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Edward Gough Whitlam, AC, QC (born 11 July 1916), known as Gough Whitlam, served as the 21st Prime Minister of Australia from 1972 to 1975. He was dismissed as Prime Minister by Governor General Sir John Kerr at the climax of the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis; he is the only Prime Minister to have his commission terminated in that manner. Whitlam entered Parliament in 1952, representing the Australian Labor Party (ALP). In 1960 he was elected deputy leader of the ALP and in 1967, after party leader Arthur Calwell retired, he assumed the leadership and became Leader of the Opposition. After narrowly losing the1969 election, Whitlam led Labor to victory at the 1972 election after 23 years of Liberal - Country Coalition government. In
his time in office, Whitlam and his government implemented a large
number of new programs and policy changes, including the elimination of
military conscription and criminal execution, institution of universal health care and fee-free tertiary schooling (university), and the implementation of legal aid programs. He won the 1974 election with
a reduced majority. Subsequently, the Opposition, which controlled the
Senate, was emboldened by government scandals and a flagging economy to
challenge Whitlam. In late 1975, there was a weeks long deadlock over
the passage of appropriation bills, which was resolved by Kerr's dismissal of Whitlam and commissioning of Opposition leader Malcolm Fraser as caretaker Prime Minister. Labor lost the subsequent 1975 election in a landslide. Whitlam resigned from the leadership after the ALP lost again at the 1977 election,
and left Parliament in 1978. Over a third of a century after he left
office, Whitlam continues to comment on political affairs. The
circumstances of his dismissal, and the legacy of his government,
remain part of Australian political discourse. Edward Gough Whitlam was born on 11 July 1916 in Kew, a suburb of Melbourne. He was the older of two children (he has a younger sister, Freda, who is now aged 90 and still living independently) born to Martha (née Maddocks) and Fred Whitlam. His father was a federal public servant who later served as Commonwealth Crown Solicitor, and Whitlam senior's involvement in human rights issues was a powerful influence on his son. Since the boy's maternal grandfather was also named Edward, from early childhood he was called by his middle name. In 1918, Fred Whitlam was promoted to Deputy Crown Solicitor and transferred to Sydney. The family lived first in the North Shore suburb of Mosman and then in Turramurra.
At age six, Gough began his education at Chatswood Church of England
Girls School (early primary schooling at a girls' school was not
unusual for small boys at the time). After a year there, he attended Mowbray House School and Knox Grammar School, in the suburbs of Sydney. Fred
Whitlam was promoted again in 1927, this time to Assistant Crown
Solicitor. The position was located in the new national capital of Canberra, and the Whitlam family moved there. Gough Whitlam remains the only Prime Minister to have spent his formative years in Canberra. At the time, conditions remained primitive in what was dubbed "the bush capital" and "the land of the blowflies". Gough, who had always attended a private school, was sent to the government run Telopea Park School, since no other school was available. In 1932, Fred Whitlam transferred his son to Canberra Grammar School, where, at the 1932 Speech Day ceremony, Gough Whitlam was awarded a prize by the Governor - General, Sir Isaac Isaacs.
Whitlam enrolled at St. Paul's College at the University of Sydney at the age of 18. He earned his first wages by appearing, with several other "Paulines", in a cabaret scene in the film The Broken Melody — the
students were chosen because St. Paul's required (and requires) formal
wear at dinner, and they could therefore supply their own costumes. After
receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree with second - class honours in
Classics, Whitlam remained at St. Paul's to begin his law studies; he
had originally contemplated an academic career, but his lacklustre
marks made that unlikely. Soon after the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Whitlam enlisted in the Sydney University Regiment, part of the Army Reserve. In late 1941, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and with a year remaining in his legal studies, he volunteered for the Royal Australian Air Force. In 1942, while awaiting entry into the service, Whitlam met and married Margaret Dovey, who had swum for Australia in the 1938 British Empire Games and was the daughter of barrister and future New South Wales Supreme Court judge Bill Dovey. Whitlam trained as a navigator and bomb aimer, before serving with No. 13 Squadron RAAF, based mainly on the Gove Peninsula, Northern Territory, flying Lockheed Ventura bombers. He reached the rank of Flight Lieutenant. While in the service, he began his political activities, distributing literature for the Australian Labor Party during the 1943 federal election and urging the passage of the "Fourteen Powers" referendum of 1944,
which would have expanded the powers of the Federal government.
Although the party was victorious, the referendum it advocated was
defeated. In
1961, Whitlam said of the referendum defeat, "My hopes were dashed by
the outcome and from that moment I determined to do all I could do to
modernise the Australian Constitution." While
still in uniform, Whitlam joined the ALP in Sydney in 1945. Whitlam
completed his studies after the war, obtained his Bachelor of Laws, and
was admitted to the Federal and New South Wales bars in 1947. With his war service loan, Whitlam built a house in seaside Cronulla. He
sought to make a career in the ALP there, but local Labor supporters
were sceptical of Whitlam's loyalties, given his privileged background. In the postwar years, he practised law, concentrating on landlord - tenant matters, and sought to build his bona fides in the party. He ran twice – unsuccessfully – for the local council, once (also unsuccessfully) for the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, and campaigned for other candidates. He
also became a radio celebrity, winning the Australian National Quiz
Championship in 1948 and 1949, and finishing runner-up in 1950. In 1951, Hubert Lazzarini, the Labor member for the Federal electorate of Werriwa, announced that he would stand down at the next election. Whitlam won the preselection as ALP candidate. Lazzarini died in 1952 before completing his term and Whitlam was elected to the House of Representatives in the ensuing by-election on 29 November 1952. Whitlam trebled Lazzarini's majority in a 12 per cent swing to Labor. Whitlam joined the ALP minority in the House. His maiden speech provoked an interruption by future Prime Minister John McEwen, who was told by the Speaker that maiden speeches are traditionally heard in silence. Whitlam responded to McEwen by stating that Benjamin Disraeli had
been heckled in his maiden speech, and had responded, "The time will
come when you shall hear me". He told McEwen, "The time will come when
you may interrupt me". According to early Whitlam biographers Laurie Oakes and
David Solomon, this cool response put the Coalition Government on
notice that the new Member for Werriwa would be a force to be reckoned with. In the rough and tumble debate in the House of Representatives, Whitlam called fellow MHRs Bill Bourke "this grizzling Quisling", Garfield Barwick (who would, as High Court Chief Justice, play a role in Whitlam's downfall) a "bumptious bastard", and stated that William Wentworth exhibited a "hereditary streak of insanity". After he stated that future Prime Minister William McMahon was a "quean", he apologised. The ALP had been out of office since the Chifley Government's defeat in 1949, and since 1951 had been under the leadership of Bert Evatt, whom Whitlam greatly admired. In 1954, the ALP seemed likely to return to power. The Prime Minister, Robert Menzies, adroitly used the defection of a Soviet official to his advantage, and his coalition of the Liberal and Country parties was returned in the election with a seven seat majority. After the election, Evatt attempted to purge the party of industrial groupers,
who had long dissented from party policy, and who were predominately
Catholic and anti-communist. The ensuing division in the ALP, which
came to be known as "The Split", sparked the birth of the Democratic Labor Party. It was a conflict that helped to keep Labor out of power for a generation, since DLP supporters chose the Liberal Party in preferential voting. Whitlam supported Evatt throughout The Split. In
1955, a redistribution divided Whitlam's electorate of Werriwa in two,
with his Cronulla home located in the new electorate of Hughes. Although Whitlam would have received ALP support in either division, he
chose to continue standing for Werriwa, and moved from Cronulla to Cabramatta.
This meant even longer journeys for his older children to attend
school, since neither electorate had a high school at the time, and
they attended school in Sydney. Whitlam was appointed to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Constitutional Review in 1956. Biographer Jenny Hocking calls
his service on the Committee, which included members from all parties
in both chambers of Parliament, one of the "great influences in his political development". According
to Hocking, service on the committee caused Whitlam to focus not on
internal conflicts consuming the ALP, but on which Labor goals were
possible and worthwhile in the constitutional framework. Many Labor
goals, such as nationalisation, ran contrary to the Constitution.
Whitlam came to believe that the Constitution - and especially Section
96 (which allowed the federal government to make grants to the states)
- could be used to advance a worthwhile Labor programme. By
the late 1950s Whitlam was seen as a leadership contender once the
existing Labor leaders exited the scene. Most Labor leaders, including
Evatt, Deputy Leader Arthur Calwell, Eddie Ward, and Reg Pollard, were in their sixties, twenty years older than Whitlam. In
1960, after losing three elections, Evatt resigned and was replaced by
Calwell, with Whitlam defeating Ward for deputy leader. Calwell came within a handful of votes of winning the cliffhanger 1961 election. He had not wanted Whitlam as deputy leader, and believed Labor would have won if Ward had been in the position. Soon after the 1961 election, events began to turn against Labor. When Indonesian President Sukarno announced that he intended to take over West New Guinea as
the colonial Dutch departed, Calwell responded by declaring that
Indonesia must be stopped by force. Calwell's statement was called
"crazy and irresponsible" by Prime Minister Menzies, and the incident
reduced public support for the ALP. At
that time, the Federal Conference of the Labor Party, which dictated
policy to parliamentary members, consisted of six members from each
state but not Calwell or Whitlam. In early 1963 a special conference
met in a Canberra hotel to determine Labor policy regarding a proposed
US base in northern Australia; Calwell and Whitlam were photographed
peering in through the doors, waiting for the verdict. The photograph
proved disastrous to the ALP; Menzies dubbed members of the conference
"Faceless Men" who controlled the party without electoral
responsibility. Menzies
manipulated the Opposition on issues that bitterly divided it, such as
direct aid to the states for private schools, and the proposed base. He
called an early election for November 1963, standing in support of
those two issues. The Prime Minister performed better than Calwell on
television and received an unexpected boost after the assassination of
US President John F. Kennedy.
As a result, the Coalition easily defeated Labor. Whitlam had hoped
Calwell would step down after 1963, but he remained, reasoning that
Evatt had been given three opportunities to win, and that he should be
allowed a third attempt to win the Prime Ministership. Calwell
dismissed proposals that the ALP leader and deputy leader should be
entitled to membership of the party's conference (or on its governing
12-person Federal Executive, which had two representatives from each
state), and instead ran successfully for one of the conference's
Victoria seats. Labor did badly in a 1964 by-election in the Tasmanian electorate of Denison,
and lost seats in the 1964 half Senate election. The party was also
defeated in the state elections in the most populous state, New South
Wales, surrendering control of the state government for the first time
since 1941. Whitlam's relationship with Calwell, never good, deteriorated further after a 1965 article in The Australian was
published. The article reported off the record comments Whitlam had
made that his leader was "too old and weak" to win office, and that the
party might be gravely damaged by an "old-fashioned" 70 year old
Calwell seeking his first term as Prime Minister. Later
that year, at Whitlam's urging, and over Calwell's objection, the
biennial Party Conference made major changes to the party's platform:
deleting support for the White Australia policy and making the ALP's leader and deputy leader ex officio members
of the conference and Executive, along with the party's leader and
deputy leader in the Senate. As Whitlam considered the Senate
unrepresentative, he opposed the admission of its ALP leaders to the
party's governing bodies. Sir Robert Menzies retired in January 1966, and was succeeded as Prime Minister by the new Liberal Party leader, Harold Holt. After
years of politics being dominated by the elderly Menzies and Calwell,
the younger Holt was seen as a breath of fresh air, and attracted public interest and support in the run-up to the November election. In
early 1966, the 36 member conference, with Calwell's assent, banned any
ALP parliamentarian from supporting federal assistance to the states
for spending on both government and private schools, commonly called
"state aid". Whitlam broke with the party on the issue, and was charged
with gross disloyalty by the Executive, an offence which carried the
penalty of expulsion. Before the matter could be heard, Whitlam left for Queensland, where he campaigned intensively for the ALP candidate in the Dawson by-election.
The ALP won, dealing the government their first by-election defeat
since 1952. Whitlam survived the expulsion vote by a margin of only
two, gaining both Queensland votes. At
the end of April, Whitlam challenged Calwell for the leadership; though
Calwell received two thirds of the vote, the ALP leader announced that
if the party lost the upcoming election, he would not stand again for
the leadership. Holt called an election for November 1966, in which the Australian involvement in the Vietnam War was
a major issue. Calwell called for an "immediate and unconditional
withdrawal" of Australian troops from Vietnam. Whitlam, however, said
that this would deprive Australia of any voice in a settlement, and
that regular troops, rather than conscripts, should remain under some
circumstances. Calwell considered Whitlam's remark disastrous, disputing the party line just
five days before the election. The ALP suffered a crushing defeat in
the election, falling to forty seats in the House of Representatives.
At the caucus meeting on 8 February 1967, Gough Whitlam was elected
leader of the party, defeating leading left wing candidate Dr Jim Cairns. Gough
Whitlam saw that the party had little chance of being elected unless it
could expand its appeal from the traditional working class base to
include the suburban middle class. He
sought to shift control of the ALP from union officials to the
parliamentary party, and hoped that even rank and file party members
could be given a voice in the conference. In 1968, controversy erupted within the party when the Executive refused to seat new Tasmanian delegate Brian Harradine,
a Whitlam supporter who was considered a right wing extremist. Whitlam
resigned the leadership, demanding a vote of confidence from caucus. He
defeated Cairns for the leadership in an unexpectedly close 38–32 vote.
Despite the vote, the Executive refused to seat Harradine. With
the ALP's governing bodies unwilling to reform themselves, Whitlam
worked to build support for change among ordinary party members. He was
successful in reducing union influence in the party, though he was
never able to give the rank and file a direct vote in selecting the
Executive. The
Victoria branch of the party had long been a problem; its executive was
far to the left of the rest of the ALP, and had little electoral
success. Whitlam was able to reconstruct the Victoria party
organisation against the will of its leaders, and the reconstituted
state party proved essential to victory in the 1972 election. By
the time of the 1969 party conference, Whitlam had gained considerable
control over the ALP. That conference passed 61 resolutions, including
broad changes to party policy and procedures. It called for
the establishment of an Australian Schools Commission to consider the
proper level of state aid for schools and universities, recognition of
Aboriginal land claims, and expanded party policy on universal health care. The
conference also called for increased federal involvement in urban
planning, and would form the basis of "The Program" of modern socialism
which Whitlam and the ALP would present to the voters in 1972. Since
1918, Labor had called for the abolition of the Australian
Constitution, with the vesting of all political power in Parliament, a
plan which would turn the states into powerless geographic regions.
Beginning in 1965, Whitlam had sought to change this goal. He finally
succeeded at the 1971 ALP Conference in Launceston, Tasmania,
which called for Parliament to receive "such plenary powers as are
necessary and desirable" to achieve the ALP's goals in domestic and
international affairs. Labor
was also pledged to abolish the Senate; this goal would not be erased
from the party platform until 1979, after Whitlam had stepped down as
leader. Soon
after taking the leadership, Whitlam reorganised the ALP caucus,
assigning portfolios and turning the Labor frontbench into a shadow cabinet. While
the Liberal/Country Coalition had a huge majority in the House of
Representatives, Whitlam energised the party by campaigning intensively
to win two by-elections in 1967: first in Corio in Victoria, and later that year in Capricornia (Queensland). The November half-Senate election saw a moderate swing to Labor and against the Coalition, compared with the general election the previous year. These
federal victories, in which both Whitlam and Holt campaigned, helped
give Whitlam the leverage he needed to carry out party reforms. At the end of 1967, Prime Minister Holt vanished while swimming in rough seas near Melbourne; his body was never recovered. McEwen, as Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the Country Party, took over as
Prime Minister for three weeks until the Liberals could elect a new
leader. Senator John Gorton won the vote and became Prime Minister. The
leadership campaign was conducted mostly by television, and Gorton
appeared to have the visual appeal needed to keep Whitlam out of office. Gorton resigned his seat in the Senate, and in February 1968 won the by-election for Holt's seat of Higgins in Victoria. For
the remainder of the year, Gorton appeared to have the better of
Whitlam in the House of Representatives. However, in his chronicle of
the Whitlam years, speechwriter Graham Freudenberg asserts
that Gorton's erratic behaviour, Whitlam's strengthening of his party,
and events outside Australia (such as the Vietnam War) ate away at the
Liberal dominance. Gorton called an election for
October 1969. Whitlam and the ALP, with little internal dissension,
stood on a platform calling for domestic reform, an end to
conscription, and the withdrawal of Australian troops from Vietnam by 1
July 1970. Whitlam knew that, given the ALP's poor position after the 1966 election, victory was unlikely. Nevertheless,
Whitlam scored an 18 seat swing, Labor's best performance since losing
government in 1949. The Coalition was returned to office with a slim
majority. The 1970 half-Senate election brought
little change to Coalition control, but the Liberal vote fell for the
first time below 40 percent, representing a severe threat to
Gorton's leadership. In March 1971, Gorton lost a vote of no confidence in the Liberal caucus. The Liberals elected William McMahon as their new leader, and he became Prime Minister. With
the Liberals in turmoil, Whitlam and the ALP sought to gain public
trust as a credible government-in-waiting. The party's actions, such as
its abandonment of the White Australia policy, gained favourable media
attention. The Labor leader flew to Papua New Guinea and pledged himself to the independence of what was then an Australian possession. In 1971, Whitlam flew to Beijing and met with Chinese officials, including Zhou Enlai. McMahon attacked Whitlam for the visit and claimed that the Chinese had manipulated him. This attack backfired when US President Richard Nixon announced that he would visit China the following year. His National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger,
had actually been in Beijing (unknown to Whitlam) at the same time as
the Labor delegation. According to Whitlam biographer Jenny Hocking,
the incident transformed Whitlam into an international statesman, while McMahon was seen as reacting defensively to Whitlam's foreign policy ventures. Other errors by McMahon, such as a confused ad-lib speech while visiting Washington, and a statement to Indonesian President Suharto that Australia was a "West European nation", also damaged the government. Whitlam performed far better on television than did McMahon, further strengthening his hand. By early 1972, Labor had established a clear lead in the polls. Unemployment
was at a ten-year peak, rising to 2.14 percent in August (though
the unemployment rate was calculated differently compared to the
present, and did not include thousands of rural workers on
Commonwealth financed relief work). Inflation
was also at its highest rate since the early 1950s. The government
recovered slightly in the August Budget session of Parliament,
proposing income tax cuts and increased spending. The
Labor strategy for the run-up to the election was to sit back and allow
the government to make mistakes. Whitlam controversially stated in
March that "draft-dodging is not a crime" and that he would be open to
a revaluation of the Australian dollar. McMahon called a general election for the House of Representatives for 2 December 1972. Whitlam noted that the polling day was the anniversary of the Battle of Austerlitz — at which another "ramshackle, reactionary coalition" had been given a "crushing defeat". Labor
campaigned under the slogan "It's Time", an echo of Menzies' successful
1949 slogan, "It's Time for a Change". Surveys showed that even Liberal
voters approved of the Labor slogan. Whitlam
pledged an end to conscription and the release of individuals who had
refused the draft, an income tax surcharge to pay for universal health
insurance, free dental care for students, and renovation of aging urban
infrastructure. The party was pledged to eliminate university tuition
fees and to the establishment of a schools commission to evaluate
educational needs. The party benefited from the support of the proprietor of News Limited, Rupert Murdoch, who preferred Whitlam over McMahon. Labor
was so dominant in the campaign that some of Whitlam's advisers urged
him to stop joking about McMahon; people were feeling sorry for him. The
election saw the ALP increase its tally by 12 seats, mostly in
suburban Sydney and Melbourne, for a majority of nine in the House of
Representatives. However, the ALP gained little beyond the suburban belts, losing a seat in South Australia and two in Western Australia. Whitlam
took office with a majority in the House of Representatives, but
without control of the Senate (elected in 1967 and 1970). The Senate at
that time consisted of ten members from each of the six states, elected
by proportional representation. The ALP parliamentary caucus chose the ministers, but Whitlam was allowed to assign portfolios. A
caucus meeting could not be held until after the final results came in
on 15 December. In the meantime, McMahon would remain caretaker Prime
Minister. Whitlam,
however, was unwilling to wait that long. On 5 December, once Labor's
win was secure, Whitlam had the Governor - General, Sir Paul Hasluck swear him in as Prime Minister and Labor's deputy leader, Lance Barnard, as Deputy Prime Minister. The two men held 27 portfolios during the two weeks before a full cabinet could be determined. During the two weeks the so-called "duumvirate"
held office, Whitlam sought to fulfill those campaign promises that did
not require legislation. Whitlam ordered negotiations to establish full
relations with the People's Republic of China, and broke those with
Taiwan. Legislation allowed the Minister for Defence to grant exemptions from conscription.
Barnard held this office, and exempted everyone. Seven men were at that time incarcerated for refusing conscription; Whitlam arranged for their freedom. The Whitlam government in its first days re-opened the equal pay case pending before the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission, and appointed a woman, Elizabeth Evatt to the commission. Whitlam and Barnard eliminated sales tax on contraceptive pills,
announced major grants for the arts, and appointed an interim schools
commission. The duumvirate barred racially discriminatory sport teams
from Australia, and instructed the Australian delegation at the United
Nations to vote in favour of sanctions on apartheid South Africa and Rhodesia. It
also ordered home all remaining Australian troops in Vietnam, though
most (including all conscripts) had been withdrawn by McMahon. According
to Whitlam speechwriter Graham Freudenberg, the duumvirate was a
success, as it showed that the Labor government could manipulate the
machinery of government, despite its long absence from office. However,
Freudenberg noted that the rapid pace and public excitement caused by
the duumvirate's actions caused the Opposition to be wary of giving
Labor too easy a time, and led to one post mortem of the Whitlam
government, "We did too much too soon." The
McMahon government had consisted of 27 ministers, twelve of whom
comprised the Cabinet. In the run-up to the election, the Labor caucus
had decided that should the party take power, all 27 ministers
were to be Cabinet members. Intense
canvassing took place amongst ALP parliamentarians as the duumvirate
did its work, and on 18 December the caucus elected the Cabinet. The
results were generally acceptable to Whitlam, and within three hours,
he had announced the portfolios of the cabinet members. To
give himself greater control over the Cabinet, in January 1973 Whitlam
established five cabinet committees (with the members appointed by
himself, not the caucus) and took full control of the cabinet agenda. The Whitlam government abolished the death penalty for Federal crimes. Legal Aid was established, with offices in each state capital. It abolished tertiary school (university) fees, and established the Schools Commission to allocate funds to schools. Whitlam
founded the Department of Urban Development and, having lived in
developing Cabramatta when it was largely unsewered, set a goal to leave no urban home unsewered. The
Whitlam government gave grants directly to local government units for
urban renewal, flood prevention, and the promotion of tourism. Other
federal grants financed highways linking the state capitals, and paid
for standard gauge rail lines between the states. The government
attempted to set up a new city at Albury-Wodonga on the Victoria — New South Wales border. "Advance Australia Fair" became the country's national anthem, in preference to "God Save the Queen". The Order of Australia replaced the British honours system in early 1975. In 1973, the National Gallery of Australia, then called the Australian National Gallery, bought the painting Blue Poles by contemporary artist Jackson Pollock for US$2 million (A$1.3 million at the time of payment) — about
a third of its annual budget. This required Whitlam's personal
permission, which he gave on the condition the price was publicized. The
purchase created a political and media scandal, and was said to
symbolise either Whitlam's foresight and vision, or his profligate
spending. Whitlam travelled extensively as Prime Minister, and was the first Australian Prime Minister to visit China while in office. He was criticised for this travel, especially after Cyclone Tracy struck Darwin; he interrupted an extensive tour of Europe for 48 hours (deemed too brief a period by many) to view the devastation. In February 1973, the Attorney General, Senator Lionel Murphy, led a police raid on the Melbourne office of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation,
which was under his ministerial responsibility. Murphy believed that
the ASIO might have files relating to threats against Yugoslav Prime
Minister Džemal Bijedić, who was about to visit Australia, and feared the ASIO might conceal or destroy them. The
Opposition attacked the Government over the raid, terming Murphy a
"loose cannon". A Senate investigation of the incident was cut short
when Parliament dissolved in 1974. According
to journalist and author Wallace Brown, the controversy over the raid
continued to dog the Whitlam government throughout its term because the
incident was "so silly". From the start of the Whitlam government, the Opposition, led by Billy Snedden (who replaced McMahon as Liberal leader in December 1972) sought to use control of the Senate to balk Whitlam. It did not seek to block all government legislation; the Coalition senators, led by Senate Liberal leader Reg Withers, sought to block government legislation only when the obstruction would advance the Opposition's agenda. The
Whitlam government also had troubles in relations with the states. New
South Wales refused the government's request that it close the
Rhodesian Information Centre in Sydney. The Queensland premier, Joh Bjelke - Petersen refused to consider any adjustment in Queensland's border with Papua New
Guinea, which, due to the state's ownership of islands in the Torres Strait, came within half a kilometre (about one-third of a mile) of the Papuan mainland. Liberal state governments in New South Wales and Victoria were re-elected by large margins in 1973. Whitlam and his majority in the House of Representatives proposed a constitutional referendum in
December 1973, transferring control of wages and prices from the states
to the Federal government. The two propositions failed to attract a
majority of voters in any state, and were rejected by over
800,000 votes nationwide. By
early 1974, the Senate had rejected nineteen government bills, ten of
them twice. With a half-Senate election due by midyear, Whitlam looked
for ways to shore up support in that body. Queensland Senator and
former DLP leader Vince Gair signalled
his willingness to leave the Senate for a diplomatic post. With five
Queensland seats at stake in the half-Senate election, the ALP would
probably win only two, but if six were at stake, the party would most
likely win three. Possible control of the Senate was therefore at
stake; Whitlam agreed to Gair's request and had the Governor - General Sir Paul Hasluck appoint
him Ambassador to Ireland. Word leaked of Gair's pending resignation,
and Whitlam's opponents attempted to counteract his manoeuvre. On what
became known as the "Night of the Long Prawns", Country Party members
secreted Gair at a small party in a legislative office as the ALP
searched for him to secure his written resignation. As Gair enjoyed
beer and prawns, Bjelke - Petersen advised the Queensland Governor, Sir Colin Hannah, to issue writs for only the usual five vacancies, since Gair's seat was not yet vacant, effectively countering Whitlam's plan. With
the Opposition threatening to disrupt supply, or block the
appropriation bills, Whitlam used the Senate's defeat of several bills
twice to trigger a double dissolution election, holding it instead of the half-Senate election. After a campaign featuring the Labor slogan "Give Gough a fair go", the Whitlam government was returned, with its majority in the House of Representatives cut from seven to five. Both Government and Opposition secured 29 seats in the Senate, with the balance of power held by two independents. The deadlock over the twice rejected bills was broken, uniquely in Australian history, with a special joint sitting of the two houses of Parliament under Section 57 of the Constitution. This session, authorised by the new Governor - General, Sir John Kerr, passed bills providing for universal health insurance (known then as Medibank, today as Medicare) and providing the Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory with representation in the Senate, effective at the next election. By mid-1974, Australia was in an economic slump. The 1973 oil crisis had
caused prices to spike, and according to government figures inflation
topped 13 percent for over a year between 1973 and 1974. Part
of the inflation was due to Whitlam's desire to increase wages and
conditions of the Commonwealth Public Service as a pacesetter for the
private sector. The
Whitlam government had cut tariffs by 25 percent in 1973; 1974 saw
an increase in imports of 30 percent and a $1.5 billion
increase in the trade deficit. Primary producers of commodities such as beef were caught in a credit squeeze as short-term rates rose to extremely high levels. Unemployment also rose significantly. Unease within the ALP led to Barnard's defeat when Jim Cairns challenged
him for his deputy leadership. Whitlam gave little help to his
embattled deputy, who had formed the other half of the duumvirate. Despite
these economic indicators, the budget presented in August 1974 saw
large increases in spending, especially in education. Treasury officials had advised a series of tax and fee increases, ranging from
excise taxes to the cost of posting a letter; their advice was mostly
rejected by Cabinet. The
budget was unsuccessful in dealing with the inflation and unemployment,
and Whitlam introduced large tax cuts in November. He also announced
additional spending to help the private sector. Beginning
in October 1974, the Whitlam government sought overseas loans to
finance its development plans, with the newly enriched oil nations a
likely target. Whitlam attempted to secure financing before informing
the Loan Council (which included state officials hostile to Whitlam), and his government empowered Pakistani financier Tirath Khemlani as an intermediary in the hope of securing US$4 billion in loans. While the Loans Affair never resulted in an actual loan, according
to author and Whitlam speechwriter Graham Freudenberg, "The only cost
involved was the cost to the reputation of the Government. That cost
was to be immense — it was government itself." Whitlam
appointed Senator Murphy to the High Court, even though Murphy's Senate
seat would not be up for election if a half-Senate election were held.
Labor then held three of the five short term New South Wales Senate
seats. Under proportional representation, Labor could hold its three
short term seats in the next half Senate election, but if Murphy's seat
were also contested, Labor was unlikely to win four out of six. Thus, a
Murphy appointment meant the almost certain loss of a seat in the
closely divided Senate at the next election. Whitlam appointed Murphy anyway. By convention, senators appointed by the state legislature to fill casual vacancies were from the same political party as the former senator. The New South Wales premier, Tom Lewis felt that this convention only applied to vacancies caused by deaths or ill-health, and arranged for the legislature to elect Cleaver Bunton, former mayor of Albury and an independent. By
March 1975, many Liberal parliamentarians felt that Snedden was doing
an inadequate job as Leader of the Opposition, and that Whitlam was
dominating him in the House of Representatives. Malcolm Fraser challenged Snedden for the leadership, and defeated him on 21 March. Soon
after Fraser's accession, controversy arose over the Whitlam
government's actions in trying to restart peace talks in Vietnam. As
the North prepared to end the civil war, Whitlam sent cables to both
Vietnamese governments, telling Parliament that both cables were
substantially the same. The Opposition contended he had misled Parliament, and a motion to censure Whitlam was defeated along party lines. The
Opposition also attacked Whitlam for not allowing enough South
Vietnamese refugees into Australia, with Fraser calling for the entry
of 50,000. Freudenberg alleges that 1,026 Vietnamese refugees
entered Australia in the final eight months of the Whitlam government,
and only 399 in 1976 under Fraser. However, by 1977, Australia had accepted over five thousand refugees. As the political situation deteriorated, Whitlam and his government continued to enact legislation: The Family Law Act 1975 provided
for no-fault divorce while the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 caused
Australia to ratify United Nations conventions against racial
discrimination that Australia had signed under Holt, but which had
never been ratified. In August 1975, Whitlam gave the Gurindji people of
the Northern Territory title deeds to part of their traditional lands,
beginning the process of Aboriginal land reform. The next month, Australia granted independence to Papua New Guinea. Following the 1974 Carnation Revolution, Portugal began a process of decolonisation and began a withdrawal from Portuguese Timor (later East Timor).
Australians had long taken an interest in the colony; the nation had
sent troops to the region during World War II, and many East Timorese
had fought the Japanese as guerrillas. In September 1974, Whitlam met with Indonesian President, Suharto, in Indonesia and indicated that he would support Indonesia if it annexed East Timor. At
the height of the Cold War and with American retreat from Indo - China,
he felt that if incorporated into Indonesia, the region would be more
stable, and Australia would not risk having the East Timorese FRETILIN movement, which many feared was communist, come to power. Whitlam had offered Barnard a diplomatic post; in early 1975 Barnard agreed to this, triggering a by-election in his Tasmanian electorate of Bass. The election on 28 June proved a disaster for Labor, which lost the seat with a swing against it of 17 percent. The
next week, Whitlam fired Barnard's successor as deputy prime minister,
Cairns, who had misled Parliament regarding the Loans Affair amid
innuendo about his relationship with his office manager, Junie Morosi. At the time of Cairns' dismissal, one Senate seat was vacant, following the death on 30 June of Queensland ALP Senator Bertie Milliner. The state Labor party nominated Mal Colston,
resulting in a deadlock. The unicameral Queensland legislature twice
voted against Colston, and the party refused to submit any alternative
candidates. Bjelke - Petersen finally convinced the legislature to
elect
a low level union official, Albert Field,
who had contacted his office and expressed a willingness to serve. In
interviews, Field made it clear he would not support Whitlam. Field was
expelled from the ALP for standing against Colston, and Labor senators
boycotted his swearing-in. Whitlam
argued that, because of the manner of filling vacancies, the Senate was
"corrupted" and "tainted", with the Opposition enjoying a majority they
did not win at the ballot box.
In
October 1975, the Opposition, led by Fraser, determined to block supply
by deferring consideration of appropriation bills. With Field on leave
(his Senate appointment having been challenged), the Coalition had an
effective majority of 30 – 29 in the Senate. The Coalition believed that
if Whitlam could not deliver supply, and would not advise new elections, Kerr would have to dismiss him. Supply would run out on 30 November. The
stakes were raised in the conflict on 10 October, when the High Court
declared valid the Act granting the territories two senators each. In a
half Senate election, most successful candidates would not take their
places until 1 July 1976, but the territorial senators, and those
filling Field's and Bunton's seats, would assume their seats at once.
This gave Labor an outside chance of controlling the Senate, at least
up until 1 July 1976. On 14 October, Labor minister Rex Connor,
mastermind of the loans scheme, was forced to resign when Khemlani
released documents showing that Connor had made misleading statements.
The continuing scandal confirmed the Coalition in their stance that
they would not concede supply. Whitlam
on the other hand, convinced that he would win the battle, was glad of
the distraction from the Loans Affair, and believed that he would
"smash" not only the Senate, but Fraser's leadership as well. Whitlam told the House of Representatives on 21 October, Whitlam
and his ministers repeatedly warned that the Opposition was damaging
not only the Constitution, but the economy as well. The Coalition
senators tried to remain united, as several became increasingly
concerned about the tactic of blocking supply. As
the crisis dragged into November, Whitlam attempted to make
arrangements for public servants and suppliers to be able to cash
cheques at banks. These transactions would be temporary loans which the
government would repay once supply was restored. Governor - General
Kerr was following the crisis closely. At a luncheon with Whitlam and
several of his ministers on 30 October, Kerr suggested a compromise: if
Fraser conceded supply, Whitlam would agree not to call the half Senate
election until May or June 1976, or alternatively would agree not to
call the Senate into session until after 1 July. Whitlam rejected the
idea, seeking to end the Senate's right to deny supply. On
3 November, after a meeting with Kerr, Fraser proposed that if the
government agreed to hold a House of Representatives election at the
same time as the half Senate election, the Coalition would concede
supply. Whitlam rejected this offer, stating that he had no intention
of advising a House election for at least a year. With the crisis unresolved, on 6 November, Kerr decided to dismiss Whitlam as Prime Minister. Fearing that Whitlam would go to the Queen and have him removed, Kerr did not give Whitlam any hint of what was coming. He conferred (against Whitlam's advice) with High Court Chief Justice Sir Garfield Barwick, who agreed that he had the power to dismiss Whitlam. A
meeting among the party leaders, including Whitlam and Fraser, to
resolve the crisis on the morning of 11 November came to nothing. Kerr
and Whitlam met at the Governor - General's office that afternoon at 1.00
pm. Unknown to Whitlam, Fraser was waiting in an ante-room; Whitlam
later stated that he would not have set foot in the building if he had
known Fraser was there. Whitlam,
as he had told Kerr by phone earlier that day, came prepared to advise
a half Senate election, to be held on 13 December. Kerr instead told Whitlam that he had terminated his commission as Prime Minister, and handed him a letter to that effect. After the conversation, Whitlam returned to the Prime Minister's residence, The Lodge,
had lunch and conferred with his advisers. Immediately after his
meeting with Whitlam, Kerr commissioned Fraser as caretaker Prime
Minister, on the assurance he could obtain supply and would then advise
Kerr to dissolve both houses for election. In
the confusion, Whitlam and his advisers did not immediately tell any
Senate members of the dismissal, with the result that when the Senate
convened at 2.00 pm, the appropriation bills were rapidly passed, with
the ALP senators assuming the Opposition had given in. The bills were soon sent to Kerr to receive Royal Assent.
At 2.34 pm, ten minutes after supply had been secured, Fraser rose in
the House and announced he was Prime Minister. He promptly suffered a
series of defeats in the House, which instructed the Speaker, Gordon Scholes, to advise Kerr to reinstate Whitlam. By the time Kerr received Scholes, Parliament had been dissolved by proclamation. Kerr's Official Secretary, David Smith came to Parliament House to
proclaim the dissolution from the front steps. A large, angry crowd had
gathered, and Smith was nearly drowned out by their noise. He concluded
with the traditional "God save the Queen". Former Prime Minister
Whitlam, who had been standing behind Smith, then addressed the crowd: Well
may we say "God save the Queen", because nothing will save the
Governor - General! The Proclamation which you have just heard read by
the Governor - General's Official Secretary was countersigned Malcolm
Fraser, who will undoubtedly go down in Australian history from
Remembrance Day 1975 as Kerr's cur. They won't silence the outskirts of
Parliament House, even if the inside has been silenced for a few
weeks ... Maintain your rage and enthusiasm for the campaign for
the election now to be held and until polling day. As
the ALP began the 1975 race, it seemed that its supporters would
maintain their rage. Early rallies saw huge crowds, with attendees
handing Whitlam money to pay election expenses. The crowds greatly
exceeded those in any of Whitlam's earlier campaigns; in Sydney,
30,000 partisans gathered for an ALP rally in The Domain below a banner: "Shame Fraser Shame". Fraser's
appearances saw protests, and a letter bomb sent to Kerr was defused by
authorities. Instead of making a policy speech to keynote his campaign,
Whitlam made a speech attacking his opponents and calling 11 November
"a day which will live in infamy". Polls
from the first week of campaigning showed a nine point swing against
Labor. Whitlam's campaign disbelieved the results at first, but
additional polling were clear: the electorate was turning against the
ALP. The Coalition attacked Labor for economic conditions, and released
television commercials including "The Three Dark Years" showing images
from Whitlam government scandals. The ALP campaign, which had
concentrated on the issue of Whitlam's dismissal, did not address the
economy until its final days. By that time Fraser, confident of
victory, was content to sit back, avoid specifics and make no mistakes. On
election night, 13 December, the Coalition enjoyed the largest victory
in Australian history, winning 91 seats to the ALP's 36, and
taking a 37 – 25 majority in the Senate in a 6.5 percent swing
against Labor. Whitlam stayed on as Opposition Leader, defeating a leadership challenge. In
early 1976, an additional controversy broke when it was reported that
Whitlam had been involved in ALP attempts to raise $500,000 during the
election from the pre-Saddam Hussein government of Iraq. No money had actually been paid, and no charges were filed. The Whitlams were visiting China at the time of the Tangshan earthquake in July 1976, though they were staying in Tianjin, 90 miles away from the epicentre. The Age printed a cartoon by Peter Nicholson showing
the Whitlams huddled together in bed with Margaret Whitlam saying, "Did
the earth move for you too, dear?" This cartoon prompted a page full of
outraged letters from Labor partisans and a telegram from Gough
Whitlam, safe in Tokyo, requesting the original of the cartoon. In early 1977, Whitlam faced a leadership challenge from his final Treasurer, Bill Hayden, and won by a two-vote margin. Fraser called an election for 10 December, and though Labor gained slightly, the Coalition still enjoyed a majority of 48. According
to Freudenberg, "The meaning and the message were unmistakable. It was
the Australian people's rejection of Edward Gough Whitlam." Whitlam's son Tony, who had joined his father in the House of Representatives at the 1975 election, was defeated. Shortly after the election, Whitlam resigned as party leader and was succeeded by Hayden. Whitlam was made a Companion of the Order of Australia in June 1978, and
resigned from Parliament on 31 July of the same year. He took various
academic positions, and when Labor was restored to power under Bob Hawke in 1983, Whitlam was appointed Ambassador to UNESCO,
based in Paris. He served for three years in this post, defending
UNESCO against allegations of corruption. In 1985, he was appointed to
Australia's Constitutional Commission. Whitlam was appointed chairman of the National Gallery of Australia in 1987, after his son Nick (then managing director of the State Bank of New South Wales) turned it down. In 1995, Gough and Margaret Whitlam were part of the bid team which was successful in getting the International Olympic Committee to host the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. Kerr died in 1991; he and Whitlam never reconciled. However, Whitlam and Fraser have put aside their differences, campaigning together in support of the 1999 referendum which would have made Australia a republic. In
March 2010, Fraser visited Whitlam at his Sydney office while on a book
tour to promote his memoirs. Whitlam accepted an autographed copy of
the book, and presented Fraser with a copy of his 1979 book about the
dismissal, The Truth of the Matter. In 2003, Mark Latham became
the leader of the ALP. Although Latham was more conservative than
Whitlam, the former Prime Minister gave Latham much support, according
to one account "anointing him as his political heir". Latham, like Whitlam, represented Werriwa in the House of Representatives. Whitlam supported Latham when he opposed the invasion and occupation of Iraq, despite Prime Minister John Howard's warning that Latham risked endangering an alliance with the United States. Labor narrowly lost the 2004 election and Latham resigned from the House of Representatives the following year. Whitlam
has been a supporter of fixed four year terms for both houses of
Parliament. In 2006, he accused the ALP of failing to press for this
change. In
April 2007, Gough and Margaret Whitlam were made life members of the
Australian Labor Party. This was the first time anyone had been made a
life member at the national level of the Party organisation. In 2007, Whitlam testified at an inquest into the death of Brian Peters, one of five Australia based TV personnel killed in East Timor in
October 1975. Whitlam indicated that he had warned Peters' colleague,
Greg Shackleton (who was also killed) that the Australian government
could not protect them in East Timor, and that they should not go
there. The former Prime Minister also alleged that Shackleton was
"culpable" if Shackleton had not passed on Whitlam's warning. Whitlam joined three other former Prime Ministers in February 2008 in returning to Parliament to witness the Federal Government apology to the Aboriginal Stolen Generations by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. On 21 January 2009, Whitlam achieved a greater age (92 years, 195 days) than any other Prime Minister of Australia, surpassing the previous record holder Frank Forde. The
Whitlams have now been married for more than two-thirds of a century.
On the 60th anniversary of their marriage, Gough Whitlam called it
"very satisfactory" and claimed a record for "matrimonial endurance". In
2010, it was reported that Gough Whitlam had moved into an aged care
facility in Sydney's inner east in 2007. However, the former Prime
Minister goes to his office three days a week. Margaret Whitlam remains
in the couple's nearby apartment. Now
well into his nineties, Whitlam remains well remembered for the
circumstances of his dismissal. It is a legacy he has done little to efface; he wrote a 1979 book, The Truth of the Matter (the title is a play on that of Kerr's 1978 memoir, Matters for Judgment) and devoted part of his subsequent book, Abiding Interests, to the circumstances of his removal. According
to journalist and author Paul Kelly, who penned two books on the
crisis, Whitlam has "achieved a paradoxical triumph: the shadow of the
dismissal has obscured the sins of his government". More books have been written about Whitlam, including his own writings, than about any other Australian prime minister. According to Whitlam biographer Jenny Hocking,
for a period of at least a decade, the Whitlam era was viewed almost
entirely in negative terms, but that has changed. Still, she feels that
Australians take for granted programs and policies initiated by the
Whitlam government, such as recognition of China, legal aid, and
Medicare. Ross
McMullin, who wrote a book on the history of the ALP, notes that
Whitlam remains greatly admired by many Labor supporters because of his
efforts to reform Australian government, and because of inspiring
leadership. Wallace Brown describes Whitlam in his book about his experiences covering Australian Prime Ministers as a journalist: Whitlam
was the most paradoxical of all prime ministers in the last half of the
20th century. A man of superb intellect, knowledge, and literacy, he
yet had little ability when it came to economics ... Whitlam
rivalled Menzies in his passion for the House of Representatives and
ability to use it as his stage, and yet his parliamentary skills were
rhetorical and not tactical. He could devise a strategy and then often
botch the tactics in trying to implement that strategy ... Above
all he was a man of grand vision with serious blind spots. |