On this day in 1967, ACT police were incensed about a proposed amendment to the Police Ordinance which would require them to advise the Commissioner of Police in writing of details of their wives' employment.
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The proposed amendment was set to require every policeman to confirm their wives' employment in any profession.
Failure to comply would result in a heavy fine.
The new rule would also require any policeman who knew or suspected a fellow officer was in breach of the ordinance to advise the commissioner. Failure to do so would also result in a fine.
A member for the ACT said in Parliament that: "A policeman's lot is not a happy one, but there is no reason why his wife is not entitled to be happy. She is entitled to have a will of her own. I do not doubt that it is just as necessary for a policeman's wife to raise the extra funds to run a home as it is for anyone else's wife".
Several policemen said the new provisions being sought would make the task of attracting new recruits much harder. The information sought was a relic of a past age, they said.
If, as they suspected, it was an attempt to force the wives to give up their jobs, it would bear particularly harshly on young constables who were not earning high wages.
And what did the wives have to say?
"What the hell has it got to do with him if I work or not?" was one reaction.
"I don't think it is any business of my husband to tell people if I work or not. If they want to know let them come and ask me".
A NSW policeman said he was amazed at the proposal.
"They'd start a fair sort of stampede out in our outfit if they tried anything like that with us," he said.
