Leadership is the art of the impossible

The wartime Curtin and Chifley Labor Governments were operating in such turbulent times that substantial change was more a necessity than an option. Chifley was concerned that ex-service personnel returning from the war would not tolerate unemployment and attempted to ensure that a system of full employment and decent benefits for unemployed people was put in place. In 1947, Labor consolidated all social security legislation in one act. Chifley was wrong-footed by the coal miners' strikes, his decision to maintain petrol rationing and his desire to nationalise the banks.

Menzies, by then leading the Liberal Party, swept back into office. Labor did not go within cooee of toppling him till 1961. In that year, Menzies won by one seat held by Jim Killen where the Communist candidate had preferenced the Liberals ahead of Labor.

Though Menzies towered over his party, he did not change things very much. He tried to outlaw membership of the Communist Party of Australia via a referendum but under the dogged leadership of the Labor Leader Doc Evatt the referendum was defeated.

Evatt, who had been a High Court Judge and President of United Nations General Assembly, was the antithesis of a pragmatic manager. The Labor Party split over the communist issue allowing conservatives opportunistically to use Democratic Labor Party preferences to remain in office until 1972. Menzies was replaced by a series of political gnomes: Holt - remembered for failing skin diving; Gorton – forgotten; and McMahon - remembered for the split in his wife's dress.

Eventually Gough Whitlam replaced, "two Wong's don't make a white" Caldwell as leader and Labor was on the comeback trail. In 1972, at his second attempt, Gough Whitlam strode into office like a colossus. After 23 years of unbroken conservative rule when radical change did not seem a possibility – it was now inevitable.

Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War had ended. Social security provisions were made increasingly more generous. Aboriginal land rights and self-determination were firmly on the agenda. Gender equality became a serious issue. The White Australia Policy was watered down during the time of the Liberal gnomes and it was formally abandoned in 1973 when the Labor Government:

· Legislated that all migrants, regardless of origin, be eligible to obtain citizenship after three years of permanent residence;

· Ratified all international agreements relating to immigration and race; and

· Issued policy to totally disregard race as a factor in selecting migrants.

Following the Dismissal of the Whitlam Government, Malcolm Fraser was appointed to lead a caretaker government. Whitlam showed he could still inspire a devoted following.

I remember being in the Greek Hall in Darwin in the run up to the 1975 election. When there was no longer any standing room in the hall, young Greek men climbed up the beams which supported the roof and hung from the girders for an hour shouting: "We want Gough." When he finally appeared the applause was deafening.

Fraser won the 1975 election and set out to crack down on workers entitlements and the unemployed. The Fraser Government was not a racist government. It passed the Northern Territory Land Rights Act of 1976 in a form not that far removed from the Whitlam Government's draft legislation. It handled the influx of Indo-Chinese asylum seekers without the hullabaloo of the current Gillard-Abbott descent into the