Something for the weekend
Tied to Sydney at weekends so he can battle to save his parliamentary seat in Bennelong, John Howard should perhaps consider a night out at the theatre. Just across the water from his harbour-side official residence, Kirribilli House, the political comedy Don’s Party is playing to almost-packed audiences in the bowels of the Sydney Opera House.
The play is set on election night in 1969, when Don Henderson, a schoolteacher and failed writer, throws a booze-fuelled party to celebrate what he fully expects to be a long-awaited Labor victory in the federal election. Joining him in his Melbourne suburban home is a dysfunctional ensemble of old friends and new acquaintances: a lecherous lawyer, a self-absorbed artist on a journey of sexual experimentation, a humourless dentist, a couple of nervy housewives and a boorish university lecturer. Posters of the then Labor leader, Gough Whitlam adorn the set. A self-confessed Liberal voter is treated first as a social outcast, then as an object of sexual desire.
Admittedly, Mr. Howard might not appreciate the play’s adult themes of late-sixties partner-swapping and permissiveness. Nor, for that matter, one of its main premises: that anyone who votes Liberal is somehow mentally deficient. But surely he would applaud the play’s denouement: a victory for sitting Prime Minister John Gorton and another term in office for the Liberal-led government.
Back in 1969, there was a strong feeling that the government had been in office too long – a staggering 20 years - and was bereft of fresh ideas. It had committed Australian troops to an unpopular war in Vietnam, drawing complaints that the government was toadying up to Washington.
The parallels do not end there. The Labor Party was led by a popular moderniser, Gough Whitlam, who campaigned on a raft of forward-thinking policies. He vowed, for instance, to ditch the "White Australia" immigration policy.
Eventually, though, he was beaten by a Liberal Party which successfully hammered home its core message that the economy would not be safe in Labor hands and that Mr Whitlam would be bullied by the unions.
Given Labor’s disastrous performance three years earlier, 1969 was always going to be a tough year to achieve a breakthrough. And ultimately the party scored a net gain of 18 seats, which teed up its victory three years hence. Mr Rudd, you will remember, describes the 16 seats Labor needs for victory this year as the vote-winning equivalent of "climbing Everest" - although he clearly believes he can make it in a single ascent.
Mr Whitlam’s failure to achieve a similar feat in 1969 means that Don’s Party collapses into a drunken stupor of dashed electoral hopes and thwarted sexual advances.
Just the sort of storyline which would have John Howard bellowing "encore" from the stalls.
I'm 
°ä´Ç³¾³¾±ð²Ô³Ù²õÌýÌý Post your comment
If you're covering Australian elections you really must add both the Possum Pollytics and Ozpolitics blogs to your required reading.
In particular, if you have a look at Ozpolitics' graphs the '96/'07 comparison is educational.
"a lecherous lawyer, a self-absorbed artist on a journey of sexual experimentation, a humourless dentist, a couple of nervy housewives and a boorish university lecturer"
Which members of this group (besides the nervy housewives) are women? Or am I supposed to assume lawyers, artists, dentists and lecturers are always men?
Noted, Nick, that you "... will have just covered [your] most confounding election to date". I agree, the lead up is very confounding. I like to think votes reflect honestly and wisely the recognition of merit.
I can find in the press much about Australians being ready for "change" - only the unthinking ones perhaps. Shouldn't it be: "When you're on a good thing, stick to it"? Just watch the ASX index, i.e. frequently in the green on many a day, when all other indices are on a downward spiral in the red. The US, Canada, N.Z., Brazil and many global economies are also benefitting from the powerhouses of China, India and Russia, not just Australia, yet their economies are not all in such good shape, are they? Maybe they need a change of treasurey, but not us.
You may not be aware, (naturally as a newcomer), that business interest rates were 22% under the Keating Labor Govt. and unemployment peaked at around 9%. It is not difficult to keep interest rates low in a recession, as the USA Federal Reserve has shown, yet Labor had a record high rate during the "recession we had to have", as Mr. Keating glibly dismissed it. It is very difficult to contain them, however, in a strong economy, yet the Howard/Costello team have managed to. Keating's recession led Australia into a downward economic spiral which resulted in an indebtedness of $90b (yes $bb not $mm) with also record high inflation - a legacy Labor left to the current Howard Govt. The Howard/Costello team began paying this debt back within a few budgets and eradicated it in just several more, then began to build the current surplus. One must remember to add the $90b to the current surplus, when calculating the achievements of Howard/Costello. This and the Futures Fund, tax cuts, low unemployment and low interest rates, were delivered well before the benefits from the China and India powertrain economies began to flow through.
I cannot understand the Australian public, unless it is purely "leftist" press, alone, driving and influencing a belief that we need change. These are the most economically sound years Australia has ever known and if a team has proven sound economic credentials, why on earth would one want to replace such with unproven credentials? Have you noticed that Mr. Rudd is keeping Mr. Swan out of the press during this campaign? He is no match for Costello. If Australian journos are serious about drawing realistic comparisons between each party's economic management capabilities, why not push for a head-to-head debate between Mr. Costello and Mr. Swan?? It would make great press, maybe educate the unthinking Australians and save our wonderful standard of living for another term.
We may only have this one window of opportunity to prepare carefully for the imbalance of mass retirements by the baby boomers - when they no longer will contribute to the economy. Many will go on pensions - leaving a much reduced workforce to support them. Mr. Costello is acutely aware of this and also of later, when they become nursing home dependent, further down the track. I am very disappointed in much of the Australian press and its silly beat-up of a need for "change", seemingly the only reason and a very purile one, that anyone can give for ousting the Howard/Costello team. Is it unintelligent partisan politicking on behalf of the press, perhaps?
"a Liberal Party which successfully hammered home its core message that the economy would not be safe in Labor hands and that Mr Whitlam would be bullied by the unions." When Whitlam was voted into power three years later, the above warning from the Liberal party came true, every word of it. In two years, Whitlam bankrupted the country and was the first and only Prime Minister in Australian history to be sacked by the Governor General. Nick Bryant, very poor of you to not mention that the Liberal Party was 100% right! Gough Whitlam still remains Australia's worst ever PM.
Joanna, in 1969 "lawyers, artists, dentists and lecturers" were always men. Or predominantly so, anyway.
And that's when the play is set, so its fair to represent things that way - and its possible that's not what they've done anyway.
The main point is, Howard's gone - nine years too late. One term, to get rid of Paul Keating, would have been sufficient for The Rodent.
But this time the parties will be nation wide from the northern tip of Queensland to the southern coast of Tasmania,way out to the western coast line of W.A. all the Workers and Slaves will rejoyce they smell freedom in the air,and the doom and gloom will decend on the neo-cons..
As the old saying goes ,Time and Tide wait for no man,John Howards days are numbered....Sunday the 4/11/07 . 5pm twenty days to go,,Cheers look forward to reading other comments
This is a play I would dearly have loved to see. Pity. Yet another brilliant entry. Thank you for the reading.
SPK,
Don's Party was made into a film (1976), directed by Bruce Beresford.
Depending where you live, it should be possible to obtain the video/DVD.
In Australia, the play also enjoys periodic revivals.
Joanna, the play featured some very un- reconstructed male chauvinists, in which it was a very accurate reflection of its times. That dreadful Mr. Whitlam made a considerable contribution in bringing Australia some part of the long distance towards gender equality, along with gently moving Australia towards a more independent foreign policy. He is significantly culpable for the "destruction of the economy", but there were also significant contributions from world-wide stagflation, which seems to have afflicted the UK and US as well as most other nations about the same time.