INTRODUCTION
On the 8th February 1967 Gough Whitlam was elected federal Labor leader with Lance Barnard as his Deputy. It was the beginning of a remarkable partnership that was most aptly illustrated by the celebrated duumvirate, “the smallest government…..since the brief Wellington Administration of 1834”[1] when Whitlam and Barnard assumed government as a two man Ministry in December 1972. It was, however, a close relationship that went back to when Barnard first entered parliament in 1954. “Friendship is a delicate bloom which flourishes only rarely in the jungle of politics”[2] and close relationships tend to be alliances that revolve around particular issues or areas of mutual self interest like that of Keating and Hawke (1983-1991). They dissolve, often in acrimony, when these connecting elements evaporate. The Whitlam-Barnard connection was one that seemed to transcend the usual political ‘marriage of convenience’, persisting beyond the inevitable tensions, and generating a unique and historically significant alliance, characterised by Kelly as “one of the most successful in recent years in Australian politics”
[1]EG Whitlam “The Whitlam Government 1972-1985” Penguin 1985 p18. It should be noted that Wellington formed his brief Ministry after the dismissal of Lord Melbourne by William IV, the last such dismissal by the crown of a government with authority over Australia until that of the Whitlam Government in 1975. Whitlam’s seizing of this historical incident has a perverse irony- the events of the Wellington Ministry happened in reverse order to those of Whitlam government!
[2]A Reid “The Whitlam Venture” Hill of Content Melb 1976 p5
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