Australia remembers, pays tribute to reformer Whitlam

Australia's reformist Labor prime minister Gough Whitlam was commemorated on Wednesday at a packed state memorial service at Sydney Town Hall.

Whitlam died in Sydney on Oct 21 at the age of 98 and was cremated in a private funeral last week.

Thousands watched the memorial service on outdoor television screens in Sydney and Melbourne.

His center-left Labor Party government lasted less than three years before it was dismissed in 1975 by the then governor-general, representing Queen Elizabeth II, Australia's official head of state.

Speakers at the service recalled how his brief term of office transformed Australia with reforms once considered radical but now accepted as part of everyday life.

Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett recalled how she benefited from free university education and free healthcare that the Whitlam government provided, as well as increased federal funding for the arts.

"I was but 3 when he passed by, but I shall be grateful until the day I die," Blanchett said, in a play on a lyric by English composer Sir Hubert Parry.

"When I heard that Gough Whitlam had died, I was filled with an inordinate sadness, a great sorrow," she said.

Former prime ministers Malcolm Fraser, Bob Hawke, Paul Keating, John Howard, Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard joined Prime Minister Tony Abbott to pay their respects to Whitlam.

Sydney Town Hall was packed with 1,700 people, and thousands stood on the street outside the hall to watch the service on big screens.

Australian Broadcasting Commission journalist and former Whitlam staffer Kerry O'Brien opened the memorial, describing his hero as a big man, in many different ways.

"Gough's very substantial legacy is now carved into this country's history," O'Brien said.

Labor Senator John Faulkner said at a "time when so many are so cynical about politics, let us remember that this great Australian chose politics as a mission."

Millie Ingram honored Whitlam's work to further the rights of indigenous Australians and, Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson praised him for his landmark initiatives that brought about the first steps in reconciliation for indigenous people.

Whitlam's speechwriter and political historian Graham Freudenberg said his mentor was a visionary who used politics to change the fabric of Australian life.

"He saw that only the nation's parliament could bring quality and equality to areas of Australian life where Canberra had never before dared or cared," Freudenberg said.

After the service, four F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets flew over downtown Sydney in missing man formation.

AP - Xinhua

(China Daily 11/06/2014 page11)