What Drove a Former Union Leader to Give an Abortion Speech That Led to a Student Walkout?

Former SDA leader Joe De Bruyn wanted to make a point when he addressed a room of university graduates—to stand up for what you believe, no matter what.

A pro-life activist holds a plastic fetus in a protest in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, on June 23, 2022. Nathan Howard/Getty Images

When former union leader Joe De Bruyn addressed a graduation ceremony at the Australian Catholic University (ACU) on Oct. 21, he assumed he was in a suitable environment to discuss his beliefs.

It was after all, a Catholic institution.

Yet, his six minute speech would spur attendees to walk out en masse, and spark a national discussion.

De Bruyn, the former national secretary of the conservative Shop, Distributive, and Allied Employees Association (SDA), was the recipient of an honorary degree for his contributions to workers’ rights and social welfare.

De Bruyn spoke to The Epoch Times and said his speech was aimed at sharing his experiences with students, as well as the importance of standing by their beliefs.

“You are also going to find in your professional lives and personal lives that issues will come up which might be challenging, and you should deal with them in accordance with your beliefs and not worry that this is going to affect your professional career if you happen to be out of line with the majority,” he said.

“My message to the students was—to encourage them—to stick to their views, rather than to be swayed by majority opinion.”

De Bruyn’s speech covered his opposition to abortion, same sex marriage, and IVF for single families, as well as his time in the Labor Party’s National Executive as leader of the SDA—part of Labor’s right.

In 2015, De Bruyn notably stayed seated as Labor conference members applauded Senator Penny Wong as she delivered a speech on the party supporting same sex marriage.

The Fallout from His University Speech

In the wake of the comments, ACU issued a statement saying it was a place to exchange ideas.

“Mr. De Bruyn’s remarks at the ceremony were delivered in a personal capacity,” the statement read.

“While his views may not be shared by many of our staff and students, as a university, we encourage the respectful exchange of ideas that represent the wide spectrum of our diverse community,” the statement read.

Former national secretary of the Shop, Distributive and Allied (SDA) Employees' Association, Joe de Bruyn speaks to the media at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia on April 10, 2013. AAP Image/Lukas Coch

Footage of the venue shared online showed most of the attendees, including parents, had left, as well as staff.

Students, such as Charlie Panteli, said he wanted the university to denounce the anti-abortion comments.

ACU would later offer refunds and free counselling to those who felt affected by De Bruyn’s opinions.

Why Is It So Sensitive?

With around one quarter of Australian pregnancies ending in abortion, De Bruyn said it was a highly sensitive topic.

“It’s a sensitive topic, because so many people are having abortions. There are over 80,000 abortions each year in this country, something like one in four pregnancies ends in an abortion,” he said. This is while the Australian Bureau of Statistics reports fertility rates in the country have dropped to a 90-year low.

“There are many women in society who are having abortions, and to say to them the cold, hard truth that: ‘This is the killing of human life, the ending of human life, and it cannot be justified,’ is a confronting thing,” De Bruyn said.

The SDA’s former leader also pointed to recent efforts to stop late term abortions on near-full grown babies.

“There was the very sort of graphic testimony by a midwife [in Queensland] who confirmed that it did happen—that children were born alive after [failed abortion attempts], and they were often simply taken away ... and left to die.”

A bill to ban late term abortion laws was recently debated in South Australia, but it was narrowly defeated in the upper house.

The SDA’s History

The SDA is the largest private sector trade union in Australia, with branches in every state and territory covering workers in the retail and fast food sectors.

The union maintains strong conservative and Catholic roots, despite the increasing influence of progressive unions within the Labor Party.

De Bruyn notably led the SDA in its campaign against communism in the 1980s, supporting the Polish movement Solidarity against its leadership and the Soviet Union. De Bruyn would later receive an award from the Polish president in 2015.

The SDA was also instrumental in the 1955 Labor Party split in response to communist infiltration of its ranks.

The SDA reunited with Labor in the 1980s, and currently sits to the right of the party.

Abortion Rights and Marxism

Historic feminist movements—which paved the way for abortion rights—often overlapped with communist movements, as both aimed to overturn traditional views on marriage and family, while weakening the fabric of Christian-based societies.

“[Second wave American feminist Betty] Friedan fiercely criticised the traditional familial roles of women and argued that the classic image of a content and joyful housewife was a myth forged by a patriarchal society,” according to The Epoch Times’ series, “How the Specter of Communism is Ruling Our World.”

“In fact, Friedan, under her maiden name Betty Goldstein, had been a radical socialist activist from her college years up to the 1950s. While at the University of California–Berkeley, Friedan was a member of the Young Communist League and even requested, twice, to join the Communist Party USA.”

In fact, De Bruyn said one of the first things Vladimir Lenin and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union of Russia did in 1917 was to allow abortion on demand.

“So it was something that came as part of that first Marxist regime, and I think Joseph Stalin [later] changed the policy because it led to a dearth of births, and it didn’t suit him in a country where the birth rate was already quite low,” De Bruyn said.

“It was the communists that introduced it, and at that time, the prevailing laws in countries in the West would all have been against abortion.”

Meanwhile, the Australian Labor Party adopted the policy in the 1980s, with those on the left supporting it, and those on the right opposed.

“I think that dividing line would be different today, because the so-called ”right wing” of the Labor Party today is supportive of abortion as well.

“Abortion has become so established within our society that there are very few people who really oppose to it, and those who oppose it are mostly people of some religious persuasion,” De Bruyn said.

The union leader said he could see that slide continue into the near future.

“So people who don’t like that, are going to have to keep on putting forward their point of view. And my graduation speech two days ago is an example of an effort to try and do that.”