Family Name:
Mullen
Given Names:
Geoffrey Richard
Gender:
Male
Birth-date:
1947
Death-date:
Unknown
Marital Status:
Unknown, probably single
Age/ Age Range:
20 years old
Location:
NSW, Maroubra
Occupation:
University Student
Primary Motivation:
Draft Resister-Opposition to Conscription
Reason for Court Appearance:
[1] Refusal to attend medical examination
[2] Refusal to attend a second medical examination
[3] Refusal to obey a call-up notice
Court Name and Location:
[1] Philip Street Court of Petty Sessions, Sydney
[2] Unknown, Sydney
[3] Philip Street Court of Petty sessions, Sydney
Court Hearing Date:
[1] 3 July 1968
[2] 23 October 1968
[3] 22 March 1971
Court Outcome:
[1] Convicted and fined $15 plus costs $17- or 16-days hard labour in jail in lieu of non-payment
[2] Convicted and fined $40 plus $17 costs plus 45 days jail for repeated breaches of the national service Act 1964
[3] Convicted and sentenced to 2 years jail
Military Event:
National Service and Vietnam war 1964-1972
Further Information:
Geoffrey Mullen was an arts student from Sydney and during January 1967 registered for national service under the National Service Act 1964 (NSA). He then informed Minister Bury that he would no longer comply with the Act.In November 1967 when he made his decision not to comply with the NSA. Geoff wrote to the Department of Labour and National Service explaining his action. In part he said: it was foolish of me and, I see now, immoral of me to register. In doing so, I gave implicit approval to a government act which I now realise to be evil and unjust. This is not to say I ever regarded conscription or our intervention in Vietnam as morally acceptable. Rather these were not ‘relevant’ considerations in my decision to register. I did so in self-interest and delusion entirely in the hope that I would be missed in the ballot, thereby causing discomfort neither to myself nor the government. Since I was balloted in, I was then compelled to consider more closely the morality of the situation in which I was placed. I had to decide if there were in fact valid reasons for killing people in Vietnam or if not would I then commit murder merely on the imprimatur of the government. Later in the same letter he said, if I cannot fight in Vietnam, I cannot for the same reasons implicitly approve the war by taking non-combatant status nor indeed can I continue to tolerate this iniquitous system of conscription and argue that mine is a special case that should obtain exemption for me. The Vietnam war and conscription are not only wrong for me but for all Australians, For my own case, I henceforth refuse to recognise any government legislation that is unjust and I dissaffiliate myself from any such laws …This act in no way constitutes disloyalty to Australia. In doing so I am more patriotic than any of those merchants of death in Canberra. In opposing conscription and our aggression in Vietnam, I am doing my utmost that Australia should not become a nation of slaves or barbarians.
On 3 July 1968 Geoff received a summons to attend Phillip Street Court of Petty Sessions because he had failed to attend the medical examination on 2 February 1968. He was summoned to appear at the court of petty sessions in Phillip Street Sydney on July 3 1968. He did not attend and refused to pay the fine. He was given until 16 August 1968 to pay the fine and was sent another notice to attend a medical examination on 15 August 1968. He did not attend that medical examination also. He did not pay the fines and appear in court and so was sentenced to 45 days in jail for repeated breaches of the Act. He served 16 days in jail for the first offence and 28 days in jail for the second offence.
On 2 December 1968 Geoff received a call-up notice which he ignored. In a statement in late 1969 he said that, I see no rational or sufficient reason why I should comply with the National Service Act. Indeed, there would appear to be positive reasons why I should oppose conscription with all the energy that I can muster…most of all the National Service Act corrupts young men (and it is no Socrates). The evil of conscription abides in the very nature of the system. Conscription in any form destroys what is finally the essential human faculty, the ability to make important decisions for oneself. Conscription will not build a greater Australia. It will merely obliterate the difference between an Australians “freedom” and that of a citizen in a totalitarian state.
On the 14 October 1970 a summons was served on him after he ignored the call-up notice served in December 1968. The summons was not served on him but a warrant for his arrest was expected. On 18 February 1971 Geoff was arrested and remanded on $300 bail until 11.30 am on 22 March 1971. He was convicted and jailed for 2 years initially at Berrima and then to Newnes Afforestation Camp at Lithgow in New South Wales. Actually, he was transferred 5 times to different jails within 6 months. Then in November 1971 Geoff was moved to his sixth prison at Emu Plains where he remained until his release on16 February 1972. He was bitter in his criticism of his prison experiences after his release. During 1971 his name was placed on the International Honour Roll Prisoners of Peace. After his release he was still active in opposing the NSA in Armidale, New South Wales and worked as a tutor.
Confirmatory Sources:
Peacemaker, May/June 1968, p.4; July/ August 1968, p.1; November/ember 1968, p.1; January/ February 1969, pp..2; and 6; September/ October 19696, p.10; May/ June 1970, p.4; October/ November 1970 p.1; January/ February 1971, p.10. March/ April 1971, p.11; May/ June/ July/ August 1971, p11; September/ December 1971, pp. 3, 4, 6 and 10.
Tharunka, 3 October 1972, p.7.
Geoffrey Mullen File, VivienneAbraham Notes
Bobbie Oliver, Hell No! We Won’t Go: Resistance to Conscription in Postwar Australia, Interventions, Melbourne, 2022, esp. pp.125-129 and pp. 181-183.
Courtesy: The Peacemaker, January/ February 1969, p.6.
THE AUSTRALIAN PEACE HONOUR ROLL 