Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to make a short contribution on this condolence motion and offer my condolences to the Whitlam family. I felt I couldn't not speak, given the large part Gough Whitlam has played in the making of this country. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that he made this place and this country a better place and that we have all benefited from that. Also, as I think everyone who has spoken has said, his vision and his actions have had an individual impact on us. I, like a number of people in this chamber, had at the age of 11 my first political engagement and experience in the 1972 election. My grade 5 class was very engaged in the politics of the day, and I painted banners for that election. My first engagement with painting political banners was for the 1972 election.

My first really great political outrage was in 1975, when the Whitlam government was sacked. In fact, I was so upset that a good artist friend of mine at school drew me a little caricature of Gough Whitlam that said, 'My hero'. I carried that around for a significant period of time, and it still exists. He made such an amazing contribution to everyday things. I particularly want to talk about his contribution to the arts and the purchase of Blue Poles and how it got people to think about art and changed the way people related to art. I remember my father put us three kids on the bus—until I was 12 I lived in Sydney, and we lived a way out of Sydney—and he took me, my sister and my brother in to the Art Gallery of New South Wales so that we could see Blue Poles and see what all the fuss was about. We joined the queue and we had a look. My brother did not like it. My sister, who was the youngest, was a bit less engaged. And my father and I stood there and had a very significant discussion about art: modern art, what Dad liked, what I liked, what I did not like. We also had a look at other art. And from that day onwards my father and I would continue to travel in to the art gallery as a father-daughter thing. We continued to do it in Sydney, and we continued to do it when we moved to Perth. Our activity together was to go to see art galleries and art shows. Anything to do with art, Dad and I would share that experience together. My brother still talks about Blue Poles. And the point there is that it touched our lives. That engaged us with art, and it touched our lives.

The other thing that touched our lives—as with a lot of the things he did—was the changes to higher education. I was the first one from my family—from both sides of my family—to go to university. That is true, but it is only just on the truth, because on the day I started university my father started at teachers college. If it had not have been for the changes to higher education, I would not have gone to university and my father would not have gone to teachers college. So it made a significant difference at a personal level, too, because it fundamentally changed my father's life and enabled him to do something that he had a passion for and not could afford to do when he was growing up. That made a fundamental change.

Other changes have been articulated in this place through people's excellent condolences and participation in this condolence motion. We have talked about single parents. People have talked about the single parent payment being introduced but people in this place will also know of the work that the Senate has done on forced adoptions. The single parent payment made such a difference there, as well. It enabled women to keep their children and not be put in the position of being forced into adopting. That is another significant contribution to Australia. It helped inspire me to get into politics. It has been a huge presence in politics in Australia for a very long time.

I hope we see his likes again, because it is his vision, commitment, passion and drive that has helped shape this nation. I am hoping it will continue to in the future. That is how we get change. That is how we have lasting legacies. It is why many of us are so passionate about protecting universal health care, access to higher education and access to opportunity in this country. I will remember for my entire life his contribution. I will remember the things he fought for and enabled to happen in this country, and the fact that it is a better place. We need to fight to protect the opportunities that he helped generate—these are opportunities that are available in this country and are not available in many other places in the world. I think we should be proud of that and not try to tear them down.

Vale Gough Whitlam. Thank you for your contribution—your huge contribution—to our society and to our country. It is a better place for the fact that you were here.