What if Arthur Calwell died?
- Thread starter Mr J
- Start date
I am presuming that Gough would have had a small margin in the House, and a minority in the Senate after his 1969 election. I can therefore see Whitlam having to go to an early election in late 1970 or early 1971. The shortage of numbers would meanthat many of Whitlam's more creative solutions, such as Medibank, would have had to wait until late 1971 to get going.
The economic effects of the Oil Shock would not be apparent before Whitlam has to go to election again in late 1973 or early 1974, and I suspect that the government would survive that election, but lose the next convincingly.
I therefore suspect that our 20th Prime Minister would therefore have governed the Commonwealth from 1969 to 1976/7. McMahon would have been his first Opposition Leader, but I suspect would have been crushed in the 1970 elections and been forced to resign, as well as doing considerable damage to the Coalition. Snedden would have been the second Opposition Leader, but I foresee a leadership spill for the Liberal Party before he would get to the 1976 election, so that Fraser would have been elevated to the leadership and he would have won the general election as well.
My list of Prime Ministers would be:
WHITLAM (1969-1976) McMahon, Snedden, Fraser
FRASER (1976-1982) Hayden, Hawke
PEACOCK (1982-1984) Hawke
HAWKE (1984-1992) Howard, Moore, Hewson,
KEATING (1992-1994) Hewson, Downer, Costello
COSTELLO (1994-2000)
Australia becomes a republic at the start of 2001.
The economic effects of the Oil Shock would not be apparent before Whitlam has to go to election again in late 1973 or early 1974, and I suspect that the government would survive that election, but lose the next convincingly.
I therefore suspect that our 20th Prime Minister would therefore have governed the Commonwealth from 1969 to 1976/7. McMahon would have been his first Opposition Leader, but I suspect would have been crushed in the 1970 elections and been forced to resign, as well as doing considerable damage to the Coalition. Snedden would have been the second Opposition Leader, but I foresee a leadership spill for the Liberal Party before he would get to the 1976 election, so that Fraser would have been elevated to the leadership and he would have won the general election as well.
My list of Prime Ministers would be:
WHITLAM (1969-1976) McMahon, Snedden, Fraser
FRASER (1976-1982) Hayden, Hawke
PEACOCK (1982-1984) Hawke
HAWKE (1984-1992) Howard, Moore, Hewson,
KEATING (1992-1994) Hewson, Downer, Costello
COSTELLO (1994-2000)
Australia becomes a republic at the start of 2001.