Secret letters between the Queen and Australia's governor-general that led to the sacking of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam are set to be released following a landmark order from the country's top court. 

Palace allies have battled for decades to keep Queen Elizabeth II's correspondence with governor-general John Kerr about the 1975 sacking secret, with the National Archives of Australia refusing to release them to the public. 

Australia's High Court has now said the hundreds of letters between the pair are public record - meaning their release could provide key insight into one of Australia's greatest political crises. 

Kerr sacked Whitlam, the popular leader of the centre-left Labor party, three years after his election in 1972 - causing a deep constitutional crisis that still scars Australian politics. 

The letters could help show if the British government tried to interfere in events and what role the queen, Prince Charles and top royal advisers may have played. 

Historian Jennifer Hocking, who had been fighting the million-dollar legal battle for four years, has previously said the Palace knew of Kerr's intentions to sack Whitlam, and she believes the letters will reveal if the Queen influenced his decision. 






The letters between the Queen and tour quảng châu former Governor-General Sir John Kerr (pictured together) during the dismissal of Gough Whitlam are set to be released for the first time. The letters could help show if the British government tried to influence events in its former colony







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Gough Whitlam was dismissed as Australian Prime Minister on November 11, 1975. The High Court has now ordered the archives to reconsider Professor Hocking's request to access the letters, and pay her legal costs. He is pictured above addressing reporters after his dismissal 


Reasons for Whitlam's dismissal are fiercely argued, with allegations of British and even American efforts to smother his reformist agenda. 

One of Whitlam's key goals when he came to office was to loosen the colonial ties between Australia and Britain. 

He ended the British honours system and implemented Australia's own version, replaced God Save the Queen with the Australian national anthem and removed those same words from the official announcement dissolving parliament.

Following a meeting with the-then British Prime Minister Edward Heath, Whitlam is believed to have said: 'All these colonial relics are incompatible with the position of Australia as a separate, sovereign country', as reported by The Conversation. 






Professor Hocking has been in a legal battle for four years to have the letters released to the public, something she believes will provide insight into one of Australia's greatest political crises


Hocking argued the texts between the palace and Kerr were 'extraordinarily significant historical documents' and needed to be accessed'.

'They are contemporaneous real-time communications between the queen and her representative in Australia, written at a time of great political drama, and are a vital part of our national historical record,' she wrote at the start of the case.

'As an independent autonomous nation, Australia has a right to know its own history, including and in particular the records pointing to British involvement in that history.'

The letters had been deemed personal communication by both the National Archives of Australia and the Federal Court which meant the earliest they could be released was 2027, and only then with the Queen's permission.  

On Friday a majority of the High Court bench ruled the letters were property of the commonwealth and part of the public record. 

The court has now ordered the archives to reconsider Professor Hocking's request to access the letters, and pay her legal costs.   

A statement issued by Director-General David Fricker of the National Archives of Australia said: ‘We accept the High Court's judgement and will now get to work examining these historically significant records for release'.

Hocking was represented by a legal team that included Whitlam's oldest son. She had previously lost a battle in 2016 to have the letters released by the Federal Court. 

Whitlam - who died in 2014 - is still hailed as a champion of Australia's left.

He had opposed Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War, sought to assert Australia's sovereignty and end what he called 'colonial relics' of the relationship with Britain.

He ended conscription, established the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, tried to normalise relations with China, set up a free public health service, made university free and replaced 'God Save the Queen' with Australia's national anthem.

But his detractors accused him of destabilising the economy, and Kerr fired him without warning on 11 November 1975 after political fighting that weakened Whitlam's government.






Gough Whitlam holds up the original copy of his dismissal letter he received (pictured above at a Sydney book launch in 2005)


In October that year the country's Liberal Party refused to pass the government's bills in the senate until an election was called - meaning the government would soon run out of money to provide things like pensions and pay public servants. 

Whitlam refused to call an election and Kerr swiftly dismissed him as Prime Minister.  

Kerr then appointed opposition Liberal leader Malcolm Fraser as interim Prime Minister - without a confidence vote being held in parliament - and he went on to win a landslide election victory later that year.

Australia became independent in 1901, but the queen is still head of state. A referendum on becoming a republic failed in 1999. 



Read more:

Relics of colonialism: the Whitlam dismissal and the fight over the Palace letters