Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Arguably more than any man or woman who has ever sat in this parliament, Gough Whitlam did not look at things as they are and ask, 'Why?'; he dreamed of things that never were and asked, 'Why not?' But he did more than dream; he delivered. He had a vision, but he planned to make it a reality. He believed in parliament and parliamentary democracy. He believed in power won at the ballot box and exercised here, for good. He thought this room, or its predecessor down the way, was the most important room in the nation, because it was there that he argued for change and he argued for his vision. He was one of the most formidable debaters ever to grace the chamber, but he won his debates with meticulous attention to detail, with preparation and with substance. He taught Labor how to win, when winning seemed an ancient memory and a distant dream. He believed in winning elections, because winning elections meant changing things, meant implementing policy, meant progressing our nation.

He spent his years as Leader of the Opposition developing a detailed and comprehensive program, which became his talisman, his guiding star, in government. His 1972 speech delivered at the Blacktown Civic Centre almost exactly 42 years ago—this speech I am holding—was visionary and also detailed. His vision was remarkable. He foresaw the rightful place of China in the front ranks of the world's nations. He made the most important foreign policy decision of post-World War II Australia in recognising China. He was castigated for it. He was right. He foresaw a nation in which a university education was not the plaything of a privileged few but the birthright of every Australian who chooses to take it up. He imagined an Australia in which good health care was the universal right of all. He dreamed of an Australia in which our first peoples had rights to the land they had cared for for 40,000 years. But he did more than dream of these things; he delivered them. His period as Prime Minister was not the longest—far from the longest—of all those who have held that office, but his record of achievement rivals all.

It is true that Gough Whitlam was trained in the classics. He was a constitutional scholar, a Queen's Counsel, a historian and a polymath, but today I would like to speak of a slightly different Gough Whitlam—a Gough Whitlam who understood the hopes, demands and aspirations of ordinary Australians; a local member and a local resident; a man who lived in Western Sydney and loved it; the Gough Whitlam I knew early in my life and late in his, who kept his sympathies and passions for working people right through his life. When he entered this parliament in 1952, the seat of Werriwa extended from Goulburn to Cabramatta, via Cronulla. Successive redistributions made it exclusively a Western Sydney seat, representing the people of Liverpool, Fairfield and Cabramatta, people now represented by the current member for Werriwa, the member for Fowler and me. When he became Prime Minister he, Margaret and the family lived in Arthur Street, Cabramatta in a house that still stands today—perhaps a house which might one day be acquired by the government. He celebrated Labor's historic election win on 2 December 1972 at the El Toro Inn at Warwick Farm. He lived and breathed the aspirations of the people of Western Sydney for a fair go, and he applied them to the suburbs and the regions of the nation.

Last year a book was published which argued that the election of Gough Whitlam as Labor leader marked the beginning of the transition of the ALP away from a mass working class party towards an elitist one which prioritised social reform and the environment over economic growth. I said at the time that to prosecute this argument is to fundamentally misunderstand and underestimate Gough Whitlam. Yes, he progressed social reforms important to a progressive Australia—reforms that were overdue. He was cut of a different cloth to Calwell or, indeed, to Curtin and Chifley as the son of a senior public servant who had received a first-class university education and was an accomplished lawyer. But his program always had working people at its heart.

Almost 40 years after he left office he is still much beloved on the streets of Western Sydney not because of the social reforms he introduced but because he brought sewers to Western Sydney. It was not some elitist agenda driving him to fund the construction of a sewerage system; it was because of his time living in Arthur Street, Cabramatta that he understood that it was simply not right that so many people not have access to such an important and basic service as late as the 1970s. And the lessons he learnt in Western Sydney he applied right across the country.

Given that Gough combined a love of the classics with a passion for practical achievement, he loved what Neville Wran said of him:

It was said of Caesar Augustus that he found Rome brick, and left it marble. It will be said of Gough Whitlam that he found the outer suburbs of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane unsewered, and left them fully flushed.

And it was this same understanding of what is important to ordinary people that led him to fund the construction of a first-class teaching hospital at Westmead. He said it just could not stand that the people of Western Sydney should not have access to a first-class health facility. He offered Premier Askin the funding. Premier Askin rejected the funding because it was not a priority, a decision which did not stand public scrutiny and was reversed quickly. As a result, many millions of people have received first-class health care in Western Sydney, with Westmead Hospital at the core of what is now a healthcare district. The verdict of history is clear: no Whitlam, no Westmead.

Gough and Margaret retained their interest in Western Sydney for long after it was a necessary thing to do for political purposes. Until age forbade it they were regular attenders at functions in our home city of Fairfield and in Western Sydney. In typical Gough style he would refer to Fairfield in Italian as Campobello, and a few years ago the people of Fairfield and Fairfield council erected an obelisk, a statute to honour his contribution. The Leader of the Opposition referred to Gough Whitlam's complex relationship with God. On this occasion he pointed out that such honours were normally reserved for people about to die. He informed the gathered group that he had no intention of dying any time soon and that he was confident in this 'because God would not welcome the competition in Heaven'—in a way that only he could get away with.

I talk of the commitment of Gough and Margaret to Western Sydney not to be parochial—he was a giant figure who bestrode the whole nation—but to underline the fact that he was essentially a man of the people. He and Margaret were deeply honoured when the joint replacement centre at Fairfield Hospital was named after each of them. Thousands of people have received new joints at that hospital. I was there a few weeks ago with the member for Ballarat, showing her around. It was a justified honour because it underlined their commitment to improving the lives of ordinary people. Gough Whitlam was a man of the people. He was an educated one, a refined one, an aesthetic one but a man of the people no less.

In the last 12 months, the Labor Party has lost two giants: Wran and Whitlam. Both were visionaries. Both were pragmatists. Both believed in delivering for Australians of all walks of life. It is depressing to think that we have lost them. It is inspiring to know that we had them.

Gough Whitlam was a public servant, not a perfect servant, but Australia is unquestionably a better place—a fairer place, a more modern place, a more progressive place—because he lived and he chose to devote his life to the service of the public.

It seems appropriate to invoke Shakespeare in talking of such a great man:

He was a man, take him for all in all,

I shall not look upon his like again

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