The Palace Letters and the 1975 Coup
Australia’s High Court has ruled that the correspondence between Queen Elizabeth II and Governor-General Sir John Kerr is not the Queen’s private property but belongs to the public record. This decision unlocks the release of the so-called “Palace Letters” from 1975, the year Prime Minister Gough Whitlam was dismissed in what many regard as a coup.
Whitlam’s government had pursued an independent course, pulling troops out of Vietnam, condemning U.S. actions abroad, seeking a nuclear free Pacific, supporting Palestine at the UN, and proposing to “buy back the farm” by reclaiming Australia’s resources. He also drafted landmark Aboriginal land rights legislation.
These moves angered Washington, London, and Australia’s own establishment. U.S. diplomatic cables later revealed that senior figures in both major parties secretly reported to Washington. Whitlam knew he was challenging entrenched power: his Attorney General even raided ASIO’s Melbourne headquarters to expose its ties to foreign intelligence.
By November 1975, Whitlam was gone, dismissed by Kerr with the tacit support of Anglo-American interests. The truth of this intervention has long been buried in polite silence. That it may now be confronted is thanks to historian Jenny Hocking’s persistence in bringing the Palace Letters to light.
