General Michael Jeffery
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, filled the position until 2000.[7]
Governor-General of Australia
Appointed by Queen Elizabeth II in 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.[8]
COIN Review
In 2007 (only a year before Michael Jeffery stepped down as Commander in Chief) the Australian Army conducted a review of counterinsurgency theory.
The review praised Rhodesian Captain Allan Savory as an exemplary counterinsurgency strategist. The performance of the Selous Scouts - which evolved directly from the Tracker Combat Unit Savory founded - was highlighted for for its "exceptional results" in "achieving kill rates - accounting directly, or indirectly, for 68 per cent of all insurgents killed by 1978."[9]
Savory Method
Soils for Life
Michael Jeffery founded the Soils for Life non-profit in 2011 and directed it until stepping down in December 2019 to focus on being Australia's national "Advocate for Soils".[10][11] His fellow board members included Alasdair MacLeod, the son-in-law of Rupert Murdoch - both of whom own ranches managed via The Savory Method.
In August of 2013, he met with Allan Savory and acknowledged to the press the influence of Savory's "holistic management philosophy" upon what his organization promotes. [12]
At a woolshed in New South Wales in 2013, General Jeffery's shared with a crowd how his military background informed his approach to non-profit communications:
“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.”[13]
Advocate for Soils
In October of 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."[14][15]
Mulloon Institute
General Michael Jeffery and Captain Allan Savory gave back-to-back speeches for the Mulloon Institute in 2019 and 2020.[16]
- ↑ https://anzacday.org.au/malayan-emergency
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2756438/
- ↑ https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1753-6405.1985.tb00472.x
- ↑ https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1753-6405.1985.tb00472.x
- ↑ https://www.masonrytoday.com/index.php?new_month=12&new_day=12&new_year=2015
- ↑ https://www.gg.gov.au/extended-biography-major-general-jeffery
- ↑ http://www.preventgenocide.org/prevent/news-monitor/2003oct.htm
- ↑ https://sci-hub.se/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09574040701400601
- ↑ https://cpd.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Ex-G-G-is-the-first-Advocate-for-Soils-_-The-Australian.pdf
- ↑ https://soilsforlife.org.au/farewell-from-the-outgoing-chair-major-general-michael-jeffery/
- ↑ https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/nation/-using-livestock-to-restore-vegetation-to-arid-land-/news-story/462fe26dffaea97e654b4691e0aa5524
- ↑ https://janenecarey.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/full-story-grassroots-change.pdf
- ↑ https://cpd.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Ex-G-G-is-the-first-Advocate-for-Soils-_-The-Australian.pdf
- ↑ https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/archived/bushtelegraph/scientists-divided-on-soil-advocate-appointment/4363270
- ↑ https://savory.global/tony-coote-memorial-lecture/