The high court ruled Friday that the personal letters written by Queen Elizabeth to Governor-General Sir John Kerr in 1975 can be made public. It could finally address if the sovereign meddled in one of Australia's worst political crisis.
Some 45 years ago, Governor-General Sir John Kerr, who was the Queen's representative under the Commonwealth of Australia, fired Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and replaced him with Malcolm Fraser, after a deadlock in the Parliament. Whitlam became the only Australian government official to be removed from his post by the British monarchy.
The incident, dubbed "The Dismissal," became known as "most divisive and corrosive episodes" in the political history of Australia. It drew public protests and calls for Australia to cut ties with the Commonwealth, the group composed of former British colonies, if Whitlam was not reinstalled.
According to Reuters, Australians still do not know the full story behind Whitlam's ouster. Over the years, however, there were speculations that the sovereign overreached her position and became politically impartial as she allegedly meddled in this polarizing event.
It's also been alleged that the Queen wrote Kerr over 200 letters before he dismissed Whitlam. However, Queen Elizabeth's letters were originally ruled as personal, and thus protected from public scrutiny.
The letters have been kept in the National Archives of Australia since 1978 and was supposed to be unopened until 2027, according to Time. However, the private secretaries of the governor-general and the sovereign seven years from now could veto that request under an original agreement with Buckingham Palace and Government House from the 1970s.
But Australian historian Dr. Jenny Hocking challenged the ruling and filed an appeal in court. In a 6-1 vote, Hocking won her appeal and could finally read the letter's content in Canberra if the coronavirus lockdown is lifted.
Hocking said that it was absurd to label the letters as personal since it was a correspondence between key officials of the government. Unless the Queen and Kerr were talking about corgis and horse racing, Hocking said that the public had the right to know what these letters contained.
The historian previously uncovered letters Prince Charles wrote to Kerr, which she detailed in her 2015 book, The Dismissal Dossier. It revealed that Kerr was worried Whitlam would revoke his assignment to prevent his own ouster.
The matter apparently reached the Queen's private secretary, Sir Martin Charteris, who wrote Kerr that the Queen could delay proceedings as long as possible, if Whitlam was indeed planning to remove Kerr. Prince Charles also reportedly wrote Kerr to not lose heart.
Hocking said in her book that these communications with Kerr suggested that the Palace "interposed itself directly" in matters concerning the Australian government. The Queen's letters, now accessible to Hockings, will clarify this once and for all.
