Politics

Federal

The Dismissal

Opinion

The forgotten hypocrisy over Whitlam’s dismissal: He tried to oust Libs the same way

George Brandis Former high commissioner to the UK and federal attorney-general October 12, 2025 — 3.30pm Advertisement

Fifty years ago today, Australians witnessed the opening of the final chapter of our greatest political drama – the demise of the Whitlam government. The catalyst was the political cause celebre of 1975 – the so-called overseas loans affair .

The minister for minerals and energy, Rex Connor, a storied Labor colossus, had solicited a massive loan in petrodollars (equivalent to 1/16th of Australia’s GDP) not through the orthodox channel of the global bond markets, but by the agency of a dubious Pakistani commodities trader, one Tirath

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