Australian politics explainer: Gough Whitlam's dismissal as prime minister

Australian politics explainer: Gough Whitlam's dismissal as prime minister

Australian constitutional law professor Anne Twomey explains the 1975 events that many characterize as a constitutional crisis and which the Australian Left has seen as a conspiracy by Queen Elizabeth and/or the CIA against their golden boy, Labor PM Gough Whitlam. Letters between Buckingham Palace advisers and Australian Governor-General Sir John Kerr, Queen Elizabeth's vice-regent in Australia, released on July 14, 2020, undermine the conspiracy theories and highlight seldom-exercised constitutional powers.

My take: The 1975 dismissal of Whitlam by the Governor-General is the Australian Left's Lost Cause. (Something like the Alger Hiss cause was for American Leftists.) Whitlam, the narrative goes, was set to unleash a Leftist paradise of sex, drugs, and socialism, but the CIA inveigled the Queen to fire him. The reality is prosaic. Whitlam had a majority in the House but not the Senate, couldn't pass a bill to fund the government, and was afraid to face the voters in the kind of election that could break the deadlock. Kerr stepped in to ensure funding for government. Kerr fired Whitlam and commissioned the opposition leader to form a caretaker government to fund the government then dissolve themselves for an election. The December 1975 election was won by the Liberal/Country Party (center-right) coalition by a landslide.

From Prof. Twomey's explainer: "The dismissal of the Whitlam government provided one of the biggest political shocks in Australian history. It put on open display vice-regal powers that most did not know existed, and tested Australians' understanding of their own Constitution and political system."

In an op-ed reacting to the released letters, op-ed in The Age, Prof. Twomey shows how the release letters demonstrate the caution and propriety of the Governor-General's action and reveal Whitlam's desperation that the Palace should pressure Kerr to reinstate him as PM: "[The 'palace letters'] show nothing other than people taking their responsibilities seriously and doing the best they can in difficult circumstances."

Here's a Twitter thread of commentary on the Palace Letters themselves from Australian constitutional attorney Gray Connolly. Connolly writes: "Australia is a monarchical commonwealth where executive power flows from the Crown down to ministers & officers. There is only a 'crisis' if you are a minister & your commission is withdrawn. And this is only a 'crisis' for you - both the Crown & Commonwealth keep marching along.... Sir John Kerr exercised the Governor-General's powers:
- by Ch.II & s61, the executive power is vested in the Monarch & exercised by the G-G
- by s.64, Ministers hold their officer at G-G's pleasure
- by ss 5 & 24, the G-G can dissolve House for an election on his own motion."

Whitlam's biographer, Jenny Hocking, has been pushing for the release of these papers for decades and claims vindication, arguing from silence that "just as important as what is in the letters will be what isn't there."