Editing Gough Whitlam (section)

==Legacy and historical evaluation==
[[File:Gough Whitlam bust.jpg|thumb|upright|Bust of Gough Whitlam by sculptor [[Victor Greenhalgh]], in the [[Prime Ministers Avenue]] in the [[Ballarat Botanical Gardens]]]]
Whitlam is remembered for the circumstances of his dismissal. It is a legacy he did little to efface; he wrote a 1979 book, ''The Truth of the Matter'' (the title is a play on Kerr's 1978 memoir ''Matters for Judgment''), and devoted part of his subsequent book, ''Abiding Interests'', to his removal.{{sfn|Whitlam|1997|pp=1–48}} According to journalist and author [[Paul Kelly (journalist)|Paul Kelly]], who penned two books on the crisis, Whitlam "achieved a paradoxical triumph: the shadow of the dismissal has obscured the sins of his government".{{sfn|Kelly|1995|p=316}}

More books have been written about Whitlam, including his own writings, than about any other Australian prime minister.<ref name="Williams-2008" /> According to Whitlam biographer [[Jenny Hocking]], for a period of at least a decade, the Whitlam era was viewed almost entirely negatively, but that has changed. Still, she feels Australians take for granted programmes and policies initiated by the Whitlam government, such as recognition of China, legal aid, and Medicare. [[Ross McMullin]], who wrote an official history of the ALP, notes that Whitlam remains greatly admired by many Labor supporters because of his reform efforts and inspiring leadership.<ref name="Hanoi-2009" /> Some rankings have put Whitlam high on the list of Australia's better prime ministers.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/the-loved-and-loathed-20130601-2niau.html |title=The loved and loathed |last=Strangio |first=Paul |date=1 June 2013 |website=The Sydney Morning Herald |access-date=9 August 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.news.com.au/national/john-howard-still-australias-best-pm/news-story/cc9498635a61011bb78b259d8bf028dc |title=John Howard rated our best PM |publisher=News.com.au |access-date=9 August 2018}}</ref> Economist and writer [[Ross Gittins]] evaluates opinions on the Whitlam government's responses to the economic challenges of the time:

{{blockquote|What Labor's True Believers don't want to accept is that the inexperience, impatience and indiscipline with which the Whitlam government changed Australia forever, and for the better, cost a lot of ordinary workers their jobs. Many would have spent months, even a year or more without employment.{{pb}}But what the Whitlam haters forget is that Labor had the misfortune to inherit government just as all the developed economies were about to cross a fault-line dividing the post-war Golden Age of automatic growth and full employment from today's world of always high unemployment and obsession with economic stabilisation.<ref>{{cite news |last=Gittins |first=Ross |author-link=Ross Gittins |title=Reformer Gough Whitlam oversaw economic chaos but it was not all of Labor's making |date=25 October 2014 |url=https://www.smh.com.au/business/comment-and-analysis/reformer-gough-whitlam-oversaw-economic-chaos-but-it-was-not-all-of-labors-making-20141024-11b1kp.html |access-date=25 October 2014 |work=The Sydney Morning Herald}}</ref>}}

Wallace Brown describes Whitlam in his book about his experiences covering Australian prime ministers as a journalist:
{{blockquote|Whitlam was the most paradoxical of all Prime Ministers in the last half of the 20th century. A man of superb intellect, knowledge, and literacy, he yet had little ability when it came to economics.{{spaces}}... Whitlam rivalled Menzies in his passion for the House of Representatives and ability to use it as his stage, and yet his parliamentary skills were rhetorical and not tactical. He could devise a strategy and then often botch the tactics in trying to implement that strategy.{{spaces}}... Above all he was a man of grand vision with serious blind spots.{{sfn|Brown|2002|p=120}}}}

Despite being in office for only three years, Whitlam's government succeeded in carrying out a radical programme of social reform during that period. As noted by [[Tom Bramble]] and [[Rick Kuhn]] (2011):
{{blockquote|If many Labor supporters regard the Curtin and Chifley governments as a period of great achievements and greater ambitions frustrated by conservative forces, their illusions in the Whitlam government are even more heroic. After nearly a quarter of a century of stagnant conservative rule during which Australia seemed to be a backward looking outpost of the British empire run by monarchists and reactionaries, Gough Whitlam, the Mighty Gough, broke through and during his first 12 months in office remade Australia forever.<ref>Labor’s Conflict Big Business, workers and the politics of class by Tom Bramble and Rick Kuhn, 2011, P.83</ref>}}

Whitlam's last words in the documentary film ''Gough Whitlam{{snd}}In His Own Words'' (2002) were in response to a question about his status as an icon and elder statesman. He said:
{{blockquote|I hope this is not just because I was a martyr; the fact was, I was an achiever.<ref>''Gough Whitlam{{snd}}In His Own Words'' SBS Film (2002), written and narrated by [[John Faulkner]]. Produced and directed by Robert Francis. In association with [[SBS (Australian TV channel)|SBS]], MMII Film Finance Corporation Australia and Interpares Pty. Ltd. Timestamp:1:25:52</ref>}}