Young Australians never stood a chance
theguardian.com
theguardian.com
For all Rupert Murdoch and the Liberals relentlessly hammered them for the "compromise" I feel like we saw a lot more good government and policy decisions because there had to be debate and negotiation and give-and-take instead of taking the power for granted.
Then we got 10 years of climate denialism and jobs'n'growth, and it was all about those already well off, and not looking to the future, not looking at social issues, just corporate ones.
Hopefully things improve on many axes.
My choice for the most creative time was those first couple of months of the Whitlam government in 1972 when it was basically just Whitlam and Barnard acting alone.
The only time in my life I've witnessed the majority of citizens feel that they were sufficiently empowered politically to truly change things for the better was in those few weeks—they did so because they could actually see the policies they'd voted for just days previously were being enacted and cemented in place within days of the election!
It was probably the most exciting and hopeful time ever in Australian politics and should never be forgotten.
I vividly recall my own experience: I'd been conscripted to go to Vietnam and was driving along on the approach to a large bridge and I nearly ran off the road with excitement when I heard on the radio that those two politicians had made an executive decision to end conscription even before the parliamentary process had gotten fully underway. It's a moment I'll never forget.