Today marks the 50th anniversary of The Dismissal, where the Governor General (the Queen’s representative in Australia), Sir John Kerr, exercised the little known Reserve Powers to sack the democratically elected government of Gough Whitlam.
Whitlam’s Government is now more broadly remembered by the general population for its long list of reforms over the three years they were in government more than the manner of its ending. Those reforms rocketed Australia from a particularly sleepy and inward looking nation in the 1950s and 1960s toward a more outward looking and progressive nation in the 1970s.
I have tooted and retooted numerous articles about The Dismissal in the last week, so I will not be discussing all the details again.
Instead, I will keep it really simple.
What will people be thinking of the Albanese Government in 50 years from now? A government with an absolutely stonking majority, an almost certain third term and no effective opposition other than a rag tag bunch of independents.
I posit that the Albanese Government will likely be remembered as a government that pissed a great opportunity up against the wall, a government that was too scared of its own reflection to make any meaningful change. A government that purported to be progressive and reformist while doing none of those things. A government with tremendous opportunity to make meaningful and lasting change that addressed systemic problems which are holding Australia back. And a government that squibbed its responsibility to the future.
I won’t be around in 50 years … so I won’t be able to reflect back on the Albanese Government. But I ask you to think about this:
What would Whitlam have achieved with a majority half the size of the majority held by the Albanese Government and with a near certainty of a third term from the outset of their second term?
