General Michael Jeffery

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General Michael Jeffrey.jpg

Military Career

Malaya

Michael Jeffery graduated from the Australian Royal Military College in 1958. After four years in a variety of junior positions, he fought briefly in 1962 at the end of the Australian-British counterinsurgency campaign against the decolonization and liberation of Malaya from English colonial rule.[1]

Papua New Guinea

From 1966 to 1969, Jeffery was assigned to the Australian military occupation of Papua New Guinea, which achieved its formal independence from Australia six years after he departed in 1975.

Vietnam

Jeffery left Papua New Guinea in 1969 to fight in the ecocidal and genocidal American-led counterinsurgency campaign in Vietnam. In 2002 as the Governor of Western Australia, he defended the campaign to a group of Australian Veterans: "I believe passionately that Vietnam was a just cause in the circumstances of the time."

(Re: Agent Orange + Australian Veterans[2][3][4][5])

Pacific Islands

In 1974 Jeffery was given command of the 2nd Battalion of the Pacific Islands Regiment. He filled the position until 1975.

Australia

"In 1979 he was named the first Director of the Army's Special Action Forces. In the position he was instrumental in developing the surveillance concept for Northern Australia and helped prepare the development of the Australian counter-terrorist concept and capability. In the 1980's Jeffery headed the Australian national counter-terrorist co-ordination authority. In 1985 he was promoted to major-general and was appointed to command the first division in 1986. In the 1990's he became Deputy Chief of the General Staff, the second highest appointment in the Australian Army."[6]

Political Career

Governor of Western Australia

Appointed by Queen Elizabeth II in 1993, he filled this position until 2000.[7]

Future Directions International

In 2000, Michael Jeffery founded Future Directions International as a public policy think tank.[8] He was the Chairman of the think tank from its founding until his death in 2020.[9]

Board of Directors

  • Major General John Hartley: As a General Officer, he headed Army’s Training Command, was the Director of the Defence Intelligence Organisation, Deputy Chief of the Army and Head of Army’s Land Command. The US Military awarded him three medals for his senior advisory and combat role in the USA's War in Vietnam. Three decades later, he was the Special Broadcasting Service commentator for the 2003 USA invasion of Iraq, appearing on national TV for 20 consecutive nights. He was also the Australian Broadcasting Corporation FM spokesperson on the same topic.[10].

Senior Fellows

Governor-General of Australia

Appointed by Queen Elizabeth II upon the recommendation of Prime Minister John Howard in August of 2003. This made him "the representative of Queen Elizabeth II in all of the Commonwealth of Australia" as well as the Commander-in-Chief of the Australian Military. He was the first military general to hold this position.

Iraq

In October 2003, Governor-General Jeffery declared his support for pre-emptive warfare, and suggested the UN model its future interventions on the Australian counterinsurgency campaigns in East Timor and the Solomon Islands.[12]

COIN Review

In 2007 (only a year before Michael Jeffery stepped down as Commander in Chief) the Australian Defense College published a review of counterinsurgency theory:

This article examines the vital importance of political ideology in formulating effective counterinsurgency, by examining the case of Rhodesia… ideology blinded the Rhodesian Government to the vital need to win ‘hearts and minds’ by applying timely principles of political pacification and reform to its counterinsurgency effort. Instead a Rhodesian counterinsurgency campaign of maximum force was pursued. Such a campaign proved counterproductive.

The review makes its case by example of Captain Allan Savory, founder of the Rhodesian Tracker Combat Union:

Savory… (was) the country’s foremost expert in the politics of insurgency warfare. Well-read in the literature of insurgency, he accurately foresaw that lack of political reform was leading Rhodesia into a civil war that, for demographic reasons alone, could only end in settler strategic defeat... Throughout 1973 and 1974, Savory, demonstrating enormous moral courage, delivered a series of lone speeches in parliament and around the country calling for the primacy of political over military action. Savory quoted Sir Robert Thompson’s famous fourth principle of counterinsurgency outlined in the latter’s classic text, Defeating Communist Insurgency: ‘the Government must give priority to defeating the political subversion, not the guerrillas.'

Only in July 1977, amid... accelerating white emigration, did the Commander of Combined Operations, Lieutenant General Peter Walls, a Malayan veteran, begin to publicly call for a political solution... Rhodesian security chiefs then submitted a joint memorandum to the Government stating ‘no successful result can be attained by purely military means.'

In the annals of the modern history of small wars, Rhodesia is probably the best example of a counterinsurgency campaign rendered ineffective by an almost complete lack of a realistic political strategy to complement an efficient military effort"[13]

Savory Method

Soils for Life

Founding

Michael Jeffery founded the Soils for Life non-profit in 2011[14] His fellow board members (since at least 2012) included Alasdair MacLeod, the son-in-law of Rupert Murdoch - both of whom own ranches managed via The Savory Method.

In October 2012, former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard declared that developing a national soil health strategy was a top priority for the government. Bypassing the country's soil scientists, she appointed General Michael Jeffery as Australia’s first "Advocate for Soils."[15][16]

Savory Method

In August 2013, Allan Savory delivered a series of high-profile lectures in Australia, coordinated with Soils for Life and the former Commander in Chief of the Australian Military, General Michael Jeffery.[17]

Together, they delivered the inaugural Bruce Ward and George Gundry Legacy Lecture(s) on August 6th.[18] Bruce Ward had been instrumental in disseminating Allan Savory’s ideas to thousands of people in Australia since the 1990s, and George Gundry was a student of his and an influential holistic management practitioner and educator in his own right.[19][20]

At a woolshed in New South Wales in 2013, General Jeffery's shared with a crowd how his military background informed his approach:

“There’s an old military adage that you always reinforce success, never failure,” he says. “That’s what we want to do; we want to find those people who’ve been successful, who’ve managed to realise a triple bottom-line result, and get their messages out loud and clear.”[21]

The vast majority of case studies promoted via this military-communications strategy are cattle ranches applying elements of The Savory Method.[22]

Michael Jeffery gave dozens of presentations on regenerative agriculture at various conferences as the Chairman of Soils for Life. Many of these from 2018 and 2019 are preserved on Soils for Life's website.[23] In 2019 and 2020, Michael Jeffery and Allan Savory gave the back-to-back inaugural Tony Coote lectures for the Mulloon Institute.[24]

Daily Telegraph Promotion

When climate denying[25] Scott Morrison became the new Prime Minister of Australia in 2018 following intervention from the coal lobby[26] and Murdoch press[27], Soils for Life and General Jeffery would soon receive unprecedented levels of federal support.

At the inaugural Bush Summit hosted by the Murdoch-owned, climate denying[28] Daily Telegraph in 2019, PM Morrison announced $2 million in funding for Soils for Life over the next four years.[29] At the time Andrew Carswell, the former Chief of Staff of Murdoch's Daily Telegraph, was PM Morrison's Press Secretary. [30][31][32]

At General Jeffery's recommendation[33], PM Morrison made the National Soil Advocate a permanent, full-time, paid position with expanded federal influence, reappointing General Jeffery to the position.[34][35]

In December 2019, General Jeffery stepped down as Chairman of Soils for Life to focus full-time on being Australia's National Soil Advocate.[36] Alasdair MacLeod, the son-in-law of Rupert Murdoch, took his place and is currently the Chairman of Soils for Life.

Sources

  1. ↑ https://anzacday.org.au/malayan-emergency
  2. ↑ https://anzacportal.dva.gov.au/wars-and-missions/vietnam-war-1962-1975/events/aftermath/agent-orange#:~:text=Concerns%20about%20the%20use%20of,also%20blamed%20on%20Agent%20Orange.
  3. ↑ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2756438/
  4. ↑ https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1753-6405.1985.tb00472.x
  5. ↑ https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1753-6405.1985.tb00472.x
  6. ↑ https://www.masonrytoday.com/index.php?new_month=12&new_day=12&new_year=2015
  7. ↑ https://www.gg.gov.au/extended-biography-major-general-jeffery
  8. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20200314182223/http://www.futuredirections.org.au/
  9. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20200314181903/http://www.futuredirections.org.au/publication/major-general-the-honourable-michael-jeffery-ac-ao-mil-cvo-mc-retd-national-soils-advocate/
  10. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20200317140656/http://www.futuredirections.org.au/people/major-general-john-hartley/
  11. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20200316122210/http://www.futuredirections.org.au/people/dr-emile-nakhleh/
  12. ↑ http://www.preventgenocide.org/prevent/news-monitor/2003oct.htm
  13. ↑ https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09574040701400601
  14. ↑ https://cpd.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Ex-G-G-is-the-first-Advocate-for-Soils-_-The-Australian.pdf
  15. ↑ https://cpd.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Ex-G-G-is-the-first-Advocate-for-Soils-_-The-Australian.pdf
  16. ↑ https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/archived/bushtelegraph/scientists-divided-on-soil-advocate-appointment/4363270
  17. ↑ https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/nation/-using-livestock-to-restore-vegetation-to-arid-land-/news-story/462fe26dffaea97e654b4691e0aa5524
  18. ↑ http://mfn.org.au/files/HM%20Conference%20Flyer%20and%20order%20form.pdf
  19. ↑ https://newmerino.com.au/alan-savory-goes-mainstream/
  20. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20200113094015/https://www.theland.com.au/story/3591935/a-man-who-loved-the-land/
  21. ↑ https://janenecarey.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/full-story-grassroots-change.pdf
  22. ↑ https://soilsforlife.org.au/case-studies
  23. ↑ https://soilsforlife.org.au/about-soils-for-life/our-founder/michael-jefferys-speeches/
  24. ↑ https://savory.global/tony-coote-memorial-lecture/
  25. ↑ https://www.gq.com.au/success/opinions/the-burning-shame-of-scott-morrisons-climate-denial/news-story/77055fb0aeea5d6c72c618019610aac5
  26. ↑ https://larutadelclima.org/english/meet-steve-morrison-australias-coal-loving-prime-minister/
  27. ↑ https://truthout.org/articles/faced-with-climate-disaster-australian-prime-minister-plans-to-open-coal-mine/
  28. ↑ https://junkee.com/news-corp-climate-denial/282907
  29. ↑ https://www.ausrawmilk.org/blog/bush-summit
  30. ↑ VIDEO: https://www.facebook.com/greenpeaceaustraliapacific/videos/531492840803418/
  31. ↑ WRITTEN REPORT: https://v.fastcdn.co/u/423c9433/42782012-0-GPAP-Dirty-Power-Rep.pdf
  32. ↑ https://citizentruth.org/australia-fires-rage-as-coal-controlled-government-fails-to-act/
  33. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20191101042840/http://www.agriculture.gov.au:80/SiteCollectionDocuments/ag-food/publications/restore-soil-prosper.pdf
  34. ↑ https://soilsforlife.org.au/prime-minister-announces-funding-for-soils-for-life/
  35. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20200314181903/http://www.futuredirections.org.au/publication/major-general-the-honourable-michael-jeffery-ac-ao-mil-cvo-mc-retd-national-soils-advocate/
  36. ↑ https://soilsforlife.org.au/farewell-from-the-outgoing-chair-major-general-michael-jeffery/
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