in full Edward Gough Whitlam Australian politician and lawyer whose unsuccessful premiership (1972–75) of his country ended when he was dismissed by the governor-general.
Whitlam was educated at the University of Sydney (B.A., 1938; LL.B., 1946) and became a barrister in 1947. He was a member of Parliament from 1952 to 1978 and served as deputy leader of the Australian Labor Party from 1960 to 1967. He became his party's leader in 1967. Upon becoming prime minister of Australia in 1972, Whitlam ended military conscription, lowered barriers to Asian and African immigration, and promised more independence from the United States in foreign affairs. His government was troubled by administrative blunders and by rising inflation and unemployment, however, and by the summer of 1975 his government had lost the parliamentary support needed to pass government expenditure bills. When Whitlam steadfastly refused to call new elections to resolve the parliamentary deadlock, Australia's British-appointed governor-general dismissed him from office on Nov. 11, 1975, and appointed a caretaker administration led by the political opposition. It was the first time in 200 years that the British crown had exercised its right to remove an elected prime minister. In the general election that followed, the opposition Liberal–National Country Party coalition won a record majority of seats in Parliament. Whitlam subsequently resigned the party leadership.
In 1978 Whitlam resigned his seat in his nation's Parliament, retired from politics, and became a lecturer on political science and international relations at Australian National University at Canberra. In 1983 he was appointed Australian ambassador to UNESCO. Among his numerous publications are Road to Reform: Labor in Government (1975), Labor Essays (1980), and The Cost of Federalism (1983).
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