Australia 1972 - It's Time

[RI Democrat]

This is the 1972 federal election that brought Labor under Gough Whitlam to power after 23 years of conservative government under the Liberal-Country coalition. I'm waiting on uploading it to the regular 270soft campaigns site, because I'm wondering if anyone could help me out on a couple of points:

1. Did they actually have leaders' debates back in 1972? If not, I'm thinking I should delete the debate from the scenario.
2. Who was leader of the Australia Party in 1972? I know that Reg Turnbull briefly held the post up to January 1970, but I haven't been able to find any information on his successor. For now I have Alan Fitzgerald, who did hold some sort of local office in the ACT at the time, as leader, but I don't know if he ever actually held the role.

Obviously, feedback on other issues is welcome as well. I tried to make it competitive by programming in a small shift in the Liberal/Country coalition's favor so that it doesn't start out with the percentages that Labor actually achieved in the RL election, but I'm not sure if I got the balance of the issue stances quite right.

1972 - Australia - It's Time.zip

[PunPun]

Very cool look at a much more obscure election. Will do a bunch of playthroughs and try to get feedback. Are you thinking of doing any other elections?

[RI Democrat]

Thanks. I've already done 1975, which I posted about in the thread just below this one and added to the campaign site. I suppose I could try to reverse-engineer 1969 from the 1972 one, though I'm not clear on whether the platform Whitlam ran with in 1972 was fully developed back then, so I'm not sure how many changes I would need to make to the issue centers and descriptions. I've already had to do a fair amount of guesswork on issues as things stand - I don't know that much about Australian politics in the '60s and '70s beyond what I've read online.

I am thinking of trying 1993 (the supposedly "unwinnable" election for Labor that they ended up winning) and 1996 (when Paul Keating lost to John Howard) if I have time.

[PunPun]

1988, where the nationals and liberals nearly split and snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, might be a good one! Really enjoyed 1972 so far, if you would like any help finding resources then I might have ffree time this weekend.

[RI Democrat]

Thanks! Any further info you find would be much appreciated.

Are you referring to the "Joh for Canberra" thing? I think that was actually in the lead-up to the 1987 election. I agree that it would be interesting though I'm not sure how exactly to translate it into a PMI scenario. I suppose I could make "Joh for Canberra" one of the issues and set the regional issue centers closer to Labor's position than to the Liberals' or Nationals' positions. Maybe Labor's position would be something like, "It's an unworkable idea and it shows that the Coalition is too divided to govern."

[PunPun]

1987, that was the one! Just point me at the next scenario and I'll gather some information across the weekend

[RI Democrat]

5 hours ago, PunPun said:

1987, that was the one! Just point me at the next scenario and I'll gather some information across the weekend

If you feel like doing some research on 1987, I'd be happy to collaborate and share credit for it. I have my own plans for 1993, which I'm working on next, but I might come back to others after that.

[dusty]

I'm new around here, but I would absolutely LOVE to see that 1993 election campaign. It was certainly one of the most memorable election victories for the Labor Party. Also, do you have any interest in doing a Victorian election? 

Thanks.