Cate Blanchett Delivers Moving Eulogy to Gough Whitlam

In front of Australia’s greatest leaders – including all six living Australian Prime Ministers – the ethereal Cate Blanchett has delivered a stirring address at Sydney’s Town Hall prising the legacy that is Gough Whitlam.

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Blanchett was given the great honour of eulogising the lasting and legendary effect Whitlam and his leadership had for both women and the arts and education. Beginning her address by labelling herself “a beneficiary of free tertiary eduction”, our most prized thespian went on to praise Whitlam for his undeniable betterment of the arts and women in Australia.

“I am a product of an Australia that was encouraged to explore its voice culturally,” said Blanchett. “I am the beneficiary of free health care and that meant that the little I earned… could go toward seeing shows, bands, and living inside my generation’s expression… I am the beneficiary of a foreign policy that put us on the world stage and put us on the front foot in our region. I am a product of an Australian that engages with the globe and engages with its history and its Indigenous peoples. I am a small part of Australia’s coming of age and so many of those initiatives were enacted when I was three” – the very year that Gough Whitlam took the helm of Australia and its politics.

Watch Cate Blanchett’s Eulogy to Gough Whitlam below…

Video From YouTube: ABC News Australia

Whitlam died, aged 98, on the 21st October this year. His towering frame, incredible intellect, quick-fire wit and legendary oratory was only surpassed by his immense political legacy and what he left behind for all Australians.

Gough Whitlam’s best quotes

“Well may we say “God save the Queen”, because nothing will save the Governor-General!”
– In his most famous speech in response to his government’s dismissal in November 1975.

“Let me make quite clear that I am for abortion and, in your case Sir, we should make it retrospective.”
– To an incessant anti-abortionist heckler

“We are the most effluent nation in what Liberals call the free world.”
– On implementing the National Sewerage Program.

“The punters know that the horse named Morality rarely gets past the post, whereas the nag named Self-interest always runs a good race.” Whitlam wrote for the London Daily Telegraph, October 1989

“A conservative government survives essentially by dampening expectations and subduing hopes. Conservatism is basically pessimistic, reformism is basically optimistic.”

– From Gough’s book The Whitlam Government 1972-1975

“I always thought of myself as an international treasure”
– In response to the National Trust’s 1997 public poll to find Australia’s living national treasures.

“I’ve never said I’m immortal. I do believe in correct language. I’m eternal; I’m not immortal.”
– Edward Gough Whitlam

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