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Posts published in “Whitlam Government”

The Age: “Go now, go decently”

October 15, 1975

Around the nation on October 15, 1975, many newspapers editorialised against the Whitlam government.

Later the same day, Malcolm Fraser announced that the Opposition would block the Budget with the aim of forcing the removal of the government.

It is now known that Fraser talked with newspaper editors prior to October 15.

The editorial in The Age is the most well-known. The newspaper’s editor, Graham Perkin, died the following day, at age 45.

The Age

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Text of editorial in The Age, Wednesday, October 15, 1975.

Go now, go decently

We will say it straight, and clear, and at once. The Whitlam Government has run its course; it must go now, and preferably by the honorable course of resignation – a course which would dispel all arguments about constitutional proprieties, historic conventions and “grabs” for power. It must go because it no longer has the degree of public support and acceptance that permits Governments to govern effectively. There are now too few people who will accept its policies, no matter how virtuous or commendable those policies may be. The Government is discredited. If integrity in government means anything, if competence in government is important, resignation would be the decent and responsible final step for a Government so haunted by the ghosts of its past follies that no current proclamations of good intentions, of rising hopes can dispel the furies.

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Rex Connor Resigns As Loans Affair Delivers Fraser’s “Reprehensible Circumstances”

October 14, 1975

Rex Connor, the Minister for Minerals and Energy, resigned from the Whitlam ministry on October 14, 1975.

Connor’s resignation was sought by Prime Minister Gough Whitlam after revelations in the Melbourne Herald newspaper that Connor had continued to seek overseas loans through the Pakistani intermediary Tirath Khemlani.

Connor’s behaviour constituted misleading parliament. In doing so, Connor had caused Whitlam to also mislead parliament.

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Gurindji Land Ceremony

August 16, 1975

In 1966, Aboriginal stockmen went on strike at Wave Hill station in the Northern Territory.

Under the leadership of a Gurindji man, Vincent Lingiari, the strikers set up camp at Wattie Creek. Over time, the industrial dispute with the Vestey family turned into a demand for land rights.

Nine years later, in 1975, the Whitlam Government resolved the dispute and title to the land was granted to the Gurindji people.

During the ceremony to grant the land title, Whitlam symbolically poured sand into Lingiari’s hand.

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Loans Affair: Special One-Day Sitting

Loans Affair: Special One-Day Sitting

July 9, 1975

Gough Whitlam recalled the House of Representatives from its winter recess for a one-day sitting to debate the Overseas Loans Affair.

The sitting took place on July 9, 1975, two days before Whitlam’s 59th birthday.

The morning newspapers around the country on July 9 were uniformly bad for the government. In South Australia, the Labor Premier Don Dunstan, facing an election three days later, attacked the Whitlam government. Dunstan suffered a 5.3% two-party swing, lost three seats and survived by forming a minority government.

Australian

Amidst this tense atmosphere, the sitting of the House began at 2.30pm and continued until the adjournment at 10.09pm.

Proceedings began with the announcement of the return of the writ for the Bass by-election. Following the ousting of Lance Barnard as Deputy Prime Minister, he was appointed Ambassador to Sweden, Norway and Finland, a by-election was held to replace him in his Tasmanian electorate. A 14.3% swing to the Liberals saw Labor lose the seat with just 39.7% of the two-party-preferred vote. Malcolm Fraser was entitled to believe he could now win a general election.

The sitting then offered condolences for Queensland ALP Senate Bert Milliner, who had died on June 30. Milliner’s death allowed Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen to further alter the balance of power in the Senate by the appointment of a non-Labor replacement, Albert Patrick Field. Earlier in the year, following the appointment of the Attorney-General, Senator Lionel Murphy, to the High Court, the NSW government of Premier Tom Lewis had also refused to appoint a Labor replacement.

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