Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to make a contribution on the passing of Mr Whitlam. I have been patron senator for his old seat of Werriwa virtually since becoming a senator in 2005 and so I have had a long association with his old seat. I have visited it often and campaigned as well—to no avail, of course, because whilst our vote has increased over time we have not successfully taken that seat. Senator Payne has spoken and outlined Mr Whitlam's commitment to Western Sydney. I know his memory certainly lives on in that area, and I associate myself with comments that she has made.

In paying tribute to Mr Whitlam, Prime Minister Abbott said that we all have our stories about Gough Whitlam, and I too have my story. I was at the Australian National University at the time when Mr Whitlam was there as a visiting fellow, and that is where I first met him. I recall a day when I was near the steps of the library and he was walking past and I went up to him and said hello to him. You would frequently see him walking around at the university campus, engaging with the students who stopped him to meet him. He was always willing to share his views and his thoughts on a whole range of different issues.

As parliamentary secretary responsible for multicultural affairs and settlement services, I want to acknowledge the contribution that Mr Whitlam made and his support for cultural diversity in Australia. As I come from the Italian-Australian community, I know that Mr Whitlam was very close to many people in that community. I know that I speak on behalf of many in our community in offering my condolences to his family. He was very well known in the Italian-Australia community, a community that I have been involved in since the early eighties.

There was a recent article by Mark Kenny on 21 October, entitled 'Gough Whitlam, me, mum and Garibaldi', in which Mark Kenny outlines that many years ago as a journalist in Canberra in early 2002 he was fortunate enough to interview Gough Whitlam after the publication of his book My Italian Notebook.

Mark Kenny writes:

My Italian Notebook was a typically Whitlam-centric account of Italians in Australia—he had shared an office in the old Parliament with Labor's Tony Luchetti …

So this book was full of detail about Mr Luchetti and, of course, as Mark Kenny notes, the author himself was never far from the action.

I saw Mr Whitlam and Mrs Whitlam frequently in the Italian community. He often would quiz me on my political travails and kindly referred to me as Donna Concetta, which was, I thought, quite a nice term of endearment. As I have said, he certainly was generally regarded very well and with great affection in the community, but most especially I wanted to add these comments on behalf of the Italo-Australian community.

In conclusion, I offer my condolences to the Whitlam family, most especially to Tony Whitlam, whom I got to know as a solicitor when I was working at the Australian Government Solicitor and through my very frequent appearances in the federal court, and to Nick Whitlam and his family. Nick Whitlam resides with his family in the Illawarra. As my electorate office is located in the Illawarra, I know that I speak for many there in recording our condolences to Nick Whitlam and to his family.