Venerating Whitlam?

The Labor party was in opposition for 23 years before winning government in 1972. Labor won power from the dysfunctional conservative administration of Billy McMahon.

Straight after the election, Whitlam and his deputy Lance Barnard took control of all the ministries and, using regulation, significantly changed the political landscape in the space of a couple of weeks. Being 16 going on 17, one change I strongly recollect was the halting of military conscription. Some others were, according to fact-index.com and the ALP website, the banning of sporting teams to South Africa, negotiations on recognising China and commissioning enquiries into Aboriginal land rights.

Later, Whitlam's government created Medibank, a universal health care system (recreated by a future Labor government as Medicare), the Trade Practices Act, to regulate business and competition, and the Familly Law Act, which overhauled the laws on familly and divorce. These are landmark pieces of legislation that exist today.

Whitlam founded the Australian National Gallery. He abolished appeals to the Privy Council, changed the status of the Queen to "Queen of Australia," and set up an Australian honours system.

After such a long period of conservative rule, the actions of the new Labor government seemed very radical to an electorate unused to change. None of changes seem particularly bold today, but they were at the time.

The opposition parties, who controlled the Senate, resisted "tooth and nail" the passing of these laws, laws that are now accepted by the mainstream conservative side of politics.

While Whitlam's government enacted the groundbreaking laws discribed above, they behaved like a rabble and were beset by controversy and scandal. Although Whitlam's term in office coincided with a global economic downturn brough on by the 'oil shocks' of the period, his government's management of the economy was woeful. Their standing in the electorate fell to the point where an opportunistic opposition took the unprecidented step of blocking the government's supply bills in the Senate. The dismissal is history. The conservatives were elected in 1976.

At the time, I didn't appreciate the reforms introduced by the Whitlam government. At my first voting election, I, like most people, voted against the government. It's only now that I realise just how much that four years during the 70s permanently changed the country.

Whitlam's government was extraordinary because it pushed through so much radical (at the time) legislation in such a short period. Whether he deserves the veneration he receives is arguable. That his government was the most influential in the second half of the twentieth centuary, is not.