“Well may we say God Save the Queen because nothing will save the governor-general.”
Gough Whitlam’s quip on the steps of Old Parliament House, and the rapturous cheers that followed, are only a small fraction of what makes November 11, 1975, the most explosive day in Australian political history.
To see how The Dismissal unfolded, and to learn more about the enduring legacy of Whitlam’s call to “maintain the rage”, watch the video below.
Power, principle, politics. All three collided to expose the fragility of our democracy, and the enduring tension between the will of the people and the limits of the Constitution.
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For some, it was proof the system worked. For others, it was a betrayal.
But how did we get there and what have we learnt from it?
The events that led up to it are manifold. And while most Australians actually agreed that Whitlam’s Labor government should have been deposed – and Malcolm Fraser’s opposition was officially voted in one month later – the Dismissal changed the way Australia operated and how it saw itself. Watch the video above to see why.
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