Thanks, Amatou, for mentioning
Gough Whitlam. I love old Gough
right up to little bits.
He was a big man so his faults
were bigger than life-sized but
so were his accomplishments!
Unless you lived though every
stutifying year of the 23 dull
and dreary years of Liberal
rule, you have no idea how
libeating it was - just to
hear Gough speak.
Pre-Gough public address:
"Mr Chairman and Lady Gilfrogen,
Sir Archibald Moneybags and
Lady Moneybags, Archbishop
Tweedhead and Mrs Tweedhead,
Lord Mayor Dunder, distnguished
guests, ladies and gentlemen..."
Post-Gough public address:
"Men and women of Australia..."
I can still see Gough as if it
was yesterday, striding across
the stage (as the crowd went
wild) and placing his speech
notes on the podium.
He'd stand perfectly still looking at
the last seat in the last row of a
packed auditorium and wait for
perfert quiet to descend.
Then he'd look from one side
of the last row to the other
and boom out:
"Men and women of Australia."
And the crowd would go beserk by
clapping and yelling and stamping
their feet for the sheer JOY of
(at long last) not being the
invisible grunts that the
toffy-nosed Liberals
thought ordinary
Aussies were!
After those five liberating words
"Men and women of Australia"
it would not have mattered
if Gough said he'd raise
taxes by 50% - we'd
still vote for him cos
we loved Gough Whitlam
right up to little bits
because of how he
made us feel:
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