The Palace Letters: The Queen, the Governor-General, and the Plot to Dismiss Gough Whitlam by Jenny Hocking

Book Description

Secondhand. Very good condition. Ex library copy with no external stickers. No stamps or stickers on inside pages. RFID patch on insde back cover. Partial date due slip on inside front cover is now covered with blank ex libris bookplate sticker. Minor wear to book corners and edges.

A political betrayal. A constitutional crisis. A hidden correspondence.

Gough Whitlam was a progressive prime minister whose reign from 1972 proved tumultuous after 23 years of conservative government in Australia.

After a second election victory in May 1974, when a hostile Senate refused to vote on his 1975 budget, the political deadlock that ensued culminated in Whitlam's unexpected and deeply controversial dismissal by the governor-general Sir John Kerr.

Kerr was in close touch with the Palace during this period, but, under the cover of being designated as personal, that correspondence was locked away in the National Archives and embargoed by the Queen - potentially forever. This ruse denied the Australian people access to critical information about one of the most divisive episodes in the nation's history.

In the face of this, Professor Jenny Hocking embarked on a ten-year campaign and a four-year legal battle to compel the Archives to release the letters. In May 2020, despite opposition from the Archives, Buckingham Palace, and the full resources of the federal government, she won her historic case in the High Court.

The Palace Letters is the ground-breaking account of her indomitable fight. Drawing on material from the Palace letters, Kerr's archives, and her submissions to the courts, 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 during her campaign, raising disturbing questions about the role of the National Archives in restricting access to these historic letters and in enforcing royal secrecy over Australia's national interests regarding its own documents. (back cover)