Australian history. It is also unusual as Whitlam only scraped into office with a thin majority of four seats; typically, elections that produce a change of government in Australia take the form of landslides (as in the elections of 1949, 1975, 1983, 1996, 2007 or 2013, for example). The comparatively small size of Whitlam's win is partly explained by his strong performance at the previous election in 1969, where he achieved a 7.1% swing and gained 18 seats after Labor had been reduced to 41 of 124 seats and a 43.1% two-party vote in its landslide defeat in 1966. Prime Minister Gough Whitlam quickly switched the diplomatic recognition from Republic of China (Taiwan) to People's Republic of China a few days before Christmas Day under the respectably one-China policy. The new ruling Labor Party promoted to ease the complicated tension between Australia and China The new Labor Government of Gough Whitlam was eager to make long-planned reforms, although it struggled against a lack of experience in its cabinet and the onset of the 1973 oil crisis and 1973–75 recession. In addition, the Senate was hostile to Whitlam, with the Coalition and Democratic Labor Parties holding more seats than the ALP, as the term of the Senate at the time was 1971 to 1974. This in particular would make governing difficult, and led to the early double dissolution election of 1974. See also Candidates of the Australian federal election, 1972 Members of the Australian House of Representatives, 1972-1974 Notes References AustralianPolitics.com 1972 election details "It's Time For Leadership" – Whitlam policy speech, 13 November 1972 University of WA election results in Australia since 1890 AEC 2PP vote Prior to 1984, the AEC did not undertake a full distribution of preferences for statistical purposes. The stored ballot papers for the 1983 election were put through this process prior to their destruction. Therefore, the figures from 1983 onwards show the actual result based on full distribution of preferences. Federal elections in Australia 1972 elections in Australia Gough Whitlam December 1972 events in Australia