Building foundations for a stronger Australia

Lisa McKenzie

Lisa McKenzie has just completed her second year of the combined Bachelor of Arts / Bachelor of Teaching degree at the University of Western Sydney (UWS). She is majoring in History, Politics and Philosophy, her interests being in Australian and Asian history and politics, especially during wartime. She hopes to become a history teacher.

The legacy of the Whitlam government is one of a vastly changed Australia in terms of social, political and regional profile. The Whitlam government has left legacies in the form of social reforms, a stronger international identity, a beacon of hope and warning to both wings of politics and a more market driven economy.

The social reforms of the Whitlam government moved Australia closer to socialism than any government before or since. (1) These policies offered disadvantaged groups such as women, pensioners, aboriginals and migrants a chance for self-growth and advancement (2). The creation of Medibank, the development of a national hospitals plan and the establishment of community health centres provided the community with better and subsidised health services (3). While the Fraser government wound down the latter programs, the former which has evolved into Medicare, is still retained, although in an increasingly diminished form (4).

The Whitlam government also provided reforms in education, beginning in pre-school and childcare (5). The policy of free tertiary education has yet to be fully overturned, although it is fast becoming full fee-paying again (6). For women, there was an effort for service redistribution and wage increases to create equity (7). Aboriginal rights, support and opportunities were expanded and while they did not reach their full potential, they provided a firm foundation that has since been drastically undermined (8).

The legacies of the reforms are a generation of people who fulfilled potential otherwise untapped and who continue to make a mark on the fabric of Australian society. The policies and reforms in these areas have also left subsequent governments appearing to be ungenerous and crippling in comparison to the Whitlam government's apparent expansion and egalitarianism (9).

In regional terms, the Whitlam government made many changes in foreign relations. In their relations in the region and a world scale the Whitlam government challenged and overturned to a certain degree Australia's racist image (10). Australia's official recognition of China is one of the major legacies of the Whitlam government, along with its relations with other Asian nations as opposed to being western orientated (11).

The result of this, along with a more concentrated involvement with the United Nations, was a more independent identity for Australia in international and regional terms (12). While the emphasis on these areas has waned in subsequent governments to varying degrees, the diplomatic and economic ties created during this period continue to pay dividends.

The victory of the Whitlam Labor Party after twenty-three years in the political wilderness was miraculous and proved that it was still possible after such a long period in opposition it was still possible to attain victory (13). Of this, those despairing of Labor never regaining office should take note. However, as this government proved, the importance of the unions cannot be underrated and their support is integral, as both the Whitlam Government and the current Opposition have learnt to their cost (14).

The use of power in several levels of government, indeed the very dismissal of the Whitlam government, provides a legacy. The use of Commonwealth financial powers, the new federalism of state-federal government relations with the states on the losing end, testing the power of the Senate and other legislative power holders all have triggered ongoing academic argument and political storms which will remain for years to come (15). The Whitlam government adventures and misadventures with the constitution provide an ongoing source of precedent and example positive and negative.

Finally, the Whitlam Government's legacy in terms of financial matters in contentious. There is a school of thought that the Whitlam reforms alone were responsible for the financial straits the country found itself in post-Whitlam; that the reforms of the Whitlam years may have forced wages up but at the same time were laying the foundations of economic disaster (16).

This is not strictly true. Financial hard times did occur during later years under Hawke and Keating (17). The Whitlam government must be credited with making the Australian economy more open to global market forces that can bring both recession and boom (18). The Labor governments of the nineties received the former, and the current Liberal government the latter, but both arguably only occurred because of the Whitlam government's economic reforms.

The terms of the Whitlam government were neither perfect nor were they, in hindsight, a complete disaster, as even the imperfections provide a source of and cause for analysis, which can only benefit later governments and Australia as a whole. The legacy of the Whitlam government is the foundation on which a stronger Australia, politically, socially, economically and internationally is based.

(1) N. Hollier, 'From Hope to Disillusion? The Legacy of the Whitlam Government in Australian Policy and Culture' in Jenny Hocking and Colleen Lewis (Ed) It's Time Again: Whitlam and Modern Labor, Melbourne Publishing Group: Armadale, 2003, pp.414-443, p.418.
(2) P. Kelly, The Unmaking of Gough, Angus and Robertson Publishers: Sydney, 1976, p.348.
(3) Ibid
(4) G. Grey, 'One Standard of Health Care for all Australians', in Jenny Hocking and Colleen Lewis (Ed) It's Time Again: Whitlam and Modern Labor, Melbourne Publishing Group: Armadale, 2003, pp.273-296, p.290.
(5) P. Kelly, op.cit p.348
(6) S. Marginson, 'The Whitlam Government and Education' in Jenny Hocking and Colleen Lewis (Ed) It's Time Again: Whitlam and Modern Labor, Melbourne Publishing Group: Armadale, 2003, pp.242-272, p.269.
(7) E. Reid, 'Creating a Policy for Women' in The Whitlam Phenomenon, Penguin Books Pty Ltd: Victoria, 1986, pp.145-155, p.145.
(8) L. Lippman, 'Aborigines' in Allan Patience and Brian Head (Ed.) From Whitlam to Fraser: Reform and Reaction in Australian Politics, Oxford University Press: Melbourne, 1979, pp.173-188, p.188.
(9) G. Grey, op.cit.
(10) A. Patienceand B. Head, 'Australian Politics in the 1970's' in Allan Patience and Brian Head (Ed.) From Whitlam to Fraser: Reform and Reaction in Australian Politics, Oxford University Press: Melbourne, 1979, pp.283-289, p.284.
(11) G. Freudenberg, A Certain Grandeur: Gough Whitlam in Politics, Penguin Books Australia Ltd: Ringwood, Victoria, 1977, p.xi.
(12) G. Evans, 'The Lessons' in The Whitlam Phenomenon, Penguin Books Pty Ltd: Victoria, 1986, pp.156-177, p.163.
(13) Ibid., p.157.
(14) Ibid., p.172-173.
(15) G. Evans, Labor and Constitution 1972-1975: Essays and Commentaries on the Constitutional Controversies of the Whitlam Years in Australian Government, Heinemann Educational Australia Pty Ltd: Melbourne, 1977, p.xiii.
(16) P. Kelly, op.cit. p.348.
(17) N. Hollier, op.cit. p.424.
(18) R. Neil Massey, 'A Century of Laborism, 1891-1993 An Historical Interpretation' in Labour History, no.66, 1994, pp.45-71, p.59.

References

Evans, Gareth. Labor and Constitution 1972 -1975: Essays and Commentaries on the Constitutional Controversies of the Whitlam Years in Australian Government, Heinemann Educational Australia Pty Ltd.: Melbourne, 1977.

Evans, Gareth. "The Lessons", in The Whitlam Phenomenon, Penguin Books Pty Ltd: Victoria, 1986, pp. 156 - 177.

Freudenberg, Graham .A Certain Grandeur: Gough Whitlam in Politics, Penguin Books Australia Ltd.: Ringwood, Victoria, 1977.

Grey, Gwen "One High Standard of Health Care for all Australians", in Jenny Hocking and Colleen Lewis (Ed.) It's Time Again: Whitlam and Modern Labor, Melbourne Publishing Group: Armadale, 2003, pp.273-296.

Hollier, Nathan. "From Hope to Disillusion? The Legacy of the Whitlam Government in Australian Policy and Culture" in Jenny Hocking and Colleen Lewis (Ed.) It's Time Again: Whitlam and Modern Labor, Melbourne Publishing Group: Armadale, 2003, pp.414-443.

Kelly, Paul. The Unmaking of Gough, Angus and Robertson Publishers: Sydney, 1976.

Lippman, Lorna. "Aborigines" in Allan Patience and Brian Head (Ed.) From Whitlam to Fraser: Reform and Reaction in Australian Politics, Oxford University Press: Melbourne , 1979,pp.173-188.

Marginson, Simon. "The Whitlam Government and Education" in Jenny Hocking and Colleen Lewis (Ed.) It's Time Again: Whitlam and Modern Labor, Melbourne Publishing Group: Armadale, 2003, pp.244-272

Patience, Allan and Brian Head, "Australian Politics in the 1970's", Allan Patience and Brian Head (Ed.) From Whitlam to Fraser: Reform and Reaction in Australian Politics, Oxford University Press: Melbourne, 1979, pp.283 -289.

Reid, Elizabeth. "Creating a Policy for Women" in The Whitlam Phenomenon, Penguin Books Pty Ltd: Victoria, 1986, pp.145 -155.