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Posts tagged as “Colin Hannah”

Whitlam: The Coup Twenty Years After

This is the text of Gough Whitlam’s Address to the National Press Club on the 20th anniversary of The Dismissal.

Mr President, Citizens

It’s always a great pleasure for me to return to the National Press Club, not only because of our long association but because of its importance as a forum. In my time, the party leaders wound up their campaigns here. Now, Labor Prime Ministers use the lunch to launch policies and Liberal leaders to launch themselves.

There must have been a certain inevitability in my being invited back around the time of the 20th anniversary of 11 November 1975. Media interest has been intense and I have had to limit my acceptance of requests for interviews and articles. One of the reasons, frankly, is that I am not preoccupied with the Dismissal. My chief interest in the events of October/November 1975, dramatic as they were, now lies in their relevance to the development of Australia as a Republic. That makes it doubly important that the Australian public should have an accurate understanding of those events and the motives of those who took part in them.

Palindromic Pro-Consul Speaks Out

The Governor of Queensland, Sir Colin Hannah, attacked the Whitlam government as “fumbling” and “inept”.

Hannah spoke on the same day that Malcolm Fraser announced the Coalition would block the Budget in the Senate.

Whitlam, describing Hannah as “the palindromic pro-consul“, advised the Queen to revoke Hannah’s dormant commission to act as Governor-General.