Australia's Royal Commission on Human Relationships was established in August 1974 by Prime Minister Gough Whitlam of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) after the failure in 1973 of the government to pass reforms to the country's abortion legislation.
Felix Arnott, Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane and Metropolitan of the Province of Queensland and prominent Sydney journalist Anne Deveson.
[2] The commission's work spawned several research reports on topics that included medical education, abortion, attitudes toward sexuality, rape, disability, domestic violence, child abuse and the needs and concerns of migrant women.
[13] After the November 1975 Australian constitutional crisis, in which Governor-General Sir John Kerr dismissed the Whitlam government and appointing Malcolm Fraser, leader of the Liberal Party of Australia, as prime minister, the commission was allowed to continue its work.
[4] A version of the commission's final report leaked by the Fraser government to the press prior to its publication was used by both the Liberals and the Labor party to try to sway voters in the run-up to the December 1977 federal elections.