Gough Whitlam

Gough Whitlam, who has died aged 98, was admired and reviled in equal measure during his time as prime minister of Australia and, possibly more than any other politician, central to the country's reinvention and reappraisal of itself in the post-war era.

Whitlam's government was responsible for sweeping social reforms, including universal healthcare, free university tuition and Aboriginal land rights, and the abolition of conscription and the death penalty, but his time in office also coincided with economic and constitutional crises which led to his dismissal by the country's governor-general.

Even the manner of his removal from office, however - he was the only Australian prime minister to have been dismissed by the Queen's representative - sparked sharp debate about the country's identity.

Whitlam was a member of the House of Representatives from 1952 until 1978, and led the Australian Labor Party from 1967, giving them in 1972 their first victory over the Liberal-led coalition for 23 years.

Despite the social reforms of his premiership, however, Whitlam was frustrated during his time in office by high unemployment and inflation, and by Opposition dominance of the Senate. He attempted to strengthen his position by calling an election in 1974 - but it did nothing to resolve the upper house's resistance to his programme, and actually slightly reduced his majority in the House of Representatives.

By 1975, the Senate had reacted to the economic slowdown and series of scandals which characterised Whitlam's administration by refusing to authorise the appropriation bills (ie, the finance) which the government needed to enact its programme.

The Opposition wanted Whitlam to call another election, insisting that the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, should dismiss him if he failed to accede to their demands.

Whitlam believed that this tactic was a bluff, and prepared instead to call for an election of half of the Upper House, hoping it would settle the issue. But when he approached Kerr for formal permission to do so, Kerr did dismiss him, and appointed Malcolm Fraser, leader of the Opposition, as interim Prime Minister. Even before some ALP members were aware of their leader's fall, Fraser pushed through the supply bills and called a snap election of both houses. It was a Liberal landslide.

Though Whitlam continued as leader of the Opposition, he also lost the election of 1977, and stood down. He retired from parliament the following year.

He remained, however, a major political figure, notably as Ambassador to Unesco from 1983, during Bob Hawke's administration.

Edward Gough Whitlam was born on July 11 1914 in Melbourne, the elder child of Fred Whitlam, a civil servant, and his wife Martha.

When he was four, the family moved to Sydney, where his father had become deputy Crown Solicitor, and young Gough (he was always known by his middle name) attended Knox Grammar School. In 1927, another promotion took Whitlam senior to the new capital, Canberra, and his son to the state-run Telopea Park school and then Canberra Grammar.

He went up to the University of Sydney at 18 where he studied classics, though he was bored by the Greek lectures given by Enoch Powell, and graduated with a second before switching to Law.

His studies were interrupted by the Second World War, in which he s erved as a navigator in 13 Squadron RAAF. After demob in the rank of Flight Lieutenant, he finished his degree and was called to the bar in New South Wales.

He settled in Cronulla, a seaside suburb about 25 miles south of Sydney, and devoted himself to his legal career and activism for the ALP, which he had joined while a serviceman.

He made unsuccessful attempts to gain selection as a councillor, but eventually contested and won Werriwa, south-west of Sydney, in a by-election in November 1952.

His early career was all spent in opposition; he became deputy leader of the ALP in 1960 and, eventually, leader in 1967. He then moved to extend the party's appeal beyond its traditional working-class base, calling for Australian withdrawal from Vietnam and dropping their "White Australia" stance.

Whitlam's visit to China in 1971, initially criticised, looked statesmanlike after Richard Nixon followed suit shortly afterwards.

After stepping down from parliament, Whitlam became a Companion of the Order of Australia and took a number of academic posts, the role at Unesco, and in 1987 the Chairmanship of the National Gallery of Australia.

He did much to fight the "cultural cringe", and was involved in bringing Jackson Pollock's Blue Poles to the gallery and in the successful bid for Sydney to host the 2000 Olympics.

He was a noted trencherman who made a point of enjoying lunch, and retained his famously pugnacious, blunt approach to political opponents. One was a "grizzling Quisling", another a "bumptious b******"; when Sir William Turnbull declared himself "a Country member", Whitlam heckled: "I remember."

Whitlam wrote two memoirs (one dealing with his dismissal by Kerr, whom he never forgave, and the surrounding controversy) and continued to engage in politics, going into his office even after he moved into a care home in his early nineties.

His wife Margaret died in 2012, shortly before their 70th wedding anniversary. He died on October 21, and is survived by their three sons and a daughter.