An Overview of The Dismissal (Channel 10, 1985)

it was the most turbulent the most divisive time in Australia's political history a federal government in the middle of its term had been dismissed by the representative of a monarch half a world away violence erupted in the streets as to political Giants struggled for power even today ten years later many of the wounds have not healed the bitterness lives on in those whose lives were changed forever we just walked in the gate got King yet and got carried out so how did it happen and why well in many respects the government which came to an end here on the steps of Parliament House ten years ago was an experiment a grand experiment that failed that experiment began on the night of December 2nd 1972 when the Australian people elected their first Labour federal government in 23 years in many ways those years in the wilderness were at the heart of Labour's failures Gough Whitlam himself had been on the opposition benches for 20 years many of his new ministers were old men who'd spent the best years of their lives in opposition only one Fred Daly had served in a Labour government before he understood only too well the compulsive urge to implement the reforms they'd been planning for decades we had the great reforming prime minister in Gough Whitlam he wanted to do things and unlike a lot of governments he believed and reverently quite rightly but he should fulfill all these promises to the electorate as speedily as possible because we're always under threat with the Senate and ministers were like that you're anxious to do things we proved that we were just knockers they are we to ability builders and from day one the Whitlam government pulled out all the stops the boys were brought home from Vietnam vast social projects conceived during the long years in opposition were put into action literally billions of dollars was set aside for education health care Aboriginal Affairs urban and regional development Medibank was gearing up nationally labour was in a state of understandable but uncontrollable euphoria but even then just a couple of months into office Gough Whitlam his first major crisis was just around the corner we three months into its first term the Whitlam government ran into its first political crisis the prime minister of Yugoslavia due to visit Australia and militant migrant groups had threatened to assassinate him during that visit Whitlam Saturnia general lionel murphy was worried he believed US security organization azo wasn't giving him all the facts about this so he staged an incredible personal nighttime raid on a ciose Melbourne headquarters and seized the files on dissident migrants the azo raid made headlines across the country the government weathered the storm of criticism that followed but serious doubt remained about Murphy's political judgement Whitlam though had more serious problems the economy was in bad shape inflation was soaring and the opposition leader Billy Sneden was getting a lot of political mileage out of the rising cost of living Labour's first budget brought down by treasurer Frank Queen didn't help billions of dollars went to social and urban development projects and to the increase in the size of the public service needed to carry them out government spending was out of hand and the public would see that assisted of course by the opposition when the seat of Parramatta in Sydney became vacant in mid 73 Sneden campaigned hard on the economy and the Liberals won in a landslide Whitlam left the post-mortem to others and put on his other hat that of Minister for Foreign Affairs he set out on a historic mission to become the first Australian Prime Minister to visit communist China the visit was an outstanding diplomatic success but returning home he found more problems the Aboriginal community claiming labour had failed to carry out its promises was up in arms so were the farmers furious over Labour's decision to cut many of the bounties and subsidies they had enjoyed for years country party leader Doug Anthony the opposition's most effective politician was well aware of the growing tide of discontent he believed he could win at least for rural seats away from labour if he could find a way to get a midterm election but to his astonishment Whitlam was about to drop that opportunity into the opposition's lap we're still awaiting the arrival of Gough Whitlam at the National Press Club in Canberra he's running a bit late but we'll continue our look back over the events leading up to his government's dismissal his Canberra Bureau Chief Richard Colville by early 1974 the whip government was in trouble the economy was going sour and the opposition was looking for any chance to force an early election Gough Whitlam gave them one he appointed the aging leader of the Democratic Labour Party senator Vince Kerr as ambassador to Ireland Whitlam fought labour could win Guare's vacant seat and get control of the Senate but the move so enraged the rest of the DLP that they agreed to vote with the opposition to block Labour's budget and so force a general election during the campaign Whitlam political judgement again came under fire he chose to campaign on the Liberals association with foreign money the multinationals Sneden Mo was going on the economy inflation and unemployment it was an effective attack on polling day 1974 Sneden didn't win but he lost by only a few thousand votes spread over a handful of electorates witless response to the economic crisis was to sack Treasurer Frank creme and to replace him with one of Labour's high flyers dr. Jim cans Ken's adopted a policy of working for business not against it realizing this was where the jobs were the domestic economy was in fact going from bad to worse business confidence was at an all-time low the mining industry in particular complained it was getting no guidelines from the government and mineral exploration dropped to practically nil big businesses were going broke at a frightening rate the situation was tailor-made for the opposition to take advantage of it but many heavyweights in the Liberal Party had lost confidence in Bill Sneden the inevitable happened a sudden leadership bid by sneden's longtime opponent Malcolm Fraser Sneden won that contest and announced there would be no more I'm glad this is now finished it will be finished the matter will not arise again Sneden went on a desperate tour of appearances around australia but public and press opinion against him was building it was only a matter of time before phrases followers organized another challenge and afterwards party secretary Tony Eagleton made the announcement that was to change Australia's political history forever mr. Fraser is the new leader of the Liberal Party Malcolm Fraser took over the leadership of the Liberal Party in March of 1975 he was far more the typical Liberal leader than Sneden had been aristocratic wealthy and very tough he immediately began planning with his Shadow Cabinet an unrelenting attack on Whitlam economic record Fraser was soon to be put to the test Whitlam deputy Lance Bernard was tired of politics the post of ambassador to Sweden became vacant Bernard told Whitlam he wanted it Whitlam agreed and announced a by-election for Bernards northern tasmanian seat of bass on paper Fraser couldn't win bass labour had held it for 40 years and Fraser needed a huge swing to take it but Fraser went in hard aided by the fact that many industries in the electorate was suffering under Labour's economic policies on polling day the Liberals won the seat with an astonishing anti labor swing of 17 percent again the heavyweights in the labour party publicly flayed Whitlam political judgement in allowing a government seat to become vacant midterm political lunacy said party president Bob Hawke but public attention quickly turned to a much juicier crisis within the government Whitlam treasurer and Deputy Prime Minister Jim Ken's appointed a new private secretary to his staff an attractive and rather mysterious Eurasian named Judy Morosi the opposition attacked claiming some of her previous business dealings were suspect Judy Morosi tried to resign but Cannes refused to let her go Whitlam ordered cans to sacker cans threatened to resign it was a very public and very embarrassing standoff but cairns once seen as Whitlam Zehra parent was fast losing support within the government and Whitlam took advantage of this he sacked Kansas treasurer and dropped him to the very bottom of the ministry cans became the only Australian treasurer in recent history never to bring down a budget that Whitlam hoped was the end of the matter but he was not to know that inside Kansas files a time bomb was ticking away Jim cans demotion from Treasury did not end the Whitlam government's troubles Ken's had been one of a small group of senior ministers who gave minerals Minister Rex Connor authority to seek huge loans overseas for the development of Australia's Mineral Resources Cairns wrote a letter to a middleman promising a substantial Commission on any loans he arranged the opposition got wind of this had asked about it in Parliament Cairns denied it but the opposition was able to produce documents proving cans head offered such a commission Whitlam accusing ken's of having misled Parliament ordered him to resign Cairns claiming his offence was just a memory lapse refused Whitman went to Government House and had the governor-general Sir John Kerr sack him the former treasurer and Deputy Prime Minister was now a lowly backbencher and the government standing was in ruins and that loans business still refused to go away the government said Rex Connors authority to negotiate that four billion dollar overseas loan had been terminated the case Whitlam said was closed but that was where Tara pass around the CEM Lonnie came in CHEM lani a professional international middleman produced documents proving that Connor had continued to negotiate the loan for a full month after his authority to do so had been withdrawn Connor had no option but to resign the second senior minister to go in a matter of weeks for Frazer the temptation to take advantage of this was irresistible he had a majority in the Senate and could block the government's budget bills cutting off its money supply and forcing with them to call an election as he had done when the opposition did the same thing in 1974 Fraser had promised he wouldn't do that except in extraordinary and reprehensible circumstances the loans affairs seemed to him to be just that the day after Connors resignation phrases senators blocked the budget Fraser expected Wycombe to announce an immediate election an election aula polls predicted Fraser would win but to the liberal leaders anger and astonishment Whitlam announced he would go on he would continue to govern without money if necessary it was a confrontation which could end in only one way the political anihilation of Malcolm Fraser for Gough Whitlam Gough Whitlam will be arriving at the National Press Club in Canberra very shortly but until he does we'll take a further look back over the events leading up to that dismissal November 11 1975 here's Canberra bureau chief Britain Col Fraser using the justification of the loans affair blocked Gough Whitlam sputtered he fully expected Whitlam to call an election Whitlam had done that under the same circumstances a year before but this time Wickham knew he was unlikely to win an election so he governed on it was a standoff between two political Giants Whitlam government deprived of its appropriation bills was fast running out of money pensions were threatened so was the pay of the public service and the defense forces Whitlam tried to persuade the banks to advance money to the public servants on a government guarantee the banks refused to cooperate time and again Whitlam sent the budget bills back to the Senate each time the opposition senators deferred them but as the days passed many of the liberal senators became worried about public opinion liberal Senate leader reg withers was forced to use all his powers of persuasion to hold them together day after day Fraser asserted he would allow the budget to pass as soon as Whitlam announced an election to allow the people to decide said Fraser on the loans affair Whitlam no was prepared to offer only an election for half the Senate which was due soon anyway and which could give him control of the Senate Fraser said that wasn't good enough at that moment on November 11 1975 the governor-general Sir John Kerr stepped in Kerr imposed his own solutions he took the unprecedented step of dismissing Gough Whitlam and appointing Malcolm Fraser as caretaker Prime Minister Fraser promised to make no major policy decisions and to hold an election as soon as possible and on the steps of Parliament House the governor-general secretary read that historic proclamation come on Malcolm Fraser Prime Minister John Ark governor-general god save the queen well may we say god save the queen' cause nothing will save the governor-general it was the most divisive event on Australia's political history as the two leaders crossed the country campaigning in every capital violence overflowed in the streets Fraser campaigned hard on the government's economic failure quick ylim on the wrong which had been done to Australia's elected government the whole future of Australian democracy is in your hands the Australian people did not respond to Whitlam Sapir and the rest is history as for the players in this great drama Malcolm Fraser became prime minister of Australia for seven years Sir John Kerr remained governor-general for two years attacked and vilified by Labour supporters at every public appearance and Gough Whitlam well he became opposition leader for two years and then retired from politics according to his most faithful minister Fred Daly he never reached the great heights of which he was truly capable I thought he should have still been there he should have gone right through the 70s and I think he's a great tragedy was destroyed in a way unprecedented he never got the chance because the Senate pers against him and as I look at it I look at it with sadness or when he had to offer Australia in which he was denied the right to do it by circumstances

Channel: Malcolm Farnsworth

Views: 12,658

Rating: 4.9583335 out of 5

Keywords: Whitlam Dismissal, November 11, 1988 Summer Olympics (Olympic Games), Gough Whitlam, Sir John Kerr, Malcolm Fraser, Supply

Id: w8LRVAfIBQc

Length: 14min 22sec (862 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 14 2014