Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to associate myself with remarks that have already been made in this condolence motion following the death today of the Hon. EG Whitlam AC, QC. Gough Whitlam's life was a life given over to public service and the doing of great deeds. In thinking of Whitlam, I am reminded of the writings of Plutarch in writing about the life of Pericles in his book about the lives of the Athenians. He wrote:

Virtue in action immediately takes such hold of a man that he no sooner admires a deed than he sets out to follow in the steps of the doer.

You always got the impression with Gough Whitlam that he was a follower of heroes, but also wanted to be a hero himself. In fact, to many in the non-Labor side of politics, as is clear by this debate so far and from what I am sure is to come, he is a hero to many in the non-Labor side of politics. To me, Gough Whitlam conjures up images of a great ancient Greek or Roman statesman: a person of great wit, sophistication, eloquence and privilege but giving his life over to public service—seeing public service as the most important thing that he could do to make his society and his country a greater place. He could have continued to have a career at the bar. He was admitted to the bar in New South Wales and federally in 1947 and no doubt, with his obvious great eloquence, his very sharp mind and his wit, he would have been a very successful barrister—very likely to have been a judge of the New South Wales or an Australian court and made a great contribution. But, as is on the record, he instead chose to go into parliament, trying several times before he was successful in 1952 as the member for Werriwa, where he stayed throughout his political career.

Unlike other members of parliament and other prime ministers, he absolutely loved the chamber. The chamber was the great place for him to make some of his best lines and to have influence over the country. He saw it as the place where two great political parties came together and faced off against each other—certainly peacefully but not without passion and often not without rancour. Many would say he dominated the Australian parliament, certainly as Prime Minister and probably as Leader of the Opposition, arguing the Labor case in the face of opposition from the then Liberal and National parties—the Liberal and Country parties.

He was one of the parliament's great parliamentary performers and will always be remembered as such. When I was a very young man I worked for Amanda Vanstone. She was putting together a book of the great parliamentary speeches since Federation and as an 18- or 19-year-old she asked me to ring Gough Whitlam, which I did. I spoke to him and said: 'Senator Vanstone'—whom he liked, of course; it is hard not to like Amanda Vanstone, indeed—'for whom I work is putting together a book of the great parliamentary speeches and would obviously like to include one of yours, Mr Whitlam.' I said: 'Which one would you like me to include?' He said, 'Any one will do.'

You certainly got the sense in talking with Gough Whitlam that he was very joyous—very joyous about public service, about politics and about the parliament. He loved the job of being Prime Minister. He was very fond of quoting Benjamin Disraeli. When Benjamin Disraeli was trying on the robes of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the tailor said to him, 'Do you find them heavy, Mr Chancellor?' Disraeli said: 'No, I find them uncommonly light.' Indeed, he tried to convey how much he liked public service and that it certainly was not a burden to him.

I was very glad when Malcolm Fraser as the Prime Minister appointed Gough Whitlam to be our ambassador to UNESCO, because it showed not only a great bipartisanship and a sense of acknowledgement that Gough Whitlam had made a great contribution to Australia as a parliamentarian, but it also meant that Gough Whitlam's public service did not end with his leadership of the opposition in 1977. It did not end, having been removed in 1975, then losing and again losing in 1977. He got to continue that public service as a legate of the Australian government overseas in an important posting in a great city like Paris. It showed a great sense of occasion on the part of then Prime Minister Fraser and it also allowed a great Australian parliamentarian and politician to retire gracefully, still showing his continuing public service. Indeed, the very fact that Gough Whitlam remained in politics after 1975 showed what a great and courageous person he was as a politician. Following those extraordinary scenes in 1975, he would have been forgiven for deciding to retire; but he chose not to. His commitment to the Labor Party, to the cause and to his belief that he had been unfairly treated was such that he wanted to give the Australian people a second chance to either vote him out again, or to vote him in and undo the 1975 result. That shows great political fortitude on his part and is the mark of a great politician.

I know today is not the day for political rancour or partisanship, but I do say this: one of the reasons Gough Whitlam looms so large in our political history is because Australia has not had the great civil wars and the great conflagrations that have marked some other democracies like, for example, the United States. So the 1975 period is one of the most extraordinary in Australia's political history, and that is why Gough Whitlam will always be remembered, alongside Malcolm Fraser, as a great political figure. They were there at one of the most extraordinary events in our parliamentary history.

All of us will remember where we were in 1975. As Barnaby Joyce has indicated what he was doing, I will just briefly say where I was—because I was only eight. My mother was ironing and I was watching Adventure Island, which many people will remember; I remember my mother was ironing and I was watching Adventure Island, and my mother started crying. I thought: ' I wonder why my mother's crying?' I have to let you in on a secret: she was not crying out of sadness when she heard the Whitlam government had been dismissed. She was crying out of joy.

In closing, may I way that I wish to express my condolences to the extended Whitlam family. I am pleased to have been able to contribute to this debate and I look forward to the debate continuing beyond this contribution.

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