Politics with Michelle Grattan: Remembering the day Gough Whitlam lost his job

Tuesday is the fiftieth anniversary of the Dismissal of the Whitlam government. For those who were alive at the time it’s one of those “where were you?” moments. In this podcast, the Conversation’s politics and society editor Amanda Dunn and I discuss that historic day and its impact on Australia’s federal politics.

On the scene when Gough Whitlam gave his famous speech on the steps of Parliament House (now Old Parliament House):

I was on the steps […] with many, many other people, journalists, staffers, the start of a gathering crowd. Everybody was shocked, amazed. We’d heard only a while before of this act by the governor-general.

Despite Whitlam’s emphatic election loss months later, the mood of his supporters in the campaign was intense:

I travelled a lot with Gough Whitlam [in those weeks] and you really got a quite distorted picture of what was likely to happen [at the election], because there were these immense crowds and people were so enthusiastic about Whitlam that it was easy to get the impression he had more support than of course he did.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra

Read more:

• Gough Whitlam believed John Kerr’s wife played a key role in The Dismissal. Did she?
• How did the 10 prime ministers since Whitlam change Australia?
• Extraordinary and occasionally inept: before The Dismissal, the Whitlam government changed Australia forever

Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.