Word: whitlams
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...atmosphere at Windsor Castle could have been, to say the least, a little strained. As house guests for the night, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip had invited Australia's forceful, independent-minded Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, and his equally outspoken wife Margaret (TIME, March 26). It was the Queen's first encounter with Whitlam since he was elected last December on a mandate that included snipping some of Australia's ties to both the monarchy and the mother country...
...Whitlam married a fellow student, 6-ft. 2-in. Margaret Dovey, daughter of a Sydney lawyer who later became a Supreme Court Justice in New South Wales. They met at a university party when, as Margaret puts it, their eyes found each other across the heads of their smaller companions. Margaret has been a surprise to Australians, who still generally accept the notion that women should not always be seen, let alone heard. Shortly after her husband's election, Margaret told interviewers that she favored wages for housewives, was not opposed to couples living together outside marriage, and thought...
...Whitlam was a Royal Australian Air Force bomber-navigator during World War II, then completed his law course. After failing in two local contests, he won a by-election for the federal seat of Werriwa in 1952 and has held it ever since. His early years in Parliament were difficult. His own party regarded him suspiciously because he did not fit the image of a typical Labor politician: he had never worked with his hands, worn overalls, belonged to a trade union or been on strike. Well-educated, well-spoken, well-dressed, he was characterized as a "smoothie...
When it came to name-calling, Whitlam gave more than he got. In Australia's rambunctious House of Representatives, where debate is often a euphemism for denunciation, Whitlam has described Liberal Cabinet ministers variously as "bumptious bastard," "queen," "dingo" (Australia's version of a coyote) and something that Hansard recorded as "runt" (which at least rhymed with the actual word). He once became so enraged with one Liberal minister that he dumped a glass of water on him. That minister was Paul Hasluck, who later became Governor General of Australia and, in an antipodean twist of fate, found...
...Dressed in a dark blue suit and a blue and white striped shirt with matching handkerchief, Gough Whitlam looked like everyone's friendly neighborhood banker," TIME Sydney Bureau Chief Ed Ogle reported after an interview with the Australian Prime Minister. "When I told him that my first question was going to be about the future of Australia, he flashed a grin and quipped to his press secretary: 'Quick, get my papers on that.' But it was obvious as the interview progressed that Gough Whitlam needed no papers on Australia's future-or anything else...