Gough Whitlam’s dismissal was not a constitutional crisis but “a calculated plot” to remove a democratically elected government via partisan ambush, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says.
Reflecting ahead of Tuesday’s 50th anniversary of governor general Sir John Kerr’s move to dismiss the Labor government on 11 November 1975, Albanese has used a speech at Old Parliament House to lash the then opposition leader, Malcolm Fraser, accusing the Coalition of forming government without any “legitimate pretext”.
“The opposition orchestrated a parliamentary gridlock over the budget and then secretly prevailed upon the governor general to break it, by sacking the prime minister,” he said.
“Sir John Kerr justified his actions on the basis of incorrect advice from chief justice [Garfield] Barwick, improperly given.
“But in truth, the opposition had preyed upon Sir John Kerr’s desire to be at the centre of events. And they had cultivated his paranoia, his fear that Whitlam was planning to replace him.”
Praising Whitlam’s three-year government for its reforming spirit, Albanese said Australia’s 21st prime minister had a mistaken but unshakeable belief that Kerr would do the right thing to resolve the deadlock over the stalled budget bills.
Instead, Kerr sought advice from Barwick and fellow high court justice Anthony Mason and hinted to Fraser that he was prepared to use the constitution’s reserve powers to dismiss the government.
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The speech will please Labor diehards and Whitlam acolytes, for whom the wounds of the government’s removal remain raw, five decades on.
Albanese said “the old suffocating conservatism” of the Menzies-era had reached out of its political grave to remove a government chosen by voters.
“The dismissal was a calculated plot, hatched by conservative forces which sacrificed conventions and institutions in the pursuit of power,” Albanese said.
“And the result of the election that followed does not wash any of that away. Behind all the various schemes and subplots … lies an overt refusal to respect the mandate or even acknowledge the legitimacy of a Labor government that had secured a majority in two consecutive federal elections inside three years.”
He announced plans to commission a statue of Whitlam to be placed at Old Parliament House, home to the Museum of Australian Democracy. It will join a growing collection in the national triangle, which already includes depictions of Sir Robert Menzies, John Curtin and Ben Chifley and trailblazers including Enid Lyons, Dorothy Tangney and Neville Bonner.
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The dismissal should not overshadow Whitlam’s policy achievements, Albanese said, citing the creation of Medibank, free university education, the end of the White Australia policy, the Racial Discrimination Act, and diplomatic relations with China.
Albanese said he was in year seven in November 1975, when his history teacher, Vince Crow, burst into the classroom to announce the government had been dismissed.
“What I remember most of all from those days is the sense of dismay,” he said.
“After years of drift, a new sense of confidence and purpose and ambition. A new sense of a distinctly, proudly Australian identity. More equal, more open, more at home in our region, more comfortable with ourselves, and a deeper belief in our people’s capacity.”
Whitlam would go on to lose the subsequent double dissolution election, held in December 1975, and Fraser, initially commissioned by Kerr as a caretaker prime minister, would stay in power until 1983.
The former prime minister Paul Keating, who was a junior minister in the Whitlam government in 1975, will headline events to commemorate the anniversary on Tuesday.
The governor general, Sam Mostyn, the former prime minister John Howard, members of the Whitlam family and Labor figures will be part of the commemorations.
