Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

In participating in this afternoon's debate, I also offer my personal condolences to the Whitlam family following the passing of Edward Gough Whitlam AC QC, Australia's 21st Prime Minister. Mr Whitlam was, by no short measure, an indefatigable social reformer, but for my purposes this afternoon I particularly want to speak about the enormous contribution that he made to the city of which I am so proud—the City of Sydney and, most particularly, Western Sydney.

He convincingly won the federal seat of Werriwa in 1952 and moved to Cabramatta in Western Sydney in 1955 following an electoral redistribution. The Cabramatta of 2014 and the Cabramatta of 1955 are almost unrecognisable as the same place, but there are vestiges of that very traditional Sydney environment still remaining.

In moving to Western Sydney, the Whitlam family experienced the lack of infrastructure and the lack of amenities at first hand, whilst he and Margaret tried to raise a family of four children in that part of Western Sydney. And that gave him a strong resolve to do everything he could to improve the lives of those living in the new residential areas on city fringes.

Whilst Mr Whitlam's reformist zeal is most recognised, probably, in the areas of education, health and the rights of Indigenous Australians, his commitment to empowering regions like Western Sydney was an overarching objective. In his 1972 campaign speech, which others have spoken about and quoted today, Mr Whitlam said that cities were fundamental to the mission of his government and that 'a national government which cuts itself off from the nation's cities is cutting itself off from the nation's real life'.

It was his government that was the first Commonwealth government to provide significant funding for urban public transport projects. In 1973, the Whitlam government announced the Urban Public Transport Assistance Scheme to provide states with matching funds for public transport improvement projects, including new trains, buses and ferries. That scheme also extended and electrified railways. For Sydney and for Western Sydney it opened up extraordinary new opportunities for our residents by providing faster and easier links to the Sydney CBD and other business centres throughout the region.

Mr Whitlam recognised that improved access to GP services and to tertiary education and the resulting employment opportunities would only be beneficial if residents in the expanding outer suburbs had the transport they needed to get them to the doctors or to their university lectures.

Another important contribution by Mr Whitlam—that Senator Wong mentioned, and that others have also referred to—was his government's major investment in developing a sewerage scheme in Western Sydney, whose rapid expansion in the 1950s and 1960s was not accompanied by basic services. Their government implemented the National Sewerage Program soon after it was elected in 1972, investing $330 million in urban sanitation projects—an extraordinary amount of money in those days.

They also initiated the Area Improvement Program, which funded state and local governments to make Western Sydney and particularly suburban Melbourne, more liveable. That included parks, bridges, libraries and community centres. I think you can see by the architecture of many of the libraries that you see around the suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne that they most definitely date from that Area Improvement Program.

His government introduced Medibank—the government precursor to Medicare—which provided access to medical care for people who could not afford private insurance. I note at this point that that initiative of the Whitlam government means a great deal to many staff of long-standing in my own Department of Human Services, who were part of the original Medibank and Medicare.

He also oversaw a major investment in public hospitals in Western Sydney. The Whitlam government invested more than $140 million in those days in new hospitals, including a seeding grant for the construction of Westmead Hospital, the region's first major teaching hospital and the centre of a precinct that has grown to become a world-class research hub.

His experiences also taught him that education was the key to opportunity and social mobility for people living in the western suburbs of Sydney, and he worked very hard to close the funding gap between government and non-government schools, particularly given that so many children in Western Sydney were attending those schools.

At the tertiary level, his government abolished tuition fees for students at universities and technical colleges. That, of course, led to flow-on policy effects in later Labor governments, but it opened up opportunities at the time for students in Western Sydney and provided means-tested financial assistance for students. In 1974 they established the Commonwealth's full responsibility for university funding throughout Australia. He strongly advocated the establishment of a university in Western Sydney, and although he did not achieve it during his time in office, there is nobody who could deny that his tireless advocacy contributed to the establishment of the University of Western Sydney in 1989.

In 2000 he joined with the University of Western Sydney to establish the well regarded Whitlam Institute

The institute really has excelled in the study of the history and future development of the Greater Western Sydney region and in teaching and scholarship on urban regions throughout the country. It is a vital resource in Western Sydney as we strive to develop the road, the rail, and the air infrastructure and the knowledge jobs in the new Western Sydney employment area as part of our quest to help the region fulfil its great potential. I must say that I am very proud to be part of the Liberal government that is doing that for Western Sydney and in Western Sydney now.

Mr Whitlam made an important contribution to the process of the growth of the Whitlam Institute when he provided access to his records and papers from his private collection to form the Whitlam Prime Ministerial Collection at UWS Parramatta. These documents, which span his leadership in the areas of health and social welfare, urban and regional planning and development, and education and Indigenous affairs, helped provide a blueprint, if you like, for what is now happening in Western Sydney in the 21st century.

My father and Edward Gough Whitlam were born in the same year. They both served in the Second World War, my father in the Army and, of course, Mr Whitlam in the Air Force. They were, however, men of very different views. The passing of Mr Whitlam has made me contemplate in the last week or so, when I realised that my father and Mr Whitlam were the same age, what had happened in my family in 1975 and whether perhaps that was the energising process, if you like, for my own personal engagement and involvement in politics—because the events of 1975 were much discussed in my home around the table amongst my family. My father was a conservative man and had some very strong views. In fact, I remember, when I was first at university, I had a very serious car accident which resulted in a third-party personal injury claim that had to be litigated, ultimately. My father, with our solicitor, had chosen a barrister who was on the 10th floor of Wentworth Chambers. He took me to see this particular barrister, Peter McEwen, now SC and the head of Martin Place Chambers. We went into his chambers with the solicitor, sat down and the door was shut, and we saw that on the back of Peter McEwen's door was EG Whitlam's old nameplate from having previously been in Wentworth Chambers himself. For a split second, I really thought my father was going to get up, walk out and say that we were not going to consult with the barrister on that matter. But it struck me that Mr Whitlam's contribution—in fact, the entire Whitlam family's contribution—to the legal profession in Sydney was very important.

In 1975, I was a student at Earlwood Public School in what I suppose you would describe as inner south Sydney. In the year before, 1974, I had had as my teacher Mr Lawrie Daly, the son of the famous and famed Whitlam cabinet minister Fred Daly. In 1974, Lawrie Daly indicated that he had given up on me because I had chosen Leilani as my horse in the Melbourne Cup because it was owned by Andrew Peacock. He thought I was a lost cause then, but, when 1975 came and you had Fred Daly's son teaching along the same veranda as you on the day of the Dismissal, it most certainly, I think, provided to the students of Earlwood Public School in grades 5 and 6 a very close-up experience of what that event meant to the adults in the room but, most particularly, to people of that era who were actively in the Labor Party. It was an insight, totally serendipitous, that I believe very few would have had.

On issues like media diversity and Australia becoming a republic, I watched Mr Whitlam and Mr Fraser engage together. As some have said earlier today, to see those two giants, both literally and figuratively, of Australian politics able to do that was, to me, a remarkable study in human nature. I think the event on media diversity was held at the Sydney Opera House and I saw them standing together on the stage united in that cause. I was a younger woman then but very interested in the concepts, and I thought they were very important to Australia. I remember sitting in that audience marvelling at them being together. As a strong republican, I mentioned, in the few words I spoke in relation to Mrs Whitlam's passing, that she, Mr Whitlam and I had spent quite some time together.

But my most recent memory, which I would like to refer to very briefly, is of the Australian Law Reform Commission 25th anniversary dinner held in the year 2000 in Sydney. The Australian Law Reform Commission was established by Mr Whitlam in 1975. At the dinner I was privileged to share a table that evening with Mr and Mrs Whitlam and with Michael Black AC, QC, then Chief Justice of the Federal Court. I had never been in such close proximity to a former Prime Minister at that stage and I was fascinated by the erudition of his conversation and by his natural charm. He was, of course, as one might expect, voluble. I watched with amusement as Mrs Whitlam gently chided him across the table, indicating that perhaps the Chief Justice might like to contribute to the conversation, or even Senator Payne. He took the admonition poorly and indicated that he thought they would much prefer to listen to him. He was probably right.

I extend my sympathies to his extended family, particularly his children, Tony, Stephen, Nicholas and Catherine, and his grandchildren, and also to Miss Freda Whitlam, who has long been in Western Sydney and whom I have seen from time to time around Penrith over a number of years.

Australia has lost a leader, an intellect and an extraordinary wit not often seen in today's parliament, perhaps. The days of Killen and Whitlam and Daly will go down in Australia political history, not to mention Menzies, of course. Australia has lost a leader, but the Whitlam family have also lost their leader. Our thoughts are with them all. I am proud to have had the opportunity to make a small contribution in this debate.