41-year-old grandmother centre of Cairns row

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33776, 24 February 1975, Page 15

41-year-old grandmother centre of Cairns row

(By ALAN GRAHAM, N.Z.P.A. Staff Correspondent.)

SYDNEY, February 23. A glamorous, three-times-married, 41 - yearold Eurasian grandmother is the key figure in the Junie Morosi affair which has reverberated around Australia since last December.

' Miss Morosi, born in i China but raised in the Phil- ! ippines, hit the news on December 4 last year when her appointment as the !SNZI7,OOO-a-year private secretary to the Deputy (Prime Minister (Dr J. F. (Jim) Cairns) became known. Since then there have 'been complaints about her! ,exemption from normal Pub-’ 'lie Service taws, the obtain-1 ;ing of a priority flat for her i in Canberra, and the dper-l lations of which ishe and her third husband, I Mr David Ditchburn, ran in (the early 19705. The “Morosi affair” has aroused widely varying allegations of both sexism and racism, and heated replies from Dr Cairns, who seems more ready to sacrifice his

own career than to let Miss Morosi leave under fire. Miss Morosi is of. mixed European and Asian ancestry, and was born in Shanghai, China, in 1933. Her family left China in 1938 for Manila, via Singapore, and in the Philippines they survived with some difficulty throughout the war and the Japanese occupation. Married in Manila at the age of 15, when her husband was 17, she had three sons in four years, after which her husband left her.

She attended university, worked on a newspaper as a reporter, and finally worked for Qantas, which in 1962 transferred her to its Sydney office. Her second husband followed her from Manila to 'Sydney, but he became ill !and they returned to Manila ! for six months before he died there.

Returning to Australia, Junie rejoined Qantas where she met ner third husband, Mr Ditchbum, a 47-vear-old Englishman, who is the Australian manager for Ethiopian Airlines. After her marriage Miss , Morosi longed for her own travel business and founded her own company, Trans-

portation Consultants International (Australia) Pty, Ltd., later known as Tacticair Pty., Ltd. It is this company, and several others run by Miss Morosi and Mr Ditchburn, that lie behind both a breakin to Miss Morosi’s Sydney apartment (for which a former business associate was charged in a Sydney Court last week) and allegations made last week in the Canberra Parliament.

Mr Alan Fenton, aged 33, pleaded guilty to stealing a vanity case (with the initials TCI PTY. LTD., on it) and a telephone index from Miss Morosi.

The Magistrate found the charge proved but said that he would take into account Mr Fenton’s previous good character and extenuating circumstances, and put him on a $2OO bond to be on! good behaviour for two years. Mr Fenton was also one of four signatories to the document (dated December 13, 1974) which was quoted in Parliament last week by Mr W. C. Wentworth (Liberal, N.S.W.) alleging improper ]use by Miss Morosi and Mr I Ditchbum of Government

funds during 1971, 1972, and 1973. Also signed by three other associates in their business- < es, the document makes other allegations jointly against the Ditchburns, and alleges that Miss Morosi sponsored Filipino girls to work in Australia for very low wages, part of which were paid to Miss Morosi’s mother. While some of her relatives run a thriving car repair business in Manila, some 22 of Miss Morosi’s relatives are said to be among about 1000 Filipinos living in Australia. Her three sons are here, one of them married. Miss Morosi’s business ventures were unsuccessful, but the Corporate Affairs Commission reported last year that it had found nothing astray with them. They 1 : iwere ordinary business fail-] ures. She has also been in-] vestigated (as are all leading public employees) by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation. The] inquiry took longer than! most because of the time! needed to make studies >n| the Philippines, but at the.

end of it Miss Morosi was < given what Dr Cairns calls c “the highest security clearance it is possible for any- i one to have.” a The inquiries started in the middle of last year when ; Miss Morosi joined the staff 1 of the former Minister of i Immigration (Mr Al Grass- 1 by) as special adviser to the . Government on community I ] relations. ’ < After what has been des- . cribed as brilliant work in I the race relations field, she t was named toward the end 1 of last year as private secre- I tary to Dr Cairns, and that 1 was when the trouble start- t ed. 1 The Morosi affair first hit the headlines on December 4 < last year, when the then 1 Attorney-General, Senator i Murphy, revealed that a 1 low-cost priority flat was,; being sought for Miss i; I Morosi in Canberra. h The appointment of ait (glamorous grandmother of j (mysterious Eurasian descent;' was news enough in itself'i (for the Australian press, but; newspaper interest in Miss'J j Morosi multiplied rapidly i ;when a Gazette notice was « (published in December, exempting her from parts of 4 ' the Public Service Act, in- j 1

eluding sections relating to dismissing and pay setting. The exemption is usually reserved for top civil servants. Perhaps recalling the attention it gave Miss Ainsley Gotto in her days as private secretary to the former Liberal Prime Minister Mr John Gorton, the Australian ! press kept the “Morosi ' affair” running throughout January, and it took new life earlier this month with the statement by Dr Cairns that he had “a kind of love” for her, as a faithful, intelligent, and trustworthy employee. Then came the Wentworth allegations. What happens now? Several newspapers have run headlines stating that “Junie must go” and the "Sydney Morning Herald” suggested: “Whatever the rights (and wrongs of the affair] I may have been in the past, ithe situation has now drag-: ged on to a point where it ; would probably serve the 'interests of both private respect and the public good if I Junie Morosi, quietly and] without fuss, found a career] iutside of Government.” Members of Parliament on; I both sides are calling for, I her to go, while others on'

both sides have deplored Mr Wentworth’s attack. Dr Calms has repeatedly defended Miss Morosi and said he has no cause whatsoever for dismissing her.

He says that the Fenton break-in was politically inspired by Liberals, though Fenton denies this, and says politicans had nothing to do with it. The Opposition Leader, Mr Billy Snedden, has called for the Prime Minister (Mr Whitlam) to intervene and hold an inquiry into the matter, but Mr Whitlam has refused to become involved, and the new Federal Attor-ney-General (Mr Kep Enderby) says that he will not be part of any such inquiry. The matter may rest with Labour backbenchers, for (they may decide that the (employment of one civil servant is not worth all the fuss it is creating, and may ]try to have her moved to some less sensitive post. The person with the most Ito lose is Dr Cairns. Only a I month ago he was being I tipped as being readv to (topple Mr Whitlam as party deader; now his resignation seems a possibility.