The truth about Whitlam
Scandal, sorcery and sex
Here’s the thesis statement of the entire thing: Australians forget. We have selective amnesia in our history. I was a grown, nerdy adult before I began researching the life and times of Gough Whitlam. For those who know about the dismissed Prime Minister, it’s usually just the famous speech on Parliament steps that occupies memories.
‘Well, may we say, God Save The Queen, because nothing will save the Governor-General.’
But I guess I was most surprised by the humanity of everyone involved. Australians are generally allergic to emotion and sincerity. Our political public figures we expect stoic rigidity - for better or worse, that appears to be the status quo for all significant members of the Labor and Liberal parties. The effect rarely gives Aussies a sense of trust and reassurance. Instead, they all appear as private school boys at a tipsy debate club.
Of course, they are all human. Whitlam is a lefty hero. I am a fan of the policies, but it’s hard to ignore that he defied the rules. I don’t mind him being mischievous because I politically align with him. But if a conservative had done what he did (approved private loans with bankrupt businessmen, rushed in a two-man government, put the alliance with the States in imminent danger in wartime) - I would have wanted him gone.
Then there’s Kerr - one of Australian history’s greatest villains—the power-hungry Governor-General who had the balls to fire a Prime Minister in power. The almost constantly drunk Kerr had lost his wife of decades in the first week of taking up the role. He is far from a lone actor - there remain suspicious and classified links to US and English royal involvement.
And of course, the culture was dripping in misogyny. Whitlam broke boundaries - he employed the first Women’s Advisor to the PM, the astonishing Elizabeth Reid. She was bullied relentlessly, a survivor of an alleged assault by a drunk Kerr (who also proposed marriage), and eventually dismissed for her trouble. Meanwhile, Whitlam’s chief ally and senior minister Jim Cairns was in an affair with a Shanghai-born Tantra-loving flight attendant. She taught him the philosophies of Wilhelm Reich, a disgraced psychiatrist who believed cancer could be cured with orgasms.
Here’s the central thesis: we forget our history. All patriotic memory is artificial and curated, but the Australian curriculum and cultural dialogue are anemic to the point of fainting.
So this is my latest play, and it’s been a joy to make it with UniSQ students, and it might have a future production. Paid subscribers will likely get a version of the script at some point in the future.
But in the meantime, it’s free and on for a very limited season. If you’re in the neighbourhood, come and say hi.
Comment your responses and memories on Whitlam and Australian history.