Tania Lawrence (Hasluck, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Werriwa for bringing this motion before the parliament. On 11 November my mind's focus will be on Remembrance Day. I'll also, as many of us do on that date, be considering the events of 1975, now 50 years ago. Almost all of us were children at that time. I'm not going to be able to do justice to the matters of the constitutional crisis in a couple of minutes, so I, too, recommend that those interested read Professor Hocking's article in Pearls and Irritations. There has been so much written about the rights and the wrongs and the what-might-have-beens, so I will focus on the legacy of the Whitlam government and what it means for me and the people of Hasluck today in 2025.

Prior to his election, Whitlam said:

We are all diminished as citizens when any of us are poor. Poverty is a national waste as well as an individual waste. We are all diminished when any of us are denied proper education. The nation is the poorer—a poorer economy, a poorer civilisation, because of this human and national waste.

The Whitlam government abolished university fees and expanded access to tertiary education. They established the Australian Schools Commission to allocate funding on the basis of need. Whitlam changed the face of education in Australia. How many of us simply would not be here in this place now but for the changes then? Today, we have reduced student debt and have come to agreement with the states and territories for public schools to be funded to 100 per cent of the schooling resource standard. I know what a great difference this will make to the many primary and high schools in Hasluck.

In 1972, Whitlam said they would establish universal health insurance so that every Australian could have access to Medicare without fear of cost, and they did. The Whitlam government introduced the first universal health insurance scheme in Medibank. Unfortunately, that sank into the swamp under Fraser, but we built it again as Medicare under Hawke.

The Albanese government has since then invested more in Medicare, more than any other. We aim to see bulk billing restored so that the only card you need to see the doctor is your Medicare card. Already, the fully bulk-billed Medicare Urgent Care Clinics have had over two million presentations. In Hasluck, in addition to the centres we opened in Midland and in Morley, we will be adding a new one in Ellenbrook. This is something I've been advocating for strongly because I see the success of it.

Whitlam's government invested in regional development infrastructure and affordable housing. My own parents were beneficiaries of the rent-to-buy home policy. Our lives would be very difficult if that hadn't existed. In the last parliament, we created the HAFF and more recently provided for five per cent deposits for new homebuyers. There will be tens of thousands of families whose lives will be now changed for the better, as mine was, by Labor policy.

Whitlam established the Australian heritage commission, the environment department and federal environmental impact assessments. He said, 'A government which truly serves the people must also serve the land on which the people live.' I have no doubt if Gough Whitlam was in the parliament today he'd be scathing of those members obstructing the next generation of progress in protecting the environment.

Whitlam was the first to develop a recognition of Aboriginal land rights. He established a separate ministry of Aboriginal affairs, and passed legislation to outlaw discrimination on race and sex. In 1973 Whitlam said, 'The basic principle of our government is equality—equality of opportunity, equality before the law, equality in the community.' Protection of rights, everyone's rights, is a fundamental purpose of government in a democracy. Whitlam instituted the national employment and training scheme, and wanted jobs for all citizens.

We have provided fee-free TAFE and a renewed focus of upskilling a young and not-so-young people for the jobs of the future. Whitlam's government emphasised open government accountability and reform of institutions such as the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. One of the tasks we were set on coming to office three years ago was to establish a national anticorruption commission and to renew the administrative appeals process, which the coalition unfortunately had allowed to fall into disarray. In 1974, Whitlam commissioned the Hope royal commission on intelligence and security and established a new accountability framework, and we have legislation before the House right now for the consolidation of that oversight.

The Whitlam government was indeed short lived and was not by any means perfect. But Gough Whitlam's legacy and that of the 28th and 29th parliaments and caucus is one that continues to live on, and continues to provide lessons and inspiration as a touchstone for our own deliberations in this parliament today.

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