Albanese fakes a policy connection with Whitlam

November 14, 2025

Anthony Albanese’s panegyric on Gough Whitlam identifies many of the Whitlam Government’s achievements. But if it is an attempt to paint an image of his own government as fitting the visionary Whitlam mould, it does the opposite, because it reminds us of the stark policy differences which amount to a rejection by the Albanese Government of all that Whitlam stood for.

Where Whitlam broke the shackles of imperial control, ploughed resources into public education, the creation of universal healthcare and other major social reforms, and sought to create an independent and more egalitarian Australia, the Albanese Government seeks to entrench opposition or downgrading of those initiatives.

On 11 November, Classified Australia noted that at the time of his death in 2024 John Pilger was working on “a studied comparison between the actions and attitudes toward American dominance of the Labor Governments of Gough Whitlam and Anthony Albanese”.

Pilger had concluded that “Gough Whitlam was a giant, a maverick. Albo is a political flea, an unprincipled flea at that, who represents the ‘rollback’ times begun by Reagan and Thatcher. He is a Thatcher, a Blair, a Bush, a Morrison, all in one”.