Jason Clare (Blaxland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to remember Gough Whitlam, an Australian giant. I was born the year Gough Whitlam became Prime Minister. I was only three when he was dismissed so I do not remember his prime ministership, but I grew up surrounded by his legacy. I grew up around the corner from where Gough and Margaret lived in Albert Street, Cabramatta. The year I started kindergarten at Cabramatta Public School, Gough opened the extensions that his government had funded. The same man who poured sand into the hands of Vincent Lingiari helped pour the concrete that built Cabramatta Public School. Margaret helped out in the canteen. She also helped run the local pool where I learnt to swim. When I was not at school or not swimming, I was usually at the Whitlam Library on Railway Parade.

I am the first person in my family to finish school and the first to go on to university. In the Australia that existed before Gough, people like my mum and dad did not even think about going to university; you did your intermediate certificate and went off and got a trade or went to secretarial college. All of that changed with Whitlam. Australia changed. My mum tells me it was like switching from black-and-white TV to colour TV.

Gough's legacy surrounds all of us, from the national anthem to Medicare. It is hard to imagine Australia now without things like Medicare or multiculturalism, sewered western suburbs or trade with China. All of that started with Whitlam. In that sense, we are all Whitlam's children.

He was not perfect—far from it. He made a number of mistakes. But most of the things that he fought for were fundamentally right. The proof of that is that they have endured and that they are now largely bipartisan. It was not always that way. It is easy today to think of things like Medicare as a given, but they did not just happen through some form of political osmosis. They happened because of Gough, because of his persistence and perseverance. As Whitlam said in his 1985 John Curtin Memorial Lecture:

The most successful of my Government's reforms were the ones which were most strongly condemned at their inception, the ones which the Labor Party had to fight longest and hardest to muster first public and then parliamentary support.

There is a lesson for us in this. As Gough said in the same speech:

Persistence, patience, perseverance—these are the watchwords for Australian reformers as they take up their daunting task.

The last time I saw Gough was a few years ago, back in Cabramatta at the side of the old Cabramatta pool where Margaret used to teach. Concrete cancer had eaten away at the old pool and Gough was opening up the new Cabravale Leisure Centre. We started talking and Gough told me about his great regret. When he was in his 80s, Gough was advised to get surgery on his knees but he put it off. He told me that he did not have the courage to do it and he now regretted it, because he was stuck in a wheelchair. It is kind of funny because courage is not something that Gough Whitlam often lacked, and we are all beneficiaries of that.

In the 12th of his Philippics speeches, Cicero said:

The life given us, by nature is short; but the memory of a well-spent life is eternal.

I think that is an appropriate epitaph for a man who would have been as at home in the Roman Senate as he was in the streets of Western Sydney. Gough is gone, but the memory of his well-spent life lives on in the things he built, in the lives he changed and in the legacy he has left. He remade Australia, he extended our imagination and he left us a better country and a better people. After such a long and important life, well may we say: rest in peace.

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Gough Whitlam is associated in the public mind with many localities in Australia. Perhaps three that stand out are Cronulla, Cabramatta and Canberra. But this highly educated and erudite Australian had an association which may not be as well-known but which I want to reflect on today, which is his association with the Upper North Shore, an area falling within my electorate of Bradfield. I want to speak in particular of his association with the prominent boys' school Knox Grammar School at Wahroonga.

Some early years of Gough Whitlam's life were spent in Sydney and, particularly, his family lived at Turramurra for a period. His father enrolled him at Knox Grammar School in 1925. That was relatively early in the life of the school. In fact, he was No. 93 on the school roll. He was in year 6 the year he was enrolled and he was dux of the upper preparatory school. In 1927, he was equal second in general excellence in form 3.

He then left Knox in 1927 when his family moved to Canberra. He returned to Knox grammar in 1974, of course when he was Prime Minister, to be the guest of honour at the school speech night; a very significant speech night for the school, because it was the school's 50th anniversary. As he was speaking, he quipped, 'This would be my largest audience here deep in Bradfield.' One of the old boys recollected in some recollections assembled by the old boy's association recently following Gough's death:

In the assembly Hall I clearly remember the remark that "this would be my largest audience here deep in Bradfield". I didn't immediately understand it as I had little knowledge of the federal electorates at that stage. It certainly elicited a strong and humorous reaction from our parents and friends.

The fine education that Gough received during his period at Knox grammar together with, of course, the education that he received at other institutions clearly served him well. I want to conclude by quoting what the present headmaster of Knox, Mr John Weeks, had to say in his column in the school's newsletter recently:

This week, we were saddened by the death of Gough Whitlam, a great Knox Old Boy who made many significant contributions to our country. Our flags were flown at half-mast in honour of Mr Whitlam.

Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am honoured to join my many parliamentary colleagues to pay tribute to the Hon. Edward Gough Whitlam QC, AC. Gough's passing has led us all to reflect on his leadership and the outcomes of his time as Prime Minister of this country. It has taken many of us on a nostalgic journey back to our collective past. For me, that nostalgia is for my childhood; the dismissal of the Whitlam government is my first political memory. I rang a close friend on the morning of his passing. She felt his passing marked the last shreds of her childhood, now gone.

Under Gough Whitlam, politics entered popular culture. The 'It's time' slogan and television advertisement broke new ground. The song rang out from televisions across the nation and it still echoes down the years. I cannot see a man in a skivvy and not hum it. I cannot hear it and not visualise a man in a skivvy. That advertisement marked a change of course for this country.

As so many have said, Australia became a kinder, prouder, more outward looking nation, a nation that embraced its own stories and shared them with the world. We became more inclusive, as attested to by many in this chamber. Gough embraced our migrant community and our Indigenous community in a national hug that changed the way we relate to one another.

His passing sent the nation on a nostalgic journey, but it has done more than that: it has awoken us. Through the recounting of his great contribution in progressing his nation, we recognise that some battles that we thought were already won—for fairness, for inclusion, for a generous, aspirational society—are recurrent battles that must be fought and won over and over again. His passing is therefore a timely reminder of what was hard fought and that what we have taken for granted can so easily be swept away. In a very special way, in his passing, Gough served his country and his party: he reminded us of who we are and what we strive to become.

Like many at the memorial service and at home, I was moved by the tributes to Gough and struck by the list of his achievements in government in just three short years. Like others, I laughed at Noel Pearson's allegory, using that classic Monty Python line to sum up the enormity of Gough's legacy: 'What did the Romans ever do for us anyway?'

To me, one of the most important things he did was to reunite of after the sectarian schism rent by World War I. Under Gough, we reverted to an egalitarian, creative Australia, aspiring to do what was right, what was fair, rather than what we could get for ourselves. I watched keenly an interview with Barry Jones on the day Gough passed. Barry summed it up with 'I feel orphaned'. He added: 'He shaped my thinking.' He cited the opening to Gough's speeches, 'men and women of Australia', as critical to the inclusive agenda. This small measure, repeated in many speeches, signalled a shift in what was a patriarchal society.

To me, his educational reforms were his greatest achievements, and I will spend what speaking time I have left on these. One of his first acts was to commission from the Interim Committee for the Australian Schools Commission a report prescribing a framework for equitable education. That was in May 1973. I look back now and see Gough's Gonski reforms. Under his government, spending on state government schools increased by 677 per cent and spending on non-government schools in the states increased to 117 per cent. The Whitlam government introduced direct Commonwealth funding, or state aid, for non-government schools. This put an end to a long-running political debate which was one product of the virulent sectarianism that had divided Australian society for decades—Gough's first steps towards building a sector-blind school funding model. And, as many have spoken about, from 1 January 1974, the Whitlam government abolished tuition fees for students at universities and technical colleges. Like many in this chamber, I was a recipient of that vision. It was genius policy. It broke a nexus. It wrote a new social contract.

Vale Gough Whitlam, the mountain ash of Australian politics, a great prime minister—great in stature both literally and figuratively, great in intellect, a great orator, a great reformer. Like thousands of others, I am lucky to have lived under the canopy of his government and his vision.

Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Gough Whitlam's famous 'It's time' speech, beginning with 'Men and women of Australia' was made in the Blacktown Civic Centre on 13 November 1972. It would have been three days shy of my first birthday. I would have been at home at Frederick Street, up the road from the Blacktown Civic Centre, just off Sunnyholt Road, which winds up through Campbell Street and Flushcombe Road, to that great Bowman Hall. Even today we refer to Bowman Hall as Gough Whitlam's shrine. At every event I have been to there—and there have been hundreds, including citizenship ceremonies and various community events—I am always reminded that this is Gough Whitlam's shrine. When I mention this to various community groups, who otherwise would not know much about Australia, everyone would always know that this is where Gough Whitlam made that speech.

Gough was so generous with his time in coming back to Blacktown, to the place of that great speech. Around 10 years ago he attended the opening of an art exhibition inspired by the dismissal, held at the Blacktown Arts Centre, just up the road from Bowman Hall. Again, the crowds who were there to see him, to pay tribute to him and to honour him never failed.

Only a couple of months ago Blacktown Arts Centre put on a local history exhibition. It was a project that involved locals talking, sharing photos and reminiscing about those two famous speeches that were made in Blacktown Civic Centre. Gough's eldest son, Antony, gave the speech at this particular opening. Everyone commented how fabulous Antony was. It reminds me of Gough's memorial and how well Antony spoke. He would have been so proud of his such accomplished children.

I want to focus on Blacktown, because this is an area that typifies Western Sydney and the new growth areas that Gough was so keen to make sure got their fair share. He set up a new ministry of urban affairs. His interest in city planning, his focus on local government, his passion for public libraries, his commitment to improving the quality of life of people living in the new suburbs of Sydney, with community centres and parklands, was absolutely unmatched.

When I was growing up, down the road was a magical new suburb called Kings Langley. I would look over the other side of Vardys Road and see this place that had brick houses. In 1973 Gough Whitlam actually opened an exhibition of new homes at this suburb of Kings Langley, again a testament to his focus on urban policy and housing as key ways of improving people's quality of life. I want to quote from some of Gough Whitlam's comments at the opening of the Master Builders' Association centenary parade of homes, and presentation of the Pearce Reserve, which is still there in Kings Langley today, to the municipality of Blacktown at Kings Langley, on Friday, 14 September 1973. He said:

The Australian people have been waiting a long time for a fair deal in housing. I hope you will forgive me if I recall some words I used 20 years ago, in my first speech in the national parliament. I said then: 'No one thinks that 20 years ago the people of Australia were adequately housed; and nobody thinks that they are adequately housed now.'

So he invoked his first speech in talking about how important it was to have a proper housing policy in this country.

I will take a few more quotes here, because they are still pertinent today:

Twenty years later, those words are still true. It is shameful that in 1973, the people of Australia are still not adequately housed. It is shameful that in a nation with abundant space, considerable wealth, a modest population, and a general commitment to the ideals of social welfare, thousands of Australian families are badly housed and unable to afford this fundamental amenity of a decent life.

How true, unfortunately, are those words even today.

I want to share two other memories and some of the legacy of Gough Whitlam. The first is his love of antiquity. I share this passion—I named my child Octavia. One of Gough's passions was the rightful return of the Parthenon Marbles. Reunification websites were abuzz with tributes to Gough Whitlam following his death, and rightly so. Some of Gough's words on this topic:

The Parthenon sculptures are unarguably among the world's most important surviving art works. The new Acropolis Museum gives the British Museum the opportunity of righting one of history's great wrongs.

I think it is absolutely important for all countries of the world to recognise and to reaffirm the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles.

The last point I want to make, as a former competition and regulation lawyer, is to commend Gough for his vision in reforming trade practices law in this country. Even in his Blacktown speech you can see his commitment very detailed in the context policies in these areas. I quote:

In the areas of economic law reform, we will legislate for a nationwide Companies Act; a Securities and Exchange Commission; an effective Restrictive Trade Practices Act and a modern version of the Australian Industries Preservation Act.

This represented a significant policy shift from the 1965 act. The policy approach was a combination of US anti-trust as well as public interest tests, as appropriate to Australia. There have been many reviews of competition laws since that time, as there should be. But, generally, Australia has had good stable competition law, so much so that many countries around the world have modelled their own laws on ours.

I want to end by commenting on Gough's wife, Margaret. Theirs was truly one of the great political partnerships. How fitting it was that the final hymn at Gough's memorial was Jerusalem, also the final hymn at Margaret's service. It was an honour to be present at Gough's memorial a few weeks ago. Gough changed Australia, but more importantly for me he changed Western Sydney for the better.

Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Gough Whitlam is a true legend of our times, a Labor hero and a giant in our nation's political history. He believed so strongly in the power of governments to improve people's lives. Central to this belief was a strong agenda based on equity, social justice, and reforms that reflected a changing society. With that goal, he spent his entire political life striving to improve the lives of Australians. In doing so he redefined our nation and changed the life of a generation, and also changed the lives of generations beyond. He changed our country for the better into a more modern multicultural nation with so many more opportunities.

I was privileged to meet Gough Whitlam on a number of occasions and was always in awe of his incredible legacy. It is a legacy that many people of my generation were beneficiaries of, particularly, access to free university education, access to universal health care and the introduction of equal pay for women. Many people of my generation, particularly women, have had so many opportunities due to the vision, determination and courage of Gough Whitlam.

In leading the Australian Labor Party back into government, Gough Whitlam wasted no time in implementing the most ambitious government agenda in Australian history. In three short years, his government did so much including: introducing universal health care, through Medibank, the precursor to Medicare; the introduction of a free university education, which meant that it was a student's merit rather than their wealth that determined their ability to access higher education; he also increased funding to all schools and introduced needs-based funding; he increased age pensions; he introduced indigenous land rights; Gough withdrew Australian troops from Vietnam and ended conscription; he abolished the death penalty; he introduced the one vote, one value system to democratize the electoral system; he introduced the Racial Discrimination Act; and he established diplomatic relations with China

Many of Gough's policies significantly improved the lives of women. He fought for equal pay for women; introduced the single mother's benefit; funded support services for women; instituted no-fault divorce; established the Family Court of Australia; and he appointed the first ever Women's Adviser to the Prime Minister. Importantly, the Whitlam government also funded and supported community based organisations that provided specialist health and welfare services for women. These included support for women's health centres, refuges and crisis centres.

As well as his massive social justice reforms, Gough was also an incredible pioneer of environmental protection. The Whitlam government was the first to make protection of our natural world a key part of Labor's values. He ratified the World Heritage Convention, which gave the federal government a powerful tool to defend sites such as the Franklin River, in 1983. He also protected the Great Barrier Reef from oil drilling and created the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

Since Gough's passing, we have heard so many stories about how his life and legacy touched the lives of so many. He inspired us all in different ways and will continue to inspire us. He meant so much to so many, which is why his dismissal was so devastating at the time. I was eight years old, and my recollection is of my mother and I going to a very large demonstration outside the Liberal Party headquarters in Brisbane city. I can certainly recall the massive sense that an injustice had occurred—that the Prime Minister had been unfairly sacked.

Gough fought the good fight, and Labor will continue that fight in his honour. We will always fight to protect his legacy and continue the struggle for social justice in Australia. We have so much to thank Gough for, and naturally our thoughts and sympathies are with his family at this time, a family that has given so much to this nation. We especially remember Margaret, a remarkable and wonderful woman in her own right.

Gough Whitlam was a truly visionary prime minister who changed our country and improved our lives, and he will always be remembered. Thank you, Gough Whitlam, for an outstanding contribution to our nation. Because of your life and legacy, Australia is a much better country. Rest in peace.

Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I pay tribute to Edward Gough Whitlam AC, QC, to his life and his achievements. I pass on my condolences to his family and friends. I pay my respects to him on behalf of my electorate of Blair, which encompasses most of Ipswich and all of the Somerset region in South-East Queensland. I thank him for the recognition of China, for ending conscription, for law reform, for regional development, for funding for the arts and for fairer electoral laws. In his three years in office, he did more than almost all his predecessors put together and those subsequent to him.

Gough was Labor's leader and, in my electorate, Bill Hayden was our federal member. We revered Gough. We were as proud of him as he was of himself! We idolised him. He made more of an impact on my family and on me individually than any other political leader. I wonder where I would be without free university education; and, having practised as a family lawyer for more than 20 years before I came to this place, I wonder what life would have been like in legal practice under the Matrimonial Causes Act 1959.

My parents and their parents before them were denied the opportunity to go to high school. Because my two brothers and I went to university, we achieved. It was because of the Whitlam Labor government, which gave us that opportunity, that we did so. Without Gough and his Labor government, none of that would have happened.

I remember the pride that my parents felt when they went to our local church on Sunday, 3 December 1972, the day after the election of the first federal Labor government in 23 years. I remember the relief my anti-Vietnam-War mother, Joy, felt when Gough ended conscription, ensuring her three sons would not be forced to go to a war which had already been raging for decades. I remember putting up a sign, a handmade poster, in my bedroom window during the 1974 election campaign which read: 'Gough's going great—give Gough a go.' My love of alliteration was obvious early on!

I recall coming home and discussing with barely concealed anger the sacking of the Whitlam Labor government in what I thought was a coup at the time by the Governor-General. I recall my father, Al, shedding tears when the results of the 1977 election disaster were clear to all of us on the Labor side of politics. Gough's political career was over.

Like many on this side of the chamber, I am fortunate to have spoken with Gough on numerous occasions, during party functions and conferences. Always he would refer to you and to people generally as 'comrade'. I thank him, simply and without emotion, for what he did for me. But today I feel the sadness of loss and what his life meant to me. Respected Queensland Times journalist Joel Gould wrote:

The nation lost a great man and Ipswich lost a dear friend.

Gough's urban and regional development policies proved a boost for Ipswich. By opening up direct funding to local councils under the Constitution, Gough was able to fund cities and regions more effectively. That funding saw almost all of Ipswich sewered. In 1972, when he came to power, Ipswich was only 50 per cent sewered. The Whitlam Labor government's assistance following the 1974 floods, which devastated Ipswich and Brisbane, including my parents' home in which I lived at the time, helped us to rebuild our community infrastructure, such as roads, and a host of other flood measures also assisted us greatly.

On 19 July 1975, Gough opened the Ipswich Civic Centre, built with federal funds. It is still an important resource in our region for our arts, cultural, civic and community events. I am pleased to have got funding in the last government to upgrade the civic centre. I recall Gough returning to the Ipswich Civic Centre for a fundraiser many years later. He was honoured and he was glorious in his element. His long speech that night was Castro-like in length. Barely any aspect of federation government and governance was left out, including a long dissertation on rail gauges, much to the mortification of my wife, Carolyn, at the time.

Following the 1975 double dissolution election, Queensland Labor was left with just one seat, Oxley, which comprised most of the current seat of Blair. Through Bill Hayden, Gough remained a great friend and a great presence in the region. I spoke to Bill Hayden about what I would say today. I am happy to repeat on the public record in the House and in Hansard what Bill said on the public record. Bill referred to Gough as 'the great man of my life' and said, 'If I achieved anything, he made me.' He said:

Everything about him was big; not just physically but the openness and generosity of his nature, the warm enthusiasm with which he could embrace new ideas and encourage others to pursue fresh thinking, the breadth and depth of his interests, the colourful range of singeing expletives he held in reserve for times of tension. But if you were doing your job he was no meddler.

To the extent I made any achievement in public life I owe a big debt to the lessons I learnt practically from Gough. A great Australian, a former colleague, now sadly departed.

I grew up politically handing out how-to-vote cards for Bill Hayden and campaigning for the former state member for Ipswich David Hamill. These men, along with former Ipswich mayor Des Freeman, are my political heroes. But Gough Whitlam stood above them all. On behalf of my family and my electorate, Gough, thanks for your contribution, your life and your example and for your beloved Margaret and her work. You will never be forgotten. Rest in peace, comrade.

Pat Conroy (Charlton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to express on behalf of the people of Charlton my sincere condolences regarding the passing of Edward Gough Whitlam AC, QC. Gough was a giant of the Labor Party and the nation as a whole, and we will not see his like again. The contributions to this debate from both Labor and coalition members have been heartfelt and generous. I would like to associate myself with all of them. Instead of trying to encapsulate all of the contributions Gough made to this country, I would like to touch on two of them that impacted on my family deeply: firstly, his reforms to welfare and, secondly, his democratisation of the Australian Labor Party.

Gough and ministers like Bill Hayden removed the stigma associated with welfare. My mother was a single mothers campaigner in the late 1960s. When she had my older brother, she was pilloried by the Catholic Church. This inspired her to seek justice for single mothers. It was only when Labor won in 1972 and implemented the single mothers benefit that that justice began to be achieved. I can barely imagine how hard it was for single mothers in the late 1960s and 1970s, stigmatised by the more conservative elements of society, often dependent upon the charity and support of family and friends. Then came along a reformist, progressive government that said: 'We understand your challenges. We will help surmount the obstacles placed before lone parents—lone parents who are often in this situation through no fault of their own.' This changed lives. This improved lives. This improved society, and my family was a direct beneficiary of this.

Party reform was also one of Gough's earliest triumphs and one of his most difficult achievements. Gough understood that the party must be reformed if we were to present a viable alternative. He attacked the culture of defeat that had led to Labor's repeated failure to win power. He took on entrenched interests and had the courage to take on hostile conferences. Gough appeared before the 1967 Victorian state conference and stared down some of the toughest and most formidable political activists. He stated:

We construct a philosophy of failure, which finds in defeat a form of justification and a proof of the purity of our principles. Certainly the impotent are pure.

… This Party was not conceived in failure, brought forth by failure or consecrated to failure … let us have none of this nonsense that defeat is in some way more moral than victory …

He then went on to say:

… I did not seek and do not want the leadership of Australia's largest pressure group. I propose to follow the traditions of those of our leaders who have seen the role of our Party as striving to achieve, and achieving the national government of Australia …

I highlight this because this is Labor's core philosophy. We fail our supporters, we fail the millions of low-income and middle-income Australians if we do not seek to achieve power. Only in government can we implement the reforms necessary to improve the lives of all Australians.

You do not establish Medicare and accessible higher education, end conscription, reform welfare and establish the Racial Discrimination Act from opposition. This is a lesson that is relevant today as we see various minor political parties attempt to appropriate Gough's legacy, in direct contradiction to his life. One of Gough's central fights was to reject their myopic commitment to purity at the cost of effectiveness. To repeat it: only the impotent are pure.

The party reforms Gough won were centralised on democratising the various state branches of the party. It is forgotten that Gough drove intervention in not just Victoria but New South Wales as well, where an independent inquiry had found stacking, bias, rorted preselections and widespread abuse of rules by the ruling head office faction. This drove the adoption of proportional representation. Without proportional representation we would not have seen generations of political titans make a contribution to this parliament. Without Gough and the intervention we would not have Senators Bruce Childs and John Faulkner or the current Member for Grayndler.

Interestingly, in the context of current debates around party reform, I should note that Gough was on the record as calling for national conference delegates to be selected by branch members at the Federal Electorate Council level and by the membership of affiliated trade unions, not state conferences—a worthy and important reform. I spend considerable time on this because without reforming the party we could not have the platform to take to the people nor could the people have confidence in our ability to govern.

In my remaining time I would like to correct the record as to the economic performance of the Whitlam government. While I do not deny that mistakes were made, I remind people that this period was dominated by the oil shocks, which presented a massive challenge to governments around the world, and not many performed well. I will also remind people that in three years of government, the Whitlam government recorded budget surpluses of 0.7 per cent of GDP, then 1.9 per cent and then 0.3 per cent of GDP, in 1974-75. In fact the 1973-74 surplus is the fourth highest on record.

In conclusion, not many people in this place can say they have fundamentally changed Australia for the better. But without doubt Gough can. He will live long in our memory for this and the various causes he strove for. My condolences and the condolences of the people of Charlton go to the Whitlam family and their friends.

Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a great privilege to be able to speak in this debate and to honour a person who I believe was one of the greatest Prime Ministers Australia has had, if not the greatest. Gough Whitlam was a truly great Australian—a leader, a man of vision and ideas, and an inspiration to generations of Australian. It has been said by many who have paid tribute to Gough that there was Australia before Whitlam and Australia after Whitlam. He transformed the face of Australia. He made it a better place. He made Australians proud to be Australian. He took Australia into the 20th century. Prior to that we were languishing in a bygone age.

In my first speech I said:

Good government is inclusive. It is about developing a sense of community so that every person in that community is able to benefit from the resources, wealth and services of the country. The Whitlam government sought to do this. It was a government that had vision—the vision to share the wealth of the country with all Australians, to create a just society where everyone in the community had an equal opportunity to succeed.

And equal opportunity was something that did not exist before the Whitlam government.

One of its greatest reforms was the change to tertiary education, a change that made university education accessible and affordable for everyone, not just a few privileged Australians. When I left school I chose not to go to university. At that time I had a scholarship to go to teachers college, but at that particular time in Australia you could go to university only if you had very wealthy parents or if you actually managed to gain a scholarship. I chose not to go and not to become a teacher at that time. Instead, I worked. When I went to work I did not receive the same wage as a male from the same year I was in at school who had the same job and worked in the same workplace, simply because women at that time did not receive equal pay. Gough Whitlam changed that. He made it possible for somebody like me to go to university at a later time. He created an opportunity that enabled me to study and enabled me to get a very good job, and from that very good job become a representative of the people in this parliament.

He also changed the situation so that when my daughter started work she received equal pay with the males who were in her class at school. Gough created that equal opportunity in education and in the workplace. It was a change that created opportunity for many Australians, myself included.

It was the drive and passion of Gough Whitlam that made the Whitlam government the great reforming government it was. The first time I cast a vote, I voted for the Whitlam government. I remember the elation when Gough Whitlam led Labor to victory, in 1972, and I remember my absolute despair when Kerr sacked Gough, in 1975. It was that one act that motivated me to join the Labor Party. I was committed to the belief that my vote counted and that when I voted for a government it was my vote, the vote of all Australians, that determined who was the government of the country, not a Governor-General. It drove me to be politically active, as did his vision, his charisma and his absolute commitment to making Australia a different country, a place that we could all be proud of.

I owe so much to Gough Whitlam, as do so many people in Australia. I have been contacted by many of my constituents, wishing to express their sadness and their appreciation for what Gough Whitlam did for Australia. There are very few people whom we could say have transformed a nation, and that is exactly what Gough did. He transformed the nation and created opportunities for all Australians. He was committed to fairness, equity and social justice. I thank him, the people of Shortland thank him, and I know the people of Australia thank him for his contribution to our nation.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to pay tribute to the life and work of the Honourable Edward Gough Whitlam AC QC, our 21st Prime Minister, and to extend my condolences on behalf of the people of Newcastle to his family: Catherine, Nicholas, Tony, Stephen, their partners and their families.

Australia has known few visionaries as great as Gough Whitlam, and fewer still who left such a remarkable legacy for generations to come. I concur wholeheartedly with the comments made in this House by the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and Member for Sydney, when she noted just how fitting it was that Gough Whitlam was Australia's 21st Prime Minister, because it was with Gough as Prime Minister that Australia finally came of age. It was Gough who averted Australia's gaze upwards and outwards. He encouraged us all to think big, to step out from the dark shadows of colonialism, and to forge a modern, independent, optimistic and ambitious nation instead.

His three years as Prime Minister were three of the most transformative years in our nation's history. He was a revolutionary without violence. Politics and persuasion were his weapons; social justice and equity his guiding principles. He introduced a national universal public health system; opened the doors of higher education to all; abolished the death penalty; established legal aid; increased pensions; protected the Great Barrier Reef; created a national art gallery; and redressed Australia's dismal history of race relations, while also getting rid of the old imperial honours system and giving our nation a new national anthem, Advance Australia Fair. He also lowered the voting age to 18 and gave Australia its first ever youth radio network, Double J. And, as the member for Grayndler noted, Gough is the only Prime Minister to have a rock band named after him.

A staunch critic of entrenched privilege, Gough made Australia a more equal, tolerant and free society. He was a true social reformist and, after 23 years of conservative rule, he knew there was no time to waste. Gough Whitlam had had decades in opposition to prepare for government, so when he was elected in 1972 he hit the ground running, appointing himself and deputy Lance Barnard to all cabinet positions for the first two weeks in his government. Whitlam ended conscription, recognised communist China, applied sanctions against South Africa and embarked on an ambitious program of support for the arts.

As his cabinet expanded, so too did the reform agenda. It was, for example, the Whitlam government that established the Commonwealth's first commission of inquiry into poverty. With Professor Robert Henderson at the helm, this inquiry fundamentally changed the way in which Australia was to think about the poor. For the first time ever, poverty in Australia was not seen as a personal attribute or failing, but rather as a direct consequence of the structure of our society. Perhaps even more importantly, this inquiry gave voice to those who were traditionally marginalised in the national debate.

It was the Whitlam government that first understood the importance of our national estate museums and collections for the national consciousness. It was Whitlam who established the National Gallery of Australia and made the bold decision to purchase Jackson Pollock's Blue Poles at the cost of $1.3 million in 1973—then a world record for contemporary American painting. Although the work was reviled at the time as the work of 'barefoot drunks', Gough's decision has stood the test of time. In retrospect, it was, of course, one of the nation's most savvy art purchases. Worth some $300 million, Blue Poles is now the pride of the NGA's collection.

As a young anthropologist working in Aboriginal Australia both before and after the High Court's Wik and Mabo decisions, I knew firsthand of the ongoing significance of Gough's determination to abolish the White Australia policy and introduce the Racial Discrimination Act, which established the right of all Australians to equal treatment under the law regardless of race or ethnicity.

It was this act that was to have the most profound effect on our common law for decades to come—because it paved the way for the Mabo and Wik decisions—and the lived experience of Indigenous people throughout Australia. Likewise, his establishment of a department of Aboriginal affairs and the Aboriginal Land Rights Commission were amongst some of his most remarkable and lasting reforms.

But it is Gough Whitlam's unswerving commitment to gender equality and the difference this has made for generations of Australian women that I would like to focus on now. The Whitlam government came to office at a time of immense social change. There was the large increase in the participation of women in the workforce. Whitlam's government instituted reforms to ensure that social legislation and institutions kept pace with social change and community values.

One of Gough's first acts as Prime Minister was to reopen the national wage and equal pay cases at the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission. This led to the decision that Australian women undertaking work similar to that undertaken by men should be paid an equal wage. Half a million female workers became eligible for full pay for the first time and women's wages rose by one-third. The commission also extended the adult minimum wage to include women workers for the first time after Whitlam passed legislation to amend the Conciliation and Arbitration Act.

Maternity leave was also introduced for Commonwealth government employees. The legislation provided for 52 weeks of leave for mothers, 12 of which were on full pay, and it outlawed discrimination against Commonwealth employees because of their pregnancy and legislated instead to provide rights relating to the preservation of employment and status.

In 1973, Gough appointed Australia's first women's adviser, Elizabeth Reid. She established the basis for significant feminist programs and secured Commonwealth underwriting of the delivery of a range of new women's services, including women's refuges, rape crisis centres, equal opportunity policies in education, training and employment, and housing programs. Ms Reid has said of the time:

We talked in factories, in housing centres, on farms, in schools, at women's meetings, in dairies, in gaols, in universities—in short wherever women were. I was deluged with letters invariably beginning 'thank god, at last there is someone to whom I can talk to, someone who might listen and understand'.

Through this leadership, the first women's refuges opened their doors to those in need, including the Working Women's Centre, now the Hunter Women's Centre, in my electorate of Newcastle.

Gough's actions also helped enable women to be in charge of their bodies as well as their lives. Within 10 days of taking office, he removed the 27½ per cent luxury tax on all contraceptives and put the pill on the national health scheme list. These two measures reduced the price of the contraceptive pill to $1 a month—giving Australian women access to safe, reliable and affordable contraception. He established the single mothers benefit, which drastically reduced the risk of women living in poverty, he passed a number of laws banning sexual discrimination and his leadership saw the end to adversarial divorce.

Many have argued that the passage of the no-fault divorce laws are Gough's greatest contribution to the reduction of social misery. Prior to these reforms, a marriage could only be dissolved if one party could prove that the other was at fault in the breakdown of the marriage. 'Matrimonial offences' such as adultery, cruelty or 'desertion' had to be proved before divorce could be allowed. The indignity of this process was compounded by its very public nature. Divorce proceedings were prime fodder for gossip columns in newspapers and the financial cost of this fault based process was prohibitive to many. According to Gough: 'The only test of a marriage is whether both parties agree to maintain it.'

It is perhaps hard for many Australians to imagine what life under the previous archaic divorce laws was like, but the stories of our mothers and grandmothers are stark reminders of the need for these law reforms. Today, we take many of these reforms for granted and severely underestimate the level of opposition they faced at the time. To his great credit, however, Gough never blinked when it came to controversy. He never shied from prosecuting the case for change. Guided by the principles of social equity and justice, he was determined to drive these reforms, changing the lives of Australian people for the better. And for that we remain forever grateful.

Vale, Gough Whitlam. Your legacy for the men and women of Australia lives on.

Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am proud to offer a tribute on behalf of the people of Kingsford Smith to the life of Edward Gough Whitlam and the profound effect that he had on Australia, particularly those in my community. Gough Whitlam changed the way Australians saw themselves and, indeed, the way the rest of the world saw Australia. He inspired Australians. He gave us a new confidence, a renewed spirit and an optimism about the future that we previously never had.

The famous Australian artist Arthur Boyd once said that when the Whitlam government returned to power he felt proud to call himself Australian again. The fact is, all Australians again felt proud to call themselves Australian as a result of the Whitlam government. Gough Whitlam saw politics as a noble profession and an honourable one, and he saw the role of leadership in politics as fundamental to progress and making a difference to the lives of Australians and indeed the attitudes and the confidence that Australians had about themselves and their nation. He changed Australian lives in so many ways: the introduction of universal health care; in education, introducing needs based funding for schools; free tertiary education; having the first adviser on women in his government; equal pay for women; no-fault divorce; income support for single mums; land rights for Aboriginal Australians; the introduction of an Aboriginal Legal Service; protection of the Great Barrier Reef; and the introduction of the Australia Council for the Arts. He even gave our nation its national anthem.

For me, the leadership and the foresight of Gough Whitlam is summed up by the very controversial purchase of Blue Poles, the famous artwork by United States artist Jackson Pollock in 1973. At the time, Gough Whitlam was hounded by the conservative politicians and the conservative media in this country about the purchase. The head of the Australian National Gallery was concerned about the purchase. He wrote to Gough Whitlam and said, 'I'm wondering whether we should be a little bit more conservative about this purchase.' Gough Whitlam quickly wrote back to him and said, 'Purchase the artwork and disclose the price to the Australian people.' And that is what he did: $1.3 million for the purchase of that artwork.

As I said, Gough Whitlam was hounded by the conservative forces in this country. But that did not deter him. Gough Whitlam published a photo of Blue Poles on his Christmas cards that year, so proud was he of what he was doing for Australia. That particular artwork, which hangs in the National Gallery of Australia, is now worth over $100 million, and the United States government is actually quite disappointed that they allowed such an iconic artwork to be purchased by a foreign government for such as low price. I think it is a great symbol of the value Gough Whitlam added to Australia. Not only did he add value to this artwork—a great asset for the Australian people—but he also added value to Australia in so many ways: in our economy, by reducing tariffs; in social services, through Medicare; through land rights and the like; and through support for Australia's position throughout the world.

In international relations, he is often well known for re-establishing relations with China and establishing a strong relationship with Indonesia. He was a master of international diplomacy and saw Australia expanding its sphere of influence throughout Asia and the Pacific Islands. He was also a staunch supporter of decolonisation. When he was elected, Gough turned his attention to Papua New Guinea. Papua New Guinea benefited tremendously from the election of the Whitlam government. In 1973 he granted PNG self-government and delivered independence two years later. Papua New Guinea's first Prime Minister, Sir Michael Somare, recalled Gough Whitlam when he spoke recently about the incredible impact Gough Whitlam had on him and his country:

He said to me one day, 'when Labor's opportunity comes, we'll make sure we will push for self governing and independence for Papua New Guinea'. And of course, it happened.

He pushed other Australians and said to them, 'Give an opportunity to the Indigenous of their country and they will achieve what they want.'

The current Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, Peter O'Neill, also paid tribute to Gough Whitlam recently when he said:

Gough Whitlam's Prime Ministership was almost synonymous with Papua New Guinea's transition to independence and the people of our nation express our gratitude.

Gough was also a great friend of wider Pacific nations, in particular fighting to end atmospheric nuclear testing in the region. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, when the French government conducted nuclear tests in French Polynesia, with the fallout spreading throughout the region, Gough Whitlam strongly opposed those actions because of the impact it was having on human health and the fact that it violated a resolution of the United National General Assembly. Gough was a big believer in the foresight and effect of the United Nations in terms of peace and stability throughout the world. On 9 May 1973, the Australian and New Zealand governments took France to the International Court of Justice, seeking an injunction against further testing. On 22 June, that injunction was granted.

Gough Whitlam's influence has been felt far and wide, the hallmark of a true leader who has left a remarkable legacy not only here in Australia but around the world. On behalf of the people of Kingsford Smith, I offer my condolences to the Whitlam family. May he rest in peace.

Gai Brodtmann (Canberra, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If it was not for Gough Whitlam, I do not believe I would be standing here today representing the people of Canberra. As I said in my first speech, Gough Whitlam's reforms to secondary and tertiary education allowed my sisters and me to escape a cycle of disadvantage—to break the tradition of three generations of single mothers who were denied choice, options and equality of opportunity due to their lack of education and the resulting poverty. In 1969, Gough said:

Poverty is a national waste as well as individual waste. We are all diminished when any of us are denied proper education. The nation is the poorer—a poorer economy, a poorer civilisation, because of this human and national waste.

Education is the great transformer—'the great instrument for the promotion of equality'—and my and my sisters' education gave us the foundation to think big and to dream big. It liberated us from potentially timid lives. And there are thousands and thousands more like us, particularly those who went to state and systemic Catholic schools.

I was nine when Gough was elected. He was dismissed in my last year of primary school and his legacy was the backdrop of my secondary education. My teachers were rabid Whitlamites, and the passion that surrounded the discussion of his government and the Dismissal in the classroom aroused an enduring love of politics and public policy.

Gough believed: 'Of all the objectives of my government, none had a higher priority than the encouragement of the arts—the preservation and enrichment of our cultural heritage. Our other objectives are all means to an end. The enjoyment of the arts is an end in itself.' Gough painted a vivid policy canvas 'to promote a standard of excellence in the arts' and, most importantly, 'help establish and express an Australian identity through the arts'. His bankrolling of Australian culture, and the resulting 'unparalleled burst of creativity in this nation', meant that for the first time we studied Australian history, Australian literature, Australian film, Australian art and Australian politics. For the first time, we were reading works that told our story, with our own subtexts, in our own language. For the first time, we were watching films that reflected our landscape and echoed our sounds, and that studied our vivid and all too forensic light, not the subdued and golden hews of the Northern Hemisphere.

Gough invoked a pride in our own narrative and outlook, and gave us the confidence to believe we were no longer just second-rate Europeans. Given Australia's achievements in every facet of creative life over the last 40 years, it is really hard to imagine how liberating it felt at the time. But it was a coming of age for our country and an end, finally, of the cultural cringe.

As a young woman with aspirations, Gough helped tend the flower of the women's movement in the seventies and provided the infrastructure for me and thousands and thousands of other women to achieve our potential. One day in my English class, my teacher asked us: what had been the most important liberator of women in history?

She then wrote two words on the blackboard: 'the pill'. That is because, until Gough, oral contraception was only available to the wealthy. By getting rid of the sales tax on the pill and making it available through the PBS, he gave women easily accessible and affordable control over their own fertility, which is the absolute fundamental to female empowerment.

Some regard the Whitlam government as anti Defence, but I suggest he did more to underwrite the defence of Australia and defence policy than many hawks. Gough regarded conscription as:

… an impediment to achieving the forces Australia needs. It is an alibi for failing to give proper conditions to regular soldiers … By abolishing it, Australia will achieve a better army, a better-paid army—and a better, united society.

In the aftermath of the Vietnam War, when we could have so easily turned away from the US, he held on to the US alliance and helped give birth to an understanding that Australia could defend itself. He created a bipartisan consensus on defence policy, which endures today, a belief that we can create an independent capability for our own defence, an action that reinforces rather than weakens the US alliance.

He initiated large-scale cooperation with Indonesia. He launched the Department of Defence. He amalgamated five departments. He gave birth to the term 'Australian Defence Force' and was part of the movement to establish the Australian Defence Force Academy. He appointed a military ombudsman and created a new charter for the Citizen Military Forces. He 'moved steadily and firmly' towards the aim that Australia should have the defence forces she needs: 'finely equipped, highly professional, highly mobile and highly respected'.

That respect also extended to the Public Service, which he radically transformed through equal pay, through maternity leave, through annual leave and through decent pay and conditions.

Gough came from a privileged background. His father was the Deputy Crown Solicitor, and he attended Telopea Park School and Canberra Grammar. In fact, he is the only Prime Minister to have grown up here in our great national capital. But he used his privilege to eliminate inequalities that were 'riveted on a child for a lifetime'.

He unleashed a confidence among Australians about their nation, about their place in their world, about what they could achieve, which I believe had been denied them since Federation. He reimagined and redefined us locally, nationally and internationally.

Since his passing, I have received many heartfelt messages from Canberrans and friends on his legacy. One of my oldest high school friends wrote:

Thanks to him, my sister was able to study medicine, my mother got a degree in psychology, I got my own degree, my son has been able to get medical attention from the day he was born due to a public healthcare system ... the list goes on.

Had we continued to live in America I wonder where we would be. When my parents came to Australia in 1971 and Gough came to power, they thought they had reached Nirvana!

As I am a member of parliament, his death has made me pause to reflect on why I am here. When hearing the news of his passing, my mum left a teary message on my phone saying I had to remember his legacy and to use my time in this place to make a difference, to improve people's lives, as Gough did.

Despite the turbulence of his government, his life has encouraged us to challenge people, to inspire people and—as the member for Wentworth so eloquently put it—to not let the petty hatreds consume us. Most of all, he encouraged us to be ambitious about what we can achieve in life. And for so, so many of us, he gave us the foundations to be optimistic as Australians, to be confident as Australians, to think big, to dream big. Thank you, Gough. Vale.

Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Manufacturing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is indeed a privilege to be able to stand here and speak about Gough Whitlam. I begin by extending my condolences to his family members and his close personal friends, by whom his passing will be felt the most and for whom the loss will be the greatest.

I met Gough and Margaret Whitlam on several occasions, but I do not claim to have had a close personal friendship with them. But, as an ALP campaigner at the time, I well remember Gough's rise to the top, his period as Prime Minister and leader of the ALP and his departure from parliament. I also knew well many of the South Australian members of parliament that served with Gough in parliament during the Whitlam years. I refer particularly to people like Clyde and Don Cameron, Ralph Jacobi, Chris Hurford, Jim Cavanagh, Reg Bishop and the great Mick Young.

With the exception of a few intellectual lightweights, there has been universal acclamation that Gough Whitlam was an exceptional character. Indeed, that so much has been said about him since his death speaks for itself. No other Australian political character in my own lifetime has inspired so many or evoked so much passion by both admirers and detractors. Even those who speak negatively of him begrudgingly acknowledge his dominant presence. He was an extraordinary man. He was one of a kind—a unique individual. Everything about him was extraordinary—his persona, his intellect, his wit, his achievements, his rise to fame, his failures and his demise were all extraordinary features of Gough Whitlam. Just as extraordinary is that such an exceptional person, whom today the nation widely acknowledges, was so convincingly rejected by the Australian people in 1975.

Gough was ahead of his time. His vision was not readily accepted at the time, and it was only after changes were bedded down that the wider community saw the value of Labor's reforms. They have withstood the test of time. His sacking, conceived by the two highest non-political officers in the land, the Chief Justice of the High Court and the Governor-General of the day, was the greatest political miscarriage of justice I can point to. It was also the greatest test of the Governor-General's powers and the Australian Constitution that Australia had ever been confronted with, and the first and only time that an Australian Prime Minister was removed from office by a Governor-General.

The diverse array of Whitlam's front bench, a double dissolution, breaking of convention and appointment by the Queensland Bjelke-Petersen government of Albert Field to the Senate all add to the extraordinary turbulence of the Whitlam government era. But it was also the greatest reforming government Australia had ever seen. For myself as a South Australian, the election of the Whitlam federal government after 23 years of a Liberal government, followed closely after the re-election of the Dunstan Labor government after 28 years of Liberals in South Australia, was a great time. Whilst they were very different in character and stature, politically Don Dunstan and Gough Whitlam had very much in common. Both were well educated intellectuals. Both were brilliant lawyers and had been appointed QCs. Both had been elected to parliament in the early 1950s. Both came from relatively well-to-do families and neither came from a union background. Importantly, and sometimes together, they changed Australia.

Between 1972 and 1975, over 500 bills were passed by the Whitlam government. It was an extraordinary achievement, given that there was an election in between, in 1974, and that so much of the legislation was anything but routine changes of law. Ending conscription, consumer protection, Indigenous issues, the arts, the environment, multiculturalism, human rights, foreign affairs, equality, abolishing High Court appeals to the Privy Council, education and health care were all placed on Gough Whitlam and Don Dunstan's agenda, and the reform process began. For South Australians, the reforms were simultaneously being enshrined into both state and federal laws. It was, indeed, a time of great change. National ALP secretary Mick Young, who was based in South Australia, was a common link between Gough and Don during this critical period.

There has been some conjecture about who abolished the White Australia policy, with some crediting former Prime Minister Harold Holt and others Gough Whitlam. My understanding is that both can take credit for it, with the process commencing under Holt and being sealed by Whitlam. It was also Gough Whitlam, jointly with Don Dunstan, who in the mid-1960s moved to abolish the White Australia policy from Labor's platform. It was under Gough Whitlam that Labor brought in the Racial Discrimination Act, acknowledged Australia as a multicultural nation and promoted equality amongst all peoples.

Following the Whitlam government's defeat, from 1976 to 1981 I was employed by Senator Jim Cavanagh. Senator Cavanagh had served as a minister throughout the Whitlam government era in what I believe was his most significant role, Minister for Indigenous Affairs. He was the minister who oversaw the original draft of the Northern Territory land rights legislation which—although it was subsequently passed under the Fraser government because of the termination of the Whitlam government—was indeed a Labor initiative. One of my first tasks with Senator Cavanagh was to identify any differences between Labor's legislation and the Fraser government's redrafted bills. There was very little difference that I could spot. The land rights legislation was a major breakthrough in having the Indigenous people's connection with their land finally recognised.

When Jim Cavanagh passed away in 1990, Gough Whitlam attended and spoke at his funeral held at the Port Adelaide town hall, as he had done with so many of his other former cabinet colleagues. He valued all of his former government colleagues.

There is often a tendency to embellish a person's life when speaking about them after their death. But Gough Whitlam's life needs no embellishment. By all measures Gough was an exceptional person. As more years pass, his achievements become clearer. His determination is vindicated and in turn Gough becomes legendary. It was the Whitlam government that opened up Australia to the world and the world to Australia. It was under the Whitlam government that Australia came of age as an independent free-thinking nation that could stand on its own two feet.

It was under the Whitlam government that Australia took control of its destiny, and Australia did that without breaking away from the Commonwealth or becoming a republic. Whilst today we take such matters for granted, that was not the case in the 1970s when community attitudes were very different. Whitlam's reforms took courage, determination and persuasiveness. Gough Whitlam was not driven by what was popular but by what was right, convinced that in time all Australians would see the righteousness of his direction. And indeed his reforms have withstood the test of time. Whilst many may try to emulate him or match his political stature, I doubt that Australia will ever again have a political leader of the ilk of Gough Whitlam.

In a service befitting his legendary status, Gough was farewelled by a crowd of thousands at the Sydney Town Hall memorial service. I felt privileged to have been there and to have lived through the Whitlam government era. The service brought to a close the Whitlam era, but his reforms endure and Gough Whitlam will long be remembered. I thank Gough Whitlam for his contribution to Australian life.

Alannah Mactiernan (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to 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.

Mark Butler (Port Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Climate Change and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a great pleasure to follow those beautifully crafted words from the member for Perth and obviously a great pleasure and privilege to speak on this condolence motion. I want to thank the government for agreeing to this motion being debated in this chamber, and I also want to acknowledge the very fine words of the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition in leading off this debate.

It is very hard to sum up the life and legacy of anyone in five minutes, let alone someone who managed to cram as much activity and purpose into their 98 years as Gough Whitlam did. In the short time I have I would like to reflect on Gough's legacy in the area of environmental protection, because it was a very significant legacy. Gough Whitlam came to power with a very ambitious platform in this policy area, as he did in so many others. After a short stint in the environment portfolio during the famous duumvirate with Lance Barnard, he appointed the very energetic Moss Cass, who held the environment portfolio in the Whitlam government for two and a half of the three years. The Commonwealth role in environmental protection then was a relatively blank slate. In Australia and other developed nations, particularly the United States, the environment was only then just beginning to emerge as a significant political issue. The previous government had only appointed a minister to the portfolio in the last year or two of its 23 years, and had not managed yet to really craft much of an agenda.

Gough Whitlam's approach to this area, though, was consistent with all of the other policies he focused on. Firstly, he again was ahead of his time in grasping the importance of progressive change in this area. As one example, in his 1974 campaign speech Gough Whitlam said:

Labor believes the polluter should pay, not future generations of Australians.

Which is a debate that we know only too well remains unresolved today.

He also boldly promoted the role of the Commonwealth, or the Australian government, in protecting our beautiful natural environment. As he did in so many other policy areas, Gough unashamedly employed and deployed every provision he could find in the Australian Constitution to support his goals. Gough strenuously opposed the Bjelke-Petersen government's plan to drill for oil in the Great Barrier Reef, for example. He took the then unprecedented step of passing a Commonwealth law to override the Queensland government in the Seas and Submerged Lands Act. The conservative state, not just Queensland but a number of others, took Gough to the High Court, claiming that it was up to the Queensland government to decide whether or not to drill in one of the seven natural wonders of the world. Gough's government argued that one of his favourite provisions of the Constitution, the external affairs power in section 51(39), gave the Commonwealth power beyond the low-water mark to enact legislation of that type, and the High Court agreed. On that foundation Gough built the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and legislated to create the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, which remains in place today.

Gough also used the external affairs power to sign Australia onto the World Heritage Convention, Australia being one of the first countries to do so. On that basis we have seen in the last four and a bit decades the listing of so many precious areas onto the world heritage list, a decision ultimately that was validated again by the High Court, memorably in the Franklin Dam case. Gough ratified a number of other conventions to drive better domestic environmental protection. I do not have the opportunity to list them, but notably the Ramsar convention, which protects wetlands and associated biodiversity.

The role of the Australian government in protecting Australia's environmental assets that have world heritage values is a great Whitlam legacy, a legacy that the Labor Party today seeks to extend and protect in opposing the current government's attempts to hand back the protection powers over world heritage properties to the states and territories.

Gough also used the fiscal reach of the Australian government to introduce laws requiring environmental impact assessments, for the first time, of developments that involved Commonwealth land or Commonwealth funds. He also established the National Parks and Wildlife Service, a highlight among so many examples over so many decades of Labor's strong connection and support for our national park system. He also established the Australian Heritage Commission, recognising that our wonderful heritage does not only extend to our beautiful natural environment.

As the years passed the focus of environmental politics obviously shifts. The challenges of climate change and water scarcity, for example, were not much discussed in the time in which Gough Whitlam was Prime Minister. But the framework that Gough established for this parliament to play a leading role in nurturing and protecting our beautiful natural environment remains as relevant today as it was when Gough first prosecuted that argument.

Vale Edward Gough Whitlam. He was a true pioneer.

Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We in this House today and for many days pay tribute to and remember the Labor warrior and true reformist, Gough Whitlam. So much can be said about Australia's 21st Prime Minister: his service to the Labor Party; his commitment to the community of Werriwa where he was the former federal member; his dedication to reforming and shaping Australia into the dynamic, egalitarian society we enjoy today; and his devotion as a loving husband and father. But I would like to focus on one of Gough's greatest achievements in particular, a subject close to my heart: education.

Education affects as all. It shapes our way of life, and I am privileged to have the role of shadow minister for education. Gough saw education for what it was and is: a great transformer; the single greatest opportunity to improving the quality of life and standard of living for every Australian; and the best possible mechanism for improving and strengthening our economy.

In coming to government in 1972, Gough set about transforming Australia's education system into a far more equitable and affordable endeavour for all Australians. He abolished the 'morally unjust and socially wasteful' dichotomy of opportunity afforded to private school students versus government school students, arguing that 'no democratic government can accept this disparity'.

Gough threw open the doors to Australia's higher education system, offering students of all backgrounds a free and affordable university education for the first time in our history. This proved to be a profound reform; a hallmark of Gough's brief but momentous time in office. Gough could not know back then that this reform would continue to echo around this place some 40 years later, highlighted now by the current government's proposed higher education reform package.

Education was a personal passion of Gough's. In fact, in his 1969 campaign launch, Gough argued:

When government makes opportunities for any of the citizens, it makes them for all the citizens. We are all diminished as citizens when any of us are poor. … The nation is the poorer—a poorer economy, a poorer civilisation, because of this human and national waste

I think this is something that the government should consider while it is pursuing some very radical, unfair and distasteful reforms.

Gough used this sense of universal education and social justice to unleash many educational reforms, including the abolition of university fees, the granting of state aid to independent schools, lifting the funding to public schools and the creation of the Australian Schools Commission.

Under Gough's leadership, government spending on non-government schools increased by 117 per cent, while spending on government schools increased by 677 per cent. This funding injection tipped the establishment on its head and went a long way to eradicating the inequity in public school funding.

Gough's reforms in education were big, broad and visionary. Following a long stint in opposition, Gough knew what needed to be done to transform Australia's education system into a fairer, more equitable institution that benefited and served the wider Australian community, not just the fortunate few.

It is fair to say that, if it were not for Gough Whitlam and his visionary education reforms, particularly in higher education, many in this place today would not have a university degree. Many would not have been afforded the opportunity to go university or even finish school. We in this place and right across this country owe Gough a debt we can never repay. The opportunity to gain an education is the first step in gaining meaningful employment, social mobility and financial freedom.

What people may not know is that Gough was also the champion of Australia's modern dental school plan, which originated in my electorate of Kingston—this is getting off the topic of education but something that is probably little known. This information came from the former member for Kingston, Richie Gun, who took the then shadow minister for health, Bill Hayden, on a tour of a Christie's Beach dental clinic in 1969. The clinic was trialling a first of its kind: a dental service, that was local, could be easily accessed and was affordable. So impressive were the results of this state health department trial, it was quickly introduced into the Labor Party platform in 1971 in order to extend the program nation-wide. Gough gave this policy his full support and went about introducing a national dental service as a matter of urgency after having won office in 1972. Gough was a driver of change in Australia. This small policy was just one of the many policies that not only made my electorate of Kingston a better place to live but also made this country a better place to live.

We need to take this opportunity to say thank you, Gough, for what you did for this country. People would argue that taking this country from where it was to where needed to be was a massive step. It required momentum, it required passion and it required drive and they were things that Gough Whitlam certainly had.

Gough was a great man, a great reformer, a great Labor leader and a great Prime Minister. I think we can all continue to fight for his principles and his beliefs. We can all continue to mark his legacy in a way that is fitting for the modern Labor Party. He will be missed.

Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am one of the younger members of the House but I am also living proof of Gough and his legacy of his time in parliament. I thought it was important to contribute to this condolence motion, not necessarily on my own reflections of the great man but of the reflections of many of the Labor branch members and stalwarts in my electorate.

There is no more fitting person's recollections to place on the record first than those of David Kennedy, a federal member for Bendigo from 1969 to 1972. David developed a strong, close, personal friendship with Mr Whitlam and recalls that he was an inspiration. In David's words, Mr Whitlam was a larrikin of parliament. He said that Mr Whitlam bowled us all over just because he kept cracking jokes, that Mr Whitlam was full of life and that he wanted others to enjoy life. David remembers warmly the nickname that Gough Whitlam had for him—Nap, short for Napoleon. People in Bendigo were not surprised by this nickname.

David also said that Gough inspired a generation of people in Victoria. He was a great champion of liberty, equality and fraternity. For a lot of Labor supporters, the passing of Gough was a really personal thing. David said, 'We admired him, we cherished him and we loved him. He stood for all we believed in.' Finally David said, 'To lose him is to lose a sense of self.' David's words and thoughts and warmth are echoed by many Labor Party life members from my electorate. They remind us how important Gough was to Labor in Central Victoria.

Labor party life member Elaine McNamara said that Whitlam symbolised everything that was good and caring in the Labor Party. Elaine said she joined the party as soon as she could at age 18 and got to meet Gough Whitlam whenever he visited Bendigo. 'He was a well respected person,' she said, 'when he came to Bendigo, and he did so quite a lot. In person he was very quietly spoken at times but he always had a strong presence about him.' Elaine said, 'Margaret and Gough were a very gentle couple. But then in his role as Prime Minister, he became dogmatic, and you really felt like you had a fighter, someone standing up and fighting for you in your corner.'

Elaine fondly remembers attending rallies and political meetings with her grandfather and how she used to be on the back of a truck at Trades Hall and would ring the bell to call the members to order. She remembers many of the speeches that Gough made at Trades Hall during his visits there. Elaine's fondest memory of Gough was when, as Labor leader, on his way to Bendigo, he stopped in at Castlemaine to buy some Castlemaine Rock for her young son. Elaine says that whenever she thinks of Gough, she now thinks of Castlemaine Rock. This is the warmth of the man that we have lost. Elaine said that it would be the first year in a long time that she would not be sending Gough Whitlam a Christmas card—another symbol of how close he was to so many in the Bendigo electorate.

Another life member of the Bendigo branch, Elaine Walsh, who joined the party in 1962, said it had been such a privilege to volunteer and be involved in the labour movement under such a leader as Gough Whitlam. Elaine said: 'I'm proud to have been there at the time that he was elected. Gough did in three years what other governments could not do in 10 years,' and that was probably because he knew he could and he had the guts to do it. Ms Walsh said the party had changed a lot since Whitlam's time in office, but she said that it was his actions in government that helped define the debate for Labor and the community for many generations to come.

Eric Dearricott's life membership of the Bendigo branch comes up next year. Eric said that he was inspired to join the Labor Party after Whitlam's dismissal from government in 1975. Mr Dearricott refers to that time as being exciting and engaging. As a young teacher, he and his wife, Margaret, thought it was their duty to get involved, to join a movement, to stand up not only for the rights of their generation but for the rights of many generations. Eric said that he was influenced by Whitlam's policies and foresight. He said, 'When I think about Gough Whitlam and Labor and the period of the late sixties through to the late seventies, I think about the principles that they stood for.'

There is an entire generation of people who joined the Labor Party and got actively involved in Labor and in the community because of Gough Whitlam. Other branch members joined the Labor Party and got actively involved because they were opposed to the war in Vietnam. Paul and Mary Reid often reflect that they joined the Labor Party and got actively involved because of Labor's stance against our involvement in the Vietnam War. Those are the principles that Eric, Mary and Paul refer to when they talk about why they joined the Labor Party. Decades on, that is still their motivation for continuing to be actively involved in the labour movement. It was Whitlam's vision for education, his recognition of China and his work for women and health care are just some of the many policies that Eric continues to admire and be empowered by today. Eric said, 'In my lifetime he is certainly the most inspiring leader that I have known.' These are the words of some of the many people actively involved in Labor then and today, and I wish to place on the Hansard record their thoughts and reflections on the passing of Gough Whitlam.

Gough Whitlam in government created change that would continue for generations. He created change in his lifetime, in our lifetime, and his reforms and leadership continue to create real and lasting change both in the community and in the Labor Party. Just reflect on the change that he made to the great Australian Labor Party. Gough was a giant of the Labor Party and a great leader of our nation. It is very fair to say that he loved the Labor Party. In 1964 Gough made a speech to the Labor Party at the Trades Hall in Melbourne. He said he could not deliver the speech because there were two Labor parties: the men, delegates and candidates; and the women making the tea and preparing the meals out the back, then and today known as the Labor ladies. Gough declared then that we could not deserve to be called the Labor Party until we were one Labor Party, and until we were one Labor Party we did not deserve to govern. So the women stopped making tea and no longer were consigned to the back room, and so began the modern making of Labor.

We are a modern Labor Party and well on our way to achieving Gough's goals. Within Gough's lifetime, we have achieved another milestone. Almost 50 years since Gough made these remarks at the Victorian Trades Hall in Melbourne, at the last federal election in the state of Victoria three Labor women, new women, were elected to enter this parliament, and three Labor men, new men, were elected to enter this parliament to join the Labor ranks: Jo Ryan, in Lalor, Tim Watts, in Gellibrand; Clare O'Neil, in Hotham; Andrew Giles, in Scullin; David Feeney, in Batman; and me, in Bendigo—another example of how, within Gough's lifetime, he changed the modern Labor Party.

Change that Gough created will continue on for generations, and some of the achievements that I would like to mention profoundly changed our community to make it a stronger and more inclusive community. We have mentioned the opposition to Australia's involvement in Vietnam, and many reasons why a generation of young people stood up and demanded to be heard.

His social welfare reforms included supporting the mother's benefit and welfare payments to homeless people. Before 1973, only widows were entitled to pension payments, so other women who were raising children on their own were faced with impossible choices. Recently, when I caught up with the Eaglehawk community committee of management, they were talking about Gough Whitlam, and one brave great-grandmother told me her story about how Gough supported her raising five children when she was a single mother. She was in a violent relationship and had to leave for the sake of her children's safety, and it was impossible, before Gough, to survive, but with his reforms he made it possible. Today she is grateful for the generosity, the vision and the compassion that this great man had.

Equal pay for women is another example of what legacy Gough has left us with. One of the first acts of the Gough Whitlam government was to reopen the national wage and equity pay case at the Commonwealth Arbitration Commission. In 1972, the equal pay case meant that Australian women doing similar work to that of men should be paid an equal wage, and two years later the commission extended the adult minimum wage to women workers for the first time. It is hard for my generation to believe that it was not until 1974—that women working as cleaners, women working in hotels, the many, many women on minimum wage, did not receive equal pay until that period.

These are some of the lasting legacies of a great man, a Labor man. These are some of the policy areas that continue to be fundamental to today's debate. He changed the debate in this country for many decades and continues to inspire not just generations of Labor people but generations and generations of a nation, challenging us to be bold, to live up to what we believe in, to be bold to take the debate out there. The Hon. Gough Whitlam is a Labor legend who in death, as in life, will continue to inspire a nation for many generations to come. May he rest in peace.

Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to join my colleagues and express my sincerest condolences on the death of Edward Gough Whitlam, the 21st Prime Minister of Australia. Gough Whitlam was a political titan, a crash-or-crash-through politician, a leader of conviction. If we were to ask ourselves the eternal question, 'Does history make people, or do people make history?' I dare say Gough would be among the very few in the latter category.

And yet his character was forged by history and his times. Though from a comfortable background, he was born during World War I, in his teens during the Great Depression, a bomber navigator in his 20s, and an MP and father in his 30s. He was among, indeed from, the great generation. Before even emerging upon the national stage, he had already seen human misery on a grand scale, faced death many times and even contemplated the existential threat to modern democracy throughout the world. With this experience, is it any wonder that he was a man in a hurry, with an ambition that was so grand, matched by a determination so fierce? It culminated on 13 November 1972 at Labor's campaign launch. 'Men and women of Australia,' he proclaimed, at once changing the political lexicon of his times. He went on to say:

The decision we will make for our country on 2 December is a choice between … the habits and fears of the past, and the demands and opportunities of the future. There are moments in history when the whole fate and future of nations can be decided by a single decision. For Australia, this is such a time.

Such rhetoric rarely rings with such truth.

After 23 years in exile, caused as much by division and defection than by anything the conservatives did, the Labor Party, led by this magnificent leader, was not there to govern for governing's sake. In no particular order, the Whitlam government ended conscription, released conscientious objectors from our jails, introduced universal health care, created no-fault divorce, created the Family Court of Australia, reduced tariffs, abolished appeals to the Privy Council, abolished prohibitive university fees, cut the voting age to 18 years, funded our fledgling film industry, enacted Aboriginal land rights and the Racial Discrimination Act, recognised China, ended our involvement in the Vietnam War, repealed the death penalty, instituted legal aid, abolished knights and dames—which a future Labor government will do again—ratified the World Heritage convention, removed sales tax on the pill, reopened the equal pay case, embedded the Australia Council for the Arts, paid single mothers a pension, established the Australian Law Reform Commission, sung a new national anthem and so much more. His was a government not for the faint-hearted but for the big-hearted and the high-minded.

In the brief time I have left, I also feel compelled to address the charge of economic illiteracy or indifference. There were flaws with this government, without a doubt; there were mistakes and scandals. But let us not conclude that the absurdity of dealing with Khemlani or the titillation of Morosi and Cairns's relationship has anything to do with the economic policy record of the Whitlam era. That was trivia. That was ephemera. That was irrelevant. That sold newspapers, but it did not tell of the 1970s economic policy or experiences.

You do not judge an economic record according to those who seek to justify Whitlam's dismissal or conservative politicians or even Labor's successors. You judge the economy on how the economy was, not on how vested interests said it was. You judge it on the facts. You judge it on the results. By the early 1970s, a consensus of macroeconomists formed regarding inflation and unemployment. It was contended—and, as I say, it was a universally held view—that they are inversely related. When one goes up, the other goes down. That orthodoxy of economic policy, however, did not apply to the oil price shocks of the 1970s and virtually no economist or government anticipated such a shock happening. The shocks increased both inflation and unemployment simultaneously—not a shock unique to Australia but a global phenomenon. No-one had any good ideas on what to do to fix it.

Consider inflation between 1972 and 1975 in a series of countries. Inflation in the G7 countries increased from 4.5 per cent to 11 per cent; in Europe it increased from seven per cent to 14 per cent; in the United States it increased from three per cent to nine per cent; the United Kingdom's inflation increase was from seven per cent to 24 per cent; in Australia it went from six per cent to 15 per cent, well within the median range of inflation increases at the time. Unemployment all over, as in Australia, doubled. As for growth, Australia did relatively well, falling from 2.6 per cent in 1972 to one per cent in 1974, and by 1975 it was back to 2.6 per cent. Therefore, it is not right to say that somehow the Whitlam government's record was anything other than consistent with what was happening throughout the world as a result of the oil shocks of the seventies.

Stagflation was not solved by other countries, with the exception of Scandinavian countries at the time, and not by the political beneficiaries of Whitlam's sacking and subsequent election loss—and not by the Thatcher and Fraser governments that implemented draconian contractionary fiscal and monetary policy. Let's remember: Treasurer Howard left the Hawke and Keating governments with 11 per cent inflation and 10 per cent unemployment to deal with—and, with the trade union movement partners in an Accord, deal with it they did. So let me repeat the simple clear message which the actual microeconomic outcomes in the Whitlam years reveal. Economic policy was conducted about as well—or as badly, if you like—as in every other country dealing with the oil shocks.

On a personal note, his impact upon me and indeed upon my Irish migrant parents was immense. He was a man of the future, an advocate for independence and a tireless supporter for equal opportunity. His election and achievements made it much more likely for factory workers' kids like me and others that I knew not only to aspire to university but also to go to university. Indeed, I am one of those beneficiaries, to be the first in my family to go to universities along with my siblings, He made it clear that serving the public was a noble profession and something that we should all think about, and we should all thank him in this place.

His tragic, unconstitutional tearing down as our Prime Minister turned many Labor voting families, like mine, into lifelong Labor Party members and activists. Vale Edward Gough Whitlam.

Debate adjourned.