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Gough Whitlam Gough Whitlam Guide to archives of Australia’s prime ministers by Jenny Hocking, with Clare Land, Natasha Campo and Sarah Tayton This guide is number 7 in the series of research guides to Australia’s prime ministers published by the National Archives of Australia. While guides include the material known to be relevant to their subject area, they are not necessarily a complete or definitive guide to all relevant material in the collection. They include selected records from various institutions. The assistance of cultural institutions in compiling listings for this guide is gratefully acknowledged. Other publications in the National Archives’ Guide to Archives of Australia’s Prime Ministers series: • Our First Six: guide to archives of Australia’s prime ministers, by Susan Marsden and Roslyn Russell, 2002 • Joseph Lyons: guide to archives of Australia’s prime ministers, by Susan Marsden, 2002 • Stanley Melbourne Bruce: guide to archives of Australia’s prime ministers, by John Connor, 2003 • Harold Holt: guide to archives of Australia’s prime ministers, by Pennie Pemberton, 2003 • John Curtin: guide to archives of Australia’s prime ministers, by David Black and Leslie Wallace, 2005 • Malcolm Fraser: guide to archives of Australia’s prime ministers, by Elizabeth Masters and Katie Wood with Margaret Simons, 2012 © Commonwealth of Australia (National Archives of Australia) 2016 This product, excluding the National Archives of Australia logo, Commonwealth Coat of Arms and any material owned by a third party or protected by a trademark, has been released under a Creative Commons BY 4.0 (CC-BY 4.0) licence. Excluded material owned by third parties may include, for example, design and layout, images obtained under licence from third parties and signatures. The National Archives of Australia has made all reasonable efforts to identify and label material owned by third parties. You may distribute, remix and build on this work. However, you must attribute the National Archives of Australia as the copyright holder of the work in compliance with its attribution policy available at naa.gov.au/copyright. The full terms and conditions of this licence are available at creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/au. Inquiries relating to copyright should be emailed to [email protected]. Images that appear in this book are reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Every reasonable endeavour has been made to locate and contact copyright holders. Where this has not proved possible, copyright holders are invited to contact the publisher. ISBN 978-1-922209-07-08 Published by the National Archives of Australia t (02) 6212 3600 e [email protected] w naa.gov.au Front cover: Gough Whitlam surrounded by journalists in the wake of Cyclone Tracy, Darwin, 1974. NAA: A6180, 31/12/74/65 Back cover: Gough and Margaret Whitlam in the grounds of The Lodge, Canberra, 1973. NAA: A8746, KN24/9/73/7 This publication is also available online at naa.gov.au This guide contains images of people now deceased. Contents Introduction 1 1 Gough Whitlam: a short biography 7 2 The Whitlam family 25 3 Education, early life and career 35 4 Member for Werriwa, 1952–67 45 5 ‘Whose party is this?’ Gough Whitlam and ALP politics 50 6 Leader of the Opposition, 1967–72 58 7 Prime Minister, 1972–75 67 8 The Dismissal 133 9 Post-parliamentary life 153 10 Ephemera and realia 161 11 Margaret Whitlam 167 12 Appendixes 176 Appendix 1 Timeline 176 Appendix 2 Who’s who 184 Appendix 3 Select bibliography 193 Index 199 Contents iii About the authors Professor Jenny Hocking is Research Professor and Australian Research Council Discovery Outstanding Researcher Award Fellow in the National Centre for Australian Studies at Monash University and the inaugural Distinguished Whitlam Fellow at the Whitlam Institute in the University of Western Sydney. She is the author of the definitive two-volume biography of Gough Whitlam: Gough Whitlam: a moment in history (Melbourne University Press, 2008) and Gough Whitlam: his time (Melbourne University Press, 2012). Dr Clare Land works at Victoria University’s Moondani Balluk Indigenous Academic Unit and the Reichstein Foundation, an innovative philanthropic organisation. She is the author of Decolonizing Solidarity: dilemmas and directions for supporters of Indigenous struggles (Zed Books, 2015), and the historiographical monograph Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner: the involvement of Aboriginal people from Tasmania in key events of early Melbourne (City of Melbourne, 2014). Dr Natasha Campo is a writer and historian whose book, From Superwomen to Domestic Goddesses: the rise and fall of feminism (Peter Lang, 2009), was awarded the 2010 WH Hancock Prize by the Australian Historical Association. Dr Sarah Tayton is a scholar who has worked in the areas of history, sociology and public health. She is a Research Officer at the Australian Institute of Family Studies, working in the area of family violence. Introduction This guide to the archives of former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam has been produced by the National Archives of Australia to assist researchers find records relating to both Gough and Margaret Whitlam in the National Archives and other collections. It is the seventh volume to be published in the National Archives’ Guides to Archives of Australia’s Prime Ministers series and is a companion publication to the Australia’s Prime Ministers website (primeministers.naa.gov.au). Gough Whitlam became Australia’s 21st Prime Minister on 5 December 1972 following the Australian Labor Party (ALP) victory at the election on 2 December. His Labor government, the first after more than two decades, set out to change Australia through a wide-ranging reform program and was re-elected at the double dissolution election of 18 May 1974. Whitlam’s term abruptly ended when his government was dismissed by the Governor-General on 11 November 1975. The public lives of Gough Whitlam and his wife Margaret extend over half a century. After serving in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), Whitlam joined the ALP in 1945. He became the Member for Werriwa in Sydney’s south at a by-election on 29 November 1952 following the death of ALP member Bert Lazzarini. He retained the seat in 11 more federal elections over the next 25 years. Whitlam led the reform of the ALP platform during the long years in Opposition. As Prime Minister he immediately set about implementing a reform program that included recognising communist China, lowering the voting age to 18, ending conscription, releasing draft resisters from prison, equal pay for women, Indigenous land rights, universal health care, no-fault divorce, ending the British honours system and introducing an Australian national anthem. His government drew on international agreements to develop programs on human rights, the environment and conservation. Margaret Whitlam played an important role as a political and prime ministerial wife. An outspoken public speaker, broadcaster and columnist, she accompanied Gough Whitlam on his countless overseas travels. As a qualified social worker, she was particularly interested in social conditions. Their public lives continued after they left The Lodge in 1975. There are several significant holdings of records of or about Gough Whitlam. In addition, there are numerous smaller holdings that illuminate the work and lives of his family, among whom his father Fred Whitlam was particularly influential on Whitlam’s career. Archives relating to Margaret Whitlam are included in the final chapter of this guide. In December 2002, Whitlam said of the pending release of the archival records of his government under the former ‘30-year rule’ covering official documents: ‘I cannot exaggerate the importance of these records. It is not a matter of vindication but of verification. If there is any such thing as the “inside story” of the Whitlam government, it is to be found in these records’.1 National Archives of Australia The National Archives of Australia holds a substantial collection of records created by Gough Whitlam during his years as Prime Minister and Member of Parliament. Commonwealth records – including Cabinet records – of the Whitlam government are available, having entered the Introduction 1 open access period. The open access period for Commonwealth records begins after 20 years; for Cabinet notebooks after 30 years. Some records are held in the Sydney repository of the Archives, while the Cabinet records of the Whitlam government are held in the Canberra repository. Many records are digitised and available online through the Archives’ website. Archives fact sheets cover several aspects of the Whitlam government including Gough Whitlam, the Loans Affair and the Dismissal, and contain links to relevant archival series. A list of relevant fact sheets is included in the bibliography (pages 214–15). The Archives’ Australia’s Prime Ministers website provides links to institutions around the world that hold records on, or relevant to, Gough Whitlam (primeministers.naa.gov.au/findrecords/Whitlam). National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia holds a significant collection of oral history interviews with former parliamentarians and an extensive manuscripts collection. It holds the papers of several parliamentarians who served as ministers during the Whitlam government, scholars, journalists and authors, as well as key ALP identities. Relevant holdings include records of ALP federal caucuses, the ALP federal secretariat, and an important set of letters from Gough Whitlam to his parents while a student at the University of Sydney and during his war service. The National Library holds the original interviews undertaken by Professor Jenny Hocking for her two-volume biography of Gough Whitlam.2 Whitlam Institute The Whitlam Institute at the University of Western Sydney holds a Prime Ministerial Collection that includes many of Whitlam’s own records, as well as those of his wife Margaret, and material donated by Whitlam’s speechwriter and confidante Graham Freudenberg. In 2001 the Institute began to digitise Whitlam’s hardcopy collection of papers, diaries and photographs, including press releases (1972–77) and speeches (1958–2007), as well as key documents relating to the Dismissal.
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