Word: whitlam
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Fraser vowed that the Senate would tie up the budget bill until Whitlam called for new elections. Whitlam stood firm. Meanwhile, the budget bill remained in limbo, and the treasury began to run dry. The crisis was due to come at the end of November, when there would be insufficient funds to meet the $26 million weekly payroll for the country's 70,000-member armed forces. To avoid this, the Governor General, without consulting Queen Elizabeth, decided...
Terse Letter. Last week, Whitlam called on Sir John at his residence, Yarralumla. After the Prime Minister said he would not recommend a general election, Sir John handed him a terse, four-paragraph letter stating: "I hereby determine [withdraw] your appointment as head of government [and] the appointments of all the ministers in your cabinet." The Governor General then received Fraser, who had been waiting -unknown to Whitlam-in an anteroom. After agreeing that he would not institute new policies or dismiss government officials, Fraser was directed by Kerr to form a caretaker Cabinet that will govern until the elections...
...week's end the election campaign was beginning to take shape. Whitlam will obviously try to capitalize on the public's anger at what it considers to be Kerr's usurpation of power; he hoped to gain a large sympathy vote by hammering away at the theme that Fraser gained office shamefully. As he told a press conference last week, "Clearly the great issue, almost the sole issue of this campaign will be whether the government which the people elect with a majority in the House of Representatives will be allowed to govern from...
Fraser is expected to base his campaign on themes he has been pounding at for months: the scandals involving some of Whitlam's close aides, Labor's antibusiness attitude and the mismanagement of the economy that has led to a current 16.9% annual rate of inflation and the worst unemployment since the 1930s...
Shabby Scandals. "Ultimately, the election will be decided by the 10% of the voters, mostly of the middle class, who swing from party to party," reported TIME Correspondent John Dunn. "It is doubtful if the sympathy they today feel for Whitlam will last the month until they reach the ballot box. By then, they are more likely to be influenced by the problems of the economy and recollection of the shabby scandals. Thus Eraser's coalition may just retain the government that came its way so surprisingly this week...