Jim Cairns - Cairns in Government

Cairns in Government

In 1972, Whitlam led the Labor Party into government for the first time in 23 years, and Cairns became Minister for Overseas Trade and Minister for Secondary Industry. He had by now shed much of his socialist ideology of earlier years, though he was still a strong believer in state planning. He got along surprisingly well with the heads of industry, although critics said this was because he was sympathetic to their requests for government assistance. During his time as Minister for Trade and Minister for Secondary Industry, Cairns undertook a number of overseas trade visits, the most successful of which was to China; resulting in increasing Australian trade with China from 200 million dollars before the visit to 1,000 million dollars within a year after his visit. After the 1974 election, he was elected Deputy Leader of the Labor Party, defeating Lance Barnard, and thus became Deputy Prime Minister.

In December 1974, Whitlam appointed Cairns to the senior economic portfolio, Treasurer. This was the high-point of Cairns's political career. On Christmas Day 1974, while Whitlam was overseas, Cyclone Tracy devastated the city of Darwin, and Cairns as Acting Prime Minister impressed the nation with his sympathetic and decisive leadership. It was during this period, however, that Cairns hired Junie Morosi as his principal private secretary, and he soon began a relationship with her which would eventually help ruin his career.

Australia's economy began to decline during 1975, and Cairns (like other finance ministers around the world at this time) had few answers to the new phenomenon of stagflation, the combination of high unemployment and high inflation that followed the 1974 oil shock.