34 Facts About Moss Cass

Moses Henry Cass was an Australian doctor and politician who held ministerial office in the Whitlam government.

Moss Cass served as Minister for Environment and Conservation, the Environment, and the Media.

Moss Cass represented the Division of Maribyrnong in the House of Representatives from 1969 to 1983.

Moss Cass was born in Narrogin, Western Australia to Jewish parents who had fled Tsarist Russia to escape antisemitism.

Moss Cass studied medicine at the University of Sydney and during the 1950s and 1960s worked as a registrar at hospitals in Sydney, London and Melbourne.

Moss Cass was the first medical director of the Trade Union Clinic and Research Centre, which became the Western Region Health Centre.

Moss Cass became known as a proponent of abortion law reform and was the spokesman for the Abortion Reform Association.

Moss Cass ran for the Kew City Council in 1961 but lost after the distribution of preferences.

Moss Cass stood in safe Liberal seats at the 1961 and 1963 elections, running against Prime Minister Robert Menzies in Kooyong and John Jess in La Trobe.

At the 1969 federal election, Moss Cass defeated incumbent Liberal MP Philip Stokes in the Division of Maribyrnong.

Moss Cass was appointed Minister for Environment and Conservation following the election of the Whitlam government in 1972.

Moss Cass appointed marine biologist Don McMichael as his departmental secretary.

Moss Cass held the second-lowest rank in cabinet, above only science minister Bill Morrison.

Moss Cass was assisted in his environmental protection efforts by Rex Connor, the Minister for Minerals and Energy.

Moss Cass was unsuccessful in seeking to prevent the flooding of Lake Pedder in Tasmania.

Moss Cass said: "nuclear energy creates the most dangerous, insidious and persistent waste products, ever experienced on the planet".

In October 1973, Moss Cass seconded former prime minister John Gorton's motion for the decriminalisation of homosexuality, which was successful although it had no legal effect.

Moss Cass said the previous title was too long and redundant.

In June 1975, Moss Cass relinquished the environment portfolio and instead was appointed Minister for the Media.

Moss Cass was criticised by Rupert Murdoch, who stated it was "sinister" and constituted censorship.

Moss Cass stated that the proposal had been subjected to "bizarre distortion and hysterical over-reaction" by some sections of the press.

When Bill Hayden replaced Whitlam as opposition leader in December 1977, Moss Cass was given the portfolio of immigration and ethnic affairs.

Moss Cass supported cutting immigration, stating there were not enough jobs for migrants.

Moss Cass announced in June 1982 that he would not recontest his seat at the next election.

In 1983, Moss Cass chaired a review into the Australian Institute of Multicultural Affairs.

Moss Cass served as chair of the Australian National Biocentre from 2002 to 2003.

Moss Cass was patron of the Sustainable Living Foundation and an honorary fellow at the Melbourne University School of Land and Environment.

In 2007, Moss Cass was a founding member of Independent Australian Jewish Voices, a "breakaway group from Australia's main pro-Israel Jewish lobby organisations".

Moss Cass's second child Deborah Cass was an academic lawyer at the London School of Economics whose writings and teaching were widely admired in Australia and overseas.

The Deborah Moss Cass writing prize, a national writing prize for first and second generation migrant writers, was created after her death.

Moss Cass is incorrectly believed by some to be the originator of the saying, "We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children".

On 13 November 1974, when Moss Cass was environment minister, he gave a speech in Paris to the meeting of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Moss Cass's version was a longer explanation than the original, traditional proverb.

Moss Cass has been cited as the first person to use the term "queue jumping" in reference to asylum seekers, in a 1978 opinion column in The Australian.