One of Australia’s most divisive but charismatic statesmen, former prime minister Gough Whitlam has died aged 98.

Whitlam held office in the early 1970s and was responsible for withdrawing Australian troops from Vietnam, recognising Aboriginal rights but also for triggering a constitutional crisis over spending bills.

He has gone down in history as the only Australian PM to be sacked by the representative of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth is a political stand-off.

But his extensive list of achievements also included abolishing the death penalty, extending welfare to single parents and reforming Australia’s divorce laws.