Whitlam Scandal In Australia

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Printed across The News’ front page on the 11th of November 1915 in bold capitol letters is “Whitlam sacked”. Never before had a representative of the British monarch dismissed an elected Australian government. In what’s deemed as the most dramatic event in Australian political history, this polarising event took place because of culmination of events and scandals that led to the abrupt termination of the Whitlam government. The most notably affair was the ‘loans affair ‘where the government was accused of seeking to loan money without approval by the Loan Council. Although the Whitlam Government implemented great changes during their term, their ultimate demise came as a result of a multitude of factors for which can be attributed to the …show more content…
At the time, the Loan Council was needed to approve of any foreign loans, whose approval the Whitlam Government did not attain. Apart from the sum of the loan being very large, reasons that cast considerable doubt on the loan was its source: the loan was being borrowed from Arab banks instead of the usual European. It so happened that the loan never eventuated. But that wasn’t the end of it: the media broke the news public. This embarrassing event had detrimental effects on favour for the Whitlam Government as questions of misconduct arose. This lead the Whitlam Government to being vulnerable and the Opposition, led by Malcolm Fraser, seized this opportunity to prevent the government’s budget. By using their numbers in the Senate, they were able to stop the passage of supply. The Age echoed Fraser’s stance when it …show more content…
The Government and the Opposition had held an equal amount of seats, as long as the two Independents voted with Labor, but on June 30, Labor Senator Bert Milliner died suddenly. A replacement was appointed who was openly hostile towards the Whitlam government despite being in the Labor Party but his right to sit was challenged. Even without this replacement in the senate, the Government would only be able to muster 29 votes to the Oppositions 30. Gough Whitlam had attempted multiple times to sway the majority in the senate but eventually failed to affect the votes and left him with a
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