Dismissal: Madcap 1975 conspiracy theory debunked

Historian Jenny Hocking in Melbourne on Tuesday. Picture: Ian Currie

For five years, historian Jenny Hocking has promulgated the idea that the Queen knew about Gough Whitlam’s dismissal in advance and approved it with “an unqualified royal green light”. This is a scandalous, outrageous and shocking claim. It is unacceptable and untenable that the monarch intervened in Australian politics this way.

Hocking claimed that Kerr’s vice-regal letters during the constitutional crisis of October-November 1975 would prove this. The problem is that they do not. The letters, released yesterday by the National Archives of Australia, completely debunk Hocking’s conspiracy theory. This is both humbling and humiliating for Hocking.

On November 11, 1975, Kerr wrote to Buckingham Palace: “I decided to take the step I took without informing the Palace in advance because under the Constitution the responsibility is mine and I was of the opinion that it was better for Her Majesty not to know in advance, though it is, of course, my duty to tell her immediately.”

On November 17, Sir Martin Charteris, the Queen’s private secretary, wrote back: “I believe that in NOT informing The Queen what you intended to do before doing it, you acted not only with perfect constitutional propriety but also with admirable consideration for Her Majesty’s position.”

 

Yet, in her book The Dismissal Dossier, Hocking was definitive that the palace had “advance knowledge” of Kerr’s plan to dismiss Whitlam by ambush. She added there was a “secret arrangement” about a “well-advanced plan” to terminate Whitlam’s prime ministership.

In her previous book, Gough Whitlam: His Time, Hocking claimed that even before supply was blocked in the Senate, “the governor-general had already conferred with the palace on the possibility of the future dismissal, securing in advance the response of the palace to it.” Moreover, there were “several critical conversations and understandings reached” between Kerr and the palace about the planned dismissal.

Sir John Kerr. Picture: National Archives of Australia.

The Australian’s front page from October 12, 1975.

The letters reveal Kerr raised using the reserve powers with Charteris. This was extensive and unwise. Charteris flattered him, appealing to his ego. But he cautioned Kerr about using the reserve powers. “To use them is a heavy responsibility and it is only at the very end when there is demonstrably no other course that they should be used,” he said in a letter on November 4.

The letters demolish Hocking’s conspiracy theory, which also supposedly included public servants and diplomats. Yet this madcap claim has been, and still is, embraced by sections of the media, the ALP and the republican movement.

A conspiracy involving the Queen always ran counter to the mountains of archival evidence and testimony from key players, including Whitlam, about what the palace knew and when.

The public release of the letters, thanks to Hocking’s High Court action, should be welcomed. Australians had a right to know what was in them. The lesson for Hocking, though, is to be careful what you wish for.