Toast Vale Gough Whitlam

[Kangaroos4eva]

3rd in the ALP best and fairest behind John Curtin and Paul Keating for mine.

Curtin is a good choice. I would go with billy Hughes over Keating simply because of Versailles conference and challenging Wilson.

 

[Kimbo]

Getting sick of your hippy loving commie ways kimbo. :disconcerting look alongside a :stern look.

Kimbo: We agree on nothing, K4e. Education, guns, drugs, school prayer, gays, defence spending, taxes - you name it, we disagree.
K4e: You know why?
Kimbo: Because I'm a lily-livered, bleeding-heart, liberal, egghead communist.
K4e: That's right. And I'm a gun-toting, redneck son-of-a-bitch.
Kimbo: Yes, you are.
K4e: We agree on that.

With apologies to Aaron Sorkin.

 

[MaddAdam]

Curtin is a good choice. I would go with billy Hughes over Keating simply because of Versailles conference and challenging Wilson.

The rat? Never.

Curtin is by far and away the greatest PM simply because he stood up to the drunken war criminal Churchill and re-defined Australia's standing in the world as an American ally, which guaranteed the post war economic and political security that has made us what we are.

Keating's economic reforms guaranteed that legacy.

Gough was kind of McAdam in that he was flashy and brilliant for a short time, but Curtin and PJK are Dench and Carey.

 

[Kangaroos4eva]

Kimbo: We agree on nothing, K4e. Education, guns, drugs, school prayer, gays, defence spending, taxes - you name it, we disagree.
K4e: You know why?
Kimbo: Because I'm a lily-livered, bleeding-heart, liberal, egghead communist.
K4e: That's right. And I'm a gun-toting, redneck son-of-a-bitch.
Kimbo: Yes, you are.
K4e: We agree on that.

With apologies to Aaron Sorkin.

Touché commie.

 

[Kangaroos4eva]

Kimbo: We agree on nothing, K4e. Education, guns, drugs, school prayer, gays, defence spending, taxes - you name it, we disagree.
K4e: You know why?
Kimbo: Because I'm a lily-livered, bleeding-heart, liberal, egghead communist.
K4e: That's right. And I'm a gun-toting, redneck son-of-a-bitch.
Kimbo: Yes, you are.
K4e: We agree on that.

With apologies to Aaron Sorkin.

In actuality l support Howard's anti gun laws and my neck hasn't been red for years.

 

[Kimbo]

The rat? Never.

Curtin is by far and away the greatest PM simply because he stood up to the drunken war criminal Churchill and re-defined Australia's standing in the world as an American ally, which guaranteed the post war economic and political security that has made us what we are.

Keating's economic reforms guaranteed that legacy.

Gough was kind of McAdam in that he was flashy and brilliant for a short time, but Curtin and PJK are Dench and Carey.

As much as I loved PJK, his economic reforms, however, aren't exactly the stuff of labour heartland. Along with media deregulation with Hawkey, they catered for global corporate interests pretty nicely. Reformist, yes. Leftist, not so much.

edit: also Gough had more 'Shinboner Spirit' than McAdam. That analogy just doesn't work.

 

[MaddAdam]

As much as I loved PJK, his economic reforms, however, aren't exactly the stuff of labour heartland. Along with media deregulation with Hawkey, they catered for global corporate interests pretty nicely. Reformist, yes. Leftist, not so much.

Keating introducing superannuation - making your employer pay your pension - is about the greatest left wing policy reform you can imagine short of simple nationalisation.

 

[Kangaroos4eva]

The rat? Never.

Curtin is by far and away the greatest PM simply because he stood up to the drunken war criminal Churchill and re-defined Australia's standing in the world as an American ally, which guaranteed the post war economic and political security that has made us what we are.

Keating's economic reforms guaranteed that legacy.

Gough was kind of McAdam in that he was flashy and brilliant for a short time, but Curtin and PJK are Dench and Carey.

Curtin provided strong leadership at a time of deep stress. His relationship with MacArthur with regards to surrendering elements of power and sovereignty to the USA, still a great man.

 

[MaddAdam]

Oh Jesus and his mother we have six months of this s**t to go.

 

[MaddAdam]

Curtin provided strong leadership at a time of deep stress. His relationship with MacArthur with regards to surrendering elements of power and sovereignty to the USA, still a great man.

Surrendering is interesting. He brought the troops home from the desert to defend Australia rather than be killed in yet another of the drunken buffoon Churchill's madcap schemes.

Let us recall who had the bright idea for Gallipolli. Ah yes, that would be First Sea Lord ... Winston Churchill.

 

[Kangaroos4eva]

Keating introducing superannuation - making your employer pay your pension - is about the greatest left wing policy reform you can imagine short of simple nationalisation.

Hawke was more right with his economic and foreign policy than Keating. Keating was a centre left nationalist in my opinion.

 

[Kangaroos4eva]

Surrendering is interesting. He brought the troops home from the desert to defend Australia rather than be killed in yet another of the drunken buffoon Churchill's madcap schemes.

Let us recall who had the bright idea for Gallipolli. Ah yes, that would be First Sea Lord ... Winston Churchill.

I'm critical of Churchill with his jabs against Stalin after yalta. At the time Curtin believed we were under threat and chose our interests first, despite history later showing the japs didn't plan to invade.

 

[Kangaroos4eva]

As much as I loved PJK, his economic reforms, however, aren't exactly the stuff of labour heartland. Along with media deregulation with Hawkey, they catered for global corporate interests pretty nicely. Reformist, yes. Leftist, not so much.

edit: also Gough had more 'Shinboner Spirit' than McAdam. That analogy just doesn't work.

Not to mention hawke breaking the back of his own unions.

 

[year of the roo]

LOL this thread is now about Labor's great leaders. Akin to who's the best kid at St Kilda.

 

[MaddAdam]

LOL this thread is now about Labor's great leaders. Akin to who's the best kid at St Kilda.

Jack Billings goes alright. Scott certainly rates him.

 

[Kangaroos4eva]

LOL this thread is now about Labor's great leaders. Akin to who's the best kid at St Kilda.

Because they are all mediocre (whitlam and Curtin withstanding).

 

[sutcliffe's hotel]

1975 was a huge year.

Vale Comrade.

You rocked the casbah & life in Australia became a great deal fairer.

 

[Horace]

This is a very sad day indeed. As far as I am concerned, Gough was by far our greatest ever leader.

His very first decision to pull our troops out of Vietnam saved so many Australian, Vietnamese and ultimately American lives, because it changed the course of that mindless war. One of my greatest memories is to have been one of those who marched in the Moratoriums of the 1960's and in particular when 200000 people sat down in Bourke Street. The euphoria I felt when he won the election in 1972 and immediately announced that Australia was pulling out was akin to anything I have ever known.

But he instigated much much more than this, as Kimbo posted earlier and the reforms that his government introduced have benefited way more than those who have been born in much more recent times, will ever understand.

An exceptional Australian who did exceptional work for all Australians.

 

[Gasometer]

3rd in the ALP best and fairest behind John Curtin and Paul Keating for mine.

So true. .I would also have Curtin as best PM for his WW2 leadership in the Pacific theater.

 

[B4Bear]

3rd in the ALP best and fairest behind John Curtin and Paul Keating for mine.

Would have him third behind Curtin (man-crush here) and Chifley.

PJK as the sub.

 

[Black2Blue]

RIP big fella.

The power of his legacy is writ large in the way it has taken the reactionaries almost 4 decades of culling to return us to our natural conservative morass.

Gough = BFNAAK? (his policies had a bit of the Shinboner about them)

 

[Gasometer]

The rat? Never.

Curtin is by far and away the greatest PM simply because he stood up to the drunken war criminal Churchill and re-defined Australia's standing in the world as an American ally, which guaranteed the post war economic and political security that has made us what we are.

Keating's economic reforms guaranteed that legacy.

Gough was kind of McAdam in that he was flashy and brilliant for a short time, but Curtin and PJK are Dench and Carey.

Gough=McAdam?

Wat about Glen Freeborn?

 

[MaddAdam]

His very first decision to pull our troops out of Vietnam saved so many Australian, Vietnamese and ultimately American lives, because it changed the course of that mindless war.

Hadn't both Australia and the US already enacted massive troop drawdowns by 1972?

I think 67/68 (when you were marching ... with my folks) was the height of Aust/US numbers in Vietnam.

 

[MaddAdam]

Would have him third behind Curtin (man-crush here) and Chifley.

PJK as the sub.

Chifley's game losing (and 20 years of power losing) decision to try and nationalise the banks a dark stain on his record.

 

[Kangaroos4eva]

Hadn't both Australia and the US already enacted massive troop drawdowns by 1972?

I think 67/68 (when you were marching ... with my folks) was the height of Aust/US numbers in Vietnam.

Gorton was already withdrawing troops by 1970 and tough sped up the process.