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00:00It was one of the most significant days in Australian political history.
00:11Unprecedented things took place that should not have taken place.
00:15Mr Whitlam has been dismissed by the Governor-General
00:18and Mr Malcolm Fraser will become caretaker Prime Minister of Australia.
00:22It was a massive confrontation between two giant egos of two very tall men.
00:29I have no doubt at all that it was a coup de jar.
00:35Well may we say God save the Queen.
00:39Well of course nothing will save the Governor-General.
00:43I burst into tears.
00:45I grabbed him by the lapels and I said,
00:48you won't get away with this you know.
00:59Working in the press gallery in the old Parliament House was certainly an adrenaline rush.
01:16There was a feeling that something was about to happen.
01:19I was working on The Australian in those days.
01:23I shared an office about the size of a broom cupboard
01:26but it allowed you to have great contact with the decision makers.
01:32I was at that time the youngest woman ever elected to the Senate.
01:35I was a Senator for Queensland for the Liberal Party.
01:38I played the social butterfly and I picked up a lot of clues.
01:42I was in the Senate since 1962, a pretty senior fellow in the Labour Party.
01:51I was with the ABC working in their current affairs radio section.
01:55That day I had been preparing a report for my morning's AM program.
02:00Here's Andrew Potter.
02:01It's now the 27th day since Malcolm Fraser made his monumental statement that the air must be cleared.
02:07The crucial issue was that the opposition, the Liberals, had been blocking the supply bills.
02:14We were blocking the bills that are called the appropriation bills, withholding supply.
02:19That's the money to spend on things like pensions, public service wages and so on.
02:25Without the appropriation bills the government can't function.
02:28The trouble was that we of the Labour Party didn't have the numbers in the Senate.
02:34From the moment that the opposition refused to pass the budget in the Senate,
02:42we knew that we were heading for a crisis.
02:45The 70s under Whitlam, under Labour, was a period of great change in Australia.
02:50They introduced free tertiary education.
02:53Divorce law reform and the universal health scheme, which we still have.
02:58A whole raft of changes happened very, very quickly.
03:01The older generation was pretty agitated.
03:04You know, their view was, oh my God, he's changing everything.
03:09It had been a chaotic time for the Whitlam government.
03:12There was scandal after scandal.
03:14And we just decided, enough's enough.
03:17It's time for the Australian people to decide whether they want more of this or not.
03:22The Liberal Party decided that the bill was going to be passed on the provision that there would be an election.
03:30An election was not due.
03:32We had another 18 months to go.
03:35We wanted an end to the turmoil.
03:43Never seen you fellas up so early.
03:45The opposition is still urging for a general election.
03:48The Prime Minister remains firm.
03:50The only hope lies in this morning's meeting.
03:52I was aware there had been meetings between the leaders of both parties quite early in the morning.
03:57We were expecting that Whitlam would call a half-senate election.
04:01That had been talked about openly.
04:03So the House would continue as is and half the Senate would continue as is.
04:09But the other half would go to the voters.
04:11I was the minister for, I think it was called Consumer Affairs and Commerce.
04:16I was not a trendy member of the younger brigade of members.
04:21In fact, I participated in a lot of debates on the constitutional standoff.
04:27There was a caucus meeting of the Labor Party.
04:30We had a joint party meeting, both the Liberal Party and the then National Country Party,
04:35as it was called then.
04:36Frank Crane, the Deputy Prime Minister, had been at the general meeting of the four leaders.
04:44I said to him, how'd the medic go, Frank?
04:49And he said, no, very good.
04:53The atmosphere in the room was quite tense.
04:56And Malcolm Fraser and Doug Anthony said, we think things are coming to a head.
05:01They've got something up their sleeve.
05:04They're pretty cocky.
05:05And I said, what could it be?
05:08He said, the Governor General.
05:10The Senate leader for the Liberal Party was a man by the name of Reg Withers.
05:17And he earned the nickname, the toe cutter.
05:20And it was his job to make sure that no one wavered.
05:24On the morning of the 11th of November, which was the deadline for pensions and public service and all of that.
05:32They went into Reg's office and said, Reg, I'm worried.
05:35I don't think we're going to hold our guys today.
05:38They wouldn't do it to the pensioners.
05:40One person crossing the floor would have given the government a majority.
05:44There were MPs who were uneasy in the opposition, how it was going to be resolved.
05:50He said, don't worry about it.
05:51I said, don't worry about it.
05:53He said, the Governor General hasn't spoken yet, which seemed to me an old comment at the time.
06:01I was one of three young army officers being interviewed to become the aide-de-com to His Excellency,
06:11the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr and Lady Kerr.
06:15So we were to go to Government House and stay there for two days, just to see whether you're fit or you don't.
06:21The Governor-General, being the Queen's representative in Australia, is chosen by the Prime Minister of the day.
06:27The Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, he seemed to be a nice enough fellow.
06:30He was keen to meet us and we were offered drinks.
06:33I had a sweet sherry, which would be the only sweet sherry I've had in my life.
06:38Sir John Kerr wasn't Whitlam's first choice. In fact, he was his fourth choice.
06:42We just wanted the job. We would have drunk Kool-Aid or cyanide if it had been handed to us.
06:48I was told the Prime Minister would not be available because he was at Government House.
06:56Word of that seeped around, so we knew that Gough was going to go and see the Governor-General
07:03and ask him for a half-Senate election.
07:06The Governor-General had teed up Mr Whitlam and Mr Fraser to come with a few minutes apart.
07:12I was unaware and I think the majority of people in the Parliament were unaware that Fraser had been asked to go to Government House.
07:20But the order changed. Instead of Mr Whitlam arriving first, Mr Fraser arrived and he would have been looked after
07:26and the car was parked just discreetly or away.
07:29Whitlam arrived not knowing that Fraser had already arrived and was in an ante-room somewhere in Government House.
07:35At 12.50, the ADC knocks on the door and walks in and says,
07:41Your Excellency, the Prime Minister's here.
07:44His Excellency stands up and says,
07:46Well, gentlemen, you must excuse me. I must compose myself for the Prime Minister.
07:53I got ready to do a special report at one o'clock, forecasting a half-Senate election.
07:59Well, only five minutes later, His Excellency, Sir John Kerr,
08:02came into the small drawing room and said,
08:05Well, I've just sacked your Prime Minister.
08:07I've put another one in his place and God help us all
08:10and you better put another hundred police on the front gate.
08:19I was on a school tour at Glen Aukie Primary School from Tassie.
08:22We'd gone to the War Memorial that morning
08:24and then after lunch we went over to have a look at Parliament House.
08:27Being only 11 at the time, I didn't know that much.
08:29I knew there was the Labor Party and the Liberal Party
08:31and the Liberal Party was in opposition
08:33and the opposition always says,
08:34How about a job the government's doing? That sort of stuff.
08:37I had these saucepans on lay-by for about six months.
08:43I mean, they were French Le Creuset, bright yellow.
08:47So I drove to Manica and paid them off
08:51and drove back to Old Parliament House.
08:54It looked huge to me, the building. Very white.
08:57I didn't expect that many people to be there
08:59but it just seemed chaotic to me.
09:01The butler came to the door and said,
09:03Your Excellency, luncheon is served.
09:05So we all sat down and a great weight
09:07had appeared to have been lifted from his shoulders.
09:09I recall Malcolm Fraser striding in a very determined way,
09:14pushing open the door into the opposition lobby
09:17and I remember that he was carrying a book in his hand.
09:20I later realised that was the Bible
09:23on which he had taken his oath of office.
09:25His Excellency said, Captain Denny,
09:27what would you have served on if you weren't paid?
09:30Do you realise that if the appropriation bills weren't passed
09:33then machinery of government would stop,
09:35you and the army wouldn't be paid?
09:36Would you and your men serve on if they weren't paid?
09:39We all said we would have served on.
09:40I think we would have served on till the food ran out.
09:43It was quite interesting because he would start justifying his actions,
09:47saying he didn't have any other option
09:49and then he would suddenly stop
09:52and he'd want to change the subject and sort of say,
09:54enough of this.
09:55So he vacillated.
09:56When I went in to see Fred Chaney the Whip,
09:59before Parliament sat that afternoon,
10:01he said,
10:02well, we're going to be passing the bill
10:05because Kerr has sacked Whitlam
10:08and installed Fraser as Prime Minister
10:12on condition that we carry the appropriation bills today
10:17and that we consent to a double dissolution.
10:19You know, it was flabbergasting.
10:22I was secretary to Graham Frydenberg
10:24who was Gough Whitlam's senior speechwriter.
10:27The door burst open and Graham came in,
10:30very agitated and said,
10:32quick, quick, take a note, take a note.
10:34We had those old electric typewriters
10:36and you had to wind the paper in
10:37and he was trying to push the paper in.
10:39He was in such a hurry.
10:40Okay, take it easy.
10:42I was the senior executive of what was called
10:47the Women's Affairs Branch.
10:50It was just an ordinary day.
10:52We were dealing with correspondence or whatever.
10:56And he dictated that this house has no confidence
10:59in the Prime Minister.
11:01And I burst out laughing and I said,
11:03have you been fighting with Gough today?
11:06And he looked at me, aghast, and he said,
11:09oh, my God, you don't know, do you?
11:11And I looked around and he said, none of you know.
11:13John Menadieu was the head of the department.
11:17So he called what was called then a branch heads meeting.
11:21And he said, lady and gentlemen,
11:24we now have a new Prime Minister.
11:27Gough has been sacked by the Governor-General.
11:29And there's this stunned silence and everyone just said, ah.
11:34We actually couldn't believe
11:36that Gough Whitlam didn't pull it off.
11:40Everybody had gone off to have lunch.
11:42I think I was probably about to go and get some lunch for myself.
11:45And one phone on the Chief of Staff's desk rang.
11:49And I thought, oh, I'd better pick it up.
11:51Normally, when I arrived at work,
11:53I could get a parking spot like next to the front steps.
11:57This time I drove past and there was not a single parking spot.
12:01Picked up the phone, hello.
12:03David Barnett here.
12:05David Barnett was Malcolm Fraser's Press Secretary.
12:09He said, Malcolm Fraser has been made Prime Minister.
12:13And he put the phone down.
12:14And as I was getting out of the car,
12:16a chap who worked in the Parliamentary Library said to me,
12:21Gough's been sacked.
12:22I said, what?
12:23Nobody in Fraser's office would pick up the phone.
12:26Nobody in Whitlam's office would pick up the phone.
12:28So I then rang my Sydney office and said,
12:32I think we should get ready to go back on air
12:34because this is what just happened.
12:36I was clearly conscious of the fact that it was a huge story,
12:41but then on another level, as an individual,
12:44I was outraged by it.
12:46I went and knocked on a few doors just to see if I could find anybody
12:49who could give me an indication of what on earth was happening.
12:52I saw a Liberal Party staffer.
12:55I leaned up and grabbed him by the lapels
12:58and I said, you won't get away with this, you know.
13:01And he just stared at me like I was a mad woman.
13:04A few years later, we got married.
13:07Then the bells began to ring at ten past two.
13:18Our local representative was supposed to be there to talk to us.
13:21We sent him for about 30 seconds and the bells started ringing
13:24and he had to race off to vote.
13:25Senators in the Labor Party, we hadn't been told we were sacked.
13:30The guys on their side clearly didn't know.
13:33We moved a motion for the supply bill to be passed.
13:38It would have only taken a couple of minutes.
13:40Well, those have been his aye.
13:42The country know.
13:43Aye's have it.
13:44Aye's have it.
13:45We didn't challenge it.
13:46I couldn't believe it.
13:47Then Jim Hodges, the clerk of the Senate, said to me,
13:52there's a rumour that you blokes have been dismissed.
13:56And Don Wethyssey put his foot up on the desk,
14:00pulled his sock up and he said,
14:02pull down the sock up and that was it.
14:07People were really, they looked serious.
14:09Some of them looked panicky.
14:11So it was just this bunch of school kids in the middle of chaos.
14:14I went into the House of Reps press gallery.
14:17You could just feel the turmoil in the chamber,
14:21except Malcolm Fraser, who was as cool as ice.
14:25Gordon Scholes, who was then the Labor Speaker, and a very good Speaker,
14:30called Malcolm Fraser to speak.
14:33And he didn't call him the Leader of the Opposition.
14:38He called him as the Honourable Member for Wannan.
14:42And Fraser got up and then announced that he was the Prime Minister.
14:47The Honourable Member for Wannan.
14:50Mr Speaker, this afternoon the Governor-General commissioned me
14:53to form a government until elections can be held.
14:56Order!
15:00There was understandably a lot of noise from Labor members.
15:05Most of them didn't know what had happened.
15:07They were shocked.
15:08They were angry.
15:09They were rowdy.
15:10Trying to come to terms in such a short space of time
15:16with what had actually happened.
15:19It was a political play.
15:21And I thought it was the Liberal Party
15:24butchering its way through Australian democracy.
15:34Mr Whitlam has been dismissed by the Governor-General
15:37and Mr Malcolm Fraser will become caretaker Prime Minister of Australia
15:40pending a general election.
15:42Following the news, which hit the national capital like a bombshell,
15:45the Senate has passed the budget.
15:47I was at school and there was a buzz around the school.
15:50The teachers said, have you heard what's happened?
15:52Whitlam's been sacked.
15:53We didn't know at the time just how monumental that was.
15:56You know, we thought, oh well, you know,
15:58you hear people getting sacked all the time.
15:59The word just spread almost instantly.
16:03You know, sketchy reports on the radio about what had happened.
16:06People who were working in buildings surrounding Parliament House
16:11descended on the building.
16:12There was a few of my mates who were interested in politics
16:14so we sort of couldn't wait to sort of get out of school
16:17and go home and say, what's going on?
16:19What is going on?
16:20We have had the extraordinary situation of the Labor Party
16:23still sitting on the Government's side of the House
16:25because they maintain they've got the numbers.
16:28I was coming and going from our little desk.
16:31I'd duck up into the King's Hall
16:32where there was a lot of people mingling around.
16:34There was so much going on at such speed.
16:37It was a slightly disconcerting time
16:39of not actually knowing 100% what was happening.
16:42We was booked in to have a look at the House of Representatives
16:44so we actually got to go past all the people lined up
16:48trying to get into the viewing gallery in Parliament House
16:50to watch what was going on.
16:51Fred Daley, as leader of the House, got up and moved a motion
16:55condemning what the Governor-General had done,
16:58confirmed their confidence in Whitlam as Prime Minister
17:01and called upon the Governor-General to commission Whitlam again.
17:08I remember seeing Gough Whitlam.
17:09To me, he seemed really in the face
17:11but that may have been normal for him, I don't know.
17:14It was only black and white tellies mainly back then
17:16so I had nothing to compare it with.
17:18Whitlam had moved no confidence in Malcolm Fraser.
17:22The House of Reps passed the motion.
17:25Whitlam had asked the Labor Speaker, Gordon Scholes,
17:28to make an appointment to go back to Government House
17:30to see Sir John Kerr and tell him Labor had the majority
17:35and should therefore be allowed to continue to govern.
17:38I heard subsequently that Kerr refused to see Scholes.
17:43Shortly after we had the news that Fraser wanted our office
17:47and we were to leave within hours.
17:50And so there were these pictures of staff loading files into a truck
17:55and it looked suspicious.
17:57In the end, of course, they told us, oh, he's been talked out of it.
18:01You don't have to move until after the election if you lose.
18:05I was trying to find somebody who I could talk to
18:07or convinced to come down and be interviewed
18:09and that's when I got hold of Paul Keating.
18:11Sir John Kerr's done a completely unprincipled act.
18:14You're saying that Sir John Kerr's completely unjustified?
18:17He's completely unjustified.
18:18I wouldn't have resolved on it for a second.
18:19Completely and totally unjustified.
18:21Keating was ropeable.
18:23He said to me off air.
18:24Unfortunately, he didn't say it on air.
18:26He should be locked up and put in jail.
18:29Fraser appeared on the steps.
18:35He was leaving Parliament House to go to Government House.
18:39There were already demonstrators there,
18:43so they were able to vent their rage against him.
18:47David Smith was the official secretary to His Excellency
18:54and he was on his way to read the actual proclamation
18:58on the steps of Parliament House.
19:00So he had the piece of paper
19:02and he stopped and chatted with us
19:04and there was this jocular comment
19:06that we could go and provide security for him
19:08that I think we understood it was going to be an exciting time.
19:11Members of the public gathered on the steps of the old Parliament House
19:14and they'd be chanting, we want golf, we want golf.
19:17It kept growing all the time.
19:18Every time I'd go out there, there'd be another,
19:20gosh, it's grown again.
19:22He then said, would you like a copy?
19:23Oh, yeah, we would.
19:24So he turned around and walked with the photocopier,
19:26gave us each a copy and this is the original document.
19:29It hadn't been read.
19:30And then he jumped in the car and went to Parliament House.
19:34We heard that David Smith was on the front steps
19:38reading the proclamation.
19:40Everybody who was in the building charged to the front steps.
19:44Grabbed the tape recorder and hang close to David Smith
19:48to try and record him.
19:49And we were actually piled on the bus.
19:51One of the teachers or something said,
19:53oh, they're just about to make a speech on the steps.
19:55If you just want to hop off, go and have a look.
19:58Senate opposition party room opened onto the balcony
20:02and Witherset managed to acquire some very fine champagne, I might say.
20:07I didn't have any celebratory drinks.
20:09I didn't think that was appropriate.
20:11And David Smith started speaking.
20:14He wasn't met with a cheery reception.
20:18And I was standing next to a man.
20:20He had his little daughter on his shoulders.
20:22He was pointing at Fraser and he was saying,
20:25don't you ever let anyone tell you that's your Prime Minister.
20:28Boffert them is your Prime Minister.
20:30And he was crying and I started crying.
20:32Some people spotted us and came and shouted abuse at us.
20:37Raised their glasses to them.
20:39Proclamation by His Excellency the Governor-General of Australia.
20:47The minute David Smith read the proclamation,
20:50there was a huge boo.
20:51Just out of the corner of my left eye, I could see Whitlam.
20:55Almost biblically, the crowd parted and he came down the steps
20:59and he stood right behind David Smith's shoulder.
21:06I couldn't really hear him because there was a lot of noise.
21:10We want God! We want God!
21:13And then David Smith ended with...
21:15God save the Queen.
21:17Which of course Gough had dropped
21:19and instituted Australian honours.
21:22So God save the Queen was kind of passe, but it was back.
21:26Whitlam stepped forward.
21:30Everything sort of hushed a bit because Gough was going to say something.
21:33And as we all know, his famous words.
21:35Well may God save the Queen.
21:37God may save the Queen.
21:39Well may we say God save the Queen.
21:42Well of course nothing will save the Governor-General.
21:45Ray, said the mob.
21:47And we're up there on the balcony raising our glasses.
21:50And this was vintage Whitlam.
21:52This is the sort of thing that the crowd expected.
21:56Gough completely spoke off the cuff.
21:59It would have been impossible to write in advance
22:01and we hadn't had anything to do with it.
22:04He had a flair for the dramatic
22:06and he did that with all the Jews there.
22:08The proclamation which you have just heard read
22:11by the Governor-General's official secretary
22:14was countersigned Malcolm Fraser.
22:17Who will undoubtedly go down in Australian history
22:24from Remembrance Day 1975 as Kerr's Kerr.
22:30His chosen words were deliberate and very pointed but very, very strong.
22:36And I knew then that this was one of the moments in Australian political history.
22:41That stuck in my mind. To me it was very profound.
22:45Word came through that there was something going on at Government House.
22:55Our plan was just to stir the pot.
22:57We got a sheet and some black paint.
23:00And on the sheet we just wrote sucko gough.
23:03And off we went to Government House.
23:05Well when we got there, there was this crowd developing.
23:09There was a mob and they were chanting and there was almost tears and hysterics.
23:15The sergeant of police called in all these reinforcements securing the primitive.
23:19Somebody's decided that they wanted to get into the Government House.
23:22So they all got there and they all tried to lift the boom gates.
23:25The police were holding the boom gates down.
23:27All they had to do was walk around.
23:28They'd walk underneath it.
23:29But anyway that wouldn't have looked as spectacular.
23:31We retired to the small drawing room again.
23:33And we sat there where we had coffee and pour.
23:36We could hear the noise of the crowd at the main gate.
23:40So there was a sort of bit of excitement.
23:42We're walking down the concrete path and at this end is my partner.
23:48We held our sign up and I reckon it took about a minute or so before the crowd really realised.
23:55Hey, these two young punks, they're not on our side.
23:58There was such anger and that I saw that on my partner's face and he was not like that.
24:04I'd never seen such anger on his face.
24:07They turned on us, screaming in our faces and calling us Nazis and all sorts of stuff.
24:13We're only kids.
24:14Sergeant Southwell came into the small drawing room, pulled out from under his arm this banner.
24:20They were really, really angry.
24:22You could just see the venom in their eyes.
24:24This is the banner that was confiscated by the Federal Police.
24:28Stay in Whitlam.
24:30Out the Kerr.
24:32General Strike.
24:34At the steps, the crowd was still buzzing.
24:47There was a lot of action happening.
24:49Are you critical of the Governor General's action?
24:51I think that the Governor General's decision is wrong, but I'm not going to engage in personal
24:55criticism of him, but his decision is an incorrect one.
24:57Thank you very much.
24:58That's right!
24:59That's right!
25:00People were loud and they were very worked up.
25:03Have we got any Fraser supporters here at all?
25:08Really, the world had been turned upside down.
25:10It really was a silly day.
25:12Mad day.
25:13We got to work writing the story.
25:15We finished filing quite late.
25:18Everybody was heading to Charlie's Restaurant, which was a late night hangout for journos and
25:26Parliament House staff.
25:28There was a lot of angst.
25:30Lunik was there.
25:31I think that might have been me.
25:33Because I remember sitting there like this all night.
25:36I had my first cigarette and I ended up with a huge burn on my finger.
25:41So that was a little reminder of the events too.
25:50Next morning up and about for the swearing in of the new Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser,
25:54and the Liberal Ministry.
25:56And then there was another afternoon tea.
25:58Everybody was traumatised.
26:00And it seemed incredibly unfair that it was my birthday.
26:05We was actually in the paper.
26:07You know, there was a Kenorkie School in a Canberra newspaper.
26:10So I bought a copy.
26:11There was obviously somebody at the Canberra Times that was there.
26:13So the only obvious non-Labour supporters were 16-year-old Geoff Didier and his 15-year-old
26:18friend, who bravely displayed a banner, Sucko Goff.
26:21So that was my claim to fame for the next day.
26:24The Public Service sort of came to a standstill awaiting the election.
26:30Goff just kind of led us into getting ready for a campaign.
26:35There were protests all over the country.
26:38But as I've come to learn, the people you get out in the streets
26:43aren't necessarily the people who are going to decide the election.
26:54On election night, we're all sitting on the edges of our seats.
26:57But very quickly, it became apparent that the Coalition had won.
27:01We lost a lot of seats.
27:04We lost a lot of seats.
27:05Oh, it broke my heart.
27:07They'd been through so much.
27:08They'd achieved so much.
27:10Fraser was elected in his own right.
27:13He was our boss.
27:14And then we had to work out how we were going to deal with it.
27:18There was a certain amount of hostility between the Labour Party and the Liberal Party.
27:25We never trusted the Liberals.
27:28The Labour Party sort of felt that we was robbed.
27:30We won two elections.
27:32You wouldn't accept it.
27:33You'd been in power for 23 years.
27:36On the other hand, people on our side say,
27:39well, hang on, we had an election.
27:41We won it overwhelmingly.
27:43We all know that governments will make tough decisions,
27:46usually after they're elected, because they know they'll become unpopular.
27:49It's a strategy.
27:50So you just can't say by throwing it back to the people that it was fair.
27:54And that's caused me to reflect on it.
27:56I went from being a supporter, in a sense, in the early days of Sir John, you know, now,
28:01to looking at with a much more critical eye and coming down on the other side of the fence.
28:05I know I waxed lyrical about Gough Whitlam, but he was a gift to Australia.
28:11And we trusted him.
28:13And he was very gracious about it.
28:15Whitlam became a martyr.
28:17Fraser was initially treated pretty harshly by history, but he did actually do some very good things.
28:27He doubled the allocation for women's refugees on my word.
28:34And that has stuck with me.
28:36Helping with the dismantling of apartheid and on Indigenous affairs.
28:43When he and Whitlam had aged and became friends, I could understand why.
28:49I think, you know, the villain clearly was Kerr.
28:53It ruined Sir John's life.
28:55We've all seen the cartoons of him, the silly top hat and getting drunk at the Melbourne Cup.
29:00And he was a laughing stock.
29:02Yaaah, Vena General, what kind of job is that?
29:05La la la la la la la la la.
29:08Roaming around like a fool in a big top hat.
29:13La la la la la la la la la.
29:16He turned out to be a terribly sad figure in history and I think he deserved what he got.
29:21Well, I thought the way John Kerr was made the villain of the piece was quite wrong.
29:26The powers he exercised were the powers given to him under the Australian Constitution.
29:34I never really changed my views as far as being more on the conservative side of politics.
29:38I still am.
29:39It's interesting that I sort of look back now.
29:41How can one person just sack a whole government?
29:44The public need to do that.
29:45Always.
29:46We need to vote.
29:47It was a political solution that the Governor-General had no part making, which should never have happened.
29:53It was a day in Australian history like none other.
29:58But it was a critical day because it took the Constitution right to the brink.
30:04The main lesson, I think, is that parliamentary democracy has survived.
30:11The people determine what shall happen.
30:23They know what shall happen in there, but the beauty of the world is more therefore valid.
30:44The Listen of the Conspiracy of the Society of the Society of the Society of the Society of the Society of the Society of the Society of the Society.
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