Jenny Hocking
Recent articles by Jenny Hocking
4 April 2025
‘It's back to the (fossil fuel) future for Peter Dutton’
It’s only the first week – and if you thought Peter Dutton’s election campaign looks chaotic, dishevelled, and thin on policy substance, you’re right.
5 March 2025
The good, the bad and the downright ugly: Our media is broken
We have become accustomed, not too happily, to a form of political journalism in which opinion and news have increasingly merged, blunting the essential distinction between political commentary and detached objectivity. With journalists now routinely writing both news and opinion, this distinction has become impossibly blurred, undermining the impartiality and accuracy on which political journalism depends.
28 January 2025
Mainstream media fails to mention positive Labor policies
The new year in Australian politics, an all-important election year, began on a high with a host of initiatives taking effect from January 1, 2025.
2 January 2025
The continual cover up – Jenny Hocking on the strange disappearance of Gough Whitlam's ASIO file
And it is not just Gough Whitlam's ASIO file that has been culled by the National Archives of Australia. The relevant Government House Guest Books at the time of the Dismissal have disappeared and the entire archive of Kerr's prominent supporters, including Lord Mountbatten, was accidentally burnt in the Yarralumla incinerator.
19 October 2024
‘”We promise him faith and obedience”: King Charles and the Premiers in a royal display of indifference’
‘Rude’, ‘deeply unprofessional’, ‘bad mannered’, a ‘slap in the face’, ‘insulting’, and ‘inhumane’. You could be forgiven for thinking the Australian state Premiers were engaged in a collective criminal enterprise to warrant such strident rebuke from the British press pack. In fact, they had simply declined an invitation to the welcome reception for our visiting (shared) monarch and head of state, King Charles III and his consort Queen Camilla, on their fleeting ‘tour’ of Sydney and Canberra.
5 July 2024
Senator Payman, Palestine, and caucus solidarity
In the wake of Labor Senator Fatima Payman’s shock decision to cross the floor and vote with the Greens against her party I was bemused, to say the least, to see social media light up with valiant attempts to press Gough Whitlam into service as the arbiter of what the ‘correct’ labor response should be. ‘Whitlam would never have suspended her’ was a popular view, and a completely incorrect one. As our most reforming Prime Minister and an avowed moderniser of the Labor party and its policies, Whitlam’s attitude to Labor’s policy platform was nonetheless an ‘uncomplicated’ one: ‘Where I...
4 March 2024
A loss is a loss is a loss
A loss is a loss is a loss. The ever-astute Niki Savva bluntly summed up the significance of the Liberal Partys loss in the Dunkley by-election despite the denial and delusion of the partys reaction to it. Back in the real world, the Labor Party will be relieved and quietly pleased with an outcome that saw its candidate and the new member for Dunkley, Jodie Belyea, increase its primary vote something no pundits predicted - securing 52.7 per cent of the two party preferred (2pp) vote with a 3.6 per cent 2pp swing against.
5 January 2024
The Search for the Palace Letters
Controversial documentary, THE SEARCH FOR THE PALACE LETTERS to premiere on ABC TV + iview on Monday 8 January at 8:00pm AEDT
13 December 2023
Burnt files, lost files and denial of public access: censoring archives and the falsification of history
From the destruction of Gough Whitlams ASIO file, Sir John Kerrs burnt Royal letters of support reduced to ash in the Yarralumla incinerator, to the missing 1975 Government House guest books, these lost archives raise serious concerns about the care with which our vice-regal records are maintained, and our capacity to write a full and transparent history of the dismissal of the Whitlam government.
28 August 2023
Archives, access, and history: can the National Archives democratic function survive?
How did the National Archives of Australia, whose core function is to collect, preserve, manage and make public Australias most significant historical records, become instead an obstacle to public access and a barrier to knowledge of our own history? Minister for the Arts Tony Burke must act to reverse the Morrison governments attack on the spirit of the Archives Act.
22 August 2023
Why I support Pearls and Irritations
Pearls and Irritations is a beacon of thoughtful, thought provoking, thoroughly researched and expertly presented, articles about issues so often ignored by the mainstream media.
4 July 2023
Careful what you wish for: Why a double dissolution over housing could spell trouble for the Greens
They can't say they werent warned. Shortly before coming to office Anthony Albanese said, Ive been underestimated my whole life.
12 June 2023
The search for The Palace Letters
The story behind Jenny Hockings epic battle against the Australian Government and HM Queen Elizabeth to access the Palace Letters is being told through a new documentary film.
9 May 2023
King Charles III of Australia: not my king
After the nauseating display of royal excess and dynastic exceptionalism last week, an Australian republic cannot come soon enough.
12 April 2023
An Indigenous Voice to Parliament: A moment whose time has come
I believe the time for the Voice has come. With those words from the Liberal MP Julian Leeser announcing his resignation as shadow minister for Indigenous Affairs, the path to a successful referendum on an Indigenous Voice to parliament just got a lot clearer, as did Peter Duttons dire miscalculation in opposing it.
29 March 2023
Dispirited, disingenuous, and divided - can the liberal party survive?
The Liberal party is broken. Riven by ideological differences, petty personal feuds and bitter factional disputes, the party which once dominated the Australian political landscape so completely, is today uncertain of what it stands for and incapable of working it out.
12 January 2023
When family and firm collide: escaping a royal horror story
At the heart of Prince Harrys latest salvo in the trans-Atlantic royal family breakdown, now clearly beyond repair, is his ultimate target the media-Palace relationship which has torn his family apart and which in its public disintegration now threatens the monarchy itself.
15 November 2022
The Queens coup and the role of King Charles
I wanted you to know that I appreciate what you do and admire enormously the way you have performed in your many and varied duties. Please dont lose heart. What you did last year was right and the courageous thing to do. (Prince Charles)
20 September 2022
The incautious, entitled, meddling King Charles III of Australia: Can he stay out of politics?
When, according to the self-appointed guardians of public decency and royal decorum, is it ever appropriate to speak about the future of the monarchy let alone, dare I say it, a republic? Not while the Queen was alive - because, disrespect. And not now that the Queen is dead because, also disrespect. And of course, dont even mention the troubling political interventions of our new Head of State, King Charles III of Australia, because that might draw the Monarch and the Monarchy into political controversy.
13 September 2022
Prince Philip and Gough Whitlam: the story The Crown forgot. A socialist arsehole- A Repost
As Gough Whitlam put it- I am the first prime minister since Sir Robert Menzies who has been able to survive a second visit from Prince Phillip'. The long-standing consort described Whitlam as 'a socialist arsehole'
17 August 2022
Scott Morrisons ministerial fetish: An unprecedented trashing of our democracy
Scott Morrison must resign immediately as the member for Cook, leave the Parliament, and try to salvage what remains of his shredded reputation as Australias 30th Prime Minister.
24 May 2022
Brutality, cynicism and unequivocal incompetence
On 21 May Anthony Albanese led the Australian Labor Party to a historic victory, winning government from opposition at an election for just the fourth time since the second world war. Labor appears set to form majority government with at least 76 seats and several seats still in doubt, taking 10 seats from the Liberal party with a 2 party preferred swing of 3.8% nation-wide. After 9 years in opposition this was a decisive victory for Labor and a transformative moment in our history.
19 January 2022
All the Queen's men: a slow recovery after the disaster of 1975
A more dignified relationship between Australia's governors-general and the Palace evolved in the aftermath of John Kerr's sycophantic conduct.
10 January 2022
Scott Morrison, Novak Djokovic and the dark arts of political manipulation
An errant tennis star may be only another piece of the jigsaw being assembled by the Prime Minister as he seeks another term in The Lodge.
4 January 2022
A culture of corruption is engulfing the Morrison government
The Morrison government has corrupted the idea of democratic government itself by undermining of political institutions.
10 November 2021
Royal fingerprints on the dismissal of Gough Whitlam and our history
It's time for the National Archives to release all letters between the Queen and our governors-general as we move towards becoming a republic.
4 November 2021
Voter ID laws: a cynical assault on our democracy
Electoral fraud is virtually non-existent in Australia, so the Morrison government's voter identification legislation should be seen for what it is.
5 October 2021
'I don't need to know about that bit': Gladys Berejiklian, Covid, and the rancid politics of division
With NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro's resignation the third in as many days the state government is in free-fall. The only surprising thing about Gladys Berejiklian's resignation is that it didn't come sooner.
2 September 2021
The Age demeans itself as well as the Victorian public health team
The most disturbing aspect of The Ages disappointing editorial yesterday is its undermining of the states public health messaging and compliance efforts.
30 August 2021
Wilcannia and Covid, a disastrous, discriminatory, failure by Australian and NSW Governments.
The small town of Wilcannia, on the Darling River in outer western New South Wales, has a predominantly Indigenouspopulationof 549, more than 60 of whom now have Covid. At 11%, this is the highest rate of Covid transmission per capita in the state,three times higher than the Sydney hotspot LGAs. Wilcannia has one of the lowest vaccination rates, with around 15% of its Indigenous population fully vaccinated compared to the state average of 35%, while across western NSW less than 7% of the Indigenous population over 16 years is fully vaccinated.
12 August 2021
Why is the Queen still interfering in our history and why is the National Archives allowing this?
Thousands of pages of the Queens secret letters to governors-general from Lord Casey to Sir William Deane, from1965-2001, will soon be open to the public in the most significant release of royal documents since Sir John Kerrs explosive Palace letters. The Archives decision to release the Queens correspondence with these six governors-general follows directly from the High Courts 6:1decisionin the Palace letters case, which found that such letters are not personal as the Archives had incorrectly claimed, ending the Queens embargo over them. Having lost so emphatically at the High Court, why is the Archives still involving the Queen in...
25 May 2021
A national disgrace: the National Archives turns to crowdfunding to save irreplaceable historic records
This week marks one year since the High Court handed down its landmark decision in the Palace letters case that lettersbetween the Queen and the Governor-General Sir John Kerr are considered public documents, ending the Queens embargo and leading the Archives to release them. In what I described then as a moment of legal colonial upstart-ery, the High Court had broken through the barrier of royal secrecy which shields royal actions from public view and from history, something no other Commonwealth nation has yet achieved.
27 March 2021
After Oprah: what will it take to revive an Australian republic?
Oprah Winfreys brilliantly stage-managed tell-allinterview with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry was for viewers, advertisers and the three participants, a tremendous success. For the royal family, not so much.
14 March 2021
A week is a long time in politics and three weeks is even longer
Scott Morrisons prime ministership began with a brazen betrayal, perfectly captured in theimageof a beaming Morrison, arm slung around the shoulders of embattled Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull declaringthis is my leader.Im ambitious for him!. Like every step along the Prime Ministers political path it was entirely contrived, a matey display of faux fealty, friendship and political protection. Two days later, Malcolm Turnbulls political career was over, and Scott Morrison stood in his place. It reads now as the defining image of his Prime Ministership duplicitous, disloyal, and self-serving.
11 February 2021
A royal abuse of political power
The revelations this week by The Guardian UK of the Queens secret intervention in political matters to protect her personal fortune are simply extraordinary. New documents from the UK Archives set out in excruciating detail the power of the monarch to vet legislation in her own interests. Under the guise of exercising the arcane royal consent, long considered a mere formality taken only on ministerial advice, the Queen and Prince Charles can secretly alter any Act that might affect the monarch personally. This they have done with alacrity.
3 February 2021
You can set your political clock to it: federal election looms
When the Murdoch media launch into its ritualistic Labor leadership tensions routine it can only mean theres an election on the horizon. But with a poll showing states rated ahead of the feds regarding administering the vaccine, it would appear trust is an issue that will continue to bedevil the Coalition.
1 January 2021
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 Courts ruling in my landmark Palace letters case against the Archives which, in May 2020, overturned the Queens embargo over her correspondence with Governor-General Sir John Kerr, much of it relating to the dismissal of the Whitlam government.
24 November 2020
The Tamed Estate - cover-up of the Queens 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)
2 November 2020
Dissident Liberal senators poised to allow Whitlams 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 Missens highly confidential diary on the 1975 constitutional crisis. Five Liberal senators had resolved to abstain from a direct vote on the governments supply bills, which would have enabled the bills to pass, just days before the dismissal of the Whitlam government.
22 August 2020
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?
23 July 2020
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 the event.
18 July 2020
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 Kerrs 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.
14 July 2020
The Palace Letters have blown apart the claim the Queen had no part in the Whitlam dismissal.
The letters show that the Queens 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.
12 July 2020
Sir John Kerrs 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 Kerrs 1975 dismissal of the Whitlam government.
31 May 2020
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 Queens embargo over them and opening them for public access under the Archives Act.
29 May 2020
JENNY HOCKING supports Pearls and Irritations.
I am a long-time reader, contributor and supporter ofPearls & Irritations.
16 April 2020
JENNY HOCKING. If I were to terminate his commission: Sir John Kerrs secret Palace letters on Whitlams dismissal
The final act in the landmark Palace letters case seeking access to the Queens secret correspondence with the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, relating to Kerrs dismissal of the Whitlam government will play out in the High Court later this month.
9 February 2020
PROFESSOR JENNY HOCKING The Palace letters case at the High Court
Echoes of the Governor-General Sir John Kerrs 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.
28 January 2020
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.