SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER
THE HON. E. G. WHITLAM, M. P.,
AT THE LAUNCHING OF
" GRAB FOR POWER"
BY LAURIE OAKES AND DAVID SOLOMON
9 DECEMBER 1974
Reminding this distinguished gathering and
also all those who listen to and view the media how much
my Government has meant to the publishing industry.
When I first tarted launching books at the request of
the Australian publishers the books were printed overseas.
The Australians were the authors but the printers and the
publishers were not. On this occasion there are distinguishedI
Australian writers, authors and skilled printers and, I trust,
prosperous-publishers.
It's the " Grab for Power" the book is called.
Another from the tree of Oakes and Solomon. Some people may
see a similarity between the events which precipitated this
latest tome and the present time. Nothing is so dead as
last weekA scandal. Anybody reading this book will see how
issues which were regarded as overwhelming, at the outset of
the campaign, whie/ proper grabs for power are made, how
they can be transmuted in the hands of skilled practitioners
during the campaign. The public gets a sense of proportion.
The public sees what are the alternatives. They have to see
not only the faults of the incumbents but the deficiencies
of the challengers. This book is, I'm certain,. bound to be read by a
very great number of people, from all walks of life.
It is a fascinating story. Racily written, an exciting
story. At the same time it is a substantial work of research
and there will be young and old read about it, there will
be professors reading it and ofcourse sayin g how much better
they would have done it themselves, and I suppose if you
can wait for decades that may be true. And there will
be aspiring politicians who will say how much better they
would have done it, achieved it or avoided it. I would
like to pay tribute'to the authors, because I've never
I would like to paC t::. rhute to) hLo; h
because I. have never known opeople to work so thoroughly and
api: ly as Oakes and Solomon, They're very much -etter
authors of books than interpr:..:-ers in the cdii;. papers.
You can always rely on yesterdayi s paper beinc-li; carded,
nobody can find it. But books like this endure' Thy will
He around for a long time, and I believe it will stand the
passage of time.
There are similarities, aren't there between what
people thought were the circumstances of last April and
what some people think are the circumstances of today.
But I think the Australian people have learnt from two
aspects of the events of last April and May. The people
who grabbed for power last April thought that Australians
didn't know what went on in the rest of the world. They
thought we were still an isolated, insular, backward
people. In fact Australians, largely due to the press,
are now aware of what goes on in other parts of-the world.
They know that Australia isn't so different from other
countries, that in fact all the countries in which
Australians are interested are very similar to Australiasocially,
politically and economically. We all influence
each other. And this is a process which is going to become
more marked instead of less marked. All the things which
appal people, distress people and I dare say, in the next
couple of months will make many people hysterical, are
also being found in other countries the countries that
people visit in the course of their duties. The countries
which people should study. The countries with which wer
trade. The countries with which we compare ourselves.
Appail-ng unemployment figures in Australia at the moment,
but not as bad as in North America or most countries of
western Europe or Japan. And the measures which I announced
a month ago ad some which I will be announcing, not directly
face to face, orally as I am speaking to you now, but in
a prepared statement, will I am sure convince you that in
these matters Australia is not only still more successful
than any comparable country but in fact is taking steps
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which will mean that the position will improve improve
markedly be seen to improve and be certainly very much
betterbefore any other grab can be achieved.
There's another lesson I believe we have to draw
in addition to that concerning the similarities of conditions
in Australia and those in North America, Western Europe and
Japan and that is the sheer impropriety of what was done
politically last April. Some people believe that having
done it once, even though they didn't get away with it,
they should or could do it again. I don't believe that
Australians are impressed with those who still seek to
destroy the system, t. o make it unworkable. In April,
in May, nobody sought a mandate to use the Senate against
either side which succeeded in getting a majority in the
House of Representatives. There are often references to
mandates. Mandates apparently are sometimes doubted when
they're in the hands of those who win. But people, it
would be extraordinary if it were held that mandates are
in the hands of those who didn't succeed in getting enough
seats. Now last April and last May the campaign was to
form a Government and the Government was returned. There
was never any threat, at that time, by the challengers
that if they didn't get a majority in the House of
Representatives they would still try to achieve a
combination in the Senate which would thwart the side which
got the majority in the House of Representatives. No mandate
was sought, nobody came clean then and yet that apparently is
the threat which is being held now. If you lose twice you
can still destroy the system. Now of course it is difficult
to govern in Australia now, it is difficult to govern in
any comparable country, there is no head of government anywhere
in the Western world and for that purpose one includes Japan,
Australia and New Zealand who can rest securely or serenely.
The system is under challenge everywhere., whether it is a
system of divided powers, such as in the United States or
whether it is a system of Presidential powers, such as in
France or whether it is a Westminster system as in Britain
itself or in Australia or in New Zealand. In all these systems
there is immense stress and we jeopardise the system at our
peril because in each case there ir a history, there are some
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traditions, there are some conventions which have made the
system work and those who jeopardise the system have nothing*
to put in its place. These are serious matters. I sometimes4
on these occasionsA,, fl somewhat more flippant. But I expect
you expect me to say something rather more serious because
there are economic and there are Political matters arising
from last April from which we should all learn. It is important
that the political system in Australia should be effective.
It should be seen to be effective, socially and economically
and those who grab power and fail, those who do not get the
support * of the people at an election should not try to make
the system unworkable thereafter. We are ending a year
in the Australian Parliament where some bills have had to be
debated seven times before they have gone through. Seven times,
three times in each House and at a Joint Sitting. ( unclear)
Joint Sitting is held and the inevitable results flow from all
six bills which came before it after six debates . before being
debated at the Joint Sitting, Since that time there have been
eleven more bills passed by the House of Representatives and
rejected by the Senate and in most cases those bills were
precisely stated in the policy speech of the Government party
last April. Ladies and Gentlemen , this grab for power should
be a very salutary lesson to all. For whateitver polls may say
and there was a Western Australian poll a couple of weeks
before the grab was made-and whatever the economics, statistics
and indices may show-and they were deteriorating last March and
last april whaterver ephemeral scand als may emerge and be
blown up. The fact in that the grab failed ( unclear) and that
any further grab is similar circumstances or ciruinstances which
people thought similar, circumstances which blow some people's
tops, any similar grabs~ imilarly will fail. Its al-la question
of how soon Oakes and Solomon write the next book. I am satisfied
that I will be launching it and in the same happy circumstances.
I congratulate the authors, printers and the publishers and
I am certain there will be thousands of readers for Christmas and
in the following years who will enjoy am happy
to contribute to it somehow. It has at least solved my
Christmas problem anyway.