Alannah Mactiernan (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I remember, when I was around seven or eight, sitting at home in our housing commission house being full of Melbournian pride. I recall saying to my sister: 'Aren't we lucky! We are living in Melbourne, and Melbourne is the capital of Victoria, and Victoria is the best state in Australia, and Australia is the best country in the world!' My older sister looked at me and said: 'We are a pissant, insignificant nation that is led around by the nose by America, and we are the laughing stock of the world.' I did not realise until 1973 just how profound the black cloud that had descended upon me as a result of that conversation was.

I remember very clearly a moment in February 1973. It was a Saturday morning. By this stage I had moved to what was truly the best state in Australia. I was going into my Saturday morning job. I hopped off the bus. It was a beautiful sunny day, and there was the Perth Town Hall in all its glory. Suddenly I felt this black cloud lift. I felt so proud to be an Australian. I felt that we were now truly a nation that we could be proud of, a nation embarking on an independent foreign policy, a nation that was accepting the proper rights of Aboriginal people, a nation that was allowing women freedom, and a nation that was focusing on great social justice issues such as education. It was a magic moment. And for that I will always deeply thank Gough Whitlam and the work that he did, particularly in that first 100 days that led to this great energy.

The Whitlam years were really transformative. For my generation, just ending conscription and our involvement in the Vietnam War had immediate impact on family and friends. There were two issues that I was engaged in politically as a teenager: opposition to the Vietnam War and land rights for Indigenous people. Gough embraced both of those issues. For my generation, many of my cohort, my friends, had fought conscription. My partner had been jailed for refusing to register for national service as had many of my friends. Many of them had spent a number of years on the run semi in-hiding to avoid being jailed for refusing to register for national service because of their extreme objection to being involved in the Vietnam War. It was really energising to be part of an Australia that thought for itself.

There was definitely, as Paul Keating said, a 'before Whitlam' and an 'after Whitlam' Zeitgeist. That is not to deny that under Holt and Gorton some modernising had commenced. But it was a crack in the wall. What happened with Gough and his government was that the windows of this country were opened and the energising breezes of modernisation swept throughout the land. It has been extraordinary to be reminded, since his death, of the reach of his government. The number of areas that were changed and changed very profoundly, the areas of policy that he penetrated within his time, has been truly amazing.

I just want to focus on two areas that perhaps have not had as much attention as they should. As someone who was reared in the Irish Catholic tradition, I had been part of a sector of society that had seen Labor's objection to state aid to Catholic schools as sectarian. Whitlam and his government cut through magnificently that Gordian knot, by changing the whole debate to one of equity of funding for schools. No longer was the debate around whether it was government or non-government; it was a debate around equity. He accepted and took on and embraced responsibility for ensuring that both government and non-government schools were funded adequately, to ensure that there was real equality of opportunity across the country. He recognised that the issue was not Catholic versus non-Catholic; it was about accessing education and creating opportunities for Australians. Although we had free and compulsory primary and secondary education, the product on offer was very uneven.

Much of the debate and remembrance of Gough has focused on the role the Whitlam government had in making tertiary education widely accessible, but I would put it that it was indeed the work that was done in lifting the standards of primary and secondary schooling throughout the country that has been the more profound education legacy, and one that Mr Whitlam himself put as one of his central and core achievements.

I want to also reflect on the role he played in modernising our intelligence agencies. I think it is very important to reflect on this at this time, when we are expanding the powers of our intelligence agencies to deal with external threats. I think it is important for us to learn some of these important lessons, of which Gough was aware, about the capacity of such agencies to develop a culture that confuses legitimate dissent with subversion. Gough had a very detailed knowledge of the intelligence services, and it is extraordinary to think now that at the time there was not even official recognition that a number of these services, such as ASIS and Defence Signals, existed. It is clear that these organisations had developed an obsession with anti-communism and had indeed focused far too much of their attention on activities that were a legitimate part of the Australian political landscape and failed in fact to look at some of the real threats that were presenting themselves to the Australian community. The establishment of the Hope royal commission has led to some very significant and lasting changes in the Australian intelligence community and a lot more transparency about the nature of the work that is undertaken and has started the process of providing real and important parliamentary oversight of those activities.

Again, listening to the debate, just here today, the contributions that have been made remind us of the breadth and reach of the change. I remember well the dismissal. I remember being out there on that night handing out flyers to people at the Perth railway station, telling them about the dismissal—because in those days, before email and other electronic media, a lot of people coming out of work at five o'clock at night certainly had been unaware of this tumultuous change that had occurred. But I agree with Noel Pearson and the magnificent comments he made in his eulogy to Gough—that we should not lament that he had only three years, because these were three years of crowded hours. It was certainly not an age without a name. It was a massive achievement, and it was indeed the pace of change that was itself transformative. It was very much the montage of revolution that occurred that enabled—that really fed and created—the energy that has underpinned Australian life ever since.

I have been very proud to be part of the Labor family, and I thank Tony Whitlam in particular for his very inspiring words about the importance of the Labor Party in continuing the very great legacy of Gough. And, like the member for Canberra, I have found that the whole experience of reliving those Whitlam years has given me an increased focus on the importance of the work we do here and the importance of continuing with a modern Labor Party and fighting for those Labor values.

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