The night before the dismissal of his government, Gough Whitlam attended the Melbourne Lord Mayor’s Banquet.
The Opposition Leader, Malcolm Fraser, was there also. The two men would travel back to Canberra together on Whitlam’s plane later that evening.
The Lord Mayor was the Liberal Party’s Ron Walker, then aged 36. Walker went on to a career in business and was also a chief fundraiser for the Liberal Party.
As always, Whitlam took the opportunity of restating his case at a pivotal moment in the constitutional crisis, reminding Walker that he had been recently re-elected to a second term: “Your term is for one year, whereas everyone knows that mine is for three.”
A report on the Lord Mayor’s Banquet was broadcast on the ABC’s AM program the following morning at 8am, along with the latest news and speculation about a resolution of the crisis.
- Listen to AM (10m)
Gough Whitlam died on October 21, 2014, aged 98. Malcolm Fraser died on March 20, 2015, aged 84. Ron Walker died on January 30, 2018, aged 78.
Malcolm Fraser, Lord Mayor Ron Walker and Gough Whitlam at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet in Melbourne on November 10, 1975.