The Governor-General, Sir Paul Hasluck opened the 28th Parliament on February 27, 1973.
Hasluck presided over the first Parliament since 1949 with a Labor government. The Governor-General’s speech contained a number of historic announcements of legislative programs from the Whitlam government.
The announcements included the abolition of university fees, the introduction of universal health insurance, the lowering of the voting age to 18, independence for Papua New Guinea, the introduction of the Schools Commission and federal responsibility for Aboriginal disadvantage.
Hasluck was a former minister in the Liberal-Country Party government that Whitlam defeated.
- Listen to highlights of Hasluck’s speech (5m – full text below)
Hansard transcript of Governor-General Sir Paul Hasluck’s speech opening the 28th Parliament.
Members of the Senate and Members of the House of Representatives:
Following the clear decision of the people of Australia at the elections for the House of Representatives on 2nd December 1972 and acting upon advice, I commissioned the Leader of the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party to form a new Government on 5th December 1972. My new advisers have proceeded with all possible speed to act upon the mandate for change which they are firmly convinced was bestowed upon them by the people of Australia in the House of Representatives elections. My advisers will now ask this Parliament – itself the fundamental means by which the will of the people can be expressed – to pass legislation embodying the central parts of the program which the people have instructed them to implement.