Kevin Rudd says the death of Gough Whitlam has left a "gap in his heart" as he paid tribute to the Labor legend as a "moderniser" and "democrastiser" who took on the faceless men "head on" to reform the ALP.
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The two-time Labor prime minister, making a rare public appearance since losing the last election and who praised the Mr Whitlam for "not enmeshing himself in embitterment after his own defeat in 1975, also recalled receiving, as a 15-year-old high school student, a personal letter from Mr Whitlam encouraging him to go to university.
Mr Rudd lavished praise on Mr Whitlam in an interview on the ABC's Lateline on Wednesday night, thanking him for helping clear the path to a university education for him and many other Australians.
"If there was one bloke who swam against the tide on everything it was Gough. Party reform, recognising China and taking us into the complex set of relationships unfolding in modern Asia, taking our troops out of Vietnam, ending conscription, supporting the equal pay case for women," he said.
Mr Whitlam was a "permanent moderniser" who saw the "continuing thread of Labor's constant values" - including fairness, compassion, opportunity for all and responsibility to one's neighbours.
By taking on the faceless men Mr Whitlam had begun the process of modernising the ALP, Mr Rudd said, and begun "taking the party out of the hands of faceless pack-room operators and at the same time giving much greater voice to its elected representatives".
Mr Rudd brushed aside comparisons between Mr Whitlam's experience with the "faceless men" of the ALP in the 1960s and his own more recent run-ins with factional factional operatives. He also recalled his last meeting with the former Labor legend – alongside former Labor prime ministers Bob Hawke and Paul Keating - at Kirribilli House in Sydney.
"So I, like I'm sure people like Paul Keating and Bob Hawke, feel it's part of our collective responsibility to speak and speak to this man's extraordinary legacy," he said. In a thinly-veiled reference to a piece written for Guardian Australia by his successor Julia Gillard, which directly linked her reforms with that of Mr Whitlam, Mr Rudd said he would not "talk about me or anything contemporary".
