Royal veto infringes sovereignty

Buckingham Palace’s extraordinary intervention to block Australians’ access to former governor-general Richard Gardiner Casey’s vice-regal letters is unacceptable. As Troy Bramston reveals on Saturday, the palace intervened after The Weekend Australian requested access to the letters, written from 1965 to 1969. They dealt with significant historical issues such as Robert Menzies’ retirement, Harold Holt’s disappearance and the power struggle between John Gorton and Billy McMahon.

The letters, held in the National Archives in Canberra, were scheduled for release in May last year, 50 years after the end of Lord Casey’s term, subject to approval by the Queen’s private secretary and the Governor-General’s official secretary. But following The Australian’s request, the palace ratcheted up the secrecy, banning Australians from viewing any official letters sent to the Queen until at least five years after her reign, when they still will be subject to a possible veto. The palace’s excuse — that “the privacy and dignity” of the Queen must be respected and that releasing the letters could damage international relations — is lame and condescending. The secrecy is an affront to Australians, keeping our history from us. It is not good enough.

Nor is the suppression of letters from the palace to John Kerr at the height of our greatest political and constitutional crisis, when he dismissed the Whitlam government in November 1975. That correspondence is the subject of a pending High Court appeal. Australians are entitled to the records of our own history. A truly independent country, with its own head of state, would afford citizens that right.