Former prime minister Paul Keating has revealed he told Gough Whitlam to either sack Sir John Kerr or have the governor-general arrested during the dismissal , a move he admitted could have escalated the crisis into a conflict between the police and armed forces.

In an interview released by the Museum of Australian Democracy today to mark the 50th anniversary of Whitlam's dismissal in 1975 , Keating said he put the advice to the then-prime minister in the immediate aftermath of being sacked by Kerr.

"I said, 'Kerr has expropriated the… queenly powers of the monarch'," Keating said.

 "'He may have done it with the monarch's knowledge, but he may not have done it.

"'I think you're entitled to say to the Queen that you recommend the appointment of a different governor-gene

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