Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Next week marks 50 years since the dismissal of a prime minister who transformed Australia. On 11 November 1975, Gough Whitlam stood on the steps of Old Parliament House and told Australians that nothing would ever take away their right to be heard. It was a moment that shook our nation—the first and only time a democratically elected Australian government was dismissed. It sparked anger and protest, but it also strengthened the nation's belief in the power of the Australian people to choose their government and their future.

Gough Whitlam expanded the horizons of our nation. He believed government could be a force for fairness, equality and opportunity. He opened the doors of universities to every young Australian. He recognised the rights of First Nations people. He made women's equality a national priority. He gave Australians universal health care through Medibank, a world-leading reform that the Liberals later scrapped but which Labor rebuilt as Medicare. His optimism changed Australia's sense of what was possible. He imagined a fairer, more educated, more equal nation and then set about building it.

We still see the results of Whitlam's vision in the way we live today, in our universities, in the Medicare card that guarantees care when we are sick and in the belief that every person deserves dignity and opportunity. His reforms changed not only laws and institutions but the way Australians saw themselves and the country's potential. As we approach the anniversary of his dismissal, we remember not the event itself but the legacy that continues to shape our country and the values that guide Labor governments to this very day.