Helen Caldicott

Dr. Helen Caldicott (born 1938) has been one of the world's leading anti-nuclear activists. Born in Melbourne, Australia in 1961 Caldicott gained medical degree from the University of Adelaide Medical School. In the 1977 she joined the staff of the Children's Hospital Medical Center in Boston and was a teacher at the Harvard Medical School in pediatrics from 1977] to 1978.

In the 1980 she left her medical career in order to concentrate on calling the world's attention to the "insanity" of the world's increasing supply of nuclear weapons and national stockpiles. She made a name for herself, particularly during the 1980s, when she was featured in the Canadian Oscar-winning documentary If You Love This Planet.

In 1990 Caldicott decided to contest the seat of Division of Richmond (a traditional National Party seat in northern New South Wales) in the federal election the time that Charles Blunt was the leader of the conservative National Party of Australia, and represented the division. Caldicott's entry in the race allowed the Labor candidate, Neville Newell, to win the seat despite polling only 27% of the primary vote.

This was an example of the operation of preferential voting in Australia in operation. Caldicott also had a good chance of winning the seat outright - if all of Gibbs' preferences had gone to her as directed, she would drawn ahead of Newell and won on his preferences. In that Division 73,794 were enrolled and 70,571 (95.6%) voted

More recently she has claimed that the Cold War never ended, but rather that the United States merely found new enemies.

External links

• Her website