Palace letters

{{short description|Documents relating to the dismissal of Gough Whitlam}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Use Australian English|date=October 2025}} {{multiple image | align = right | image1 = Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain(cropped).jpg | width1 = 120 | alt1 = | image2 = Gough Whitlam at the Lodge 1974.jpg | width2 = 120 | alt2 = | image3 = Governor-General Sir John Kerr (cropped).jpg | width3 = 105 | alt3 = | footer = From left to right: Queen Elizabeth II, Gough Whitlam, Sir John Kerr.}} {{Gough Whitlam sidebar}} The '''Palace letters''', sometimes labelled as the '''Palace papers''', were letters between Queen Elizabeth II, through her Private Secretary Martin Charteris, and Australian Governor-General Sir John Kerr around the time of the 1975 constitutional crisis, in which Kerr dismissed Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|last=Byrne|first=Elizabeth|date=30 May 2020|title=What did the Queen know about Gough Whitlam's dismissal? We might be about to find out|work=ABC News (Australia)|url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-30/palace-letters-from-queen-could-shed-light-on-whitlam-dismissal/12301778}}</ref> The phrase 'Palace letters' originated in the work of Australian historian and Whitlam biographer Professor Jenny Hocking, who successfully overturned the Queen's embargo over these letters, as a reference to Buckingham Palace, the official residence of Elizabeth in London.<ref>{{cite book |first=Jenny |last=Hocking |title=Gough Whitlam: His Time |page=412}}</ref>

Kerr's copies of these letters are held by the National Archives of Australia, which would ordinarily have made them publicly accessible after 30 years as provided by the ''Archives Act''. However, the letters arrived at the Archives as a voluntary deposit of personal papers and access was therefore subject to terms set down by Kerr, which meant that public access was denied according to an embargo placed over them by the Queen until at least 2027 and after that date until permitted by the Queen's private secretary.

In 2016, Professor Jenny Hocking, having been refused access to the letters, sued the National Archives for their release, arguing that the letters were 'Commonwealth records' not 'personal' and they should therefore be available for public access 31 years after their creation according to the provisions of the ''Archives Act 1983''. In 2020, the High Court of Australia found in Hocking's favour in a 6–1 decision and ruled that these documents should be accessible to the Australian public as Commonwealth records, and ordered the Director-General of the National Archives to reconsider Hocking's request.<ref name="high court"/> The High Court also issued three cost orders against the National Archives directing it to pay Professor Hocking's costs.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.hcourt.gov.au/cases/case_s262-2019 |title=Case S262/2019: Hocking v. Director-General of the National Archives of Australia |website=High Court of Australia |date=2019}}</ref> The National Archives had spent a total of $1.6{{nbsp}}million unsuccessfully contesting Hocking's case seeking public access to the Palace letters.<ref>{{cite web |first=Shane |last=Wright |title=Archives need to be brought into technological age: Fricker |url=https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/archives-need-to-be-brought-into-technological-age-fricker-20210804-p58ftm.html |website=The Age |date=4 August 2021}}</ref> The letters were made public, in full and online, on 14 July 2020.<ref name="release">{{cite web|url=https://www.naa.gov.au/explore-collection/kerr-palace-letters|title=The Kerr Palace Letters|website=National Archives of Australia|date=14 July 2020|access-date=14 July 2020}}</ref>

== Background == {{see main|1975 Australian constitutional crisis}} In October 1975, the Opposition (Liberal/National-Country party coalition) used its control of the Australian Senate to defer passage of appropriation bills (needed to finance government expenditure), that had been passed by the Australian House of Representatives. The Opposition stated that they would continue their stance unless Whitlam called an election, subsequently urging Governor-General Sir John Kerr to dismiss Whitlam unless he agreed to their demand. Whitlam believed that Kerr would not dismiss him, and Kerr did nothing to disabuse Whitlam of this notion. On 11 November 1975, Whitlam intended to call a half-Senate election which was due at that time in an attempt to break the deadlock. When he went to Government House for an agreed meeting with Kerr to sign the final paperwork for the election, Kerr instead dismissed him as Prime Minister and shortly thereafter installed in his place Malcolm Fraser, the Leader of the Liberal Party of Australia and Leader of the Opposition.<ref>{{cite book |first=Jenny |last=Hocking |title=Gough Whitlam: His Time MUP |date=2012 |pages=330–332}}</ref>

Queen Elizabeth II and her Australian representative Governor-General Sir John Kerr exchanged more than 200 letters, which are now held in the National Archives of Australia. If they were Commonwealth records, they would ordinarily have been made public in 2006, 31 years after they were created.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|date=2020-05-29|title=Court rules release of Queen's secret 'Palace Letters' during dismissal of Gough Whitlam's Australian government|language=en-GB|work=The Telegraph|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/05/29/court-rules-release-queens-secret-palace-letters-dismissal-gough/|access-date=2020-05-29|issn=0307-1235}}</ref> However, the letters were designated 'personal' records and were under the embargo of the Queen until at least 2027, with either the Queen's private secretary or the Governor-General's official secretary able to veto the release of the letters thereafter.<ref name=":0"/> Public access to the letters was therefore barred by the National Archives, which claimed that they were 'personal' papers and not Commonwealth records, and therefore did not come under the Australian ''Archives Act 1983''.<ref name="high court">{{cite AustLII|HCA|19|2020|litigants=Hocking v Director-General of the National Archives of Australia|parallelcite= }}</ref>

== Legal challenge == thumb|150px|Professor Jenny Hocking of Monash University (2006) In 2016, Hocking commenced proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia against the National Archives of Australia seeking the release of secret correspondence between Sir John Kerr and the Queen regarding the dismissal of the Whitlam government.

In 2020, Hocking revealed that there were more than 200<!--she said 211 - on release the NAA said 2012--> 'Palace letters'.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://johnmenadue.com/professor-jenny-hocking-if-i-were-to-terminate-his-commission-sir-john-kerrs-secret-palace-letters-on-whitlams-dismissal|last=Hocking|first=Jenny|title='If I were to terminate his commission': Sir John Kerr's secret 'Palace letters on Whitlam's dismissal|website=Pearls & Irritations|date=16 April 2020|access-date=13 July 2020}}</ref> They cover the bulk of Kerr's term in office, from 15 August 1974 to 5 December 1977, and it was an agreed fact in Hocking's Federal Court action that most of them "address topics relating to the official duties and responsibilities of the Governor-General" and some "take the form of reports to The Queen about the events of the day in Australia".<ref>{{cite AustLII|litigants=Hocking v Director-General of the National Archives of Australia|FCAFC|12|2019|pinpoint=46|parallelcite=|date=8 February 2019|courtname=|juris=|ref=}}</ref> There had been a long debate regarding whether the Queen might have known about the machinations of the dismissal, and it was thought that the contents of the 'Palace letters' could clarify and possibly settle that issue.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite magazine|title=Queen Elizabeth's Letters, Which Could Address Controversial Dismissal of Australian Government, to Be Made Public|url=https://time.com/5844446/queen-elizabeth-letters-australian-government/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200529082104/https://time.com/5844446/queen-elizabeth-letters-australian-government/|url-status=dead|archive-date=May 29, 2020|magazine=Time|language=en|access-date=2020-05-30}}</ref>

The case was at first unsuccessful in the Federal Court and in February 2019 an appeal to the Full Court of the Federal Court was rejected by a majority.<ref>{{cite AustLII|litigants=Hocking v Director-General of the National Archives of Australia|source=FCAFC|num=12|year=2019|pinpoint=|parallelcite=|date=|courtname=|juris=|ref=}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://johnmenadue.com/jenny-hocking-a-potent-personal-deployment-of-power-the-queens-letters-on-whitlams-dismissal-remain-secret|last=Hocking|first=Jenny|title=A national humiliation|website=Pearls and Irritations|date=21 February 2019|access-date=23 February 2019}}</ref> In a strong dissenting judgment, Justice Flick found that the Palace letters were Commonwealth records and, further, that it was "difficult to conceive of documents which are more clearly 'Commonwealth records' and documents which are not 'personal' property" than the Palace letters. He described the letters as concerning "'political happenings' going to the very core of the democratic processes of this country".<ref>{{cite AustLII|litigants=Hocking v Director-General of the National Archives of Australia|source=FCAFC|num=12|year=2019|pinpoint=110|parallelcite=|date=|courtname=|juris=|ref=}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.griffithreview.com/articles/archival-secrets-and-hidden-histories/|last=Hocking|first=Jenny|title=Archival secrets and hidden histories: reasserting the right to public access|journal=Griffith Review|volume=67|date=February 2020}}</ref>

In January 2020, Sir Edward Young, Elizabeth's private secretary stated a preference for "all vice-regal letters to remain sealed until at least five years after her reign ends and for him to maintain a sole veto on whether they should be released at all".<ref name=":2">{{Cite news|last=Troy|first=Bramston|date=29 May 2020|title=High Court was right to release John Kerr's correspondence with the Queen|work=The Australian|url=https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/high-court-was-right-to-release-john-kerrs-correspondence-with-the-queen/news-story/c3b7072ffcc4999256c89175be3b5f5b}}</ref>

On 29 May 2020, the High Court of Australia ruled that the Palace letters were now under the control of the National Archives and therefore must be considered as records that are the property of the Commonwealth, and "Commonwealth records" for the purposes of the ''Archives Act'', and ordered the Director-General of the National Archives to reconsider Professor Hocking's request for access to the letters which it had previously denied.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Historian wins bid to read 'Palace letters' previously deemed 'private'|url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-29/high-court-rules-palace-letters-released-historian-jenny-hocking/12299164|date=2020-05-28|website=www.abc.net.au|language=en-AU|access-date=2020-05-29}}</ref> National Archives Director-General David Fricker immediately stated that "We accept the High Court's judgment and will now get to work examining these historically significant records for release under the provisions of the ''Archives Act''...The National Archives is a pro-disclosure organisation. We operate on the basis that a Commonwealth record should be made publicly available, unless there is a specific and compelling need to withhold it." He nevertheless added the caveat that "some records may not be released, as exemptions for things like national security still play a role".<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{cite web|url=https://cdn.hcourt.gov.au/assets/publications/judgment-summaries/2020/hca-19-2020-05-29.pdf|title=Hocking v Director-General of the National Archives of Australia [2020] HCA 19|website=High Court of Australia: Judgment Summaries|date=29 May 2020|access-date=29 May 2020}}</ref><ref name="high court"/><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/may/29/palace-letters-high-court-rules-queen-secret-correspondence-whitlam-dismissal-are-commonwealth-records|last1=Knaus|first1=Christopher|last2=Zhou|first2=Naaman|title=Palace letters: high court ruling paves the way for release of Queen's secret correspondence before 1975 Whitlam dismissal|work=The Guardian|date=29 May 2020|access-date=29 May 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.smh.com.au/national/high-court-ruling-favours-release-of-palace-papers-on-whitlam-dismissal-20200528-p54x9l.html|last=Whitbourn|first=Michaela|title=High Court ruling favours release of 'Palace Papers' on Whitlam Dismissal|work=Sydney Morning Herald|date=29 May 2020|access-date=29 May 2020}}</ref>

The letters were made public, in full and online, on 14 July 2020.<ref name="release"/><ref>When the National Archives' website immediately crashed, the papers were also hosted in full on the website of ''The Guardian''{{mdash}}{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/ng-interactive/2020/jul/14/the-palace-letters-read-the-full-documents-from-the-national-archives-here|last=Evershed|first=Nick|title=The 'palace letters': read the full documents from the national archives here|work=The Guardian|date=14 July 2020|access-date=14 July 2020}}</ref>

In January 2022, the National Archives of Australia released a further cache of over 2,000 pages of vice-regal correspondence between six other governors-general and the Queen, from Lord Casey in 1966 to Sir William Deane in 2001, as a result of the High Court's ruling in the Palace letters case. These showed that Kerr had written far more extensively than past governors-general.<ref name="guardian070122">{{cite web |first=Christopher |last=Knaus |url=https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jan/07/newly-released-royal-letters-reveal-governor-generals-breaches-of-protocol-ahead-of-1975-whitlam-dismissal |title=Newly released royal letters highlight governor general's breaches of convention ahead of 1975 Whitlam dismissal |website=The Guardian |date=7 January 2022}}</ref>

==Content of the letters== Hocking's book ''The Palace Letters'' cites a key letter from Charteris of 2 October 1975 which shows that 'the Queen, Prince Charles, and [Sir Martin] Charteris were all aware by September 1975 that Kerr was considering dismissing the government and knew of his failure to warn Whitlam of that possibility.<ref>{{cite book |first=Jenny |last=Hocking |title=The Palace Letters: The Queen, the Governor-General and the Plot to Dismiss Gough Whitlam |publisher=Scribe Publications |location= Melbourne |date=2020 |isbn=978-1-922310-24-8 |page=193}}</ref> The letters revealed that Kerr had discussed the prospect of dismissing the government with Prince Charles and the Queen, several weeks before he did so, and that he was prepared to disregard the draft legal background of the Australian solicitor-general, Sir Maurice Byers that rejection of supply does not "[compel] the Crown's representative ... to intervene".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kelly |first=Paul |title=November 1975 |date=1995 |isbn=9781863739870 |page=213|publisher=Allen & Unwin }}</ref> The view of the palace, communicated to Kerr, was that the reserve powers did exist and that Kerr had the power to use them despite the law officers' draft background to the contrary, but did not encourage or advise Kerr on whether to use them.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Jenny |last=Hocking |title=The Palace Letters case: Royal secrets and the Whitlam government dismissal |journal=Precedent |publisher=Australian Lawyers Alliance |issue=166 |date=September 2021 |pages=16–21 |url=https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.118425497753437 }}</ref> Despite these revelations the Palace itself continues to deny that it played 'any part' in Kerr's decision to dismiss the Whitlam government.<ref>{{cite web |title=Buckingham Palace issued rare statement after release of the Palace letters |website=Sydney Morning Herald |date=15 July 2020 |url=https://www.smh.com.au/world/buckingham-palace-issued-rare-statement-after-release-of-the-palace-letters-20200715-p55c3n.html}}</ref> Professor Frank Bongiorno however has concluded, as have others, that 'the Palace was indeed a player'.<ref>{{cite journal |journal=Australian Historical Studies |volume=52 |issue=3 |date=2021 |pages=446–447 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1031461X.2021.1944314 |doi=10.1080/1031461X.2021.1944314 |first=Frank |last=Bongiorno |title=The Palace Letters and The Truth of the Palace Letters|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

The letters released in January 2022 revealed Kerr's private hostility towards the Whitlam government, including criticism of its policies and appointments. During the 1975 crisis, Kerr wrote to the monarch asking for advice about the possible use of reserve powers to dismiss the government.<ref name="guardian070122"/>

After Kerr had dismissed Whitlam, he wrote to the palace that he had not warned Whitlam of his intention to dismiss him because he feared that Whitlam would dismiss him as Governor General first.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Zhou |first1=Naaman |title=Gough Whitlam dismissal: what we know so far about the palace letters and Australian PM's sacking |url=https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jul/14/what-we-know-so-far-about-the-palace-letters-and-the-dismissal-of-australian-prime-miister-ough-whitlams-dism |website=The Guardian |access-date=11 November 2023 |date=14 July 2020}}</ref>

== References == {{reflist}}

== External links == * [https://www.naa.gov.au/explore-collection/kerr-palace-letters The Letters], hosted by the National Archives of Australia * [https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/ng-interactive/2020/jul/14/the-palace-letters-read-the-full-documents-from-the-national-archives-here The Letters], provided by ''The Guardian'' * [https://www.smh.com.au/national/more-than-40-years-in-the-making-read-the-palace-papers-in-full-20200714-p55bxf.html The Letters in transcript], provided by the ''Sydney Morning Herald''

{{Elizabeth II|state=collapsed}}

Category:1975 documents Category:National Archives of Australia Palace letters Category:1975 Australian constitutional crisis Category:Freedom of information Category:2020 in Australian law Category:Australia–United Kingdom relations Category:Works by Elizabeth II Category:Letters written in English