A podcast on Gough Whitlam’s dismissal re-interprets our country’s greatest political crisis

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The Eleventh
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I didn’t make it to the lawns outside old parliament house on November 11, 1975, to protest Gough Whitlam’s dismissal.

I was born two decades later, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a significant event in my childhood.

Growing up in a family of self-proclaimed cantankerous lefties meant it has always been passed down as the unforgivable undermining of a visionary in full flight. The Eleventh, a hit podcast series from the ABC presented by investigative journalist Alex Mann, tells it differently.

Here is the dismissal as a tale of sex, drama and intrigue that is more like a John le Carré spy novel than a slice of political history. When Governor-General John Kerr ended a political stalemate by dismissing the entire Whitlam Government, a great deal more was happening behind the draped curtains of Yarralumla than met the Australian eye.

With a deep dive into the archives, and interviews with key players, old events are re-interpreted and re-imagined. We are introduced to players such as shady CIA chief James Jesus Angleton, American defence employee Christopher Boyce, and an overzealous Prince Charles.

Together they create a thesis that hints at CIA interference, or an intervention from the Crown, or both, or possibly neither. Given the blatant plot holes, unbelievable characters and unconvincing motivations, it would be totally ridiculous … if it weren’t true.

Today, as we grapple with a very different crisis, a pandemic that has temporarily brought the state into our lives in ways well known to people living under authoritarian regimes, it’s clear how seldom most Australians think about their democracy. This podcast reminds us that our country’s greatest political crisis was quick and bloodless – and that should never be taken for granted.

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