In 2014, Noel Pearson delivered an eulogy for Gough Whitlam. Professor Tom Clark wrote about it for The Conversation and said “Pearson came to praise Caesar on Wednesday, certainly not to bury him” as he listed the achievements of one of Australia’s greatest reformers.

Pearson said he was speaking to “this old man’s legacy with no partisan brief” but named the Racial Discrimination Act as one of the most important acts of Whitlam’s prime ministership, saying “without this old man the land and human rights of our people would never have seen the light of day”.

“Only those who have known discrimination truly know its evil,” Pearson said on that day.

He later described the Whitlam government as the “textbook case of reform trumping management”.

“Apart from Medibank and the Trade Practices Act, cutting tariff protections and no-fault divorce in the Family Law Act, the Australia Council, the Federal Court, the Order of Australia, federal legal aid, the Racial Discrimination Act, needs-based schools funding, the recognition of China, the abolition of conscription, the law reform commission, student financial assistance, the Heritage Commission, non-discriminatory immigration rules, community health clinics, Aboriginal land rights, paid maternity leave for public servants, lowering the minimum voting age to 18 years and fair electoral boundaries and Senate representation for the territories. Apart from all of this, what did this Roman ever do for us?”

“There is no need to regret three years........

© The New Daily