the United States, that was not legal and so its importance remained symbolic. There were several high-profile controversies caused by the government's heavy-handed treatment of conscientious objectors, including William White and Simon Townsend (who later became a well-known television personality). In 1969 the Gorton administration was severely embarrassed by a renowned This Day Tonight story in which a conscientious objector, who had been on the run from police for several months, was interviewed live in the studio by the journalist Richard Carleton, who then posed awkward questions to the Army Minister about why TDT had been able to locate the man within hours and bring him to the studio when the federal police had been unable to capture him, and the event was made even more embarrassing for the government because the man was able to leave the studio before the police had arrived to arrest him. By 1969, public opinion was turning against the war. A Gallup Poll in August showed that 55 percent of those surveyed favoured bringing Australian troops home, and only 40 percent favoured them staying. That was the first poll to show less than 50% approval for the government's policy, and all polls after August 1969 were to reveal a majority in favour of bringing the troops home. In October, during his policy speech for the 1969 federal elections, the opposition leader, Gough Whitlam, declared that if elected, the ALP would make sure that all Australian troops in Vietnam would be home 'by Christmas'. Around then, opposition to conscription became more radical. Active non-compliers began to call themselves "draft resisters". Instead of waiting to be called up, draft resisters wrote letters to the Minister for National Service detailing their intention not to comply with conscription. Under law, that immediately rendered them liable for service. A number of these young men formed a draft resisters' union, active in at least two states: New South Wales and Victoria. They included men such as Bob Scates and Michael Hamel-Green. They went underground while maintaining a public presence, appeared at protests and were spirited away by the crowd before they could be arrested. In December 1972, while 'underground' as a draft resister, Barry Johnson stood as the Australian Labor Party (ALP) candidate in the seat of Hotham against Minister Don Chipp. Australian government cabinet documents released by Australian National Archives in 2001 show that in 1970, the conservative government