Gough Gone

[IQS.RLOW]

Whitlam is dead.

[skippy]

Vale Gough Whitlam. Whitlam was my political hero he changed so much in this country. I remember this place before his government and it is a much better place as a result of it. I was only ten years old when he won the 72 election but I still remember watching it on TV when it was announced he'd won. A sad day no matter what your politics.

[IQS.RLOW]

I shall reserve my commentary of what Whitlam did to this country and the way Labor idolised a man who did not deserve it for a later time.

My mother always said if you can't say something good about someone, don't say anything at all.

[skippy]

Thanks IQ, sometimes you still manage to surprise me.

[Rorschach]

My Dad had, (still has), a great dislike for Whitlam, but then he has met him and had dealings with him. He uses the words arrogant and pompous quite a lot re Gough.

It would appear that those who thought him arrogant were right about that facet of his personality. Certainly when I ever saw him he did come across that way. The It's Time commercials were meant to dispell those feelings in the community as was the ploy of Margaret going on Beauty and the Beast... it was all part of making Gough look accessible to the proletariat shall we say comrade.

I will always remember him for those despicable words he uttered on the steps of Parliament... "Well may we say "God save the Queen", because nothing will save the Governor-General!"

He was the first PM elected on an American style election campaign, they've been with us ever since

He gave us Medicare and Sewerage....

[Rorschach]

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/ ... 193s8.html

Bolt...

"Whitlam explored the gulf between seeming and doing, and tumbled into the chasm,"

Jones...

"He damaged the economy through the absence of any prime-ministerial control,"
"They [Mr and Mrs Whitlam] were people of significant dignity, notwithstanding whatever your differences might be in relation to their politics."

James Paterson, deputy executive director of the Institute of Public Affairs, a conservative think tank, praised Mr Whitlam for ending conscription and cutting tariffs, but said that his other policies were "regrettable".
"No prime minister changed Australia more than Gough Whitlam. He was a transformative prime minister," said Mr Paterson.
"He oversaw one of the largest increases in the size of government in Australian history. It will require a Liberal prime minister as bold as Gough Whitlam to reverse that regrettable trend."

[Rorschach]

Margaret was a wonderful lady and very genuine, much more down to earth than Gough. Who tended to be self absorbed and filled with self importance... some say he was full of himself, some that he was just a "very confident" person, free from any form of self doubt.

Gough always had sneaking a feeling that he could have been God and when he became prime minister with all those limousines and jet aircraft at his fingertips his suspicions were confirmed" - the late Labor left powerbroker Clyde Cameron, a South Australian who backed Whitlam's 1969 intervention to bring the mad Victorian branch of the ALP to heel and cleared the way to make Labor look electorally clean

.

Whitlam was the only person he knew whose Achilles heel was in his mouth - remark attributed to the late loquacious Queensland Liberal parliament Sir James (Jim) Killen.

"Whitlam was the most paradoxical of all Prime Ministers in the last half of the 20th century. A man of superb intellect, knowledge, and literacy, he yet had little ability when it came to economics" - the late Wallace Brown, the Courier Mail's Canberra correspondent for 34 years (1961-95).

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/obituarie ... z3GkOfT3KI

[IQS.RLOW]

Here is the live feed from the ABC news room

[mantra]

Gough had a good long life like most Australian prime ministers. His biggest achievement, in my view anyway, was ending conscription. Let's hope it's not revived in Australia, although anything is possible.

Here is the live feed from the ABC news room

No disrespect to the dead of course, but if you didn't know better you would think they were laughing.

[Outlaw Yogi]

To his credit (IMO) are/were free health care and free tertiary education.

To his discredit (IMO) was the double crossing/sell out of East Timor and West Papua/Iryan Jaya to Indonesia.