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The Dismissal

November 2022

Tony Whitlam

Tony Whitlam: Gough was ‘pissed off’ by Dismissal slur

Gough Whitlam’s son opens up for the first time about his father’s reaction to being dismissed, and Labor’s 1972 election victory.

  • Andrew Clark
Gough Whitlam on December 1, 1972 - the eve of his historic federal election win.

A time for change: Gough Whitlam’s election win, 50 years on

There was a revolutionary flavour to the Whitlam era, with its radical departure from the past and its abrupt demise.

  • Andrew Clark

September 2022

Ahthony Albanese’s constitutional mind now is not with the Republic but with the Voice to Parliament.

A nation shorn of Britishness is still waiting for the republic

Republicans will need to make the case as to why only an Australian head of state can provide the basis of reassurance and belonging for a 21st-century nation.

  • James Curran

November 2021

Miscast as an Ayn Rand radical, Malcolm Fraser was a taxer, not an axer.

Australia’s wasted decade: lessons from the 1970s

What we learned from the decade in which the ‘dream economy’ of the 1960s squandered its luck helped transform Australia over the following 30 years.

  • The AFR View

June 2021

Michael Kirby v Geoffrey Robertson on the dismissal and the republic

After the release of the Palace Papers failed to settle lingering questions over the Queen’s role in the Whitlam government’s dismissal, two famous lawyers keep the debate raging.

  • Michael Pelly
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July 2020

Consider it done, ma'am.

The Dismissals: the revolving door kept spinning long after 1975

What if more Australian PMs were quietly dealt with on the suggestion of royal advisers?

  • Rowan Dean
The Queen's man: Australian governor-general John Kerr with the visiting monarch in Melbourne in 1977.

Myths of the palace plot to sack Whitlam debunked

The release of the Kerr Palace letters this week, which promised to reveal evidence of interference from Buckingham Palace in the dismissal of Gough Whitlam, proved the very opposite, writes Anne Twomey.

  • Anne Twomey
Gough Whitlam addresses a Labor rally outside of Parliament House in 1975.

Turbulent times led to nation's greatest constitutional crisis

The Palace Letters transported us to an era that was replete with an air of speculative energy and suspense as the usual suspects at the top of the nation's political leadership did unusual things, writes Andrew Clark.

  • Andrew Clark
The Queen's man in Australia: Governor-General John Kerr with Queen Elizabeth II in 1977 in Melbourne.

Palace Letters don't dismiss the republic debate

The Palace Letters end the conspiracy theory about the Dismissal. But they should also spur the debate about Australia becoming a republic.

  • The AFR View
Gough Whitlam and Susan Ryan

'Of course the Queen knew': Palace Letters maintain Labor rage

Susan Ryan, the first woman to serve in a federal Labor cabinet, says it's incomprehensible the Queen didn't know of plans to oust Gough Whitlam.

  • Tom McIlroy
Gough Whitlam on the day he was sacked by the governor-general.

Letters reveal Kerr sacked Whitlam as a pre-emptive strike

Light has been thrown on the reasons for the dismissal of Gough Whitlam in 1975, and on the possible courses of action that Sir John Kerr could have taken.

  • Andrew Clark
The letters between Sir John Kerr and the Palace show the Queen was aware the Australian governor-general was considering sacking the Whitlam government.

Palace gave Kerr green light to sack Whitlam

The Queen's private secretary was firm in his view that Sir John Kerr had the power to dissolve Parliament.

  • Michael Pelly
Gough Whitlam stands behind David Smith, the secretary to the Governor-General, as he reads the proclamation dissolving parliament following the dismissal of the Whitlam government.

Queen Elizabeth given no warning of Whitlam dismissal

The Queen said on Tuesday revelations included in the newly released Palace Letters show neither she nor the Royal Household played any role in the dismissal of Gough Whitlam in 1975.

  • Updated
  • Tom McIlroy
Sir John Kerr in 1976.

'Please assure her majesty of my continued loyalty and humble duty'

For a man who was, in theory, Australian's head of state, John Kerr was extremely deferential to Buckingham Palace.

  • Aaron Patrick
Gough Whitlam on the steps of Parliament after his dismissal in 1975.

There is no smoking sceptre at the Palace

The House of Windsor is exonerated by the 'Palace Letters'. But there is a way that Gough Whitlam became the winner in the end.

  • John Roskam and Morgan Begg
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Gough Whitlam on the steps of Parliament after his dismissal in 1975.

Watch: National Archives Director-General releases the Palace Letters

National Archives Director-General releases the Palace Letters.

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/the-dismissal-1n98