The Australian public is being exposed to a continual bombardment of utterly unfounded accusations of Chinese “interference” in Australian politics by the media, intelligence services, and politicians. This is consistent with US government efforts to fight Beijing and reestablish Washington's global leadership.
However, daily reports from the Canberra embassy in 1974–75 on the exceptional political crisis that erupted during that time show that US imperialism has been the primary source of "foreign meddling" in Australia since World War II.
The façade of parliamentary democracy was stripped away to remove an elected government in November 1975 as a result of Washington's direct engagement, eliciting widespread resistance from the working class.
During this time, the embassy's covert talks with Labor and union officials, including the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) and Labor Party president Bob Hawke, were not the acts of a bystander. As the political crisis developed to the point of destabilizing and toppling Prime Minister Gough Whitlam's Labor administration, US officials from the White House down were involved in intense intrigues, particularly over how to suppress workers' resistance.
According to declassified US State Department cables, by mid-1974, Washington was growing concerned about two interconnected developments in Australia: the Labor government's inability to control the eruption of militant labor strikes, and growing public opposition to the government's decision to keep US military-intelligence bases in the country.
This occurred during the tumultuous worldwide working-class battles and political turmoil that saw both President Richard Nixon and British Prime Minister Edward Heath pushed out of power that year, as well as a massive international anti-Vietnam War protest movement, which included Australia.
The politically unstable position in Australia was a major pro-US ally and bulwark in the Asia-Pacific area as the US faced defeat in Vietnam, according to the American embassy in Canberra.
The emergence of what was then the greatest global recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s, coupled with skyrocketing oil costs, increasing inflation, and stock market declines, added to the concern in governing circles.
Throughout 1974 and 1975, Hawke and other Labor and union informants met with US ambassador Marshall-Green and other US officials, particularly the US Labor Attaché, who was almost certainly a CIA officer, to discuss the Labor government's crisis and the need to develop alternatives, including the possibility of Hawke leading a "national unity" government.
The communications handed over to the US national archives are only the beginning. Other intelligence and Pentagon papers are almost certainly available. Furthermore, a number of State Department communications are marked as classified. For example, a report from the Australian embassy in Canberra dated August 1974 mentions a top-secret document.
“RIMIN confides his thoughts on the internal Australian scene,” according to another still-classified communication dated July 30, 1975. (The RIMIN reference is unclear.) Another was titled “Newspaper conjecture about the future position of Australian trade union leader Hawke,” and it was sent on September 5, 1975. These and other papers are simply labeled "Not releasable under either Executive Order or other law or regulation."
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