Australian–American relations had never been worse than they were in 1975. It was reasonable to expect that they would improve in 1976. The reason was simply the change of government in Canberra in December. Labor Prime Minister E. Gough Whitlam had been unquestionably sincere when he claimed in 1973 that his policies would bring the trans-Pacific relationship to a new maturity, and place it upon foundations firmer than those on which it had rested previously. The fact was that during his term of office the two nations drifted from one disagreement to another, interspersed with occasional confrontations.