The Legacy of the Whitlam Government

It's time, if you will excuse the pun, to add my comments on Edward Gough Whitlam. I have no more authority to do this other than the fact that I'm a Labor blogger and not Piers Akerman (whose disgraceful revision/demolition of the Whitlam legacy I won't bother linking). That's good enough for me.

(As a way of marking today's 30th anniversary of the Whitlam Dismissal, I was hoping to post my major Masters essay on the paradoxes of the Whitlam government - essentially, that Whitlam ruled in a top-down manner, but in order to facilitate bottom-up public participation - but alas, it appears to have gone missing, so you've been spared it, at least for now.)

The story of the Whitlam Government - like that of so many Labor leaders - is one of tumult and triumph, but also massive setbacks and obstacles. Despite its deeply subversive heritage (a good many Australians are, after all, descendants of Irish political prisoners), conservative government has been the rule since the beginning of European settlement. Reform has generally been incremental rather than sweeping, and despite seeing the first Labor government in the world, Australia's subsequent Labor governments have often seemed like quirks of nature.

Whitlam seemed inherently aware of this when he attained power, and his reforms occurred with a pace that suggested that he was somehow aware that he would have a limited time in which to introduce and implement them. This swiftness - famously labelled `crash or crash through' - has provoked some debate. Would Whitlam's sweeping reforms have been better accepted had they not been pushed through so vigorously? I would argue that Whitlam realised that they would not have been pushed through at all unless such a technique had been used.

It is worthwhile to remember the many achievements of the Whitlam Government - the foundations of modern multiculturalism; Medicare, free university education, Aboriginal reconciliation. Such reforms are, even today, revolutionary. It's a sad reflection on our current political climate that in a country which less than a generation ago provided free tertiary education to all is now debating whether these same students will have access to basic university services provided via student union fees.

Perhaps lesser known is Whitlam's attempts to invigorate grassroots politics by giving initiatives such as the Australian Assistance Plan (AAP), which provided funding to local community groups, and his push to grant constitutional recognition to local councils. This focus necessarily excluded or circumvented state governments, and for this, Whitlam was criticised as a centralist - yet paradoxically, his aim in doing so was to take power out of the hands of bureaucracy and put it into the hands of the people.

And now the $64,000 question.

It would be wrong to say the Dismissal was unconstitutional, because the reason it spurred a constitutional crisis is that there is nothing in the Australian Constitution addressing the dismissal of a Prime Minister. However, I remain of the firm belief that in a democracy, it is up to the people to select the party that leads them, not a delegated official. I do believe - it is perhaps an unpopular belief, but I think a realistic one - that the Whitlam government would have been voted out in the next election. However, this does NOT justify Mr Akerman's assertion (no, I'm NOT linking him) - that Sir John Kerr was doing the right thing as he was simply beating the people to the punch. The gravity of the situation cannot be underestimated. People who were there that day have told me that it would have only taken one person to fall over in the crowd; one person to fire a few shots in the air for blood to have been spilt that day. That's how tense the situation was, and how heated were the passions.

It is a terrible shame that Whitlam is best known for his exit from power rather than his remarkable policy achievements. Elements of Whitlam's character and achievements have been debated. What cannot is that many of the best aspects of today's Australia would not exist without Whitlam's initiatives.

So today, I salute you Mr Whitlam - for some of us, it will always be time.