Gough Whitlam | |
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![]() Official portrait, 1972 | |
21st Prime Minister of Australia | |
In office 5 December 1972 – 11 November 1975 | |
Monarch | Elizabeth II |
Governors‑General | |
Deputy | |
Preceded by | William McMahon |
Succeeded by | Malcolm Fraser |
Leader of the Opposition | |
In office 11 November 1975 – 22 December 1977 | |
Prime Minister | Malcolm Fraser |
Deputy |
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Preceded by | Malcolm Fraser |
Succeeded by | Bill Hayden |
In office 9 February 1967 – 5 December 1972 | |
Prime Minister |
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Deputy | Lance Barnard |
Preceded by | Arthur Calwell |
Succeeded by | Billy Snedden |
Minister for Foreign Affairs | |
In office 5 December 1972 – 6 November 1973 | |
Prime Minister | Himself |
Preceded by | Nigel Bowen |
Succeeded by | Don Willesee |
Leader of the Labor Party | |
In office 9 February 1967 – 22 December 1977 | |
Deputy |
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Preceded by | Arthur Calwell |
Succeeded by | Bill Hayden |
Deputy Leader of the Labor Party | |
In office 7 March 1960 – 9 February 1967 | |
Leader | Arthur Calwell |
Preceded by | Arthur Calwell |
Succeeded by | Lance Barnard |
Member of the Australian Parliament for Werriwa | |
In office 29 November 1952 – 31 July 1978 | |
Preceded by | Bert Lazzarini |
Succeeded by | John Kerin |
Personal details | |
Born | Edward Gough Whitlam 11 July 1916 Kew, Victoria, Australia |
Died | 21 October 2014 (aged 98) Elizabeth Bay, New South Wales, Australia |
Political party | Labor |
Height | 6 ft 4 in (194 cm)[1] |
Spouse | |
Children | 4, including Tony and Nicholas |
Parent |
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Relatives |
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Alma mater | University of Sydney |
Occupation |
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Signature | ![]() |
Military service | |
Branch/service | Royal Australian Air Force |
Years of service | 1941–1945 |
Rank | Flight lieutenant |
Unit | No. 13 Squadron |
Battles/wars | World War II |
Edward Gough Whitlam[a] AC QC (11 July 1916 – 21 October 2014) was the 21st prime minister of Australia, serving from 1972 to 1975. He held office as the leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), of which he was the longest-serving. He was notable for being the head of a reformist and socially progressive administration that ended with his controversial dismissal by the governor-general of Australia, Sir John Kerr, at the climax of the 1975 constitutional crisis. Whitlam is the only Australian prime minister to have been removed from office by the governor-general.
Whitlam was an air navigator in the Royal Australian Air Force for four years during World War II, and worked as a barrister following the war. He was first elected to the Australian House of Representatives in 1952, becoming a member of parliament (MP) for the division of Werriwa. Whitlam became deputy leader of the Labor Party in 1960, and in 1967, after the retirement of Arthur Calwell, was elected leader of the party and became the Leader of the Opposition. After narrowly losing the 1969 federal election to John Gorton, Whitlam led Labor to victory at the 1972 election, after 23 years of Coalition government.
In its first term, the Whitlam government introduced numerous socially progressive and reformist policies and initiatives, including the termination of military conscription and the end of Australian involvement in the Vietnam War, institution of universal health care and free university education, and the implementation of legal aid programmes. With the opposition-controlled Australian Senate delaying passage of bills, Whitlam called a snap double dissolution election in May 1974 in which he won a slightly reduced majority in the House of Representatives, and picked up three Senate seats to hold equal Senate numbers to the opposition. The Whitlam government then instituted the first and only joint sitting enabled under section 57 of the Australian constitution as part of the double dissolution process. His government's second term was dominated by a declining economy suffering from the 1973 oil crisis and the 1970s global recession, as well as a political scandal known as the Loans affair, which led to the removal of two government ministers. The opposition continued to obstruct Whitlam's agenda in the Senate.
In late 1975, the opposition senators refused to allow a vote on the government's appropriation bills, returning them to the House of Representatives with a demand that the government go to an election. Whitlam argued that his government, which held a clear majority in the House of Representatives, was being held to ransom by the Senate. The crisis ended in mid-November, when governor-general Sir John Kerr dismissed him from office and commissioned the opposition leader, Malcolm Fraser, as caretaker prime minister. Labor lost the subsequent election by a landslide. Whitlam stepped down as leader of the party after losing again at the 1977 election, and retired from parliament the following year. Upon the election of the Hawke government in 1983, he was appointed as Ambassador to UNESCO, a position he filled with distinction, and was elected a member of the UNESCO Executive Board. He remained active into his nineties. The propriety and circumstances of his dismissal and the legacy of his government have been frequently debated in the decades since he left office. Whitlam is often ranked in the upper-tier of Australian prime ministers by political experts and academics,[2][3][4][5] with political journalist Paul Kelly writing in 1994 that "there is no doubt that in three years his government was responsible for more reforms and innovations than any other government in Australian history".[6]
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Term of government (1972–1975)
Ministries Elections Related ![]() |
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