'Giant of his time': Former Australian prime minister Gough Whitlam dies at 98

Gough Whitlam, a flamboyant Australian prime minister and controversial social reformer whose grip on power was cut short by a bitter constitutional crisis, died Tuesday at the age of 98. Although national leader for only three turbulent years until 1975, the legacy of Whitlam’s Labor Party government remains to this day. Many of its legislative and social innovations, once regarded as radical, are now accepted as part of daily life. Whitlam’s four children said their father died in a Sydney nursing home. They described him as “a loving and generous father.” Tributes have poured in for Whitlam from all sides of politics. Conservative Prime Minister Tony Abbott called the Labor stalwart “a giant of his time” and instructed flags around the country to be flown at half mast.

He united the Australian Labor Party … and seemed, in so many ways, larger than life.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott

Regarded either as visionary or egotistical, Whitlam was a tall, imposing and eloquent lawyer, and won the 1972 general election with the campaign slogan “It’s time.” He was Australia’s 21st Prime Minister and a titan of the Australian Labor Party. Whitlam and his Cabinet introduced sweeping reforms and redefined Australian foreign policy when it recognized communist China, before the United States and many other Western nations did. More dramatically, Whitlam ended military conscription and withdrew all Australian troops from the Vietnam War and then set up diplomatic links with the North Vietnamese government. The “White Australia” policy, which had restricted immigration by non-Europeans for about a century, was finally abolished.

Whitlam Asia-Pacific