RIP Gough Whitlam, former Australian PM, 98 years of age. Perhaps our most progressive PM ever. Gave us universal healthcare, free education (which no longer exists), got us out of Vietnam, paved the way for indigenous rights, and had good environmental policies too. All that and many more in just 3 years of government. Soon after he was disposed with a double dissolution, neoliberalism took over our political culture and the rest is history. How far we have fallen. He pulled us out of the Victorian era, and Abbott seems hell bent on returning us there.