Gough Whitlam

Gough Whitlam was elected in 1972
By the time his prime ministership was through
The people of Australia got health care
Higher education everywhere
Australian troops were taken out of Vietnam
Whitlam spoke out against the savage bombs
He suggested that Australia be a different kind of place
He talked about shutting down the spy base

No one could forget who was alive
Those days in 1975

He got Nixon's attention then
And his coup-plotting CIA men
The same people they set loose on Indonesia
Were assigned to work in Whitlam's Australia
Sending in agents and not saying who
Through different methods, the prime minister knew
And the chief one colluding with the CIA plot
Held the governor-general's spot

No one could forget who was alive
Those days in 1975

Sir John Kerr was assigned to the scene
Suggested by the party, appointed by the Queen
With whom he corresponded secretly
In a plot to undermine his own democracy
For months he schemed behind Whitlam's back
Waiting for the moment he could act
When he had a chance, his solution
Was a double dissolution

No one could forget who was alive
Those days in 1975

There were the biggest protests in Australian history
While the governor-general was commended by His Majesty
For overthrowing Whitlam, for kicking him out
What constitutional monarchy is all about
When they woke up Down Under one day in November
Not knowing if the future might even remember
That Australia was almost an independent state
Before Whitlam met his fate?

No one could forget who was alive
Those days in 1975

Gough Whitlam was elected in 1972