Gough Whitlam
Edward Gough (pr. Goff) Whitlam (July 11, 1916 -) was the 21st Prime Minister of Australia from 1972 until 1975.
background required, including his time as opposition leader where he dragged the party into the modern era.
Elected in a landslide in 1972, he immediately began implementing a huge legislative reform program, often in the face of a hostile Senate, bureacracy, and State governments. Winning a subsequent "double dissolution" election in 1974, the government became involved in a series of scandals, including secret attempts to borrow large amounts of money from Middle Eastern governments bypassing the Treasury, and a very public extramarital affair between his Treasurer, Jim Cairns, and the Treasurer's personal assistant. Emboldened by these scandals, a weak economy, and control of the senate, the Opposition Liberal Party, which controlled the upper house of the Australian Parliament (the Senate) blocked supply (refused to pass the budget) in order to try to force an election; Whitlam however refused to budge. On November 11, 1975, after the Senate still refused to pass the budget (but substantially before the old appropriations bill had expired) he was sacked by the Governor-General, precipitating a constitutional crisis. Whitlam is the only Australian Prime Minister to ever have been removed from office by the Governor-General. The Governor-General proroged Parliament, sacked Whitlam, appointed the Opposition Leader Malcolm Fraser Prime Minister, and called for new elections. See also Australian Constitutional Crisis of 1975.
During Whitlam's time in power, Australia withdrew from fighting the Vietnam War, introduced a national health insurance scheme (Medibank, much later renamed Medicare) financed from general taxes, saw introduction of scholarships to University for just about anyone who could meet the entrance requirements, and the beginings of diplomatic and trade relations with the People's Republic of China. These things are probably rated as positive achievements (with some reservations) by the majority of Australians then and since.
On the downside, the Australian economy declined in several ways, with a modest increase in unemployment, and a level of inflation that was very high by Australian standards. This was partly due to external factors such as increasing oil prices and falling world prices for Australian farm produce, but the Whitlam government's economic policies were far from convincing, and were held to blame by many commentators.
Whitlam was, and still is, a larger-than-life figure in Australian politics, with a ferocious intellect, razor-sharp and often disparaging wit, and a towering ego that he never bothered to camouflage. He remains a revered figure in the Labor Party, and reviled (far more than, for example, Bob Hawke) by the conservative side of politics. Now in his eighties, he still makes regular public appearances (indeed, it is regularly joked that Whitlam turns up at the opening of an envelope) and occasionally comments on some political issues such as the abolition of Australian symbolic ties to the British monarchy (for which he campaigned with his old enemy Fraser).
He married Margaret Dovey in 1942 and has one son named Nicholas who also went into politics before becoming a prominent company director.
Previous Australian Prime Minister: William McMahon
Next Australian Prime Minister: Malcolm Fraser