Mabel Freer

Mabel Magdalene Freer (née Ward, later Cusack) was a British woman whose exclusion from Australia on morality grounds in 1936 became a cause célèbre and led to a political controversy.

Freer was born in British India. After separating from her first husband, she began an affair with Edward Dewar, a married Australian Army officer stationed in Lahore. When Freer and Dewar sought to return to Australia together in 1936, Dewar's family and military authorities lobbied immigration officials to prevent her entry on morality grounds. On arrival in Fremantle, Freer was administered and failed a dictation test in Italian (deliberately chosen as a language she could not speak) which allowed her to be declared a prohibited immigrant under the Immigration Restriction Act 1901. She was accepted into New Zealand where she sought legal redress, making a second unsuccessful attempt to land in Sydney a month later.

The "Mrs Freer case" proved politically damaging for the Lyons government. The decision to exclude Freer was criticised on a number of grounds, including that it was arbitrary, infringed on personal liberty and was motivated by sexism. Interior minister Thomas Paterson was widely perceived as having mishandled the case. He publicly attacked Freer's character and used dubious or fabricated evidence to defend his actions. Federal cabinet eventually allowed Freer to enter Australia in July 1937, although her relationship with Dewar did not continue. The controversy contributed to the end of Paterson's ministerial career but had no lasting legal implications.