for Australia. Success Labor received 49.7 per cent of the primary vote, leaving the Liberal-Country Party coalition with just 41.4 per cent. Labor, with 67 of 125 seats in the House of Representatives, now controlled Australia's lower house of Parliament by a margin of nine seats. The overall swing to Labor on 2 December was 2.5 per cent. Labor lost four seats while gaining twelve. The 1972 election was the first ALP victory since 1946. Its success is usually attributed to both the It's Time campaign, and Whitlam's skills as an orator, though Graham Freudenberg had a major influence on many speeches given by members of the ALP during the It's Time campaign. The campaign helped the ALP to establish new voter constituencies, particularly in outer lying areas of Australia's major population centres, who until then were to a large extent marginalised by the major parties. On his first day in office as Prime Minister of Australia, Whitlam declared an end to conscription and began arranging for those imprisoned for avoiding the draft to be released and compensated. During the next few weeks he implemented a range of new measures including the establishment of an Australian honours system and the banning of racially selected sporting teams, a move intended to impede the South African Apartheid policy. East Germany and the People's Republic of China were also recognised for the first time by an Australian government. Reforms During its time in office, the Whitlam Government embarked on an ambitious program of social reform in keeping with the promise of change that the ALP campaign emphasised. The social radicalism of the Whitlam Government was such that, during its first thirteen days in office, some forty important decisions had been made. As noted by one historian, "Labor’s extensive reforms during its first term in office were the high water mark of Australian postwar social democracy." On coming to office, the Whitlam Government granted federal public servants paid maternity leave, a thirty-six-and-a-quarter-hour workweek, large wage rises and four weeks annual leave. Free tertiary education was introduced, together with a universal health care system and a sole parent pension. Laws were also passed providing for equal pay for women and national land rights, divorce laws were made more liberal, and legislation against racial discrimination was introduced. In addition, the principle of equal pay was extended, occupational health and safety was improved, annual leave loading was