Noel Pearson delivered Goughs Eulogy ... The Abbott was booed!

Noel Pearson (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Noel Pearson's eulogy for Gough Whitlam praised as one for the ages and Paul Keating said the reward for public life is public progress.

For one born estranged from the nation's citizenship, into a humble family of a marginal people striving in the teeth of poverty and discrimination, today it is assuredly no longer the case.

This because of the equalities of opportunities afforded by the Whitlam program.

Raised next to the wood heap of the nation's democracy, bequeathed no allegiance to any political party, I speak to this old man's legacy with no partisan brief.  Rather, my signal honour today on behalf of more people than I could ever know, is to express our immense gratitude for the public service of this old man.

Noel Pearson delivers his tribute to Gough Whitlam at the memorial service at Sydney Town Hall.

I once took him on a tour to my village and we spoke about the history of the mission and my youth under the government of his nemesis, Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen.

My home was an Aboriginal reserve under a succession of Queensland laws commencing in 1897.
These laws were notoriously discriminatory and the bureaucratic apparatus controlling the reserves maintained vigil over the smallest details concerning its charges.
Superintendents held vast powers and a cold and capricious bureaucracy presided over this system for too long in the 20th century.

In June 1975, the Whitlam government enacted the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Queensland Discriminatory Laws Act.
The law put to purpose the power conferred upon the Commonwealth Parliament by the 1967 referendum, finally outlawing the discrimination my father and his father lived under since my grandfather was removed to the mission as a boy and to which I was subject [for] the first 10 years of my life.

Powers regulating residency on reserves without a permit, the power of reserve managers to enter private premises without the consent of the householder, legal representation and appeal from court decisions, the power of reserve managers to arbitrarily direct people to work, and the terms and conditions of employment, were now required to treat Aboriginal Queenslanders on the same footing as other Australians.

We were at last free from those discriminations that humiliated and degraded our people.

Gough Whitlam (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The companion to this enactment, which would form the architecture of indigenous human rights akin to the Civil Rights Act 1965 in the United States, was the Racial Discrimination Act.
It was in Queensland under Bjelke-Petersen that its importance became clear.

In 1976, a Wik man from Aurukun on the western Cape York Peninsula, John Koowarta, sought to purchase the Archer Bend pastoral lease from its white owner. The Queensland government refused the sale. The High Court's decision in Koowarta versus Bjelke-Petersen upheld the Racial Discrimination Act as a valid exercise of the external affairs powers of the Commonwealth.
However, in an act of spite, the Queensland Government converted the lease into the Acher Bend National Park.

Old man Koowarta died a broken man, the winner of a landmark High Court precedent but the victim of an appalling discrimination.

The Racial Discrimination Act was again crucial in 1982 when a group of Murray Islanders led by Eddie Mabo claimed title under the common law to their traditional homelands in the Torres Strait.
In 1985 Bjelke-Petersen sought to kill the Murray Islanders' case by enacting a retrospective extinguishment of any such title.

There was no political or media uproar against Bjelke-Petersen's law. There was no public condemnation of the state's manouevre. There was no redress anywhere in the democratic forums or procedures of the state or the nation.

If there were no Racial Discrimination Act that would have been the end of it. Land rights would have been dead, there would never have been a Mabo case in 1992, there would have been no Native Title Act under Prime Minister Keating in 1993.

Without this old man the land and human rights of our people would never have seen the light of day.
There would never have been Mabo and its importance to the history of Australia would have been lost without the Whitlam program.

Only those who have known discrimination truly know its evil. Only those who have never experienced prejudice can discount the importance of the Racial Discrimination Act.

This old man was one of those rare people who never suffered discrimination but understood the importance of protection from its malice.

On this day we will recall the repossession of the Gurindji of Wave Hill, when the Prime Minister said, "Vincent Lingiari, I solemnly hand to you these deeds as proof in Australian law that these lands belong to the Gurindji people and I put into your hands this piece of earth itself as a sign that we restore them to you and your children forever."

It was this old man's initiative with the Woodward Royal Commission that led to Prime Minister Fraser's enactment of the Aboriginal Land Rights Northern Territory Act, legislation that would see more than half of the territory restored to its traditional owners.

Of course recalling the Whitlam Government's legacy has been, for the past four decades since the dismissal, a fraught and partisan business. Assessments of those three highly charged years and their aftermath divide between the nostalgia and fierce pride of the faithful, and the equally vociferous opinion that the Whitlam years represented the nadir of national government in Australia. Let me venture a perspective.

The Whitlam government is the textbook case of reform trumping management. In less than three years an astonishing reform agenda leapt off the policy platform and into legislation and the machinery and programs of government.

The country would change forever. The modern cosmopolitan Australia finally emerged like a technicolour butterfly from its long dormant chrysalis.
And 38 years later we are like John Cleese, Eric Idle and Michael Palin's Jewish insurgents ranting against the despotic rule of Rome, defiantly demanding "and what did the Romans ever do for us anyway?"

Apart from Medibank and the Trade Practices Act, cutting tariff protections and no-fault divorce in the Family Law Act, the Australia Council, the Federal Court, the Order of Australia, federal legal aid, the Racial Discrimination Act, needs-based schools funding, the recognition of China, the abolition of conscription, the law reform commission, student financial assistance, the Heritage Commission, non-discriminatory immigration rules, community health clinics, Aboriginal land rights, paid maternity leave for public servants, lowering the minimum voting age to 18 years and fair electoral boundaries and Senate representation for the territories.

Apart from all of this, what did this Roman ever do for us?

And the Prime Minister with that classical Roman mien, one who would have been as naturally garbed in a toga as a safari suit, stands imperiously with twinkling eyes and that slight self-mocking smile playing around his mouth, in turn infuriating his enemies and delighting his followers.
There is no need for nostalgia and yearning for what might have been.

The achievements of this old man are present in the institutions we today take for granted and played no small part in the progress of modern Australia. There is no need to regret three years was too short. Was any more time needed? The breadth and depth of the reforms secured in that short and tumultuous period were unprecedented, and will likely never again be repeated.

The devil-may-care attitude to management as opposed to reform is unlikely to be seen again by governments whose priorities are to retain power rather than reform.

The Whitlam program as laid out in the 1972 election platform consisted three objectives: to promote equality, to involve the people of Australia in the decision-making processes of our land, and to liberate the talents and uplift the horizons of the Australian people.

This program is as fresh as it was when first conceived. It scarcely could be better articulated today.
Who would not say the vitality of our democracy is a proper mission of government and should not be renewed and invigorated.
Who can say that liberating the talents and uplifting the horizons of Australians is not a worthy charter for national leadership?

It remains to mention the idea of promoting equality. My chances in this nation were a result of the Whitlam program. My grandparents and parents could never have imagined the doors that opened to me which were closed to them.

I share this consciousness with millions of my fellow Australians whose experiences speak in some way or another to the great power of distributed opportunity.

I don't know why someone with this old man's upper middle class background could carry such a burning conviction that the barriers of class and race of the Australia of his upbringing and maturation should be torn down and replaced with the unapologetic principle of equality.

I can scarcely point to any white Australian political leader of his vintage and of generations following of whom it could be said without a shadow of doubt, he harboured not a bone of racial, ethnic or gender prejudice in his body.

This was more than urbane liberalism disguising human equivocation and private failings; it was a modernity that was so before its time as to be utterly anachronistic.
For people like me who had no chance if left to the means of our families we could not be more indebted to this old man's foresight and moral vision for universal opportunity.
Only those born bereft truly know the power of opportunity. Only those accustomed to its consolations can deprecate a public life dedicated to its furtherance and renewal. This old man never wanted opportunity himself but he possessed the keenest conviction in its importance.

For it behoves the good society through its government to ensure everyone has chance and opportunity.  This is where the policy convictions of Prime Minister Whitlam were so germane to the uplift of many millions of Australians.

We salute this old man for his great love and dedication to his country and to the Australian people. When he breathed he truly was Australia's greatest white elder and friend without peer of the original Australians.

Noel Pearson is an Aboriginal Australian lawyer, land rights activist and founder of the Cape York Institute.

This is the full text of the speech he gave at Gough Whitlam's memorial.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/…/noel-pearsons-eulogy-for-gough-whit…

RIP Gough Whitlam - passed away yesterday at 98 years 1916 -2014

Former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam has passed away at the grand age of 98 years.   There are the links to this story right across the media but I found this story to be very thorough and I applaud the writer.  It is history and a very long one for this man.

As reported on SBS and written by

KRISTINA KUKOLJA, AGENCIES

https://soundcloud.com/sbsnews/gough-whitlam-dies-aged-98

Yes IT WAS TIME ... I was a teenager when Gough Whitlam was ousted and the termination of his government was read out by proclamation.

Former prime minister Gough Whitlam has died aged 98, his family have said in a statement.

His children Antony, Nicholas, Stephen and Catherine said his father was an inspiration for millions.

"A loving and generous father, he was a source of inspiration to us and our families and for millions of Australians," the statement read.

They say there will be a private cremation and a public memorial service.

His wife Margaret died in March 2012.

Tributes have been pouring in to celebrate the life of the controversial leader.

Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott described Mr Whitlam as a "giant of his time".

"We remember his lifetime of service to Australia in the Royal Australian Air Force, as a parliamentarian, as Prime Minister and as an ambassador," Mr Abbott said in a statement.

"Gough Whitlam recognised the journey that our country needed to take with indigenous Australians.

"Gough Whitlam’s life was inseparable from that of Margaret Whitlam. Margaret Whitlam was a leading light for women of her generation. Together they made a difference to our country."

Early life

Edward Gough Whitlam was born July 11, 1916 in the Melbourne suburb of Kew.
The eldest of two children of Martha and public servant Frederick Whitlam, his childhood years were spent between Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra.
Gough Whitlam went on to complete Arts and Law degrees at the University of Sydney. In 1941, with World War 2 spreading to the Pacific he registered with the Royal Air Force.
He was newly married to Margaret Dovey, the daughter of a New South Wales Supreme Court judge, but for most of his three year deployment was based far from home, in east Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory.
Biographer Jenny Hocking says this period had one of the most profound influences on Gough Whitlam's life.
"His wartime service in many ways is one of the defining features of his political and personal development," she told SBS.
"Also, growing up in Canberra, which was a highly unusual experience for a young man and a budding politician. He saw a national's capital take shape around him and it was, of course,a wonderful lesson in what good well-funded federal monies could achieve in terms of urban infrastructure."
"And a third one, one he often pointed to himself, was that as a very young man in parliament he became a member of the Constitutional Review Committee in the late 1950s."
"He was with some very senior parliamentarians on that review and it showed him ways in which the Labor Party's reforming platform could, in fact, be implemented even within the confines of the Australian Constitution."

Political life

Gough Whitlam was admitted to the New South Wales bar, and became active in the Returned and Services League.
He took up membership of the Australian Labor Party, and in 1953 at the age of 37, entered federal parliament after winning a by-election in the Sydney seat of Werriwa.
By 1960, Gough Whitlam would become the deputy leader of the federal Labor Party, at a time when many Australians feared the spread of Communism from Asia.
Despite Labor's opposition to Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War, in 1966 he travelled there to visit Australian soldiers fighting against Communist forces.
Mr Whitlam reinforced foreign policy as central to his vision for the Labor Party when he returned to Vietnam the following year, this time as the leader of the ALP.
Labor came close to winning the 1969 election.
Then in 1971, at the height of the Cold War, with the US and Australian governments still opposed to the idea, he headed a delegation to Communist China.
Australia had already begun withdrawing from Vietnam. It was in the midst of a social awakening, and ready for political change.
Labor returned to power in the 1972 federal election, after more than two decades of conservative governments.
Kep Enderby, the former Attorney General during Whitlam's era, says he was honoured to work closely with the new Prime Minister.
"I suppose it has to be said it was his personality. And he was very gifted," he said.
"He was a very intelligent man. I don't think you can go much further than that. He was eloquent, as a speechmaker. He was beyond equal in this country at that time."
Gough Whitlam's government introduced many policies that dramatically changed the way Australia related to the rest of the world, and equally transformed society at home.
It formally ended Australia's participation in the Vietnam War and abolished conscription.

Australian High Commission John Armstrong and Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam during a press conference, Australia House, London, April 25th 1973. (J. Wilds/Keystone/Getty Images)

Diplomatic ties were established with China, a move signalling a pursuit of closer relations with countries in the region.
The Whitlam government legislated rights for women in the workforce, and through the introduction of the no-fault divorce, single mothers' payments.
And it was the first in the world to appoint an adviser on women's affairs to the Prime Minister.
In its first year the Whitlam government passed over 200 bills including environmental protections, greater support for the arts.

Politically turbulent era

They were politically turbulent times, and in 1974 with a half Senate election on the horizon, an upper house dominated by the opposition blocked the passage of several key bills.
Confident of the popularity of his reform agenda, Gough Whitlam dissolved both houses of parliament, and called an election.
He was returned to power, but still without a majority in the Senate.
An historic joint sitting of parliament passed legislation including universal healthcare, and electoral reform.
The re-elected government increased social security support and school funding, and introduced free university education.
It ratified a number of international human rights treaties, and introduced the Racial Discrimination Act.
It established legal and other services for Indigenous Australians, championing self-determination and the right of traditional owners to their own land.

Whitlam ushered in 'multicultural Australia'

In August 1975, at the site of the Aboriginal walk-off at Wave Hill, in the Northern Territory, Gough Whitlam formally handed back land to the Gurindji people, pouring soil into the hands of elder Vince Lingiari.
The Chairman of the Federation of Ethnic Communities' Councils of Australia, Joe Caputo, says Gough Whitlam ushered in a modern multicultural Australia.
"Before that there was the White Australia Policy. Before that there was the acceptance that everybody would come here and assimilate and become all like us, like the mainstream," he said.
"With the Whitlam government there was talk about opening up the world, ensuring the equality of every ethnic group, every individual in this country."
"So, that was the beginning of the acceptance of diversity, and the abolishment of White Australia was a major milestone, and I think no one can forget that."

Constitutional crisis 

The opposition saw Gough Whitlam's government as plagued by economic mismanagement and ministerial scandals.
Under Malcolm Fraser, it provoked a constitutional crisis by refusing to pass budget supply bills in the Senate - leaving the government unable to pay its public servants.
Determined to end the standoff, on Remembrance Day, Gough Whitlam entered the Governor General's office with the intention of calling a half-Senate election.
Professor Hocking recalls the events that followed.
"As he walked into the Governor General's study he was not aware that the leader of the opposition, Malcolm Fraser, had already arrived ahead of him and was secreted in another room at the end of the corridor waiting for this to play out in the Governor General's study," she told said.
"As Whitlam reached for his letter for the Governor General, the Governor General Sir John Kerr said "Before you hand me that, I have a letter for you" and handed Whitlam a letter of his own which terminated his commission and terminated the commission of all of his ministers and, therefore, the government."
"Whitlam later described that as the greatest shock he had ever experienced."
"He said that he shook Kerr's hand more out of habit than courtesy, and as he left Sir John Kerr said "We all have to live with this." Whitlam turned to him and said, "Well, you certainly will.""
Outside Parliament House a crowd gathered to hear the proclamation by the Governor General's official secretary, David Smith.
His final words turned into condemnation in Gough Whitlam's historic reply:
"Well may we say, God save the Queen... Because nothing will save the Governor General."

Prime Minister Gough Whitlam addresses reporters outside the Parliament building in Canberra after his dismissal by Australia's Governor-General, 11th November 1975. (Getty)

"The proclamation which you have just heard read by the Governor General's official secretary was counter-signed Malcolm Fraser, who will undoubtedly go down in Australian history from Remembrance Day 1975 as Kerr's cur."
After losing the election to the Coalition led by Malcolm Fraser, Gough Whitlam stayed on as the Leader of the Opposition for another two years.
In 1978, he ended 25 years as a federal Labor MP.

Life after politics

In 1983, Gough Whitlam was appointed Australia's ambassador to UNESCO in Paris.
He also chaired the World Heritage Commission, and sat on the World Heritage Committee and Independent Commission on International Humanitarian Issues.
He was also chairman of the Australia-China Council, and the National Gallery of Australia, which he founded.
He remained a great Labor hero, who could always command a rapturous reception. He never stopped giving advice, even if it didn't always work out. His last protege was Mark Latham.
In 2007 he and Margaret became the first national life members of the ALP, an honour previously bestowed only at the state level.
Yet East Timor haunted him and in 2007 the 90-year-old had to give evidence at an inquest into the killing of five Australian newsmen at Balibo in 1975.
Whitlam's achievements were mixed.
He reformed Labor and showed it could be a party of government. He changed it from a party of working class struggle to one for the middle class. He understood the importance of the suburbs.
By the breadth of his interests - particularly in the arts and cultural diversity - he made Australia a richer place.
Future Labor governments benefited from Whitlam's achievements while learning from his mistakes.
They understood the importance of discipline and the centrality of economic management.
Menzies before and Fraser, Hawke and John Howard after all ruled for much longer. But none so personally defined his era through the excitement and theatre he brought to politics, or through the power of his presence and the potency of his ideas.

Australian Prime Minister Whitlam Gough with his family: Antony, Catherine, Nicholas, daughter in law Sheena and her husband Stephen. Whitlam is seated holding his grandson Alexander with wife Margaret Whitlam, 21st April 1973. (Douglas Miller/Keystone/Ge

Supplied photo made available Saturday, March 17, 2012, of Margaret and Gough Whitlam at The Lodge in May 1974. (AAP)

In Pictures: Remembering Gough Whitlam

Images @ Eminpee Fotography

Vincent Lingiari

(circa.1908 to 1988) 
Vincent Lingiari was a Kadijeri man from the Gurindj People.  This man was a spirit man of his people and he showed his courage as he stood up for all of his peoples in the struggle for recognition.

Below is the story of what Vincent did from the National Museum Australia.