Word: whitlam
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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There was no election scheduled or in sight, but Australia last week was ablaze with impassioned political rallies, complete with flesh pressing, placard waving and, of course, blunt "Strine" rhetoric. Prime Minister Gough Whitlam was under attack by Opposition Leader Malcolm Fraser, ostensibly for his government's involvement in a political scandal. "Either he knew everything that was going on, in which case he's a liar, or, alternatively, he's a fool," said Fraser. For his part, Whitlam castigated the opposition as "reactionary, conservative fascists [who] have stopped at nothing to destroy democracy...
Tricky Loophole. What Australians were so worked up about was the fact that the nation now faces its most serious constitutional crisis since independence in 1901. The trouble began when the House of Representatives approved Whitlam's budget bills and sent them on to the Senate, which is narrowly controlled by a conservative coalition of Fraser's Liberals and the National Country Party. Violating a traditional understanding for the first time in Australian history, the Senate blocked the budget by exercising its power to "withhold supply"-that is, cut off money essential to government operation...
...constitution in his effort to bring down "by far the worst government Australia has ever had." The Senate, which has ten members for each of Australia's six states, cannot render a no-confidence vote. Only the directly elected House has that power, and it is controlled by Whitlam's Labor Party 65-to-62. But Fraser's hope is that when money runs out by the end of November because of the blocked budget, Whitlam will be forced to call a general election...
...will bring the material prosperity enjoyed by the plane-and ship-borne white man. Last week the white man brought to the eastern half of the island* some cargo that a good many cultists might find to be of doubtful value: independence. As Australia's Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and Britain's Prince Charles stood at attention with a crowd of 10,000 in a Port Moresby football stadium, the Australian flag was hauled down for the last time and replaced by the black, red and gold standard of the world's newest nation, Papua New Guinea...
...troops overran much of the island, Australia had governed Papua-the island's southeastern quadrant-since 1906, and adjoining northeastern New Guinea since World War I under League of Nations and U.N. mandates. Prodded initially by the U.N. and by its own dislike of the colonial image, the Whitlam government fairly rushed the reluctant colony into self-rule (in 1973) and now full independence...