Australia's Whitlam dies

Gough Whitlam, the social democrat prime minister who led Australia through massive societal changes in the early 1970s, died on Tuesday in Sydney.

In her eulogy, former Labor prime minister Julia Gillard said Whitlam's legacy lived on in Australia's "multicultural society" and family and health laws. Current opposition Labor leader Bill Shorten said "our country is different because of him."

Even leading figures of Australia's ruling conservatives on Tuesday praised Whitlam. Prime Minister Tony Abbott described him as a "giant of his time."

Whitlam electoral slogan: 'It's time'

Whitlam led Labor to victory in 1972 with the slogan "It's time," ending 23 years of dominance by the-then conservative Liberal-National party coalition.

In 1973, at the height of the Cold War, Whitlam became the first Australian leader to visit newly-recognized China, which is now Australia's biggest trading partner. His move was one of a series of sweeping economic and social reforms initiated during his three-year term until 1975.

Whitlam oversaw the end of Australia's military conscription, the withdrawal of Australian troops from Vietnam, where they had fought alongside US troops, and the introduction of free university education in Australia.

The trained lawyer also fought for the abolition of the death penalty for federal crimes, the lowering of the voting age to 18 and banned sports teams from apartheid-era South Africa.

Social reforms were instituted for women and minorities, including the dropping of the "White Australia" policy, which discriminated against non-European migrants.

He highlighted the plight of indigenous Australians, including a seminal moment in 1975 when he gave the Gurindji community in the Northern Territory the deeds to its land.

Constitutional crisis

Whitlam, who had a reputation for broad, flamboyant thinking, fell out with other Cabinet members and ultimately became the only prime minister to be sacked by Australia's then-governor-general, Sir John Kerr, Queen Elizabeth II's envoy in Australia. Many Labor stalwarts described Whitlam as a martyr.

Whitlam's dismissal was prompted by the refusal of parliament's upper house, in which Whitlam's Labor Party lacked a majority, to pass a budget bill. The upper chamber demanded a fresh election. Kerr installed the-then opposition leader Malcolm Fraser as caretaker prime minister.

Fraser on Tuesday said Whitlam "wasn't the sort of person who bore grudges."

"He was a much larger man than that, a more generous man than that," Fraser said.

Labor lost the next election and stayed in opposition until 1983.

'An equal' in the hereafter

Whitlam, an atheist, retired from parliament in 1978.

Shorten on Tuesday recalled a quip from Whitlam: "You can be sure of one thing, he [Whitlam] said of a possible meeting with his maker. I shall treat him as an equal."

ipj/nm(AP, AFP, Reuters)