After ten years of battling the British Crown, and then the Australian National Archives for the release of correspondence between John Kerr and the British Crown. Professor Jenny Hocking and the Australian people have finally seen the truth about the actions of Buckingham palace and John Kerr leading to the sacking of the Whitlam ALP government in 1975.
Professor Hocking took her fight to Buckingham Palace and through various courts; culminating in a victory judgment in the High Court. The National Archives pleaded privacy and spent over $2 million to keep the 1200 pages of correspondence between Kerr and the palace under wraps. British and Australian authorities both were extremely unhappy and unco-operative with Professor Hocking’s actions.
The letters reveal that Kerr who was the Governor General at the time, acted on advice from the British queen’s private secretary and selected High court judges but not the Attorney General nor Solicitor General of Australia. Nor did he confide in the prime minster who appointed him. He was unhappy with the elected Prime minister Whitlam’s government’s policies and the lack of stability as the Liberal and Country parties were blocking money bills in the Senate. Kerr and the queen’s private secretary Martin Charteris were revealed in the huge volume of letters to have conspired together to remove the Whitlam government.
The U.S government and their spy agencies were also deeply unhappy about the slightly independent attitude of the ALP in regard to foreign policy. There was also disquiet from some in the ALP about the U.S. spy base at Pine Gap in the Northern Territory
Kerr had a history; during WWII he served in the shadowy army intelligence body, the Directorate of Research and Civil Affairs. Later he worked in industrial law in Sydney. He joined the anti-communist advocacy group, the Association for Cultural Freedom which was established across the world by the CIA and was later on its executive. He was a member of Lawasia another CIA funded law organisation working in the Asia Pacific. Kerr became the chief justice of NSW in 1972 and then was knighted by the gangster Premier of NSW Robin Askin in 1974.
So given his background, his role and Whitlam’s naivete about Kerr’s politics and intentions; everything aligned for Kerr to dismiss Whitlam and install the safe tories of the Liberal and Country parties.
The letters further show the manipulations of a foreign power using its own agent, the Governor-General (the Queens man) using feudal powers to remove a government. Despite the fact that colonial power had been formally relinquished 74 years before, British imperialism has never wanted to lose its sources of power and control over Australia.
The letters also show that, parliament in Australia is only a very shallow, weak power that never can represent the will of the people while its power can be usurped so easily .
Only in an Australia, freed from from British and U.S. manipulation and interference, and the depredations of monoply capitalism can the workers, working people and progressive people realise their full potential.
Post Script John Menadue
