King Annette: Obituaries — Hon (Edward) Gough Whitlam AC QCText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeKing Annette: Obituaries — Hon (Edward) Gough Whitlam AC QC[Sitting date: 21 October 2014. Volume:701;Page:9. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon ANNETTE KING (Acting Deputy Leader—Labour):Labour joins the Prime Minister in expressing our sympathy to the family of Gough Whitlam former Labor Prime Minister of Australia from 1972 to 1975 who died at the grand old age of 98 years. As we say here in New Zealand “a mighty tōtara has fallen” across the Tasman.He was born in 1916 in Kew a suburb of Melbourne and his real name was Edward Gough Whitlam. He was called by his middle name Gough because his maternal grandfather was called Edward. He married Margaret in 1942 and they had four children. Although he was Prime Minister for only 3 years he became a defining political figure in modern Australia. He came into Government following long periods of Conservative Governments and there were a lot of similarities between Gough Whitlam’s time coming into Government and our own time led by “Big Norm” Kirk.He was a Prime Minister who did institute sweeping changes and the Prime Minister has talked about one of them—changing the flag. But he actually transformed Australian society in many ways. He brought in the national health insurance scheme Medibank. He abolished university fees. He returned traditional lands in the Northern Territory to the Gurindji people. He formed relationships with China he withdrew troops from Viet Nam he passed the Racial Discrimination Act and so much more. His commitment to Labor values aligned very much with the values of our own great tōtara Norman Kirk.He was a towering figure and I remember meeting him in the 1990s when I went to a meeting in Sydney. He walked into the room; he was 1.94 metres tall he had a flowing mop of silver hair and a big booming voice and his oratory was spellbinding. He was accompanied by Margaret who was only slightly shorter than him who was also a very strong personality and who had very forthright views indeed. Wherever they went people stopped and looked at them. There was a real warmth towards them particularly from the Labor Party in Australia because he became an inspiration for generations of progressive politicians. Like our own “Big Norm” he was referred to in Australia by his first name Gough. He was also a man with a great sense of humour and many famous quotes. After the famous—or infamous—dismissal of his Government by Sir John Kerr on 11 November 1975 he stood on the steps of the old Parliament House and said: “Well may we say ‘God save the Queen’ because nothing will save the Governor-General!”. On his 80th birthday he said: “I do admit I seem eternal. Dying will happen sometime. As you know I plan for the ages not just for this life.” When he was asked about what his plans were for the next age his afterlife he replied of a possible meeting with his maker: “You can be sure of one thing—I shall treat Him as an equal.” I am told that Norm Kirk and Gough Whitlam had quite a testy relationship but the similarities between the two are very apparent. When Margaret died in 2012 he said that the love of his life had died. He was a man of superb intellect knowledge and literacy.We mourn his passing for the people of Australia but also as the Prime Minister said because of the bonds and relationships that have been formed between our two countries over many many decades. We pass on our sympathy to his family today.