The Real Gough Whitlam

Wednesday, February 17, 1999 - 11:00

Gough Whitlam:

* Supported Australia's intervention in Vietnam in 1965.

* Met Suharto over dinner during his first year as Indonesia's president. During that year, up to 1 million people were massacred. Decades later, Whitlam still referred to Suharto as "an honourable man".

* Reduced the migrant intake in 1972 from 140,000 per year to 110,000, and then again in 1974 to 80,000.

* Introduced a wage-freeze indexation system which held back wages while prices rose. Labor's system was used by Malcolm Fraser to slash wages even further.

* Delivered a huge handout to the Leyland car company in 1974 after it closed its plant in Sydney. Three thousand workers lost their jobs, and received no assistance.

* Cut public spending, raised taxes and initiated a major austerity program in the 1975 budget, as unemployment reached 300 000.

* Seized shipments of petrol bound for East Timor which were vital for the distribution of food aid in mid-1975.

*Supported his mate Suharto's invasion of East Timor.

From GLW issue 349