Gough Whitlam staffer recalls day of prime minister’s dismissal 50 years on

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Today marks the 50th anniversary of The Dismissal - a defining moment in Australian political history. For the first and only time in Australian history, on November 11, 1975 the governor general dismissed a prime minister and his government. Richard Whitington was a staffer with Gough Whitlam from 1974 to 1977. He spent many hours in planes and cars with the former prime minister.

Transcript

00:00Chaos, confusion, a sense of outrage and some deep suspicions about the possibility of foreign

00:11interference in the events leading up to that dismissal. There were conspiracy theories

00:18abounding. But mostly, I guess, as I said, outrage that the Liberal and Country Party

00:24Coalition had conspired to create events which led to the royal family, the British royal

00:31family in Buckingham Palace, allowing their representative in Australia, the Governor-General,

00:35to dismiss a government that had been elected by the Australian people only 18 months earlier.

00:42Was it ever in the planning scenarios that you saw as potentially happening?

00:47The possibility was consistently ruled out by Gough Whitlam himself, who professed that

00:57he had complete confidence that the Governor-General, John Kerr, would do what he, the Prime Minister,

01:04asked him to do, which was to grant an election for half the Senate.

01:08OK. Talk me through your day then. I mean, events unfolded quite quickly once they started.

01:14What exactly were you doing at the time?

01:15You know, it's difficult to remember precisely minute by minute. I've been asked this a lot

01:21in recent days. But my most vivid memory is when we learned that the Governor-General's

01:28Official Secretary, David Smith, was to come to Parliament House, stand on the front steps

01:33and read the proclamation dissolving the Parliament. And that happened a little after four o'clock

01:39in the afternoon. And I and many others went out on the front steps with Whitlam, his security

01:44contingent, other members of Parliament, other staff members, and indeed some members of the

01:51then opposition, the Liberal Country Party. That was where Whitlam stepped forward to the

01:57microphone after the Official Secretary had read the proclamation and made his now famous

02:04speech speech about, well, may we say, God save the Queen because nothing will save the Governor-General.

02:15Later in the afternoon, at about a little after six, Whitlam went out a second time to a much bigger

02:21crowd that had assembled by then and made his maintain your rage speech. And I was out there

02:30on that occasion too.

02:31Just amazing to have been there and that significant part of history. I gather that there might have

02:38been a little bit of sabotage going on in some of the Prime Minister's offices when you all left.

02:43I think you're alluding to something that I have confessed to. Yeah, on the day we finished up in the Prime Minister's office,

02:54and I think I originally thought it was on the 11th of November. In fact, it was after the election on the

03:0213th of December. So one of my records of this is a little inaccurate, but I don't want to spoil a good story

03:08with a bad date. I went in for one last look around the Prime Ministerial suite, and in those days the phone

03:17system was called a Commander, and it had a whole lot of buttons that you pressed to reach particular people.

03:23And in my mischievous way, I switched all the buttons around, souvenired my own, which meant that when the next incumbent,

03:32Malcolm Fraser, was looking for the tea lady and hit the tea lady button, he was going to get the Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs.

03:42So naughty, so naughty. Richard, tell me, what will you remember most about your time with Gough Whitlam?

03:51Because obviously you served with him as opposition leader and you travelled with him extensively.

03:56I did. He was my best education. Working with him was the best education anyone could ever have.

04:06And he was an extraordinarily well-read, well-informed man with terrific perspectives on history and current events and global affairs.

04:21That's chiefly what I take out of it, aside from the enormous privilege of having been associated with him,

04:29albeit, you know, by good fortune and, you know, I don't ever claim any great significance for my role with Whitlam.

04:39In fact, I like to say that I arrived too late to claim any credit for his successes or bear any blame for his demise.

04:49So, my apologies.

04:50I'll do the same thing in the last days.

04:51Let's go to my home.

04:52I am going to be on to my phone, however.

04:53To my house and I will never claim any credit for my initial commitment,

04:57once again, I can see whenever I get back to my house.

04:59And here we will take a couple of miles of millions of dollars.

05:02Let's try again.

05:03And I will take you through this.

05:05We can see that I have to look along the wrong place.

05:08So let's see if I have to look on the right side of this.

05:10And I will be right back to my house.

05:12Let's see if I can see my degrees.

05:14Here, as I can see I can see it now.

05:15And I'll take it away.

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