A Parramatta councillor has called for Westmead Hospital to be renamed the Gough Whitlam Memorial Hospital in honour of the late former Prime Minister.
Labor councillor Pierre Esber said the renaming would honour Mr Whitlam’s role in getting the western Sydney hospital built in 1978.
A Parramatta councillor would like Westmead Hospital to be renamed in honour of Gough Whitlam.
Mr Whitlam died on October 21 at the age of 98 and his memorial service will be held on Wednesday at Sydney Town Hall. He remains a hero to Labor stalwarts, particularly in the west because of his contribution to the area.
Councillor Esber said the hospital would probably not have been built for a long time, if at all, if Mr Whitlam had not “embarrassed” the Askin Liberal NSW government into starting the project.
“The fact is, the Whitlam government had given the Askin government $4 million in 1974 to build the much-needed hospital to serve the growing western suburbs, but the Premier was sitting on the money,” Cr Esber said.
“In the days when the federal government did not interfere in state matters, Whitlam virtually threatened that his government would build it. Askin was embarrassed into getting a start on it, so I think it fair to say that we owe the hospital to a great Labor Prime Minister, a leader who cared for the needs of the western suburbs.”
Westmead Hospital, which continues to provide a world-class service, was opened by Premier Neville Wran and Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in 1978. Its eventual cost was $175 million.
Cr Esber said the Gough Whitlam Memorial Hospital would join UWS’s public policy institute, the Whitlam Institute, established in 2000 to honour the Labor leader.
“Considering what the Whitlam government did for the west, I don’t think the great man can be acknowledged enough,” Cr Esber said.
Last week, Blacktown mayor Stephen Bali wrote to Premier Mike Baird and opposition leader John Robertson seeking bipartisan support in having a new suburb and a railway station named Whitlam.