Successes and Struggles with Ministers and Permanent Heads (continued)

The development of the Bureau made steady progress from 1963 to 1970 with Dick Kingsland as Permanent Head and during the term of G. Warwick Smith in that position from 1970 to 1972. Peter Nixon succeeded Doug Anthony as Minister for the Interior from October 1967 to 1971 and Ralph Hunt occupied the position from 1971 to 1972. Peter Nixon was very formal and business-like but supported our initiatives, as did Ralph Hunt who was relaxed and very friendly. The first 10 years of my direction of the Bureau had been enjoyable and rewarding.

The Whitlam years from 1973 to 1975 were characterised by a somewhat turbulent political and bureaucratic environment, contrasting with the relative calm of the previous 10 years. I welcomed the news that under the new Labor Government the Bureau would be transferred to the Department of Science with Sir Hugh Ennor as Permanent Head. From early 1973 we had the Hon W. Morrison, a former public servant in the Department of Foreign Affairs as our Minister. It soon became apparent that the new Labor Government felt the need to make a radical overhaul of the Public Service.

Sir Hugh Ennor was a complex character, and with his bluff, forthright, robust and somewhat cynical manner reminded me of the film comedian W. C. Fields, whom I greatly admired. On social occasions I found Sir Hugh highly entertaining with a fund of amusing anecdotes and a hail-fellow-well-met attitude. As I had discovered from his comments on my proposal for research scientists in the Bureau, he had a highly negative attitude to research in Public Service establishments. It was obvious that he believed the Bureau, Antarctic Division and the Analytical Laboratories, for which he now had responsibility, had been given too much authority and needed to be brought to heel.

Bureau of Meteorology