Queen Elizabeth’s private worries about Australian PM revealed

The Queen’s private secretary conveyed the monarch’s concerns about John Gorton in a previously redacted vice-regal letter.

John Gorton, Australia’s 19th prime minister.

Queen Elizabeth II expressed little confidence in John Gorton, the ­future of the Liberal Party and the stability of Australian politics in a previously redacted letter sent from Buckingham Palace to the then governor-general Sir Paul Hasluck following the October 1969 election.

The letter, sourced by The Weekend Australian from outside the National Archives of Australia, reveals the queen was concerned about Gorton’s lone-ranger ways, his critics within the government and the close election result which saw the Coalition narrowly re-elected after a huge swing against.

“Her Majesty’s comment was that it is not very encouraging for the future and certainly it does not indicate that a long period of stability can be counted on in the Liberal Party, nor, as a result of this, in the Australian political scene as a whole,” her private secretary Sir Michael Adeane told Hasluck in a letter on November 25, 1969.

Queen Elizabeth II, who had concerns about John Gorton.

This letter revealing the queen’s personal views was redacted by the National Archives when first released in January 2022.

The queen also conveyed to her private secretary that “it will be particularly unfortunate if Mr Gorton’s main critics prove to be correct in thinking that he has not learnt much from his experiences during the last weeks”. Adeane agreed with Hasluck that Gorton had so far demonstrated “few signs” of having learnt any lessons.

At the October 25 election, the government led by Gorton lost 16 seats and suffered a 7.1 per cent two-party swing against it but was able to cling to power with a small majority. Labor, led by Gough Whitlam, was resurgent and gained 18 seats to be the largest party in the parliament.

Gorton, who had succeeded Harold Holt as Liberal leader in January 1968, had his position challenged in the partyroom by ministers Billy McMahon and David Fairbairn. The prime minister won a small overall majority in the leadership ballot but the vote tally was not made public.

A highly unorthodox prime minister, Gorton regularly slept in, drank too much, escaped from The Lodge to go to parties at night, had difficult relations with premiers and was suspicious of colleagues.

The Weekend Australian revealed in June 2023 that he secretly taped conversations with parlia­mentary colleagues in his office.

Hasluck, a highly respected and model governor-general (1969-74) who had served as a minister in the Menzies, Holt and Gorton governments, conveyed to the queen his concerns about Gorton’s approach to governing and reported some ministers lacked “brain power” and “qualification” while others were “oafish” and “prone to lapses into silliness”.

In his November 17, 1969, letter to Buckingham Palace, Hasluck described Gorton’s private secretary, Ainsley Gotto, as “a bumptious little hussy of twenty-three” who was being accused of “unduly” influencing the prime minister by his colleagues.

Academics who claim that only Sir John Kerr wrote highly critical letters about the prime minister and ministers are mistaken. It was common for Lord Casey and also Sir Zelman Cowen, Sir Ninian Stephen and Bill Hayden to identify the faults and flaws in leaders and governments.

Looking ahead, Hasluck expressed his “forebodings about the future of the Gorton ministry”. He anticipated undermining by McMahon and noted many parliamentarians had expressed “strong personal criticism” of Gorton.

The queen, who visited Australia months after the letter was sent, expected the Gorton government to experience “further difficulties” given instability in party ranks and continued concern over the prime minister’s standing but hoped “stability and harmony will prevail”. It was a doomed hope.