doli

By doli

A Plethora of Prime Ministers

Today was the memorial service / state funeral for Gough Whitlam - 21st PM of Oz, telecast live on the ABC.
(I wasn't actually there. This is in the nature of a screen shot, hence the deplorable pixellation).

The Sydney Town Hall was packed with politicians, among them seven subsequent PMs, who were greeted by the thousands outside (who couldn't get in), according to their popularity among the admittedly somewhat partisan crowd:
22: Malcolm Fraser (with his wife Tamie). He must have arrived before the telecast began, so one can only imagine the greeting he received by bearing in mind that he was the one who countersigned Whitlam's dismissal.
26: Kevin Rudd ("Kevin '07") - mostly cheered.
27: Julia Gillard (the first and so far only female PM) - cheered a bit more convincingly than Kevin.
28: Tony Abbott - the incumbent - soundly booed.
29?: Bill Shorten - PM in waiting? Greeted warmly, so maybe...

Also present, but out of shot:
23: Bob Hawke - cheered.
24: Paul Keating - cheered quite convincingly.
25: John Howard - booed, but not quite as much as Tony.

The whole thing was all very interesting and very well done and all planned in detail by Gough himself, well in advance. As you do.

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