Past prime ministerial letters to the queen to be kept secret, Anthony Albanese insists

Anthony Albanese’s department wants a trove of letters sent from past prime ministers to Queen Elizabeth II never to been seen by the public.

Anthony Albanese with King Charles in Canberra on Monday. Picture: NewsWire / Saeed Khan

Anthony Albanese’s department is fighting to keep a trove of letters between former prime ministers and Queen Elizabeth II secret , saying their release would be “contrary to the public interest” and could “damage” inter­national relations.

The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has refused to make public 23 items of “official” correspondence between Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison with the queen in her role as head of state between September 2013 and September 2022.

A Freedom of Information application was rejected by the department in March 2023 and upheld following a request for internal review in May 2023.

Mr Albanese’s department argues that Australians should never be allowed to see the letters even though the former prime ministers are out of office and the queen is deceased.

The Australian appealed to the Australian Information Commissioner, arguing Australians had a right to know about correspondence between heads of government and heads of state, given they no longer occupied those positions and it was nonsense to suggest releasing them would damage international relations.

Correspondence between prime ministers and the queen is not subject to the same 20-year rule that applies to cabinet-in-confidence documents.

It runs counter to a decision by Mr Albanese’s office to release to The Australian in March this year his correspondence with King Charles III.

In a public submission to the OAIC, Mr Albanese’s department mounted a strong defence against releasing the letters, arguing that public interest would not be served and it would have an adverse impact on the operations of agencies, disclose personal information and damage relations with Britain and other countries.

The department accepts the requested documents “are indeed commonwealth records” and constitute “official government communications” between prime ministers and the queen but insists they cannot be viewed by Australians.

“Their disclosure would, or could reasonably be expected to, cause damage to Australia’s international relations with the royal household, the UK, the Commonwealth realms, and other international partners more broadly,” it argued in July 2024.

“Release of the information … in the requested documents would constitute a serious breach of Westminster convention by the Australian government.”

Mr Albanese’s department also argues that making the letters public could lead to relationships with other countries being “significantly damaged”.

It goes so far as to suggest that Australia’s “standing, reputation and authority would be substantially diminished” and could lead to being “excluded” from inter­national forums. However, the National Archives here has released correspondence from the queen and her staff with governors-general and their staff between 1965 and 2003, while they were alive, without damaging international relations.

Moreover, the National Archives in Britain has publicly released files that include commun­i­cations between prime ministers and the royal family.

The Royal Archives at Windsor Castle has also provided access to such communications with deceased monarchs.

The Australian made public unredacted correspondence between Buckingham Palace and governor-general Paul Hasluck concerning John Gorton and Billy McMahon, expressing the queen’s views, sourced from a private archive, and there was no damage to relations with the UK.

The Australian also revealed Charles’s letter to John Kerr supporting the dismissal of Gough Whitlam’s government, located among the former governor-­general’s personal papers at the National Archives.

Mr Abbott wrote to the queen no fewer than 12 times; Mr Turnbull wrote four times and Mr Morrison six. The new letter is dated November 2011, when Julia Gillard was prime minister and Mr Abbott was opposition leader.