But he believed Fraser had chosen the wrong battleground. The key meeting that he held, in terms of what was reported back to officials, was not with the governor-general, but with the Governor of New South Wales, Sir Roden Cutler. We might be about to find out, Historian wins bid to read 'Palace letters' previously deemed 'private', Victorian property investors hit with tax hikes in state budget, GFG Alliance fraud investigation raises further questions over Whyalla steelworks' future, Thousands take to the streets of Sydney and Melbourne in support of Palestinians. In fact, the only constitutional crisis that the British government was anticipating was the one concerning the issue of the election writs. This was a matter upon which the Australian prime minister advised the Queen directly. Many hoped the correspondence would answer some of the long-standing questions surrounding Australia's biggest constitutional crisis. The 211 letters exchanged between Sir John and Buckingham Palace at the time of the dismissal were today released online by the National Archives of Australia, in Canberra. Regarding Anne Twomey’s article – ‘‘Whitlam wanted Palace to interfere’’ (Comment, 15/7). Australian politics explainer: Gough Whitlam's dismissal as prime minister. The other controversy concerned the role of the state governors in the issue of the writs for a half-Senate election. Whitlam only had power to advise the "Queen of Australia" in relation to Commonwealth matters. With GFG under official investigation for suspected fraud and money laundering, potential saviour White Oak is scrambling. Prof Anne Twomey has said that the Queen’s letters, through Charteris, ... Palace letters reveal what Queen knew about Australian PM Gough Whitlam's dismissal – video report "The actions of the Governor-General on the 11th of November to dismiss a government, to put himself above the Australian people, is one that reinforces the need for us to have an Australian head of state, is one that reinforces the need for Australia to stand on our own two feet," he said. "We just have to live with the fact it was an Australian who dismissed an Australian government.". All three major US benchmarks advanced at least 1 per cent with the biggest technology shares rebounding from a sell-off earlier in the week. In a discussion about the dismissal, two years after the event, Kerr's predecessor as governor-general, Sir Paul Hasluck, recorded Sir Martin Charteris, as asking him what the Queen could have done if she had been asked by Whitlam to dismiss Kerr. Recent talk has hinted at a grand conspiracy behind the decision. "So all it does is blows away the silly conspiracy theories that we've been having for an awfully long time, which said 'this was all the conspiracy of the British and the establishment and the Queen'," she said. At that time, state governors were appointed by the Queen of the United Kingdom (not the Queen of Australia), upon the advice of British ministers. During the dismissal crisis he was described as a distinguished lawyer who was unlikely to call on the Queen to intervene. ", Gough Whitlam called the Queen after his dismissal once it was morning in London, but what was said in that phone call has never been revealed. The National Times had reported that if the governors, acting on the advice of their premiers, declined to issue the writs, then Whitlam would advise the Queen to instruct the governors to do so. The governor-general's official secretary, David Smith, announces the Whitlam government's dismissal in 1975. Anne Twomey has practised as a solicitor and is admitted to practice in New South Wales, Victoria, the ACT, and the High Court (but does not hold a current practising certificate). This has been independently reported by both Sir William Heseltine (then assistant press secretary to the Queen) and Sir Martin Charteris (private secretary to the Queen). "The fact you have powers is recognised. The Archives later made the Palace letters available to download as PDFs. The currently available documents suggest that the opposite was true. One could sympathise with the Opposition in the light of the behaviour of ministers. "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. Accordingly, their responsibility was to the state premier and ultimately, to the Queen. The first issue concerned the behaviour of the Queensland Governor, Sir Colin Hannah. There is, however, one intriguing hint about what may have happened. In the days following the dismissal, letters from Buckingham Palace showed that it believed the governor-general had no option but to remove Mr Whitlam as prime minister. "I think you are playing the vice-regal hand with skill and wisdom," Sir Martin wrote to Sir John on November 4. In the lead-up to the dismissal, Sir John and Sir Martin had discussed the evolving constitutional crisis — and in particular, what powers a governor-general had to intervene. The other controversy concerned the role of the state governors in the issue of the writs for a half-Senate election. Surely the question to be answered is: Did Kerr act as the constitution dictated in dismissing Whitlam? National Archives of Australia director-general David Fricker said his team had rushed to pore over the documents after the High Court ruled they should be released in late May. Charteris reminded Hasluck that Whitlam had previously said that it would be a matter of whether he or Kerr got to the telephone first to contact the palace. But Professor Hocking labelled the discussion as "alarming". For more than four decades, the question has been asked: did the Queen know the governor-general, Sir John Kerr, was about to dismiss the Whitlam government, and did she encourage or support that action? Kerr's letters to the Queen remain an important part of Australian history and should be released. by Anne Twomey ∗∗∗∗ Introduction In Australia, the scope of the reserve powers has been largely discerned from the examples of their exercise. The British government's legal advice in relation to the issue of the writs was that the state governors would not be exercising federal functions in deciding whether to issue the writs and would therefore have to act upon the advice of their state premiers. July 14, 2020 — 7.30pm. But he went on to say that he was sure the governor-general knew as well as he that neither the Queen nor HMG [Her Majesty's Government in Britain] wanted to get involved in this essentially Australian dispute. "The Queen, in response, is engaging with that level of conversation at a very political level. "The really startling thing about these letters is the extent to which the governor-general, Sir John Kerr, is communicating with the Queen about exactly those issues — about political matters that are happening in Australia at the time, about options he may face. In discussions of the Whitlam Government’s dismissal by Governor General Sir John Kerr in 1975, there is rarely any consideration She said, upon first impression, the nature of the conversations between Sir John and Buckingham Palace were "concerning". Anne Twomey; "The unrecognised reserve powers" "In Australia, the scope of the reserve powers has been largely discerned from theexamples of their exercise. Her book The Veiled Sceptre – Reserve Powers of Heads of State in Westminster Systems will be published by Cambridge University Press in April. It is not consistent with the British government having given Kerr any advice or conspired with him to dismiss the Whitlam government. It was not until 1986 that this anomaly was finally removed and state premiers could advise the Queen directly on the appointment and removal of state governors. Having raked through the British files on this subject and written about them back in 2005, my conclusion was the complete opposite of Hocking's. The flames of "conspiracy" were again fanned last week by the Federal Court's decision not to order the release of the correspondence about the 1975 dismissal of the Whitlam government. If anything, this difference would make the dismissal of Whitlam even less likely to be justiciable. Whitlam’s dismissal – it’s not like it was all that unusual ... 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