1972

Sydney Morning Herald

Monday December 14, 2009

Malcolm Brown

Following the Labor Party's stunning electoral victory under Gough Whitlam, Doug Anthony, re-endorsed as leader of the Country Party, felt compelled to step into the Coalition leadership vacuum to enjoin the Liberals to sort out their leadership problems quickly. He did not mention names and did not disown Sir William McMahon. But he did say his preference was for a younger man. Anthony reserved a blast for the Labor Government, which had announced that all Vietnam-era draft dodgers were to be released and there was also what he thought to be an outrageous suggestion, that they be paid compensation.Australia's newly appointed high commissioner to London, John Armstrong, said on his departure that he believed an Australian republic was "inevitable". "It will not happen in my lifetime, but probably in yours," he said. He said the Commonwealth was breaking up and there was a slow erosion of ties between Australia and Britain.Two astronauts, Eugene Cernan and Harrison "Jack" Schmitt, taking a seven-hour walk on the surface of the moon, found a swathe of orange soil which Schmitt, the first scientist to fly in space, interpreted as the last gasp of a volcanic moon about a billion years before. "Oh yey! Oh hey! It's orange soil!" he cried out. "It's all over. I've got to dig trench!" Cernan assured Mission Control that Cernan was not "going out of his wits".The Actors' Equity president, Hal Lashwood, proclaimed a new policy that all film, radio and TV productions made in Australia should have a 100 per cent Australian cast, unless a convincing case was put before Equity's council that this should be varied. This would help alleviate the 60 per cent unemployment rate among members.

© 2009 Sydney Morning Herald

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