Page 3533 - Week 11 - Thursday, 23 October 2014
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It was this kind of long-term vision that truly transformed Australia in just a few short years and it is the kind of long-term vision that is largely missing from the contemporary election cycle. It is this long-term visionary approach that keeps me inspired in politics. It is what we are all here for: to help deliver the ideas from the people, for the people.
It was the Whitlam government that created the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park to protect it from oil drilling. Again, this long-term vision has protected this important national, indeed international, world heritage asset. The Great Barrier Reef, the largest coral reef ecosystem in the world, is now one of the best known Australian places in the world, contributing significantly to our national economy through tourism, in addition to its environmental significance.
Of course, I do not want to gloss over the problems that existed in either Whitlam the government or Whitlam the man. It is said his cabinet was unwieldy and inexperienced. He was, by most accounts, hubristic and self-important; and I am certainly aware of his indelicate statements about both Vietnamese refugees and his cabinet colleagues.
It would be remiss to let the moment of Gough Whitlam’s death pass without reference to the current federal government. Earlier this week a comedy story appeared on SBS under the headline “Coalition plans to honour Whitlam’s memory by slowly destroying everything he worked for”. Like all good satire, it cuts close to the bone as the Abbott government systematically undermines so many of the achievements of the Whitlam era with university deregulation, the Medicare copayment or the reintroduction of knights and dames—which we managed to live without for four decades.
Because there is much to be impressed by I will end on another list. Gough Whitlam rolled out community radio and what later became Triple J. He granted independence to Papua New Guinea. He took France to the International Criminal Court to prevent nuclear testing in the Pacific. He created a department of Aboriginal affairs. He removed sales tax from contraceptives and abolished the death penalty.
I would also like to pay a short tribute to his late wife Margaret who, with Gough, formed a personal and political partnership the likes of which Australia had not seen before. Margaret was an outspoken advocate for women’s rights, including abortion law reform, maternity leave and equal pay.
On behalf of the ACT Greens, I would like to express my sympathy to Gough’s surviving family, particularly his four children—Antony, Nicholas, Stephen and Catherine—in this difficult and sad time. They must be extremely proud of their father, and can rest assured that he left Australia a better place than he found it.
MR BARR (Molonglo—Deputy Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Housing and Minister for Tourism and Events): Edward Gough Whitlam transformed this nation. He was the most significant political figure in our country’s history. He lived in the lifetimes of all 27 other Australian prime
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