roof of the apartment.’
The 19-year-old South Australian had become the focal point of an unruly protest. As three truckloads of soldiers surrounded his apartment building with machine guns pointing outwards, Rinder decided to take a look through the peephole in his front door. The scene did not fill him with optimism. ‘I saw the ship sail past and I’m thinking, what? They left me?’2 The Apollo had set sail for safer waters after Hubbard and his crew had been bombarded with stones thrown from the docks. Rinder was now the only Scientologist left in the port of Funchal. ‘I felt very alone and quite scared. I didn’t know if the Apollo was leaving for another country or if anyone even knew I was there.’3
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