The 50th anniversary of the dismissal of the Whitlam Government on 11 November 1975 should prompt all Australians to ponder the strength of our democracy.

Stephen Stockwell 1975: The Ballads of the Whitlam Dismissal (Tallebudgera Press 1975)

In the intervening years, many books have given individual views of the event, but one indisputable truth is that much of the background remains mired in secrecy. Stephen Stockwell’s book lists many aspects that remain disputed, often through the deliberate choice of the powerful who prefer obscurity to enlightenment.

Stockwell acknowledges researchers who work to uncover the truth behind the dismissal, especially the remarkable Jenny Hocking. Hocking has tirelessly pursued records about the role of the British monarchy. By any acceptable definition, democracy is incompatible with notions of foreign interference, privileged individuals and secrets kept from citizens and voters.

If nothing else, the role of the “crown” or of the Queen’s Australian representative in the dismissal suggests we cannot be democratic until we become a republic. By rejecting the idea of a republic, Prime Minister Albanese shows that he does not value democracy further than the convenient belief that elections give his government a mandate and that we should stop protesting.

Stockwell’s researches into the possibility of a “smoking gun” in the role of the US complements Hocking’s UK focus neatly. While his book might raise more questions than it answers, its aim is to recommend that everyone notes the importance of the dismissal in our history.

I certainly felt the shadow of foreign influence in the replacement of prime minister Kevin Rudd. Perhaps we will never recover from the subtle threat of powerful interests and their ability to manipulate markets and the media, synonymous with the Murdoch press these days. Surely, power is at its greatest when those who wield it no longer need to do or say anything, but sit back and watch subalterns act for them. How difficult it has become to question the role of the US bases and the power of overseas investors as we pay homage to American values of capitalism. We have come to associate security with armaments and liberty with the freedom to purchase.

The book’s format is unique. Beginning with Preface, Timeline and Prelude, it progresses through a dozen original ballads followed by an essay called “Spies, Lies and Sovereignty” and a pretty comprehensive Bibliography. The ballads have titles for themes such as “The Ballad of a Sovereign State”, “Smoking Gun”, “Loans Affair”, “Bad Omens” and “Aftermath” or for people “Michael Hand”, “Gough Whitlam”, “John Kerr”, “Jim and Junie” and “The Fall of Gough Whitlam”. “Prelude” also is in ballad form and is echoed by an “Epilogue”. Apart from the creative and academic style writing, Stockwell supplies illustrations in the form of original caricatures.

Introducing “The Penguin Book of Australian Ballads”, Russell (“Australian Legend”) Ward explains that a ballad is “narrative folk-verse or narrative literary verse written in the style of folk ballads”.

Most of Stockwell’s ballads are lengthy, but would be well received at Poets’ Breakfasts traditionally held at folk festivals. The shorter verses of “Prelude” and “Epilogue” are more succinct and appealing. The first asks, referencing the folk rhyme about Guy Fawkes and the gunpowder plot: “Remember, remember November eleven/ That day of infamy/ When Gough Whitlam was sacked, democracy attacked/ We lost our sovereignty?”

The “Epilogue” asks of the future, “Will Eureka’s flag fly, o’er a nation that tried/ To live in liberty? Remember, remember November eleven/ As we yearn to be free/ We can’t escape the blame, while we’re pawns in their game/ And still a colony”. Stockwell does not let us off the hook.

In “Aftermath”, Stockwell notes that “Our scribes and artists are outraged,/ They rally to the cause: There’s Rodney Hall and Midnight Oil,/ The George Miller, of course/ My friend, that sleuth Jan McKemmish/ Wrote “Gap in the Records’,/ Peter Carey penned “Tristan Smith”,/ Warned of “Amnesia’s force”. Of course, the irreverent Norman Gunston was there in 1975 on the steps of Parliament House with Whitlam and Kerr’s secretary.

Musicians expressing disgust at the dismissal include Red Gum with “Tell Malcolm we’re serving, serving USA” and John Dengate with “Old King Kerr”. As recently as 2022, Bob Wilson and the Goodwills won the Alistair Hulett Songs for Social Justice Award with a song called “When Whitlam took his turn at the wheel”.

The dismissal is satirised too in the work of John Clarke and cartoonist Michael Leunig, and in Warren Fahey’s collection “The Balls of Bob Menzies” (1989) and the Gillies Report in 1983 had a special called “Il Dismissale”. Such works expressed outrage at the political damage to the left and the shame heaped upon Australia. Stockwell’s ballads focus on the broader question of the continuing deleterious effects on our political culture. Stockwell is a musician, a member of “Brisbane’s Black Assassins”, an elusive punk band of the 1980s during the “Reich of Jackboot Joh”. A CD of the ballads would be an interesting addition.

Stockwell ends on an idealistic note, hoping that respect for the land and for one another will produce high standards of political behaviour. Then we might reject authoritarianism, ignorance, war and cynicism and accept liberty, learning and humanity.

Other books about the dismissal will emphasise constitutional issues rather than foreign conspiracies, but it is unlikely we will find one as stimulating in sentiment and as diverse in its approach. Sometimes the unorthodox approach cuts through ossified debates.

In concluding, Stockwell notes the unlikely reconciliation between Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser who took political advantage of the government’s difficulties over supply and became known as “Kerr’s cur”. Stockwell sees a message of hope for “our democracy, our nation and the sovereignty on which it rests: the Australian people – First nations, colonial settlers and multicultural migrants – we are all in this thing, Australia, together”. It would be comforting to think that we could exercise real choices about our future. Remembering and learning from 11 November is essential to our sovereignty.

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.