Gough Whitlam

Australian politician, 21st Prime Minister of Australia (1916–2014)

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Lived 1916–2014, aged 98Australia

Australia PoliticiansPolitician

Fame23.8
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Australia rank#6
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Wikipedia
58 languages
Cross-language footprint
Rank in Australia
#6
Politicians
Era
1916–2014
Aged 98

Summary

Updated 2026-05-29

Gough Whitlam ran Australia's most left-wing government in the early '70s before getting dramatically fired by the governor-general in 1975—the only PM ever removed that way. His dismissal sparked a constitutional crisis that still gets Australians arguing at dinner tables.

Biography

About

Edward Gough Whitlam was the 21st prime minister of Australia, serving from December 1972 to November 1975. To date the longest-serving federal leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), he was notable for being the head of a reformist and socially progressive government that ended with his controversial dismissal by the then governor-general of Australia, Sir John Kerr, at the climax of the 1975 constitutional crisis. Whitlam remains the only Australian prime minister to have been removed from office by a governor-general.

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