WikiLeaks cables reveal Bob Hawke thought Gough Whitlam was stupid Gough Whitlam, front row, second from left, beside governor-general Paul Hasluck and deputy prime minister Lance Barnard, with the ministry on the steps of Parliament House in 1972. Picture: National Archives of Australia Source: News Limited GOUGH Whitlam's scandal-plagued government was in such bad shape by mid-1975 that ALP president Bob Hawke confided to US Embassy sources the party was almost broke due to "Whitlam stupidity." Declassified US cables, released by WikiLeaks, reveal that Mr Hawke told an embassy source named Labatt that Mr Whitlam could not be trusted to run the economy "any place but down." The cable, from August 12, 1975, reported on Mr Hawke's despondency on the chances of raising funds with a likely election on the way. "He claims party is in bad financial shape, with slim prospects of 'mining old sources', most of which (were) eroded by 'Whitlam stupidity'," the cable states. Hawke pointed especially to Jewish backers, badly bruised by Whitlam Mid-East policy. Other potential backers shaken by 'fiscal clowning'. It added, in abbreviated cable language: "Hawke claims, however, that Whitlam appraisal of ALP future is 'unreal' and that prime minister does not understand scope of 'parliamentary disaster' which Labor 'surely faces at next election'." Labor was being torn apart by the sacking of Brian Harradine, and the Khemlani loans affair, in which the ALP ministers Rex Connor and Jim Cairns sought to loan money from Arab sources. The Whitlam Government lost in a landslide later that year. Mr Whitlam denied involvement in the Khemlani affair but in 1976, when he was Opposition Leader, a US Embassy cable noted: "It is now clear that Whitlam was in this affair up to his neck."