Working with PM Fraser - parting words - Part 5 - Malcolm Fraser
John Menadue stayed on as the most senior public servant in the land, after the trauma of the Dismissal. In this five-part series he details what life was like working with PM Fraser. Given his closeness to Whitlam, some of his conclusions are surprising.
22 November 2025
A calculated plot, an ambush, a coup
Five decades on from the dismissal of the Whitlam government, Australia is seeing a notable shift in the narrative that now recognises it as a calculated coup, and an assault on the conventions of government.
22 November 2025
Working with PM Fraser - burying White Australia - Part 4
John Menadue stayed on as the most senior public servant in the land, after the trauma of the Dismissal. In this 5-part series he details what life was like working with PM Fraser. Given his closeness to Whitlam, some of his conclusions are surprising.
21 November 2025
Working with PM Fraser - a country divided - Part 3
John Menadue stayed on as the most senior public servant in the land, after the trauma of the Dismissal. In this 5-part series he details what life was like working with PM Fraser. Given his closeness to Whitlam, some of his conclusions are surprising.
21 November 2025
Denouement: trapped between empires - Part 6
“What you in Australia must understand is that you are more to blame than the CIA. You want this to happen, you want a certain administration in control, and you don’t want another administration in control. Do the loyalties of your intelligence services lie with your country as a whole or with the establishment in your country? In most instances, the answer you find is with the establishment.” Victor Marchetti, former CIA officer and deputy director at Pine Gap.
20 November 2025
Working with PM Fraser - the business view - Part 2
John Menadue stayed on as the most senior public servant in the land, after the trauma of the Dismissal. In this 5-part series he details what life was like working with PM Fraser. Given his closeness to Whitlam, some of his conclusions are surprising.
20 November 2025
From Whitlam to AUKUS: Sovereignty silenced
When governor-general Sir John Kerr dismissed Gough Whitlam on 11 November 1975, Australia lost more than a government. It lost a measure of its independence a loss that still shadows our politics half a century later.
19 November 2025
Working with PM Fraser - the changeover - Part 1
John Menadue stayed on as the most senior public servant in the land, after the trauma of the Dismissal. In this 5-part series he details what life was like working with PM Fraser. Given his closeness to Whitlam, some of his conclusions are surprising.
15 November 2025
Keating on the malevolence and brutality of The Dismissal
Paul Keating had just been appointed to his first ministry when the governor-general brought it all crashing down on November 11. The former prime minister is interviewed by Niki Savva.
14 November 2025
The Whitlam agenda – the one thing we left out
Fifty years ago, the Whitlam Government was swept from power, leaving a policy legacy unmatched by any administration, before or since.
13 November 2025
‘Extraordinary and reprehensible circumstances' - Part 4
Malcolm Fraser was a conservative in terms of the constitution. His view was the Senate was primarily a house of review – and apart from exceptional circumstances should not frustrate, certainly not on a purely obstructionist basis”
13 November 2025
After 50 years, it’s time we called it a coup
Fifty years ago today, an elected government was ousted by a representative of a hereditary monarchy. Broadly, Australian society has still not grappled with these events.
12 November 2025
What Washington really thought of Whitlam before the dismissal
The cloud of American involvement in the events of November 1975 is unlikely to ever clear. Especially while US presidential libraries continue to block access to critical documents that might shed light on the shenanigans.
