Keating would have curtailed Kerr’s dismissal

Gough Whitlam at Parliament House in Canberra on the day of his dismissal in 1975.

It was a musical highlight every time I went to a John Farnham concert. From 1986 when he launched the anthem You’re the Voice I was hooked. With his four octave range he could soar on the higher notes and take me to a place I truly wanted to be.

Michael Crawford and Bruce Springsteen also gave me moments I will never forget. Both were masters of their genre.

I never got to hear Julie Andrews sing live but I have seen the Sound of Music at least 100 times. Hearing her hit the big notes still sends a chill up my spine.

You remember when your children were born and when the Dragons won a premiership.

Politics provides plenty of thrills and spills as well. Old blokes like myself still vividly recall the Whitlam victory in December 1972. I was 22 years old and had never lived under a Labor government.

The “It’s Time” campaign was the best I had ever seen. The theme encapsulated perfectly the national mood.

Billy McMahon

The majestic Gough Whitlam up against the pathetic Billy McMahon. It never seemed like a fair fight. Whitlam strode while McMahon shuffled. Whitlam so dominated that election that its conclusion was always inevitable.

McMahon could be a handy number two or three but he just did not have the qualities to hold down the top job in the nation. Against Whitlam he looked and sounded puny.

Whitlam could fill a shopping centre for a speech. McMahon would have been flat out filling a shopping trolley.

Only Bob Hawke and Neville Wran ever came close to the Whitlam charisma. Whitlam had majesty in abundance. He was treated like a deity and there were times when I am sure he believed he was one.

Magnificence and majesty aside, Whitlam could be both the lion and the lamb. When informed by Sir John Kerr that he and his government had been sacked, Whitlam calmly returned to the Lodge and ate a steak for lunch.

Had Paul Keating been the PM he would not have accepted this fate meekly. He would have had the parliament recalled to pass a vote of confidence in the prime minister and the government.

Former prime minister Paul Keating. Picture: Nikki Short

There is no way Keating would have acquiesced to the dismissal. He never knew how to go down without a fight. He was a warrior and as long as there was breath in his body he would have let Kerr know he was in for a hell of a fight. He would have ensured that every Labor MP and Senator remained at his or her post.

Many remember exactly where we were when we first heard of the dismissal. I was on my way out of the ALP office in Sydney’s Sussex Street and I had one foot already in the lift. This day of infamy will never be forgotten by the Labor Party and its supporters.

Kerr became an alien in his own land. His drunken performance at the 1977 Melbourne Cup displayed vividly how Kerr himself could not live with what he had done.

He found out that no one loves a rat.

John Kerr’s notorious speech at the 1977 Melbourne Cup.