Gough in a Trough

Little more than six months ago, Gough Whitlam bounded into office with all the bounce of a caged kangaroo suddenly given the run of a green pasture. The first Labor Party leader to become Prime Minister of Australia in 23 years, he was fairly bursting with energy and new ideas (TIME, March 26). In February, a poll indicated that 62% of Australians approved of what he was doing. Whitlam is still bouncing, but fewer Aussies are marveling.

According to the most recent public opinion poll, approval of Whitlam has slipped to 51%. More significantly, another poll indicated that support for the Labor Party had slid to 44% last month, down from the 50% it received in the December general election. If another election had coincided with that poll, the conservative Liberal-Country

Party coalition might have found itself back in federal power. The Liberal Party demonstrated its strength at the state level last month by increasing its majority over Labor in Victoria. Australian state elections often do not reflect federal voting patterns, but Whitlam had incautiously characterized the Victoria contest in advance as a sounding board for his policies.

Whitlam has had other problems.

Although his government introduced a record number of 114 bills in its first parliamentary session, many of them promised more improvements in the quality of life than he could immediately deliver. Complained the political correspondent of The Australian, a national daily that was one of the few major newspapers to have supported Whitlam's election: "[The bills] are like much of Labor's initial six months --long on potential but short on performance." Most important to voters, perhaps, Whitlam's government has failed to curb the inflation rate of 8%.

Australians, long spoiled by a plenitude of jobs, seem less moved by Whitlam's success in reducing unemployment to 1.53%.

Dawn Raids. Whitlam continues to suffer from the actions of some members of his erratic Cabinet. Attorney General Lionel Murphy got him into a mess by overreacting to complaints by the Yugoslav government about Croatian terrorists' using Australia as a training ground. Murphy personally led an extraordinary invasion of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization to unearth files that had supposedly been withheld from him. It was rather as if a U.S. Attorney General had stormed the FBI. Shortly after that incident, federal and New South Wales state police staged dawn raids on 68 Croatian homes. Australians barely had time to complain about "police-state methods" when they were horrified to learn that Yugoslavia had surreptitiously executed three alleged Croatian terrorists who held Australian citizenship.

Whitlam, to his credit, rebuked both Murphy and the Yugoslav government.

One of Whitlam's biggest problems is federal-state relations. A strong believer in increased federal powers, he has already collided with all six state premiers (three of them fellow Laborites) over his plans to give Canberra control over offshore resources. This month, four of the premiers went to London to seek the support of the Queen and Britain's Privy Council.

Whitlam, not uncoincidentally, has already asked Britain to end the Privy Council's role as the last court of appeal for Australian litigants.

Most of Whitlam's successes to date have been in the field of foreign affairs.

His swift recognition of China--an act endorsed even by the opposition--has led to important new trade ties. His dogged opposition to proposed French nuclear tests in the South Pacific has earned him widespread acclaim. The Labor government's skillful renegotiation of mining contracts with Japan (to offset revaluation of the Australian dollar) pleasantly surprised the Australian business community.

In addition, Whitlain has had amiable, prestige-building conversations with Queen Elizabeth II, Prime Minister Heath of Britain, President Suharto of Indonesia, Prime Minister Gandhi of India, and Pope Paul VI. But there is one notable world leader with whom he continues to lack rapport. Richard Nixon, who could not find time to see Whitlam when he was opposition leader, seems no more eager to meet him as Prime Minister. Possibly still angered by the sniping of Australian Cabinet ministers over the U.S. bombing of Hanoi last December, the President has yet to invite Whitlam to the White House. For his part, the Australian leader says that he plans to stop over in Washington anyway in late July, on his way from Mexico to Canada.

In fact, Whitlam seems unfazed either by Washington's coolness or by his troubles at home. Asked by a newsman how long he expected to be Prime Minister, the 56-year-old former lawyer grandly answered: "I am determined to give up the job before I am 65."

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