Episode 17: Who’s party is this, Ours or his?

Episode 17 examines Gough Whitlam's risky decision in April 1968 to resign and recontest the Labor leadership after a fractious federal executive meeting, his determined push to reform the Victorian ALP, and the tensions with the party's left led by Jim Cairns.

The episode looks at the narrow outcome, its short-term consequences — delayed Victorian reform, a changed approach by Whitlam and the political context facing new PM John Gorton — and reflects on how different history might have been if Whitlam had lost.