• The Palace Letters

  • The Queen, the Governor-General, and the Plot to Dismiss Gough Whitlam
  • By: Jenny Hocking
  • Narrated by: Katherine Littrell
  • Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (6 ratings)

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The Palace Letters

By: Jenny Hocking
Narrated by: Katherine Littrell
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Publisher's summary

What role did the queen play in Governor-General Sir John Kerr’s plans to dismiss Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in 1975, unleashing one of the most divisive episodes in Australia’s political history? And why weren’t we told?

Under the cover of being designated as private correspondence, the letters between the queen and the governor-general about the dismissal have been locked away for decades in the National Archives of Australia, and embargoed by the queen - potentially forever. This ruse has furthered the fiction that the queen and the palace had no warning of or role in Kerr’s actions.

In the face of this, Professor Jenny Hocking embarked on a four-year legal battle to force the Archives to release the letters. In 2015, she mounted a crowd-funded campaign, securing a stellar pro bono team that took her case all the way to the High Court of Australia.

Now, drawing on never-before-published material from Kerr’s archives and her submissions to the court, Hocking traces the collusion and deception behind the dismissal, and charts the secret role of High Court judges; the leader of the opposition, Malcolm Fraser; and the queen’s private secretary in fostering and supporting Kerr’s actions.

Hocking also reveals the obstruction, intrigue, and duplicity she faced, raising disturbing questions about the role of the National Archives in preventing access to its own historical material and in enforcing royal secrecy over its documents.

©2020 Jenny Hocking (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing

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Hard fought for historical context.

Quite amusing to read Malcolm Turnbull’s preface to a story that, as well as uncovering the traitorous grovelling character of a Governor General that set Australia on the sadly curtailed course to a potentially very different destination, but that also revealed the extent of his own spinelessness in materially doing anything while in the “top job” to assist with the disclosure of the material for the historical record. There are many graves fit for public toiletry in the sycophantic sphere of Australia’s political puppetry. They multiply with time, regardless which master they flatter to our detriment.

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Interesting recount into the search for truth

Well narrated and interesting look into an important time in Australia’s history. Definitely worth a listen.

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