The release of the Palace Letters will not end the debate about the rights and wrongs of the Dismissal. Nor will it end the debate about an Australian head of state and the appropriateness of the constitutional arrangements established at Federation in 1901 for a modern, sophisticated, independent Australia in the 21st century.

But the release of the correspondence between governor-general Sir John Kerr and the Queen’s private secretary Sir Martin Charteris does put an end to one the wildest conspiracy theories that has swirled around the most controversial episode in Australia’s political history.