Jenny Hocking on the Whitlam Dismissal, our lack of transparency

On 11 November 1975, governor general John Kerr created the biggest scandal in modern Australian history by sacking Labor prime minister Gough Whitlam.

The impeachment taught the nation many lessons about political secrecy, manipulation of democratic rules, how power-hungry puppets can override the will of the people and Australia’s ultimate deference to the British monarchy. How many were learned?

Professor Jenny Hocking, who won a 2020 Supreme Court bid to publish palace letters and correspondence between Kerr and the queen, joins the podcast to explain why, 50 years on, the political weaknesses exposed by Impeachment still exist. Also does he think the CIA had something to do with this?

Read today’s episode transcript here and watch the interview below.

Uninterrupted like that Crikey’s The new weekly podcast offering non-stop analysis of Australian news, politics and power. Each week she joins reader editor Crystal Andrews cricket Journalists will discuss the biggest news of the week. Listen at the link above Spotify, Apple Podcastsor watch YouTube.