Whitlam Pm A Biography

Gough Whitlam, Australia's twenty-first prime minister, swept to power in December 1972, ending twenty-three years of conservative rule. It was an ascendancy bitterly resented by some, never accepted by others, and ended with dismissal by the Governor-General barely three years later-an outcome that polarised debate and left many believing the full story had not been told. In this much anticipated second volume of her biography of Gough Whitlam, Hocking has used previously unearthed archival material and extensive interviews with Gough Whitlam, his family, colleagues and foes, to bring the key players in these dramatic events to life. Who was 'the third man' who counselled the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, in his decision to sack the twice-elected Whitlam government and appoint Malcolm Fraser as prime minister? How much did the Palace know about what was happening? And what drove the Kerr to take the unprecedented action of removing an elected government from office? This definitive biography takes us behind the political intrigue to reveal a devastated Whitlam and his personal struggle in the aftermath of the dismissal, during the unfulfilled years that followed and his eventual political renewal as Australia's ambassador to UNESCO. And of course, through the highs and the lows of his decades of public life Whitlam depended absolutely on the steadfast support of the love of his life, Margaret. For this is also the story of a remarkable marriage and an enduring partnership. The truth of this tumultuous period in Australia's history is finally revealed in this engaging narrative-Gough Whitlam: His Time.

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Leader, Malcolm Fraser, and the Chief Justice, Sir Garfield Barwick, Kerr abruptly informed the PM that he had withdrawn his commission.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.

What role did the queen play in the governor-general Sir John Kerr's plans to dismiss prime minister Gough Whitlam in 1975, which unleashed one of the most divisive episodes in Australia's political history? And why weren't we told? Under the cover of being designated as private correspondence, the letters between the queen and the governor-general about the dismissal have been locked away for decades in the National Archives of Australia, and embargoed by the queen potentially forever. This ruse has furthered the fiction that the queen and the Palace had no warning of or role in Kerr's actions. In the face of this, Professor Jenny Hocking embarked on a four-year legal battle to force the Archives to release the letters. In 2015, she mounted a crowd-funded campaign, securing a stellar pro bono team that took her case all the way to the High Court of Australia. Now, drawing on never-before-published material from Kerr's archives and her submissions to the court, Hocking traces the collusion and deception behind the dismissal, and charts the private role of High Court judges, the queen's private secretary, and the leader of the opposition, Malcolm Fraser, in Kerr's actions, and the prior knowledge of the queen and Prince Charles. Hocking also reveals the obstruction, intrigue, and duplicity she faced, raising disturbing questions about the role of the National Archives in preventing access to its own historical material and in enforcing royal secrecy over its documents.

The oddly compelling story of a man regarded as Australia’s worst prime minister. William McMahon was a significant, if widely derided and disliked, figure in Australian politics in the second half of the twentieth century. This biography tells the story of his life, his career, and his doomed attempts to recast views of his much-maligned time as Australia’s prime minister. After a long ministerial career under Menzies, McMahon became treasurer under Harold Holt, and fought a fierce, bitter war over protectionism with John McEwen. Following Holt’s death in 1967, McEwen had his revenge by vetoing McMahon’s candidature for the Liberal Party’s leadership, and thus paved the way for John Gorton to become prime minister. But almost three years later, amid acrimony and division, McMahon would topple Gorton and fulfill his life’s ambition to become Australia’s prime minister. In office, McMahon worked furiously to enact an agenda that grappled with the profound changes reshaping Australia. He withdrew combat forces from Vietnam, legislated for Commonwealth government involvement in childcare, established the National Urban and Regional Development Authority and the first Department of the Environment, began phasing out the means test on pensions, sought to control foreign investments, and accelerated the timetable for the independence of Papua New Guinea. But his failures would overshadow his successes, and by the time of the 1972 election McMahon would lead a divided, tired, and rancorous party to defeat. A man whose life was coloured by tragedy, comedy, persistence, courage, farce, and failure, McMahon’s story has never been told at length. Tiberius with a Telephone fills that gap, using deep archival research and extensive interviews with McMahon’s contemporaries and colleagues. It is a tour de force — an authoritative and colourful account of a unique politician and a vital period in Australia’s history.

This unprecedented biography of Hawke includes an exclusive series of interviews with him – the last that he gave – as well as unfiltered access to his extensive trove of personal papers. It features new interviews with more than 100 people who knew and worked with Hawke, including his family and friends; political and union colleagues, and rivals; advisers and public servants; and journalists; along with international contemporaries of Hawke such as George H.W. Bush, John Major, Brian Mulroney, James Baker and George Shultz. It also brings together an extraordinary array of never-before-seen archival documents: family diaries, notes, letters and scrapbooks; school and university reports; cabinet, departmental and vice-regal papers; party strategy documents, polling and caucus minutes; and secret correspondence and meeting records between Hawke and other Cold War leaders. Troy Bramston, an award-winning and best-selling author, tells the remarkable story of Hawke’s upbringing and education, the people and events that shaped him, his rise through the union movement, his complex personality and personal life marked by womanising and the demon drink, his nine-year government from 1983 to 1991, plus his post-prime ministerial life and legacy. This book is about the real Hawke, chronicling the stunning triumphs and shocking failures, a life riddled with huge flaws and great virtues marked by redemption and reinvention, which changed Australia and shaped the world. Revelatory and compelling, it will shock and surprise those who think they know the story of Australia’s most popular prime minister.

In this part memoir and part authorised biography, Malcolm Fraser talks about his time in public life. 'The great task of statesmanship is to apply past lessons to new situations, to draw correct analogies to understand and act upon present forces, to recognise the need for change.'—Malcolm Fraser Malcolm Fraser is one of the most interesting and possibly most misunderstood of Australia's Prime Ministers. In this part memoir and part authorised biography, Fraser at the age of 79 years talks about his time in public life. From the Vietnam War to the Dismissal and his years as Prime Minister, through to his concern in recent times for breaches in the Rule of Law and harsh treatment of refugees, Fraser emerges as an enduring liberal, constantly reinterpreting core values to meet the needs of changing times. Written in collaboration with journalist Margaret Simons, Malcolm Fraser's political memoirs trace the story of a shy boy who was raised to be seen and not heard, yet grew to become one of the most persistent, insistent and controversial political voices of our times. The book offers insight into Malcolm Fraser's substantial achievements. He was the first Australian politician to describe Australia's future as multicultural, and his federal government was the first to pass Aboriginal Land Rights and Freedom of Information legislation, also establishing the Human Rights Commission. After his parliamentary career, Fraser continued to be an important player in public life, playing a key role in persuading the USA Congress to impose sanctions on South Africa as part of the battle against apartheid. He was also the founding chair of CARE Australia, one of our largest aid agencies.

'I came to represent all the ungainly people, the too-tall ones, the too-fat ones and the housebound as I had been, who'd never get the chance to go to China or Buckingham Palace and experienced it all through me' - Margaret Whitlam Margaret Whitlam has been in the public eye for over forty years. As the controversial wife of a prime minister she is a household name and an Australian identity in her own right. Many people already feel as if they know her and they do, in a sense. However this biography reveals, for the first time, the private life behind the public events to which she was both a witness and a participant. Susan Mitchell first interviewed Margaret Whitlam for her book The Matriarchs, after which they became friends. Now, as a writer close to Margaret and her family, she reveals what lies behind the descriptions of 'icon' and 'national treasure'. She has been given access to Margaret's collection of private papers, press cuttings and diaries, and she shares insights from these as she documents Margaret's journey from a semi-detached in Bondi to the Lodge, from her husband's accession to Prime Minister to his dismissal, and all the full years beyond. We travel with Margaret as she grows from a schoolgirl to university student, social worker, wife, mother, political partner, First Lady and international tour leader. We observe the events and the relationships that shaped her, and the family that sustained her. We learn why she has become one of the most admired and beloved Australian women. This is an intimate biography of Margaret Whitlam - clear-eyed, unsentimental, witty and poignant. Susan Mitchell's wonderfully evoked personal portrait will move you to both tears and laughter.