October 21, 2014

Vale Gough Whitlam

The photograph is iconic and it the result of many years of hard work and perseverance from people from all walks of life, including myself. The Gurindji went on strike, not for wages and rations but to get their land back, out of the hands of the wealthy British Lord Vestey.

I went to Wave Hill in 1972, ostensibly to be the gardener.  I was willing to do anything that would help the Gurindji cause.

Soon I find myself the scribe for their leader, Vincent Lingiari.  I talk about this life-changing experience at length in my autobiography with Peter Corris titled Damned If I Do (Melbourne University Press, 2013).

Gough was a legend for many reasons, not least because he was the Australian Prime Minister who had the courage to hand the land back to the Gurindji in 1975.

Twenty years later he would again be prophetic, this time in words and advice to me.

We were sharing a speaking stage in Perth in the late 90s, and I was wondering allowed to the audience why the politicians of our nation should be so troubled by Voluntary Euthanasia legislation.

Gough said in reply, ‘as a politician you don’t want the Church railing at you from the pulpit at pre-selection time’. In Gough’s mind, this was why the majority of politicians of all sides of Parliament run for cover when the VE issue is raised.

None of them want to appear anti-Church.  None of them can afford to be anti-Church.

And so with Gough’s passing at 98 after many years in the St Luke’s nursing home in Elizabeth Bay (opposite my old Sydney apartment in Roslyn Gardens), goes a great mind. Gough was a strong supporter of a person’s right to choose.