page_title: Jo Gullett
section_title: Political and diplomatic career
hierarchical_section_title: Jo Gullett / Political and diplomatic career
caption_attribution_description: English: Jo Gullett 1946
context_page_description: Henry Baynton Somer "Jo" Gullett, AM, MC was an Australian soldier, politician, grazier, diplomat and journalist. He served with distinction in the Australian Army during World War II, was a controversial Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives for the Division of Henty, from 1946 to 1955, and served as Ambassador to Greece, from 1965 to 1968, during 'the time of the Colonels'.
  He was the son of former Cabinet Minister Sir Henry Somer Gullett, the grandson of author Barbara Baynton and an uncle of actor Penne Hackforth-Jones.
  He is the author of two memoirs, one of which, Not as a Duty Only: an Infantryman's War is widely considered to be a classic in Australian war writing.
context_section_description: He first stood for parliament, while still in uniform, in 1943, for his father's old seat of Henty, but was unsuccessful. Prime Minister Robert Menzies, in a confidential report to his colleagues about the defeat of his party in the election, laid out what he saw as the reasons for the loss. Among these was his belief that,
  As usual, we were much too late in our selection of important candidates. There can be little doubt that if Captain Gullett had been selected a month earlier he would have won Henty handsomely.
  In 1946 he stood as a Liberal Party candidate at a by-election for his father's of old seat of Henty, and this time was elected. After the Liberal-led coalition gained power at the 1949 general election, he was appointed Chief Government Whip.
  He was a fierce anti-communist, and in the early 1950s was a spearhead of Parliamentary moves against Communists and Communist sympathisers within the Public Service and the wider community. His attacks are considered by some to have descended to the level of smear. For example, he described the contribution to foreign relations of John Burton, the former Permanent Secretary of the Department of External Affairs as being 'almost wholly evil'. As a further example, in 1952 he attacked certain academics at the Australian National University on the floor of Parliament and claimed that the University was 'more famous for its left wing politics than for its research'.
  He also held a strong anti-immigration stance and made public comments, in the press and on the floor of Parliament, that would now be considered as anti-semitism. In the Melbourne Argus of 12 February 1947, he wrote:
  The arrival of additional Jews is nothing less than the beginning of a national tragedy and a piece of the grossest deception of Parliament and the people by the Minister for Immigration. 
  Further, at a press conference in the same month, he said of Jews:
  We should remember that they are European neither by race standards, nor culture. They are, in fact, an Eastern people. In 2000 years no one but Britain has been successfully able to absorb them, and for the most, they owe loyalty and allegiance to none.
  Menzies has been criticised for his preference for older men of his own generation in his cabinet. Gullett is often mentioned as one of the younger men of ability who were too long denied promotion to cabinet or outer-cabinet positions.
  He retired from the Parliament on 4 November 1955 and returned to journalism. In 1965 he was appointed Australian Ambassador to Greece, and served there until 1968.
caption: Gullett in 1946
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