Labour Crisis In Australia Essay

Labour disunity was a huge contributing factor as to why the conservatives were able to dominate from 1951 to 1964. However, there are also other factors that assisted conservative dominance. Whether that be conservative strengths, good timing, the end of austerity or their handle on public opinion, all factors contributed to the dominant years. However, how long the conservatives actually dominated is also a question. Did they dominate for the whole period, or just part of it? The years 1962-1964 question conservative dominance and how labour reunited.

When assessing this time of Australia, it is interesting to realise how much the USA did not trust Whitlam, and didn’t know whether to approach him as a friend or foe. However once, the controversial induction of Malcom Fraser occurs in 1975, Australia’s relationship with the USA begins to re-strengthen. It was during this time that another Superpower attempted to change the world. The USSR posed a roadblock to America’s hold and despite the Fraser Government taking a strong anti USSR stance, maintained a trade relationship with them. Australia again didn’t agree with America, or other nations, when it came to the 1980 Moscow Olympics. The USA boycotted and banned their athletes from competing while Australia allowed their athletes to volunteer

In 1951 Winston Churchill's Conservative party, won the general election, and this would be the start of 13 years of Conservative rule spanning three prime ministers. This rule was ended in 1964 by Harold Wilson’s reunited Labour party. In this essay, I will look at the factors which led to the Labour victory.

The election campaign in 1964 was a close run contest even though there was a low public approval of the current Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home. The labour party only won a majority of 3 seats. The reason for the decline in support for the Conservative party was because of events and scandals such as the Profumo affair

When you think of the “land down under” you don’t really think of the kind of government they have. I chose to write about the Australian government because I really don’t hear much about Australia. It currently has a pretty interesting story to tell when it comes to their government. I became a bit interested in Australian politics when I saw a political animated cartoon on the internet that depicted Kevin Rudd, the last Prime Minister, on a news television show and it was quite humorous. I am going to give a quick history lesson on Australia then go into how the government formed and came to be. Then I will talk about the Australian constitution, the Australian arms of government, their federal system, political parties and Australia’s

As the Prime Minister of Australia, it is my duty to present my democratic nation with their elected desires. The current issue is concerning the movement of Australia’s governing system from a constitutional monarchy to a republic. I believe that Australia should become a republic, as our sunburnt country has overtime developed culturally and democratically since 1901 when we become the Commonwealth of Australia, and started living under the ruling of Queen Elizabeth the Second. We have created a place that is in no way similar to the British Empire. As Australians we respect and acknowledge the traditional owners of our land, the Aborigines. Over time, it seems as though we have taken this country out of their hands and handed it to the

This was supported by the Australian population due to job scarcity as a result of the economic depression and racial prejudice

‘The War to End All Wars’, commonly known as First World War, was one of the largest wars in history global conflict in Europe that commence on 1914 and lasted until 1918. Due to the aggression among the alliances, countries came to each other’s support and evolved in the six main powers of Europe uniting into two large groups: Italy, Austria-Hungary and Germany compose the Triple Alliance, while France, Russia and Britain established the Triple Entente. By the outbreak of the Great War, Australian men hurried to enlist for the cause of supporting the ‘mother country’ as Australia had a deep affection and loyalty towards Britain. As war progressed, Australia became aware of the barbaric reality of war.

Rawson’s book titled Labor in Vain? (1966) lists reasons for the decline in Labor’s first preferential votes, particularly up until the 1960s. By doing so, Rawson constructs the foundations for the beginning of the decline in chapter one, magnifying the core reasons to be the parties unneeded media drama, their lack of respect for leadership, inter-war policies, the 1945 party split, and the decline of trade union power through the alterations in Australian living standards. Rawson draws on interviews with Labor party members to construct his thesis as to why Labor is in Vain, enhancing it through the comparison of both Labor and Liberal policies. Rawson’s book is crucial for understanding why support began to decline during the early and mid-twentieth century, hence assisting with the question as it also provides answers as to what the Party itself can do about the issue, as it points out strengths of the Liberal party which assist in their success.

The Labour government of 1974-1979 also won two elections, the 1974 February election and the 1974 October election, however both were won by a minority. The February election was won by 4 seats and the October election was won by 42 seats. The reason for the slim win is to do with inflation. The Labour governments of 1974-1979 were in office at a bad time because Britain had started to suffer from huge inflation because of the oil price rise in 1973, and so voters didn’t have a clear decision on which they were going to vote for. This shows that at the moment the 1964-1970 Labour Government was more successful by far because of their majority of 110 seats in the 1966 election.

* Labour negotiated a coalition with LibDems and later the LibDems negotiated with both main parties for a coalition

However, dissent and schism were not to be limited to the Labour Party and Alliance Party

The 1997 general election swept away eighteen years of Conservative government, replacing it with a Labour majority government - with a majority of 179; their largest majority ever, surpassing even the 145 seat majority won by the party in 1945. Under the Labour landslide, several prominent Tory MPs and frontbenchers were defeated by Labour, Liberal Democrat and Scottish National candidates, such as Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind, Scottish Secretary Michael Forsyth, Trade Secretary Ian Lang, former Health Secretary Edwina Currie, former Chancellor of the Exchequer Norman Lamont, former Minister for ‘Fun’ (National Heritage) David Mellor, and scandal embroiled former Minister Neil Hamilton (who was defeated by the Labour and Liberal

The piece Advance Australia … within reason, was conveyed on the 5th of January by Amy Mackintosh, at the annual “University of Students for Youth Political Activism’ meeting held at The University of Melbourne. Mackintosh steadily argues the reasons why Australia should not have become a republic, and how the country should stay as a monarchy. The tone of the speech is very colloquial and even sarcastic, with the middle part being more analytical and serious. The speaker gives the impression that the argument for Australia to stay as a Monarchy is unbiased and logical.

Even though Labour owed their seats partly to the Liberals as they made a pact to prevent anti-Conservative votes being wasted they showed no gratitude as liberalism was about tariff reform, taxation and foreign policy but labour had always concentrated on equal