Arthur Calwell - Labor Leadership

Labor Leadership

Evatt retired in 1960, and Calwell succeeded him as Leader, with Gough Whitlam as his deputy. Calwell very nearly defeated Menzies at the 1961 federal election, owing to widespread discontent at Menzies's deflationary economic policies, as well as the unprecedented (and temporary) endorsement of the ALP by the usually pro-Liberal Sydney Morning Herald. While Labor scored a 15-seat swing and a bare majority of the two-party vote, Democratic Labor preferences left Calwell two seats short of toppling the Coalition. Ultimately, a narrow loss in Bruce, located in the DLP's heartland of Melbourne, ended any realistic chance of a Labor win, though the Coalition wasn't assured of another term in government until the Brisbane-area seat of Moreton was called for the Liberals hours later. Labor actually won 62 seats, the same as the Coalition. However, two of those seats were in the Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory; at the time members from the territories did not count for purposes of forming a government.

After this, however, Menzies was able to exploit divisions in the ALP over foreign policy and state aid for Catholic schools to recover his position. Calwell opposed the use of Australian troops in Malaya and opposed the establishment of American military communications bases in Australia. He also upheld the traditional Labor policy of denying state aid to private schools. At the 1963 election, Calwell hoped to build on his gains from two years earlier, but was severely crippled by a picture in the The Daily Telegraph showing he and Whitlam waiting outside a Canberra hotel for Labor's Federal Conference to tell them what policies on which they were to fight the election. In an accompanying story, Alan Reid of the Telegraph wrote that Labor was ruled by "36 faceless men." The Liberals seized on it, issuing a leaflet accusing Calwell of taking direction from "36 unknown men, not elected to Parliament nor responsible to the people." At the election, Labor suffered a 10-seat swing. Many thought that Calwell should retire, but he was determined to stay and fight.

Calwell made his strongest stand with his vehement opposition to Australia's military involvement in the Vietnam War, and the introduction of conscription to provide troops for the war, publicly saying that "a vote for Menzies was a blood vote". Unfortunately for Calwell, the war was initially very popular in Australia, and continued to be so after Menzies retired in 1966. The Labor Party suffered a crushing defeat in the 1966 election, which Menzies' successor Harold Holt fought on the Vietnam War issue. Labor lost nine seats while the Coalition won the largest majority government in Australian history at the time.

Calwell resigned as Labor leader in January 1967. It was clear by this time that his awkward, tactless image was no match for that of his charismatic and ambitious young Deputy Leader, the urbane, middle-class, university-educated Gough Whitlam. In particular, Whitlam's clear mastery of the media gave him a huge advantage over Calwell, who looked and sounded substantially older than his 70 years. Calwell, an old-fashioned stump orator whose career was forged in the days of the raucous public meeting, had always come across badly on television compared with the smooth, avuncular and rich-voiced Menzies and the suave Holt.