![kerr mug](https://quadrant.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/kerr-mug.png)
Doing His Duty
The dismissal on November 11, 1975, of the intransigent Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam by the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, remains one of the most controversial events in Australian political history. In 1974, Whitlam had appointed Kerr to the position of the Queen’s representative as formal head of state, a decision the Labor luminary regretted until his death.
In his newly published Villain or Victim? A Defence of Sir John Kerr and the Reserve Powers, Peter O’Brien clearly explains the constitutional basis for Kerr’s decision to dismiss Whitlam and invite Liberal leader Malcolm Fraser to form a caretaker government. This was “subject to a number of conditions, which included that [Fraser] now grant Supply and immediately advise a general election”. Had Kerr not done so, if the Senate had continued to remain obdurate (which it almost certainly would), Supply would have run out.
This review appears in October’s Quadrant.
Click here to subscribe and enjoy…
Madam: Archbishop Fisher (July-August 2024) does not resist the attacks on his church by the political, social or scientific atheists and those who insist on not being told what to do.
Aug 29 2024
6 mins
To claim Aborigines have the world's oldest continuous culture is to misunderstand the meaning of culture, which continuously changes over time and location. For a culture not to change over time would be a reproach and certainly not a cause for celebration, for it would indicate that there had been no capacity to adapt. Clearly this has not been the case
Aug 20 2024
23 mins
A friend and longtime supporter of Quadrant, Clive James sent us a poem in 2010, which we published in our December issue. Like the Taronga Park Aquarium he recalls in its 'mocked-up sandstone cave' it's not to be forgotten
Aug 16 2024
2 mins