Whitlams legacies mean that he must be considered one of greatest post war PM's
"It is amazing to reflect on the extent to which the contours of our contemporary society were shaped by the Whitlam government. The landmark social justice campaigns of the ’60s for Indigenous people, equal rights for women, universal health insurance, fair schools funding, access to justice, support for artistic endeavour, fair electoral laws, elimination of racial discrimination and genuine independence from British institutions all came to some form of fruition during Whitlam’s time in office. Some of these struggles continued, of course, and much has happened since 1975. Subsequent governments built on the achievements of the Whitlam era. There has been some backtracking and rethinking. Yet the ideas framework put in place in the early ’70s has proved remarkably durable.
Whitlam and his government changed the way we think about ourselves. The curse of sleepy mediocrity and colonial dependency, so mercilessly flayed in 1964 by Donald Horne in The Lucky Country, was cast aside. Outdated social attitudes were brutally confronted. The tribal conservatism of the ’50s that had been slowly eroded by prolonged prosperity was unable to withstand this concerted assault.
The Whitlam government was often amateurish, and generally naive about the strength of the social and political forces arrayed against it, and occasionally misguided on crucial issues. Yet the true test of its significance lies in the resilience of so many of the fundamental changes it made."
