Margaret Whitlam is no longer with us, but she left us with quite a legacy.
Margaret was the wife of former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and, at the very same time, something a whole lot more complex. She spoke her mind, didn’t bite her tongue. A woman in the 1970s refusing to be pigeon-holed? How outrageous. She was a champion swimmer, an advocate for women’s rights, the legalisation of marijuana, wages for house wives and contraceptive advice.
She was ahead of her time.
Her husband, now 95, said she was the love of his life.
‘‘She was a remarkable person and the love of my life,’’ he said.
‘‘We were married for almost 70 years. She encouraged and sustained me and our four children, their families and many other people in a life full of engagement with Australians from all walks of life.”
Prime Minister Julia Gillard said:
‘‘Margaret was an accomplished woman in her own right, with an abiding commitment to social issues, reflecting her own professional training, as well as a tireless advocate for the arts, the environment and women’s rights.”
She had been an inspiration to many women ‘‘to lead lives of greater ambition and purpose’’.
‘‘Through her own independent activism and advocacy, she also helped redefine the role of ’first lady’, giving it a new and deeper significance in the life of our nation,’’ Ms Gillard said.
Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said she was a trailblazer. ”Modern women have a lot to thank her for.”
Rather than us tell you what she was all about, let’s leave it to some of her more memorable quotes to do just that.
On politics
“I’m prepared to voice my own opinion, my own personal opinion on things, even if they’re political.
“What am I to do? Stay in a cage – wide open to view, of course – and say nothing? That’s not on, but if I can do some good I’ll certainly try.”
On being a Prime Minister’s wife
“If you say nothing you’re just dumb. If you talk, you’re too talkative.”
On her husband’s dismissal as Prime Minister
“He said something about he’d given him a note sacking him. I said, ‘Why didn’t you tear it up?’ he said ‘oh, I couldn’t do that’. Silly man, I’d have torn it up; who was to know he’d been given anything.”
On former PM John Howard’s wife Janette
“She is useless in terms of how little she really gives the community.
“She doesn’t even go to the old people’s homes that Howard visits. The only thing she goes to is big, public things.
“I fear she’s a steely woman. Never contributing anything else but a smile. Nor a grin – a grin indicates some sense of humour.”
On meeting her husband
“I do believe it was instant. I thought he was dreamy.”
On the younger wife of Sir William McMahon
“I’m a different age, a different shape and a different person. My main decoration is, I suppose, my conversation.”
On the media, in Britain
“Ask me an outrageous question and I’ll give you an outrageous answer.”
Top Comments
On the same day that the legendary Margaret died, we in the West, also lost a famous lady. Jaye Radasich, Dead at 36 from cancer. I quote from a Facebook post written by my friend, and her former staffer.
You'd think at my age I'd have stopped expecting the world to be fair, but today was a particularly hard one. Jaye Radisich, aged 12 days short of 36 years, died today of cancer. I worked for Jaye for much of the first decade of the 21st century. She was the youngest member ever elected to the Western Australian parliament, and despite her youth, took the job of member for Swan Hills very seriously. She was still at university completing a law degree when she stood for public office, and beat the incumbent by an impressive 9%. We used to joke that she could do her uni homework on the huge board table in the office she inherited when she landed the job. Jaye at once set to work finding out what the people who elected her wanted from their MP. The wish list varied in size and scope from a traffic light in Mundaring to a doctor for Ellenbrook to a new, safer bridge over the river at Middle Swan. Despite becoming ill with a rare cancer in her first term, Jaye managed to get most of the wishes done. From a hospital bed, with chemo dripping into her arm, she read government papers, drafted letters and supervised her office. She got better, and got back to the office and the legislative chamber . Mundaring got a traffic light. Ellenbrook got a doctor. The bridge project was a bigger ask, but work was moving towards that end when the next election came. Despite her electorate boundaries having been altered, and her theoretical margin shaved to a sliver, Jaye got out there and campaigned as if her soul depended on it, and was re-elected with a nearly 4% margin. She picked up all the projects that had been hanging fire and set about completing them. No letter ever left her office that she did not read and sign personally. Anyone who ever came through the office doors with a problem was taken seriously, and an answer found for them. Schools were built, roads improved, electrical supply upgraded and bridge plans approved. For a number of reasons (some of them forced upon her by people who should have known better) she decided not to contest the seat of Swan Hills again, and retired to pursue other projects. The cancer came back, but it looked like she'd beaten it again--but this was not the case, and after a valiant fight, she died today. I hope her partner and family take comfort from knowing that she did more in her short life than many others have done in twice that, and that she won't be forgotten.
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