Fifty Years Ago, the US Staged a Coup in Australia
The 1975 “dismissal” of Australian Labor PM Gough Whitlam is often seen as a constitutional crisis initiated by an old British-led establishment. In reality, it was a bloodless analog of other US-orchestrated coups against reforming left governments.
On the morning of Tuesday, November 11, 1975, Governor-General John Kerr summoned PM Gough Whitlam to Yarralumla, the governor-general’s residence, where Kerr handed Whitlam a dismissal letter. (Graeme Thomson / Newspix / Getty Images)
Half a century ago this week, Australia was rocked by the removal of its prime minister, Gough Whitlam of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), by the governor-general, Sir John Kerr.
Whitlam, a solid social democrat by the standards of that time — and as far left a leader as Australia has had since the 1950s — had lost control of the Senate, the Australian Parliament’s upper house. The right wing opposition, a Liberal Party–led coalition, used this advantage to deny the government “supply,” blocking essential government spending.
Although the situation was similar in some ways to a US government shutdown, one important difference is that Australia was, and is, a constitutional monarchy, with the governor-general serving as head of state.
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