I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and I pay my respects to their elders past, present and emerging.
It is a great honour to be with you all for the launch of an outstanding new addition to Australian political biography and indeed Australian history.
Among many distinguished guests, can I acknowledge all the members of the Whitlam family joining us here today.
Including Tony Whitlam, who I learned from this book was very nearly blessed with the name 'Justinian Dovey Whitlam' to achieve what Gough called a 'crescendo effect'.
The tremendous interest surrounding this book speaks for Gough Whitlam's powerful and enduring hold on the affections and imaginations of so many Australians.
Not just the true believers who have 'maintained their enthusiasm'.
But all of us whose aspirations, communities and lives have been shaped by the Whitlam legacy.
All of us who have drawn inspiration from Gough's essential optimism.
From his determination to liberate the talents and uplift the horizons of our citizens, through access to free education and universal healthcare.
From his reimagining of Australia's place in the world.
From his assertion of equality for women: in our economy, our laws and our society.
From his leadership on land rights.
And from his defining belief that it is the mission of Labor Governments to reject the 'habits and fears of the past' and seize the opportunities of the future.
For any author to put forward a new account of the life of such a figure, is an act of real courage.
Especially when you consider that the first three people to write about the Whitlam Government in depth were Laurie Oakes, Graham Freudenberg and Gough Whitlam himself.
Think about that trio.
One of Australia's best journalists.
Australia's greatest political speechwriter.
And the Prime Minister at the epicentre of events.
It is a profound credit to Troy Bramston that his work not only belongs in such esteemed company - it actually adds to the picture those giants have painted.
Laurie Oakes gave us a portrait of a new-generation Australian politician, on the march to the Prime Ministership.
Graham Freudenberg wrote about Gough with the deep admiration and affection that characterised Ted Sorensen's reflections on John F. Kennedy
And - in The Truth of the Matter - Gough was striving above all to set the record straight.
At the distance of 50 years, this book takes us beyond the consuming passions of those immediate political struggles.
And true to its title, offers us a 'Vista of the New'.
Of course, the fresh insights in these pages are only possible because of the years of research that have been poured into this book.
Troy writes about the staff on Gough's 1969 election campaign having to haul around a huge trunk filled with volumes of Hansard and a vast accumulation of newspaper clippings and index cards of policy proposals.
That's also how I picture Troy's process: part author, part archaeologist.
Sifting through a near-century of correspondence and archival material, as well as years of interviews he has undertaken with so many Labor legends, including, Gough himself.
If you want to know which registry office Gough's grandmother was married in, or what his primary school maths report was like, or read extracts from the letters he wrote to Margaret during the war, all of that is in here.
But this book is more than the sum of its many parts, more than a mere catalogue or chronology.
In offering us a comprehensive account of Gough's life before politics and a thoughtful examination of what drew him to parliament and the road he followed to the leadership, we gain a deeper understanding of the forces that shaped his character.
Growing up in Canberra, believing in the value and honour of public service.
His political awakening under Curtin and the 1944 referendum that inspired a lifetime obsession with reforming the Constitution.
His mastery of the House of Representatives, a reflection of his deep respect for that institution.
And that shyness some took as diffidence, which made him something of a solitary individual among the collective.
All this matters.
Because as the accounts of Cabinet and Caucus make clear, perhaps more than any other Government in Australian history, the Whitlam Government was made in its leader's image.
It bore the imprint of its Prime Minister's personality, in all its mercurial brilliance and all its crash-through-or-crash courage.
Paul Keating, who makes many insightful contributions to this book, once remarked that he gave more speeches about the Second World War than any Australian Prime Minister since John Curtin.
This was because his four years as PM, almost exactly tracked Curtin's four years, half a century apart.
In reflecting on all those 50 year anniversaries, Keating said he felt:
"In the lee of Curtin's trajectory".
And that this enriched his understanding of the twists and turns of the Pacific war.
For my colleagues and me, our time in office has tracked the 50 year anniversary of the Whitlam Government.
On the 2nd of December 2022, I had the honour of being there in Cabramatta, as a Labor Prime Minister, for the opening of the newly-restored Whitlam family home.
The suburban backyard where people celebrated the 'It's Time' victory, in the community that powered Gough's passion for urban renewal.
When I travelled to China for the first time as Prime Minister in November 2023, that important step in the deliberate and patient stabilisation of our relationship also marked fifty years since Whitlam's historic visit.
Penny Wong and I visited Beijing's Temple of Heaven, the scene of that famous photo of Gough putting his ear to the curve of the Echo Wall.
That was our way of upholding the wisdom of that Chinese proverb: "when drinking water, do not forget those who dug the well."
When we hosted the leaders of every member of ASEAN at a special summit in Melbourne in 2024, we commemorated a half-century of Australian partnership - an essential element of our engagement in the fastest growing region of the world in human history.
And last month in Port Moresby, we celebrated the golden jubilee of Papua New Guinean independence.
Just as Gough famously declared that independence for PNG 'was an idea whose time had come' I was proud to say to Prime Minister Marape that elevating our relationship with PNG to the status of an alliance was an idea whose time had come.
Each of those milestones - and so many more - inspire us and they remind us that Labor Governments are always at our best, when we build to last.
As I said in the House of Representatives, 11 years ago this week, when we came together as a Parliament to pay tribute to the life and service of Gough Whitlam:
"The legacy of our political contribution can be judged by its permanency."
I do want to make this very personal point.
I love biographies but this is the first Prime Ministerial biography I have read while holding the title, it therefore became a very dynamic and intellectually challenging experience.
There is wisdom in here.
Do not ignore warning signs, engage and respect colleagues.
Understand the dialectical implications of decisions, and be orderly in your decision-making.
This book holds real, 'contemporary relevance' for anyone interested in politics or government or Australia's place in the world.
And while The Vista of the New deals with the injustice of the Dismissal in a characteristically thorough way, importantly, it does not limit itself by looking at Gough Whitlam's legacy purely through that prism.
It doesn't diminish the performance of that Labor Government by dealing only with the drama and deception that brought about its downfall.
In the preface to this book, Troy recounts a moving moment in 2013 when Gough said to him:
"I want to be remembered as an achiever, not as a martyr"
This book honours that hope.
This is an account of profound achievements.
And its publication represents a significant achievement too.
It is my great pleasure to wish Gough Whitlam: The Vista of the New, all the very best.
