When Australians of a certain age imagine Gough Whitlam, they probably think of him standing on the steps of Parliament House, addressing the crowd after Governor-General John Kerr’s shocking decision to dismiss his government. The Dismissal marked an astonishing end to an extraordinary, occasionally inept, government.
In 1975, it seemed Whitlam would be forever defined by The Dismissal, especially after his defeat at the subsequent federal election. Yet his vision for Australian social democracy has been burnished by the intervening decades.
