Queen Elizabeth’s representative in Australia fired Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in 1975. (Feature)
Sydney:
Queen Elizabeth II was not notified of the dismissal of the Australian Prime Minister in 1975 by his representative in the country, letters kept secret for decades and published on Tuesday.
The representative of the British monarch in Australia, Governor General John Kerr, sparked a constitutional crisis by dismissing Gough Whitlam, the popular leader of the center-left Labor party, without warning.
In May the High Court ruled that more than 200 letters between the Queen’s private secretary and Kerr – many of them dealing with the controversial case – were to be made public.
Although correspondence shows that the Queen was not informed immediately before the dismissal of Whitlam, they confirm that Kerr had exchanged letters with the palace for months on his powers to oust the Prime Minister.
The suspicion that the palace played a direct role in the ouster of Whitlam has long been cited by Australian Republicans, arguing that the country should break with the monarchy.
The National Archives of Australia released the 1,200 pages known as the “Palace Letters” on Tuesday after a four-year legal battle to keep them hidden, which would have cost 2 million Australian dollars (1.4 million dollars) ).
Historians are now going through the documents to see if the British government tried to influence events in its former colony and what role the Queen, Prince Charles and the principal royal advisers may have played.
A key excerpt shows that Kerr informed the Queen that he had dismissed Whitlam shortly after taking the action on November 11, 1975.
“I must say that I decided to take the step that I took without informing the Palace in advance because, under the Constitution, the responsibility is mine, and I was of the opinion that “It was better that His Majesty did not know in advance, although it was of course, my duty to tell him immediately,” he wrote.
The move ended an extended political stalemate after the opposition-controlled Senate refused to adopt the government budget, severely weakening Whitlam’s position.
The letters confirm that the palace knew that Kerr had considered the options available to him as part of his constitutional “reserve powers”, which included the dismissal of the head of Australia, a step that no other governor general has taken before or since.
Kerr appointed Liberal Leader of the Opposition, Malcolm Fraser, as Acting Prime Minister, which sparked mayhem in Canberra and protested the steps of Parliament.
Fraser then won an overwhelming election victory later that year.
Australia became independent in 1901, but the Queen is still the head of state. A referendum on transformation into a republic failed in 1999.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
