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I would have been 10 years old 50 years ago. It was the year when our Prime Minister, Harold Holt, went for a swim in cold, rough surf and never came back. No one ever found his body, but he was presumed to have drowned.
My father was, among other things, a retired journalist, so we watched the news, and he read the paper from cover to cover everyday. Polemics and current affairs were a frequent topic in the house.
Until I was 19, Australia had 23 years of a Liberal government - that's the conservative, right-wing party over here. Then suddenly Whitlam and Labour swept in. And we've been lurching from left to right and back again ever since.
And we've been lurching from left to right and back again ever since.
What I find interesting is that despite the swings, the gains to the left side are never completely lost. We still have a Medicare system that ensures that no poor person ever goes without treatment, although many wait too long in pain for operations. We still have a minimum wage, a right to voluntary union membership (15% of workers), and a court of arbitration. We have worker's compensation and safety laws. We have acknowledged our Indigenous people and returned Arnhemland and many other sacred areas to them. (Although probably we should have left and returned to the lands of our ancestors.)
Politicians' rhetoric has become less about really discussing the issues and more about one-liners and spin. There is less depth of debate in parliament. And more taking place between the more intelligent journalists, academics and specialists, whose opinions go unheeded by our representatives.
The public purse is in debt and yearly getting worse.
But I notice many things haven't changed: politicians of each side denigrating the other; using waffle to stretch out answers as long as possible; and the ones who stay in power too long soon become corrupt and get caught.
