Jim Forbes (Australian politician)

Early life and military service

Forbes was born in Hobart, Tasmania, on 16 December 1923. He graduated from the Royal Military College, Duntroon, in 1942, and was commissioned into the Australian Army. He was stationed in Darwin in 1943, then assigned to the 2nd Mountain Battery. On 24 April 1945, Forbes was awarded the Military Cross (MC) in recognition of gallant and distinguished service in the South West Pacific. Following the end of the Second World War, Forbes was part of Australia's victory contingent in the London Victory Celebrations of 1946.

After his discharge from the army in 1947, he studied at the University of Adelaide and Magdalen College, Oxford.

Political career

Forbes was the Liberal candidate for the marginal Adelaide seat of Kingston in the 1955 election, losing to Labor incumbent Pat Galvin.

After the death of Speaker and former Country Party leader Archie Cameron in 1956, Forbes ran as the Liberal candidate in a by-election for Cameron's seat of Barker, a safely conservative seat in rural South Australia. He won the seat, though suffering a swing of almost 10 percent. Forbes was reelected in his own right in 1958 and held the seat until his retirement in 1975. He was Minister for the Army from 1963 to 1966, Minister for the Navy from 1963 to 1964, Minister for Health from 1966 to 1971 and Minister for Immigration from 1971 until William McMahon's defeat in the 1972 election. As Minister for Immigration he was responsible for resisting British pressure to admit ethnically-Asian refugees from Uganda during Idi Amin's regime; he said, "Applications by Asians in Uganda will continue to be considered on their individual merits in accordance with our non-European immigration policies. These policies reflect the firm and unshakeable determination of the Government to maintain a homogeneous society in Australia." He also ordered the deportation of Joe Cocker when a small quantity of cannabis was found by police in his band's hotel room.

In November 1973, Prime Minister Gough Whitlam accused Forbes in parliament of abusing the Government's hospitality by drinking too much at a reception for the New Zealand Prime Minister. Forbes demanded the remark be withdrawn, with Opposition Leader Billy Snedden saying Whitlam should be ashamed and calling him 'gutless'. Whitlam responded "It is what he [Forbes] put in his guts that rooted him." Whitlam eventually withdrew the remark, after ensuring it had been transcribed to Hansard. An angry Forbes followed Whitlam out of the chamber calling him a "filthy bastard", to which Whitlam responded "Look, he's still shaking." Forbes insisted that any shaking was due to sciatica, and not alcohol consumption.

After politics

Even 36 years after retirement, Jim Forbes was still in the headlines when it was revealed he had spent $16,000 on subsidised flights in the first six months of 2011: "New figures show Dr Jim Forbes, 87, who was the federal member for Barker when he retired from Parliament in 1975, took 29 flights for himself and his family, costing $16,078 under the Gold Pass scheme." in 2014, he reasserted the need for Australia to introduce conscription for the Vietnam War, an action he undertook as the then minister responsible for the army.

Awards and honours

In 1977, Forbes was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in recognition of service to the parliament.

In 2001, he was awarded the Centenary Medal for service to the Commonwealth Parliament and as Chairman of the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories.