Gough Whitlam, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Gough Whitlam

Australian politician, 21st Prime Minister of Australia

Date of Birth: 11-Jul-1916

Place of Birth: Gough Whitlam's birthplace, Victoria, Australia

Date of Death: 21-Oct-2014

Profession: lawyer, politician, diplomat

Nationality: Australia

Zodiac Sign: Cancer


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About Gough Whitlam

  • Edward Gough Whitlam (; 11 July 1916 – 21 October 2014) was the 21st Prime Minister of Australia, serving from 1972 to 1975.
  • The Leader of the Labor Party from 1967 to 1977, Whitlam led his party to power for the first time in 23 years at the 1972 election.
  • He won the 1974 election before being controversially dismissed by the Governor-General of Australia, Sir John Kerr, at the climax of the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis.
  • Whitlam remains the only Australian prime minister to have his commission terminated in that manner. Whitlam served as an air navigator in the Royal Australian Air Force for four years during World War II, and worked as a barrister following the war.
  • He was first elected to Parliament in 1952, representing Werriwa in the House of Representatives.
  • Whitlam became Deputy Leader of the Labor Party in 1960, and in 1967, after the retirement of Arthur Calwell, was elected Leader and became the Leader of the Opposition.
  • After narrowly losing the 1969 election, Whitlam led Labor to victory at the 1972 election after 23 years of continuous Liberal-Country Coalition Government. The Whitlam Government implemented a large number of new programs and policy changes, including the termination of military conscription, institution of universal health care and free university education, and the implementation of legal aid programs.
  • With the opposition-controlled Senate delaying passage of bills, Whitlam called a double dissolution election in 1974 in which he won a majority in the House of Representatives, albeit a slightly reduced one, and picked up three Senate seats.
  • The Whitlam government then instituted the first and only joint sitting enabled under s.
  • 57 of the Constitution as part of the double dissolution process.
  • Despite the government's second election victory, the opposition, reacting to government scandals and a flagging economy suffering from the 1973 oil crisis and the 1973–75 recession, continued to obstruct the government's program in the Senate.
  • In late 1975, the Opposition Senators refused to allow a vote on the government's appropriation bills, returning them to the House of Representatives with a demand that the government go to an election, thus denying the government supply.
  • Whitlam refused to back down, arguing that his government, which held a clear majority in the House of Representatives, was being held to ransom by the Senate.
  • The crisis ended on 11 November, when Whitlam arrived at a pre-arranged meeting with the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, at Government House in order to call a half-Senate election.
  • Kerr dismissed him and commissioned the opposition leader, Malcolm Fraser, as prime minister.
  • Labor lost the subsequent election by a landslide. Whitlam stepped down after losing again at the 1977 election, and retired from parliament in 1978.
  • Upon the election of the Hawke Government in 1983, he was appointed as Ambassador to UNESCO, a position he filled with distinction, and was elected a member of the UNESCO Executive Board.
  • He remained active into his nineties.
  • The propriety and circumstances of his dismissal and the legacy of his government have been frequently debated in the decades after he left office.

Read more at Wikipedia

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