The Wit Of Whitlam

His wife Margaret was his 'best appointment', he called Malcolm Fraser 'Kerr's cur' after the Dismissal and when Sir Winton Turnbull called out in parliament 'I am a country member', Gough interjected 'I remember'. When it was suggested he was funny, Gough responded: 'Funny! Funny? Witty, yes. Epigrammatic perhaps, but not funny. You make me sound like a clown.' James Carleton, Radio National presenter and founder of the university club 'The Dewy-Eyed Whitlamites', presents a keepsake of Goughisms that vindicates the Great Man's self-assessment, 'I never said I was immortal, merely eternal.'

On Remembrance Day, 1975, the Governor-General of Australia, Sir John Kerr, sacked the Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam. The Dismissal was the culmination of almost three years of political conflict, as Whitlam's reforming Labor government rammed home overdue legislative reforms in the face of implacable, and increasingly bitter, conservative opposition. The focus of the Opposition's scheming was the Senate, where its leaders blocked supply in order to force a political crisis. Whitlam, famous for his 'crash through or crash' style, refused to compromise with his political enemies. After consulting secretly with the Opposition Leader, Malcolm Fraser, and the Chief Justice, Sir Garfield Barwick, Kerr abruptly informed the PM that he had withdrawn his commission. Half an hour later, Kerr swore Fraser in as 'caretaker Prime Minister'. At an election a month later, the conservatives were returned to office. Controversy and recrimination followed. Many Australians, including Whitlam himself, believed he had been the victim of a coup. In 1979, he published his own account of the events of 1975, The Truth of the Matter, an instant best seller. Out of print for many years, it is republished by MUP on the thirtieth anniversary of the Dismissal, with a new introduction by the author and other new reference material. Passionate, pithy, learned, witty, and vigorously combative, The Truth of the Matter tells the extraordinary political story of the only Prime Minister of Australia ever deposed from office.

One of Australia's best-loved public figures tells the very personal story of her great love for travelling. Best known as a national treasure, Margaret Whitlam also happens to be a tour leader extraordinaire and has visited almost every corner of the globe, taking with her hundreds of travellers on group study tours. This is Margaret's story of people and places she encountered in her other world - travelling the Wine Road of Burgundy; walking through the ancient city of Macchu Picchu; sharing a meal with a friendly family in their Moscow home; going to the opera in Vienna, and a nightclub in Istanbul.

The 1970s was a decade when matters previously considered private and personal became public and political. These shifts not only transformed Australian politics, they engendered far-reaching cultural and social changes. Feminists challenged ‘man-made’ norms and sought to recover lost histories of female achievement and cultural endeavour. They made films, picked up spanners and established printing presses. The notion that ‘the personal was political’ began to transform long-held ideas about masculinity and femininity, both in public and private life. In the spaces between official discourses and everyday experience, many sought to revolutionise the lives of Australian men and women. Everyday Revolutions brings together new research on the cultural and social impact of the feminist and sexual revolutions of the 1970s in Australia. Gay Liberation and Women’s Liberation movements erupted, challenging almost every aspect of Australian life. The pill became widely available and sexuality was both celebrated and flaunted. Campaigns to decriminalise abortion and homosexuality emerged across the country. Activists set up women’s refuges, rape crisis centres and counselling services. Governments responded to new demands for representation and rights, appointing women’s advisors and funding new services. Everyday Revolutions is unique in its focus not on the activist or legislative achievements of the women’s and gay and lesbian movements, but on their cultural and social dimensions. It is a diverse and rich collection of essays that reminds us that women’s and gay liberation were revolutionary movements.

For more than forty years, Laurie Oakes has reported on politicians and politics, the ruthless drive for power, the emotion and cold calculation, the wheeling and dealing, the backstabbing and the brawling, the triumphs and the failures and the betrayals. His weekly columns since 1987 (mostly in The Bulletin and now in the Daily Telegraph and th...

Presenting the one and only Mr Paul Keating – at his straight-shooting, scumbag-calling, merciless best. Paul lets rip – on John Howard: “The little desiccated coconut is under pressure and he is attacking anything he can get his hands on.” On Peter Costello: “The thing about poor old Costello is he is all tip and no iceberg.” On John Hewson: “[His performance] is like being flogged with a warm lettuce.” On Andrew Peacock: “...what we have here is an intellectual rust bucket.” On Wilson Tuckey: “...you stupid foul-mouthed grub.” On Tony Abbott: “If Tony Abbott ends up the prime minister of Australia, you’ve got to say, God help us.” And that’s just a taste.

On the Record is a collection of the very best of Laurie Oakes' reporting over more than forty years. He is a legend in the Canberra press gallery for breaking the big stories, and asking the difficult questions. Some of the decisive points of the 2010 election campaign are classic examples of this. Some issues haven't' changed - a Liberal Party...