Australian Politics Books - Australia 1975 The Dismissal Whitlam Fraser Hawke Kerr
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Australian Politics Books
Whitlam, Edward Gough1916-
Labor politician, prime minister 1972-75
Born in Melbourne, Whitlam was a lawyer who entered the House of Representatives in 1952, winning the NSW seat of Werriwa for Labor. He became deputy leader of the party in 1960. In 1966 he replaced Arthur Calwell as leader. He was elected Prime Minister in 1972 ending 23 years of opposition. Whitlam's policies were based on an expanded role for the federal government as the means of improving education and welfare. A crisis occurred over loan negotiations made by Rex Connor, the minister for minerals and energy, in a failed attempt to put the Australian government back into a position of financial independence. Aware of the government's problems, the Coalition opposition led by Malcolm Fraser used its majority in the Senate to block the budget and so force the government to an election. Whitlam decided not to go to the polls but to ride the crisis out. The confrontation was ended when the governor-general , Sir John Kerr, used his reserve powers to dismiss the government and call an election. Labor was defeated at the ensuing 1975 election and again in 1977, after which Whitlam stood down as leader. He resigned from parliament in 1978. From 1983 to 1986 he was Australian ambassador to UNESCO in Paris.
Australian Politics Books The Dismissal Australia Canberra Whitlam Kerr Fraser
Parliament An Overview
- The Parliamentary System
- Separation of Powers
- The Commonwealth Parliament
- Executive Government
- Federal Judicature
- Further Information
The Australian Constitution of 1901 established a federal system of government. Under this system, powers are distributed between a national government (the Commonwealth) and the six States (three Territories - the Australian Capital Territory, the Northern Territory, and Norfolk Island have self-government arrangements). The Constitution defines the boundaries of law-making powers between the Commonwealth and the States/Territories.
| The Constitution: Full Description (HTML version)| PDF | State Governors of Australia and Administrators of the Northern Territory and the Island Territories]
Australian Politics Books The Dismissal Australia Canberra Whitlam Kerr Fraser
The Parliament is at the very heart of the Australian national government. The Parliament consists of the Queen (represented by the Governor-General) and two Houses (the Senate and the House of Representatives). These three elements make Australia a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy.
There are five important functions of parliament:
- to provide for the formation of a government;
- to legislate;
- to provide the funds needed for government;
- to provide a forum for popular representation; and
- to scrutinise the actions of government.
Proposed laws (known as Bills) have to be passed by both Houses and be assented to by the Governor-General before they can become Acts of Parliament. With the exception of laws relating to revenue and taxation (which must be introduced in the House of Representatives), a proposed law can be introduced in either House.
Changes to the Constitution involve action by Parliament and the people. Both Houses of Parliament must agree on a proposed change, or if agreement cannot be reached, the Governor-General can present a proposal to the people. For a proposal to succeed, it must be favoured by a majority of voters in a majority of the states, and by a majority of voters overall.
[House of Representative Infosheet No. 7 - Making Laws | Senate Brief No. 8 - The Senate and Legislation | Legislation: Sources of Australian Legislation]
The Governor-GeneralThe Governor-General is appointed by the Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister. The Governor-General performs a large number of functions which are defined by the Constitution, but fall roughly into three categories: constitutional and statutory duties, formal ceremonial duties, and non-ceremonial social duties. On virtually all matters, however, the Governor-General acts on the advice of the Ministry. The current Governor-General is Major-General Michael Jeffery, AC, CVO, MC.
The Senate
The Senate has 76 Senators - 12 are elected for each of the 6 states, and 2 each for the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory. State Senators are elected for 6 year terms, territory Senators for 3 year terms.
Historically, the Senate has been regarded as a State's House: the States enjoy equal representation in the Senate, regardless of their population, and State matters are still important to Senators.
The modern Senate is a very powerful Chamber. Bills cannot become law unless they are agreed to in the same terms by each House, except in the rare circumstances of a double dissolution followed by a joint sitting of both the houses
The Senate has a highly developed committee system and Senators spend much of their time on committee work.
The House of RepresentativesThe House of Representatives has 150 Members - each representing a separate electoral division. Members are elected for terms of up to 3 years.
The most distinctive feature of the House is that the party or group with majority support in the House forms the Government. The accountability of the Government is illustrated every sitting day, especially during Question Time.
Members have many other functions. They are involved in law making, committee work and in representing their electors.
Australian Politics Books The Dismissal Australia Canberra Whitlam Kerr Fraser
Executive GovernmentThe Prime Minister is appointed by the Governor-General, who by convention under the Constitution, must appoint the parliamentary leader of the party, or coalition of parties, which has a majority of seats in the House of Representatives. This majority party becomes the government and provides the ministers, all of whom must be members of Parliament.
The Federal Executive Council, referred to in the Constitution, comprises all ministers, with the Governor-General presiding. Its principal functions are to receive ministerial advice and approve the signing of formal documents such proclamations, regulations, ordinances and statutory appointments.
Australia operates under a Cabinet system of government. The Cabinet, not mentioned in the Constitution, is the key decision-making body of the government and comprises senior Government Ministers. The decisions of Cabinet are given legal effect by their formal ratification by the Federal Executive Council.
[Australian Commonwealth Government Entry Point]
The Constitution provides for the establishment of the High Court of Australia and such other courts as Parliament may create. The judges of the High Court are appointed by the Governor-General in Council (acting on advice of the Federal Executive Council).
The functions of the High Court are to interpret and apply the law of Australia; to decide cases of special federal significance including challenges to the constitutional validity of laws; and to hear appeals, by special leave, from Federal, State and Territory courts.
Australian Politics Books The Dismissal Australia Canberra Whitlam Kerr Fraser
November 11th, 1975
The Dismissal of the Whitlam Government on November 11, 1975 was the most dramatic political event in the history of Australia's Federation.
Edward Gough Whitlam's Labor government had been elected on December 2, 1972 and was the first Labor government in 23 years. Australia's Prime Minister for 16 years was Robert Menzies, whose Liberal Party governed in coalition with the Country Party. After Menzies' retirement in 1966, the government went into a steady decline until it was defeated by Whitlam.
The new government was elected in a climate of great hope and optimism. It's demise a mere three years later at the hands of the Senate and the Governor-General is a fascinating political story that is still relevant to this day.
What Happened?
A brief overview of what happened on November 11, 1975 and why it remains a significant event in Australian political history.
Background To 1972
The Whitlam Government was the first Labor government for 23 years, since the defeat of Ben Chifley in 1949. It was elected at a time of growing disillusionment with the Vietnam War, a concern about Australia's place in the world and great social change.
Gough Whitlam
Whitlam was born in Melbourne in 1916. He grew up in Canberra and entered Parliament in 1952, becoming deputy leader of the ALP in 1961 and leader in 1967. He won a 7% swing to his party in the 1969 election, rescuing it from the electoral disaster of 1966.
His 1972 election was the result of a program of party reform, policy development and political salesmanship. The 'Program' he presented to the people in 1972 still stands as the most definitive statement of policies ever proposed at an election.
Thirty years on, Whitlam is a Labor Party icon, the martyred leader. He continues to speak on public issues.
Chronology
The years 1972-1975 were a whirlwind of activity, controversy and change, culminating in the dramatic events of October 1975 when the coalition parties in the Senate used their numbers to delay passage of the government's Supply Bills. A three-week constitutional impasse followed, culminating in Whitlam's dismissal by the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, on November 11.
Political & Constitutional Issues: The Key Questions
The Dismissal raised a number of important constitutional, parliamentary and political issues, most of which remain unresolved to this day. Should the Senate have the right to block money bills? How should a government respond when this happens? Should the Governor-General intervene in conflicts between the houses? When should the Governor-General intervene?
Sir John Kerr
The man appointed by Whitlam to the position of Governor-General in 1974 is variously portrayed as a man of principle, a deceiver, an insecure man desperate to make his mark on history, a drunk.
Aftermath and Effects
The Dismissal was the most traumatic and significant political event in the first one hundred years of the Australian federation, but constitutionally little was changed by it. Malcolm Fraser initiated a referendum in 1977 to ensure that the casual Senate vacancy rules could not be manipulated by State governments, but no other constitutional changes have occurred. The most significant change is probably political. It is difficult now to imagine the Senate being able to repeat its 1975 performance. The question of an Australian republic was rekindled by the Dismissal, but this issue also remains unresolved.
Australia Politcs Books
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byThe Costello Memiors - Peter Costello
Brand New Book : .2008 edition
released 15th September 2008
The Costello Memoirs is a frank and fearless look inside the engine-room of the Liberal Party and the Howard Government.
In a political career spanning eighteen years, Peter Costello, Australia's longest serving Treasurer, steered the Government through some of its greatest economic and political challenges, paying off Government debt, introducing the GST and fighting five elections.
What were the backroom deals that made the GST possible? How did Costello transform the Australian economy from Asia's 'white trash' into the economic powerhouse able to withstand the financial meltdown of the late 1990s?
What did Costello make of the Liberal Leaders he served with, and why did he find it so easy to trounce Labor's Shadow Treasurers?
For the first time, the facts about the McLachlan memorandum on the leadership transition from Howard to Costello are revealed. How-and why-did the Liberal Party pass up the chance to make generational change and revitalise a Government that was sliding into defeat?
The Costello Memoirs answers these questions, and charts the victories and defeats in one man's very public life.
About the Author Peter Costello
Peter Howard Costello (born 14 August 1957) is an Australian politician. He was Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party from 1994 to 2007, and served as Treasurer of Australia from 1996 to 2007, making him the longest serving treasurer in Australian history. Costello was born in Melbourne into a middle class family of practising Christians He was the second of three children: his elder brother, Tim Costello, is a prominent Baptist minister and current CEO of World Vision Australia. Peter Costello was educated at Carey Baptist Grammar School and attended Melbourne's Monash University, where he graduated in arts and law.
During the 1980s, Peter Costello was a solicitor at law firm Mallesons Stephen Jaques, then became a barrister and represented employers in some of Australia's best known industrial relations disputes. In 1983 and 1984, Peter Costello represented the National Farmers' Federation in a case against the Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union (AMIEU). The AMIEU was seeking a unit tally system to be set up in abattoirs in the Northern Territory. The dispute focussed on one abattoir Mudginberri which chose to fight the AMIEU claim. Ultimately the AMIEU claim was unsuccessful. Peter Costello became counsel to organisations representing small business and rose to prominence in the 1985 Dollar Sweets case, as junior counsel assisting Alan Goldberg QC, successfully representing a confectionery company involved in a bitter industrial dispute.
During his student years, Peter Costello was active in student politics as a socially radical Christian. For a time, he was an office-bearer of the Social Democratic Students Association of Victoria, an affiliate of the Balaclava Branch of Australian Young Labor. In 1977, Peter Costello was punched by a rival student politician, receiving mainstream media attention for the first time in his career as a result. After graduating, Peter Costello became more conservative but retained liberal views on some social issues. In 1984 he was a founding member of the H. R. Nicholls Society, a think tank on industrial relations. In the late 1980s, he was identified as part of the New Right movement,[4] which was organised to some extent in the H. R. Nicholls Society.
In 1990, having defeated the sitting Liberal member Roger Shipton in a preselection ballot for the safe Liberal electorate of Higgins, Peter Costello entered the House of Representatives at the age of 32. He was immediately promoted to the Opposition front bench and proved an effective debater against the Labor government of Bob Hawke and Paul Keating. By 1992 he was shadow Attorney-General, and in 1993 he became shadow Finance Minister under Dr John Hewson. He was a strong supporter of Hewson's policy proposals at the 1993 elections, including the goods and services tax (GST).
Hewson's shock defeat at the 1993 election brought Peter Costello into consideration as a leadership contender. When Hewson was deposed as Liberal leader in May 1994, Peter Costello supported Alexander Downer for the leadership, becoming his Deputy Leader and shadow Treasurer. However, in January 1995, Downer resigned. Peter Costello did not seek the leadership, instead supporting John Howard. It was revealed in July 2006 that this was due to a December 1994 meeting between Howard, Peter Costello and Ian McLachlan during which Howard allegedly agreed to stand aside after one and a half terms as Prime Minister in return for Peter Costello's agreement not to challenge for the leadership. Howard denied that this was a formal arrangement.
Peter Costello became Federal Treasurer at age 38. He oversaw the return to and maintenance of federal budget surpluses, which enabled significant reduction in government debt. Inflation, interest rates and unemployment all fell and remained generally low during Peter Costello's term as Treasurer, although average household debt more than doubled. Tax reform became a major policy focus for Peter Costello. Although Prime Minister Howard promised during the 1996 election that he would "never, ever" introduce a GST, it returned as Liberal Party policy for the 1998 election. It was passed through the Senate with the help of the Australian Democrats. Until July 2005, Peter Costello's own agenda of labour market deregulation remained blocked by the government's lack of a Senate majority. In 1998, Peter Costello and wife Tanya, and Tony Abbott and his wife Margaret successfully sued author Bob Ellis for false statements he made about them in his book Goodbye Jerusalem.
Peter Costello supported the 1999 referendum to make Australia a republic. In February 2006, Peter Costello caused controversy during a lecture at the Sydney Institute when questioned about the government's refusal to legally recognise same sex marriage. He stated, "I think we do recognise the rights of gay and lesbian people in Australia. We do not criminalise [their] conduct or behaviour." He also pointed out that the law was changed in 2004 to recognise same sex couples with regards to superannuation. He stated that marriage should only be recognised between heterosexual couples. Also during the same speech, Peter Costello criticised "mushy misguided multiculturalism," warning immigrants that the acceptance of Australian values was "not optional."
Peter Costello expected to gain the Liberal leadership some time during Howard's second term as Prime Minister, as per Howard's alleged December 1994 offer. When this did not eventuate, he showed signs of frustration and was visibly disappointed when Howard announced, in July 2003, his intention to lead the government into the 2004 election. During the 2004 election campaign, Howard avoided saying whether he would serve a full term if re-elected, saying only he would remain as long as his party supported him. The government's subsequent success in winning control of the Senate raised further speculation that Howard would delay his retirement, and the prospect of a Costello leadership succession appeared to recede.
In July 2006, the alleged Costello/Howard succession deal of the 1994 deal was made public by Ian McLachlan. Peter Costello confirmed the incident had occurred and that he shared McLachlan's interpretation of events. Howard denied the claims repeatedly, stating the continued public drama displayed "hubris and arrogance" and that the leadership was the party room's to decide, not a prize to be handed over by leaders to successors. Despite tensions between the Prime Minister and the Treasurer, nothing further came of those events. Neither Howard nor Costello took any action to remove the other from office, or resign. However, on 12 September 2007, amid renewed leadership tensions and a series of unfavourable public polls, Howard confirmed he would step aside well into the next term, if re-elected, and that Costello would be his "logical successor".
A federal election was held on 24 November 2007. Exit polls of 2,787 voters by Auspoll, commissioned by Sky News, included a question on the statement "I don't want Peter Costello to become Prime Minister". F
