It is 40 years since former Labor prime minister Gough Whitlam stood on the steps of Old Parliament House and uttered those now famous words, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, well may we say ‘God Save the Queen’, because nothing will save the Governor-General.’
Since then Whitlam remains the only prime minister to have been disposed of by an unelected vice-regal representative.
In this video ANU Strategic and Defence Studies Centre senior fellow Dr John Blaxland discusses ASIO’s alleged role in the dismissal of Whitlam, on 11 November, 1975.
The author of The Protest Years, The Official History of ASIO, 1963 - 1975, was given high-level access to Australian government records, including ASIO files long secreted away, to discover the role the spy agency and others played behind the scenes.
At the core of some conspiracy theories is whether American intelligence authorities influenced Sir John Kerr’s decision to sack Whitlam, amid concerns he was about to disclose what he knew of America’s involvement in a little known tracking station at Pine Gap.
Pine Gap was built in the late 1960s under very secret conditions, and at that stage, in the mid-1970s, was not public knowledge. And the prime minister was on the cusp of revealing details about this facility in the middle of Australia,” Blaxland says.
Two days before he was sacked, a cable from a senior American intelligence official, Ted Shackley, accused Whitlam of being a security risk, and asked ASIO to do something about it.
It is one of the most serious political statements made to Australia through official channels in history,” Dr Blaxland adds.
The Protest Years, The Official History of ASIO, 1963 to 1975, is published by Allen & Unwin.