Whitlam clocked up ten years as ALP leader on February 8, 1977.
He would not make it to eleven years. In December 1977, he was defeated for the second time by the Liberal leader, Malcolm Fraser. Whitlam relinquished the leadership and left the Parliament in 1978.
However, on his 10th anniversary as leader, the ABC’s This Day Tonight looked at his leadership of the party through the eyes of a cartoonist, Jeff Hook, and Whitlam’s speechwriter and confidante, Graham Freudenberg.
In the aftermath of the Gair Affair, the Coalition opposition announced that they would block the passage of the Whitlam government’s appropriation bill in the Senate.
A half-Senate election had already been called for May 18 but on the evening of April 9 speculation centred on whether Whitlam would call a double dissolution election. He eventually announced a double dissolution on April 10.
In the House of Representatives on April 9, the Liberal Party’s Jim Killen jousted with the Minister for Administrative Affairs, Fred Daly, in the debate on the Appropriation Bill.
Audio of the final edition of This Day Tonight in December 1973. A review of the events of the Whitlam Government's first year, it includes Smacka Fitzgibbon singing The Adventures of Edward Gough Whitlam.