The myth of Gough Whitlam

The government led by Gough Whitlam was a failure - there is no other way to describe it, to spin it, to believe it. Yet, the myth perpetrated by the Labor movement was that he was a great man leading a great government is laughable at best and just plain dangerous at worst.

The left intelligentsia clearly blame Rupert Murdoch, the apparent secret leader of the CIA that conspired against the highly competent Whitlam government - well, nothing could be further from the truth.

Gough Whitlam made Labor electable after 23 years in the political wilderness, after 3 years of government, he then made them unelectable again until Bob Hawke came along almost a decade later.

He promised the world and then failed to deliver, just the manner of his dismissal added to his mythology.

The real kick to the nards of any true believer of socialism was the highly competent Hawke government campaigned on policy that was directly opposite to Whitlam - ouch.

Since WWII, Labor government failures (with the notable exception of the Hawke government) were Chifley, Whitlam, Keating, Rudd, Gillard and Rudd again.

This is no great line up, the Hawke government in the early years was excellent but by the time Keating rolled around, they were well past their use by date.

The inept John Hewson allowed Keating to win the unlosable election allowing John Howard to reemerge as leader.

Whitlam claimed to have ended the White Australia policy, it was the Liberal government led by Harold Holt that ended the policy in March 1966.

Granted, the Whitlam government took further steps in 1973 to further reduce race as a factor in immigration policy, that is highly commendable but the policy had already been rescinded years before. 

Another policy the Whitlam government received credit for was voting rights for aboriginals. The May 1967 referendum was the work of the Holt government.

Harold went missing, presumed drowned in December 1967 but was succeeded by John McEwan for a brief period before William McMahon took leadership. Since 1967 is well before December 1972, this doesn't stand up to scrutiny. 

Bringing the troops home from Vietnam, lets have a more detailed look into this. According to the Australian War Memorial, by late 1970 Australia had begun to wind down military efforts with the 8th Battalion departing in November and not being replaced. 

The withdrawal of all air units continued throughout 1971 with further reduction in troop numbers, the last battalion left Nui Dat on the 7th of November of 1971.

A handful of advisers remained throughout the most of 1972 with the final team returning in December of that year. A platoon of troops guarded the embassy, they returned in 1973. The Whitlam government took office on the 5th of December 1972. 

As one can see, the bulk of the troops had already returned by the time he took government. But why let facts get in the way of popular mythology, the Whitlam government did remove conscription - that was a positive step.

Then there is university education, Gough Whitlam did make university education free, fees were however reinstated in 1989 by John Dawkins as Minister for Employment, Education and Training.

Free university education was not taken away by the Liberals as leftist mythology contends. The real higher education reforms was undertaken by Robert Menzies, it is difficult to argue with figures and facts.

It was Robert Menzies who effectively scrapped university fees by introducing Commonwealth scholarships. Any student regardless of socio-economic status who performed academically could not only attend university for free but could also receive a living allowance to attend.

All Whitlam did was remove the competitive academic aspect to extend a university education to anyone regardless of aptitude effectively allowing dumb rich kids to attend university for free. 

Menzies also increased government spending four-fold in the 1960s, built universities in the process and promoted university scholarships to academically minded students. If you were rich and didn't meet academic standards, you did not receive a funded scholarship. 

In direct contradiction to Labor claims of only rich kids attending university, now the rich dumb kids who previously paid for their university education could idle their days away on the public purse. 

The Whitlam government did recognise China, it has been falsely claimed that the Chinese led boom can be attributed to Whitlam - that is once again clearly false. 

China was staunchly communist, this was at the height of the cold war, the war in Vietnam was considered a proxy war against communism. A socalist government supporting communism, who would have guessed?

The Whitlam government followed the lead of Republican President Richard Nixon to open talks with the Chinese government after suspension of $100 million worth of wheat exports.

That can only mean Australian wheat exports predated the December 1972 election of the Whitlam government - oh.

China was admitted to the World Trade Organisation in 2001; after attempts were initially thwarted due to concerns raised by the United States.

Some European countries and Japan including tariff reductions, opening markets and industrial policies aligned to political reforms in the early 1980s. 

China began to slowly open its economy signing numerous regional trade agreements with China gaining observer status with General Agreements on Tarriff and Trade (GATT) in 1986. 

Malcolm Turnbull once stated, "He will be given credit I imagine for many things that were equally or perhaps even entirely the achievements of others.” That about sums it up.

It has been argued the best outcome for Whitlam was to be dismissed from office. Now, as a Labor martyr, he could never be brought to account for the devastation he wrought on Australia. He did of course attempt two further election campaigns for federal government failing miserably both times.

Whitlam came to power promising big, but ultimately, big promises have to be paid for. He has been described as a silvertail, not from the usual factional union background steeped in socialism but as a middle to upper class and well educated son of a lawyer from Mosman and later Turramurra. 

As Assistant Crown Solicitor, his father's human rights work influenced his son, this is where I believe his agenda was nationalistic in nature, if not somewhat ill-advised and poorly implemented.

Whitlam swept to power in December 1972 and by November 1975, it was all over. I feel Gough's greatest achievement was to transform the Labor party from its traditional working-class roots to include a suburban middle-class base. 

Gough Whitlam held the unofficial title of Australia's worst Prime Minister along with William McMahon, the man he defeated in 1972. A title he looked to carry to his grave until Keven Rudd and Julia Gillard wrestled the crown from him after wrestling with each other in the public arena. 

One could be fairly sure Gough would have been more than happy for the title to change hands within his lifetime.