Whitlam Institute
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Copy of Scott's original design

The Whitlam Institute within Western Sydney University is a public policy institute inspired by one of Australia’s most respected Prime Ministers, Gough Whitlam. It is guided by the ‘three great aims’ of the 1972 Whitlam Program: to promote equality; to involve all Australians in the decision-making processes of our land; & to liberate their talents & uplift their horizons.

 
“I do not for a moment believe that we should set limits on what we can achieve together, for our country, our people, our future.”
— Gough Whitlam, 13 November 1972
 
 
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The Whitlam Institute within Western Sydney University is a dynamic public policy institute that commemorates, and is inspired by, the life and work of the Hon Gough Whitlam AC QC.

It pursues the causes he championed and is guided by the principles upon which Gough Whitlam's parliamentary career and years of service to the people of Australia were founded.

 
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Public Policy & Research Work 

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Culture & Heritage

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Civics Education Programs

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Prime Ministerial Collection

 
 

What's happening at the Whitlam Institute? 

Join the conversation - we hold events and exhibitions throughout the year that explore and expand on our work at the Whitlam Institute.

 
Events
Promiscuous Provenance | Art by Anna Glynn
Aug 11
Promiscuous Provenance | Art by Anna Glynn

Promiscuous Provenance encourages a re-examination of our relationship with our colonial past. Artist Anna Glynn is drawn to the work of the early colonial artists, whose depictions of Australian flora and fauna did not represent the landscape as it really was but instead drew on European forms and animals. This is both beguiling and symbolic; is our identity as Australians built on a strange hybrid history, a ‘Promiscuous Provenance’? Using a range of different media, Anna Glynn populates her own antipodean world with strange hybrid manifestations to invoke curiosity and wonder.

 
Events
Border Politics: Screening and Q&A with Julian Burnside AO QC
Nov 19
Border Politics: Screening and Q&A with Julian Burnside AO QC

The Whitlam Institute is delighted to host the only Parramatta screening and Q&A of Border Politics, a documentary that follows human rights barrister Julian Burnside QC as he travels the globe examining the harsh treatment of refugees at the hands of western democracies.

 

Latest Research and Publications

Guided by the legacy of Gough Whitlam, the Whitlam Institute works to ignite debate, strengthen discussion and enrich policy development in Australia.

 
 

Featured Publication

Featured Publication
Whitlam Oration: The Information That Democracy Needs
Whitlam Oration: The Information That Democracy Needs

In his Oration, Bret Walker SC spoke to “the need to require our elected representatives and especially their executive delegates in the Ministry and Cabinet, to allow us sufficient information to check them, test them, and remind them of their representative capacity…this irreducible need for information about government is not to be seen through an individualist prism: it is not a personal right, but rather an imperative of a representative, parliamentary democracy.”

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Latest Research

Featured
Whitlam Research Fellows
A rightful place for the nation in this country: land, truth and treaty in south eastern Australia
Whitlam Research Fellows
Whitlam Research Fellows
Media Statements
Media Statement from The Whitlam Institute
Media Statements

Whitlam’s courageous and monumental final shift away from the White Australia Policy has, and will continue to, go down in Australian history as fundamental building block of the national identity and national unity we share today. There is no going back.

Media Statements
Gough Whitlam Oration, Parliamentary Democracy
Whitlam Oration: The Information That Democracy Needs
Gough Whitlam Oration, Parliamentary Democracy

In his Oration, Bret Walker SC spoke to “the need to require our elected representatives and especially their executive delegates in the Ministry and Cabinet, to allow us sufficient information to check them, test them, and remind them of their representative capacity…this irreducible need for information about government is not to be seen through an individualist prism: it is not a personal right, but rather an imperative of a representative, parliamentary democracy.”

Gough Whitlam Oration, Parliamentary Democracy
 
 
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Support Us

There are many ways to support and contribute to the work of the Whitlam Institute, and help to continue the work of Gough Whitlam.  Donate to help us increase our impact on Australian democracy, or read and share our publications, visit us and participate in events, volunteer in our historic home, the Female Orphan School.