Twenty-five years ago Donald Horne, expatriate Australian, was considering a new career: full time politics as a Member of the House of Commons. The founder of Citizens for Democracy was in 1954 a monarchist and a committed conservative. Had he decided to stand as a Conservative candidate, Donald Horne might today be ‘Donald Horne, Minister in the first Thatcher Ggvernment Ministry’.
William Morris Hughes debauched Australian politics for more than a generation. In the ninety long years of his life he was a member of six political parties – two of which he had himself formed.
Much of what has been written since the crushing electoral defeat last year has concentrated on familiar themes, the bias of the media, the issue of the leadership, the real meaning of “socialism”, and so on, rather than tackling the important issue of how the ALP is perceived by the electorate.
To say that senator Gietzelt’s article (NR, 2 March) is vague would be the least harsh judgement to be made of it. The article does not sustain a coherent thesis, and this letter would be too long and tedious if it were to deal with each elliptical argument, half thought out idea, stale phrase and factual inaccuracy which clogs senator Gietzelt’s argument, if “argument” is the word for the uncritical treatment of the issues raised in his essay.
The National Committee of Inquiry has been receiving submissions from party members and supporters for nearly 6 months.
The UNSW ALP Club normally meets fortnightly, and its meeting time and venue is advertised in the ‘What’s On’ column.
The inaugural meeting of CALPS was held from Thursday May 19th to Sunday May 21st at Melbourne University; each campus club whose objective is to support the ALP was entitled to two delegates to the conference.
Election Statement, published with other student candidates seeking election from the University of Sydney to the Australian Union of Students’ (AUS) Conference, published in Honi Soit, newspaper of the Sydney University Students’ Representative Council, October 1977, p. 18.
The May figures for the Australian labour market released by the Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations, Mr. Street, show that 5.2% of the Australian workforce is unemployed. In New South Wales this figure is over 6%. Nationally there was an average of 16.1 people out of work for every job available in May, as compared with 15.4 in April.
Many members of YLC committed themselves to helping distribute the National Citizen during the election campaign. When they saw that photograph (à la Mirror Bird) a number just plainly refused to distribute the paper.