In his time in office, Whitlam and his government implemented a large number of new programs and policy changes, including the elimination of military conscription and criminal execution, institution of universal health care and fee-free tertiary schooling (university), and the implementation of legal aid programs. He won the 1974 election with a reduced majority. Subsequently, the Opposition, which controlled the Senate, was emboldened by government scandals and a flagging economy to challenge Whitlam. In late 1975, there was a weeks-long deadlock over the passage of appropriation bills, which was resolved by Kerr's dismissal of Whitlam and commissioning of Opposition leader Malcolm Fraser as caretaker Prime Minister. Labor lost the subsequent 1975 election in a landslide.
Whitlam resigned from the leadership after the ALP lost again at the 1977 election, and left Parliament in 1978. With the advent of the Hawke government in 1983, he served as ambassador to UNESCO, and remained active in public life well into his nineties. The circumstances of his dismissal, and the legacy of his government, remain part of Australian political discourse.
Cambridge, Mass. : Published by the Australian Studies Endowment in collaboration with Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University : distributed by the Harvard University Press, 1981
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