Word: whitlam
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...country entered the final week of its second election campaign in only 17 months, almost everybody-and everything-went to the hustings. Prime Minister Gough Whitlam's Labor government triumphantly produced a glowing testimonial from the country's only Nobel-prizewinning author, Patrick White. The Wildlife Protection Council eagerly proclaimed that a Labor victory was the last hope for the kangaroo...
...first votes were counted, however, it looked as if Whitlam and Labor had been narrowly returned to power by winning a majority in the 127-seat House of Representatives...
Though Snedden had been derided by one of his critics as a Milquetoast who "couldn't go two rounds with a revolving door," he has, in fact, turned out to have a distinct knack for political combat. He has unexpectedly put the more charismatic Whitlam on the defensive by his broadsides against Whitlam's abrasive policies. In foreign affairs, Snedden has accused Whitlam of needlessly alienating Australia's two closest friends, the U.S. and Britain, and has promised a more traditional, pro-Western policy...
...home, Snedden scored points by promising to restore the incentives to foreign investment that Whitlam took away-necessary incentives, Snedden argued, if Australia is to develop its vast resources-and pledged to give free enterprise a looser rein. Most important of all, he promised to put a curb on the country's worrisome economic problem, inflation, which is now running at the rate of 14% a year. He promised that he would resign in six months if he could not curb inflation-a promise that most Australians viewed with skepticism...
...Whitlam belatedly came up with an anti-inflation program of his own, but many middle-class people in Sydney or Melbourne, who see only higher prices in the supermarket and steeper mortgage rates for new houses, may blame him nonetheless. Beyond that, some Australians who were initially attracted by Whitlam's energy and decisiveness were worried that he is now doing too much too fast and that he had basically misinterpreted the conservative, traditional temperament of his countrymen. Whoever wins, Australian politics will never again be so simple and placid as it has been for most of the past...