The dismissal of the Whitlam government was not a constitutional crisis but a “partisan political ambush”, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has declared while attacking conservative forces for usurping the will of the nation’s voters.

Announcing plans to erect a statue to mark Gough Whitlam and the most controversial day in Australia’s federal parliamentary history, Albanese on Monday evening said the then government’s sacking on November 11, 1975, was the sternest test of Australian democracy.

The 50th anniversary of Whitlam’s sacking is being marked by a series of events across the country, although most are centred on Old Parliament House.

Albanese revealed the statue marking the dismissal would be placed in front of the old parliament to mark both Whitlam’s speech of November 11 and

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