The Dismissal: 30 Years Ago!

While doing my blog rounds I chanced on Troppo contributor Nicholas Gruen's piece asking the question "where were you on 11 November 1975?" Have to admit I was taken back; was it really 30 years ago when Gough Whitlam's government was dismissed by the then Governor General, Sir John Kerr?

The answer to Nicholas's question is easy. It was the year after I completed my HSC, and the first my first year of an engineering apprenticeship with a large government organisation. I was attending technical college full time for one semester to complete the first two years of the trade course. On the afternoon of 11 November, 1975, I was doing a practical session in the college's machine shop. It was then I heard the news.

Unlike one of my instructors who I remember being particularly incensed at the event, I wasn't particularly upset at the time as my political views were fairly conservative. Like most Australians, I didn't realise the gravity of what had happened, and was glad to see the back of the Whitlam government.

The event wasn't without personal consequence, however. The dismissal of Whitlam, and the shenanigans of Joh Bejelke-Peterson and his role in the dismissal kicked off my interest in politics. It wasn't until some time later that I realised the scope of good reform instigated by the Whitlam government, and the ramifications of Kerr's actions.

It's ironic that Whitlam's chief protagonist, Malcolm Fraser, is now the smallest of "Small L" liberals. When the drama was unfolding, he was seen as the devil incarnate by Labor supporters. Now it would seem he'd be more at home as a Labor leader than heading the group of miserable arch conservatives that are our present government.