GOUGH WHITLAM

Party

Having led the Labor Party to office after 23 years in the political wilderness, Whitlam pursued his reform agenda with unrestrained urgency. In 1973, the Minister for Labour Clyde Cameron raised concern about the faltering economy. Whitlam responded, ‘What would an ex-shearer know about the economy?’ and Cameron retorted, ‘As much as an ex-classical Greek scholar.’

The capacity of Cabinet to advance reform was inhibited by the caucus decision that all 27 ministers should be in Cabinet; there was to be no inner and outer ministry. Following the double dissolution election in May 1974, party tension increased as the government lurched from crisis to crisis. Rex Connor, Minister for Minerals and Energy, and known for his flamboyant infrastructure schemes, convinced caucus to support his unorthodox plan to raise $4 billion from a Pakistani businessman for mining and energy projects. This became the infamous Loans Affair and led ultimately to the sacking of Connor by Whitlam.

Lance Barnard was defeated by Jim Cairns for the deputy leadership after the election, and was given a diplomatic post by Whitlam against the advice of many in the party. This resulted in a by-election routing for Labor in his Tasmanian seat of Bass in June 1975. Cairns also became embroiled in allegations of an inappropriate relationship with Junie Morosi his private secretary. Accumulating scandals, combined with faltering administration, created an atmosphere of chaos and the opposition blocked supply bills in October 1975. This led to a constitutional crisis, an election and a change of government. 

Partnerships

In his 1972 election policy speech, Whitlam made a commitment to finance sewerage services to all Australian households by 1978. He had first hand knowledge of this issue from his own Western Sydney electorate, where many households remained without this service. In July 1969, Whitlam gave a lecture titled ‘An Urban Nation’ and, with trademark wit, stated ‘Half the population of Brisbane and a quarter of the population of Sydney still live and work in premises which are unsewered. Liberals neglect sewerage services because they are a socialist undertaking. We are the most effluent nation in what Liberals call the free world.’ 

Soon after assuming office, Whitlam implemented the $330 million National Sewerage Program. Veteran press gallery journalist Wallace Brown recalled being asked to Whitlam’s office in February 1975 to witness a document. Whitlam said, ‘Comrade Joh and I have this historic agreement to sign and we need a witness. It’s St Valentine’s Day and this is a sweetheart agreement on sewerage.’ As requested, Brown added his signature to the Commonwealth-Queensland Sewerage Agreement below those of Whitlam and Bjelke-Petersen. Over a seven year period, the program reduced the number of properties in Australian capital cities without sewerage by around 30 per cent.  

People

Whitlam was often a guest speaker at migrant community events and attended naturalisation ceremonies while in opposition and as the prime minister. He was a staunch supporter of multiculturalism and had criticised some of his predecessors for having upheld an Anglophile mindset in a rapidly changing post-war Australia.

On 31 August 1974, Whitlam gave a speech in Melbourne to the committee organising Italian Week celebrations. Whitlam said, ‘It is fitting that we should honour the largest and the oldest of the European migrant communities in Australia. With the exception of the British, no migrant is more accepted, more respected or more admired than the Italian.’ Whitlam added that the first Italians on Australian soil had sailed with Captain James Cook on the Endeavour and that the Italian community in Australia was now over a quarter of a million people.

In his speech, Whitlam highlighted a number of policy achievements in relation to immigration including family reunion, portable pension rights, standardised citizenship requirements and the establishment of migrant education centres in capital cities. Whitlam connected migrant welfare to his wider social policies arguing, ‘Labor’s concern for migrants is a continuing concern. It flows from our whole social philosophy. It is not something discovered only at election time.’

Publications

Wallace Brown, Ten Prime Ministers: life among the politicians, Longueville Books, Sydney, 2002

Graham Freudenberg, A certain grandeur: Gough Whitlam in politics, Macmillan, South Melbourne, 1977

Jenny Hocking, Gough Whitlam: His Time: The Biography: Volume II, The Miegunyah Press, Carlton, 2012

Paul Kelly, The dismissal: Australia’s most sensational power struggle: the dramatic fall of Gough Whitlam, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1983

Clem Lloyd, Edward Gough Whitlam, 3 December 1972 – 11 November1975, in Michelle Grattan (ed.), Australian Prime Ministers, New Holland Publishers, Sydney, 2000   

Laurie Oakes, Whitlam PM, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1973

James Walter, The leader: a political biography of Gough Whitlam, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, 1980

Gough Whitlam, Speech by the Prime Minister to the Italian Committee of Coordination for the Launching of Italian Week, Melbourne, August 31, 1974

Gough Whitlam, The Whitlam Government 1972 – 1975, Viking, Ringwood, 1985