Gough Whitlam with very faint praise

Poor Gough. The multitude of praises heaped on him this last week appears, according to Amanda Vanstone, small potatoes compared with Liberal party achievements. This writer has to confess that he thought Gough Whitlam ended the White Australia policy, but Amanda tells us otherwise: "It was the previous Labor leader, Arthur Calwell, who championed the White Australia Policy. The Liberals under Harold Holt had effectively killed it."

And again: "Whitlam did some great things, but at the end of his term the economy was a wreck and thousands of workers had lost their jobs. Australians wanted reform but not coupled with chaos."

The 23 years in dinosaur land that preceded him, did not really exist for Amanda. No mention of the list of reforms necessary after those 23 years.

It is difficult for those of us who were the beneficiaries to pick those we endorse the most. Education must be high on the list. Establishment of a universal health insurance scheme would also be a major achievement. He also established controls on foreign ownership of Australian resources in the Foreign Investment Advisory Committee, the forerunner to The Foreign Investment review Board. It is an issue that even today, still stirs controversy .

The establishment of no-fault divorce must be high on many peoples' list : the banning racial and sexual discrimination are also among his forward looking moves. Extending maternity leave was yet another.

Choosing which of his many progressive moves really stands out the most is a difficult task. Many will disagree with me, but in my view, it was the benefits for single mothers. The previous practice where a mother had been separated at birth from a child who was then adopted out was cruel and inhumane.

Single parent support enabled the mother to keep her child. Studies by the Child Welfare Information Gateway indicate some of the problems that this practice creates, included identity development, a sense of loss and grief, even a diminishing of self–esteem.

Anyone who has met a woman yearning for a child taken away from her; sometimes many years before, or a son knocking at every door in the street looking for his mother, who he has learned, once lived in that street, will be aware of the tremendous increase in fulfilment for many people that Gough Whitlam has given to those who would otherwise have been separated.