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Echoes of secession
"The present day Secessionists, just as their honoured predecessors
of the 1930s, desire nothing but an honourable withdrawal from Federation.
They earnestly desire that Secession be accomplished in the most friendly
spirit, with the utmost goodwill and without leaving any trace of bitterness
behind it. The withdrawal of WA does not involve the severence of a
race. The people of WA were good Australians before Federation, they
have been good Australians in Federation, and they will be good Australians
having withdrawn from Federation. The people of WA will still be loyal
subjects of the Queen, living in Amity with their neighbours, and vying
with them in their loyalty to the Crown and their attachment to the
Commonwealth.
"Let it be emphasised that we are not seeking secession from our
Eastern neighbours, but secession from the power grasping tentacles
of central government."
Lang Hancock, "A Condensed Case for Secession", August 1974. [PR8823/3]
 The
failure of the secession movement in the 1930s did not destroy secessionist
sentiments in the west. During the 1970s a Westralian Secession Movement
was formed with the financial backing of mining magnate Lang Hancock. Fielding
Don Thomas
as an unsuccessful candidate in the 1974 Senate election campaign, the movement
represented a conservative reaction to the centralist policies of the Whitlam
Labor Government. It was fuelled by resentment that in spite of Western
Australia's newly developed mineral wealth it had remained a 'Cinderella
State', contributing more to the Commonwealth than it received .
 Western
Australian grievances about the distribution of the State's resource wealth
were added to long-standing concerns about the increased power of the federal
government. Clearly, secessionist feeling still percolates through some
sections of Western Australian society and is a part of Western Australian
identity.
With every major conflict between the State and the Commonwealth the letters
section of the West Australian receives letters from citizens calling
for Western Australia to go its own way.
During the 1999 Federal referendum campaign Western Australian secessionists,
under the banner of 'Our State, Our People, Our Flag' urged electors to
'Be Western Australian and Think Western Australian' and vote 'no' to a
new federation. Their campaign literature even drew from the 1934 Secession
Act.
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