THE headline history of the 1993 federal election sounds simple enough.
1993
The ‘unlosable’ election
The incumbent, but unelected, prime minister Paul Keating calls an election (“March 13 showdown”, The Australian trumpeted on Page 1), loses one televised encounter (“Hewson wins debate”, February 15), beats his opponent in a second (“Keating wins debate”, March 8), and gets over the line on election day (“Keating triumph”, March 15).
But headlines alone do not tell the story. The five-week campaign was anything but straightforward. Even its genesis was odd.
The federal campaign was called the day after Labor’s Carmel Lawrence, Australia’s first female premier, and also unelected, lost the West Australian election to the Liberals led by Richard Court, who would rule the state for eight years as his father, Sir Charles, had done.
Quickly digesting the details of that Saturday night, Labor heavyweights concentrated on two sets of figures and four federal seats.
Labor’s WA vote had fallen 4.9 per cent but the Liberal vote had risen only 2.35 per cent. The Australian reported that on the face of it that meant the ALP would certainly lose the federal WA seats of Stirling and Cowan, and would likely lose Canning and Swan, the latter held then by Kim Beazley.
Labor’s view was that without the burden of the WA Inc corruption scandals, it could win those last two seats in a federal election. There was a positive in this loss.
The nation’s commentators and pollsters agreed: this election would almost certainly be won by John Hewson
The outlook for the ALP was still poor, to say the least. Nonetheless, with Labor behind in the polls, the country in recession and more than a million Australians out of work — the greatest number since the Depression — Keating the next day asked the governor-general, his former parliamentary colleague Bill Hayden, to dissolve the House of Representatives and half the Senate.
Unlosable election
The economic landscape appeared to make it unlosable. The weekend before the election was called, Newspoll had the opposition five points in front. A week later it was more than eight points ahead. What could possibly go wrong?
But The Australian’s editor-in-chief and former longstanding national affairs editor Paul Kelly thought the notion of an unlosable election was “dangerous”. “There was a strong expectation that there would be a change of government,” he said, adding that even Labor thought as much.
The Hewson campaign would be based on his modified Fightback! package of personal tax cuts, changes to Medicare and a goods and services tax.
Cabinet papers released last year revealed how committed Keating, as Bob Hawke’s treasurer, had been to a 12.5 per cent consumption tax, but resistance to the idea at the 1985 tax summit frightened Labor off.
Hewson’s proposed tax was 15 per cent and, apart from a few exclusions, looked the same. But now, according to Keating, such a tax was absurd and unfair, would cost jobs and was unworkable.
The cake
Labor worked on unsettling the electorate about the Liberals’ GST. In the end it was Hewson who undid it all: A Current Affair’s Mike Willesee asked him about how the GST would be applied to a birthday cake. The election was 10 days off and Hewson was still five points clear.
Hewson confused Willesee, and every Australian viewing that night, talking about whether sales taxes would apply, and the role of decorations — “because there’ll be sales tax, perhaps, on some of the decorations”.
“I need to know exactly what kind of cake to give a detailed answer,” Hewson said.
“If it’s just a cake from a cake shop …” he went on for a painful minute and 45 seconds.
The Australian reported that Monday that Hewson “dumped the GST yesterday as the price for saving his own leadership”.
Kelly said the electorate was “nervous about Hewson and his sweeping change agenda and Keating was able to run an effective scare”.
As it had gambled, Labor lost the seats of Stirling and Cowan, but won Canning and Swan.
1993: "A victory for the true believers"0:43
Having replaced Bob Hawke as Labor leader, Paul Keating wins the 1993 election, a feat he described as "the sweetest victory of all".
Shane Warne
There was another unlikely victory, on June 4, and it changed the face of Australian sport.
At Old Trafford on day two of the first Ashes Test a young Melbourne cricketer developing his then out-of-favour leg spin technique was brought in to bowl to the rotund but pugnacious former England captain Mike Gatting.
Gatting could handle spin. But the young Shane Warne, with the first ball of his first Ashes over, sent down what became known as the Ball of the Century.
It was unplayable, as Gatting discovered, looking back to see his clipped-off stump shedding its bail. It marked the end of the era of pacemen — who had been dominant since the 1970s — bowling fast deliveries at the end of a long run-up.
Writing in The Australian, Alan Lee saw immediately the significance of the delivery; Warne went on to take eight wickets in a man-of-the-match performance.
“Shane Warne is among us, and already, the England batsmen have betrayed themselves as transparently as schoolboys who have failed to study for their exams,” he wrote. “A single delivery cannot win a series, but very few, down the years, have had the psychological effect of Warne’s first ball of the Ashes.”
Shane Warne
Young Shane Warne, with the first ball of his first Ashes over, sent down what became known as the Ball of the Century.
In colour
Australia won the Ashes 4-1. Warne was man of the series. All England could do now, urged Lee, was “pick their own, equally underrated leg spinner, Ian Salisbury”. Ian who?
The big change to The Australian during the 1990s was the introduction of full colour printing, as colour presses were introduced around the country. The Review section of The Weekend Australian went to colour in March 1992 and its use expanded into the main paper gradually from 1993.
Great Australians
Two great Australians passed away this year — both surgeons, but apart from a perhaps unique nobility, that might be all they had in common. The Australian’s Cameron Forbes had conducted the last interview with Fred Hollows, the New Zealand-born 1990 Australian of the Year.
Hollows’ vision-saving work among Aboriginal communities and in Nepal, Eritrea and Vietnam, where he trained locals to perform eye surgery and encouraged the manufacture of low-cost lenses, is reputed to have restored the sight of more than a million people. So far.
Forbes revealed that the knockabout Hollows — “profane, poetic, roaring, reflective” — was unchanged despite his increasing celebrity status.
Discussing a professional colleague, Hollows said: “She didn’t have a bad arse, but she had a face like Popeye’s girlfriend!”
When Edward “Weary” Dunlop, the hero of Hellfire Pass, died The Australian published on Page 1 a beautiful tribute written by former Labor minister Tom Uren, who had been imprisoned with Dunlop on the Burma Railway. “He was the tallest tree in the forest. He was a light and a beacon of hope in those dark days of 1943-44 on the Burma-Thailand Railway to so many of his fellow prisoners of war,” Uren wrote. “Might I speak to young Australians about this beautiful, skilled, courageous person … ”
Another brave Australian died at the end of the year. Born just 11 years earlier, Eve van Grafhorst had been infected with HIV during a blood transfusion at birth. Fearful local parents had her banned from preschool, worried she might pass on her illness. Eventually allowed to attend, she had to wear a face mask at all times. Still, other parents thought she should leave town.
The Grafhorsts moved to Hastings in New Zealand, where they and their ailing daughter were welcomed and where she died.
We still had a lot to learn.
Man of the year
Eddie Mabo is named this newspaper’s Australian of the Year on January 26, and the “other” Australian of the Year is Mandawuy Yunupingu. But the more things change … less than a year earlier, the Yothu Yindi frontman was refused service at a bar in St Kilda. And two decades later, his blind nephew Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu will be denied a taxi after a gig in the same Melbourne suburb.
Music to her ears
Jane Campion becomes the first female film director in history to win the Palme d’Or at Cannes. Her 19th century romantic drama The Piano, starring Holly Hunter, will also pick up three 1994 Oscars, including Best Supporting Actress for a gobsmacked 11-year-old Anna Paquin.
A hero home
“Requiescat in pace,” we write after The Unknown Solider is finally laid to rest at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra – the first and only remains of a Digger to return from the Western Front. “There you are mate, you’re back where you came from,” WWI veteran Robert Comb says as he throws soil from the French battlefield of Pozieres onto the coffin.
Tech heads
“Is this the world’s smallest cellular phone?” “How safe are portable phones?” “Mobiles go mass market” … gosh, one day we might all boast a portable blower smaller than Maxwell Smart’s shoe. Oh, and another headline from 1993: “Tabloid TV – way of the future?”
Waco
Eighty-six people die in an inferno at a compound belonging to the Branch Davidian cult near Waco, Texas, after an FBI raid goes tragically wrong. The blaze, in which cult leader David Koresh also dies, ends a seven-week standoff with federal agents.
R.I.P ACP
After 1058 episodes, quite a few check-ups and several Fatso the Wombats, A Country Practice is axed by the Seven Network. Who cares, we cry: it was never the same after Molly Jones died.
The journey begins...
CONCEIVED as a newspaper ‘of intelligence, of broad outlook’, the national daily was born into a revolution.
Come the revolution
AS BABY boomers came of age, the Menzies government made a fateful error that galvanised youthful dissent.
The road to innovation
NEW technology helped the Canberra-based national daily overcome some major challenges.
The road to recovery
IN A turbulent year, the national newspaper’s relocation to Sydney brought immediate results.
Year of wonder and despair
A HEAD-SPINNING series of events changed our lives forever – and sent correspondents on a magic carpet ride.
The greatest show on Earth
ARGUABLY the biggest story of last century, the moon landing also marked the beginning of a new era for print journalism.
Turning up the heat
AS THE cry for social reform grew louder The Australian developed its own strong voice.
Leadership ping-pong
AS ITS cartoonists and writers lampooned PM John Gorton and his successor William McMahon, The Australian’s editor found himself in a difficult position.
Time for a change
LABOR’S campaign jingle reflected a true seismic shift in public opinion, and Rupert Murdoch heard the call.
All the world’s a stage
THE arts enjoyed a renaissance in both the nation and The Australian, which boasted an A-team of journalists.
Spinning out of control
THE Australian supported Whitlam’s Labor, but signs were emerging the government was losing its grip.
On a slippery path to the cliff
THE Australian nailed its colours to the mast in 1975.
Post-Dismissal blues
THE Australian bled in 1976 amid accusations of bias, but there was plenty to report at home and abroad.
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.
Heeding the front page
IN his third year as editor, Les Hollings’s campaign influenced the Fraser government’s tax policies.
Bye to a decade of tumult
BY 1979 Australia’s great post-war decade of change was coming to a close.
Rationalism takes hold
THE world began a new era of reform in 1980.
Shots ring out from afar
INTERNATIONAL assassination attempts and royal nuptials grabbed the headlines while Australia waited for reforms.
A near-death experience
DISAGREEMENTS between management and staff almost killed off the paper then edited by Larry Lamb.
Afloat in a sea of change
DECISIONS made in 1983 put the nation on the road to globalisation, rebuilt its economic foundations and redefined the way we lived and worked.
Power to the individual
GLOBAL trends turned out to be rather different from those envisaged in Orwell’s dystopian novel.
Older, wiser, and no longer out of pocket
THE Australian was in black for the first time as it turned 21, and a period of prosperity lay ahead.
Farewell to Fleet Street
KEN Cowley was a key strategist in the landmark relocation of Rupert Murdoch’s London operations to Wapping.
Joh aims high, falls low
THE market crashed amid political upheaval.
Bicentennial and beyond
IT WAS a time for fun but also introspection.
A new epoch takes shape
SOVIET communism became a thing of the past as the decade ended.
Hold the front page ...
WOMEN take the reins of power in two states and political prisoner Nelson Mandela walks free.
The Kirribilli showdown
BOB Hawke and Paul Keating jostled for power, while Iraq’s Saddam Hussein invited the wrath of the world.
The landscape diversifies
EDDIE Mabo took the fight for Aboriginal land rights to the High Court and won.
No cakewalk for Hewson
JOHN Hewson flubs his chances in the ‘unlosable’ election, but Shane Warne doesn’t miss any in the Ashes.
Death of a campaigner
JOHN Newman’s assassination rang a bell, and Henry Kissinger pulled no punches in his Nixon obituary.
An end and a beginning
AS the last of the political old guard passed on, the Liberals prepared for a return to power after 12 years.
Rebirth in deadly times
THE Port Arthur massacre prompted new prime minister John Howard to launch a crackdown on guns.
Bougainville showdown
THERE were mercenaries in PNG, a sex scandal in parliament, and the accidental death of a princess in Paris.
Status quo under threat
WHILE we debated monarchism, industrial relations and the GST, unrest in Indonesia spurred Suharto’s exit.
The republic can wait
AUSTRALIANS didn’t want a president they couldn’t vote for, while Y2K loomed as an impending catastrophe.
Sorry before the Games
RECONCILIATION got short shrift from a scandalised PM but the Sydney Olympics lifted everyone’s mood.
World struck by tragedy
GEORGE W. Bush took over, Osama bin Laden unleashed terror, and the Don proved to be mortal after all.
Blood and tears in Bali
ISLAMIST terror left a deep scar in Australia’s neighbourhood, and we bade farewell to the Queen Mother.
Where there is smoke…
THE year began with the federal capital in flames, then the war on Iraq began. And a governor-general quit.
Playing their last innings
STEVE Waugh retired, David Hookes died and Mark Latham exposed his wickets in the year of the tsunami.
Not what they seemed
TONY Abbott almost found a son, the ALP lost another leader, and an old foe gave Sir Joh a state funeral.
He shall not be moved
THE AWB scandal and Peter Costello’s dummy-spit leave John Howard standing, but Kim Beazley bows out.
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
TWO searing tragedies marked the start of the year; by the end of it, Tony Abbott headed the shadow cabinet.
Suddenly, Julia steps in
KEVIN Rudd’s demise at his deputy’s hands was brutal and swift, but it was preceded by a string of Labor woes.
The nastiest deluge of all
NATURE and the Wivenhoe Dam were exceptionally unkind to Queensland the year we hosted Barack Obama.
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.
