Abiding Interests

When he became Prime Minister in December 1972 Gough Whitlam was the first Labor Prime Minister for 23 years. Within days he had abolished conscription, withdrawn the remaining Australian troops from Viet Nam, negotiated diplomatic relations with China and initiated Federal aid to State and church schools and land rights for Aborigines. In this new book, completed after his 80th birthday, Whitlam reviews his career, examines the repercussions of the US withdrawal from Viet Nam and the Portuguese withdrawal from Timor in 1975 and the break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. He discusses the decline of the Hawke Government, the rise and fall of Paul Keating and the resuscitation of John Howard. And he speculates about the future of our nation, and propounds the case for a Federal Republic.