Do Go On - 513 - The Dismissal, Australia's 1975 Constitutional Crisis

Episode Date: August 20, 2025

In 1975, for the first and only time in Australia's history, a Prime Minister was sacked. Gough Whitlam was dismissed after months of political manoeuvring and backstabbing, culminating in what is still the most controversial event in the country's political history. On this episode we look at the three men at the centre of the dismissal, Whitlam, as well as the man who fired him; John Kerr, and the man who replaced him; Malcolm Fraser.This is a comedy/history podcast, the report begins at approximately 10:07 (though as always, we go off on tangents throughout the report).For all our important links: https://linktr.ee/dogoonpod Check out our other podcasts:Book Cheat: https://play.acast.com/s/book-cheatPrime Mates: https://play.acast.com/s/prime-mates/Listen Now: https://play.acast.com/s/listen-now/Who Knew It with Matt Stewart: https://play.acast.com/s/who-knew-it-with-matt-stewart/Our awesome theme song by Evan Munro-Smith and logo by Peader ThomasDo Go On acknowledges the traditional owners of the land we record on, the Wurundjeri people, in the Kulin nation. We pay our respects to elders, past and present. REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING:Gough: Nothing Will Save Speech:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOJNaqjUra4 https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/the-eleventh https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/whitlam-gough-18730https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Australian_constitutional_crisishttps://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/whitlam-dismissal https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2014/oct/21/gough-whitlam-in-his-own-words https://peo.gov.au/understand-our-parliament/parliament-and-its-people/people-in-parliament/governor-general https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/kerr-sir-john-robert-23431 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Melbourne and Canada, we've got exciting news for you. And we should also say this is 2026. Jess, what year is it? 2026. Thank God you're here. Right now, I'm in Melbourne doing my show with Serengy Amarna 630 each night at the Cooper's Inn Hotel, having so much fun. We'd love to see you there. Canada, we are visiting you in September this year.

If you've somehow missed the news, we are heading up Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Toronto for shows. That's going to be so much fun. Tickets for all this stuff, I believe, are online. And I'm here too. Hello and welcome to another episode of Do Go On. My name is Dave Warnocky and as always I'm here with Jess Perkins and Matt Stewart. Hello. Hello.

So good to be here. Thank you so much for having me. You're welcome. Yeah. Ask me anything. What'd you have for breakfast? I had a chili scramble roll. Really?

With avocado. I think you're a finishing laugh when I walked in. And a coffee. Well, why do you ask then? What a wasted question. But I didn't know what it was. You know you only had one question. You wasted it.

Jess, what's your one question? What's your pin? My pin. Well, that could mean so many different things. The one that I saw most recently was me with a San Quilda hat on. I didn't want to say pin number because I knew what Dave would say, which is what Dave? I wouldn't say it. Yes, you would.

I'm not that tedious. You'd think it. I'd think it. But I wouldn't say it. Oh, the N is actually for number. So you're actually saying personal identification number, number. Oh, my. He would have got you too.

Yeah, that's why I was trying to not get got, and then you got me a different way. I was trying to get, I was trying to not get got from the back, you got me from the front. We've both fucked out questions. Oh my God, you guys fucked it. You're doing the Patreon section, aren't you? No, no, I've done that. It's all good to go. Ready to go.

Good to go. Well, Matt, well, you're on. I just zoned out while you two were fighting again. Well, can he zone in and tell us what the show is about? Sure can. So the white works is one. of the three of us get a topic, usually suggested by a listener, often voted on by the patrons, and then we go away, we read up on it, we maybe watch a few documentaries, we do, you know,

pretty good research. Not talking about university level, we're talking about year nine, year 10 level. Yeah. And we bring it back to the class to an oral presentation. We're like promising year nine students. Yes. The teachers are going, that was pretty good. Yeah, they might have something here.

Yeah. And the other two, the two that aren't giving the report, They, you know, chip in. They're sort of the smart Alex at the back of the class being, you know, pretty annoying. Leaning back on their chairs. Yeah. Chelling gum. Stuff you miss.

Yeah. Sir. Yeah. Hey, sir. Hey, sir. Hey, sir, what do you think of this? Whoa. Flip, you flipped your teachers off.

Well, no, that's the role we're playing. Oh. I was sitting at the front of the room going, sir, sir, look at this. Yeah. You're doing a great job. I thumb them. You thumbed them. Thumbed them.

Yeah. Yeah. And it's Dave's turn. Dave's turned. Yes. we start with a question to get on a topic. Dave, do have one of these? Do you have a question? This does feel like a high school topic this week. Okay.

Like a teacher would be like, you've got to know about this, guys. And at the time, you'd be like, I don't care. But it's actually quite interesting. So my question is, who was elected Prime Minister of Australia in December 1972? Whitlam. It is Goff Whitlam. Because today we were talking about the rise and dramatic fall of Goff Whitlam. in the 1975 constitutional crisis, a period of history known simply as the dismissal. Yeah.

Is that what you're going to call this episode? Because there'll be people going, oh, is it going to be warny when he took... With the ball of the century? The gadding ball? The gadding ball? Is that what is this episode all going to be about the gadding ball? No.

We've already done that. We've already done that. We already talked about Gatig. He couldn't believe what had happened. He had no idea. The ball started there and then hit the game. the stuff that's not possible. Did it go through me?

What happened? No, not that one. The second most famous dismissal. So yeah, Gough was playing cricket. Does this ring a bell at all? Oh, yeah. How do you? I know stuff.

I'm talking about the Gatting Ball. Oh, the Gatting Ball, absolutely not. I know that Gough Whitlam was Prime Minister. I know he did a lot of things that people think quite positively of. That's true. We'll talk about a bunch of those. And I know that, yeah, he was dismissed or he was kicked out. Yeah.

I don't fully know why. I think that's why people, a lot of the comments, this is voted for by our Patreon supporters at patreon.com slash do go on pod. And I always asked, let me know what you voted for and why and a bunch of the people. I'm assuming a lot of them Australian were like, this is something I feel I should know more about. I've heard of it, but I didn't know the circumstances. And I was pretty much in that camp.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Also, is his name actually Goff? Oh, we're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about that. That's a no. It's short for something. It'd be so fun if we get to it. He goes, and his real name's Goff.

Yeah, I told you we were talking about it. We talk about it. We talk about it. Do not interrupt me. It's not that exciting, but. I just can't think of what goff is short for or what it's where it comes from. Goffer. Gopher Whitlam. Why?

You're really saving this for a big reveal? You could just tell her next. No, I just start. No, I just start you fucking little report. Well, I bet he talks for 45 minutes first about something else and then he finally gets to Gough Whitlam. Yeah, I'm going to talk a little bit. He's going to take it all the way back to your great-great-uncle. Who was, oh yeah, he was pre-Goff-Wittlam.

That's true. Let's talk about that quickly. For people who don't know, Jess is related to political royalty in this country. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Powerhouse. One of our most famous prime ministers, and his name is James Scullin. Well done. Yes.

I was actually expecting you to not remember at all. No, I don't remember. He's the second most famous Scullin Prime Minister, the other, of course, being Bob Haw. Ah, that's good. That's good stuff. That's good stuff. That coffee, that was worth it.

Yeah, I had a couple weeks off coffee. Did you? Yeah. Oh, get back on that train, baby. I'm back. So they should hit me harder today. Oh, yeah, that'll be fun. Yeah, James Scullin is my great, great uncle.

Couldn't even, I wouldn't have been able to tell you what parties, do you know what party he was even from? Labor. He's a Labor, there you go. Both labors. He was brought in, he was elected, And then, like, two days later, the Great Depression hit. Was he blamed?

Quite a difficult time. Do we all blame your family? And also, I think there's some sort of link with him and the ABC, where I worked for many years. Really? He tried to shut it down. And I also currently live quite close to his home. Really? Yeah, I didn't know that.

I was on a walk recently. I was telling my mum what street I was on. And she was like, oh, number two is Scullin's place. I was like, I was walking past it. I was like, that house right there? Was there a plaque? I love a little blue plaque. No, it's just a little family home now.

Could someone plark it up, please? Pluck it up. There you go. Good one, Plarky. That's a reference to the Clark Rubber ad. Yes. From back in the day. Nice one, Plarkie.

But in this case, instead of Clark, Clarkie, the platypus, mascot of Clark rubber, this is Plarky, the Plarky, the plaque mascot of plarks. And this is the kind of rebellious chatter from up the back of the year and I This is the fun stuff. Come on, Plarky! And by what I mean by that is. I want to jump ahead. I'm so sorry, everybody.

I want to just clarify that I'm not someone who, uh, I don't make my great, great uncle being prime minister a part of my personality. No, I brought it up. Yeah, great. Yeah, yeah. You're not like on Ancestry.com being like, look how impressive my family was. You know how people get frustrated that, uh, if like fifth generation Americans are like, I'm Irish or I'm Italian and they're like, um, history.

but not. I'm not saying I'm a politician. Okay. I'm not saying that. Oh, that's real slippery politician type stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, I'm not a politician. I'm just concerned citizen.

I come from political heritage, sure. This is the kind of intro that is definitely going to win over new listeners. Absolutely, yes. Last week I did it, Dave alerted me to the fact that there's a bunch of new one-star reviews on Apple after we hit 500 episodes. Yeah, we got feature. on a couple of things and people people gave us a go and thank you

and they were not fans yeah a lot of people being like get to the effing point yeah yeah yeah and we're sorry but we make no apologies for that can I just say in the show notes there's always a little number yeah you can click that it says the time code is what I'm saying

when I say a little number time code for when we usually start the actual topic so skip ahead and then we'll fucking go off on tangents a bunch as well if you're here for just cold hard facts and history we're not your podcast get back to go Okay. Okay.

This topic, I should say, has been suggested by a few people. Thank you, and this is over many years, thank you to Kelly Clark from Perth, Sam Marklin from Melbourne, Reese Elbrest from Gungarland and Canberra, Emma Greenwood from Melbourne, and Moles, also from Canberra. Mals. Mals. Mals. Mals.

That's what you do, do, do one before you skull on it. A little mulls. Before you're James skull on it. Wow. We really should, that should be a thing. Yeah. Look at him. He's really jimming it over there.

He's Prime Minister James Scullin, that one. Should we, I think we should get, we should get a beer, like, we'll get a beer bong. Yes. Right, and we'll get a label made. Yes. We'll have it elected as Prime Minister James Skelon. Yes. That's just an idea.

Perfection. And we'll start our next live show, Jess, with you Scullin your great uncle, Scullum. Yeah. Now, in case you're from overseas. or you need a little reminder about how Australian politics works, I'll give a little summary up top. See, I told you he'll talk for 45 minutes. It's not 45.

A little summary. Maybe 10 minutes. But if that sounds boring, please stick with me because once we get through the setup, we have a story of backstabbing political gambling and the most controversial political event in Australia's history. Wow. And we've already talked about a prime minister who just drowned.

Yeah, just disappeared. Yeah. That's true. This is more controversial. More controversial than that. Yeah, that's nothing compared to this. Wow. So Australia was federal.

as a nation on January 1st, 1901, when the six British colonies of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, Tasmania and South Australia, which also governed what is now the Northern Territory, united to form the Commonwealth of Australia. South Australia just had the whole middle section. That's a big, and why do they say South Australia?

Yeah, part of that's really not south. Yeah. It's the opposite. Middle Australia. Yeah. It's a bang in the middle, you're right. Central Australia. Come on.

What are they thinking? So dumb. Gosh. So Australia was. and still is, at the time of recording, a constitutional monarchy where federal, i.e. national elections are held approximately every three years to select members of parliament

who will represent Australians and make laws on their behalf. The leader of the party that wins the majority in the lower house called the House of Representatives becomes the leader of the country, that is, the prime minister. This isn't losing anyone. This is great. I expect it to be dry stuff.

This is good stuff. I've got a bono. I fucking zone out. I told you this is a real high school stuff. Sir, sir, sir, sir, sir, sir, I've got a boner. Sue, what do I do? Sir, there's something happening to my Willie. Well, sir, my desk is rising up.

The things you're talking about are too hot. Stuart, my office. Wait, but you're here. Mine, come up here. This is my office. Well, because I've got a bonus, sir. Ah, sir, sir likes boners. Oh no.

Oh, no, not again. Don't again. Okay. I'm to change schools again. Okay, Mr. Wadke, keep it. Keep it calm. He's trapped you again. Okay.

So, Dave, I want to get away from this. I want to get away from this bit. So Dave's explained how Prime Ministers work. Back to the dry bit. But that's, because people overseas would have no freaking idea. No, of course not. In a constitutional monarchy, a king or queen is the head of state, but they've got limited power.

They must follow the country's constitution and follow accepted practices known as conventions. because Australia is still a part of the Commonwealth, our monarch is the king or queen of the United Kingdom, which right now is King Charles III. Now, the Governor General of Australia is appointed to act on behalf of the monarch, and we will talk about that role in detail as it's super important to the story. Now, for much of Australia's relatively short histories of Federation,

politics has been dominated by two major political parties. There's the Australian Labour Party, home of Jess's great-uncle. That's right. They've historically been. considered centre-left, and they're currently in government. And then there's the Liberal Party of Australia, who confusingly, and this is I need to explain this especially to overseas people, despite being called the Liberal Party, are in fact the right-wing party, historically being centre-right.

Yes. So that's why in Australia we say, if you're a Liberal and people say small L, meaning liberal in the sense of the definition of the word, not Liberal Party. So they're sort of often at odds. Yeah. Yes. things. But they, yeah, they're a confusing party.

Yeah. They've drifted pretty right lately, but I think they maybe were more socially liberal, were they back in the day? I don't know. I mean, I'm barely politically engaged now, let alone before I was alive. It's possible that, because you hear the old liberal party leaders come out now and they sound way more central or center, well, to the left of the current leadership of Liberal Party.

Yeah. Or the recent ones anyway. What was Howard? Liberal. Liberal. Yeah, he was, he's pretty conservative. Yeah. Yeah.

He, uh, some people love him. Well, his second longest ever serving prime minister in Australia. Yeah. But he did blame refugees for a lot of stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They love doing that. Punching up, as they say. Yeah, it's good.

Yeah, yeah. So historically they're being considered extended right. Now, I want to note they often. government and coalition with smaller parties. But for the purposes of avoiding confusion, I'll just refer to them as the liberal party or just the liberals. Often there was the country party and now the nationals. But anyway, the Liberal Party was founded in 1944 by Robert Menzies, who had earlier

been Prime Minister. The longer serving. That's right. Because he'd already been Prime Minister for a couple of years for another party, but with his newly formed party, he went on to be our longest serving. Can you imagine that happening? Wow. Can you imagine that happening now that someone.

one forming a new party forms government. It would be sort of, I mean, it seems like it'd be a good idea, but it does. Geez, it wouldn't be, uh, I'm not saying it would be a bad thing. Yeah, maybe it would get a little fresher. Yeah, I'm saying it's probably unlikely, but God, it would. The whole two party system, you know. Yeah, I wouldn't complain. Let's do it.

Let's step up. But part of that, Dave, is because the, the Labor Party had a split around that time and it just left a bit of a vacuum for, for, for, mensies to just be able to semi unopposed because his opposition was split in two. Right. And he just kept going time after time. So 16 years.

My dad talks about like he, as a kid, he just like that that was the only government for most of his, you know, from his childhood into his 20s. It was like, oh, it's such a long time because he was talking about John Howard being

like growing up that was the prime minister. That was who it was in the 90s. How long was he prime minister for? 12 or 13 years. It was from. like he was out in 07 and he came in in 96. Yeah. Yeah.

And we're very young. So he was the Prime Minister our whole lives. Yes. You'd obviously lived many lives before that. Yes. I vaguely remember Hawking Keating. But yeah. Because that was obviously when I was only, that was.

You're in your 40s. Yeah. Four 40s. The memory stuff to go. That's right. In the 440s. In the 440s. I think we might have missed a zero there.

So, yeah, Robert Burns is in charge for 16 years. And in fact, the Liberals were in power for 23 straight years. Wow. Until 1972, when a six foot five man stepped forth and said, It's time. That man was Goff Whitlam, a man who would shake up Australian politics and find himself at the centre of the most controversial event in our political history. Wow.

So let's talk about the man. Gough Whitlam. Okay, it's a middle name. It's a middle name. Okay. But there's a bit more info. That is the full name, though. Yeah, it's just goff.

So he was born in Q in Melbourne on the 11th of July, 1916. You've heard of Q? Uh, yeah. It's pretty rare. Nearly all the prime ministers are from Sydney, right? It's pretty common for them to be. A lot. And he also moved from Melbourne at like the age of two.

Yeah, there you go. Yeah, there's some percentage of like, like, most of Parliament went to one school or something. Like, it's insane. The old boys. Yeah. I went to Eaton. Yeah.

So he was referred to as Goff his whole life to avoid confusion with his maternal grandfather also named Edward. And he got the name Goff from his paternal grandfather, Henry Hugh Goff Whitlam, whose father had served under Field Marshal Viscount Hugh Goff in India. So his middle name is named after someone else's surname, which is. why it's such an uncommon first name. Right. That's fun. So he was simply goff. At least it's different. At least it's not James, you know? Yeah. Boring. I've got a cousin of mine's middle name is Masherini. Yeah, that's good. Named after our Nana's her name. That's such a great

name. One of my friends, she and her sister, their middle name's a kiafa, which is their mom's maiden name. I'm like, oh, that's so good. That is a great name. Because nobody's ever going to guess that, are they? Like, you could win so much money hustling people at pubs, being like, guess. My memory. Could be the new rumple stil stil. Because me, you go, Anne or Louise, for anybody my age, you're going to, you're going to eliminate most people. You're right.

You're not making shit at the pub. I'm not making shit. Neither are we with James of our names. Kayaff is doing well. Do you think, you know how it's all New South Welshmen end up being prominent? It's the same of the cricket, isn't it? They're all, like, they used to joke that when you got your New South Wales cap, you also got a baggy green under the table.

Yeah. Do you think that's just the better state? Yeah, it's a bigger state, more population. So best? Well, no, I think odds are. So number one? Yes. No, I'm not denying that.

This isn't a gotcha moment. I think I've said that on the record. Dave, fucking got him. Absolutely. Got him in absolute beauty. Look at him sweating over there. Got him in absolute beauty. Like I say my favourite city is Brisbane, but I think, you know, probably the best city is Sydney.

Well, Perth is just turned off. I think Perth is lovely as well. I love Adelaide. No, Adelaide were like, yeah, fair. No, Adelaide's beautiful. It is beautiful. Love Hobart, love all the capital cities. Darwin.

How do you think about this city? Melbourne's great. I mean, I choose to live here. Say no more. So, but if you just love everyone equally. Yeah. It doesn't mean anything. It doesn't mean shit.

I don't believe you. But I do love all these places. Canberra? We're coming there for the first time. Canberra. Canberra? You enjoy Canberra I actually really like Canberra

All right, name you, worst capital city What is it? Come on Worst Capital City in Australia Yeah I mean I have an answer See, he's a coward It's probably Perth but I still like Perth Yeah, yeah yeah

I think there's But there are parts of it that I don't like But I think generally I still really like it I did nearly get glassed there Okay That will change your view of a lot lot of places.

Yeah. No, but I actually, I was there with, um, do go on listeners at the time and they were mortified. So I'm sort of riling them up, if anything. Okay. Perth's fantastic. It's beautiful. Love your work. You can go to the beach.

No one will be there and it's like one of the most beautiful places you've ever been. Yeah. We knew it editor Connors from there, you know? Yeah. How can such a beautiful boy be created by anything less than a beautiful city? Can't. We love you, Perth. And we'll see you soon.

This is the kind of stuff that they're saying at the back of the classroom. Yeah. I love Perth. I couldn't possibly choose a favourite capital city. Not the least favourite. Oh no, Hobart, it's actually nice. The weather, you know, it's actually quite nice. Give it on a sunny day, it's beautiful.

So anyway, so Goff Whitlam, he's known as Goff. His father, Harry, was a Commonwealth public, worked for the Commonwealth Public Service in Melbourne, rose to become the Commonwealth Crown Solicitor. And his father's involvement in human rights issues was a powerful influence on the young man. his mother known as Matty was according to the Australian Dictionary of Biography that has a huge article on Goff that I refer to a fair bit She was a gentle feminist, clever, witty and unusually tall A trait inherited by her son

The ADB adds She was five foot four My ears are burning at the moment A gentle feminist Clever, witty, unusually tall Yeah Guilty as charged The ADB adds,

As she was also deaf, the family's speech was enunciated for her to lip read, contributing to the distinctive cadence of Goff's voice. Ah, that's interesting. Yeah. So the family moved to Sydney, like I said, and then Canberra. Goff is so far the only prime minister

to grow up in the nation's capital. Oh, really? Oh, they're mostly, they're Sydney boys, mostly. Yeah. Um, what, sorry, what kind of era is this? So he's born in 1916, so he's at school in the 1930s. Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah.

And he spent his final years at Canberra grammar school, again from the ADB. Quote, he completed his leaving certificate three times between 1932 and 1934 as he was considered too young to go to university. So he just did, please, let me leave. Three times in a row. Why? Well, nowhere else to go. But he completed it.

Yeah. Yeah. That would be frustrating. But what do you mean you're too young to go to university? What are you supposed to do in those years in between? I know, like my grandfather said that he finished school at 16 or something and then went to Melbourne uni. He was too young to study medicine, so he did dentistry.

Oh, wow. They let kids do that. Yeah. That's so weird. Yeah. And the plan was to transfer to medicine Tuesday later. But he liked it, so he just became a dental specialist. But it's just so funny that, yeah.

It's like too young to be a doctor, but you could do this. Yeah, yeah. But then apparently they're not taking goff at all in the 1930s. I suppose back then, like, how long were those courses going for? Because, sure, but I could start studying now and by the time I'm finished, I'm sure I'm old enough to be a doctor. Yeah, that's right. But anyway, he does a three-month course back then.

Make more sense for you to spend more time doing that rather than doing the thing, finishing school. What's it called? The three times. Finishing school. What does that mean? Finishing school is where you go to learn how to behave. Yes, that's right.

Balance of broccoli head. I've been looking around for you, mate. Yes. I'm going to enroll you. She's just like finishing school. Put her back in. She's not done yet. Is that something?

Yeah. That's the Simpsons. Rodney Dangerfield. Rodney, the king. So he did year 12 three times. Not surprising that he was ducks of the school. Three times. I imagine that.

The last one anyway. The third one, he was goose. Duck, duck. Like the game. Yeah. Wow. There was a... He's on another level.

I know. There was a do-go-on listener who messaged in recently saying, I must have mentioned that before or something, they were saying that in their area, they call it duck, duck, grey duck. You're kidding me. Practically, have a go. Duck.

Yeah. Dark. Dark. Dark. Grey goose. Oh, no. You've done it wrong. You've done it wrong.

Gray duck. Gray duck. Gray duck? Hang on. What if you could just whisper the gray and just say duck again and start running? Yeah, yeah. It's like what color of the other ducks? Yeah. What the fuck? White duck. Yellow duck. White duck. Blue duck. Blue duck. Grey duck. You go green duck. Aqued duck. That's silly. The game is duck, duck, goose. Everybody knows that. I like duck duck duck. Great dark. That's funny. So you got a scholarship to study at the University of Sydney where he graduated in arts and law. Also at university, he met his future wife, Margaret Dovey. She was popular, outgoing, tall and athletic.

She was six foot two and was an accomplished swimmer. She represented Australia in the 220-yard breaststroke in the 1938 Empire Games, which became the Commonwealth Games. Yeah. When you're that tall, swimming's easy. You just sort of, you dive and you touch the other and straight away. You know when you're a kid, you're in the bath and you would, did you ever do this? You'd like lie on your stomach and put your hands out and just kind of kick and push yourself back and forth. She's just doing that.

Yeah. She's actually very unfit, but she doesn't need to do much. It's amazing. Her wiki page writes that seeing the six foot five goff, he was quote, quite the most delicious thing I'd ever see. Quite the most, what an awkwardly put together sentence. In 1942, which was, of course, wartime, and the same year he entered the Royal Australian Air Force, mainly based in the Northern Territory, flying Lockheed Ventura bombers. He reached the rank of flight lieutenant

and aircraft engine noise left him with permanent hearing damage. Oh, I didn't know he was in the Air Force. That's cool. Yeah. Again from the ADB, when stationed at Cooktown, Queensland, and at the Gulfmanenture Northern Territory, Whitlam saw and was shocked by the conditions of indigenous peoples. At Yucala in June 1944, he met members of the Unopingu family who were instrumental in forming his lifelong commitment to Indigenous rights.

Gough admired Australian's wartime Prime Minister John Curtin, who was leader of the Labour Party, and campaigned for the 1944 referendum that proposed to give the Australian government extra wartime powers for a period of five years, even when the war finished, with Prime Minister John Curtin saying that maintaining wartime controls was necessary for Australia. to readjust to peacetime conditions. Like most referendums, it lost. But was pivotal for the young Gough Whitlam, who from then on was determined to do all he could to modernise the Australian constitution.

Still in uniform, whilst on leave from the Air Force in Sydney, he joined the Australian Labour Party. After the war, he worked as a lawyer, and I love this. This is again from the ADB. With his war service loan, Whitlam built a house in seaside Cronulla. He also bought the block of land next door,

using the prize money, which was £1,000, he received for winning the Australian National Quiz Championship in 1948 and 1949. He was runner-up in 1950, and these were broadcast nationally on ABC radio. So you just use game show prize money to buy the blocker land next door. You can't do that anymore. Game show prize money won't buy our house these days. Nah. It's not even a deposit. Even who wants to be a millionaire. Yeah. You win the four million. Okay. Probably have to keep working. It'll help you get in the door.

Smaller mortgage, that's good. Have you thought about a car? Yeah. Have you thought about two kind of shit cars? You mentioned John Curtin. I reckon he might have been a Victorian because there's a pub named after him in Carlton. It's also the John Curtin University.

Yeah. Is that in Melbourne? It's in Carlton. Yep, there you go. I reckon he was probably from around that area. Let's see where he was born. Born. In Creswick or Creswick, I don't know, colony of Victoria.

Huh. Yeah, that's going away back when the Colony of Victoria. Colony. Yeah, that's how old it was. This guy's old. Where is John Curtin University? I think that's W.A. Yeah.

Well, Jess, you lied to me. No, I was joking. Yeah, yeah. But you've really got to sell it with a bit of tone. That kind of dry humor doesn't wash. You can't wash with dry. Yeah, if you've got a dry sense of humor, and people tend to think you're just a fucking moron.

And like, you say stuff that's actually quite funny. And if it was said with a bit more pizzazz, people would be like, that's the funniest guy in the world. But because you say it so dry, hypothetically, the Royal U, people just go, what a dumb cut. Yeah. You know what I mean? It's crazy.

I don't relate to that. But you obviously do. Oh, I was saying the Royal You. I was, you know. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. The Royal You, as in you. Me.

Me. So he's winning the quiz championship, and that's like on national radio. So it's sort of give him a bit of a rep as a smart guy. I mean, I was on national radio for six years, and I did not get a rep as a smart guy. Yeah, why is that? Yeah. The ABC. Didn't you ever get like texts on the text line saying, geez, you sound so smart.

We love you. No, no, no, none of that. Got a lot of get this broad off here and stuff like that. I love it, yeah. Like old people listening to the youth station. Telling on themselves, we're using terms like broad. Get this gal out of the air. His earliest efforts to enter politics were local, unsuccessfully standing for the Sutherland Shire Council in 1948 and in 1950 for the legislative assembly seat of Sutherland.

But in 1952, he was elected to the House of Representatives. So he didn't do well. Locally, he's like, I'll just go for the national stuff. Yeah, some people would just play better at a higher level. Yeah, I'll go one above. I'll go to their boss. Yeah. It was a by-election in the federal seat of WERIA

after the local member Bert Lazarene died. Sucked in, Bert. What a way to find out. Poor Bert. Oh, Bert. Oh, Bert. He's gone. Got another great name, Bert Lacerini.

Oh, hello. Was that the name? Yeah. Matt Masherini? Bert Lazzarini? Yeah. We're basically akin. Yeah, same thing.

Both have us. 116th, Swiss Italian. During his maiden speech to parliament, which are usually heard in silence. Like, you usually step up and everyone listens. It's your time to talk. Goff put the chamber on notice when, as he started speaking, future Prime Minister John McEwen interrupted him.

And Goff coolly shot back. He said, I recollect that Benjamin Disraeli, who was the Prime Minister of the UK, said on the occasion of his maiden speech, that time will come when you shall hear me. Perhaps I should say, the time will come when you may interrupt me. And everyone was like, Jesus, who's this young? I'm sorry. Again from the ADB, Whitlam's parliamentary reposts were quick, effective and at times cruel for their closeness to truth.

He once reduced Garfield Barwick or Garfield Barrick to tears in the searing attack on the government's crimes bill during which he called the diminutive attorney general a, quote, truculent runt. Truculent runt. But imagine being the attorney general. And crying because someone called you a truculent runt. Sounds like rhyming slang. That's, yeah, it's really, it's hard to say I don't understand what truculent means. I love it. New group chat?

Yeah, who wants truculent runt? Well, I think it's going to be Dave. Agreed. Runts doing the heavy lifting there. Yeah, really give me pause to cry here. I'm really getting pause to cry. Truculent. Because I'm currently snappy little fecker and I think that's actually, that's probably the best I'll ever get.

What am I? Gleb. Gleb. I don't even remember what that means. I think it was one of the ogre of Kiev's descendants. Gleb. Gleb. Okay, I love it.

I'm back to loving it. So that's Garfield Barwick, who was the attorney general. He called a truculent runt. Well, let me say that Garfield Barwick will briefly come back in this story. Oh, the truculent runt returns. It does feel that, you know, you don't want to make an enemy. He's going to like be plotting. his revenge non-stop.

Yeah, that's right. And he might get the revenge. Goff had some very memorable quotes over the years. Later in 1972 on the campaign trail, Whitlam was once persistently heckled by a man demanding to know his opinion on abortion. And he finally shot back, let me make it quite clear that I am for abortion,

and in your case, sir, we should make it retrospective. Oh, that's so good. That's so good. So I'm trying to be elected as prime minister being that brutal. Yeah. So that's what I like about it. You should be dead. Yeah. I don't necessarily think it's like the funniest thing.

But I, but the context of who we're saying that. And you're on a campaign trail. So you're trying to like really appeal to everyone. You know the microphones are there. You know the cameras are there. You're like, yes, I'm pro abortion. And fuck you. You should be dead.

That's so funny. That's so funny. Yes. Yeah. I think. and it's going to, that would probably have put off a lot of people. Yes. But it would have won over some as well.

Oh, yeah. Like this guy. Yeah. But yeah, really, he was obviously going for that governing for all kind of vibe. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he's a young parliamentarian. During these years, like I said, that was when Robert Menzies was prime minister. So he was in parliament opposite Menzies.

During those years, Gough Whitlam rose through the ranks to become deputy leader of the Labour Party, almost being expelled twice for going against his own party. Firstly, on spending more money on schools. He disagreed with the policies that they had. And next for withdrawing troops from Vietnam. Which side of those things was he on? He wanted more money for schools. And I believe, I actually thought he was going to be pro removing troops in Vietnam,

but he was against the Labor Party at the time. We should get all the troops out. But I think he was saying we should do it in stages. Right. Because it would be pretty crazy if we just pulled everyone out at the same time. Yeah. So he went against the party, which you are not supposed to do. No.

And he did not. And I think he actually twice had votes whether to expel him from the party because he went fully against. Yeah, especially if you're in the, in the, in the, like the shadow cabinet or whatever, right? Yeah. Or is it everyone? Would you normally just have to go out of the backbench? Is that the Liberal Party? So the way I think it usually works.

Maybe that's just Liberal Party. But they are, yeah. I think the Liberal Party. Yeah, I think the Liberal Party is more open to. having disagreements publicly if they're outside of the cabinet. Yes, so that means if you're a minister. The caucus votes on things and then everyone holds the party line. Is that right?

This is going to be so annoying to us trying political nerds. But also like... Yeah, like me. Yeah, I'm understanding these words. You got it in the DNA. Yeah. But I think in a caucus, like in their own party room, you can obviously vote because you have a vote in the room.

Yes. But I think publicly... Yeah, that's right. You can't go out and be like, my colleagues were stupid. Yeah. You can't, you're not supposed to, particularly like you say, if you're in the cabinet, which means you're like if you're a minister or have a shadow minister portfolio. And often, if you want to agree with you just your party, you will leave your ministry.

Yeah. Like you say, go to the backbench and have less power in the party. But you have more freedom to speak your mind. To heckle from the, basically do what you guys are doing. Yeah. Sit up the back, be the year nine heckler. Hey. I mean, honestly, that sounds like the more fun job.

Yeah. Golf also did not get on with the leader of the party at the time. This is a Labour party. Arthur Colwell, who was pro-white Australia policy that goth abhorred. Oh, my God. When was this? This is pretty late in the piece, too. This is the 1960s.

Oh, my God. This is a set of racial policies that aim to forbid people of non-European ethnic origins, particularly people from Asia and the Pacific Islands from immigrating to Australia. It's so recent. I know. It's so embarrassing. And it's still so, it's in our DNA still. It hasn't been flushed out.

Like, just, you still feel it. Oh, right, yep. Oh, it's so fucked. Anyway, Goff was anti that. Yeah. But Arthur Corwell was in charge of the party. He lost three elections in a row. This is Arthur Corwell before finally stepping down

and Goff Whitlam became leader of the Labour Party and the opposition leader in 1967. Goff and the Labour Party closed the voting gap between him and his rivals, led by the Liberal Party leader John Gorton, who had taken over after Harold Holt disappeared. We spoke about on a much earlier episode Gordon, he's a funny-looking fella He was not a very popular one though, was he?

Because of his face. Well, you've got a face like a drop pie or something Yeah But not his value Hey, I hear drop pie I think Okay I think we can salvage this For a second rule

Plenty of that is it on the floor Just scoop the bits off the top That's all right That's why it's got a lid at the 1972 election it was Gough Whitlam

versus William McMahon leading the liberals the slogan It's Time for change was used as Goff Whitlam and the Labour Party

put forward a raft of major policy proposals accompanied by a television advertising campaign of prominent celebrity singing a pretty bad jingle have you ever heard

Time It's time It's time It's time And the full vote It's time It's like It's like a

It's sort of In the sort of genre of the, you know, the songs for Africa. Yeah, yeah. It's a real live-a-type situation. We're the world kind of. And you'll never believe who we've got. You know, they've got Lana Ritchie and they've got Sting. Yeah.

Who we've got Tony Barber. Oh. Barry Crocker. Whoa. Graham Kennedy. Oh, my. Burt Newton. Yep.

Jack Thompson and Jackie Weaver. Whoa. Actually, amongst dozens of people who were very famous at the time, but I don't recognize them anymore. But they're the ones that it's... The key. You got the king? King of Australian comedy.

Jackie Weaver still going strong. Absolutely. Internationally killing it. Jack Thompson, an icon of Australian acting. Barry Crocker. Barry Crocker, the singer of the original Neighbors theme. Maybe say more. And Tony Barber.

Tony Barber, Sale of the Century's first host in Australia. Wow. I could probably read out the list of the other people that I'm like, never heard of her, don't know him. And they'd be like, oh my God. Oh, yeah. You don't remember Deborah Barber. Barba.

Tony's Mrs. Dembra. How does your brain work? You try to make up a name? It's beautiful to watch your work. One of the surnames of the shortlist you already read. Patricia Crocker. Eloise Kennedy.

Tina Burton. Leah Thompson. Jack Weaver. Leah Thompson is actually if she was in back the future. There you go. So, anyway, this use of wellness. known actors and the cultural identities at the campaign launch and in the song was not previously seen in Australian election campaigns. And it's still really isn't like it big, I think it's still

pretty common in America. Like you're, you're a Democrat or you're a Republican. A lot of celebrities are and they're registered. Whereas here, it's not really talked about particularly. And you don't, I don't think, I don't think, you'd, you could probably guess at what a lot of celebrities are how they might be politically, but I don't think that usually out in the ads going, campaigning. They're giving up their time to be in a commercial. Yeah. I think there's plenty of people who have at various times in their lives voted for either party. Yeah.

I think so. Yeah. Probably more of our, well, I was going to say more of our parents' generation, but I'm sure there's people of our generation who have as well. But people are less rusted on Democrat for life. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Although there's probably 70, 80% who might be. But that's shrinking and it's like the major parties are having less and,

less primary vote each election and the minor parties are growing from like, you know, either side. Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting time. The campaign worked. Let me just say that. It's time. Labor picked up eight seats in Goff Whitlam became the 21st Prime Minister of Australia.

For the first time in 23 years, the Labour Party were back in power. All right. Apparently it was, yeah, it was, you know, a very hopeful time. Yeah, right. I did when a big change happens that for people voting in their 20s, just had never happened before that another party was in and a party who's come in and who said, we're going to change things up, like in a big way.

Yeah. Well, they did not mock around, once again from the ADB. With the outcome in some seats still to be finalised, he formed and what he called the interim diomverent, with which he and deputy leader Lance Barnard held all 27 ministries. Again from the ADOB, with the outcome in some seat still to be finalised, he formed what was called an interim diomverent, in which he and deputy leader, Lance Barnard, held all 27 ministries,

and in two weeks, the diomverent made 40 critical decisions. Whoa. That feels very like Roman Empire or something. Yeah. Like they're still counting, and he's like, okay, we're going to get rid of that, bring that in, we're going to build a school here. We're going to do it. Oh, Goff, we're not sure you won yet.

No, no, no, that's fine. Yeah, but build-boz those hospital. Oh, no, goff, people are in there. Is that the kind of thing you was doing, buildosing? People are not even better hospital. Could we just have, you know, renovated slowly? So those people still get better and treatment. Goff's like on the bulldozer.

Let's do it, right on it. He's just takes on like a lot of mess. We've had 23 years for this shit. He's like, he's made this. these 40 decisions. He hasn't slept. He's just got a bulldo. So he's like, I'm on it.

Don't worry about it. I've got a mandate. We're not fully sure about that yet, Goff. I've got a mandate. Down it goes. Didn't I say this in the campaign? I'm going to bulldo stuff? It's not what I said to come around.

You're driving a tank through the streets. I said a lot of stuff. I said a lot of stuff. It's time. It's tough. Woo, Tony Barber. Where are you? So this is some of the things that they did.

Starting with the withdrawal of remaining Australian forces from Vietnam, although to be fair, the previous Prime Minister William McMahon had withdrawn the majority of the year before, but there was still a few interim troop stations. So everyone's out of Vietnam. Then they're released from prison young men refusing to serve in Vietnam, dropping all charges against over 300 others and ending conscription. Wow.

Because, yeah, at the time, like, you know, if you were deemed a quite draft dodger, you are being jailed. Fuck me. So let those people free. Other announcements followed in daily succession, changing Australia's votes at the United Nations to support self-determination for colonial nations

and sanctions against apartheid and excluding from Australia racially selected international sporting teams. Recognising the People's Republic of China, but this ended formal ties with Taiwan. Removing sales tax on contraceptives, reopening the equal pay case which the McMahon government had opposed, establishing an Australian honour system as opposed to the British one that was used, inaugurating new grants for the arts.

So I went from sirs and dames to AOs. Is that right? No, OAs. AOs adult only. There was a bit of that too. It was pro AO. Do you like that? Establishing an interim commission to determine schools funding,

instituting nursing home benefits, signing the United Nations international covenants on civil and political rights and on economic, social and cultural rights, and instituting a judicial inquiry into Aboriginal land rights in the Northern Territory. And that was all in 40 days. Wow. And then they did a lot more between 1972 and 1975. There's a few more of the big ones. Australia and New Zealand took France to the International Court of Justice in 1973 over nuclear testing in the Pacific,

leading France to cease above-ground testing. In regards to the last elements of the white Australia policy that I mentioned earlier, the Whitland government removed the last racial elements of Australia's immigration laws. They abolished the death penalty for federal crimes. They established legal aid with offices in each state capital. Abolished university fees, making further education free, which it is not anymore. No, that's slowly been rolled back. Yep.

Starting with Labor governments as well, I think. Damn. Yes. They established the schools commission to allocate proper funding to schools. Goff himself having lived in the developing cabramatta, most of which lacked sewage facilities. Jesus. He really, it just sounds like he snapped his fingers and brought Australia into the modern age. Yeah.

So he, the Labour Party. It may be the positive take. I imagine you're going to talk about, there's probably some downsides as well. But most of what you said is sounds pretty good. I think, you know, stopping relations with Taiwan doesn't sound ideal. So, okay, we're looking for cons. Somebody was like, oh, now that my child's schools got better funding, he's too smart. He's telling me, you know, it's better.

He's outsmarting me, I don't like it. There's probably people who were saying, but I just paid for my uni. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. But I, like, to them, I'd say, yeah, when that is unfortunate, but it's just not like something wrong happened to me. It should happen to me. Yeah, that's right. Which is, I think is, I think that's the right way to think.

I agree. So they, uh, I had it tough so everyone else must as well. Exactly. At least as tough as me. Can you believe how good it is for this generation? They should have it worse than my generation. Yeah. The Labor Party established the National Sewage Program, which set a goal to leave

no urban home unsewered. Oh, yeah. As God is my witness. That seems incredible that that was, what, 50 years ago. Yeah, that's right. This is the 70s. A female Commonwealth public servants were granted equal pay And three months paid maternity leave

Hang on What the fuck? What for the same work They used to see it paid less Yeah And that's like an open I guess open policy That is wild

Yeah Again only just over 50 years ago God Save the Queen was replaced As Australia's national anthem Hooray With Advanced Australia Fair Boo One dull song for another

Yeah Bamb Bamb Don't I'll cry So beautiful. Sorry, I'm late, Mr. Prime Minister. Yeah, that, oh yeah. It could have been something interesting.

A competition actually had been held that had nearly 4,000 entries. Wow. Of the 2,500 lyric-based entries submitted, the judges selected just six as suitable, with each rider awarded $500, and all the 1,300 music-based entries were rejected outright. Then they held an opinion poll with 60,000 people ask, which do you prefer of these three songs?

None of them were from the competitions. They just ignored them. Their options were Advanced Australia Fair, waltzing matilda, and Song of Australia. It could have been waltzing matilda. It's the better song, but yeah. Not for an anthem. Does it have to be literal, you know?

Does it have to be, where the grey country, there's water all around us? Stuff like that. Or could it be a bad? that a guy who is squatting on your land, stealing sheep. Yeah. And ends up dying in a billyball.

Yeah, I don't think Wilson-Wittal should be the anthem. I think it should be the seekers. I agree. Yeah. I am, you are we are? Yeah. Oh, I think you're talking about the... Georgia girl.

Hey there, blimpie boy. No, in France of Charlie Fereg just got over 50% of the vote. And I will say that it was back and forth. It went back to God save of the Queen. And then they actually had another... drop a vote and events Australia Fair came back. So anyway, but anyway, at the time, I think it's just so funny they were like, guys, submitted some entries, you have 4,000.

Well, these all suck. They suck. And I imagine some of them probably didn't suck. Yeah. Yeah. I reckon it should be go you good thing, which was submitted to Roy and HG's The Dream in 2000. Yeah. Put a gap in them.

Go, you good thing, go. Yeah. I think that would be a great answer. Let's get a vote going. Let's make some change. Let's make some change. I'm voting yay. Okay.

I'm voting for Bachelor girl. I got hit by your train and it's more than enough and it's kind of the same. I think she went to the school my sisters went to. Wow. How about that? Wow. And you frigging throw affluent-aise over at us, but your sisters are rubbing shoulders with Bachelor girl? Yeah, that's right.

Actually, I think that most Prime Minister of Australia went to that school. Yeah. So they also introduced the Western world's first no-fault divorce on the sole ground of 12-month separation. I guess before they had to prove that something was... Someone had been in fault. Yeah. So now you can just get divorced for fun.

Yeah, we have to live separately for 12 months. Man, some crazy... That's not fun. Crazy marriage-based laws that were... Yeah. Still around not that long ago. Yeah. Yeah.

Oh, you're married. Well, there's... It's kind of... You're kind of in international waters then. Yeah. You can really do some bad stuff. Ooh. This is, well, the non-financial contribution of women to the family home was also

recognised in custody and financial settlements, enabling them to leave a marriage without having to prove fault or risk losing custody of their own children. Wow. Crazy. In 1972, his policy speech, Whitlam had committed his government to land rights for indigenous peoples. And in August 1975, he travelled to Dagaragu, part of the land of the Gaurangi people had sought to reclaim by walking off Wavehill stationed a decade earlier, pouring sand from his hand into those of the Gorinji elder and leader of the walkoff, Vincent Lingari,

mentioned in the poor Kellysong from Little Things Big Things Grow. Whitland said, these lands belong to the Gorinchie people, and I put it into your hand, part of the earth itself, as a sign that this land will be the possession of you and your children forever. The government had purchased 3,237 square kilometres of Wayfield station land from Lord Vestey, so we're that's owned by Lord Vestey, which it passed on to the people as leasehold title. So he's doing different stuff across the board, and then we get to a big one. Labour formed Medibank, a precursor to Medicare giving Australians universal health care, which before that, like a large percentage of Australians, didn't have health insurance.

Right. Just for the people yelling at their iPods, Kev Carmody wrote From Little Things Big Things Grow. Dave's given it to Paul Kelly. Why are you whispering it down here? So it's almost impossible to hear

when someone's driving in the car listening to From Little Things Big Things Grow. Yeah, written by Kev Comedy. Oh, I didn't actually know that. Vincent Lingari is such a great name. Yeah. It really is a lyric that stands out in that song so much. because it's just so pleasing to the ear.

It's really nice. I love that. Ernie Dingo plays the Didgeridoo on that song. There's Didgeridoo at the end and it's Ernie Dingo. Holy shit. Let me be the first to say. I think that's a fun fact. That's a fun fact.

I'll say that. And I think I have the right to say that. So defensive about it. I think I'm allowed to find that fun. People who haven't listened for a while will be like, why is he? Well, Jess sometimes claims that she's. the only one who can call things fun facts. Never said that, how do you?

So, Goughfootland's first year as Prime Minister ended with a record 253 bills having been introduced and 203 acts passed. And that's what he was in it for, the record. Yeah. He's on that bulls. He's on the tank. Yeah.

We're going to get it. So that's all pretty impressive stuff. Do you think they're like in the Olympic swimming, the line in front of him, you know? He's just like, uh, what about, uh, everyone should, uh, should get a Dalmatian. There's one. Uh, okay. Uh, whatever.

Okay. Um, passed. Yeah. Uh, Coca-Cola is pretty good. Put in, put into law. Yeah, great. Uh, shit. Well, it was great.

Great, great. Put that into constitution. Yeah, great. Yeah. Something about custard. Uh, custard's banned. Cousard. Banned.

Bair custard. There's three in one day. Is that a record? And his party's like, cough, we've got the majority, but this is, uh, this is a bit much. Yeah. His wife's, uh, in the swimming pool, you know, doing that line thing.

Yeah. The line, but the line's, never because she's past the line she's either side of the line The line can't keep up because she's going to tap with her hands tap with her foot tap with her hands tap with her hands tap with a foot

The horse is The screen is filling with line Is this a confusing bit Is everyone picturing it like I am? She's doing that line thing I think was very clear Everybody we all understood We all know the line thing

From the Olympic swimming line thing makes. Well, when it's malfunctioning. When she's doing it? We all know that. We all know that. She's being electric in it by the line in the pool.

She invents time travel. It's pretty impressive. Somehow. She created 74 gigawatts. All right. We'll edit all of that out. I do think I lost it a bit. That is the coffee.

I'm so sorry. The coffee wearing off or wearing on. It's kicking in. So they did a lot in a pretty short amount of time. Yeah. And like Matt was saying, a lot of people still like, they did a lot of good stuff. Yeah. But that's, and it's all pretty impressive, a lot of change in a short amount of time.

But it wasn't all good news for the Labor Party in government, because all this stuff costs a lot of money. Yes. Labor's policies had been based around hoping for the continuation of the post-war boom of low-inflary economic growth. They were like, the good times will roll forever. Yeah, we're spending a little bit of money now,

but things are cheap. Yeah. And money's going to only grow. And it'll be fine. I'm cash and checks I can pay. Exactly. It got bigger last year. It'll get bigger this year.

That's how it works, babe. We'll never stop. Hey, Dave, Paul Kelly co-wrote that song with Kep comedy. Yeah. So sorry about that. I didn't know that. And I went to make sure that I was right And Ernie Dingo does play on it

Oh, thank God, because I didn't know that either For international listeners, my God, if you look up Ernie Dingo Yeah, you are, I mean, I'm sure they would have seen His great work in Cockadile Dundee Is a, oh my God, yes He was so hot in that He was so hot in that Yeah, wow

He's a, he's a, you know, a celebrity, a comedian actor, TV presenter Is it you told me the story about your friend And yeah, can you tell that story? No, I don't know if I know what story you mean. We did get a story of simply the jest that was Ernie Dingo related. Oh, maybe that was about a little kid in water? Yeah, yeah, yeah. In my head, I've made that as your friend when they were a kid.

It was, I can't remember what the actual topic was on simply the jest, which was a segment and then a podcast I used to do on Triple J. But somebody was telling the story about when they were little, they were walking along a pier, and there was a bunch of like guys sitting on the on the pier fishing. And a kid has, this kid has like had a look into this huge bucket that had fish in it. And they're only about two and they've sort of tipped into the bucket, just filled with water and stuff. And somebody has grabbed them by the back of their t-shirt and pulled them out of this bucket

and their parents later told her that was Ernie Dingo. Only Dingo saved me off. Imagine drowning in a bucket of fish. In a bucket. And you would have if it wasn't for Ernie Dingo. Thank you, Ernie Dingo. It's like drowning in a fish in a barrel. I'm looking up Ernie Dingo, Crocodile Dundee.

Holy shit. Come on, give us a quiz. Hang on, I'm going to... Ooh, Ernie. Jeez, Louise. Oh, my God. The hair. He's got tight curls.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Gorgeous. Oh, my gosh. Beautiful man and very much loved in Australia. Ripped as well from memory. Yes. Still.

I mean, that's just a headshot there. Still looking pretty good. Because he's got like the white beard and hair now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he looks good. He had a, white fox. He had a special on recently on the telly. And, uh, yeah, Isaac Compton was on it and Dan Simpson and a few other. Did you see Isaac's, um, TikTok with Annie?

Oh, it's really cute. I'll show you later. It's really nice. Love it. He also, for that, Isaac did it, went around the streets asking people to name, name an Indigenous person. And in the end, he says to this guy, what about Isaac Compton?

You know him? And the guy goes, nah. And Isaac sort of, obviously someone on the look on his face. And the guy goes, that way, that's you, isn't it? And that guy, I went to primary school with. I'm like, I haven't seen that guy in 20 years. See? How about that?

What are these brushes with fame? What? A guy who was interviewed on TV one time. You know that guy? And where are the affluent East kids? I didn't get my own phone until I was 14. Oh, I didn't get mine. I didn't get mine until I was...

Phones didn't exist for you. That's not fair. That's not a fair comparison. Yeah, but you had the car phone, the satellite phone. Your parents would have had that in the Bentley. I was there when, uh, what? Came up with it. He thought, uh, you should say, um, ringy-ding, ding you got the king when you answer the phone.

but I convinced him to say a hoi-hoi. Wow. So there you go. That's good stuff. I think that's a while ago. That's how I remember the story. I'm still writing my book about the history of the world. What?

And that I'll probably do a chapter about that anecdote. Now that I think about, I'm going to make a matter of it. And while you're having a think about that, Dave, do know a lot about Goff Whitlam. All right. So they spend a lot of money. Yes. But the government, I'm thinking of the good times. This will last forever.

Yeah, good times. when things are good, it's always going to be good. It's playing for the next several decades. And everyone's going to appreciate all these great changes we're making. Yeah, yeah. They love it. All those really conservative people, they love that we're paying women more and actually acknowledging the existence of indigenous people.

Yeah, and allowing people to move here who aren't just white. Yeah. We're thinking that in like 20, 30 years time it might be nice to have a Chinese restaurant around the corner. I mean, yeah. I don't know what they thought about the huge Chinese. community who were already living in Australia for probably 100 years at that point. Interesting. It is interesting, but yeah.

And the Pacific Islands, our close neighbours. Yeah, stop stopping nukes there for fun, France. What are you Bond villains? What's going on, France? Why don't we talk about that more often? What the fuck was France doing? Let's nuke an island. Oh, down in, well, maybe in paradise.

Fuck. What's Nick Paradise? Most beautiful place you'll ever see. Wild. So, but the government faced an immediate shift in the global economic situation. Whitlam came to office just as the international economy was entering a period of unprecedented post-war volatility and rising inflation, for which neither his government nor the Treasury was prepared. Right.

They made a lot of promises saying a vote for us, we'll do all these things. They did the things, but, you know, the money's not quite there. Well, here's the thing. That's where I want politicians to just talk to us like fucking people. Do you know what I like? That's what I dislike about politics. I dislike the politics of politics. I don't like that it seems very fake and it's very like. So in that case, if I had voted for a party and they'd promised all these things and then

there was unprecedented volatility in the market and they said, guys, totally, look, that's on us. We promised a bunch of things. There's no cash. We're going to have to pull it back a little bit. I'd be like, thanks for letting me know. Okay. I think, I think that that would be nice, but I feel like a lot of people, would feel cynical about that, like, oh, great, you told us all this to get you in? And now, oh, no, it's out of our hands. We can't do it. Yeah. So you'd rather they just lie and connives. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying I can understand. It's a tight spot to be in. Oh, it's the worst job in the world. What do you mean? We can't all have a Ferrari like you said.

Come on. Yeah. I mean, Gough, he really shouldn't have said that. That one was, yeah. He was riffing that one. Yeah, yeah. He was just pretty desperate at that point. And I'll have a Dalmatian in the boot. Everyone will have it and it will be alive Because we'll have breathing holes in the boot Coff The boot's open The dog's fine

He likes it in the boot Okay Gough spiraling So to this already volatile Economic situation Came the global Oil shock of October 1973

Increasing oil prices fourfold And this led to What is known as Stagflation Inflation together With stagnating growth And rising unemployment So it's a bit of a recipe

For disaster Also, should be noted, Australia has a bicameral or two-chamber system where there is a lower house and an upper house that both must approve bills for them to become laws. And like I said earlier, whoever has the majority in the lower house, the House of Representatives, can form government. Labour and Whitlam had this, but they didn't have a majority in the upper house of the Senate. And for laws to pass, they need to pass both. So it's easy in the House to reps. You've got the majority.

You basically say, who votes for this? And nearly always people vote on party lines. so rubber stamp almost. But in the upper house, the opposition started to block bill after bill so the government couldn't function. Basically, whatever they introduced, they'd say, no, no, no. So in 1974, the Senate refused to pass six bills after they were passed twice by the House of Representatives, one of which was about establishing Medibank, which became Medicare.

Which is a, that's a trick. How many for a trigger to a double dissolution? Well, that's exactly what happened. the opposition threatening to disrupt money supply to the government, being like, they won't even pass it so you can pay government workers anymore. So it would be a complete disaster for the economy. So they're really doing, they're, they're looking after the greater good, aren't they? Obviously, not playing politics with. No, no, no, no, no, no. That's, that sucks. Yeah, Whitlam was able to trigger what is known as a double disillusion election where the

government asks to dissolve both houses of parliament and have a full election rather than wait the full three years of their term. Yeah, yep. It's basically a move to stop these stale mates. So in 1974, Australia again went to the polls. The leader of the opposition was Billy Sneddon at this point, the liberal guy, after a campaign featuring the Labor slogan, give go off a fair go. Give golf a fair shake of the sore spot.

Just give it to him. Thank you. I'm very good at copyright. That's good writing. I did one copywriting class in my degree. Did you get an A? Probably. I said what before.

It was Alexander Graham Bell. Close, though. What did Watt invent the steam train? What did what invent? Who's on first? What? Bell. He liked that.

It's a joke from his time. So he gets it. His contemporaries. Yeah. I think I was there when they. That's pretty much what this book's going to be. Oh yeah, I was there for that. And it went a little similar to this.

It's a very full. funny idea that I'm sure no one's ever done before. When you said what before, I assumed that you were referencing the, like, the inventor of the mobile telephone that I don't know their name. Oh, yeah. I honestly thought he was just going, what? You know, like, I thought he was just having a bit of a breakdown. Wasn't there an inventor called what?

Oh, God, he's back on the laptop again. Dave, try and get through some while he's, while he's distracted. What? So there's a sudden election. The Whitlam government was returned. They held on with its majority in the House of Representatives cut, though, from seven to and its Senate seats increased by three, but it still didn't have majority in the Senate.

In the Senate, the government and the opposition each had 29 senators with two seats held by independence. Interesting. So they had the balance of power. Bobcatter and... He's been around the solar, honestly.

Honestly. Has he been around that long? He might be 50. For a right, Tash listeners. That's the guy who said, oh, a lot of a thousand blossoms. Blime! But I'm not going to be spending another minute.

On it? Well, because every three weeks, a person's ripped apart by a crocodile or something like that. Yeah, yeah. We should know that off by heart. You didn't get a word of it, right? That should be the national answer. You're at the Rugby World Cup. Please rise for the Australian national anthem.

A thousand. But I ain't spent any more time on it. In 1974, Bob Catter was first elected. Wow. But first to the Queensland Parliament. Right. He has been a politician. He was alive and active as a politician.

That's amazing. And he's still going. It was James Watt, Scottish inventor and engineer who significantly improved the steam engine. I see. And we thank him for his service. And the what, the unit of power is named in his honour. I mean, we've all improved the steam engine. Yeah.

But it's who comes up with it, mate. Yeah, yeah. What have you painted red? What? Well, you've just improved. So the bills that have been rejected to trigger the double dissolution in the first place were again rejected by the new Senate. So they went through all of this and that got rejected. So for the first and only time so far in Australia's history, a special joint sitting of the two houses of parliament was conducted where they acted as one big house.

And if you can get a majority across all of those seats. Which they would have. Yeah, because they're just in front. Because they had a majority, they were able to pass all six bills. Medibank came into. That's wild. Wow. And the Liberal Party must have known that.

So they're just playing funny buggers to waste people's time. They would know you can do this if we make you. And we're going to make you just to... But I think it's never been done before. So it would probably take a lot of legal consulting of the Constitution. Can we do this? I don't really understand how things worked before Medicare or Medibank then. Well, everything was like three, four cents.

Fuck. But you had to pay those full three, four cents yourself. What? If you want to go to the doctor. You never got a rebate in those three, four cents. Do you go on that day? What was it like before that? don't have to go into that. It's just...

I think it's something like 20% of the population had no health insurance. Right. So if you want... So private health insurance still existed? Yeah, you could get health insurance, but I think if you wanted to the doctor, you just had to pay fully out of pocket what the price was. And it meant a lot of people just couldn't afford to go to the doctor or have an operation or whatever.

I think that's a bad system. Hmm. Vote for me. And can I say, they passed it, but then the Liberals later got rid of it and then Labor had to reintroduce Medicare. So there was a time where it was... Everyone had it, then it was taken away. Could it still be taken away?

Yeah, I mean, every election that comes up, the Labour Party do a bit of a fear campaign that we can't trust them with this. They might take it away. And the Liberal Party say, no, no, we're not going to, they know how pop it is. They're like, no, no, we won't be touching. It's been around for so long now that we've so used to it.

But Dutton had said earlier, before he was leader, before the last election, he did suggest that they should get rid of it. And that those clips came back to kind of haunt him a bit. Yeah. But he's like, obviously that was very naive. I'm embarrassed looking back at that interview. When I said that three weeks ago. Yeah, that was when I was just speaking my mind.

That was the old me. I'm trying to smile now. Yeah. Haven't you seen the puff pieces? So they had this, yeah, historic joint seating of the two houses. And that session was authorised by the new governor general, John Kerr. Turn? No, that's a bit of sure.

John Kurt, two most famous things about this guy. This is one of them. Do you talk about his other one? Is it him who was real drunk at the horse races? Drunk at the Melbourne Cup. Drunk at the Melbourne Cup. They got pissed up on the microphone. Yeah.

Clearly wasted. There is two most famous things. Both kind of shameful. Now, what is it, Governor General? I hear you ask. Oh, yeah. Yes. Wow.

You always one step ahead. The Governor General of Australia is the federal representative of the monarch of Australia, who back then, and for a long time, was Queen Elizabeth the second. What? Yeah. She was back then. Yes. She was still alive.

Oh, you're future proofing the episode. In case, God forbid, one day. It's a great one passes. Imagine media being like, is it an honor to meet you my great one? It's a great one. It's a great one. It's actually, snap me up. Fisbub.

She prefers Her Majesty and then ma'am, but all right. I say dab me up as well. It's ma'am. Dab me up, queen. I say mamelage. But I'm saying queen with a cane. Yes. And I'm saying dapp with a bee.

So the governor general who's representing the queen is selected by the prime minister, but it's formally appointed by the monarch of Australia on the prime minister's advice, basically. The prime minister picks it and then the queen signs off on it. The Governor General has a large community role, hosting events and honours, that kind of stuff. They also have a ceremonial role in swearing in and accepting resignations of members of Parliament. Technically, they're the top. Technically.

It's like the queen, or one day maybe the king of England is sort of the top, but the prime minister really has the heads of state. I'll put it into terms of people, I understand. It's kind of like in parks and rec when they need an interim mayor, which just is like a, Yeah, it's a... I really appreciate you helping make this more digestible. No one likes you. Dave, do go on. This truculent runt over here.

That was too real. No, it's fine. Don't worry about it. I don't want to talk about it anymore. I mean, you lost me when you said mayor instead of mayor. To all, all members must make an oath of affirmation of allegiance to the monarch in the presence of the governor. General before they're allowed to take their seat as a politician. They are also technically considered the commander-in-chief of the Australian Defence Force. In reality, however, they don't make military decisions.

They do stuff like commissioning officers in the Navy in the Army, the Air Force. Cutting ribbons. A lot of that. Or visiting military units to acknowledge the service of personnel. The Governor-General also has some responsibility for making sure Australia is governed according to the rules in the Constitution, and they do have some. constitutional powers that are rarely used, which according to the Parliamentary Education Office, are generally considered, but a bit open to interpretation, to be they can appoint a

prime minister if an election has not resulted in a clear outcome, dismiss a prime minister if they have lost the support of the majority of members of the House of Representatives, refuse a request from a Prime Minister to call an election, refuse a request for a double dissolution, which we just spoke about, or dismiss a Prime Minister or Minister if they break the law. However, they are generally bound by convention to act on the advice of the Prime Minister and the Federal Executive Council. They are required to remain politically neutral and to only act in accordance with Parliament.

A lot of it is based on tradition of those who've gone before. For example, the Governor General gives, quote, royal assent to a bill, a proposed law, passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Governor General may recommend changes to a bill. However, no Governor General has ever refused to give royal assent. So they could technically block a bill, but no one has ever done that. And because decades of tradition, you don't want to be the first one who just goes in there like, the real rebel.

If you do it, because can the Prime Minister just, can you get sacked by the Prime Minister? They kind of give you the job. So it's funny to be, that's like a funny sort of power balance. Yeah, it's a two-way thing where the Governor General is the only person that can sack a Prime Minister, but the prime minister is basically the only one who can dismiss a governor general. Right. I had to Google who our current governor general is. I couldn't tell you.

Is it Sam Moston? Yes. Okay, that's the first time I've heard that name. Is she the first woman? No, remember Quentin Bryce? Oh my God, of course. That's right. She's the second.

But I think, uh, she's not the first. She's the second. Quentin Bryce would be the, maybe the last one I remember. What about Peter Cosgrove? He was the one before, I think. Right, okay. That's the last one I remembered. So that was a while ago, was it?

It's a while back. Okay. I think Howard put him in, didn't you? Okay. No, I don't think so. No, I don't think so, Jeff. I don't think so, yes. Jess, you stupid bitch.

I wouldn't say that, no. Let's look it up. Come on. We've got the Google. But you're telling us a lot about what Governor-General's do and what they definitely don't do Oh, they don't, I mean, they've got this power technically Technically, but it's not something that's ever wielded.

Never wielded. And until the 1960s, nearly all the governors general were English members of the aristocracy, including Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, the son of King George V. So they were often like, baron of blah, blah, like those kind of guys. But will they send them to live in Australia? Yeah. Ew. I know.

What a punishment. Yeah. I was, yeah, I think I've merged. Peter Hollingworth and Peter Cosgrove's in my head as the same guy. And I reckon if you looked at photos, you'd understand why. It is Cosgrove. Oh, it is Cosgrove. Okay.

So I mean, maybe that was part of my emerging. Yeah. That I... You've included Gillian Cosgrove. Yeah. Peter Holbrook. Who should be Governor General. I didn't.

Yeah. So Peter Cosgrove was quite recent. Right. Okay. Yeah. So until the 60s, they were English, uh, aristocracy. Yeah, and now, since then, they've all been Aussies. So in 1974, Prime Minister Gough Whitlam appointed John Kerr to be the 18th Governor General of Australia. Kerr was a 60-year-old

barrister and judge who had been born to working-class parents in Sydney where he'd won scholarships to Fort Street Boys High School and the University of Sydney where he studied law. So he actually comes from pretty humble beginnings. He's not from the old boys club. He became a barrister, but, you know, obviously becomes part of it. before being appointed to the Commonwealth Industrial Court in 1966, later serving on Territory Supreme Courts and as Chief Justice of New South Wales. The previous Governor-General, Sir Paul Hasluck, sounds like he's got a bit of luck.

Paul has luck. He declined an extension of his term, so Prime Minister Whitlam offered the post to Kenneth Meyer. He too declined. Whitlam then offered the position to his treasurer, Frank Crean, and then his own deputy, Lance Barnard, neither of whom was keen to move on from Parliament. So finally, Whitlam approached John Kerr his fifth choice.

Wow, that's what you want. And he'd live to regret that fifth choice. Oh. John, more like Wayne. No, let people figure it out at home. Wayne. Let's not spoon feed it. It's a funny name.

It's a great name. Wayne. I think it's a great name. I love it too. According to the ADOB again, John Kerr rejected the idea that the Governor General was a powerless position. Okay.

He's like, it's not just a figurehead. It's not just ceremonial? No, come on. I'm not just here for looks. No. Okay, I've got power. I'm the top dog. He was from accounts, a pretty arrogant guy.

Okay. And showed off to at least one person that he described himself as the most powerful man in the country. Okay, dangerous. He figured that technically, according to the constitution, he could dismiss the prime minister.

So he's like, I guess I'm above him. I mean, if I've got the power to fire someone, I guess I'm their boss. He was perhaps then the wrong choice, I think. Instantly, power went to his head. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So let's put a pin in that piece of foreshadowing. Someone who just, like, does not respect the history of it. It's like, man, it's basically you're just a figurehead.

Yeah. It's ceremonial mainly. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Ceremony, yeah, I can see a ceremony where I sack the prime minister. I'm going to chop his head off. Do I get a crown? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, at the ceremony.

Yeah, ceremonial. Where's my helicopter? If I push a button, can the helicopter come here? Can I... How many ships have I got at my disposal? How many ships? I wish to wage war on small islands. There are many around us.

Tasmania. Let's get the nukes back. So let's talk about some of the many scandals that racked the Whitlam Labor government. Because also the money stuff, there was also a few scandals going on. Because it wasn't all smooth sailing. here's a quick sort of greatest hits of the bad bad bits. Great. There's...

Worst hits. Yeah, this is the worst hits. Where were the worst hits compilations? Yeah. Where's the non-essential John Farnham? Well, there isn't any... How do you? Well, they did release a three-disc anthology,

the greatest hits, and then sort of the B-Sides and Rarities. Maybe that's what you're talking about. And then a best of live stuff, I think, from memory. So maybe you're thinking... Is that what you think about? Is that what you think about? I'm always thinking of it. about that.

So in 1973, you had what were called the Murphy raids. Attorney General Lionel Murphy operating without any permission from Prime Minister Whitlam or his cabinet raided the offices of ASEO. Okay. Which is Australia's top spy agency, including their Canberra office at midnight, hoping to obtain terrorism-related information that the Azeo was accused of withholding. Okay. Do they find anything?

Well, no. Okay. The Prime Minister of Yugoslavia was about to visit, and ASIO officers claimed not to be able to locate the file, which to properly brief Murphy. He's like, I guess I'll just go get it myself then. So we got ordered the police to raid ASIO. And people were like, what the fuck?

You can't raid ASIO. This is not a good look for the government. They're just sending local constables down? And they're like knocking on the door, like, I think you probably outrank me, but I've been sent here to raid you, I guess. And you're the government raiding ASIO. It's like, doesn't the ASIO work for the government?

Like, aren't you all sort of sharing stuff together? So not a good look. It also pissed off the United States who were sharing information from their own spy agencies with ASIO. And we're pretty alarmed at their top secret information being raided as well. Yeah, yeah. So it was a diplomatic incident. We don't like to upset the US. No.

We don't like it. Yeah. And you can see that in. In recent dispatchers from the prime minister is always very diplomatic. Yeah. But, you know, you read between the lines, things are a bit weird over there. Things are getting a bit weird. No, we're not saying, you know, anything in particular.

Not bad, weird. Yeah, necessarily. Just different. Stay weird. Austin, the weed are the mall. Proudly. Proudly. Proudly.

Weird can be a positive, a compliment. I mean, how, it's the weird. Joe Rogan's mothership is there. Yeah. That's weird. That's weird. That's weird. It's weird that Joe Rogan has a mothership.

Has anyone ever talked about that? It's weird. As for the raids themselves, they didn't get any good information out of it. According to the legendary journalist George Negus, who was then Murphy's press secretary. The man, the myth, the mustache. This is what he said. He said, quote, Lionel, it's Lama Murphy, had asked for the files of the six most dangerous or subversive people in Australia.

When the files arrived, Murphy found they were of several Communist Party unionists and people such as a Communist Party leader and peace movement activist Mavis Robertson. When he told Whitlam, they both laughed. They were like, yeah, this is the most dangerous person in Australia. Mavis. Mavis. They were like, okay, I guess we could probably have the Prime Minister of Yugoslavia come here. It's okay.

George Negus's son was in Crocodile Dundee. What the hell? He's Annie Dingo's dad. And then worked at the ABC. It all ties together. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I bet they all went to the same school. I worked with him.

Really? You weren't work with Junior Negis. Yeah. Serge. Serge. Negus. He was on Crocodile Dundee. He plays Crocodle Dundee's son, in Crocodile Dundee, too.

Oh. Is it the second one year? I think so, yeah. Escape to New York or whatever it's called. Oh, well, Was that number three? Oh, maybe. Cockatoll Dundee in Los Angeles.

Oh. Oh. It's kept to New York. The first one, he goes to New York, isn't he? That's not enough. Yeah. That's not enough. Anyway. There you go.

Because we brought up Cockatoll Dundee twice. Good luck getting that knife into America these days. I tell you that. Good like getting it into the bloody MCG, mate. Yeah. I just try to take my knife out for a nice night out. Yeah. Nice knife out.

I now pronounce you. Can't bring my knife in. My knife's my best friend. How am I meant to eat this meat pie with that or not? It's ridiculous. They just handed to you. I like to eat my meat pie with a knife and fork. Thank you very much.

So I'd be a y-o. I've got a fork as well. It's joking. It's not really big pitchfork in a massive plate. What? I like to eat a pie at the footy. I'm hungry. The most Australian thing you can do.

Oh, sorry that I'm maybe a little more delicate it than people who eat with their hands. No, I use cutlery. Yeah. I don't like getting on my grobby little fingers. I don't know where they've been. Or even worse than that, I do know where they've been. So that's one scandal.

Then in December 1974, Deputy Prime Minister Jim Cairns was named the new treasurer. Cairns' reputation took an early blow with media coverage of the appointment of Juni Morosi as his private secretary, a woman with no prior treasury of public service experience, and with whom he engaged in an extramarital affair. Oh. There was some pretty grubby and sexist 1970s media coverage over the whole thing.

Junie Maroisy's wiki page says this. The fact that Marosi was quote unquote exotic, in any brackets, the media's code word for Asian, youngish, she was 41, and attractive was given much prominence. They didn't put anything in brackets after attractive, allegedly. Can I just... No, attractive, not my taste, but some... Just want to underline the fact that 41 is youngish.

Yeah. So you two are like little children. Oh my gosh. I think it might be youngish. Compared to a very old man. In comparison to Jim Cairns. Then it says, this is on the wiki page, it says citation needed. But from what I've heard and read, it does sound accurate.

The media covered in a really gross way. Yeah, of course. So that's just one of the smaller scandals. But then a much bigger scandal that haunted the government in the long term was what is called The Loans Affair. Again, this is a very brief overview. Australia's Minister for Minerals and Energy was Rex Connor. I'd vote for that guy.

We need more Rex's. Bring it in. Rex needs to come back. Well, there's one way you can do that, Jess. Rename my dog. Mm-hmm. Rex. That is a, actually, it's a dull dog name, but a great human name.

Yeah, well, yeah, it was just overdone for dogs. It's a hacky dog name. But for a human. is a bit fucking basic for a dog it's a bit like Bella

every dog's called Bella or lunar Luna that's a big one Luna is a big one What about them What would make it a lunar

Because it's like a moon Is it like a moon? Is it like a dark Is it dark as a dog It's like a nightish dog Oh yeah It's got no pants Prominent

Prominent annus It's got a Prolapse Little peach butt Yeah okay Well it's basically Annal backwards Oh my God it is too

Annal crap Lunar part Like, dad told me that when I was a kid and I didn't realize how funny it was. He didn't look at you and say, my humour is wasted on you, boy. God, you're a constant disappointment to me. So, the loans affair. According to the National Archives of Australia, Rex Conner saw enormous potential for Australia to develop its considerable minerals and energy resources in a way that retained Australia's control over them. That sounds good.

The world energy crisis and a worsening economy, Conner looked to overseas. loans through non-traditional sources as the solution. Oh dear. Let's borrow money now, spend it, and then we'll make money later. Yeah, non-traditionally. Great. Put it all on the doggies. He was introduced to a London-based commodities trader named Tirath Kemalani.

Rex Conner was given authorization by the Federal Executive Council, which is signed off by the Governor General John Kerr to raise loans of US 4 million, sorry, of US 4,000 million, also known as 4 billion. 4,000 million. For what was described as temporary purposes. So a huge loan you can get from this private guy. 4 billion. Wait, Australia just went to a guy.

Yeah, just a guy. This feels like it's going to go well. Are they doing it through WhatsApp? They found him on Craigslist. Hey, you up? 4 billion, you got it? Make me at this address. I want to non-denational bills, yeah.

Conner's negotiations with Kemalani proved fruitless. No funds were secured, but the secrecy surrounding the dealings were broken by or broken by the opposition questions in Parliament. The opposition were like, sorry, you're doing what? You're getting money from where? And not telling people? This is weird. So the executive council revoked Conner's authority in May, 1975.

They said, actually, don't worry about it. But in October, the Melbourne Herald published information showing that Connor had continued his attempts to secure the loans after his authority had been provoked. Yeah, there's two ways a Rex Conner's going to. He's either a guy gets results or he's just a rogue, weirdo. Because he, I think he believed in it so much. He's like, no, no, no, I can get the money. I'm good for him. I get things done.

Yeah. Get results. I'm imagining like an interesting hat. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Mate, a fedora, but it's got polka dots on it. Yeah. Interesting.

Mate, I'm interested in that hat. Hey, what's like I do it over there with that? What's going on with that hat? It's a conversation starter, for sure. Is that a mini mouse fedora? Has you got mini mouse ears on it as well? That is interesting. That is interesting.

Yes. Okay, Rex. Okay. Rex, are you okay? I was thinking more like a, like a crocodile dundee hat. Oh, yeah. But we could go with Pocodot mini mouse. Fedora.

A guy wearing a Pocodot mini mouse fedora hat being like, do you have $4 billion? I know what the game's going to be in the Patriot section. Everyone's an interesting hat. Everyone's wearing an interesting hat. Describe their hat. So this came out and Rex had to resolve. Because he started to try to get money even when he wasn't allowed to. Yeah, that's fair.

He's gone. That's a big deal already. Then Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer Jim Cairns, who's having an affair with the exotic young lady. With the really interesting exotic young woman. Oh my God. She's Asian. He also lost his front bench positions due to loan raising activities. He denied trying to raise a loan, but then a letter was produced that he'd signed offering someone a two and a half percent commission on the line if they could secure it.

so Whitlam had to fire him because he was like, I'm not doing that. This paper says you are and he goes, oh, crap. Witham's like, guys, I operate fast and loose very publicly. You're doing fast and loose sort of in the shadows. Yeah, you're doing stuff without even telling me about it. Fast and loose, but tell me first, that I can get on board with. I'll announce it through my loud speaker and the tank.

Yeah, you can borrow the tank if you need. We'll let everyone know. You've got to talk to me about these things, though. So while the loans affair never resulted in any actual loan, according to author and Whitlam speechwriter Graham Freudenberg, which is an incredible name. Another great name. I love it.

Quote, the only cost involved was the cost to the reputation of the government. That cost was to be immense. It was government itself. I don't get it. It was government itself. Basically, it was going to cost them their entire government. I see, yeah, okay.

That's our bad. this went for them. Sorry. Did you want that to be a moment where we went, whoa! No, I do we enjoy the look of confusion in your face. Okay, yeah, yeah. I was really trying and I just didn't understand. I understood it and really reacted big inside.

I just thought I didn't want to be uncouthed at all. Did you hear any of it? Yeah, yeah. Be honest. Did you hear anything Dave has said today. The government itself. That's good. And I think AJ will put in a dun dun dun da.

Yeah, if you want. You can even use that one. I just did. That was perfect. Go again clean Dun dun DJ use that whenever you want Yeah

I'd put that Put a redurb on that On your machine Yeah on your machine We should like Point to him on the camera He's got on us And then he just puts it in

For example Now Dun dun Is it true that this episode Might be Is this might be Going to be available Video wise for patrons

Yeah let's say that And if it's not true, AJ, edit this out. That's right. Ad free and also video, not free. And bonus episodes. For a month. Do go on pod. That's the slash bit of the end.

And then before that, Patreon.com. I think that's a new way of saying that address. It's better. People felt like when they were given information just like clearly, it was like, it was pandering. It was like, well, don't make me, and now I'm not working for it. It's sort of like, by giving people information in a really jumbled way, it's like Sudoku for the brain. Yes. We're going to, yeah, it's a cryptic clue.

That's right. Two hour. See if you can find us. Patreon address. I got rid of my email. It's at DA mail. V. W.

XX1. Dot. Oh, I don't know. Too many dots. I don't like it. I'm sorry. It's just a. level you're not up to yet. But you'll get there.

If I do, I really, Sudoku makes me feel bad. No, I'm not good with numbers. Yeah. But then cryptic crosswords are too confusing as well. I think I like word searches. I think I like those. Those are nice. I've been following minute cryptic. You want to follow that guy?

No. He's an Aussie guy. And does he explain? And he does one clue a day and he sort of works your way through it. Shows like to teach you the tricks and stuff. The workings out of it. Yeah. Do you reckon you've picked up a few?

Yeah, definitely solve them. Like I'll, every second one now, I'll probably solve without his help. When early on it would have been way less than that. That's great. Nice. I'm proud of you. Thank you so much. So, Whitlam, I've got to say, he was a pretty arrogant guy himself and he thought he could

ride out any controversy. And pride, as they say, comes before the fall, and he ignored many warning signs. Some of the warning signs came from Goff's new opponent, Malcolm Fraser, who had taken over leader of the Liberal Party after they lost the 1974 double disillusioned election, also a towering six foot five. He was a match both in size and political maneuvering for Goff Whitlam. He was one of the guys I was talking about before, and it said old liberal prime ministers who seem like they're shitting on current liberal

policies, and it's abhorrent, it's cruel. Oh, yeah, that's right. About refugees and other such things. He was one of them. While he was still alive, spoiler alert. Hang on. Press and peace. It's ruined everything.

Awkward things must come to an end. There's more than enough info on all of these guys that are in reports, particularly Goff Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser. But as a brief summary, 14 years younger than Goff Whitlam, Malcolm Fraser was born in Turac in Melbourne on the 21st of May 1930, also going by his middle name. His first name was also John. Two rack for people who don't know, that's like the, that's the affluent, affluent east. Oh, yeah, holy shit.

That's Melbourne's most expensive sub. but. Yep. His father... It's just mansion, mansion, mansion, mansion, mansion. Cafe. But like, you can't afford that cafe. Yeah, you...

Not those shoes. Keep driving to Moulvin, mate. And then maybe you can afford a coffee. Maybe. Maybe. Malvin, what's about the third most expensive? Yeah. His father, Neville Fraser, played first class cricket for Oxford,

playing primarily as a leg break, googly bowler. What the fuck are you talking about? Don't be ridiculous. Come on, you know this. He took a title of 50. on wickets in 17 matches at an average of 23.57, which is very good. A leg break, googly.

So it's like Shane Warren style, leg break, leg spinner. No, I don't want to, I don't want to understand it. I just want to criticize it. Okay. Leg break, googly bowler. That's silly. Did he bowl any Chinaman? That was the one that, what is that?

Is that a left hand, left hand spin, is it? Left hand Chinaman? I don't know what that means. Or, I'm about playing like, Cricket, uh, Shane. one cricket 99 and PS1 you could like pick a bowler in one and then would be yeah slow left chinaman

I remember A B would bowl left arm orthodox which I think is like finger spin for a left armour maybe this it feels like remember we did that episode that was trying to explain cricket and we just got confused and all the cricket people who love cricket

who listen just were like this is bad if everything you said was wrong so I had to change the name from a cricket explainer to cricket explainer by people who don't really understand cricket. Yeah. So anyway, I just went, I thought it was interesting. His father was quite a good cricketer.

But then World War I started in 1914, to his dad enlisted. Was he, so he was English born, or he wasn't Australian playing for Oxford? Yeah, his dad too. Oh, I think Australian playing for Oxford. Right. And he enlisted in England for the First World War. Anyway, his son Malcolm Fraser was born in Turak, but he was raised on his father's sheep stations in New South Wales.

He started politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford, returning to Australia in 1952, elected in 1955 as the Liberal member for Wannon. He was the new parliament's youngest member being only about 25. Wow. It's funny, even the Victorian-born or Melbourne-born future prime ministers, but two of the three that you've talked about, like, and when they were young, they moved to New South Wales. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I rolled my eyes, because I was like, yay, Turek.

Yay, Turek. We lost in the first time we've ever thought that. It was definitely the first time I've ever thought that, but I thought, well, you know, that's in Melbourne. Hey, about time, the underdogs from Turok. God, it's good to get some people from Turok into Parliament, I reckon. If they can get out of their mega-menchets. Why would they take the pay cut?

Yeah. He married Tammy Beggs the following year. This is Malcolm Fraser, and they had four children. So he was an experienced government minister when the Liberals had been in power. He was minister for the army in 1966 during the Vietnam War. A quick, just a quick memory there. He missed one earlier. Did I?

66, that's the year that Chicago Bulls were formed, where Michael Jordan went under play, where he wore his North Carolina University shorts underneath his Bulls shorts, which is why big baggy basketball shorts became popular. It's also the year that the Saints won their one and only. FFL AFL Premiership. Thank you, thank you.

England won there. one and only men's football World Cup. I don't think the women's, I think it might just be the only World Cup. Probably didn't need the men qualify there. I don't think England have won in the women's, have they? They won the Euros. It's the lionesses.

You're looking at me. I thought you were the footy fan. No. Tess is all about rugby union there. I love rugby union. She loves it. So in 1975, at the age of just 44, he was leader of the opposition.

This is Malcolm Fraser. and they were sticking it to Gough Whitland's Labor Party because although Labor had the majority in the lower house, which gave them the right to form government, remember the Liberals had the majority in the upper house, the Senate. And for a law to pass, it must pass both houses. When he assumed leadership of the Liberal Party in March 1975, Malcolm Fraser pledged that the opposition

would only use its Senate numbers to block supply in the, quote, most extraordinary and reprehensible circumstances. And nearly any time Labor did anything sort of slightly dodger, anything, the media would say, is this it? Is this reprehensible? Stuff like making medicine affordable, stuff like that. Yeah, reprehensible. Punish him. And he kept being asked and he said, no, no, no.

But then finally he cited the loans affair that I mentioned before as an example of the circumstances. So they started to block the supply. And they are, you know, which would allow the government's budgetary legislation to pass. and they just kept blocking it, hoping again, to force the government to call an election. The Senate blocked passage of appropriation bills needed to finance government expenditure, basically making it impossible for the government to continue. They couldn't spend any money, and this was the beginning of the constitutional crisis. It's such a bad precedent to set.

Oppositions have been doing that probably forever, I guess, but just like burning the place to the ground. It's what led to that really tumultuous time, you know, 10 years back where it, Prime Minister's changed every couple of years. It's because the oppositions were just so brutal. They weren't playing, like, looking after Australia as a country. They were just playing politics, which I guess they always do, but in a more vicious way. And then they get in a power. And everyone's like, what are you got?

All you did was be negative and now you're in. They're like, oh, shit. And then the opposition does the same to them and it switches again. And it's like, it's just such a, yeah, short-term, short-sided way. to run politics. Without looking at the polls going, I was actually looking a bit better for us now. Let's force him to make an election now.

We might get in. We'll get in. Like all the previous scandals and incidents, scoff would Lim assumed that he'd be able to ride it out. And like I said earlier, ignored warning signs that his government's future was at stake. He even allowed Malcolm Fraser, the leader of the opposition,

to have several private meetings with the Governor General John Kerr, which they wouldn't have been able to meet without the Prime Minister's permission. Right. And he was a bit like, yeah, what's the worst that could happen? You guys can have a chat. Yeah.

So he was maybe a little cocky? A little cocky. Yeah. Yeah. We now know that in those meetings, Fraser was pressuring John Kerr to act, or he'd say he'd badmouth him publicly for not doing so and start blaming the Governor General. And this is a guy who's already said he already had sort of like...

Well, I mean, I guess I could do something. I am the most powerful man in this way. Yeah. What do you call it? Something of something? What do you say that? Delusions of grandeur? Yes, thank you.

Incredible. That was great. Matt Stewart translation. Thanks, Jess. You're usually, yeah. One of us will usually get it. It's usually you, Dave. Sometimes I just look at it.

Even if I get it, sometimes I'm just like, I just stare at him like, how d-y. I wasn't getting that one though. That was good. Something of something. Yeah. It was pretty straightforward. Queen of England?

Because remember in extremes, circumstances, for example, where the government can't supply because the bills aren't being passed, the governor general could have the power to dismiss the prime minister in their government. And like we said before, though, the prime minister was also the one that can fire the, or get the balls rolling to fire the governor general. So, because of this, John Kerr never said to Goff Whitlam, if you don't get it going, I'm considering sacking you, because as soon as he said anything like that, Goff Whitlam would be on the, on the blow to the queen to say, get rid of this guy.

Right, yeah. So they can't really tell each other what they're really thinking because they are the only two people that can fire each other. Could Goof Whitlam just get on the blower to the queen? Oh! Yeah. Lizzie. Babe.

What time is it there? Ah, the great one. What's up, champion? You got got got got got. Goff. Ring-a-ding-ding, you got the king. Sorry, queen. Here we go.

Here we go. All right. I've had some more meth. So, Willem never dreamed that John Kerr would do such a thing in his belief was that the Governor General's role was to follow the advice of the Prime Minister of the day. He steadfastly believed that convention would be followed and that he would come out on top. Did he believe that? Because that's what had been the case for what, 60 odd years? Yeah. And he thought no one would ever go against that. That would be crazy. Didn't even consider it.

So in Parliament, the opposition of blocking bills and saying the government should call an early election, which was risky because publicly they could be blamed for the hold-up of not passing bills and the Australian population might turn against them and blame the liberals for playing politics basically and really put them off. This was a big deal in the media, so Malcolm Fraser was taking a real gamble. So they're absolutely going at each other in Parliament and in the media, but on the 10th of November, the two adversaries, Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser found themselves at an event together. Oh no. They were in... The same pool party. Oh, this is awkward.

They both reached for the fairy bread at the same time. Oh. It was the last piece. Oh no. They were in Melbourne. That's where we are. Yes. As honoured guests, which we are, of the recently re-elected Lord Mayor or Mayor Ron Walker. Ah, yes.

Ron Walker, who went on to be major events. Wasn't he the head of major events, Victoria? He did a lot of stuff in like, I think, you know, died. The Grand Prix to Melbourne and stuff like that. became a billionaire. Oh, that Ron Walker. Yeah, I'd like, I've been in his house. Have you?

Yes. Were you at this party? I was at that party. Oh, what? His house is like an art gallery. Why were you in his house? It was when I was doing, yeah, yeah, I've been in his house. When I was doing an internship at Channel 10 News, he was being interviewed for something.

Wow, it was his house. It was in Turok, would you believe? I would believe, yep. Off tap. Oh, yeah, yeah. Like, we were in a room that I was the time. like this is just an art gallery, what do you mean? This can't be, nobody lives in this space.

That's incredible. Yeah. Incredible and just how it should be. And yeah, yeah, yeah. Good use of space. And that guy was the mayor. Macon, yeah, made a lot of money due to his public service jobs. In 20, 23, it sold for $60 million.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Whoa. Connections you get, I think, in the public service. And that's why, to answer your question you said before, why take the pay cut? That's why. Yeah, yeah. As I said it, I'm like, well, you know, the official pay cut. But the future.

So they were in Melbourne as honored guests of the recently re-elected Lord Bear Ron Walker. The media covered the event and goff with them couldn't help but take a dig at Malcolm Fraser when he gave a speech. He said, I have very great pleasure in congratulating you this year, as you congratulated me last year on achieving a second term. Yours, of course, is only for one year. Whereas everybody knows, mine is for three. Yet another indication to Malcolm Fraser who's sitting right there that Gough Whitlam intended his government to serve the full three-year term. He would not be going to the polls early,

no matter the pressure that Malcolm Fraser heaped on him. Even so, after the event, Goughfootlum offered Malcolm Fraser and his team a lift back to Canberra in his VIP Prime Ministerial Aeroplane? Because they all had Parliament the next morning. Can they all be on the plane together? Just like we can't travel together Yeah I watch heads of state recently

Where the American president Played by John Sina Was on the same plane as Idris Alba Okay the UK's Prime Minister Yes And it went Well I'll say no more But

Geez things got a little hairy Oh my gosh Yeah Yeah yeah I'm a dare I say a bit of fun Yeah a bit of fun A bit of a, was it a romp? It was rompish.

I'd be interested in check out. I think this is the best way to describe it. You know those movies where there's a car chase at one point and the driver who's like an anonymous kind of henchman or whatever, he gets shot while behind the wheel and his foot clenches and pushes down. And then one of the good guys would have asked to grab the wheel from behind. It's that kind of movie. Fantastic.

That is a great description of the genre of film. Now I get it. I'm actually saving it. as we speak. Yeah, yeah. I'm saving that for a flight, I think. Yeah. That's a plane movie.

I think so, even though there is potentially a plane incident in it, but if you're not a nervy flyer, I think that's fine. All right, I'll watch that on land. On a boat. No, I'm not getting on a boat day. I'll distract you from the vomiting. So we get to November 11, 1975, Remembrance Day here in Australia.

Also, do go on's anniversary. And the events of the days... That was very respectful of us. It was, wasn't it? It's like a kind of international remembrance day, isn't it? Or it's probably called different things elsewhere. It doesn't matter. Do they call it VE Day?

Is that? They being everyone else? So in the UK. That's what I'm talking about. No, that's Friday. That's May 8. Victory in Europe Day. I'll find out.

You keep talking. Okay, I'll keep talking. Sorry. Da-da-da-da-da-da-da. Just a scene. What? Da-da-da-da. da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da oh that little spanish flea no it's november 11 1975 it would be unforgettable

unforgettable with parliament about to sit goff Whitland was confident that after four weeks of the supply being blocked he would soon prevail the poll showed that malcolm fraser was losing support for blocking labor's bills The public was starting to turn. Public's like, come on, guys. All right. Actually work for the people not just sniping at each other. A Sydney Morning Herald poll stated that 70% of Australia's capital city voters thought the Senate should allow supply to pass and over half thought that Labor should continue to govern.

And the capital city voters are the important ones. Come on. Rural shmoral, I say. Mainly because it is the vast majority of the strong population. That's not what I'm getting at. Okay. I'm saying we are better. What the heck?

You know where my roots are? And I'll stand up for those roots. So it's Armistice Day in France, Belgium and Serbia. That's what I think, Armistice, not being. Poland, it's National Independence Day. Remembrance Day in the UK and in the Commonwealth, including Australia and Canada, and Veterans Day in America. And, you know, it's a bunch of other.

It's Independence Day, a few places like Angola and Columbia. We should call it Independence Day. Sorry I've late, Mr. President. Republic Day in the Maldives? Women's Day in Belgium. Pepero Day in South Korea. Pepero. Pepero.

I mean, in what countries it do-go-on-day? That's like, well, probably international waters. I think it's going to be do-go-on day when do-go-on no longer exists. Oh, okay. I don't think. You don't celebrate it what it's still alive. Yeah. Yeah, like Remembrance Day is.

remembering a war that ended. Exactly. Yeah, absolutely right. When this war ends, maybe we'll remember it. We'll get posthumously recognized. I hope so. So, Goff Whitlam had a plan to stop the stalemate. He wanted to hold a half-Senate election.

That would mean only half of the seats of the Senate, the upper house, where he didn't have the majority, would go to elections. Maybe he could win enough seats to retake a majority and then he could pass as many bills as you liked. Okay. Because a quirk of the Senate is sometimes all of them, go out, all the seats go up for election, but some of them also, it's only, I think they're staggered, so only half of them. And he was like, let's just call that bit early. Maybe I could retake

the majority in the Senate. No longer will be an issue for me. It feels like a gamble. And the lower house where I hear the majority already would remain untouched, so he wouldn't risk losing any of his majority. That's his plan. So that morning, he invited Malcolm Fraser to a meeting and proposed the half-Senate election. Fraser predictably refused and said he wanted to push for a full election. Well, bad luck, Goff Whitlam didn't need Fraser's permission. The only person he needed to convince was the Governor General John Kerr, because it's the Governor General who signs off on elections and these things. And remember, Goff was of the opinion that the Governor General would do as he was told and take the advice of his Prime Minister. Because that's

the role of the Governor General. Exactly. Well, no, it just has been for 75 years. Yeah. Whitlam actually spoke to John Kerr on the phone and laid out his intentions and planned to meet the Governor General for lunch. He drafted his letter advising John Kerter call a Huff Senate election and basically all he needed was a few eyes dotted and tees crossed. You didn't know how to do those things? No.

Wow, these fancy schools. Yeah. Don't teach them the basics. And that would be hard because an undotted eye and an uncrossed tee, they look pretty similar. Yeah. So how do you know which is which? But, you know, all of these boys no dressage and that's important.

Yeah. How to carry books on their heads. Yeah. Just use your hands, mates. You got hands. You put a backpack. Jeez. Put the bag of the back, put the books in the backpack.

Put the bus the backpack. Put the redba. What Gough Whitlam didn't know is that the Governor General had called Malcolm Fraser and asked him to come over and meet him at Government House, which is an old stately home on 130 acres of grounds that the Governor General gets to live in. He had his staff make it very clear that Whitlam was to arrive first and then he would see Malcolm Fraser second. Whitlam was delayed.

So when Malcolm Fraser arrived. first, he was ushered into a room to wait. Oh, this is gross. Down the hall. This is real skullduggery. This is real dodgy. Don't you think? Yes.

Then, Prime Minister. Jim Scullin. Oh my God. Do you think his ghost was haunting those grounds that day? He would have been there. He would have been there. Then the Prime Minister Gough Whitlam arrived, having no idea that Malcolm Fraser was already there, like secretly in a room down the hall or whatever.

He later stated that he never would have gone in if he'd known that Fraser it was there. Goff Whitlam met Governor General, John Kerr, in his study. Whitlam had his drafted letter calling for the half-Senate election in his pocket. As he reached to get it out, John Kerr produced his own letter and handed it over to Whitlam, the contents of which took him completely by surprise. He read that he, Goff Whitlam, was no longer the Prime Minister of Australia and that his whole government and all its ministers had been terminated. Whoa. Killed? Yes.

You've been erased. For a man who always knew what to say, it was the greatest shock of his life. Wow. But he regained his composure. And said, you should have been aborted. It worked last time. No, he regained his composure for this sick line. Kerr said to him, we all will have to live with this.

And Whitlam said to him, you certainly will. Boom. Yeah, God save. Then Whitlam shook his hand, partly out of habit, partly out of courtesy, and he left. And what he did next is a bit surprising. He had lunch. We said lunch was scheduled. You got to eat.

I came here expecting lunch. He just went to his own residence and had a large steak. Okay. He didn't go tell all his colleagues what the heck had happened. I guess he was stewing over what to do next, thinking of a plan of action. Meanwhile, after Whitlam left the study, John Kerr called in Malcolm Fraser and got him to sign the new paperwork that named him as the new prime minister, or technically the new caretaker prime minister who would govern until a new election was held. Now, I need to stress for people overseas particularly. This had never happened before in the history of Australia. Yeah, that's a weird coup scenario.

It's just crazy. A prime minister with a majority in the lower house who still had the majority. had just been fired. Which was a... Democratic elected. Yeah, and the opposition who had lost the last election were just handed the... Yeah, just insane. And the day only got crazier from there.

It later came out that John Kerr had sought legal advice from many people, many judges and lawyers to interpret the constitution about whether he was allowed to fire the prime minister. One of the people he spoke to was Garfield Barwick, the man that Goff had made pride by calling him a truculent runt. Yeah, and he's like, yeah, I reckon. Yeah, I reckon you should absolutely do that.

So Barwick got his revenge. Wow. Amazing. Oh, man. That's so funny. Like, obviously he was, I'm guessing all the people he was talking to were probably liberal affiliated. Because otherwise, if, if you're like a neutral or maybe a goth fan and someone else that, you'd probably tip him off. You call him.

Hey, John Kerr has been a bit weird. Yeah. So because he's still. had a majority in the lower house, Whitlam came out with a plan to pass a motion of confidence in himself and be restored as prime minister. Because usually if you're the leader of the party in the majority in the lower house, you get to be prime minister simple. He just had to prove that I still have the majority. I still have the approval of this house, simple. The problem was he didn't know that Malcolm Fraser had already, in a pretty sneaky way, been signed on as caretaker

prime minister. So both houses, the House of Reps and the Senate sat at 2 p.m. in the Senate, no one had told any of the Labor Senators what had happened. It's a bit of a joke that they are overlooked, and they truly were on this day as they had no idea they were no longer in government. So, when the bill for supply that had been rejected for four straight weeks was again proposed that this time, it passed in two minutes flat. Everyone said, I vote, yep. The Labor senators were a bit surprised that the Liberals had come around and voted for it this time. Out of nowhere, what the Labour senators hadn't realised was they weren't voting

for their government to get supply they were voting for the new Fraser government to get supply they had no idea they'd just given the new Fraser government exactly what they needed that's so dodgy

Isn't that dodgy I couldn't believe when I heard this bit So dodgy Sorry what So they thought that they were voting But that is in part because Goff hadn't told them

Yeah No one bothered to tell any of the senators Including Goff Oh so no But goff's not in the Senate He's in the House of Reps Yeah, but I think he's still allowed to, like, chat to people. Oh, yeah, no, he hadn't bothered.

He hadn't thought of the Senate at all. Yeah. So it's a bit of an own goal from him, but also very dodgy from the liberal poet. He had to go home and have lunch. I don't understand why, what do you expect him to have done? He needed a big stuff. It's all the same day. He had to have lunch.

It's two o'clock. You're right. He's barely finished lunch yet. Is this, when does he do the famous quote? That's coming up. Oh, man, I love that quote. That's on this day. Well, may we.

I'll get you. I'm chomping at the bit. Champin? Chomping. Chomping. I'm champing and chomping. And chomping. I'm always chumping.

Yeah, chumping, sorry, it's chumping. Chimping? So over in the House of Reps, Gough Whitlam had his plan to pass a motion of confidence in himself. But before he was to speak, Malcolm Fraser spoke first. And this was the first time that Whitlam realised that Malcolm Fraser was now the prime minister. He's like, what the heck?

Yeah. So Whitlam... So Whitlam... So Whitlam, he... probably couldn't have warned him anyway because he didn't really realize what had fully happened. Is that right? Yes, but also, I think if he'd said to his people, I've just been fired as I've just been like, what's going on?

Why are the Liberals voting? Yes. They might have questioned it a bit more. True. They all just went, yep, hang on a second. Yeah. This is so weird. So Whitlam stood to speak and he pivoted on the spot and addressed the speaker of the

house. They're the politician who sits in the chair in the middle of the house and whose job is to oversee the House debates determine which members may speak and maintain order. And they're usually from the government. From the government, that's right. And I think they usually abstain from voting unless it's a tie. Because they're basically meant to be neutral in that role. Yeah.

Which obviously they aren't. But yeah, it's a funny system. Pretty hard not to be neutral. That's right. Whitlam addressed the speaker who was Gordon Skolls and asked him to advise the Governor General that he still had the confidence in the House of Representatives and should be called to make a government. This motion easily passed, proving that Whitlam still had a large majority in the Parliament. So when it was adjourned at 315, the Speaker called the Governor General's

office to make an appointment. But he was told that John Kerr was busy and then he'd have to wait to see him, despite how important amount of this is. It's like one of the most important things a governor general can do is, well, if you're the prime minister, I'd see you right away, but who are you. Yeah. Yeah. You're just someone that I used to know. Yeah, this is about forming a government. Yeah, he's busy. He's busy. He's busy. He's busy. Anyway, the speaker waited over an hour as advised and then drove to government house with the paperwork to sign that would make Goff Whitlam prime minister again. But when the speaker Gordon Skolls got there, he found the gates to government house locked and no one would let him in.

What? So weird. Extremely controversially, Governor General John Kerr appeared to be stalling by refusing to see the Speaker of the House, who was locked outside for another hour. He didn't know that Malcolm Fraser had again arrived first and was inside Government House signing more paperwork to dissolve the Parliament and set a date for the election. How did Fraser recover from this? Yeah.

When the Speaker's appointment actually arrived, because Parliament had been dissolved by this paperwork, he was no longer the Speaker. Huh. So him advising the governor general to appoint Goff. That can't happen anymore because Parliament has been dissolved. Malcolm Fraser had basically got the supply in the Senate. That's so dodgy.

By tricking them a bit, then shut down Parliament immediately and then called an election. So it was all over for Goff who had no more cards to play. Wow. That's wild. And things went wild in Canberra, our nation's capital, where the parliament sits. All this unfolded so fast that people are not. no idea what was going on. One minute politicians were in government. The next they were out. The media went into overdraft trying to keep up with the latest development and sort fact from fiction

as rumours swirled through the halls of parliament. Just sort of trick their way into government without being elected in a democracy. It's crazy. Hundreds of members of the general public converged on parliament and for a time things were so uncertain that appeared things could get violent, even riotous because the Labour supporters were pissed. These people, we voted for these people

and now, you know, they've been fired. One guys decided to fire him. Then we get to the famous bit. In a throng of angry spectators and awaiting media,

the governor general secretary David Smith stepped out onto the steps in front of what is now old Parliament House, what was then just Parliament House. He read a proclamation as a throng of microphones were pushed in front of him.

And in a pretty weak voice that you can barely hear over the crowd who are chanting, we want Goff, we want Goff. He read out that the Parliament had been dissolved and he signs off by saying the 11th of November 1975 by His Excellency's Command, Malcolm Fraser, Prime Minister, John R. Kerr, Governor General, God save the Queen. Interesting to note that the year earlier, Goff Whitlam had ordered that proclamations no longer be signed off, God Save the Queen. So, and as this guy, Davis Smith is speaking, the 6'5 Goff Whitlam appeared behind him.

And then he took up the place in front of the microphones. And he uttered one of the most famous phrases in the history of our country. Coolly, calmly, he announced to a now attentive crowd. They've all gone silent to listen to him. He says, um, well, may we say God save the queen. Because no one will save the governor general or something like that. It's because nothing will save the Governor General. Which is such a sick line after the guys just said God save the Queen.

Yeah, ladies and gentlemen, well-money say God save the Queen because nothing will save the Governor General. Then there's a thunderous cheer from the crowd. Because he's going to kill him? Yeah. And Norman Gunston's holding a microphone there. They're a comedy character. That's so funny.

He then said, The proclamation which you have just heard read by the Governor General's official secretary was countersigned Malcolm Fraser, crowd booze. Whitlam continues, who will undoubtedly go down in Australia's history from Remembrance Day, 1975, as Kerr's Kerr, which is a very clever burn if, unlike me, you know that Kerr is an aggressive or unkempt dog,

especially a mongrel. Oh, that's good. That's good. That's a good bit of work, though. If you get it, that's very good. That's really good. Another big cheer. a big burn. So they all got it. That's interesting.

Well, I think probably it was more common back then. Yes. I think because he said it the best ever, people just stopped saying it after that. Yeah. I always say that. Well, that word's been nailed. Yeah. Time to move on. Mungrel's going to come back in now. Or as Dave says, Mongrel. And we're still waiting for Mongrel to be to be clocked. Well, it is an M-O-N. It sure is. I'm not, I didn't, I wasn't saying you were saying it right or wrong. I was just saying that's how you say it.

My favourite other week is Monday. Well, I don't say Mongrel. I say Kerr. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He then added to his supporters, they won't silence the outskirts of Parliament House, even if the inside has been silenced for a few weeks. Maintain your rage and enthusiasm

for the campaign for the election now to be held and until polling day. I'll actually link to the audio on YouTube in the show notes if you want to hear the full thing. It's pretty awesome. He has a little smile before, he starts speaking to. Like he knows. Yeah, he's like, I've got a sick line. This is it. So, an election was called for December 13 that year, a bit over a month later. Whitlam began

campaigning almost immediately after the dismissal, and he was met with huge crowds wherever he went. 30,000 people overspilled the Sydney domain for the official campaign launch on November 24th. That evening, Whitlam made a major speech at Festival Hall in Melbourne before 7,500 people and a national TV audience, calling 11th of November, phrases, Day of shame, a day that will live in infamy. It is, because he, I mean, you'll probably get to it, so I won't. Yeah. The next sentence?

What, oh yeah, maybe. Or just the fact that Fraser perhaps rises to the highest office at a later date. It seems wild that he recovered from this. Well, and not just recovered, he thrived on election date. It was a disaster for the Labour Party who lost badly. The Liberal Coalition won a record victory with 91 seats in the House of Representatives to Labor's 36. Wow. So Labor had lost 30 seats.

It's almost half of... Incredible. Half of their previous majority. It feels like maybe the public didn't fully understand what had happened. Yeah. Like how strange and diabolical... Sneaky. ...Kir's Kerr had been.

And in the Senate, the Liberals expanded their majority to 3527. So, yeah, they're... They crushed it. So for the final bit, what happened to those guys afterwards? So Goff Whitlam stayed on as Labour leader, but again, his party lost to a Malcolm Fraser-led coalition the next election. Whitlam then retired, but remained a legend of the Labour Party

and a political force well into his 90s. Fraser ended up being Prime Minister for eight years, travelling widely as leader and boosting multiculturalism, establishing SBS. He started that, the special broadcast service, the TV channel and media network. It's amazing to think what the modern liberal party became, where they're sort of like, I don't think they're even hiding it that much that they would be pretty happy to get privatise

SBS and ABC. And probably stop multiculturalism. Yeah. Well, yeah, that's, yeah. I mean, like, back to John Howard, it's sort of been that way, hasn't it? He started seeing that as a way to rile up certain pockets of Australia. Yeah. They did get rid of guns.

Yes. So. That was good. That was pretty good. That was good. They also established underphrase of the Family Court of Australia and they gave Northern Territory self-government rights. He retired from politics in 1983 after losing the election to a Labour Party led by Bob Hawke. He resigned his membership of the Liberal Party in 2009 after the election of Tony Abbott's leader, having been what Matt's been saying, a critic of the Liberals policy direction for a number of years.

So, as for the Governor General, Curse Kerr, John Kerr, well, Malcolm Fraser was curse Kerr, but the... Please, he's his own Kerr. Yeah, he's only good. Kurt was my father. He retired early from his post of Governor General in December 1977 and then withdrew from public life. A significant factor was the ire he continued to receive from Whitlam supporters.

He was basically booed and hated everywhere he went. He's generally looked down upon for the whole saga. The Australian Dictionary of Biography writes, Kerr's failure to warn Whitlam about the options he was considering was contrary to the widely understood role of a governor general of, quote, the right to be consulted to encourage and to warn an elected government. So over the years, people are a bit like, he did a dodgy. Yes.

That's what a lot of, most people seem to think. Just morally. But Fraser, you know, he was just on politics. Oh, it wasn't Fraser's fault that he kept turning up early. He's like, oh, sorry for being punctual. Sorry, I didn't stop him a steak dinner on the way to you. Surely he was a little torn. He must have felt like, this is an ethical.

Yeah. But probably in the end, he would have been like, well, it worked for me. And I had a successful run as a prime minister. And I guess you'd be like, I got a huge mandate by, like, Like, you know, if they'd call the election and they'd lost badly, you'd be like, oh, okay, maybe the people didn't want this, but they smashed it. Yeah. And I really, yeah, I think Goff probably would have had some reason to feel like they would get back in. But, yeah.

Yeah, like, where he, I think, such a strange page. Thinking that, because there was such rage, particularly in the Labour fan base. There's been conspiracies over the years about who knew about the dismissal. Who was involved? Does it go all the way to the top? Oh, it didn't, because that's Goff Whitlam. Yeah, and he did not know. John Kerr, remember, he thought he was the time.

It did go all the way. It did go out of the time. It did go out of time. It actually started all the way at the top and went down a bit. Yeah, it didn't really go very far. People have speculated that maybe the CIA were involved. What? They might have had their finger in the pies.

They didn't like Goff because of the previous stuff about the raids. Also, they wanted to extend there was a military base. Oh, yeah, right. That they wanted to sign on for that he was maybe threatening to not let them continue to operate in the center of Australia. Pine Gap? Pine Gap. Pine Gap. And everyone a big Mac.

No one goes out back. That's that. So true. There's got to be tism. Peter Garret. That's me not all. Just felt like it had the rhythm of a tism. Al those said,

the Queen and Prince Charles must have known. Which might sound fanciful until what are called the Palace letters, which are a series of letters between John Kerr and the Queen's private secretary, Martin Charteris, were finally made public in 20. They were held in the National Archives of Australia who refused to let anyone see them as they were deemed personal until Professor Jenny Hocking took them out all the way to the High Court, after which a million-dollar case decided that they should be released. Good to have taxpayer money thrown at that. Yeah, great. In Professor Hawking's book, she wrote a book about it.

The Palace Letters, she cites a key letter from Charterus, the Queen's secretary on the 2nd of October 1975, which shows, quote, the Queen, Princess. Charles and Martin Charteris were all aware by September 1975 that Kerr was considering dismissing the government and knew of his failure to warn Whitlam of that possibility. The letters revealed that Kerr had discussed the prospect of dismissing the government with Prince Charles and the Queen. So they probably knew, despite these revelations, the palace itself continues to deny that they played any part in the decision. They're a bit like, we're happy to be informed, but we don't say one way or the other what to do. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

They still try and say. But they did, yeah, they are, like the guy got kicked out as the guy got rid of God Save the Queen from speeches also got rid of the sirs and dames and a few other things. So I'm sure they weren't shattered. Yeah. With it going back to the liberal party. The correct ways? Yeah.

The adults are back in charge. John Kerr died in 1991, age 76. Oh. What did he say when he got drunk? You talk about that? Oh, no, I don't have any quotes from it, but I just know that he was in the Melbourne Cup, visibly drunk on the microphone.

I'll find out. You keep going. I will say, I did read that his family waited until he had already been buried before announcing his death. Oh. Because usually if your ex-governor generals will be offered a state funeral, like pretty automatically, but they're a bit concerned that because he was so unpopular that the government would be like, we're not giving that guy a state funeral and it would be quite embarrassing

for the family and his legacy. So they wait until, oh, don't worry about, don't even consider a state funeral. We've already buried it. Yeah, we didn't want one anyway. Yeah, we would have said no. Just defensive. Yeah, in case the government said, nah. Imagine.

So that's pretty. Imagine, yeah, like, well, he was. hated, so. Yeah. We think you're going to say no. Wow. And just finally, despite these wild events and being sworn enemies, Gough Whitlam and

Malcolm Fraser did make up in their later years and even became friends. The two campaigned together in support of the 1999 Australian public referendum, sorry, the Australian Republic referendum where the country voted whether we would stay with the monarchy or not.

They were pro getting rid of the monarchy. Yeah. which, of course, didn't pass, and we still had... Was it close? I don't think that close. Matt's a... Matt, you're alive. You're a history of the Republic referendum.

Was it like only 40% voted for getting rid of or something? It was 40-something, but no... It has to be a majority of states as well as the majority, and no... I think Victoria was like 48. Right, yeah, okay. And I can... I mean, the ACT, which isn't a state, obviously.

I think that maybe was the only one that had a majority. from memory? I'm just an overall overall 54.87% voted no. So like it's close. Yeah, yeah. But I mean, that's sort of like that most elections

will have a two party preferred of something like that. But that would be seen as a big win. Yeah. Even though I think everyone forgets that it's like, well, still like nearly half the country is unhappy with this result.

Yeah, yeah. Interesting. Sadly, all good things must come to an end. and when Gough Whitlam died in October 2014, aged 98, Malcolm Fraser said of his old enemy, he's going to be remembered as a giant of an Australian who contributed, said, he's going to be remembered as a giant of an Australian who contributed enormously to Australian life in so many ways. Malcolm Fraser himself died just five months later, aged 84.

That's how I want you and I to go. I want to go first, and I want you to die a broken heart. and your wife to be like, what the fuck, Dave? What the heck? Do you want me to stick around long enough to give like a nice quote about you like that? Please. You're going to be a giant of an Australian. No, teeny tiny.

The tini-tiny. She was a waif of Australian. So that's the story of the 1975 constitutional crisis. Australia's most outrageous political events so far in history. I have to give a shout out to the fantastic ABC podcast, the 11th made in 2020 presented by Alex Mann. It's a seven-part series

that interviews loads of people and gives a real sense of what was going on during this turbulent time in and around the crisis. So that's a high recommend. Awesome. I've got the John Kerr drunk. I don't remember even watching this.

I've just heard about it. Do you want to hear it? This goes for a bit over a minute. Bart Cummings is in the background. Oh, here we go. Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, Any little noises that you may happen to hear are only static. It's just something wrong with the system.

I want you to understand, and I know that you will, that the minor noises do not destroy the marvellous occasion today is for me and for my wife. It is the fourth Melbourne Cup that I will have presented. And I have come down with my wife, with the approval of His Royal Highness, who's having a rest up there in Government House, to do just this thing because he wanted me to and I wanted to. And I wanted to do it. I wanted to do it because...

this is a great Australian fish. The lie is wonderful. But I didn't know when I came that an old mate of mine would turn out to be the owner or one of the honors of the winner. So my task is first of all to congratulate the owners. I don't know, God damn it. Let me get up there.

I'll crush in front of this crowd. And I can congratulate. That's really funny. But the gauges. But yeah, I think I pictured it would be even loose to that, but he was clearly pissed. Yeah. Which I think is not okay. If you're all going to talk into a microphone, I certainly never would do that.

You haven't ever done that stoke cold sober. Yes. If I see a microphone, you better believe that I have not drunk a drip of alcohol. A drip, not a drip. Not a drip. Not a drip. Not a drip. Not a drip.

Not a drip. And I have no shame in telling you that. If you hear it, but if you do hear any static, that's just a problem with the system. He was trying to have a little quip there about the booze, but it came across. It was a bit laboured. Yeah, like, oh, a few cheers from the minority.

Some people like me, shut the fuck up. I'll be back next year as a spike tire. Oh, we know for a movie more wolf. He fully wound up for that. Oh, no. Or the cartoonist pen. Oh. Nothing more brutal in Australian politics and being ribbed by Mark Knight or...

Yeah. One of the other. That guy died a few years ago. Looney. Oh, Loonig. And the other guy died a few years ago. His name was like Piss or something. Ah.

That probably wasn't Piss. Tony Piss? Oh, Tony Pierce. God, Piss with a pen. Tony Piss. That would be a great, a great parody political cartoonist name. Tony Piss. Oh, another T. Piss classic. Oh, there it is. That's the report.

A bit of a longer one, but, um. Well done, D-Dubb. Thank you for finally filling me in on what, what happened with God. What happened? A lot happened and it was even dodgyer than I ever even knew. Yeah, it just feels very, very, You know what? I can see where my brain was going. Bill Leak. Not piss, Leak.

Yeah, that was great, Dave. Great Dave. It's a great Dave. And Dave, what do you think about thanking some of our great Patreon supporters now? I'm excited to think of some hats. The first thing we like to do, and I should say once again, if you want to be involved in this section of the show, it's where we thank our great supporters who have signed. up at slash do go on pod and if you go back a bit, Patreon.com. That's the bit before the slash or the leak or the piss. And the first thing we like to do is thank a few of our great Patreon supporters with the section that you can be involved in.

Am I sounding a bit like an ex-governor general? Yeah, how do you come back to get my words out? This section is a show. Sydney-Sharmberg level, supporters or above, get to give us a fact or a question in this section, which has a jingle, actually. You go something like this. Fact quote or question.

Bing! Always remembers the ding. She always remembers the sing. And in this section, yes, I read out a few. I'm going to read out three today, I reckon. And they get to give us a fact, quote, a question, or bragger or suggestion, or really, whatever they like. And they also get to give themselves a title.

And the first one this week, I just hiccup then. to complete the character. It comes from Sophie, Sophie, Tudor, and I've, it's shooter or Tudor. I can't believe I've got, but I,

Dave, you get in my head so much about the pronunciation of Sophie's name. It's because I'm in my head too. Sorry. I think it's a tutor. I think it's pronounced as it's written.

Okay. Oh, I hope so. So Sophie, aka group mom, has a brag writing. I had a baby. Congratulations. Woo!

Very excited. So exciting. So if you already announced that in the Facebook group for patrons. It's beautiful. That's another one of the many bonuses you get if you sign up on any level you get to be in the Facebook group. But yeah, there's also bonus episodes. We'd be four per month. You get to vote on topics.

You were the first to hear about our Australian tour or our Australasian tour. That's right. Which I assume has been publicly announced by now. Absolutely. It is out there. But it was a pre-sale and early announcement and discount for patrons. And some of the shows are already, and we at the time of recording, haven't announced it publicly, are over 50% sold out.

So it pays. I mean, it basically pays for itself. Exactly. Sophie, so stoked. Yeah, and if you sign up and you get in the Facebook group, you can see a photo of Soapie. That's a weird bonus. I don't, I feel bad about that.

Take that back. Thank you so much, Sophie. And congratulations. Can't wait to maybe meet the baby when I'm over in September. Oh, that'd be cute. I did see in the Facebook group that Saraj, also a fantastic patron supporter, has already met the baby. Yeah, of course he is.

So it's so awesome. Of course he is. So, yeah. So that was honestly beautiful news. I actually went, wow, out loud when I saw that post. Congratulations. The next one comes from Matthew Whittingham, aka official holder of titles that haven't quite fit.

the format before this point. And Matthew's offering a fact writing, I was listening to episode 134, Agrippina the Younger. You know, sometimes we talk about, are there any episodes that aren't very good? And the only one I ever think about is, was episode 50 or something, and it was about, I can't remember,

but me and Dave just were, we were off that day. What was that report? Helen Keller. Helen Keller. Oh. But also, Agrippina the younger, that's the other one, I reckon, wasn't the best. Because I just remember not being able to explain the story very well.

And there were so many big names. A lot of, I do remember the names. I can see you to your eyes were glazing over. I'm like, I've not done a good job of this. It's always a good feeling when you look around. You go, oh, boy. Oh, God. I'm losing up.

I'm losing them. I'm losing them. Here's a fat joke. They're yawning. They're on their laptops. Oh, God. Oh, no, no. They're watching YouTube.

Oh, God. She's ordered an Uber. So. And she drove. I just want to get away Anyway, this fact is about that episode, 134, Agrippina the Younger

Matthew says he was, listen to that and that's when we all started discussing having a place or city named after us which I guess is where the Gary Indiana thing started, maybe. I don't know. This reminded me that there's a place in New South Wales with my name Whittingham.

About 70Ks northwest of Newcastle it has a population of 364, a couple of heritage listed sites, an abattoir and a cemetery. It's pretty small. I estimate it takes longer to say the name than to drive through, but there's a big sign that says Whittingham as you enter, and if that ever goes missing, it had nothing to do with me. Fair enough.

I also looked into places that share a name with the three of you. Oh, thank God for doing it for me. Thank you. There are a number of Stuarts around the world, including New Zealand's Stuart Island slash Rukiaira. Rook Iira, Stuart Indiana. Oh my God, is that anywhere near Gary? Oh, my gosh.

And the Stuart crater on the moon. Wow. You're on the moon? I'm on the moon. That's awesome. Did you know that? No. I think I'd heard of Stuart Island in New Zealand.

There are multiple places named Perkins in the United States, such as Georgia, Missouri, Oklahoma and West Virginia. And in Antarctica, there's Perkins Glacier, Perkins Canyon, and Mount Perkins. Wow. That's cool. Mount Perkins. No, thank you. Sadly, there doesn't appear to be any places named Warnocky yet.

But there is a town called Dave in Belgium. Oh. Ah. Did you accept that? Dave. Yeah, I'd live there. Okay. Yeah, you could speak the language of Poirot.

Yeah. French. It depends what part of Belgium is, doesn't it? Well, I mean, you could speak French wherever you wanted to speak French. You could speak French right now. Yeah. It doesn't matter what part of Belgium you're in, mate. People can speak languages wherever they want to speak languages.

What is the other language? Flemish? Yeah, a bit of Flemish going on there. Which is obviously the language of ex-Australian fast bowler, Damien Fleming. That's mainly sledging. He signs off by saying, I'll be starting a petition for these places to be included on the next world tour. I think that's a noble cause. Yeah, that's fair.

I see you and Dave. We should go to Antarctica. And finally this week, From Jacqueline Chaiton, aka executive vice president of muttering. Where the heck in my keys, glasses, headphones, phone while tearing apart my house, only to find them in the place I always leave them. All right. And Jacqueline has a question writing, hello Matt, Jess, and or Dave, smiley face.

Hopefully all three of you are on this episode. We are. It is being recorded. Present. A bit of a preamble to my question. I do webinars slash live trainings for my job. and I often do multiple a day. Most are about an hour long.

I also have been doing recordings of our client-facing webinars for our help centre and these often take longer. My throat always hurts at the beginning because I don't know any good vocal warm-ups. My question to you is, do you have any vocal warm-ups

that you do before recording? No. Absolutely none. We should do me, me-my-mo, me-mo-my-me-me- I mean singing up here. Just for fun, not really for warm-up, but just for fun. Jotting him, jamming him, singing off key. I feel like maybe sometimes I'll, not for the pod, but like if I'm doing...

Singing. Yeah, yeah, if I'm going to hit a kind of hit new record. Mm. I might just a bit of a... Oh, yeah, yeah. With the lips. Yeah. Red leather, yellow, the leather.

Unique New York. Unique New York. Sorry, Matt, I'm not familiar with that one. Red, yeah, yeah, yeah. Anthony Albanyzie? Yeah. It's a political episode. Oh.

That was so funny, Dave. Jesus. That was really good. No, don't try to do any questions. To answer my question, I've won from when I was in my synagogue's youth choir as a kid. We would do scales using the phrase, Mommy made me mash my M&Ms, oh no. And then jump up a scale.

Doesn't work as well for talking, though. Looking forward to when you guys are. eventually do come to Canada. But until then, ta-ta and farewell. That is a good vocal warm-up is just doing that guy's speech during the Suckland Chinese music.

Yeah, yeah. I see you know your judo well. That's good, yeah. Massaging the vocal cords. There was a period of time where I would do vocal warm-ups while driving to the studio because I would get a really sore throat

and my voice would just really dry out And then it turns out, I just need to say I got into histamines. Oh. It was seasonal. It was the histamines that were getting you. Yeah. I got no problem with histamines in this studio. You know what I mean?

I do know what you mean. Canada, what do we reckon next year? 2026, the year of Canada? Yeah. I like to commit to things and then someone reminds me later that it didn't happen. Well, they're listening in 2030. Yeah. Hey, you didn't come here.

I mean, I think we are like genuinely hoping for 26. Canada. Apparently other parts of North America are a little less welcoming to outsiders at the moment. But Canada still sounds like they're up for having a few dorks come along from Australia. You get the dork visa. The next thing we like to do is shout out to a few of our other great supporters. Jess normally comes up with a game for this part. Guys, guys, you'll never believe it. What are you going to do?

What? I've found a funky hat generator. No! Yeah. What? How is this possible? There's a funky hat generator. That can't be true.

But I found one and I've already got a hat ready. I'm so excited. So everybody's getting an interesting hat. I do not understand. What do you mean? A funk, why would that exist? It explained what it was for. It's just for, you know, if you need stories,

they also do a dress generator, a nifty shoe generator, snazy eyeglasses generator. This is good. This can do it all. Yes. Well. So I'm ready with the hats if you guys want to read some names. Dave, do you want to do the first stuff?

I'll do the second half. I'd love to kick off. First of all, I would like to thank from, my goodness. Oh, my God, I didn't even realize I did this too. Yes, you did. Shut up. I didn't, but I'm glad I did. This is a place in Sweden.

Skeletia. I mean, there's an A with a symbol above it I've never seen before. That's a circle. Dave, you've never seen a circle before? It's okay. You haven't graduated from triangles. Yeah. Triangle.

This is an AIOV pronunciation. Shelleftio. Shelleftoe. I'm happy with that. I'm happy with that. Thank you so much too. And I really appreciate your support all over from Sweden. Jonas

Karzhalai. Oh my God. I think you're man. Kaj. Oh, here you go. Jonas Kajalainen. Is that sound accurate Are you laughing at me or the hat?

You, I was laughing at you The hat's amazing Yeah, great I was, no, I was just laughing at you losing confidence Halfway through a word Kajana, that was funny Jonas Kajalaitan Jonas is wearing a tricorn

Oh yeah It's light blue And it's got black feathers on it Oh, that's cool And I'd like to think that it is also Just like Advertising for the corn industry, you know? It's like they've done it like a double meaning on it there.

Oh. But it's like a try corn. Oh, that's nice. Yeah. Have you ever thought about trying corn? Have you ever thought about trying blue corn? Give it a go. Yes, worth a try. Go on.

Thank you, Jonas. And I can only imagine you rocking that in Sweden. Thank you. Next, I would like to thank someone who is not provided their location to us. So we don't know where they're from, but I can only assume they're deep within the fortress of the moles right now. and thank you to nerd with faith. Nerd with faith.

Got to have faith. That's nice. As the great man once said. Great man. Did he say you got to have faith? Yeah. But you got to have faith, the faith, the faith. And when I, because I said the great man, I meant Fred Durst and his cover of that song.

Yeah. Now, Funky Hat Generator gives descriptions of the... Okay. So it says, this cadet cap is woven from white, dark grey and vivid blue straw. Oh, but died straw. I didn't know you could do that. I know. Crazy. Wow, nerd with faith. What about nerd with style?

Enjoy your cadet cap. Thank you. NWF. Appreciate you. Next up, another Fortunes the Mole Dweller potentially. Thank you to Sol Edwards. Sol Edwards is wearing a military-style hat made from zigzag striped fabric designed in magenta, vivid orange, vivid turquoise, and black.

It is accented with dark purple feathers. Oh, wow. That's an interesting hat. And I think it's advertising zig-ex cheese, which is Roy Nates. She's made up cheese brand sponsor. It's one of their bits that is like so long and ongoing that I don't really get, but I love.

With the, thanks, so zig-zag cheese. Thanks, so Zig-Zek cheese. Thanks, so, Edwitz. And finally, for me, maybe I'd like to thank from... Aylesbury in Great Britain, it's Kitty Wilcox. Kitty's wearing a flapper hat. Oh, yeah, cool. That's cool.

Knitted with vivid orange and vivid purple yarn. Well, I think... Orange and purple's a great combo. It's a great combo. It's always vivid. Which is fine. So far, yes. So far, it's vivid.

The colours are never dull from... A dull orange. Funky hats. I don't know, yeah. There's a funky hat. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you're right. You're right.

It almost goes to that's saying. It can be like, it's a navy blue baseball cap. Yeah. Like, that's not funky. No. They must be vivid colors. It's plain white. Correct.

Yes. Will we ever be funky again? It's something that Custard once asked in song. Thanks you think. Are we up to me? Yeah. I think so. Where are we up to?

We up to Atlanta? Atlanta. Oh, my goodness. From Atlanta. The toilet is ruined H.C. Once dubbed it. Oh, I don't agree with that. In Georgia in the United States.

Thank you and welcome to this section of the show, Kevin Traynor. Kevin's wearing a Luella hat. I don't know what that is, but it's woven from white straw. You like this, Dave. It is accented with a spray of fabric flowers. Oh my God, a spray. A spray on flowers. No, I think more like a smattering.

Oh, yeah. A spray. A bit of flowery language. Because at first I was like, spray on flowers? But I think it means more like a smattering. I like that a lot. Yeah. Kevin Traynor, you're looking sharp.

Next up from Address. I know can only assume deep within the fortress of the moles. Thank you to Ella Dunkley. Ella is wearing a beanie made from grey leather. That's awesome. That's funky. That's a funky. That's a leather beanie.

Someone's cut up a couch. Yeah. Ella, have you been worried that your head's not sweating enough? Have we got the solution for you? Seems like an interesting choice. That's a great one. Also from, I assume, deep within the fortress of the miles due to the fact that their address is unknown, thank you to Steve Wildsmith.

Steve's wearing a pillbox hat knitted from light purple yarn. That's light, not vivid. Oh, that's good. Yeah, yeah. It's accented with a silver buckle. Oh. Some purple's buckle and a hat, that's awesome. That's fun.

We don't know where he's from, but if he is a pilgrim heading, to America on the Mayflower, I think you're going to fit right in. That were the ones who had the buckles on their heads, right? Yes. I don't know if that were pillbox hats, though, probably. But you could start a new trend with the pilgrims. Yes, pillbox pilgrims. Now that's catchy.

Who else have we got? Great question. And I'll answer this one. It is a person from Berwick here in Victoria, probably near Barry Burke from Berwick, the car yard. Yeah. It's Laura Richards. Laura's wearing a boater hat made from vivid blue. Good.

I like a boater hat. And white zebra stripes. So it's blue and white zebra. I like it. And it's accented with coordinating feathers. Oh. What are they coordinating with? Unsure.

How many, like, they obviously have to give their algorithm, their little back end thing here, a list of possible elements. Types of hat. And I reckon one of them. is vivid. Yes. One of them is light. I reckon they've given two like adjectives.

Yep. And feathers is big. Yeah, feathers is big. We've seen a buckle once. You'll never guess what the next one has. All right. Two buckles, I'm hoping. From Birmingham in Great Britain.

And sorry for your, this is probably out of date by the time I mention it. Sorry if you're lost in Ozzy Osbourne, your town's favourite son. I'm going to come to console you in person on my tour in September. So hopefully see you. there, Ruby Lewis. Ruby's wearing a beanie made from light pink and white cheetah spots. Oh. And it's accented.

We've had buckles. We've had feathers. This one has a coordinating band. Oh, coordinating. Oh, I like a band. That's pretty vague a band. Yeah. But it's coordinating.

Yeah. So it's whatever you need to be. It could be a lack a band. Lack a band. Well, no, this one doesn't lack a band, doesn't it? It has a band. It has a band. I made that quite clear.

Thank you so much to Ruby, Laura, Steve, Ellen, Kevin, Kitty, soul nerd and Jonas. Nerd. Soul nerd does sound great. That means we've just got one thing left to do, and that is to welcome some people. The TripTage Club. We've got four inductees this week. This is the section of the show where we welcome in people who've been on the shoutout level or above for three straight years, and they get inducted into it. What Dave describes is our Hall of Fame.

Yeah, come on in. It's theater of the mind. It's whatever you want it to be. To me, it's like an old Vegas lounge with velvet everywhere and Frank Sinatra singing sort of thing. For Jess, it's like a really deluxe airport lounge. To Dave, it's like a hole in the ground. I can't remember what it is to Dave. But...

Like a gentleman's club. Like a gentleman's club. But nice. But I imagine it's got big windows and you can see the planes outside. Like, that's what I'm imagining. Oh, right. Okay, right. And yeah, each week, Jess is behind the bar.

This is The Theory of the Mind stuff. She's pouring up cocktails normally named after the topic. What's the Gough Whitlam cocktail this week? I have managed to put loneliness in a glass. Oh, okay. Because of the Whitlam's. Oh, yeah. There's no African-in-ness.

You're never going to buy a five books from the first. Truth, beauty and a picture of you. I think you could make a cocktail where you take a popular vote. vote on what ingredients to put in there and then tip those out and just put in whatever you want. That's quite clever, but I'm in charge of the bar, so fuck you. We also have meat pies and I, you can B.Y.O. Knives and Forks. And Dave, uh, books a band for the after party. Oh, you're never going to believe who are booked this week. And they've just confirmed, looking at it now. This week, we've got Eskimo Joe. Eskimo Joe. Eskimo Joe, just R-Sviped. Thank you so

much. Great to have some Ozzy music back in the club. So you've had to zigzag there. I'm sorry. I ruined everything. No, that's funny. It's great. They're going to play the songs of the Whitlam's or? Yeah, they're going to do one.

I think they, didn't the Whitlam's even have a song called Goff, I reckon? Yeah. So maybe they'll cover that. You'll cover Goff. So four inductees this week. I'm standing on the door. Theodore of the mine. I'm going to lift up that velvet rope.

If you hear your name, jog on in, Dave's up on stage. He's something. there's like a thousand odd people in the club already because once you arrive, you can never leave. And why would you want to it's Paradise on Earth and, or at least in your mind? Because you're dead. And well, yeah, I think that is canon now.

But Dave, you ready to hype them up? Absolutely. The crowd chanting along to their name. Jess is going to hop up Dave because he's in this little section of the show. His character is long confidence, which is definitely playing against type. Anyway, four people.

Absolutely. Being inducted in this week. We've got from address unknown can only shoot from deep within the fortress of the moles. Welcome to the club, Benjamin Humpidge. Look, I hate Hump Day, but one thing I do love is Humpidge. Yeah. I live to Hump. Edge.

From, Frome or Frum in Great Britain, welcome in Alex Whitehead. You want to pop him? Pop in. Pop in. Alex Whitehead. Thank you so much to save you there. Woo!

From Fremantle in Western Australia, welcome in Spencer Parks. More like Spencer Sparks are flying when you're here. And finally, from Doha in Qatar. Cool. Welcome in Fahad Al-Tani.

Slamming the guitar. Oh, yeah. It's Fahard Al-Pani. Yeah, that's good stuff. Rocking out. Rock out. Welcome in Fahard, Spencer, Alex and Benjamin.

Please make it. yourselves at home. Hey, why not grab one of those lonely drinks? It's really, you'll feel so melancholy. A lonely island iced tea, perhaps. And get ready to enjoy a bit of Eskimojo, maybe playing some of the hits of the Wittles. He's coming for everyone's job. Yeah, I think I could do this. He's a one-man, pot. I'd like to see you try. Did I say, thank you and welcome Far Hard. Yes, Spencer, Alex and Benjamin. Well, I bring to the end of the episode. yourself, absolutely. Everyone's job except for your own.

Yeah. No, that's right. With the mind of a goldfish, imagine how non-teadious that would be. You take over, you wrap this show up. Well, Jess, okay, me. Do we have anything else to tell me? Yes.

You can find our website with links for everything. Do you go on pod.com. Including our live shows. Live shows through Australasia. First shows in Hobart, first shows in New Zealand. You've also probably got details to my tour, if not there, on Matt Stewartcombe.com in Australia and the UK coming up, including a few first-time destinations in Cambridge and Swansea Wales. And it's a double-banger. You're doing stand-up and also who knew it.

That's right. Fantastic. What great value. That's good value. The guest list that's been put together is blowing my mind. I'll tell you that. King Charles? King Charles.

Oh, is that a nickname? Oh, the dog. the comedian. And also, Dave, we probably might have mentioned this earlier, but our specials are out on the Humdinger channel. That's right. You can watch our stand-up comedy specials. Maybe you're somewhere that we're not touring over the next six months.

Fear not, you can watch us live for free. That's true. And even if you watch mine, the one I'm touring is a whole different hour anyway. You can watch them both. That's right. Okay. Well, Dave, I wouldn't normally say boot this baby home, but I guess I'll be doing it. Thanks so much for tuning in this week to do you go on.

And I will say goodbye. We'll see you next week. Later's. Bye. God, he's good. That's almost too easy. Don't forget to sign up to our tour mailing list so we know where in the world you are and we can come and tell you when we're coming there.

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