Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows prime minister Gough Whitlam (Max Phipps) striding down a corridor in Old Parliament House, surrounded by colleagues, on his way to hear the governor-general’s official secretary proclaim the double dissolution of Parliament on 11 November 1975, as angry crowds outside wildly chant ‘We want Gough’. The clip cuts to a montage of archival footage shot on 11 November 1975 that includes voice-over and the sounds of crowds cheering, protesting and chanting. On the steps of Parliament House, Whitlam makes his famous speech in reaction to the decision to dismiss him. Opposition leader Malcolm Fraser is then shown smiling at the television cameras from the back of a car. This is followed by scenes of people violently protesting on the streets and both leaders conducting electoral campaigning as the narrator describes the political campaigns of the Liberal and Labor parties. The final scenes show a victorious Fraser after his decisive election win on 13 December 1975.

Educational value points

• The clip, from the television miniseries The Dismissal, depicts scenes on the steps of Parliament House on the day of the dismissal of the Whitlam Labor government on 11 November 1975. The Senate, which the Opposition Liberal–Country Party Coalition controlled, had been deferring the passing of the Appropriation Bills. The governor-general of Australia at the time, Sir John Kerr, the Queen’s representative, dismissed the government and called for a general election. In the archival footage shown here, Gough Whitlam refers to Malcolm Fraser as ‘Kerr’s cur’, a derogatory reference indicating Whitlam’s belief that Fraser was doing Kerr’s bidding.

• This clip combines a re-enactment of the events of the Whitlam government’s dismissal with archival footage to heighten the drama. The reality of the events was still fresh in the minds of the Australian public at the time the program was shown, and the use of newsreel footage of some of the actual events had greater dramatic impact than a re-creation of reality alone would have. The footage reveals a bias, clearly displaying sympathy for Whitlam’s plight. Placing the footage of a smirking Fraser in a car between shots of Whitlam on the steps of Parliament shows the director’s belief that Fraser was closely involved in the events leading up to Whitlam’s dismissal.

• In 1972 the Australian Labor Party was elected to government after 23 years of Liberal–Country Party government. Led by prime minister Gough Whitlam, the Labor Party rapidly introduced a range of domestic reforms such as a universal health care system, free tertiary education, the abolition of conscription and the formal ending of the White Australia Policy, as well as making a number of significant foreign policy decisions such as the recognition of China and the granting of self-government to Papua New Guinea. In early November 1975, the money provided by the Supply Bills to maintain the public services of the country for the first five months of the financial year were becoming depleted pending the passage of the main Appropriation Bills, and there were indications that some time before 30 November there would be insufficient funds to meet the necessary commitments of the government.

• When the Senate refuses to pass Supply, section 57 of the Australian constitution allows a double dissolution election. This means that both houses of Parliament, the House of Representatives and the Senate, are dissolved at the same time. Members of the House of Representatives are elected for three years and members of the Senate are elected for six years, so usually a House of Representatives election is held at the same time as a half-Senate election.

• The clip mentions the key campaign themes of the Liberal and Labor parties in the lead-up to the general election in Australia held on 13 December 1975. In the political campaign conducted in 1975, the Labor Party focused on the importance of democratic process and the Liberal and National Country parties focused on the economy. The Labor Party accused Fraser of engineering Whitlam’s dismissal, contrary to the principles of democracy. They advised Australians not to trust Fraser. The Coalition’s campaign focused on economic issues such as high unemployment and high inflation.

• The slogans used in political campaigns attempt to capture the key idea of a party’s platform. Labor had come to power with the ‘It’s Time’ campaign, after 23 years of conservative Liberal–Country Party government. In 1975, the Liberals’ slogan, ‘Turn on the Lights’, encouraged Australians to vote for them after the darkness of the Labor years, while the Labor campaign used ‘Shame Fraser Shame’ to focus on Fraser’s role in Whitlam’s dismissal.

• Edward Gough Whitlam (1916–) was the twenty-first prime minister of Australia who led the Australian Labor Party into government after 23 years of Australia being governed by conservative parties. He served in the Royal Australian Air Force during the Second World War, was a barrister in New South Wales and was elected to the NSW federal seat of Werriwa in 1952. Whitlam became leader of the Opposition in 1967 and led his party to electoral victory in December 1972. Re-elected for a second term in 1974, his government was dismissed in 1975 by the governor-general, Sir John Kerr. He resigned from Parliament in 1978.

• George Miller (1945–) is an Australian writer, producer and director. Along with Byron Kennedy (1952–83), he was the producer of The Dismissal. He studied medicine at the University of New South Wales and his first feature film as a director was Mad Max (1979). This was followed by Mad Max 2 (1981) and Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome (1985). His first US feature as director was Witches of Eastwick (1987). He was nominated for an Academy Award for cowriting, with Nick Enright, the screenplay of Lorenzo’s Oil (1992). He produced Babe (1995) and directed Babe: Pig in the City (1998) and Happy Feet (2006), winner of the 2007 Academy Award for Best Animated Film.

Prime Minister Gough Whitlam strides down a corridor in Parliament House, surrounded by colleagues, on his way to hear the governor-general’s official secretary proclaim the double dissolution of Parliament on 11 November 1975.
Crowd, chanting We want Gough, we want Gough, we want Gough, we want Gough, we want Gough, we want Gough, we want Gough…

The crowd cheers as Whitlam passes through the doors onto the steps outside. The clip cuts to historical footage of Whitlam on the steps of Parliament House.
Gough Whitlam ... governor-general’s official secretary was countersigned Malcolm Fraser.
The crowd boos at Fraser’s name.
Whitlam Who will undoubtedly go down in Australian history from Remembrance Day 1975 as Kerr’s cur.

There are scenes of people violently protesting on the streets.
Narrator And lest we should ever forget, there is violence in the streets this Remembrance Day. Throughout Australia, those who had waited 20 years for a Labor government march in protest. In cities and towns, police leave is cancelled, workers down tools, Liberal Party offices are stoned, and fights erupt in city streets. For a moment, it seems the very fabric of Australian society may unravel.

Both leaders are conducting electoral campaigns for the December 1975 election.
Narrator So begins the federal election campaign of 1975, a campaign in which Gough Whitlam makes no new promises, gives no new undertakings. He speaks simply of a crisis in democracy, of a great wrong that must be righted.

Whitlam stands before a cheering crowd at a podium giving an election speech.
Gough Whitlam Men and women of Australia. The whole future of Australian democracy is in your hands.

There is historical footage of Fraser campaigning and then walking with Sir John Kerr.
Narrator Malcolm Fraser hammers inflation and unemployment, taking as his theme ‘The Three Dark Years’, he calls on Australia to ‘turn on the lights’. Day by day, the shadow cast by the dismissal fades. The economy emerges as the only issue. In the election held on December the 13th, Malcolm Fraser wins the biggest majority in Australian political history. And that was the way of it in Australia in the spring of 1975 – some things lost, some things found.