Bill Shorten on Gough Whitlam
Like no other prime minister before or since, Gough Whitlam redefined our country – and in doing so, he changed the lives of a generation and beyond.
His vision, his ambition offered Australia a new sense of what it might be.
He reimagined Australia – as a modern, multicultural nation where opportunity belonged to everyone.
Gough was a giant of the Labor Party and a great leader of our nation. Gough's was a truly Australian life and a life truly lived for Australia.
Gough did not just want to serve our nation; he wanted to transform it – utterly and permanently – and he most certainly did.
Like so many people, I believe the Whitlam government should not be measured in years but in achievements. Our country is different because of him and by any test our country is better because of him.
Tens of millions of Australians have had access to universal healthcare.
Millions of people had a shot at university. He restarted our relationship with China and brought our troops home from Vietnam, ending the birthday ballot.
He abolished the death penalty and banished discrimination from our laws. He created land rights for Aboriginal Australians.
Gough never lacked the courage for the good fight. It was this courage, this determination, that made him the great reformer of the Labor Party – the greatest in our history.
Gough Whitlam loved the Labor Party and Gough Whitlam changed the Labor Party. He shook Labor up.
In 1964, Gough had a speech prepared for the Labor Party – but he said he could not deliver it because there were two Labor parties.
The men: the delegates and the candidates. And the women: making the tea, preparing the meals out the back.
Gough declared then that we did 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.
The women stopped making the tea, they were no longer consigned to the back of the room – and so began the making of modern Labor.
He stirred with his wit and his capability many brilliant citizens into honourable public service. He was indeed an agent for democracy, an agent for tolerance – today, democracy and tolerance are defining features of our country.
Great leaders can make national character, can make national values. These are very important qualities, and their strength depends at every turn on the capacity of great leaders.
Gough was sacked, an unprecedented event in Australian history. Of all leaders, none had more cause to carry an anvil of hatred. But he did not.
In remembering Gough, we remember his wife Margaret, a great Australian in her own right, and their life together – a great Australian love story.
There will be more tears shed for Gough Whitlam today than perhaps any other leader in Australian history.And his beloved men and women of Australia will long remember where they were this day.
'It's time,' Gough told us. Because of him, because of his life and legacy, it's always time.
Read more:
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-polit...gh-whitlam-20141021-119hj3.html#ixzz3H2gFd100
Any way this story is for those who believe in fairy-tales!
