Ladies and gentlemen, well may we say 'God Save the Queen', because nothing will save the Governor-General. The proclamation you have just heard was countersigned Malcolm Fraser, who will go down in history as Kerr's cur.
Gough WhitlamRead
Australia's treatment of her Aboriginal people will be the thing on which the world will judge Australia and Australians - Not just now, but in the greater perspective of history.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights that a nation's true character is reflected in how it treats its marginalized communities, emphasizing the importance of historical judgment.
Gough Whitlam's quote asserts that the treatment of Aboriginal people in Australia will significantly impact how both current and future generations perceive Australian society. It underlines the moral responsibility of a nation to care for all its citizens, especially those who have been historically wronged. By stating that the world's judgment will come from this treatment, Whitlam emphasizes the weight of history in evaluating a nation's values and ethics.
Themes
AboriginalTreatmentJudgmentHistorySociety
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used during discussions about social justice and reconciliation efforts.
More from Gough Whitlam
All quotes βConscription is an impediment to achieving the forces Australia needs. It is an alibi for failing to give proper conditions to regular soldiers. We will abolish conscription forthwith. By abolishing it, Australia will achieve a better army, a better-paid army - and a better, united society.
Gough WhitlamRead
Hostility towards China distorted Australia's international affairs for 20 years until 1972, but reconciliation with China 30 years ago had produced a quarter century of constructive bipartisan relations with our region and the world, unmatched in Australian history.
Gough WhitlamRead
I was profoundly embarrassed by it [the White Australia Policy] and did all I could to change it.
Gough WhitlamRead
She was a remarkable person and the love of my life. 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.
Gough WhitlamRead
I have more influence now than when I had the power.
Gough WhitlamRead
Similar quotes
Each of us is as intimately attached to the soil of this beautiful country as are the famous jacaranda trees of Pretoria and the mimosa trees of the bushveld - a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world.
Nelson MandelaRead
No, I donβt wish I knew Heaven was like the picture in my Great Divorce, because, if we knew that, we should know it was no better. The good things even of this world are far too good ever to be reached by imagination. Even the common orange, you know: no one could have imagined it before he tasted it. How much less Heaven.
C. S. LewisRead
The greatest gift that God in His bounty made in creation, and the most conformable to His goodness, and that which He prizes the most, was the freedom of will, with which the creatures with intelligence, they all and they alone, were and are endowed.
Dante AlighieriRead
You are the luminous mystery in which the entire universe with its forms and phenomena arises and subsides. When this realization dawns there is a complete transformation of your personal self into your universal self . . . the complete loss of all fear, including death. You have become a being who radiates love the same way the sun radiates light. You have finally arrived at the place from which your journey began.
Deepak ChopraRead
A man who fears not God, will break all his laws with an easy conscience, but one who is the favorite of heaven, who has been indulged to sit at royal banquets, who knows the eternal love of God to him, cannot bear that there should be any evil way in him that might grieve the Spirit and bring dishonor to the name of Christ. A very little sin, as the world calls it, is a very great sin to a truly awakened Christian.
Charles SpurgeonRead
We are citizens of the world. The tragedy of our times is that we do not know this.
Woodrow WilsonRead