Gough Whitlam may need a little help to get about these days, but the former prime minister and ALP stalwart still commands respect when he enters a room.

That the 92-year-old does so in a wheelchair seems of little consequence. Those who remember the Whitlam era, as well as many who are too young to have experienced it for themselves, become instantly aware, regardless of their politics, that they are in the presence of a political icon.

One woman comes up to shake his hand: "I've wanted to do this all my life." A teenage boy has his photograph with the former prime minister. People offer to get him coffee, tea, cake, to take his plate.

Mr Whitlam, for his part, seems humbly amused by all the attention. He is slower now, sometimes taking a moment to answer a question. But when he does, his tongue is still sharp and his eyes still bright.

Those eyes are at their brightest when the topic is the future of Australia. When the winners of the Whitlam Institute's "What Matters?" essay competition were announced yesterday, Mr Whitlam was there, beaming and shaking the hands of each of the teenage finalists at the University of Western Sydney.

It has been nearly a year since Mr Whitlam was last seen in public, when he set out an agenda for political change before two hundred and eighty people at a lunch to mark his ninety-second birthday.

The Australian, 5 June 2009