Kerr and Queen’s ‘palace letters’ about Whitlam dismissal remain secret

A bid to access secret letters between the Queen and governor-general about the Whitlam government’s ultimate dismissal has been lost.

Gough Whitlam during the dismissal of his Government in 1975. Picture: News Corp

Crucial letters about the Whitlam government’s dismissal may never see the light of day, after an appeal to make public the correspondences between the governor-general at the time and Buckingham Palace failed.

Despite the ‘palace letters’ sent by former governor-general John Kerr and the queen in the lead up to the 1975 dismissal being housed at the national archives in Australia, the documents will remain under embargo after a Federal Court found their status should not be changed from personal letters to commonwealth records.

The legal battle to make the letters public has been driven by Monash University Professor Jenny Hocking, with the help of a pro-bono legal team that included Gough Whitlam’s son Anthony Whitlam QC.

Federal Court Chief Justice James Allsop said costs of $30,000 would need to be paid by Professor Hocking, after two of three judges dismissed the appeal.

Professor Jenny Hocking says the decision to keep the letters secret is a “national humiliation”. Picture: Keri Megelus, AAP

Speaking outside court after the judgement was handed down, Professor Hocking described the outcome as a “national humiliation”, and refused to rule out the possibility of take the matter to the high court.

“It’s more than 40 years since the dismissal of the Whitlam government and its extraordinary that we’re still waiting to see absolutely vital information about that dismissal of an elected government.

“It’s a national humiliation that those letters remain embargoed by the queen and yet they’re held in our own archives,” she said.

Professor Hocking said it was “simply preposterous” that the embargo over the letters is set to end in 2027, at which point a decision to veto their release can still be made by the Queen’s private secretary.

“We already know a certain amount of what those letters show because Sir John Kerr’s archives tell us what they show,

“That he was writing to the queen regularly, sometimes four or five times a day, almost obsessively telling her details about his conversations with the prime minister Gough Whitlam. All of this secret from the prime minister … and also discussing the possibility that he might need to or decide to dismiss the prime minister.”

She also said the decision pointed to a problem with Australia’s archives act as it retained “symmetry” with Britain’s royal archive.

Former Australian Prime Minister politician Gough Whitlam with Sir John Kerr in 1985. Picture: News Corp