Australia's Governor-General Dismisses the Whitlam Government
Governor-General John Kerr dismissed Australian prime minister Gough Whitlam on November 11, 1975.
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The Event
Governor-General John Kerr dismissed Australian prime minister Gough Whitlam on November 11, 1975. Opposition leader Malcolm Fraser was appointed caretaker prime minister.
The Wider Story
The decision followed a confrontation over parliamentary supply and the powers of Australia's constitutional institutions. An election followed in December.
Putting the Event in Perspective
The dismissal remains politically contested.
Reading the Historical Record
Explaining its sequence requires distinguishing legal powers, political convention and competing judgments about whether the governor-general should have used those powers.
About the Historical Recreation
The accompanying visual is an illustrative reconstruction: the exterior of Australia's old Parliament House in 1975 with a distant gathering. It is not authentic archival footage, an eyewitness record or additional evidence for the event.
Sources
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