Australia. New Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam embarks on an ambitious and far-reaching series of selective reforms, in many ways unprecedented in the Western world: ending conscription, withdrawing from Vietnam, recognizing the People’s Republic of China, establishing independence for Papua New Guinea, prohibiting restrictions on immigration based on skin color, abolishing the British system of military honors, lowering the right to vote for eighteen-year-olds, raising the minimum wage, requiring industries to obtain ecological certification, increasing spending on Aboriginal people, legislating equal pay for women, divorce, and health insurance, abolishing university fees, and increasing subsidies for schools.
