On Top Down Under

It was not exactly a battle of titans. A pre-election poll for the Sydney Telegraph showed that neither Incumbent Prime Minister William McMahon nor Opposition Leader Edward Gough Whitlam was regarded as trustworthy by a majority of the Australian electorate. An editorial in the Melbourne Age said that voters faced a choice between "the flawed pragmatism of McMahon versus the flawed vision of Whitlam." But in a nation where failing to vote can bring a $10 fine, it was a choice that had to be made. Last week the Aussies made it. They rejected the Liberal Party-Country Party coalition government of McMahon and installed Whitlam as the first Labor Party Prime Minister in 23 years, with an indicated majority of about 20 seats in the 125-seat House of Representatives.

For diminutive Billy McMahon, 64, the campaign was his first since he won the Liberal Party leadership 21 months ago in a messy internal battle that toppled controversial Prime Minister John Gorton, 61. McMahon's political skills seemed to desert him as he tried to rule the country. He waffled over decisions; and often after he finally made them, he had to reverse them. His campaign performance was equally uninspiring. In Perth he told a rally that his government was looking forward to "increasing opportunities for unemployment." At Melbourne he pledged: "We will honor the problems we have made."

Too Smooth. For hulking Gough (rhymes with cough) Whitlam, 56, the campaign was his second since taking over the Labor Party leadership in 1967. Smoother in garb and in gab than most of his country's politicians, Whitlam sometimes strikes down-to-earth Aussies as being too smooth by half. One of his own party members complains that he is a "distinctly middle-class intellectual with both a prickly personality and a captious turn of mind." He also has a renowned temper. In Parliament he once dumped a glass of water on a member of the Cabinet.

In an attempt to revive the Labor Party, Whitlam maneuvered it more toward the political center. As a result, voters were confronted with Labor policies not radically different from those of the government. Among the few distinctive Whitlam commitments: immediate recognition of China, an end to conscription, extension of the vote to 18-year-olds and a new national anthem to replace God Save the Queen. With so little to choose between the parties and platforms, it was probably not surprising that voters spent much of the campaign inventing new ways to show irritation. Some pelted McMahon with jelly beans, and one woman, in a Down Under variation of the Bronx cheer, yanked out her dentures and clacked her teeth at him.

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