I was quite young, indeed, too young to understand the historical concept of Gough Whitlam when he came to office as Prime Minister in 1972. Labor had been in the wilderness for a long period of time - 23 years to be exact - and 'it was time'.
Whitlam was an enigma. He was charismatic and a breath of fresh air for the Labor party. He always knew what to say and on some occasions, said what he thought, regardless. He improved the lives of so many with his sweeping reforms, many of which still influence us today. His achievements were groundbreaking, despite the short period of time he was in office.
The Health Insurance Act 1973 established Medibank - which later became Medicare & provided free hospital treatment and a medical benefits program. The Racial Discrimination Act 1975 is one of the most important pieces of legislation passed by the Whitlam government and promoted equality before the law for all people regardless of race, colour or ethnic origin. The Whitlam government also made tertiary education free, a fact not lost on me now as most of the politicians calling for a fee hike in tertiary education would have been the people who would have most likely benefited from a free education.
As a child of the seventies and eighties I remember that living standards were better than they are now, that everybody's dad had a job & both parents didn't need to work to pay the mortgage. I remember the buoyancy of thought of adults and kids alike. There were things to look forward to and although we weren't rich, we didn't have the ever-present gut-wrenching despair that holds a permanent place in our society today.
My family still talked about the dismay of The Dismissal for years after the event. I learned pretty quickly which side of the fence we were situated on. It was with the workers, the union members, the working class and the battlers. The first time I was old enough to vote I voted for Bob Hawke and was proud to do so. Labor's core values have always influenced me. Labor stand for the worker, the battler and the union of the many against the might of the wealthy business corporations. It's not about individualism and it never has been. Solidarity has always been Labor's strength through its one-hundred-year-plus existence. Labor have had their troubles, to be sure, but they are still here and while they are here there will at least be a voice for the many against the individualistic ideological dialogue so inherent in not only the conservative and neoliberalistic rationale but the the right-wing media who hold so much power and influence over our present system.
While this continues unabated I can only hope there will always be people who are willing to stand up and speak out against it. People like me who have grown up political and whose lives have been shaped by their experiences regarding fairness, equality and democracy.
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