Dunstan was nominated as the Labour candidate for Norwood at the 1953 election, seeking the support in particular of the large Italian migrant population who’d previously been oppressed. Dunstan won and was duly elected to the State House of Assembly.
As the State Premier of South Australia from 1967-68 and from 1970 -79, his reforming influence reached far beyond his home state. He was seen as the architect of a new kind of Australian society, and was one of the few state premiers make a lasting mark on Australian life, the man who might have one day led Australia as prime minister.
In Don Dunstan: The Visionary Politician who Changed Australia 2019, author Angela Woollacott noted that the new Premier was responsible for the state being the first in Australia to decriminalise homosexuality, making him a hero in Adelaide's gay community and in much of the straight world as well. He reformed Aboriginal land rights, abolished capital punishment, introduced consumer protection laws, supported women's rights, relaxed censorship and drinking laws, promoted environmental protection and child protection reforms, and was an ardent supporter of the arts.
Angela Woollacott's biography
Photo credit: Amazon
He was recognised for his role in reviving the social, artistic and cultural life of South Australia during his 10 years in office, remembered as the Dunstan Decade. He was a friend of Australia’s brilliant prime minister Gough Whitlam, participated in national ALP social policies of the Whitlam era, and worked against the obnoxious White Australia Policy. The Dunstan Decade meant South Australia saw the greatest slab of significant reforms under one premier, defining Dunstan as one of the most progressive politicians Australia has ever seen. As premier, Dunstan overhauled the drinking laws that closed pubs at 6pm, and because of his love of food and wine, he later opened his own restaurant, Don’s Table. Woollacott said Dunstan singlehandedly encouraged the emergence of a new restaurant culture that made Adelaide a foodies’ delight.
Dunstan was also a passionate patron of the arts and was responsible for cultivating a thriving live theatre scene. The Dunstan Playhouse is one of Adelaide’s largest theatre venues and was named to honour his contribution to the performing arts. In many ways the battle lines of the modern culture wars were drawn by Dunstan.
Although much loved by the public, Dunstan's career was marked by scandal about his own sex life. Journalists and photographers saw the meaning of the premier’s wearing of the pink shorts in public, as a clear act in defiance of sexual conservatism. The shorts fixed their place as the symbol of the premier’s integral role in South Australia’s democratic history, and continued with Australia’s civil rights debate about marriage equality. During his tenure, Dunstan’s sexuality was rumoured to be ambiguous, although he was married with children of his own. Out of office, Dunstan spent the last decade of his life in a gay relationship with Stephen Cheng. They are an important part of the history of South Australia, where people were allowed to have more freedom. His relationship withCheng, which began in 1988, gave personal context to his much earlier act of legalising homosexuality.
Dunstan's life story helps us to appreciate just what a watershed era the 1960s and 1970s were in Australia, and to see how one small state could, for a time, lead a nation. Dunstan fought for decades against the entrenched gerrymander, ending conservative rule and introducing his vision of social democracy in one state. Dunstan captured the mood for reform, and led the way politically.
Dunstan was, and remains, remembered for his humane act for marginalised groups. He remained a South Australian cultural icon because after a career of fighting for others that ended suddenly in 1979, he remained an outspoken campaigner for progressive social policy. He lived for 20 more years, dying in 1999.
Woollacott suggested how much a biography has to offer, such as showing how growing up in racially-stratified colonial Fiji shaped his strong sense of racial justice, and his drive for policy and legislative reform, including prohibiting racial discrimination, and pioneering Aboriginal land rights. I am not surprised that Bob Hawke (Australian great prime minister 1983–91) later said that Don Dunstan was Australia's most influential Australian politician in the C20th. For those of us born when our fathers returned from WW2, Hawke was definitely correct; I wept when Dunstan died.
This year David Penberthy reviewed the Woolacott biography. He asked how did such a staid state as South Australia, with its roots in Methodism and Lutheranism, and ruled for decades by a gerrymandering rural squattocracy, sign up with such enthusiasm for the Dunstan Decade? Dunstan did so because he stuck to his principles and brought the public along with him. It was a combination of his strong convictions and a very clear agenda, and the fact that he was so good at enacting that agenda, that won. Today so many people express jaundice with the political system because politicians often seem to be driven by rivalries or by self-interest.
Thank you Angela Woollacott.
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14 comments:
This is very interesting to me because, in my ignorance, I always thought of South Australia as rather non-progressive. Maybe it's because I was told that it's still 1935 in Adelaide. Wrongly it seems! It's a pity that Dunstan didn't enter national politics but if he was a contemporary of Gough Whitlam that role was filled.
CLICK HERE for Bazza’s absentmindedly adroit Blog ‘To Discover Ice’
Do you remember the old Premier, Sir Thomas Playford? No wonder the next Premier (Dunstan) was so popular.
Hello Hels, How refreshing to read about a committed and principled politician, in these days when even Richard Nixon is seen through a mist of nostalgia.
--Jim
bazza
not ignorance at all! Adelaide was always known as the City of Churches, with well behaved religious citizens.
But South Australia showed progressive trends from the beginning. They didn't want to be a colony of British convicts, so only free settlers were accepted. Trade unions were legalised and supported in 1876. South Australia granted all women the right to vote in 1894, practically the first in the world, and women could stand for the state Parliament straight after. The SA government became the first to introduce income tax, which the rich hated and the poor loved.
Ex South Australian
Agreed. Sir Thomas Playford served as Conservative Premier from 1938 to 1965, a very VERY long time. His gerrymander, a voting system that privileged conservative rural electorates and punished progressive urban electorates, was in place until 1968. So even though the Conservatives might have only won 45% of votes across the state and the Progressive Parties won 55%, the conservatives won election after election.
At the peak of the South Australian gerrymander in 1968, a rural seat might have had 4,500 voters, while the metropolitan seats might have had 42,000 voters. It was bitterly undemocratic.
Parnassus
Thank goodness for politicians like Don Dunstan. I was always worried about Richard Nixon's deviousness and Ronald Reagan's brain damage, but until Thump, I assumed that voters got what they voted for. Being a good or bad politician, therefore, would almost never end in impeachment.
But committed and principled politicians are apparently a thing of the past. Thump has few basic principles, a mouth full of hate-speech, poor English to the the extent that I cannot understand his sentence stubs, and commitments that change twice within the one day.
A nicely written piece and I think it is fair to say he was Australia's greatest reforming Premier. In certain circles long before his relationship with Cheng begun, he was known as Dolly Dunstan.
Andrew
we have had a lot of premiers in a lot of states in Australian history, but how many names would we even remember? Probably only premiers as anti-democratic and immovable as Joh Bjelke-Petersen in Qld!
When we all remember Don Dunstan's name, I would say it is a sign that a] the last half of the 1960s was a key era in reformation across the entire world and b] Dunstan was a particularly moral, honourable and memorable politician.
Z`ssx
Did you admire Don Dunstan?
Thank you for your long reply, https://www.arzancopy.ir/.
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Adelaide WAS NOT called the CITY of CHURCHES because of the number of church buildings. It was originally given name because it was to first place to introduce laws against discrimination because of religious belief enabling immigrants such as the Afghans who played an important part in SA's early development to live in peace. The word "churches" refers to religions not buildings. It is an example of SA's early contemporary thinking not conservativeness. Another example is SA's leadership in female suffrage. When are people going to get this right?
Anonymous
I totally believe that South Australia led the way in this country, introducing laws against discrimination and for female suffrage. But do you have a historical source for Adelaide being called the City of Churches. I will happily read whatever reference you can send to this post.
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