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THIRTY YEARS LATER: THE WHITLAM GOVERNMENT AS
MODERNIST POLITICS
KEYNOTE SPEAKER: THE HON E.G.WHITLAM
The National Key Centre for Australian
Studies
and the Parliamentary Studies Unit
School of Political and Social Inquiry
Faculty of Arts, Monash University
present
A conference to mark the 30th anniversary of
the election of the
Whitlam
Government.
Monday 2 December and Tuesday 3 December 2002
Old Parliament House, Canberra
The conference takes as its starting point a
consideration of the
Whitlam era as a force in modernising the
Australian Labor Party in
the
1960s, Australian governance in the 1970s and
Australian society at
that
time and beyond.
Whitlam's work on policy development within
the party has been the
subject of renewed interest in the light of
debate over the ALP's
handling of refugee policy during the 2001
election campaign. The
significance and contemporary relevance of
Whitlam's three years of
government lies in more than a recitation of
policy achievements. It
lies in the modernist politics of the Whitlam
era, in the impact of
that
era on broader notions of politics and
culture and in the
interactions
between the structural changes steered
through the Labor party and
the
policy changes this engendered at both the
Party and governmental
levels. The Whitlam years from party leader
to Prime Minister can be
seen as marking a transition from the Labor
party of the immediate
post-Split years to what we now consider to
be the modern Australian
Labor Party.
- Reshaping the nation
- Reinvigorating the Australian Labor Party
- Respecting and embracing difference
- Constructing 'Whitlamism'
Abstracts are now invited on any of the above
themes and should be
forwarded by 30 April 2002 to the conference
convenors (listed
below).
Selected papers will appear in the refereed
conference proceedings.
Conference Convenors:
Dr Jenny Hocking
Head, National Key Centre for Australian
Studies
Monash University
Fax: +61 3 9905 5238
email: jenny.hocking@arts.monash.edu.au
Dr Colleen Lewis
Co-director, Parliamentary Studies Unit
Monash University
Fax: +61 3 9903 2795
email: colleen.lewis@arts.monash.edu.au
Conference Coordinator:
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