First Among Equals Read online

  In the lead-up to the 1949 election, the Country Party formed a coalition with Menzies’ Liberal Party. When Menzies then became prime minister, McEwen was appointed minister for commerce and agriculture, a position he held until 11 January 1956, when he became minister for trade. During this time he worked tirelessly to stabilise Australia’s primary industries. He was also a key figure in negotiating Australia’s international trade agreements with Britain and Japan, earning himself the nickname ‘Black Jack’.

  On Fadden’s retirement on 26 March 1958, McEwen became both Country Party leader and deputy prime minister under the Menzies and Holt coalition governments. As deputy prime minister when Holt disappeared, McEwen became the country’s third caretaker prime minister. With the Liberal Party the stronger coalition partner, McEwen worked quickly to blackball William McMahon, Holt’s most likely successor, announcing that he would break the coalition if McMahon took office. John Gorton was then elected as the new Liberal Party leader and became prime minister in 1968.

  Under Gorton, McEwen served as the minister for trade. Following Gorton’s poor performance and the Coalition’s near defeat in the October 1969 election, McEwen eventually lifted his veto on McMahon. In 1971 at the age of 70, McEwen retired from parliament. He then lived quietly on his property at Stanhope with his second wife Mary Byrne, whom he married in 1968 after Anne died, until his death almost ten years later on 20 November 1980.

  SIR JOHN GREY GORTON

  HE DID IT HIS WAY

  TERM

  10 January 1968-10 March 1971

  Sir John Grey Gorton, Australia’s nineteenth prime minister, was a larrikin in every sense of the word. A World War II fighter pilot with an adventurous spirit, Gorton was a nationalist and centralist who insisted on doing it his way until the bitter end. When he concluded that the coalition government could not survive under his leadership, he fell on his own sword and voted himself out of office.

  Even in his birth Gorton was courted by controversy. The illegitimate child of John Rose Gorton and Alice Sinn, he was born in Melbourne on 9 September 1911. However, even this is uncertain as the Victorian registry office’s records show only a ‘John Alga Gordon’ born in Prahran on this day and lists the father as ‘John Robert Gordon’. When Gorton was seven, his mother died. With his father returning to his wife, Gorton became a boarder at Sydney’s Shore and Victoria’s Geelong Grammar schools.

  After working briefly for his father on his orchard farm at Kerang in northern Victoria, Gorton went to Britain to study at Oxford University. While at university, he joined the university squadron and gained his flying licence. On a vacation to Spain in 1944 he met Bettina Brown, an eighteen-year-old American, whom he married the following year. Graduating with a Master of Arts, Gorton returned with Bettina to work the family orchard after his father’s death in 1936.

  Following the outbreak of war, Gorton enlisted with the Royal Australian Air Force in 1940. He then spent four years serving as a fighter pilot in Britain, Malaysia and New Guinea. Gorton survived two serious aircraft crashes, the first of which inflicted severe facial injuries requiring extensive reconstructive surgery. Although left permanently disfigured, he was eventually discharged in 1944.

  On his return to his property, Gorton entered local government becoming a member of the Kerang Shire Council in 1946, and, eventually, Shire president in 1949. While originally joining the Country Party, he later switched to the Liberal Party and after an unsuccessful attempt to enter state parliament, was then elected as a Liberal senator in late 1949. Gorton then spent nine years on the backbench, before Robert Menzies made him the minister for the navy, where he set about modernising and expanding the navy’s fleet.

  In early 1964 he was promoted to the minister for works and the minister assisting the prime minister in Commonwealth activities in education. After Harold Holt’s disappearance just before Christmas 1967, Gorton eventually became prime minister. The Country Party, headed by John McEwen, who had been appointed caretaker prime minister, ruled out serving under William McMahon, then deputy prime minister, because of long-held animosity. In the final ballot to decide the successor, Gorton defeated Paul Hasluck whom Menzies had favoured. Gorton was thus appointed prime minister on 10 January 1968.

  While initially very popular, Gorton was soon at loggerheads with his own party. Ignoring the primus inter pares principle, he exerted his power, making decisions without consulting his cabinet. He increased Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War; he interfered with McMahon’s budgets; and he alienated the state premiers with his centralist attitudes that saw the federal government take over the responsibility of offshore mineral rights. A reputed womaniser, he further damaged his reputation by becoming embroiled in public scandals and was criticised for his over-reliance on his young secretary, Ainsley Gotto.

  With the government losing vital ground in the 1969 election, Gorton’s party soon turned against him and openly challenged his leadership. On 10 March 1971 when a motion of no confidence was moved against him and the vote became tied at 33-33, Gorton, rather wisely, voted himself out of office. McMahon was elected leader and became prime minister.

  Gorton remained deputy leader and was given the defence portfolio vacated by Malcolm Fraser, who had resigned in protest while serving under Gorton. When Gorton later wrote a number of articles for the Sunday Australian defending his decisions, McMahon accused him of breaching cabinet solidarity and demanded his resignation. Gorton then remained on the backbench until 1975 when he left the party to contest, unsuccessfully, the Senate for the Australian Capital Territory.

  Following the death of his wife Bettina in 1983, Gorton later married Nancy Home on 24 July 1993. In July 1999 he was re-admitted to the Liberal Party at the federal council’s gala dinner. He was last seen in public celebrating his ninetieth birthday in Sydney on 7 September 2001. Gorton then died on 19 May 2002 in St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney at the age of 91.

  SIR WILLIAM MCMAHON

  ‘TIBERIUS ON THE TELEPHONE’

  TERM

  10 March 1971-5 December 1972

  Dubbed ‘Tiberius on the telephone’ by Gough Whitlam, Sir William McMahon had coveted the position of prime minister for years. His persistence, while drawing criticism and creating enemies, eventually paid off in March 1971 when he was elevated to the country’s top job following Gorton’s controversial departure.

  The son of a successful lawyer, McMahon, born in Sydney on 23 February 1908, enjoyed the prosperity of inherited family wealth. His early years, however, were overshadowed by the death of both his parents. Raised by his uncle, Samuel Walder, McMahon was schooled at Abbotsholme and Sydney Grammar schools. He then attended the University of Sydney, reading economics and law. After graduating he worked for the legal firm Allen, Allen and Hemsley, eventually making partner.

  Buoyed by his inherited wealth, McMahon easily rode out the Great Depression, enjoying frequent trips overseas. When World War II broke out he enlisted in the army; however, because of a hearing problem, he never saw active service. Nonetheless, he rose to the rank of major before his discharge in 1945. After the war, McMahon spent eighteen months travelling abroad, before returning to university to study economics.

  McMahon then sought and won Liberal Party preselection for the seat of Lowe at the 1949 federal election. Thus, at the age of 41, he entered parliament as one of the ‘forty-niners’ swept to power with Robert Menzies. His dedication and ambition were rewarded in 1951 when Menzies appointed him minister for navy and air, and then the minister for social services in 1954.

  McMahon’s scrupulous attention to detail and his single-minded determination irritated other ministers. This was never more evident than when in 1956 McMahon, the very essence of an urbane aristocrat, was appointed the minister for primary industry. In his usual fastidious manner, McMahon studied the needs of the rural community and was so successful in the position that Arthur Fadden and John McEwen demanded that the portfolio be returned to the Country Party
. In 1958 Menzies conceded and McMahon was moved to the portfolio of labour and national service.

  After more than a decade in parliament, and despite his rise through the ranks, McMahon remained unpopular. The dapper ageing bachelor cut an odd figure in such a conservative establishment. Then, in 1965, at the age of 57, McMahon shocked the nation when he married Sonia Hopkins, a Sydney socialite who was 24 years his junior.

  When Harold Holt succeeded Menzies as prime minister on 26 January 1966, McMahon was elected deputy leader of the parliamentary Liberal Party and was given the treasury portfolio. As deputy leader it was expected that McMahon would become prime minister following Holt’s disappearance in December 1967. However, Country Party leader John McEwen refused to serve under him and threatened to withdraw from the coalition if McMahon was appointed prime minister. McMahon begrudgingly stood aside and John Gorton was handed the prime-ministership.

  McMahon suffered further humiliations, with Gorton interfering with his budgets and then transferring him into foreign affairs. He, however, triumphed in 1971 when Gorton lost a no-confidence vote and McMahon was elected leader of the Liberal Party and consequently prime minister.

  McMahon tried to distance himself from Gorton’s legacy, however the tide of public opinion was turning and with the war in Vietnam dragging on, the Labor Party, with Gough Whitlam at the helm, was rapidly gaining strength. McMahon came across as indecisive and weak. With the economy in a downturn he tabled a deflationary budget in 1971, but a year later he reversed his decision, issuing a ‘spending’ budget. Then on an official visit to the White House in 1971, McMahon was lampooned by the media as an ineffective speaker and was overshadowed by the revealing outfit his wife wore to a state dinner.

  McMahon was outperformed by Whitlam’s ‘It’s Time’ campaign in the build-up to the 1972 election, and after 23 years of unbroken coalition rule the Labor Party finally swept into power. While defeated, McMahon, who was knighted in 1977, continued as a member of federal parliament until 1982. In his retirement he fought a long battle with cancer, but eventually succumbed to the disease in Sydney on 31 March 1988.

  CHAPTER 5

  MULTICULTURALISM AND NATIONAL IDENTITY (1972-2015)

  When Whitlam’s Labor government came to power in 1972, Australians were indeed ready for a change. With Australia enduring as a virtual one-party state for 23 years, Whitlam’s ascendancy marked a return to the two-party system. While the country has since see-sawed between Labor and Liberal, the overriding concern for each government from Whitlam through to Fraser, Hawke, Keating and Howard has been the issue of multiculturalism and its impact on the Australian national identity.

  Following World War II the notion of ‘prosper or die’ consumed the still young country. Bound by the discriminatory White Australia policy, immigrants were only sought from European countries. Whitlam, however, opened the gates to Asian immigration. He also supported land rights for Aboriginal people, establishing the Department of Aboriginal Affairs. While opening the country’s eyes to multiculturalism, he simultaneously instituted a number of economic reforms, including lowering tariffs, that provoked a savage backlash and ultimately saw him dismissed.

  The legacy of Whitlam’s dismissal tainted the legitimacy of Fraser’s Liberal government. Fraser, however, continued Whitlam’s policy of multiculturalism, establishing the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) aimed specifically at non-English-speaking immigrants in Australia, legislating sweeping reforms to Aboriginal land rights and broadening Asian immigration.

  Under the Hawke and Keating Labor governments the policy of multiculturalism, and subsequently nationalism, was further extended. In 1984 ‘Advance Australia Fair’ was proclaimed Australia’s national anthem and Ayers Rock was handed back to its indigenous owners and renamed Uluru. Then, in the early 1990s, native title passed into Australian law, enabling indigenous people to claim traditional land rights. What is more, Keating, in particular, worked to realign Australia strategically and economically with its Asian neighbours.

  Under Howard, however, multiculturalism experienced something of a roller-coaster ride. Despite opposition, his government refused to formally apologise on behalf of the Commonwealth for its past policy of removing Aboriginal children from their families. However in 1999 Howard reversed the long-standing Australian policy of accepting the Indonesian incorporation of East Timor, sending in troops as part of a UN peacekeeping force. Yet, while he then committed Australian troops to the ‘war on terror’ following the attacks of 11 September 2001, Howard acted ruthlessly against refugees fleeing Iraq and Afghanistan, refusing them entry into Australia.

  EDWARD GOUGH WHITLAM

  DISMISSED BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

  TERM

  5 December 1972-11 November 1975

  The first Labor prime minister for 23 years, Edward Gough Whitlam swept to power in 1972 on a wave of optimism and idealism. Yet barely three years later his term ended abruptly when he was dismissed by the governor-general on 11 November 1975, sparking outrage around the nation.

  Whitlam was born in Melbourne on 11 July 1916. He was the eldest of two children of Martha and Frederick Whitlam, a federal public servant who served as crown solicitor for the Commonwealth. Whitlam attended primary school in Sydney and secondary school in Canberra before enrolling at the University of Sydney in 1935, where he completed an arts degree.

  Following the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor, Whitlam enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force. In April 1942 he married Margaret Dovey, the daughter of a prominent judge. Six weeks later Whitlam was stationed to Gove in the Northern Territory, where he served as a navigator for much of the war. While in service he campaigned for Labor in the 1944 referendum to give the Commonwealth wider post-war reconstruction powers.

  Discharged in 1945, Whitlam returned to Sydney where he joined the Darlinghurst branch of the Labor Party. He then completed a law degree, and was admitted to the Bar in 1947. In 1950, he unsuccessfully contested the seat of Sutherland in the state elections, though in 1952, he won the federal seat of Werriwa in a by-election.

  In 1959 Whitlam was elected to the caucus executive and the following year became the Labor Party deputy under Arthur Calwell. Whitlam’s relationship with Calwell was uneasy and the two men clashed on state aid and the war in Vietnam. However, after Calwell lost to Harold Holt in the November 1966 elections, Whitlam succeeded him as the opposition leader in February 1967.

  A formidable campaigner, Whitlam came close to victory against John Gorton in the 1969 elections, falling only four seats short of a majority. With the Coalition buckling after a marathon 23 years in power, in December 1972 Whitlam, who had campaigned on the slogan ‘It’s Time’, won the election and the primeministership.

  Once in office Whitlam embarked on a sweeping program of social reforms, introducing free tertiary education, universal health care, equal pay for women, assistance for Aboriginal communities and increased funding for the arts. He also ended conscription, abolished the death penalty, and eradicated the last traces of the White Australia policy. In addition, Whitlam resumed diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China after 24 years, becoming in 1973 the first prime minister to visit the country.

  While Whitlam’s Labor government was making steady progress, its legislative program met constant resistance in the Senate. In April 1974 a double dissolution was triggered after the Senate’s repeated rejection of bills to set up Medibank. Labor was returned to power, but with a reduced majority.

  Whitlam continued his program of reform but was soon entangled in a number of controversies. The ‘Loans Affair’ in which several of Whitlam’s ministers, including Rex Connor and Dr Jim Cairns, secretly attempted to raise US$4 billion in foreign loans and then misled parliament about their activities was particularly damaging. While both ministers were subsequently sacked, opposition leader Malcolm Fraser used the situation to his advantage to force an early election, but to no avail.

  In October 1975 Fraser took the divisiv
e step of blocking the passage of the government’s budget bills, exploiting a narrow majority in the parliamentary Upper House. Whitlam, however, refused to call a general election. For almost a month, parliament was deadlocked. Finally, on 11 November the governorgeneral, Sir John Kerr, stepped in and dismissed the Whitlam government.

  Whitlam’s ‘dismissal’ provoked public outrage and was immortalised by Whitlam’s response to an assembled crowd on the steps of Parliament House: ‘Ladies and gentlemen, well may we say God Save the Queen, because nothing will save the governor-general.’ Fraser was appointed as caretaker prime minister and won the subsequent election by a landslide.

  Whitlam stayed on as opposition leader for two years and then retired to the backbench until 1978 when he resigned from parliament. Despite the controversy, Whitlam remained a leading figure in the Labor Party. In 1999 he campaigned together with his old enemy Fraser on the referendum regarding Australia becoming a republic. Since 2000 Whitlam helped develop the Whitlam Institute at the University of Western Sydney and in November 2005 donated his letter of dismissal and his ‘It’s Time’ campaign speech to its archives. Margaret, his wife of nearly 70 years died on 16 March 2012 at the age of 92. Whitlam’s own health had deteriorated and he died in a nursing home at Elizabeth Bay in Sydney on 14 December 2014, aged 98. A state funeral at Sydney Town Hall was televised nationally.

  JOHN MALCOLM FRASER

  THE CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD

  TERM

  11 November 1975-11 March 1983

  Australia’s twenty-second prime minister, John Malcolm Fraser will long be remembered for the extraordinary manner in which he came to power following the dismissal of the Whitlam government. Despite his progressive policies, Fraser – who earned the nickname ‘Chairman Mal’ for his brusque style of leadership–was never able to escape the dark shadow the controversy cast over his prime-ministership.