The Whitlam dismissal: That fateful day of rage

IT IS one of Australia’s most-famous political images. David Smith, secretary to the governor-general, reads Sir John Kerr’s proclamation dissolving parliament. Looming behind is Gough Whitlam.

IT is the most famous image of Australia’s post-war political history.

On Remembrance Day, 1975, David Smith, secretary to the governor-general, stands on the steps of old Parliament House, hemmed in as he reads Sir John Kerr’s proclamation dissolving parliament. Looming behind, Gough Whitlam waits to address the chanting crowd.

Whitlam’s off-the-cuff speech, as famous as that image, is only six sentences: “Ladies and gentleman,” he begins, “well may we say God Save the Queen — because nothing will save the governor-general.

The proclamation which you have just heard read by the governor-general’s official secretary was countersigned ‘Malcolm Fraser’, who will undoubtedly go down in Australian history from Remembrance Day 1975 as Kerr’s cur,” he continues.

“They won’t silence the outskirts of Parliament House, even if the inside has been silenced for the next few weeks. The governor-general’s proclamation was signed after he already made an appointment to meet the Speaker at a quarter to five.

“The House of Representatives had requested the Speaker to give the governor-general its decision that Mr Fraser did not have the confidence of the House and that the governor-general should call me to form the government,” he says.

“Maintain your rage and enthusiasm through the campaign for the election now to be held and until polling day.”

VALE GOUGH WHITLAM: A LEGEND IN OUR LIFETIME

Alas for the Labor Party, while the party faithful maintained the rage until election day and in the years since, the majority effectively endorsed Kerr’s actions.

Four weeks after Whitlam had made his most famous speech, following a barnstorming campaign during which he addressed enormous rallies nationwide, the electorate comprehensively rejected him. When Parliament assembled in February, the new Fraser government had 91 members, the ALP 36.

Whitlam’s final day as PM was the climax of a drama that had seen a battle of wills between him and Fraser that had deadlocked Parliament for more than a month.

It was an end Whitlam never saw coming, despite warnings from colleagues Kerr was not to be trusted.

The crisis had its genesis in the results of the 1974 election which gave a Labor a strong majority in the House of Representatives but left it two short of a Senate majority.

From the beginning of October 1975 — owing to the curious appointment by Queensland premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen of the anti-Whitlam ALP member Albert Field to fill a casual Senate vacancy, Coalition senators had had the numbers to hold up appropriation Bills.

When two weeks later, Whitlam was forced to sack his minerals and energy minister, Rex Connor, for lying to Parliament over his dealing with Pakistani commodities trader Tirath Khemlani, Fraser said the “most extraordinary and reprehensible circumstances” existed such as would justify the blocking of supply to force Whitlam back to the polls only a year after his re-election.

On October 16, as thousands gathered outside Parliament to support the government, the Senate voted to defer a vote on the Budget appropriations until a general election was called.

In the House, Whitlam railed against this: “It is because this government has attempted to make this Parliament the instrument for reform, for long overdue change, for progress, for the redistribution of wealth, for the uplifting of the underprivileged, for the reduction of the privileges of great wealth and deeply entrenched vested interests, an instrument towards equality of opportunity for all Australians that our opponents have from the very beginning … embarked on a course to destroy this government.”

Fraser’s strategy to defer rather than reject supply was critical to holding his troops together in following weeks, historians have argued. The speculation is that one or two nervous Coalition senators would have been reluctant to vote against the Budget.

As the political temperature rose, Fraser and Whitlam both addressed rallies across the country. Opinion polls showed a surge of support for the government.

As Remembrance Day dawned, Whitlam believed he had the situation in hand.

Around 9am, he met Fraser seeking a compromise, but the Liberal leader insisted on an election by May if supply were passed.

Whitlam decided to call an immediate half-Senate election and telephoned Kerr to say he would see him later to formally advise him of this.

He was unaware Kerr had already decided this would not resolve the crisis, as there was no guarantee the government would get the Senate numbers it needed to pass the Budget and it would then be too late for a general election.

For Kerr, the only way out was a general election, and the last day it could be called was November 11.

So as Whitlam prepared to head to Government House, Kerr rang Fraser and asked him if, as PM, he could pass supply and would advise an immediate election. Fraser told him the answer was yes.

When Whitlam arrived around 1pm, his fate was already sealed. Fraser, having accidentally arrived first, was waiting to be sworn in.

Stunned, Whitlam returned to the Lodge and gathered his shocked staff and ministers while he ate lunch.

No one thought to tell the Senate leadership the government had been sacked, so Labor senators were surprised when they moved the Budget Bills and they passed easily. As this occurred, Fraser was telling the House he was PM.

Amid angry and chaotic scenes, the House immediately passed a no-confidence motion in Fraser and called on Kerr to reinstate Whitlam.

But it was too late.

Around 4pm, Kerr signed the proclamation dissolving both Houses of Parliament.

By then, angry Labor supporters were gathering outside Parliament House.

At 4.40pm, Smith read the proclamation.

Whitlam followed, but as he began his historic speech, some part of him must have known he and his government were already history.

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