SOCIAL reform is what especially marked Gough Whitlam time as prime minister, Farrer MP Sussan Ley says.
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The Assistant Minister for Education paid tribute yesterday to Mr Whitlam’s role in helping to end the white Australia policy.
Equally important, she said, was his work in making indigenous and new Australians “feel welcome and included”.
One of the Whitlam government’s legislative milestones was the introduction of the Racial Discrimination Act.
This removed the ability for immigration applications to be assessed on the basis of the colour of someone’s skin.
“He also initiated social mobility, which was the beginning of the end of the class system we had inherited from Britain,” Ms Ley said.
“Above all, Gough demonstrated, with (wife) Margaret, what a partnership based on love, equality and respect looked like in a modern world.”
Ms Ley said Mr Whitlam’s plans for a major cross-border city of 300,000 people by 2000 “while unfulfilled, was admirable for its dare and vision”.
“As our seaboard cities continue to bulge, the Albury-Wodonga we see today seems content with its progress, importance and relevance,” she said.
“It may take years to judge whether the idea of government sponsored inland growth was fanciful and fleeting or, a little too far ahead of its time.”