Former Australian treasurer Jim Cairns dies

MELBOURNE, Australia, Oct 12 (AFP) - Former Australian treasurer Jim Cairns, who shocked Australia in the 1970s through an affair with a colleague, has died at the age of 89.

Cairns was a leading member of the reformist Labor government of Gough Whitlam in the 1970s in which he was also deputy prime minister.

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In 1974 the government was rocked by revelations that Cairns was having an affair with his office coordinator Junie Morosi. After his death was announced Sunday she said she still loved Cairns deeply and last saw him in hospital two weeks ago.

"I can't find the words to say what a great man he was," Morosi told commercial radio. "I loved him dearly. He loved me. We met with our work and our total dedication to peace."

Morosi was Cairns' principal private secretary. Cairns left the government over another issue a few months before its fall in late 1975, but the Morosi affair is widely seen as a major contributing factor to Whitlam's downfall.

Born in Melbourne in 1914, Cairns went into politics in 1955 after a career as a policeman. As well as the treasury, he held the portfolios of secondary industry and overseas trade.

He was an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War and brought hundreds of thousands of protesters onto Melbourne's streets against the fighting. He was also the author of several books.

Labor party leader Simon Crean, whose father Frank was also in the Whitlam government, said Cairns had a strong commitment to peace.

"Jim was a man of deep conviction and a man of great conscience, none more so with his passionate and long-standing opposition to the Vietnam War," Crean said in a statement.

"He had an abiding commitment to peace and activism and we will never forget Jim leading the massive moratorium march in Melbourne in 1970. While he often sparked controversy, no-one could doubt his convictions and he never lost his commitment to the cause of peace."

Cairns' wife Gwen died in 2000. In the 2002 edition of "Who's Who", Cairns listed his recreation as sleeping.

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Australia-politics