Interestingly, he's also generally viewed as one of the greatest prime ministers, and did insanely well by most metrics. He served both the longest period of any prime minister in Australia (18 years), and has the longest consecutive time as prime minister too (16 years iirc).
He was also a central figure for one of the two major parties (Liberal - basically our closest equivalent to the American Republican party).
It would be fascinating to hear his opinion on where the Liberal party is today. That said, I think both major parties are generally shit (Broadly speaking, one works in the best interests of corporations, and the other just doesn't do much of anything)
Australia being hung on the balance of 49/51 I'd say about half the voters would agree with you, but a hell of a lot wouldn't.
Re:Australia’s secret propaganda unit
by smackeyacky on Monday June 20, 2022 @08:21AM
(#31809458)
By who? Good old pig iron bob, sold metal to the Japanese that came back as bullets fired during ww2, painted everyone as communists, ran a deeply corrupted domestic spy state and conscripted young men to fight that pointless war in vietnam? Continued the repression of women and homosexuals and kowtowed to the catholic and anglican churches who were buggering orphans and stolen aboriginals on an industrial scale.
That guy? Calling him great is controversial to say the least.
During the cold war, everyone did everything they could to counter the other side. It wasn't a good dynamic for anyone, but it is the distant past.
Please point out a BBC/ABC influence operation that is government backed in the past 3 decades.
Remember Menzies in Australia tried to ban the communist party by legislation and lost a referendum in 1951 on this issue (it passed in 3? states I think, but didn't obtain the supermajority necessary)