The no-fault divorce, introduced by the Whitlam government in 1975, is blamed by some people for the sudden increase in the divorce rate. Those who do seem to overlook the fact that at about the same time Australian houses began to display a new hitherto unknown feature: the ensuite.
This new feature, in which all our ablutions are performed behind a thin door as soundproof as a shower curtain, while our beloved lies in bed not two metres away, desperately squeezing a pillow over his/her/its ears, has, in addition to the call of nature, quite a lot to answer for.
It is true that Gough Whitlam, aloof and arrogant, ruled chaotically but only for two years and 11 months, not quite long enough to account for this sudden increase in the undoing of the "until death do us part".
That must be laid at the front of the waferthin door between bedroom and ensuite. There are things that, once heard, can never be unheard.
