WHEN The Australian celebrates its 50th anniversary at a black tie function in Sydney next month, the guest of honour will be Prime Minister Tony Abbott. Thirty-seven years ago, in 1977, when he sprang to prominence through The Australian’s pages, few would have been willing to predict his rise to the top of Australian politics.
1977
Tony Abbott takes first steps on national stage
But Les Hollings, then the editor of The Australian, was struck by the 19-year-old law and economics student’s audacity and drive and his passionate campaign against compulsory unionism and predicted Abbott would have a profound influence on national life.
Who is Abbott?
Hollings was attracted to Abbott’s brand of politics because its narrative fitted perfectly into the agenda Hollings was pushing in his editorials. A migrant from the UK, he was deeply opposed to the excessive use of union power and constantly argued against allowing unionism of the style that crippled Fleet Street to get a hold in Australia.
I was publisher of The Australian at the time, more interested in getting circulation and advertising revenue up, but I clearly recall Hollings’ enthusiastic embrace of the radical conservative intent on busting the Left’s control of university politics.
The 1977 Australian Union of Students annual conference was a riotous affair, to be recalled more than three decades later by David Marr in his Quarterly Essay article which alleged Abbott had intimidated Sydney University Representative Council president Barbara Ramjan by putting his face close to hers and punching the wall on either side of her head.
Les Hollings, then the editor of The Australian, was struck by the 19-year-old law and economics student’s audacity and drive and his passionate campaign against compulsory unionism and predicted Abbott would have a profound influence on national life.
The story Abbott told in The Australian in January 1977 was quite different. He insisted he was the one being threatened. Under the headline “I ACCUSE – Phony student thugs use spit and abuse to create terror,” Abbott told of fearing for his safety as he was confronted by a group of unruly Maoists carrying beer bottles.
Abbott had led a right-wing ticket at SRC elections and had two delegates at the conference. But the ultra-Left also had two delegates and the automatic addition of the campus SRC secretary, a Left-winger, meant the bloc vote of the five-person delegation denied the Abbott team a voice. In his article Abbott complained of the “cynical manipulation of democratic forms to undemocratically deny expression of a large body of opinion,” and observed that the “conference was gaily decked with gaudy Maoist flags and communist slogans”, with some delegates wearing badges “cheerfully urging the ‘smashing’ of Fraser and the shooting of Kerr.”
Granville train disaster
In Sydney a commmuter train crashed into a bridge at Granville and 83 died in the nation’s worst rail disaster.
“Books on sale covered everything one always wanted to know about abortion, street fighting, subverting universities, indoctrinating the young and homosexuality,” he wrote.
Don Chipp
Don Chipp quit the Liberal Party and set up his splinter group, the Democrats, with the declared aim of “keeping the bastards honest”.
Abbott’s account of campus politics sparked a strong reaction and Hollings devoted a full page to responses under the heading “So who is Abbott?” The political tyro had made his first mark. Hollings later hired Abbott as a leader writer, but his time as an employee of The Australian was short-lived.
Democrats born
The year 1977 was a watershed in politics. Don Chipp, hero of the censorship battle, quit the Liberal party and set up his splinter group, the Democrats with the declared aim of “Keeping the bastards honest.” They were influential until 2007.
In Sydney a commmuter train crashed into a bridge over the railway line at Granville and 83 died in the nation’s worst rail disaster. Anti-drugs campaigner Donald Makay disappeared in Griffith and soon after the Woodward inquiry into drug trafficking opened in NSW.
1977: Granville rail disaster0:15
On January 18 a commuter train derailed in Granville, Sydney, killing 83 people. It is Australia's worst rail disaster.
Sir John Kerr resigned as governor general and Treasurer Phillip Lynch was forced from his job as Treasurer following allegations of financial impropriety. In a December election, brought on early by Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, Labor under Gough Whitlam was soundly defeated. An era ended as Whitlam resigned and was replaced by Bill Hayden who conceded he had a massive task ahead rebuilding Labor.
Kerry Packer
Kerry Packer launched World Series Cricket.
Cricket circus
Elsewhere, the game of cricket was changed forever. Six weeks after Australia beat England in the Centenary Test – by the same 45-run margin achieved in the first Test in 1877 – Kerry Packer stunned the sporting world by announcing World Series Cricket, a carnival of one day games played by men in multi-coloured pyjama suits that The Australian dubbed a “circus.” The story was nearly spiked by The Australian’s dubious Sunday editor because he didn’t believe it would be possible for Packer to buy an Australian Test team.
1977 was also a watershed year for The Australian which was losing an average $100,000 a week during 1976 and 1977. In my first year as publisher we made a profit just once when we produced a 32-page defence supplement and were in the black to the tune of $25,000 for the week. But annual losses of $5 million nearly brought apoplexy to those in management who continued to question the viability and worth of the project.
Several board members and managers of News Limited’s outposts that were carrying the losses were agitating for an end to the bleeding. The leading doubters were chairman Ken May and his former Adelaide colleague Frank Shaw who could not see the benefit in carrying on. Ken Cowley, then production manager and a veteran of the first days in Canberra, argued against them but was often a lonely voice.
Rupert Murdoch was spending long periods in London, building the News of the World and The Sun and generating large profits – enough to underpin his commitment to The Australian. He rarely intervened in business or editorial matters, but we knew the pressure was on.
Weekend Australian
Les Hollings says in his National Library oral history that it was his idea to create The Weekend Australian. I’ll grant that he did propose a revamp of the Saturday Australian but there was more to the decision than simply rebadging the Saturday edition.
Hollings wanted to substantially lift the editorial content of the Saturday edition – a move that would have added to costs. But Ken May grasped the proposal when it was put to him that a weekend edition, beefed up and on sale for two days, could be an insurance proposition.
With our demoralising losses and constant speculation about closure, a plan to build the Saturday edition into a big-read week-in-review publication could allow The Australian’s name to live on in the event that it was decided to close the Monday to Friday editions.
With our demoralising losses and constant speculation about closure, a plan to build the Saturday edition into a big-read week-in-review publication could allow The Australian’s name to live on in the event that it was decided to close the Monday to Friday editions.
May and Shaw, willing to play the long game, supported the project and Hollings and I worked feverishly with the editorial team to produce a newspaper that looked fresh and different while projecting gravitas and authority.
The first Weekend Australian was published on July 2, 1977. Sales of 187,000 were high enough to be encouraging – and they grew. Most new publications settle back after their launch curiosity sales, but within months the Woz had broken through the 200,000 sales mark and was on its way to 300,000-plus within the decade. Better, it began to attract large amounts of advertising from careers agencies anxious to exploit its national coverage. The national newspaper was doing its job, filling a viable and profitable niche. As the advertising grew, so did the number of editorial pages and the quality of their content.
Instead of being the insurance policy against closure, The Weekend Australian became the financial driver for the Monday-Friday editions. It did more than keep the name – it kept The Australian alive.
The student warrior
I accuse by Tony Abbott, ran the headline on the feature page on January 29, echoing Emile Zola. Abbott, then a 19-year-old economics and law student at Sydney University and elected delegate to the Australian Union of Students conference, let rip against the “student thugs who used spit and abuse to create terror” (to quote the rest of the headline). The article drew a heated response from other conference participants published a few days later under the heading “So who is Abbott?” We have the answer.
All us possums
Dame Edna was off to Broadway and as a parting shot rewrote the alphabet for the Weekend Australian. A was for the ABC whose shows were “a must in my home and I always insist the family watch them while I keep myself alert brewing the black coffee and distributing no-doze tablets”. V was for Valium, “the only word Australian doctors can spell”. And Z was for Xenophobia – “I think the word means ‘love of Australia’.”
Cost of retirement
It was calculated at $166,208 to fund a decent lifestyle until your dying days.
Off the wall
After Gough’s extravagance with Blue Poles, the Fraser government wasn’t going there when the National Gallery in Canberra proposed buying Georges Braque’s Grand Nu for $1.5 million. The Australian proposed a national appeal to raise the money but the dollars that trickled in didn’t do the job and a masterpiece was lost to these shores. Meanwhile, the NGA had better luck with 25 Sidney Nolan paintings, the core of the Ned Kelly collection, donated by art identity Sunday Reed.
The journey begins...
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Time for a change
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On a slippery path to the cliff
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A tyro makes his mark
WHEN The Australian celebrates its 50th anniversary at a function next month, the guest of honour will be Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
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IN his third year as editor, Les Hollings’s campaign influenced the Fraser government’s tax policies.
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Power to the individual
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Joh aims high, falls low
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A new epoch takes shape
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Hold the front page ...
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An end and a beginning
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The republic can wait
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Sorry before the Games
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Blood and tears in Bali
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Where there is smoke…
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Not what they seemed
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He shall not be moved
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Scene set for a knockout
KEVIN07 proved too hot for John Howard, and a ‘terror suspect’ turned out to be just a doctor on a 457 visa.
Balm for a nation’s soul
THERE was practical and symbolic progress on the indigenous front in the year we lost Hillary and Utzon.
Shock, horror, disbelief
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Suddenly, Julia steps in
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The nastiest deluge of all
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It’s the whole dam truth
QUEENSLAND’S political landscape is transformed, and we farewell two doughty Australian women.
Clash course in politics
THREE PMs starred in our longest election year.
The next half century beckons
WHATEVER the future of curated news, The Australian is determined to build on its achievements.
