Scott Ryan (Victoria, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

It is entirely appropriate and right that today, and last week, this parliament pauses to acknowledge someone who held the highest elected office in our land. I would like to add a few words of my own, although I suggest that Mr Whitlam would probably appreciate the irony of the Senate spending a day on this, given those historic clashes.

Today is not a day to go through specific measures. From my point of view, it will not surprise anyone to hear that on some measures I would likely have disagreed with Mr Whitlam. Yet there is one measure that he implemented that I will note: the tariff cut of 25 per cent. Bert Kelly, the lone voice in the wilderness of tariffs and protection at the time, was famously asked to campaign in the Bass by-election in 1975. In response to this request, he said that he would if he was allowed to campaign for Gough, given the then opposition's position and their criticism of the 25 per cent tariff cut. As has been spoken of by Senator Macdonald and a number of others earlier today and those who met Mr Whitlam, Mr Whitlam also spoke at the funeral for Bert Kelly, indicating his graciousness towards political opponents over many years.

I rise to specifically acknowledge someone who was a democrat and who believed in the political process. He obviously inspired so many on the other side of politics, and we heard much of that expressed in emotional and moving terms over the past week. So many aspects of Mr Whitlam's career and 'the Program', as it was famously known, crystallised debates that we still have in this country, albeit on different issues and different measures. Many people have spoken in moving terms of what Mr Whitlam's arts policy or urban development policy meant to them and how it inspired them into public life.

In the other place last week, I recall one member with whom I was speaking saying that Mr Whitlam was a great recruiter for Labor. I mean this in the nicest possible way: he was also a great recruiter for our side of politics. The reason was that he made his arguments and he made us do the same. He gave those opposite a faith in the power of the Commonwealth and government generally, yet he also served as a reminder to some, including me, of the limits of government and politicians. But we are better for having these arguments in public and seeking to persuade voters of our decisions.

Gough Whitlam believed in making the case for change, and this was outlined in such historic detail and emotional terms by Senator Faulkner earlier today. He famously sought constitutional change, but he was far from the first Prime Minister to fail at that hurdle. He famously sought to change the balance between the House and the Senate. While he did not succeed in that, he did ensure that the previously discussed legal technicality or argument over Constitutional scenarios were given a colour and reality that Mr Whitlam himself brought to so many aspects of political debate.

The test for a political leader is: did they make an impact, did they leave footprints and is the nation better off due to that contribution? One does not have to agree with anything or everything to endorse that Australia would be a very different place without EG Whitlam. We may argue about measures or history, but we can all agree—I hope—that no-one in politics has a halo and no-one has a claim on perfection. We measure the contribution of substantial public figures as men and women with all their gifts, foibles and flaws, and Australia is a better place for the service of Gough Whitlam.

I was not yet born when Gough Whitlam was elected as Prime Minister of Australia and I was two years old when he left office. I never had the opportunity to meet him. His contribution to public life during and, I might add, particularly after his service in politics and in this place, as well as the warmth described by those who knew and met him, are reminders of the virtue, opportunity and blessing that is public service and service in this place.

I would like to pass on my deepest condolences to the family members who have lost a father and a grandfather, to those opposite, and particularly to Senator Faulkner, who has lost an inspiration and a mentor. Australia has indeed lost a historic figure, but, may I say, there will never be a history book written in Australia about our nation without there being a long index item under the listing 'Whitlam, EG'.