Gough Whitlam

Edward Gough Whitlam was born in Melbourne in 1916, served in the air force in the Second World War and became a barrister. He entered parliament in 1952 and led the Australian Labor Party from 1967. He won the 1972 election with the slogan 'It's Time', ending 23 years of conservative government. After the Senate blocked supply in 1975, Governor-General Sir John Kerr dismissed him on 11 November, and Labor lost the following election. He led the party until 1977 and died in 2014. The next Labor government appointed him ambassador to UNESCO in 1983.

Admirers credit Whitlam with modernising Australia in three years: Medibank, which later became Medicare, free tertiary education, land rights, no-fault divorce, the Racial Discrimination Act and an independent foreign policy. His dismissal remains one of the most debated events in Australian history, and some supporters saw him as the victim of an outdated constitutional process. Critics point to high inflation and unemployment, rapid spending growth and the loans affair, which raised doubts about his government's financial management. The Guardian notes that many also found it hard to forgive his stance on Indonesia's annexation of East Timor. Supporters and opponents alike still use his three years in office as a reference point for ambitious reform.