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Sydney:
Queen Elizabeth II was not warned concerning the 1975 dismissal of Australia’s prime minister by her consultant in nation, letters stored secret for many years and launched Tuesday revealed.
The British monarch’s consultant in Australia, governor-general John Kerr, sparked a constitutional disaster when he fired Gough Whitlam, the favored chief of the centre-left Labor celebration, with out warning.
In May the High Court dominated greater than 200 letters between the queen’s personal secretary and Kerr — together with many addressing the controversial affair — needs to be made public.
Although the correspondence present the queen was not informed instantly previous to Whitlam’s sacking, they verify that Kerr had exchanged letters with the palace for months about his powers to oust the prime minister.
Suspicion the palace performed a direct function in Whitlam’s ouster has lengthy been cited by Australian Republicans arguing the nation ought to break with the monarchy.
The National Archives of Australia launched the 1,200 pages generally known as the “Palace Letters” on Tuesday after a four-year courtroom battle to maintain them hidden that reportedly value Aus$2 million ($1.four million).
Historians at the moment are combing by way of the paperwork to see if the British authorities tried to affect occasions in its former colony and what function the queen, Prince Charles and high royal advisers could have performed.
One key extract reveals Kerr knowledgeable the queen he had fired Whitlam shortly after taking the motion on November 11, 1975.
“I should say I decided to take the step I took without informing the Palace in advance because, under the Constitution, the responsibility is mine, and I was of the opinion it was better for Her Majesty not to know in advance, though it is of course my duty to tell her immediately,” he wrote.
The resolution capped a protracted political stalemate after the opposition-controlled Senate refused to go the federal government’s funds, severely weakening Whitlam’s place.
The letters verify the palace knew Kerr had been contemplating the choices obtainable to him beneath his Constitutional “reserve powers”, which included dismissing Australia’s chief, an motion no different governor-general has taken earlier than or since.
Kerr appointed opposition Liberal chief Malcolm Fraser as interim prime minister, sparking chaos in Canberra and protests on the steps of parliament.
Fraser went on to win a landslide election victory later that yr.
Australia turned impartial in 1901, however the queen remains to be head of state. A referendum on changing into a republic failed in 1999.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
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