The second part in a series of first-hand accounts of the Dismissal, from the man who was there: John Menadue.

A repost from 5 November 2025

Justice Anthony Mason advised Sir John Kerr by phone not to see the speaker on the afternoon of Gough Whitlam’s dismissal. It was the second dismissal of the day.

The office of speaker was central in the centuries-long struggle between Parliament and the Monarchy in the UK. The history of the speakership shows several speakers dying violent deaths, while others were imprisoned, impeached or expelled from office. In our House of Representatives, there is still a pantomime when a new speaker is elected. He/she is dragged unwillingly to the chair because historically being speaker could be dangerous – for defying the monarch.

In the UK in the early 1640s, there was a major dispute between Parliament and King Charles. It led to a civil war and the execution of a king. In that dispute speaker Lenthall of the House of Commons addressed King Charles.

“May it please your majesty. I have neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak but as the House is pleased to direct me, whose servant I am. I humbly beg your Majesty’s pardon that I cannot now give any other answer then this to what your Majesty is pleased to demand of me. I am the servant of the House, not the King”

I’m sure that in the UK, the Queen would not have refused to see the speaker in similar circumstances.

Fortunately, Kerr wasn’t executed, but he was driven from office.

The proposed fundraising by Rex Connor had thrown the government off course. The loan raising was unsuccessful and there was no illegality. However, it contributed to the public view that the government was unstable.

The government was not performing well. There were a lot of prima donnas in the Cabinet and Whitlam was not good at managing them. Unfortunately, in 1974 the world was in economic turmoil following the doubling of oil prices. Unemployment in the US rose by 7% and inflation by 11%. In Australia, we were not immune to this.

Further governance, as we found in the department, was made extremely difficult with government survival threatened, with the prospect of refusal of supply a daily problem. And the Murdoch media was determined to cripple the government. Good policy and performance were made very difficult.

It is also important to note that when Malcolm Fraser sought to justify his action on refusing supply, he said it was not due to the loans affair but was because of the sacking of Bill Robertson, the head of ASIS. I will turn to that later and explain the role that Robertson, together with the CIA and MI6, played in the Dismissal

One reason why the loans affair became such a political issue was that senior officers in Treasury leaked continually to the........

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