IT was 1975 and a sombre day for Gough Whitlam, who had just been dismissed as Prime Minister. But his dismissal speech on the steps of Parliament House that day remains one of the most historic speeches made by an Australian politician.

PASSED AWAY: Former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam dead at 98

HISTORY MADE: Gough Whitlam’s most iconic moments

“Ladies and gentleman (applause and cheering), well may we say God Save the Queen (pause) because nothing will save the Governor-General (applause and cheering).

“The proclamation which you have just heard read by the Governor-General’s official secretary was countersigned ‘Malcolm Fraser’ (boos and jeering) who will undoubtedly go down in Australian history from Remembrance Day 1975 as Kerr’s cur.

“They won’t silence the outskirts of Parliament House, even if the inside has been silenced for the next few weeks (cheering).

“The Governor-General’s proclamation was signed after he already made an appointment to meet the Speaker at a quarter to five.

“The House of Representatives had requested the Speaker to give the Governor-General its decision that Mr Fraser did not have the confidence of the House (pause) and that the Governor-General should call me to form the Government. . . (cheers and applause).

“Maintain your rage and enthusiasm through the campaign for the election now to be held and until polling day.”

Whitlam’s ‘It’s Time’ speech will also go down in history as a iconic moment for the former Prime Minister.

It was 1972 and the Australian Labor Party had suffered nine successive election defeats.

At the Blacktown Civic Centre on 13 November Whitlam urged Australians to make the right decision come election day.

“Men and women of Australia! The decision we will make for our country on 2 December is a choice between the past and the future, between the habits and fears of the past, and the demands and opportunities of the future.

“There are moments in history when the whole fate and future of nations can be decided by a single decision.

“For Australia, this is such a time. It’s time for a new team, a new program, a new drive for equality of opportunities; it’s time to create new opportunities for Australians, time for a new vision of what we can achieve in this generation for our nation and the region in which we live. It’s time for a new government— a Labor government.

“My fellow citizens, I put these questions to you: Do you believe that Australia can afford another three years like the last twenty months? Are you prepared to maintain at the head of your affairs a coalition which has lurched into crisis after crisis, embarrassment piled on embarrassment week after week? Will you accept another three years of waiting for next week’s crisis, next week’s blunder? Will you again entrust the nation’s economy to the men who deliberately, but needlessly, created Australia’s worst unemployment for ten years? Or to the same men who have presided over the worst inflation for twenty years? Can you trust the last- minute promises of men who stood against these very same proposals for twenty- three years? Would you trust your international affairs again to the men who gave you Vietnam? Will you trust your defences to the men who haven’t even yet given you the F- 111?

“We have a new chance for our nation. We can recreate this nation. We have a new chance for our region. We can help recreate this region.

“The war of intervention in Vietnam is ending. The great powers are rethinking and remoulding their relationships and their obligations.

“Australia cannot stand still at such a time. We cannot afford to limp along with men whose attitudes are rooted in the slogans of the 1950s— the slogans of fear and hate.

“If we made such a mistake, we would make Australia a backwater in our region and a back number in history.

“The Australian Labor Party— vindicated as we have been on all the great issues of the past— stands ready to take Australia forward to her rightful, proud, secure and independent place in the future of our region.

“Our program has three great aims. They are: to promote equality; to involve the people of Australia in the decision- making processes of our land; and to liberate the talents and uplift the horizons of the Australian people.

“We want to give a new life and a new meaning in this new nation to the touchstone of modern democracy— to liberty, equality, fraternity.”