Page 3536 - Week 11 - Thursday, 23 October 2014
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Again important for Canberra and the territories, he improved our democratic representation. He established the Law Reform Commission and the Australian Legal Aid Office. Perhaps on questions of symbolism, Madam Speaker, we owe Gough a great thank you for Advance Australia Fair as our national anthem, not God Save the Queen. We owe Gough for the establishment of an Australian honours system and the amendment of royal title.
It is an amazing array of achievements in such a short period of government. As Paul Keating said on the 7.30 Report during the week, prior to Whitlam:
Australia was a post imperial outpost, effectively, in the post war years. In the years of the Menzies torpor, it was like sort of wading in molasses, you know. And to shock the system and change it, to change Australia’s idea of itself is what Whitlam did.
This astonishing list of achievements was made possible only by his courage and vision. The legacy of his policy agenda long outlives his relatively short period as Prime Minister. There have been many tributes over the past few days. Edward Gough Whitlam was a hero to many, to all on the Labor side of politics, and many on the non-Labor side of politics. He transformed our nation. May he rest in peace.
MS BURCH (Brindabella—Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Disability, Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Minister for Racing and Gaming, Minister for Women and Minister for the Arts): I will rise on this condolence motion and say a few words with respect to Gough Whitlam. Gough Whitlam was an extraordinary figure in Australian politics and Australian history. His reforms were sweeping, particularly in the areas of health and education. It makes me proud as a minister for education that this great Prime Minister started his education here in our public school system at Telopea Park School. Our public schools have produced many ex-students of note who have gone on to be leaders, and Gough is undoubtedly one of the greatest.
This week on ABC news we saw that modern history students in New South Wales in their HSC exam were asked whether or not the Fraser government completely overturned the reforms of the Whitlam era. It is an interesting question, but the answer is obvious. Whitlam was in power for just three years, but the reforms he put in place endure to this day. They were sweeping, they were fundamental and they were irreversible. In almost 40 years since the dismissal, for 40 years conservative forces in this country have tried to unravel his reforms, but for 40 years they have failed—or indeed a more positive way of putting it is that, after 40 years, the Gough Whitlam legacy endures.
There was the recognition of China, free health care, university education for all, equal pay for women, abolition of the death penalty, the Family Law Act, the national sewerage program, voting for 18-year-olds, our own national anthem, Aboriginal land rights, the National Gallery, the Australian Heritage Commission, the Australia Council for the Arts and, as has been said, the Racial Discrimination Act. I think of what he did for Indigenous Australians, and I quote from his 1972 speech:
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