Advance news in the wake of today's WORLD EVENTS - Keith W Stump - May 1973

Keith W Stump

New Nationalism in Australia. In a significant move to the left, voters in Australia turned over the reins of government late last year to the country's Labor Party headed by E. Gough Whitlam, now Australia's 21st prime minister. Thrust out of power after the December 2 general election was the strongly pro-American Liberal-Country Party coalition which had ruled Australia for nearly a quarter century. Almost immediately after the balloting, the Labor Party began revolutionizing Australia's domestic and foreign policies. In a number of swift decisions, the Australian dollar was revalued upward 7.05 percent, the draft was abolished, draft resisters were freed from jail, past Australian positions in the United Nations were reversed, the last Australian servicemen in Vietnam were withdrawn, diplomatic relations with the Nationalist Chinese regime on Taiwan were broken and relations established with Peking, and diplomatic relations were established with East Germany. These were just a few of the changes made in the wave of liberalization that has rolled over the continent. Expect more. - Information Supplied By: Herbert W Armstrong Library