Governor-General Kerr immediately commissioned Opposition leader Malcolm Fraser to form a caretaker government to secure Supply pending a general election. Acting on the advice of caretaker Prime Minister Fraser, who did not have majority support in the House, the Governor-General dissolved both Houses of Parliament.
In the ensuing double dissolution election on 13 December the Coalition, led by Fraser, won a landslide victory, winning majorities in both Houses of Parliament. As Opposition Leader, Whitlam contested the election and was defeated. Whitlam and Fraser formed what seemed an unlikely friendship in their later years. Much has been written on the dismissal : a number of books and numerous articles which analyse different aspects of the events. The National Archives of Australia provides access to records , including Cabinet documents, for the period of the Whitlam Government.
Whitlam's account of these controversial events is given in The Truth of the Matter and in Abiding Interests. In , on the tenth anniversary of the dismissal, he published The Whitlam Government — The crisis raised a number of crucial questions about Australian democracy and centred on a disagreement between Whitlam and Fraser over the rights of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Whitlam asserted the primacy of the House of Representatives and his right to govern so long as he retained a majority there, whereas Fraser claimed that a government denied Supply by the Senate should resign. This was a fundamental dispute about how we choose Governments. The conflict also highlighted the importance of constitutional conventions in the Australian system. The Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, took an active interest in the crisis, talking to both Fraser and Whitlam at various points during the period following October At one point, Fraser offered to pass Supply, provided an election was called by the middle of On November 11, , Whitlam proposed calling an immediate half-Senate election, but the Governor-General rejected this advice and instead dismissed Whitlam from office.
Later, Kerr issued a statement of reasons for the dismissal. Fraser was offered a commission as caretaker Prime Minister which he accepted , and immediately sought a double dissolution election for 13 December. In the meantime, the Senate passed the Supply Bills, with the Labor senators unaware that their government had been dismissed.
The House passed several motions of confidence in the Whitlam Government and instructed the Speaker, Gordon Scholes, to relay this to Kerr. Which political party was this person a member of? As part of the election campaign, Whitlam had promised to end military conscription , improve education and health care, and increase the rights of women, migrants and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
The Whitlam government had won a majority in the House of Representatives , but not in the Senate. This meant that the Opposition could block many government Bills from passing through the Senate. But the Whitlam government could still pass a large number of Bills, fulfilling many of its election promises.
The Dismissal - 20th Anniversary , by John Shakespeare. Gough Whitlam and supporters demonstrate against the dismissal of his government on the steps of parliament, 11 November Gough Whitlam pouring a handful of red soil into the hands of Vincent Lingiari, by Mervyn Bishop, During members of the Whitlam government were involved in a number of political scandals.
As a result, public opinion began to turn against the government. In October the Liberal Party Opposition leader Malcolm Fraser believed that the Whitlam government was in a weak political position.
This had never been done before by the Australian Parliament. Fraser expected the prime minister to call an election. Do some research to find out how long the Australian Labor Party had been out of government before it won the election. On 11 November , he was sacked on the justification that he had failed to get parliament to approve a national budget and then subsequently declined to resign or call an election.
As Australia is a constitutional monarchy with the Queen as head of state, the governor-general had the authority to do this. But it was an unprecedented action which shocked the country and prompted questions about Australia's political independence. Some viewed it as a "constitutional coup", sparking strikes and violent demonstrations as well as discussion about the country becoming a republic.
But others celebrated his departure. In a general election held a few months later, voters overwhelmingly elected Malcolm Fraser's centre-right Liberal Party - which had been acting as a caretaker government.
0コメント