Oh isn't it terrible that Her Maj was not told before Whitlam was booted out. The corgis must have been most upset. We are not amused!!!
Gough Whitlam dismissal: ‘Palace Letters’ reveals whole story
Hannah Moore, Jade Gailberger NCA NewsWire JULY 14, 2020 11:36AM
The Queen was not told in advance that former governor-general Sir John Kerr would dismiss the Whitlam government, new letters reveal.
In a move that could up-end decades of Royal secrets, private letters shared between the Queen and then-Governor General that led to Gough Whitlam's sacking will finally be re...
Queen Elizabeth II was not told in advance that former governor-general Sir John Kerr would dismiss the Whitlam government, new letters reveal.
In the anticipated Palace Letters released on Tuesday by the National Archives, Sir John wrote he did not give the monarch notice because “it was better for Her Majesty not to know”.
“I should say I decided to take the step I took without informing the Palace in advance because, under the Constitution, the responsibility is mine, and I was of the opinion it was better for Her Majesty not to know in advance, though it is of course my duty to tell her immediately,” Sir John wrote to the Palace.
A return letter from the Queen’s private secretary, Sir Martin Charteris, received on November 17, 1975, states: “Thank you very much for your letter of the 11th of November, which I of course showed to the Queen as soon as possible after it arrived.”
“If I may say so with the greatest respect, I believe in not informing the Queen of what you intended to do before doing it, you acted not only with constitutional propriety, but also with admirable consideration for Her Majesty’s position,” Sir Martin wrote.
In a letter dated November 20, Sir John wrote full account of everything that went into his decision to sack Mr Whitlam, revealing what informed his decision.
“History will doubtless provide an answer to this question, but I was in a position where, in my opinion, I simply could not risk the outcome for the sake of the monarchy,” he wrote.
“If, in the period of 24 hours in which he (Whitlam) was considering his position he advised the Queen that I should be immediately dismissed, the position would then have been that either I would be, in fact, trying to dismiss him while he was trying to dismiss me — an impossible position for the Queen.”
More than 200 secret letters between the Queen and Sir John were released on Tuesday morning, shedding light on what really happened during the dismissal of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam.
Read the rest here
https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/c ... e3070eca65
Another ref here
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal ... 55bty.html
How Whitlam was booted out
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Juliar
- Posts: 1355
- Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2016 10:56 am
Re: How Whitlam was booted out
I wish to exercise powers the monarch does not have without her authority, Sir Kerr wrote. And cover my arse. So that I, an unelected official, can destroy a lawfully elected government with the confidence of the House on behalf of the Liberal Party.
'Palace letters' between Sir John Kerr, Queen released, revealing information about Gough Whitlam and 1975 constitutional crisis
By Matthew Doran and Elizabeth Byrne Posted 1hour ago, updated 17minutes ago
'Palace letters' reveal Kerr dismissed Whitlam prior to asking the Queen
The newly released 'Palace letters' have revealed then governor-general Sir John Kerr sacked the Whitlam government in 1975 without giving advance notice to the Queen, because "it was better for Her Majesty not to know".
The 211 letters exchanged between Sir John and the palace at the time of the dismissal have this morning been released online by the National Archives of Australia, in Canberra.
The letters, penned between 1974 and 1977, had been locked up and labelled as private documents, but a High Court decision in May deemed them to be the property of the Commonwealth and thus able to be released.
Many hoped the correspondence would answer some of the long-standing questions surrounding Australia's biggest constitutional crisis.
But, due to interest in the letters, the National Archives' website is struggling to cope with the number of people trying to access it.
Read the whole gory story here
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-14/ ... d/12452616
'Palace letters' between Sir John Kerr, Queen released, revealing information about Gough Whitlam and 1975 constitutional crisis
By Matthew Doran and Elizabeth Byrne Posted 1hour ago, updated 17minutes ago
'Palace letters' reveal Kerr dismissed Whitlam prior to asking the Queen
The newly released 'Palace letters' have revealed then governor-general Sir John Kerr sacked the Whitlam government in 1975 without giving advance notice to the Queen, because "it was better for Her Majesty not to know".
The 211 letters exchanged between Sir John and the palace at the time of the dismissal have this morning been released online by the National Archives of Australia, in Canberra.
The letters, penned between 1974 and 1977, had been locked up and labelled as private documents, but a High Court decision in May deemed them to be the property of the Commonwealth and thus able to be released.
Many hoped the correspondence would answer some of the long-standing questions surrounding Australia's biggest constitutional crisis.
But, due to interest in the letters, the National Archives' website is struggling to cope with the number of people trying to access it.
Read the whole gory story here
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-14/ ... d/12452616
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Redneck
- Posts: 6275
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Re: How Whitlam was booted out
Turned out to be much ado about nothing eh!
After all the speculation nothing there to see!
After all the speculation nothing there to see!
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Bobby
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Neferti
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Redneck
- Posts: 6275
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Re: How Whitlam was booted out
Yeah old Gough despite his good points didnt have much idea about economics.
So was on the nose!
My Gough connections.
Did I tell you I have met Gough on a trip overseas to Italy in the art gallery in Venices St Marks Square.
We said "Hello Mr Whitlam we are from Australia..
His reply "I know that in his arrogant style of speaking!" LOL
Not only that Gough used to hold his ALP meetings in my wife's Uncles Garage in Canley Vale.
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Juliar
- Posts: 1355
- Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2016 10:56 am
Re: How Whitlam was booted out
What about the phone calls from Sir John to the palace ? They are not recorded.
Buckingham Palace gave the wink and the nudge to Governor General John Kerr to sack elected Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in 1975. Australian 'democracy' exposed. Thank you Prof. Jenny Hocking.
Whitlam grew too big for his boots and he tried to bypass the constitution and sought dodgy funds just like the Labor Party is doing today. So he had to go as he was a dangerous FABIAN Socialist.
Gosh, hear silly Albo rattle on about this. And Shifty old Shorty keeps muttering, "This might have been me!!!".
He He, we tricked 'em Sir John didn't we!!!!
The Palace letters are every bit the bombshell they promised to be
By Jenny Hocking July 14, 2020 — 2.19pm
The Palace letters have proved to be every bit the bombshell they promised to be, and neither the Queen nor Sir John Kerr emerge unscathed.
In his vast, increasingly frequent letters and telegrams to the Queen, the governor-general provides the most extraordinary vice-regal commentary on the decisions and actions of a prime minister and elected government imaginable.
They provide a remarkable window onto Kerr’s views of Gough Whitlam, his planning, his options, his fears, and his eventual decision to dismiss the government.
Letter by letter, particularly from late August 1975, months before supply had even been blocked in the Senate, Kerr draws the Queen into his planning regarding the crisis unfolding in the Senate, including the possible use of the reserve powers.
Kerr details options and strategies, which are then discussed with the Queen through her private secretary, Sir Martin Charteris.
Read on here
https://amp.smh.com.au/national/the-pal ... 55bpx.html
Buckingham Palace gave the wink and the nudge to Governor General John Kerr to sack elected Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in 1975. Australian 'democracy' exposed. Thank you Prof. Jenny Hocking.
Whitlam grew too big for his boots and he tried to bypass the constitution and sought dodgy funds just like the Labor Party is doing today. So he had to go as he was a dangerous FABIAN Socialist.
Gosh, hear silly Albo rattle on about this. And Shifty old Shorty keeps muttering, "This might have been me!!!".
He He, we tricked 'em Sir John didn't we!!!!
The Palace letters are every bit the bombshell they promised to be
By Jenny Hocking July 14, 2020 — 2.19pm
The Palace letters have proved to be every bit the bombshell they promised to be, and neither the Queen nor Sir John Kerr emerge unscathed.
In his vast, increasingly frequent letters and telegrams to the Queen, the governor-general provides the most extraordinary vice-regal commentary on the decisions and actions of a prime minister and elected government imaginable.
They provide a remarkable window onto Kerr’s views of Gough Whitlam, his planning, his options, his fears, and his eventual decision to dismiss the government.
Letter by letter, particularly from late August 1975, months before supply had even been blocked in the Senate, Kerr draws the Queen into his planning regarding the crisis unfolding in the Senate, including the possible use of the reserve powers.
Kerr details options and strategies, which are then discussed with the Queen through her private secretary, Sir Martin Charteris.
Read on here
https://amp.smh.com.au/national/the-pal ... 55bpx.html
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Juliar
- Posts: 1355
- Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2016 10:56 am
Re: How Whitlam was booted out
Now the battle to uncover the rug that was pulled from under the Danger to Australia the dangerous FABIAN Socialist Whitlam.
Why did we have to fight so hard to see the 'Palace Letters'? They weren't stashed in the Queen's bottom drawer
Peter FitzSimons May 30, 2020 — 12.15am
Bravo Professor Jenny Hocking. The Monash University academic and member of the Australian Republic Movement's national committee – which I chair, blah, blah, blah – has fought the good fight for TEN YEARS to get access to the "Palace Letters", the 211 pieces of correspondence between Buckingham Palace and Sir John Kerr, that led up to The Dismissal. And on Friday, the High Court ruled 6-1 in her favour. Ideally, we shall all soon be privy to the contents of that correspondence.
The most staggering thing? It is that to this point we little Australians had no right to see correspondence between our own head of state and her representative in Australia, the governor-general, on a matter of such enormous import, even though the letters are in our National Archives, not the Queen's bottom drawer in the third chamber from the left!
Professor Jenny Hocking, with a statue of Queen Victoria behind her, took her fight for the release of the 211 'Palace Papers' letters to the High Court. CREDIT:AAP
The fact we even had to ask the question in the first place is nothing short of embarrassing. On the one hand we argue we are a sovereign and independent nation and, on the other, we couldn't take a peek at correspondence between our two highest office holders on a matter of such import, nigh on half a century later?
That position, my learned friends, was absurd. And good on the High Court for saying so. Most of all though, bravo Professor Hocking who took on major institutional powers, and won. For us of the Australian Republic Movement it is a boost. For that "little Australian" view is still extant. No less than the chief of the Australian Defence Force, General Angus Campbell, has recently written to the Prime Minister and, in the course of giving reasons why a Victoria Cross should not be posthumously awarded to Teddy Sheean, who kept firing at the Japanese even as he went down with HMAS Armidale during the WWII bombing of Darwin, said this might damage our standing among other Commonwealth countries and "potentially with the Queen herself".
Read on to see how Australia was save from the Danger to Australia the obnoxious Whitlam
https://www.smh.com.au/national/why-did ... 54xrm.html
Why did we have to fight so hard to see the 'Palace Letters'? They weren't stashed in the Queen's bottom drawer
Peter FitzSimons May 30, 2020 — 12.15am
Bravo Professor Jenny Hocking. The Monash University academic and member of the Australian Republic Movement's national committee – which I chair, blah, blah, blah – has fought the good fight for TEN YEARS to get access to the "Palace Letters", the 211 pieces of correspondence between Buckingham Palace and Sir John Kerr, that led up to The Dismissal. And on Friday, the High Court ruled 6-1 in her favour. Ideally, we shall all soon be privy to the contents of that correspondence.
The most staggering thing? It is that to this point we little Australians had no right to see correspondence between our own head of state and her representative in Australia, the governor-general, on a matter of such enormous import, even though the letters are in our National Archives, not the Queen's bottom drawer in the third chamber from the left!
Professor Jenny Hocking, with a statue of Queen Victoria behind her, took her fight for the release of the 211 'Palace Papers' letters to the High Court. CREDIT:AAP
The fact we even had to ask the question in the first place is nothing short of embarrassing. On the one hand we argue we are a sovereign and independent nation and, on the other, we couldn't take a peek at correspondence between our two highest office holders on a matter of such import, nigh on half a century later?
That position, my learned friends, was absurd. And good on the High Court for saying so. Most of all though, bravo Professor Hocking who took on major institutional powers, and won. For us of the Australian Republic Movement it is a boost. For that "little Australian" view is still extant. No less than the chief of the Australian Defence Force, General Angus Campbell, has recently written to the Prime Minister and, in the course of giving reasons why a Victoria Cross should not be posthumously awarded to Teddy Sheean, who kept firing at the Japanese even as he went down with HMAS Armidale during the WWII bombing of Darwin, said this might damage our standing among other Commonwealth countries and "potentially with the Queen herself".
Read on to see how Australia was save from the Danger to Australia the obnoxious Whitlam
https://www.smh.com.au/national/why-did ... 54xrm.html
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cods
- Posts: 6433
- Joined: Wed Nov 30, 2016 9:52 am
Re: How Whitlam was booted out
why is this of any interest now after all this time
what can we do about it.. bugger all what do we want to do about it? bugger all...
go back to sleep nothing to see here.
what can we do about it.. bugger all what do we want to do about it? bugger all...
go back to sleep nothing to see here.
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Juliar
- Posts: 1355
- Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2016 10:56 am
Re: How Whitlam was booted out
Whitlam's time was a time of great shame for labor in Labor's generally shameful past.
After 40 years of vilification by the ALP, Sir John Kerr emerges as an honorable man who enacted his governor generalship properly, enabling the Australian people to rid themselves of the odious Whitlam govt
A statue of him should be erected in Canberra.
A concerned citizen pointed this note out in the palace letters:- 2 months before dismissal, Sir Martin Charteris tells John Kerr he'll soon face difficult decisions and points him towards a book that says, if supply is refused, it is constitutionally proper to grant dissolution.
Gosh see how the Socialists are shedding tears over the shocker Whitlam.
What would they have been like if Shifty old Shorty had gotten in and was inevitably dismissed by the GG for gross Socialist and Chinese abuse of the Australian economy?????
If the first 62 Palace letters are read closely it is obvious the Queen & her advisors knew John Kerr was going to use the reserve powers of the Governor-General to sack Whitlam & that Kerr intended to do this before Whitlam decided to sack him - an intention which Queen accepted.
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.
When you see how easily the Whitlam govt was overturned because of the "Khemlani Loans Affair" scandal...
Malcolm Fraser and John Kerr acted on the urging of the CIA. Sound crazy? You bet.
A shame we can't say things have got better since 1975.
Did Sir John Kerr write in any of the 200 odd letters that Whitlam was trying to get $500k from Saddam Hussein in 1975?
To all those bashing Sir John Kerr. What would you have done to resolve the deadlock? Australia was almost out of money, no pay for Public Servants, Police etc. What would you have the GG do?
What has always annoyed me about the Left’s framing of this is if you listened to them you’d think Kerr sent Whitlam to the Tower of London for execution. He had an election within weeks. He lost in a landslide. Clearly, the public supported Kerr’s decision. That’s democracy.
All Kerr did was let the people decide 4 weeks later, He was pretty much the best Democracy advocate you could get.
After 40 years of vilification by the ALP, Sir John Kerr emerges as an honorable man who enacted his governor generalship properly, enabling the Australian people to rid themselves of the odious Whitlam govt
A statue of him should be erected in Canberra.
A concerned citizen pointed this note out in the palace letters:- 2 months before dismissal, Sir Martin Charteris tells John Kerr he'll soon face difficult decisions and points him towards a book that says, if supply is refused, it is constitutionally proper to grant dissolution.
Gosh see how the Socialists are shedding tears over the shocker Whitlam.
What would they have been like if Shifty old Shorty had gotten in and was inevitably dismissed by the GG for gross Socialist and Chinese abuse of the Australian economy?????
If the first 62 Palace letters are read closely it is obvious the Queen & her advisors knew John Kerr was going to use the reserve powers of the Governor-General to sack Whitlam & that Kerr intended to do this before Whitlam decided to sack him - an intention which Queen accepted.
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.
When you see how easily the Whitlam govt was overturned because of the "Khemlani Loans Affair" scandal...
Malcolm Fraser and John Kerr acted on the urging of the CIA. Sound crazy? You bet.
A shame we can't say things have got better since 1975.
Did Sir John Kerr write in any of the 200 odd letters that Whitlam was trying to get $500k from Saddam Hussein in 1975?
To all those bashing Sir John Kerr. What would you have done to resolve the deadlock? Australia was almost out of money, no pay for Public Servants, Police etc. What would you have the GG do?
What has always annoyed me about the Left’s framing of this is if you listened to them you’d think Kerr sent Whitlam to the Tower of London for execution. He had an election within weeks. He lost in a landslide. Clearly, the public supported Kerr’s decision. That’s democracy.
All Kerr did was let the people decide 4 weeks later, He was pretty much the best Democracy advocate you could get.
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