Fascinating portrait of the Whitlam years

AFTER leading Labor to power at the 1972 election, Gough Whitlam wasted no time getting down to business.

Gough Whitlam and Bob Hawke

AFTER leading Labor to power at the 1972 election, Gough Whitlam wasted no time getting down to business. Within days he formed a duumvirate government with his deputy, Lance Barnard, and together they made major decisions across almost all areas of government.

Amid these energetic first days of the new government, Whitlam still found time to savour his victory.

A week after the election, Whitlam and 300 Labor supporters headed to a 200ha property near Dural, northwest of Sydney, for what this newspaper called one of Australia's biggest parties. The guests dined on suckling pig and roast turkey, downed champagne and the finest South Australian wines. Bob Hawke, then ACTU president, attended, as did then SA premier Don Dunstan, NSW Labor leader Pat Hills and the new first lady of Australia, Margaret Whitlam.

Sim Rubensohn, a long-time Labor adviser from the advertising agency Hansen-Rubensohn-McCann-Erickson, forked out $2500 for the nosh-up. He was one of the creative minds behind Labor's "It's Time" election strategy.

The memory of this party has faded into history. Although it is not mentioned in the second volume of Jenny Hocking's biography of Whitlam, it is during these salad days of the Whitlam government that she continues the story.

Whitlam is not the first prime minister to be the subject of a two-volume biography. He joins Robert Menzies, Billy Hughes and Alfred Deakin in this select class. Blanche d'Apulget's 1982 biography of Hawke was recently companioned with a second volume addressing his prime ministerial years.

Not that the subject in question needed two volumes to measure his stature in the firmament of our political history. The razzle, dazzle, crash nature of the Whitlam years is reason enough. He led a larger than life government of significant achievement that nevertheless remains snap-frozen in public memory by its dismissal on Remembrance Day 1975.

Whitlam's role in transforming Labor is also important. The 1972 election victory was Labor's first since 1946. Before the victory, however, was the crusade: internal reform of the party to dilute the power of the so-called faceless men and a renovation of Labor's largely moribund policy platform.

Hocking's first volume concluded on November 13, 1972. It was the night of Whitlam's "It's Time" campaign launch speech, delivered in the western Sydney suburb of Blacktown and beginning with the immortal words: "Men and women of Australia!"

The second volume returns to the story on the evening of December 2 - election night. There is only a cursory mention of the election campaign. Given it was a campaign that propelled Labor to power, surely it was worth retelling. It also gave birth to the modern election campaign: professional advertising, market research, using television to its full potential, targeting seats, professional candidate training and on-the-ground organising. Labor secured a narrow victory with a swing of 2.5 per cent and a parliamentary margin of nine seats.

Understandably, Hocking is itching to steer the narrative towards the work of the government. There is not an area of policy that she does not faithfully describe and analyse, often with fascinating anecdotes to furnish the storyline.

The strength of this book is that while the focus is on Whitlam, Hocking carefully weaves into the biography a number of other viewpoints and ancillary information to keep it fresh and interesting, as she chronicles the great achievements alongside the great tragedies.

In documenting the creation of Medibank, the shift to needs-based schools funding, the abolition of university fees, the diplomatic recognition of China, independence for Papua New Guinea, or the key legal reforms such as abolishing the death penalty, lowering the voting age to 18 years, or one vote, one value electoral reforms, Hocking draws on extensive research.

The forces arrayed against the government are well covered, from a hostile Senate and conservative premiers to the public service, the media and a deteriorating economy. It provides a more critical evaluation of Whitlam's failings than the first volume, as decision-making was often shambolic, ministers were ill-disciplined and the business of government was conducted with frenetic activity.

Some of the more interesting aspects of this book deal with life after the Lodge: Whitlam's appointment as UNESCO ambassador, the boredom of his academic appointments, writing books, and his close-knit family life and his relationship with Margaret.

Hocking's account of High Court judge Anthony Mason counselling governor-general John Kerr in the months prior to the dismissal is groundbreaking. Some commentators have argued this was known. They are wrong. Mason's role was known, but no one had documented nor even intimated that it was so influential and so extensive.

Hocking, with access to Kerr's papers, claims he had secured "in advance the response of the Palace" to the possibility of dismissal and that certain "understandings" were "reached". Further, Hocking argues that the Prince of Wales and the Queen's private secretary had acted against the "express advice" of Whitlam.

However, having personally viewed these papers and others newly released from Kerr's archive, I believe these conclusions cannot be definitively drawn. These documents do not verify that understandings were reached or that advance consent was given to the dismissal that reflected the monarch's views.

The Palace had informed Kerr that "in the end" the Queen would follow Whitlam's advice over his, if Whitlam had tried to recall Kerr, which is what Kerr feared. Kerr writes in a secret journal that he used this advice to keep his plans secret from Whitlam and the Queen.

Although there are more books about Whitlam than any other prime minister, there is still much to learn, especially as new archival documents come to light. The Kerr papers affirm the notion that our understanding of history is always evolving. This book, immaculately presented by its publisher and highly enjoyable to read, adds much to our understanding of the Whitlam years.

Gough Whitlam: His Time
By Jenny Hocking
Miegunyah Press, 596pp $49.95 (hb)

Troy Bramston edited For the True Believers: Great Labor Speeches that Shaped History.