Hon Gough
Whitlam AC QC

Speaker Profile

Gough Whitlam
In Memoriam
1916 - 2014

It is with great sadness that we mourn the passing of Former Prime Minister (Edward) Gough Whitlam on 21 October 2014 at 98 years of age. Gough Whitlam AC 1987, QC 1962, MHR 1952-78 was Prime Minister from December 1972 to November 1975. Saxton worked closely with Whitlam for many years as a respected speaker, politician and friend.

When Whitlam became Prime Minister in 1972 he abolished conscription, withdrew the remaining Australian troops from Vietnam, banned sporting teams from South Africa, changed Australia's voting on South African questions in the UN, organised independence for PNG, abolished tertiary fees and the death penalty, introduced welfare payments for single parent families and reduced the voting age to eighteen years.

Yet even years after ending his term of office as Prime Minister of Australia, Gough Whitlam remains a household name. On his resignation from parliament in 1978 Gough became a Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University. The same year he was appointed Companion of the Order of Australia and in 1980 the first National Fellow of the Australian National University and the following year Sydney University conferred on him an honorary doctorate of Literature. He was appointed Australian Ambassador to UNESCO in 1983 and in 1985 was elected to its Executive Board. He has written accounts of his political career and his well known facility with words and his sharp, quick wit mean that he is much in demand as a popular after dinner speaker.

As one of the finest statesmen Australia has ever known, Gough Whitlam was a respected speaker, political commentator and authority on both the history and future direction of Australia and its position in the world.