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Doc Evatt
A brilliant and controversial characterDr Herbert Vere Evatt (1894-1965) was one of Australia's most influential Labor leaders. As a lawyer, author, High Court Judge, Attorney General and Minister for External Affairs (now called Foreign Affairs) in the Curtin and Chifley Governments, and a Leader of the Opposition during the 1950s, Dr Evatt was a man who realised some of the labour movment's highest ideals. He was one of the great innovators of the movement, influencing Australian government policies and programs for a generation. His uncompromising stand for just principles in public life will always be remembered, as will his innovative spirit. Widely recognised around the world as a supporter of the right of small nations to peaceful development and equality, Dr Evatt initiated Australia's first independent foreign policy. As leader of the Australian delegation to the founding meeting of the United Nations, held in San Francisco in 1945, he took the step of including a woman in the delegation. The woman was Jessie Street, and this was a brave step for a political leader to take in those days, when women in politics were not highly regarded by most male politicians. At the San Francisco Conference, Dr Evatt became the champion of small powers. After three months of political struggle, the Charter of the United Nations was completed, a Charter that had become more human and larger in scope, now containing provisions for the poor, the weak and the oppressed, provisions never envisaged by the big powers. In 1948 Dr Evatt was elected President of the General Assembly of the United Nations. There he witnessed the passing of the landmark Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a document which, along with the UN Charter, he worked so hard to achieve. Doc Evatt and his wife Mary Alice became great patrons of the arts, and gave encouragement to struggling young Australian artists, including Russell Drysdale and Sidney Nolan. They purchased many of their paintings and drawings, and donated them to art galleries and local councils around Australia. Faith Bandler, one of Dr Evatt's greatest admirers, said in a speech to the inaugural meeting of the Foundation in 1979: "Dr Evatt fought for the oppressed, he fought for our political rights and civil liberties, our freedom of thought and action. We would not find it possible to be as outspoken today as we are if Dr Evatt had not fought for us as a judge, as a politician and as an Australian." For more information, visit the Evatt Collection at the Flinders University of South Australia. You can buy the biography by Ken Buckley, Barbara Dale & Wayne Williams Doc Evatt: Patriot, Internationalist, Fighter and Scholar (Longman Cheshire: Melbourne, 1994) directly through the Evatt Foundation. And you can stay in touch with the Evatt Foundation by taking out a free subscription to our online newsletter Evatt News.
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© 2001-2005 The Evatt Foundation University of New South Wales URL:http://evatt.org.au/about_evatt/index.html
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