HER MAJESTY WASN’T TOLD
Letters prove Kerr did not reveal his dismissal plan to her
THE long-awaited release of the Palace Letters exonerates the Queen of any involvement in Australia’s greatest constitutional crisis — the sacking of prime minister Gough Whitlam by the governor-general John Kerr on November 11, 1975. The historic letters released yesterday by the National Archives show the Queen was briefed about the political crisis as Mr Whitlam was deadlocked with the Senate over passage of his budget, raising the prospect of the Labor government going into financial default. The letters from Sir John to the Queen, via her private secretary Sir Martin Charteris, reveal she was aware her governor-general had been considering dismissing Mr Whitlam for some months. However they show that Sir John, who stood down in 1977, told the truth when he claimed he did not tell the Queen about his plans to dismiss Mr Whitlam because he wanted to keep her out of the political dispute, ending decades of conspiracy theories.
“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 Sir Martin on the day of the dismissal.
He attached to his letter the letter of dismissal he gave to Mr Whitlam on the day, a supporting legal opinion from High Court chief justice Garfield Barwick, and a letter from the opposition leader, Malcolm Fraser, written to Sir John at Sir John’s request.
Mr Fraser was appointed caretaker prime minister and later won a landslide election.
On November 17, Sir Martin replied to Sir John: “If I may say so with the greatest respect, I believe that in NOT informing the Queen what you intended to do before doing it, you acted not only with perfect constitutional propriety but also with admirable consideration for her Majesty‘s position.”
He had earlier made it clear that the Queen would not intervene.
“I think it is good that people should know that the Queen is being informed, but, of course, this does not mean that she has any wish to intervene, even if she had the constitutional power to do so,” Sir Martin wrote to Sir John on November 5.
“The crisis, as you say, has to be worked out in Australia. If you do, as you will, what the constitution dictates, you cannot possibly do the monarchy any avoidable harm. The chances are you will do it good.”
Sir John wrote that he did not tell the prime minister in advance of his plans — because he didn’t want Mr Whitlam to get in first and ask the Queen to dismiss him.
“The position would then have been that either I would be trying to dismiss him while he was trying to dismiss me — an impossible position for the Queen,” he wrote.
It was something Mr Whitlam had joked about just a month earlier before a dinner held by Sir John in honour of the Prime Minister of Malaysia.
“Before our dinner last night … the Prime Minister, in what he would claim to have been a jocular fashion, said of the crisis — ‘It could be a
NEW images and video have revealed for the first time how the $2.4 billion Coomera Connector will transform the Gold Coast’s western suburbs.
The animated fly-through, developed by the Department of Transport and Main Roads, reveals the arterial road’s route.
It shows the Coomera Connector will begin just west of Lakeview Dve and Chisholm Rd on Nerang-Broadbeach Rd before turning north near the Nerang Railway Station.
It will travel north running parallel with the railway line.
Early stage works on the project have begun on what has been described as “one of the largest traffic-mapping projects in the city’s history”.
The Coomera Connector will be a six-lane, 45km arterial road to run from Nerang to Logan.
It is expected to take up to 60,000 vehicles off the M1 every day and was fully gazetted last year by the State Government.
More than $20 million is being spent on early works and surveying in preparations for the business case.
The first results from community consultation conducted in November and December last year reveal strong support for the project.
The independent survey, commissioned by the State Government, found respondents wanted the Coomera Connector built to relieve pressure on the M1.