Free medical care, university education, Aboriginal land rights and the chance to vote at 18. All remembered as soaring achievements of the former Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam who died on Tuesday , aged 98.
Free medical care.
Gough Whitlam created Medibank as a key policy proposal in 1972. It gave Australians free access to hospitals and a range of medical services. The heart of the proposals are now seen in the scheme known as Medicare.
ABC News / youtube.com
Scrapping university fees for a generation of students.
Gough Whitlam removed fees for universities in 1974 seeing a huge increase in the number of Australians receiving tertiary education.
Dean Lewins / AAP Images
Aboriginal land rights.
Gough Whitlam returned the traditional lands of the Gurindji people to Vincent Lingiari in 1975. He poured the red dirt into his hands signaling the returning of the Wave Hill Station.
The Racial Discrimination Act.
Gough Whitlam enacted the Racial Discrimination Act in 1975, making it illegal to discriminate in Australia based on ethnicity or country of origin.
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