The First Whitlam Ministry, often known as the "two-man Ministry" or the "Duumvirate", was the forty-eighth Australian Commonwealth ministry, and ran from 5 to 19 December 1972.
This Ministry, the smallest in Australian history, was sworn in pending the election of a full Ministry by the Australian Labor Party caucus. Longstanding precedent called for the outgoing Prime Minister--in this case, William McMahon--to stay on as a caretaker until the final results were released on 15 December. However, Labor leader Gough Whitlam was unwilling to wait that long, since the result was beyond doubt. He thus had himself and his deputy leader, Lance Barnard, sworn in as an interim two-man government. Whitlam and Barnard held 27 portfolios between them until the full ministry could be chosen.