Don Dunstan as MP and South Australia police commissioner John McKinna split in 1961 over loitering powers
Don Dunstan, as South Australian state parliamentary member for Norwood, used the 1961 arrest and overnight jailing of Olympic swim star Dawn Fraser on The Parade Norwood, to raise the issue of police abuse of loitering powers and aim blame at police commissioner John McKinna (at right, inspecting cadets). Inset: The letter from the Norwood and Kensington town clerk supporting McKinna.
The rift between future South Australian premier Don Dunstan and ex-military brigadier and police commissioner John McKinna was cemented in 1961 on the issue loitering power as applied to policing on The Parade in the Adelaide inner eastern suburb of Norwood.
Dunstan, as the state parliamentary member for Norwood, had revived the issue in the wake of the embarrassing arrest and overnight jailing of Olympic swim champion Dawn Fraser in 1961 on a charge of loitering. But Dunstan originally had raised crime as an issue on The Parade in 1956 – a year before McKinna started as commissioner. That was the year Dunstan allied with Norwood police station sergeant A.C. Fry to raise the issue of lack of policing on the Parade.
Dunstan took up Fry’s concerns (including showing Dunstan the station duty roster), about being understaffed at Norwood, by getting The News to run a story headed: “Hooligan gangs are terrorising Norwood – MP”. This was another Norwood story that embarrassed South Australian police headquarters from 1950 when mayor Ron Moir claimed one reason for the police shortage was that officers were being diverted into practice sessions for the police band.
Dunstan’s use of “streets of fear” language had an underlying motive. He had become aware of what he considered the improper use by police, often by patrols from outside of Norwood, of South Australia’s distinctive powers for police to move people on for loitering without proving intent. Particular targets were young Italian migrants and others considered part of the bodgies and widgies phenomenon.
Dunstan campaigned for changes to South Australia’s Vagrancy Act to tighten police powers of loitering. In 1958, police commissioner was able to make full use of those powers when he formed the anti-larrikin squad.
In August 1961, Dunstan in parliament reignited the controversy around his 1956 meeting with sergeant Fry by arguing that the arrest of Dawn Fraser, who had been "grievously mistreated”, was part of a disturbing long-running pattern. Dunstan told the House of Assembly that some police regularly abused the state’s loitering laws by moving people on without any cause.
Carefully repeating his support for Norwood’s officers, Dunstan described the recent experience of three Italian constituents outside a corner deli who were confronted by angry shouting policemen. Dunstan said one officer shone a torch in the men’s faces, ordering them to leave immediately and threatened violence if they didn’t comply. The main target of Dunstan’s speech was McKinna, who, Dunstan suggested, condoned the widespread abuse of loitering laws.
Dunstan received a backlash of criticism through letters to the editor of The Advertiser in Adelaide. Another letter from the Norwood and Kensington town clerk to McKinna advised him “that the Council disagrees with the remarks made by the Member for this District (Dunstan) … when he criticised the activities of your officers in this City. (We) would be pleased if your Officers would continue their activity in this City to eliminate disorderly conduct and vandilism (sic).” The split between Dunstan and McKinna, that had later consequences, had started.
