ArkRoyal wrote: Anchorman -- do everyone a favour and talk some sense: Sir John was an Australian, a lawyer, a former member of the ALP, a colleague of Whitlam, which, is why he made him the Governor-General in the bloody first-place.
Turning to the wider issue of Whitlham's legacy:
medibank was sort of the forerunner to Medicare
Medicare is inherently sustainable; we pay for it twice: income tax and the Medicare levy; and yet the present Tories wish to introduce a third tax on medicine; Hands up whom wants to pay for health three times? Whatever the costs of the socialist health system, it costs Australia less than the private system in the US.
welfare payments -- its called humanism or helping the poor; I like the idea
Foreign Policy
Whitlham changed the ALP's policy to support the war in Vietnam -- that is right, he supported the war; the war was actually popular in Australia; it was Arthur Calwell whom opposed the war, the previous ALP leader
Combat troops left Vietnam a year before Gough was elected, so he saved zero Australian soldiers; even the American combat troops left in September 1972, a full three months before Gough become Prime Minister.
it is often claimed Whitlham was the first Western leader to recognise China; this is a complete load of bull-dirt. The countries below recognised China as follows:
UK (1949)
France 1966
Italy and Canada around 1969
America 1972
all before Whitlham. IN truth, the government achieved little in foreign policy; but he was the only Western leader to recognise Stalin's aggression against the Baltic States in 1939 -- Gough was a good comrade to the Soviets and besides, in return Putinland agreed to buy some of our wheat.
The man should be remembered for his socialist reforms -- some of which are still with us, thankfully -- but one should avoid myth making; it, is only in this fashion that we can avoid putting forward historical untruths and attributing things to Whitlham that he just did not do.
Just about all true, yes the recognition of the Soviet takeover of the Baltic states was another Whitlam trophy, he can add that to Pol Pot in Cambodia.
Spot on re Vietnam, its all part of the BS Labor Myth, its amazing how many out there keep pushing this crap.
Medicare, - Got to take issue with that, it clearly is NOT sustainable in its current form, the Medicare levey only amounts to half the total cost of the health budget now, there is a massive blow iut in costs and our tax base now simpy isnt enough to get close to covering it, something has to change, before it falls over altogther, everytime I go to the doc it costs me 38 bucks anyway, so I dont see the big deal in charging $7 less than a pint off beer.
Welfare - that existed long before Gough, Old Age pensions, War pensions, Invalid pensions, Child Endowment etc had been around since before even Bob Menzies, and Menzies increased some of those, what Whitlam did was open the flood gates, turned the Welfare payments into one of need into one of expectation, we went from a nation of self reliance to one of entitled freeloaders, its now at the points that half the country pays no net tax at all, once pensions , family tax benefits and god knows what are forked out, hence we cant afford medicare, which btw everyone expects for SFA as well as education, a baby bonus, a first home buyers grant, a cheap HECS loan etc.. it goes on and on.
Other things Whitlam stuffed up.
The Australian Honours system , when he made Australians ineligable for the Victoria Cross despite it having been recognised as the No 1 military award for 100 or so years, it was later restored thank fully , but the Australian Honours System remains a total dogs breakfast ever since.
Remember that shifty crock Lionel Murphy , he was Attorney General, raided ASIO. He was facing re trial on Attempting to Pervert the Course of Justice when he died, have a read of some of his nutjob judgements when he was stuck on the bench of the High Court as a labor stooge. Complete joke.
