The Dismissal: Norman Gunston’s moment while a boy got high on a horse

It was so mid-70s Australia, so perfectly Canberra on that dying day of the freshly executed Whitlam government.

A roiling crowd, overwrought with excitement and outrage, spilled across the road in front of the squat old Parliament House and on to the lawns beyond.

Gales of chanting swept the zone. “We want Gough! We want Gough!”

Well, of course.

The crowd was overwhelmingly of young people – hair everywhere – and Whitlam and his government had swept aside a lot of old Australia for them.

Military conscription was gone, a university education was free, the vote was granted to those aged 18, down from 21, multiculturalism was blessed with official approval, universal health care eased fear of hospital bills, no-fault divorce replaced the need to hire creepy bedroom investigators, there