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South Australians behind Gough’s rise

Gough Whitlam and singer Little Pattie wearing "It's time" t-shirts - a campaign devised by South Australian Mick Young.

Gough Whitlam and singer Little Pattie wearing "It's time" t-shirts - a campaign devised by South Australian Mick Young.

South Australian Labor figures played key roles in the rise of Gough Whitlam to the prime ministership.

Local political and community figures today joined the mourning, remembering Whitlam’s legacy and the local players who were central to the towering man becoming Australia’s 21st prime minister.

Premier Jay Weatherill paid tribute on Twitter: “It’s hard to imagine Gough is gone – he was my inspiration.”

Deputy Premier John Rau had close connections to Whitlam from a very young age.

Rau’s late uncle Clyde Cameron, a long-time member for Hindmarsh, worked closely with Whitlam to modernise and democratise the Labor Party following the disastrous 1966 federal election.

Whitlam took a party still burdened by the spectre of the “faceless men” and shook it up, with Cameron leading an intervention in the dysfunctional Victorian branch.

Rau believes that modernisation of the party paved the way for the 1972 election victory. Whitlam acknowledged Cameron’s role, giving him an elaborately framed picture of himself set upon an ostentatious plinth. Inscribed on the back was: “To Clyde Cameron, a principal architect of victory.”

Cameron went on to be labor minister in the first Whitlam cabinet, only to be sacked in 1975 after a falling out with his leader amid a government descending into chaos.

They rarely spoke again, although Rau noted that the framed picture remained on Cameron’s desk – with the face of Whitlam turned to the wall.

Whitlam, however, remained cordial, particularly in relation to Rau’s aunt – and Clyde’s wife – Doris.

“When he saw me he would ask: ‘how is your aunt?’ And her consort?’”

Whitlam continued to support the budding politician Rau, campaigning for him in his unsuccessful attempt to win his uncle’s seat of Hindmarsh in 1993.

The big man of the Labor Party was also part of one of Rau’s most formative early memories.

At the age of 10, in 1971, Clyde and Doris invited their nephew to join them on a South Pacific cruise, leaving from Sydney. They were also accompanied by Gough and Margaret Whitlam, and their daughter Catherine.

The cruise took in Fiji, at that time on the cusp of independence. Whitlam wanted to gather some intelligence about the key players in Fiji and the issues that might arise in the new state. Rau recalls landing at Suva, and Whitlam being welcomed with brass bands and pomp.

While the young Rau had no sense of Whitlam’s destiny, he was impressed by his intellect, humour and imposing figure.

“He definitely had a sense of stature – he was an imposing individual; an impressive individual.”

Whitlam’s falling out with his uncle didn’t damage Rau’s overall impression of the man.

“I understood Clyde’s disappointment, because his whole life’s ambition was to become minister for labor. He he saw it as an opportunity to improve the trade unions and make it more democratic,” Rau said.

“By the same token, I always thought Gough was an inspiring leader for the Labor Party, which it certainly needed. No matter what people thought of his grasp of economics, as an inspiring leader he was extraordinary.”

Another South Australian played a central role in Whitlam’s rise to power.

Mick Young, who would go on to become member for Port Adelaide at the 1974 federal election, was a Labor backroom star when asked to join Opposition Leader Whitlam’s office as an adviser in 1969. He accompanied Whitlam on his historic trip to China in 1971 and devised and implemented the highly-effective “It’s Time” campaign for the 1972 election.

Another South Australian has played a role in documenting Whitlam’s life, including the significance of Margaret Whitlam in her husband’s prime ministership.

Adelaide author Susan Mitchell today expressed her sadness at the death of Whitlam, whom she first met them in the late 1970s while working on her book The Matriarchs, in which Margaret Whitlam featured.

Mitchell went on to become a friend of both Margaret and Gough. She spent hundreds of hours interviewing Margaret for a biography, published in 2006, and will launch a book next week about the couple’s 70-year relationship and how they both helped shape the nation.

“I’m very sad because I knew him personally and I had many good times with him and Margaret at dinners and lunches at their place,” she said of Whitlam’s passing.

“I knew the shy, warm, kind, private man underneath the icon, the public man.”

Mitchell said Whitlam’s term as prime minister was the beginning of a new era in which people felt proud to be Australian. He was determined to ensure all Australian children had access to the same education he had enjoyed.

“The biggest things [he achieved as PM] are the twin icons of the things we are most proud of as Australians. One is our free Medicare system, and the other is our education system – he gave us free university education. We haven’t managed to retain that but we have retained a belief in the equality of opportunity.”

Mitchell said that underlying Whitlam’s public achievements was his adoration for Margaret, whom he married in 1942. She describes them as the most inspiring and powerful political couple in Australian history – “the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt of Australia”.

The last time Mitchell saw Gough Whitlam in person was at Margaret’s funeral in 2012.

“He was a very, very sad man – he could barely lift his head,” she said.

“Underlying all his public achievements was his adoration and love for Margaret, and the strength of their equal partnership.

“He told me that whenever he thought of Margaret, he thought of that song, ‘I’ve grown accustomed to her face, she almost makes the day begin’ [from My Fair Lady].”

Mitchell said her book – Margaret and Gough: The love story that shaped a nation – would be a tribute to both the Whitlams. She hopes it will help people understand their relationship and what they achieved together.

“They had such belief in Australia.”

 

 

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