The Palace Letters / Part 1

On 11th November 1975 the socialist Labor government of Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam was dismissed by Governor-General Sir John Kerr, who then commissioned the Leader of the Opposition, Malcolm Fraser of the conservative Liberal Party, as caretaker Prime Minister.
The Queen of England is also the Queen of Australia ie. our nominal head of state ( yes really!) and the Governor-General is her representative in the country.
Theoretically the Queen’s position is symbolic and apolitical and should have no influence on the running of the country.
That this occurred was a monumental event in Australian constitutional history and people were immediately on the streets in protest.
It’s one of those times you remember exactly where you were when you heard eg. JFK’s assassination, Elvis dying.
While the Whitlam Government had introduced many new policies and programs that had taken Australia out of decades of dark ages of conservative rule, it was also rocked by scandals and political miscalculations.

Whitlam                            Fraser                               Kerr

The opposition was demanding an election to clear the air and with their majority in the upper house, the Senate, had blocked supply ie. cut off the governments money, in an effort to force one.
But Whitlam called their bluff, or at least thought he had by calling a half Senate election, when Kerr dropped the hammer!
In the following election a month later, the conservatives won a massive victory.
The whole affair became known as The Dismissal.
What has stuck in the craw of a vast majority of Australians is the possible interference of the royal family and potentially the British government in our affairs.
There is already proof that the USA’s CIA was actively ‘white anting’ our administration at that time.
It is known that Kerr corresponded with the Queen on at least 200 occasions on the matter and that there are numerous associated documents.

These papers however have been stashed away in the National Archives, not to be released as they were considered ‘private’ property.
Many attempts have been made to get them into the public arena to no avail.
However after four years of concerted effort by Professor Jenny Hocking the case went to the High Court of Australia which decided 6:1 they be should be released.
This will happen, unredacted, tomorrow.
What will the ‘Palace Letters’ reveal?

Those in the Republican movement are hoping it will be another nail in the coffin of our constitutional monarchy system.
The Monarchists are hoping it’s a ‘nothing to see here, time to move on’ event.

Stay tuned!