|
| death_place = Elizabeth Bay, Sydney, Australia | party = Australian Labor Party | birthname = Edward Gough Whitlam | spouse = | children = Tony Nicholas Stephen Catherine | education = Mowbray House School Knox Grammar School Telopea Park School Canberra Grammar School University of Sydney | profession = Barrister | signature = Gough Whitlam Signature.svg | allegiance = Commonwealth of Australia | branch = Royal Australian Air Force | serviceyears = 1941–45 | rank = 15px Flight Lieutenant | unit = No. 13 Squadron RAAF | battles = World War II }} Edward Gough Whitlam ( 11 July 191621 October 2014) was the 21st Prime Minister of Australia, serving from 1972 to 1975. The Leader of the Labor Party from 1967 to 1977, Whitlam led his party to power for the first time in 23 years at the 1972 election. He went on to win the 1974 election before being controversially dismissed by the Governor-General of Australia, Sir John Kerr, at the climax of the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis. Whitlam remains the only Australian prime minister to have his commission terminated in that manner. Whitlam served in the Royal Australian Air Force during World War II for 4 years as airforce navigator in the Pacific and worked as a barrister following the war. He was first elected to Parliament in 1952, representing Werriwa in the House of Representatives. Whitlam became Deputy Leader of the Labor Party in 1960, and in 1967, after the retirement of Arthur Calwell, was elected Leader and became the Leader of the Opposition. After narrowly losing the 1969 election, Whitlam led Labor to victory at the 1972 election after 23 years of continuous Liberal-Country Coalition Government. The Whitlam Government implemented a large number of new programs and policy changes, including the termination of military conscription, institution of universal health care and free university education, and the implementation of legal aid programs. With the opposition-controlled Senate delaying passage of bills, Whitlam called a double dissolution election in 1974 in which he won a majority in the House of Representatives, albeit a slightly reduced one, and picked up 3 Senate seats. The government and the opposition then had equal numbers in the Senate where they again voted against the 6 trigger bills which had formed the basis for the 1974 double dissolution. The Whitlam government then instituted the first and only 1974 joint sitting enabled under s. 57 of the Constitution as part of the double dissolution process. All six of the 'trigger' bills were then passed at the Joint Sitting in August 1974. Despite the governments second election victory, the opposition, reacting to government scandals and a flagging economy suffering from the 1973 oil crisis and the 1973–75 recession, continued to obstruct the government's program in the Senate. In late 1975, the Opposition Senators refused to allow a vote on the governments 's appropriation bills, returning them to the house of Representatives with a demand that the government go to an election, thus denying the government supply. Whitlam refused to back down, arguing that his government, which held a clear majority in the House of Representatives, was being held to ransom by the Senate. The crisis ended on 11 November, when Gough Whitlam arrived at a pre-arranged meeting with the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, at Government House in order to call a half-Senate election. Kerr had agreed to the draft documents and the date for the half-Senate election - 13 December - with Whitlam over the preceding days. Whitlam's described it as 'the greatest shock I and ever experienced' when Kerr instead dismissed him without warning and commissioned the opposition Leader, Malcolm Fraser, as prime minister. Later that afternoon the House of Representatives passed a motion of no confidence in Fraser and called on the Governor General to reinstate the Whitlam government. Kerr refused to see the Speaker of the House or receive the motion of the House of Representatives and prorogued parliament with Fraser still in office.〔Jenny Hocking. ''The Dismissal Dossier: Everything You Were Never Meant to Know about November 1975''. Melbourne University Press. 2015〕 Labor lost the subsequent election by a landslide. Whitlam stepped down after losing again at the 1977 election, retiring from parliament in 1978. Upon the election of the Hawke Government in 1983, he was appointed as Ambassador to UNESCO, a position he filled with distinction, subsequently being elected a member of the UNESCO Executive Board. He remained active into his nineties. The circumstances of his dismissal and the legacy of his government remain a large part of Australian political discourse. ==Early life== Edward Gough Whitlam was born on 11 July 1916 at the family home 'Ngara', 46 Rowland Street,〔(National Trust Heritage Citation )〕 Kew, a suburb of Melbourne. He was the older of two children (he had a younger sister, Freda)〔 born to Martha (née Maddocks) and Fred Whitlam.〔 His father was a federal public servant who later served as Commonwealth Crown Solicitor, and Whitlam senior's involvement in human rights issues was a powerful influence on his son. Since the boy's maternal grandfather was also named Edward, from early childhood he was called by his middle name, Gough, which in turn had come from his paternal grandfather, who had been named after the British soldier Field-Marshal Hugh Gough, 1st Viscount Gough. In 1918, Fred Whitlam was promoted to deputy Crown solicitor and transferred to Sydney. The family lived first in the North Shore suburb of Mosman and then in Turramurra. At age six, Gough began his education at Chatswood Church of England Girls School (early primary schooling at a girls' school was not unusual for small boys at the time). After a year there, he attended Mowbray House School and Knox Grammar School, in the suburbs of Sydney. Fred Whitlam was promoted again in 1927, this time to Assistant Crown solicitor. The position was located in the new national capital of Canberra, and the Whitlam family moved there. Gough Whitlam remains the only prime minister to have spent his formative years in Canberra.〔 At the time, conditions remained primitive in what was dubbed "the bush capital" and "the land of the blowflies". Gough attended the government school Telopea Park School. In 1932, Whitlam's father transferred him to Canberra Grammar School where, at the Speech Day ceremony that year, he was awarded a prize by the Governor-General, Sir Isaac Isaacs. Whitlam enrolled at St Paul's College at the University of Sydney at the age of 18. He earned his first wages by appearing, with several other "Paulines", in a cabaret scene in the film ''The Broken Melody'' – the students were chosen because St Paul's requires formal wear at dinner, and they could therefore supply their own costumes. After receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree with second-class honours in classics, Whitlam remained at St Paul's to begin his law studies. He had originally contemplated an academic career, but his lacklustre marks made that unlikely. Dropping out of Greek classes, he professed himself unable to care for the "dry as dust" lectures of Enoch Powell.〔Grosz, Chris; Maloney Shane: ("Gough Whitlam & Enoch Powell" ), ''The Monthly'', No 77, April 2012.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Gough Whitlam」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|
