{"id":277353,"date":"2025-11-11T09:43:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T09:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/277353\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T09:43:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T09:43:07","slug":"paul-keating-says-he-advised-gough-whitlam-to-put-john-kerr-under-police-arrest-during-dismissal-saga-gough-whitlam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/277353\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Keating says he advised Gough Whitlam to put John Kerr \u2018under police arrest\u2019 during dismissal saga | Gough Whitlam"},"content":{"rendered":"

The former prime minister Paul Keating says he advised Gough Whitlam to arrest the then governor general Sir John Kerr at the height of the dismissal saga, calling the incident a \u201ccoup\u201d from which Australian politics<\/a> \u201cnever really recovered\u201d.<\/p>\n

Keating, recently promoted to a junior ministry position in the Labor government when Prime Minister Whitlam was dismissed on 11 November 1975, said Kerr should have been detained by officers of the law, but admitted he was concerned about a potential standoff between military and police.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy proposition was that Gough should ask the queen to accept his advice to appoint a new governor general,\u201d Keating said in an interview with the journalist Niki Savva, to mark half a century since the dismissal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the event that Kerr resisted, I said to Gough he should be put under police arrest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keating, who was prime minister himself between 1991 and 1996, served as minister for northern Australia under Whitlam between October and November 1975. In the taped interview with Savva<\/a>, played at Old Parliament House as part of events marking the anniversary of the dismissal, Keating described Kerr\u2019s dismissal of Whitlam as \u201cbrutality\u201d, and claimed the governor general \u201ccompletely deceived\u201d the prime minister.<\/p>\n

Keating\u2019s analysis rings true with the current prime minister\u2019s summation of the dismissal, which Anthony Albanese described on Monday night as \u201ca calculated plot\u201d<\/a> to remove a democratically elected government via partisan ambush, rather than a constitutional crisis.<\/p>\n

Keating recounted attending a meeting between Kerr and Whitlam at Government House, the governor general\u2019s residence in Canberra, just five days before the dismissal. He said the two men were \u201cmore than friendly\u201d and engaged in \u201cboisterous banter\u201d during the meeting, with no hint that Kerr was on the verge of dismissing the Labor government.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re at the penultimate point of the crisis. Either this has been resolved between the two of them without me knowing, and they\u2019re at the joyful conclusion of it, or why would such mirth be present on such an occasion?\u201d Keating recounted of his thoughts at the time.<\/p>\n

After the meeting, as he and Whitlam left the residence, Keating recounted the prime minister commenting on Kerr\u2019s \u201cleonine mane\u201d of white hair.<\/p>\n

\u201cGough gets in the Mercedes, puts his head back, and I said \u2018he seems alright, Gough\u2019,\u201d Keating said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe [Whitlam] said \u2018he [Kerr] is entirely proper. He\u2019ll do the right thing.\u2019 I put that to memory: \u2018He\u2019s entirely proper, he\u2019ll do the right thing.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Keating described Kerr\u2019s dismissal of Whitlam as \u201cin every respect, a coup\u201d.<\/p>\n

In the interview, Keating recounted visiting Whitlam in his office soon after the dismissal, in which the then junior minister suggested Kerr be arrested.<\/p>\n

Keating has recounted this story previously in other media interviews, but gave more in the Savva interview than prior appearances.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said [to Whitlam], \u2018let\u2019s think about this \u2026 Kerr has expropriated the kingly powers of the monarch, this is what has happened here \u2026 he may have done it with the monarch\u2019s knowledge but he may not have.<\/p>\n

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\u201c\u2018I think you\u2019re entitled to say to the queen that you recommend the appointment of a different and new governor general, and your authority for offering the advice is that the House of Representatives has voted no confidence in the appointed prime minister,\u2019\u201d Keating said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile this problem was not of the queen\u2019s making, it was of the queen\u2019s need to resolve it.\u201d<\/p>\n

As to Keating\u2019s suggestion that Kerr could be put under police arrest if he resisted, Keating said Whitlam was not supportive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said \u2018the only thing you\u2019d have to be sure about, Gough, is, of course, Kerr is technically the commander-in-chief of the soldiers, that is the chief of the defence force. Do not end up in a fight with the police,\u2019\u201d Keating said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn other words, you\u2019d have to have the soldiers with you for this to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe [Whitlam] said: \u2018Thank you, you know-all, for that advice\u2019 \u2026 he wasn\u2019t of a mind to take the advice. He was a constitutionalist, Gough, he wasn\u2019t into blood and gore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Savva asked: \u201cDo you think there would have been blood and gore?\u201d<\/p>\n

Keating replied: \u201cIt depends whether the army would have stuck with Kerr against the police. That is certainly what I would have done if I had been prime minister.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keating said Whitlam remarked: \u201cThere\u2019s something about you bastards from Sussex Street, you always want to lock someone up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The former prime minister Paul Keating says he advised Gough Whitlam to arrest the then governor general Sir…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-277353","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}