National Archives of Australia: A6180:18/6/74/1 Gough Whitlam came into office in late 1972. Gough Whitlam, right, with his father, Fred, mother, Martha and sister, Freda, circa 1924.

Prior to the Whitlam Government's Commonwealth Electoral Act (No.


Photo: Gough Whitlam addressed the crowd after he was sacked as Prime Minister.
Gough Whitlam had a long-held objection to the inequalities created by the Australian electoral system. Gough Whitlam enacted the Family Harry joined the Commonwealth Public Service in Melbourne and rose to become the Commonwealth Crown Solicitor. In 1972, Gough Whitlam became the Labor Party's first Prime Minister. Gough Whitlam pushed for new initiatives and programs to help the country. Learn about Gough Whitlam: his birthday, what he did before fame, his family life, fun trivia facts, popularity rankings, and more.

Edward Gough Whitlam (commonly known by his middle name - Gough) was born in Kew, Melbourne, on 11 July 1916. On 11 November 1975, after a series of dramatic events including a 1974 double dissolution and a budgetary supply crisis, the Gough Whitlam-led federal Labor government became the first (and only) government in Australian history to be dismissed by the Governor-General..

2) 1973, it was possible for the number of voters in an electorate to deviate up to 20% from the average number of voters per electorate. Australia's 21st prime minister and a titan of the Australian Labor Party, Edward Gough Whitlam, has died, aged 98. He was the first Prime Minister to visit the People's Republic of China after resuming diplomatic relations.

Member for Werriwa, 1952 In 1951 Whitlam gained Australian Labor Party (ALP) pre-selection for the federal seat of Werriwa, following the announcement by long-term member Bert Lazzarini that he would not contest the next election. Gough Whitlam. (Australian Information Service/National Library of Australia: nla.pic-an24355082 )

He was the first of two children of Harry FE Whitlam and Martha Maddocks.

With this, as Gough Whitlam later remarked, 'in a single generation my family moved from one side of the law to the other'.

The Australian Labor Party (ALP) had been in opposition for 23 years, and Whitlam, who had reformed the ALP’s policies, was keen to bring a program of social reform to the people of Australia.