The Whitlam Legacy


Book Description

Cover image: Gough Whitlam addresses a crowd outside Parliament House on the day after his government was dismissed, on 12 November 1975. Source: News Limited © Ross Duncan.The election of the Whitlam government in 1972 marked a turning point in 20th century Australia. Shaking off the vestiges of two decades of conservative rule, Gough Whitlam brought new ideas, new policies and new people to the task of governing.Bursting with energy and expectation, the Labor government led a reform revolution in many areas, from education and health to the environment and foreign policy. But alongside the great achievements were great failures and, ultimately, great tragedy when the government was dismissed.For the first time, Gough Whitlam, ministers, advisers, public servants, party and union insiders provide a unique account of this turbulent period in Australian politics. They reveal what worked and what didn't, and shed light on the personalities driving the engines of change.The candid views of insiders are balanced with analysis from journalists and academics. The book also includes new research and previously unpublished photos and archival documents. The Whitlam Legacy provides the definitive account of the government that changed Australia forever."This book really is a great work of scholarship. It is a primer for anyone interested in politics or interested in carving out a career in politics. To get these people to write about the Whitlam government is a real tribute to Troy Bramston. From now on, nobody will be able to write about the Whitlam government without consulting The Whitlam Legacy." Bob CarrThe Whitlam Legacy in the Paper...Kerr's word play masked his reasons behind Whitlam's dismissal Read full article...Parting words for the party Gough loves Read full article...Gough Whitlam duumvirate's whirlwind of change Read full article...Gough changed us and saved ALP Read full article...Labor must heed Whitlam and not waste this chance to reform Read full article...Whitlam's legacy resonates today-Shorten Read full article...Gough Whitlam 'a stroke of luck' for the lucky country Read full article...Abandon doubt Read full article...Gough in stereo Read full article...The Whitlam Legacy Launch on TV...Channel 7 News Watch report...Channel 9 News Watch report...The Whitlam Legacy (Troy Bramston/Contributors) on Radio...Troy Bramston on Radio National with Fran Kelly Listen to full interview...Troy Bramston on Radio National with Fran Kelly Watch interview...Troy Bramston on 2UE with Paul Murray Listen to full interview...Bob Carr on 4BC with Ian Skippen and Donna Lynch Listen to full interview...The Whitlam Legacy Alerts...Abbey's Bookshop: The Whitlam Legacy tops bestseller, Non-Fiction list of the week Click to view... Frank Bongiorno's chapter online, Inside Story: Whitlam, the 1960s and The Program Click to read...




Unholy Fury


Book Description

In the early 1970s, two titans of Australian and American politics, Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and President Richard Nixon, clashed over the end of the Vietnam war and the shape of a new Asia. A relationship that had endured the heights of the Cold War veered dangerously off course and seemed headed for destruction. Never before—or since—has the alliance sunk to such depths. Drawing on sensational new evidence from once top-secret American and Australian records, this book portrays the bitter clash between these two leaders and their competing visions of the world. As the Nixon White House went increasingly on the defensive in early 1973, reeling from the lethal drip of the Watergate revelations, the first Labor prime minister in twenty-three years looked to redefine ANZUS and Australia's global stance. It was a heady brew, and not one the Americans were used to. The result was a fractured alliance, and an American president enraged, seemingly hell bent on tearing apart the fabric of a treaty that had become the first principle of Australian foreign policy.




The Palace Letters


Book Description

What role did the queen play in the governor-general Sir John Kerr's plans to dismiss prime minister Gough Whitlam in 1975, which unleashed one of the most divisive episodes in Australia's political history? And why weren't we told? Under the cover of being designated as private correspondence, the letters between the queen and the governor-general about the dismissal have been locked away for decades in the National Archives of Australia, and embargoed by the queen potentially forever. This ruse has furthered the fiction that the queen and the Palace had no warning of or role in Kerr's actions. In the face of this, Professor Jenny Hocking embarked on a four-year legal battle to force the Archives to release the letters. In 2015, she mounted a crowd-funded campaign, securing a stellar pro bono team that took her case all the way to the High Court of Australia. Now, drawing on never-before-published material from Kerr's archives and her submissions to the court, Hocking traces the collusion and deception behind the dismissal, and charts the private role of High Court judges, the queen's private secretary, and the leader of the opposition, Malcolm Fraser, in Kerr's actions, and the prior knowledge of the queen and Prince Charles. Hocking also reveals the obstruction, intrigue, and duplicity she faced, raising disturbing questions about the role of the National Archives in preventing access to its own historical material and in enforcing royal secrecy over its documents.




Gough Whitlam


Book Description

This moment was not his alone, nor could it ever have come about without himaGough Whitlam turned to Graham Freudenberg, touched him lightly on the shoulder, saying, 'It's been a long road, Comrade, but we're there', and walked out to meet the spotlight... Acclaimed biographer Jenny Hocking's Gough Whitlam: A Moment in History is the first contemporary and definitive biographical study of the former Labor Prime Minister. From his childhood in the fledging city of Canberra to his first appearance as Prime Minister (playing Neville Chamberlain), to his extensive war service in the Pacific and marriage to Margaret, the champion swimmer and daughter of Justice Wilfred Dovey, the biography draws on previously unseen archival material, extensive interviews with family and colleagues, and exclusive interviews with Gough Whitlam himself. Hocking's narrative skill and scrupulous research reveals an extraordinary and complex man, whose life is, in every way, formed by the remarkable events of previous generations of his family, and who would, in turn, change Australian political and cultural developments in the twentieth century. Gough Whitlam: A Moment in History is a magnificent biography that illuminates the path that took one man to power.




Gough Whitlam: His Time


Book Description

Gough Whitlam, Australia’s twenty-first prime minister, swept to power in December 1972, ending twenty-three years of conservative rule. It was an ascendancy bitterly resented by some, never accepted by others, and ended with dismissal by the Governor-General barely three years later—an outcome that polarised debate and left many believing the full story had not been told.In this much anticipated second volume of her biography of Gough Whitlam, Hocking has used previously unearthed archival material and extensive interviews with Gough Whitlam, his family, colleagues and foes, to bring the key players in these dramatic events to life.Who was ‘the third man’ who counselled the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, in his decision to sack the twice-elected Whitlam government and appoint Malcolm Fraser as prime minister? How much did the Palace know about what was happening? And what drove the Kerr to take the unprecedented action of removing an elected government from office?This definitive biography takes us behind the political intrigue to reveal a devastated Whitlam and his personal struggle in the aftermath of the dismissal, during the unfulfilled years that followed and his eventual political renewal as Australia’s ambassador to UNESCO. And of course, through the highs and the lows of his decades of public life Whitlam depended absolutely on the steadfast support of the love of his life, Margaret. For this is also the story of a remarkable marriage and an enduring partnership.The truth of this tumultuous period in Australia’s history is finally revealed in this engaging narrative—Gough Whitlam: His Time.




Abiding Interests


Book Description

When he became Prime Minister in December 1972 Gough Whitlam was the first Labor Prime Minister for 23 years. Within days he had abolished conscription, withdrawn the remaining Australian troops from Viet Nam, negotiated diplomatic relations with China and initiated Federal aid to State and church schools and land rights for Aborigines. In this new book, completed after his 80th birthday, Whitlam reviews his career, examines the repercussions of the US withdrawal from Viet Nam and the Portuguese withdrawal from Timor in 1975 and the break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. He discusses the decline of the Hawke Government, the rise and fall of Paul Keating and the resuscitation of John Howard. And he speculates about the future of our nation, and propounds the case for a Federal Republic.




The Latham Diaries


Book Description

Here are the political diaries of one of Australia's most promising national leaders—published within twelve months of his resignation from office—an historic first. The Latham Diaries are searingly honest bulletins from the front line of Labor politics. They provide a unique view into the life of a man, the Party and the nation at a crucial time in Australian history. Mark Latham resigned from parliament in January 2005, after only fourteen months as Leader of the Opposition, amid bitter post-election recrimination and his own ill health. From the beginning of his career he was viewed by many observers as the ALP's resident intellectual and larrikin, the great hope of a new generation with the drive and talent to become prime minister. So why did his career end so abruptly? As The Latham Diaries reveal, the rising tide of public cynicism about politics, the cult of celebrity, the dangerous liaison between politics and the media, and the sickness at the heart of the Labor machine all played their part. As did Latham's own errors, as he candidly records in these diaries. This is a riveting chronicle of life inside politics: the backroom deals, the frontroom conniving, the bitter defeat of idealism and the triumph of opportunism. The Latham Diaries is not just the story of the Labor Party in the last years of the twentieth century and the early twenty-first century, but a sobering account of the state of Australian democracy 100 years after Federation.




The Truth of the Matter


Book Description

On Remembrance Day, 1975, the Governor-General of Australia, Sir John Kerr, sacked the Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam. The Dismissal was the culmination of almost three years of political conflict, as Whitlam's reforming Labor government rammed home overdue legislative reforms in the face of implacable, and increasingly bitter, conservative opposition. The focus of the Opposition's scheming was the Senate, where its leaders blocked supply in order to force a political crisis. Whitlam, famous for his 'crash through or crash' style, refused to compromise with his political enemies. After consulting secretly with the Opposition Leader, Malcolm Fraser, and the Chief Justice, Sir Garfield Barwick, Kerr abruptly informed the PM that he had withdrawn his commission. Half an hour later, Kerr swore Fraser in as 'caretaker Prime Minister'. At an election a month later, the conservatives were returned to office. Controversy and recrimination followed. Many Australians, including Whitlam himself, believed he had been the victim of a coup. In 1979, he published his own account of the events of 1975, The Truth of the Matter, an instant best seller. Out of print for many years, it is republished by MUP on the thirtieth anniversary of the Dismissal, with a new introduction by the author and other new reference material. Passionate, pithy, learned, witty, and vigorously combative, The Truth of the Matter tells the extraordinary political story of the only Prime Minister of Australia ever deposed from office.




The Whitlam Legacy


Book Description

The election of the Whitlam government in 1972 marked a turning point in 20th century Australia. Shaking off the vestiges of two decades of conservative rule, Gough Whitlam brought new ideas, new policies and new people to the task of governing.Bursting with energy and expectation, the Labor government led a reform revolution in many areas, from education and health to the environment and foreign policy. But alongside the great achievements were great failures and, ultimately, tragedy when the government was dismissed.For the first time, Gough Whitlam, ministers, advisers, public servants, party and union insiders provide a unique account of this turbulent period in Australian politics. The candid views of insiders are balanced with analysis from journalists and academics. They reveal what worked and what didn't, and shed light on the personalities driving the engines of change.It includes Whitlam's "valedictory" message to the nation - his last public statement before his death in 2014. This revised edition includes a new preface by the editor, Troy Bramston, reflecting on Whitlam's death, his final years and two decades of conversations with him.The book also includes new research and previously unpublished photos and archival documents. The Whitlam Legacy provides the definitive account of the government that changed Australia forever. * Click here for information about The Whitlam Legacy 2013 with DUST JACKET __________________________________________________The Whitlam Legacy in the Paper...Gough's first day: let the fight begin Read full article...A PM with his gaze firmly on the future Read full article...What the mandarins made of Gough Whitlam's government Read full article...




The Whitlam Mob


Book Description

“We were a motley mob, we sans-culottes of Canberra …” In this vastly entertaining book, Mungo MacCallum captures the spirit of a nation-changing time. He portrays the Whitlam government’s key figures – from Gough and Margaret to Lionel Murphy, Bill Hayden and Jim Cairns – as well as “the other mob” in opposition – Billy McMahon, John Gorton, Malcolm Fraser and many more. The Whitlam Mob addresses some crucial questions: What was the night of the long prawns? Who was the playboy of the parliament? And who was “the toe-cutter”? This is Mungo at his best: vivid and barbed, nostalgic but always clear-eyed.