While he led a long, interesting, valuable and seemingly fortunate life, it was still sad to note the passing of Peter James Nixon at the age of 97.
A Victorian dairy farmer, Nixon, who was blessed with considerable common sense, represented the Country Party, and later the National Party, for the seat of Gippsland from 1962 to 1983 in the Australian Parliament. For all but three years of that period, the Nationals were in government, in coalition with the Liberal Party.
For much of that time, he served as a minister and a very good one, too. We crossed paths when he was Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries and, later, for Shipping and Transport.
He was a “straight shooter” and once gave me some very valuable advice. That happened when our company was the victim of lies published by a corrupt public servant, the late Peter Pownall. Pownall was then the editor of the government-owned magazine Australian Fisheries, which competed with our own Professional Fisherman magazine. He published demonstrably false circulation claims that were significantly detrimental to our magazine and our business.
After repeatedly requesting corrections and an apology from Pownall, and, later, his superiors, without success, I approached Nixon as the responsible minister. He explained that he was unable to directly intervene in the matter but very sensibly suggested that we sue the Commonwealth for misleading and deceptive conduct under the Trade Practices Act.
That we proceeded to do, after having to convince Australia’s then leading trade practices lawyer that it was possible to do so. Nixon proved that he knew more about the act than that top lawyer did.
Eventually we succeeded beyond our wildest dreams in the Federal Court and set an important precedent in the process. The government was forced to publish several prominent apology advertisements in Australia’s leading business newspapers and, very painfully, in both Australian Fisheries and, even worse for it, in Professional Fisherman.
It also, of course, had to wear substantial legal costs. And, what hurt the bureaucrats even more, it had to accept that we would not sign their vociferously demanded non–disclosure agreement.
After that debacle. Pownall soon lost his very cushy job and, a couple of years later, “his” magazine was absorbed into Professional Fisherman and eventually abandoned. So, the success of Baird Publications/Baird Maritime was a beneficiary of the wisdom of Peter Nixon. We are grateful to him.