"The Dismissal: The Real Truth of the Matter"

"The Dismissal: The Real Truth of the Matter" Speech by Sir David Smith at a Luncheon for Australians for Constitutional Monarchy, Parliament House, Sydney 11 November 2005

"Probably no event in Australia's political history has received as much coverage in the media and in the history books as has the dismissal of the Whitlam Government by the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, on 11 November 1975.
And certainly no event in Australia's political history has received so much inaccurate and misleading coverage.
There was no constitutional crisis:- It was a political crisis that the Parliament could not resolve, so the constitutional umpire - the Governor-Geneal be needed to do in order to be able to refer the issue to the ultimate umpire - the people - for resolution at a national election. During last year's federal election campaign, the media developed a great interest in truth in politics. My challenge to the media is that they should make this new-found interest in truth in politics retrospective, at least to 1975. They should invite Whitlam down from the pedestal on which they have placed him and call on him to explain the litany of lies, which he and his acolytes have spun about the dismissal."