Pearls and Irritations

Many Australians will be surprised that voters across the US could cast a vote for Donald Trump after a (poorly) attempted coup on January 6, 2021. The only reason we might find this shocking is because we don’t talk about the Dismissal of the Whitlam government in 1975 as what it really was – a successful coup.

Many will be surprised that voters across the US could cast a vote for Donald Trump after a (poorly) attempted coup on January 6, 2021. Australian history shows that notions of representative democracy aren’t really top of mind for many voters. Just like in Australia in 1975, economic issues dominated the 2024 US election, despite the attempted ouster of a democratically elected government. Additionally, there are plenty of voters for whom January 6 actually looks like a defence of democracy – and that was also true in 1975 Australia. The only reason we might find this shocking is because we don’t talk about the Dismissal as what it really was – a successful coup.

This is not a new idea. Gough Whitlam himself referred to the events as a coup. Paul Keating continues to do so. A few journalists such as Guy Rundle, John Pilger and Andrew Fowler all use the term, along with a small fraction of the political left. But in wider Australian society the idea does not seem to have much purchase. The reason this is so strange is that the events objectively fit the definition of a coup.

The widely accepted academic definition of a coup is the “illegal and overt attempts by the military or other elites within the state apparatus to unseat the sitting executive”. The Dismissal checks every element of this definition. The Governor-General and parliamentary Liberal party certainly fit the definition of elites within the state apparatus, and the overt aim of the actors was unquestionably to remove the Labor executive. Few other than die-hard royalists defend the idea that a Governor-General can legally, unilaterally dismiss a Prime Minister that holds a majority in the House of Representatives, making Governor-General John Kerr’s actions illegal. Even if you don’t think that particular act was illegal, there’s the stacking of the Senate, dissolving the Parliament despite the fact the House had just passed a motion of confidence in Gough Whitlam, and taking advice from the Chief Justice in direct violation of the Government’s instructions. It was a soft coup, without violence, but still a coup.

Many might retort that the subsequent stunning electoral defeat for Labor demonstrate that ousting the Whitlam Government was in fact the right course of action. In the view of many conservatives the ouster of the Whitlam Government was a noble defense of their notions of democracy. For example Senator Reg Withers described the Whitlam Government’s approach as akin to “dictatorships and communist controlled nations… a dangerous precendent for a democratic country.” The argument goes that any means to remove such a threat is justified – and the electorate agreed. When January 6, 2021 is raised again in the US, a similar argument is likely to be made: just look at the 2024 election, the people don’t think it was disqualifying. Coups, however, are quite often popular and receive subsequent democratic approval – but they are still coups. Additionally, you can agree with the outcome of a coup – but it is still a coup. For example there is a strong case that the Portuguese military’s overthrow the right-wing dictatorship in 1975 was justified on democratic grounds. Right-wingers might despise the Whitlam Government and agree that any means of deposing him was justified. Again, that does not change the fact that the events of 1975 conform to the definition of a coup.

I think there are a number of reasons we don’t want to acknowledge the 1975 coup for what it was. First, it undermines our idea of ourselves as a democratic nation. There is an incorrect perception that coups happen in Africa, Latin America, Asia, even continental Europe, but not in Western, Anglo-American democracies like Australia and the US. We like to tell ourselves a story of a peaceful federation and the progressive extension of rights to more and more Australians through democratic institutions. A conservative, monarchist coup complicates this rosy view of our system – not least because the vast majority of the electorate were at least indifferent. Similarly, a slim majority of US voters who felt democracy is under threat actually voted for Donald Trump. If there is a real or perceived threat to democratic institutions, it didn’t drive many voters from Trump.

Second, if we examine the events of 1975 like a coup, the way we would if it happened in Africa or Latin America, a whole lot of deeply uncomfortable questions are raised. What policies were so deeply troubling to Australian elites that undemocratic means were justified? Why did Whitlam accept the results of the coup so passively? Were there foreign powers that benefited from Whitlam’s ouster, if so how? Is there still a section of the country that would support undemocratic means to achieve their goals? This year marked the 49th anniversary of the Dismissal, and with the re-election of Donald Trump after a coup attempt, I hope Australians will take a harder look at the events of 1975.

Additionally, if we think of the ouster of the Whitlam Government as The Dismissal, it’s safely confined to the past as a weird, one-off, constitutional oddity. Coups occur significantly more often. This re-election of Donald Trump is just the latest demonstration that coups aren’t a Third World phenomena, and that Western representative democracies are not specially immune from anti-democratic actions. It’s very much worth examining our politics and history in the same way we would another country. I hope by the 50th anniversary Australians will be much more comfortable referring to the ouster of the Whitlam Government for what it was: the 1975 Coup.

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