Gough Whitlam remembered for his quick wit — and that TV ad for Leggo’s pasta sauce

GOUGH Whitlam was that rare thing: a politician who could make people laugh, whether he was tearing down an opponent or selling pasta sauce on TV.

IN addition to his political and humanitarian achievements, Edward Gough Whitlam will be fondly remembered for his ready wit.

He was a man of stature, both literal and figurative, but he was also a master of the art of self-deprecation, as he revealed in a TV commercial he shot for Leggo’s pasta sauce in 2000.

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The ad — part of a popular series that featured Australian celebrities speaking Italian to the camera — was tongue in cheek from start to finish, with Gough telling viewers they did not need to “labour” in the kitchen, and that after a quick preparation of the meal, “it’s time” to eat.

Riffing on the republican sentiment that was strong in Australia at the time, the ad concluded with Whitlam declaring the meal is “Fit for a queen ... or a president,” and striking a Napoleonic pose.

The commercial was but one public example of Whitlam’s wit.

Asked in a TV interview once what he thought God would say to him when they met in heaven, Whitlam replied that he did not know, but assured the interviewer that he would treat God “as an equal”.

During his Prime Ministership, when asked what would happen to the government if he fell under the proverbial bus, he replied: “With the improvements my government has initiated in urban transport, that is unlikely to happen.”

Like an Australian Churchill, Whitlam would cheekily riff on his own ego. Asked to introduce the Australian playwright David Williamson to an audience once, Whitlam said: “At last, a man I can look up to”. (Williamson stands over two metres tall, eclipsing Whitlam’s own 194 centimetres.)

On the campaign trail once, a rowdy voter once heckled him for supporting a woman’s right to an abortion. Whitlam swiftly retorted: “Let me make quite clear that I am for abortion and, in your case sir, we should make it retrospective.”

Friend and Oscar hopeful ... Senator John Faulkner shared laughs and Passiona with Whitlam.

Labor Senator John Faulkner recalled how in 2002, on the 50th anniversary of Gough’s public life, there was a documentary made about his achievements, which was nominated for a Logie award.

“That film got nominated for a Logie award and I said this to Gough, he seemed very pleased, very pleased,” Mr Faulkner said.

But a “month or two” before the awards ceremony they were told they didn’t win, the Senator recalled.

“Gough was crestfallen for at least five seconds and said to me “Comrade, I suppose an Academy Award is out of the question?”

Defining moment ... Gough Whitlam on the steps of Parliament House after his sacking on November 11, 1975.

Whitlam was also the master of the parliamentary riposte, dispatching opponents with witty put-downs.

“Tiberius on the telephone” was a typical jibe — pithy, savage and classical.

Another time the rural MP Sir Winston Turnbull shouted above the Parliamentary din: “I am a Country member” — at which point Whitlam interjected: “I remember”.

Years later, Whitlam told a Sydney audience that the honourable member “could not understand why, for the first time in all the years he had been speaking in the House, there was instant and loud applause from both sides.”

Whitlam’s wit did not desert him in difficult times. Speaking to an angry mob outside Parliament House after his government’s dismissal from office, Whitlam described the newly-appointed caretaker Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser as “Kerr’s cur”, and made what was arguably his most famous quote of them all: “Well may we say God Save the Queen. Because nothing will save the Governor-General.”

Gough Whitlam; one of the true wits of Australian politics.