Attempted assassination of Arthur Calwell

On 21 June 1966, an assassination attempt was made on Arthur Calwell, then leader of the Australian Labor Party.

[1] On the evening of 21 June 1966, while campaigning for the 1966 federal election, Arthur Calwell addressed an anti-conscription rally at Mosman Town Hall in Sydney.

At some point he left to retrieve a sawn-off .22 calibre rifle that he had hidden on the grounds of a nearby Methodist church; he concealed it under his overcoat.

He received a number of wounds to his face from the shattered glass and bullet fragments, and his shirt was "badly blood-stained".

[2][5] Calwell re-entered the town hall briefly to telephone his wife, and was then driven to Royal North Shore Hospital where he spent the night.

[8]Kocan later reflected, "the shooting logic was in the air at the time", pointing to the assassinations of Ngô Đình Diệm, John F. Kennedy, Hendrik Verwoerd and Malcolm X.

The presiding judge Leslie Herron ruled that: It is necessary for me to pass such a sentence to deter any other person from even considering an attempt upon the life and safety of our public men... You have pleaded guilty to one of the most serious crimes in the criminal calendar and the plain fact must be faced that on June 21 at Mosman Town Hall a bullet fired by you lodged in the lapel of Mr Calwell's coat and portion of it, with shattered glass, stuck in his chin.

Indeed, it seems that only by the intervention of Providence he is still alive... All these preparations and your intent was to kill a public figure who was innocent of any offence against you except that you differed from his political views.I regret to say your previous good character must be set aside on this occasion because it must be out weighed.

Public men in Australia must be free to go about their important affairs of State without fear of danger to life or limb.

[11] Kocan was initially jailed at Sydney's Long Bay Gaol before being transferred to Morriset Psychiatric Hospital for the criminally insane,[12] where he began to study literature, philosophy and history, and to write poetry.