Writer
Jenny Hocking
Jenny Hocking is emeritus professor at Monash University, Distinguished Whitlam Fellow at the Whitlam Institute at Western Sydney University and award-winning biographer of Gough Whitlam. Her latest book is The Palace Letters: The Queen, the governor-general, and the plot to dismiss Gough Whitlam. You can follow Jenny on Twitter @palaceletters.
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EXCLUSIVE – National Archives to release hundreds of letters between the Queen and Governors-General.
The National Archives of Australia is set to release decades of correspondence between the Queen and Governors-General, from Sir Richard Casey in 1965 to Bill Hayden in 1996. The decision follows the High Court’s ruling in my landmark ‘Palace letters’ case against the Archives which, in May 2020, overturned the Queen’s embargo over her correspondence Continue reading »
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The Tamed Estate – cover-up of the Queen‘s role in the Dismissal by the National Archives and The Australian
The release of the Palace letters was pure theatre. Every element was meticulously stage-managed: the set, the props, the narrative. (From the Palace Letters pp 168-172) Continue reading »
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Dissident Liberal senators poised to allow Whitlam’s budget to pass when Sir John Kerr struck
In this extract from her new book, The Palace Letters, Professor Jenny Hocking reveals key entries from dissident Liberal Senator Alan Missen’s ‘highly confidential diary on the 1975 constitutional crisis’. Five Liberal senators had resolved to abstain from a direct vote on the government’s supply bills, which would have enabled the bills to pass, just Continue reading »
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The Palace Letters – in conversation with Jenny Hocking (video)
What do The Palace Letters tell us about our history, Gough Whitlam’s dismissal and our system of Government? Continue reading »
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The question avoided by Kerr and the Palace ‘What does your Prime Minister say?’
In the rush to judgement on the Palace letters one image stands out – the early call, made before the letters had even been released – ‘the Queen was NOT informed!’. As if the entire cache of Palace letters could be read from just one letter, written by the key protagonist Sir John Kerr, after Continue reading »
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Letters of an insecure and indiscreet John Kerr make a mockery of the claim that the Queen played ‘no part’
The Palace letters have brought Kerr’s extensive, even obsessive, ‘reporting’ to the Queen into sharp relief, placing Kerr himself and his peculiar conception of his role as Governor-General under intense scrutiny. Continue reading »
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The Palace Letters have blown apart the claim the Queen had no part in the Whitlam dismissal.
The letters show that the Queen’s responses, and at times even advice, particularly in relation to Kerr’s concern for his own position and the possible use of the reserve powers, played a critical role in his planning and in his eventual decision to dismiss the government. Continue reading »
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Sir John Kerr’s secret ‘Palace letters’ to be released
History will be made this week with the release of hundreds of secret letters between the Queen and the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, relating to Kerr’s 1975 dismissal of the Whitlam government. Continue reading »
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JENNY HOCKING. High Court says ‘Release the Palace Letters’
In an emphatic 6:1 decision the High Court has ruled that the ‘Palace letters’ between the Governor-General and the Queen relating to the 1975 dismissal of the Whitlam government are Commonwealth records, ending the Queen’s embargo over them and opening them for public access under the Archives Act. Continue reading »
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JENNY HOCKING supports Pearls and Irritations.
I am a long-time reader, contributor and supporter of Pearls & Irritations. Continue reading »
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JENNY HOCKING. ‘If I were to terminate his commission’: Sir John Kerr’s secret ‘Palace letters on Whitlam’s dismissal
The final act in the landmark ‘Palace letters’ case seeking access to the Queen’s secret correspondence with the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, relating to Kerr’s dismissal of the Whitlam government will play out in the High Court later this month. Continue reading »
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PROFESSOR JENNY HOCKING The ‘Palace letters’ case at the High Court
Echoes of the Governor-General Sir John Kerr’s vice-regal dismissal of the Whitlam government reverberated across the High Court this week, as the long-running Palace letters case came before the full bench on appeal. Continue reading »
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JENNY HOCKING. High Court to hear bid to release the Queen’s secret Whitlam dismissal letters.
As the Queen reels from one family crisis to another, Buckingham Palace would be looking on a little anxiously as the ‘Palace letters’ case is heard by the full bench of the High Court next week. Continue reading »
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PROFESSOR JENNY HOCKING ‘I never had any doubts about the Palace’s attitude’: Sir John Kerr’s Royal secrets exposed
Letters between Sir John Kerr and Buckingham Palace show that the Palace pressured Kerr to omit from his autobiography his secret exchanges with the Queen’s private secretary before his dismissal of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. This Royally sanctioned erasure is one of several crucial omissions from Kerr’s autobiography, which raise key questions about the ‘Palace Continue reading »
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Brexit in the Antipodes
There is a growing air of desperation in the cross-party efforts to stymie British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s threat to by-pass parliament, and even to ignore a motion of no confidence against him and his government by the House of Commons, in order to force through a no-deal Brexit. It is remarkable that in all Continue reading »
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JENNY HOCKING. ‘A tawdry distortion of history: How the Palace airbrushed Sir John Kerr’s Memoirs’
There have been dramatic revelations from the National Archives of Australia with the release of letters between the Governor-General Sir John Kerr and Buckingham Palace following Kerr’s dismissal of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. These letters provide remarkable and disturbing new material on the dismissal of the Whitlam government and the role of the Palace. They Continue reading »
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JENNY HOCKING. The ‘Palace letters’ case heads to the High Court
Professor Jenny Hocking’s long-running case against the National Archives of Australia seeking the release of the secret ‘Palace letters’ about the 1975 dismissal of the Whitlam government by the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, stepped up again this week with the announcement of a Special Leave hearing in the High Court of Australia on 16 August. Continue reading »
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A national humiliation. We are not allowed to read our own history: The Queen’s letters on Whitlam’s dismissal Remain Secret
As the media debated the political precedents for the Morrison government’s historic defeat in the House of Representatives last week – some pointing to the Bruce government in 1929, and others to the Fadden government in 1941 – largely forgotten was the more recent, and far more compelling, example of the 1975 defeat of the Continue reading »
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JENNY HOCKING. Historical myths die hard: What the Queen really knew about the dismissal of the Whitlam government
Historical myths die hard. And historical myths have plagued our understanding of the dismissal of the Whitlam Labor government by the Governor General, Sir John Kerr, on 11 November 1975. Chief among these foundational myths is the claim that the dismissal was a solo act by Kerr, a lonely and isolated decision, that no other Continue reading »
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JENNY HOCKING. The Best of 2018: Royal distortions of history: why the Queen’s secret “Palace letters” about Gough Whitlam’s dismissal should be released.
The long-running ‘Palace letters’ case over the Queen’s secret correspondence regarding the 1975 dismissal of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam heads back to court on Wednesday 28 November, with an appeal hearing before the full bench of the Federal Court in Sydney. Continue reading »
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JENNY HOCKING. Unmasking history: the Queen, the governor general and the Whitlam dismissal (The Guardian newspaper, 06.12.18)
The ghosts of the dismissal of the Whitlam government 43 years ago were on display at an appeal hearing before the full bench of the federal court last week: Gough Whitlam, the deposed prime minister; Sir John Kerr, the governor general who dismissed him; Malcolm Fraser, the leader of the opposition appointed by Kerr to Continue reading »
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JENNY HOCKING. Royal distortions of history: why the Queen’s secret “Palace letters” about Gough Whitlam’s dismissal should be released.
The long-running ‘Palace letters’ case over the Queen’s secret correspondence regarding the 1975 dismissal of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam heads back to court on Wednesday 28 November, with an appeal hearing before the full bench of the Federal Court in Sydney. Continue reading »
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JENNY HOCKING. ‘Bullying, betrayal and backstabbing’: Can the Liberal party survive?
Scott Morrison is an unlikely Prime Minister. The day before the latest Liberal leadership change Morrison appeared in a memorable photo, arm casually draped around then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s uncomfortable shoulders, and proclaimed his support; ‘This is my leader. I’m ambitious – for him!’. Two days later Morrison emerged from a rancorous party meeting, Continue reading »
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JENNY HOCKING. Archival Manoeuvres in the Dark
This month’s federal court ruling that the ‘Palace letters’, between the Queen and the Governor-General at the time of the Whitlam dismissal, are ‘personal’ and not subject to the Archives Act means that this historic correspondence will remain under lock and key in the National Archives and embargoed ‘on the instructions of the Queen’, potentially Continue reading »
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JENNY HOCKING. Snub over ‘palace letters’ underlines why Australia should ditch the Queen
On Friday the federal court handed down its judgment in my action against the National Archives of Australia seeking the release of the “palace letters” between the Queen and the governor general, Sir John Kerr, regarding the Whitlam dismissal. In a stark decision, Justice John Griffiths held that these historically significant letters, written at a Continue reading »
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JENNY HOCKING. News release. The Palace Letters.
TODAY, Friday 16 March 2018, Justice Griffiths handed down his decision in the Federal Court action ‘Jennifer Hocking v Director-General, National Archives of Australia’, in favour of the National Archives. Justice Griffiths has ruled that the ‘Palace letters’ between the Queen and the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, at the time of the Whitlam dismissal are ‘personal’ not Commonwealth Continue reading »
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JENNY HOCKING. Relics of colonialism: the Whitlam dismissal and the fight over the Palace letters
We will make better decisions on all the great issues of the day and for the century to come, if we better understand the past. – Gough Whitlam The celebration of the “Queen’s birthday” in Australia is a perfect reflection of a fading, remnant, relationship. Commemorated in the Australian states as a public holiday on Continue reading »
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JENNY HOCKING. The palace treats Australia as the colonial child not to be trusted with knowledge of its own history-A REPOST from September 11 2017
Forty-five years after Governor-General John Kerr dismissed Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, records of his communications with the British monarchy in the lead-up to that event are still withheld from us, the Australian people. Continue reading »
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JENNY HOCKING. Pressure Builds on Turnbull Over the Secret ‘Palace Letters’ on the Dismissal of the Whitlam Government -REPOST from June 16, 2017
Pressure is building on the Prime Minister to intervene in the long-running dispute over the release of the ‘Palace letters’, the secret correspondence between the Queen and the Governor-General Sir John Kerr in the months before Kerr’s 1975 dismissal of the Whitlam government. These letters are held by the National Archives in Canberra where they Continue reading »
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JENNY HOCKING. An Australian republic inevitable as Turnbull disappoints again.
The republic is now emerging as a key election issue, with the Prime Minister a mere observer in its wake. In considering the powers of a president in a new Republic it is important to affirm that government can only be formed with the confidence of the House of Representatives. Continue reading »