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Prologue
On the last day of 1970 President Rasmuson made his last speech on national television. It was the close of the year "everything went wrong." His ever reassuring voice, in a Pacific Northwest accent with a tinge of Scandinavian rang out all over the Republic.
"Good evening, people of Western Australia.

I speak to you tonight not to proclaim a triumph of administration, or to celebrate a success of government. The obligation I am bound to discharge tonight, is to take responsibility for a defeat of administration, and to bear the liability for a failure of government.

On the 3rd of January 1970 President Wallace made the "Chains of Gold" speech. On the 21st day of that month, Executive Order 11354 was made. The currency would be decoupled from gold, no more silver coins were to be minted, and the Federal Government would no longer guarantee the price of either precious metal.

To top it off the Australasian Federal Republic announced the currency would change to a free float starting February. The Hawaiian Republic, being bound by the Commercial Union, announced their dollar was moving off metal backing as well.

The American mining conglomerates quickly left Western Australia, and unemployment soared as a result. The price of silver had crashed from $1.29 per ounce to just 50 cents by the beginning of autumn 1970.

Despite all those warning signs we decided to continue the gold standard and silver coinage. We did not want hyperinflation. Instead, we got disinflation, and from the beginning of winter, deflation at a rate of about negative 1 percent per annum.

Commerce has been rendered timid, investments are not coming in, and our bonds are effectively candy wrapper. I decided to propose a restabilization act to the Parliament.

Exports of silver would be taxed, mining operations would be nationalized to ensure continued output, and new bonds would be issued to consolidate our steadily growing debt.

As you well know, they have become laughingstocks. Our best-laid plans have gone awry. They were rejected by both houses. The Senate did not give a government bill the respect the work that goes into one demands, and rejected it by voice vote.

At this juncture, what more is there to do? If an executive cannot get the parliamentary backing needed for his political goals, he may as well resign. If we continue this pointless tug-of-war a minute longer, we the people will be the rope torn apart.

Yet even at the certain end of my political career I am compelled to look back upon the achievements we have completed together.

From 1964 to 1969 we established a Constitutional Convention free of partiality and partisanship, and established a Western Australian Republic. Its constitution has been adopted as a model by the erstwhile Australasian Commonwealth when they decided to become a republic.

Great progress was made towards a modern highway and railway from Perth to Kalgoorlie. I am sure the Trans-Australian Way will meet with early success despite the brief contraction in which we find ourselves now.

Social welfare has improved, our education system has become universally recognised as first-class, and great progress was made in legal codification.

We may dizzy ourselves with half-remembered visions of what is by now far gone, but now I ask you to face a crisis--one that cannot be voted away. I ask you to stay strong, for I trust you will weather the brief tempest.

I have considered many options, but there is none that will benefit the people of Western Australia except for me to immediately resign. I have spoken with Vice President Hill. He is qualified and ready to assume the onerous duties of the presidency by every reasonable assessment, and deserves the support of every Westralian.

Every public servant, local, regional, and national, I have had the pleasure of dealing with, has been uniformly incorruptible and immensely cooperative, and always treated my policies and aims with the utmost professionalism. Up to when I made the fateful decision, I have received outpourings of support from every corner of the Western Australian community, that touched and comforted me as I was dealing with the difficulties of navigating the storm. To all these all those of my administration are eternally indebted.

I will live out my days in Western Australia. I will face the consequences of my actions, positive or negative. I will not expect to be lauded by history, but at least may it be said that I tried.

The "Brief Tempest" he spoke of lasted 20 years.
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