1975

Sir Robert Menzies

Posted in 1975

  • "Still not enough to fill the mould!" Jeff, The Sun-Pictorial, Melbourne, 21.3.75"In retirement Menzies kept out of the political limelight, devoting his energy and intellect to causes and family. His public
    appearances were always greeted with affection and respect for the man, and his wife Dame Pattie."
    Video Script, Menzies In His Time, 1994.

Australian Events

Posted in 1975

  • Prime Minister  Gough Whitlam, Governor-General  Sir John Kerr, and  Dr Jim CairnsCommonwealth Racial Discrimination Act comes into force.
  • Vietnamese refugees and other Asian immigrants are permitted to enter Australia under the policy of multiculturalism.
  • Family Law Court is established.
  • Order of Australia honours system is introduced.
  • Medibank, the subsidised fee-for-service federal health-care model is made universal. It is funded by a levy on income and aims for equity in health care.
  • November 11: The Whitlam Government is dismissed by Governor-General Sir John Kerr after the Opposition Senators suspended the Budget allocations (Supply), setting off a constitutional crisis.
  • The Governor-General's proclamation dissolving parliament ended with the words "God save the Queen". Mr Whitlam said: "Well may we say 'God save the Queen', because nothing will save the Governor-General."
  • Fraser (caretaker) Government, November 11: Sir John Kerr appoints the Opposition Leader, Malcolm Fraser, as Prime Minister and commissions him to form an interim government until elections are held.
  • Fraser Government, December 13: The Liberal-National coalition is elected with a large majority. The new government faces the highest unemployment for 40 years and the worst prolonged inflation in the nation's history.
  • John Warcup Cornforth is awarded the 1975 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his work on the stereochemistry of enzyme-catalyzed reactions". Born in Sydney he graduated from Sydney University with first-class honours and a University medal before attending Oxford on scholarship.
  • Colour television transmissions begin.

Whitlam Institute

† The Malcolm Fraser Collection

Australia's Prime Ministers

Nobel e-Museum

 

World Events

Posted in 1975

  • Flag of Papua New GuineaEnd of the Vietnam war (South Vietnam surrenders).
  • Suez Canal re-opens to shipping.
  • Civil War begins in Lebanon.
  • Papua New Guinea gains independence.
  • Indonesia occupies East Timor.
  • Death of Franco ends dictatorship in Spain.
  • Apollo-Soyuz space link; US and Soviet astronauts meet in space, 200kms above the earth's surface.

Spanish dictator Franco right shaking hands with Hitler during WWII