Whitlam fought his last election campaign as leader of the ALP in 1977.
The federal election was held on December 10. Whitlam and the ALP were defeated by a large margin only slightly less than the landslide defeat of 1975. Whitlam announced his resignation as leader of the ALP on election night.
This is probably the only recording made of Whitlam’s appearance at an ALP election rally at the Moorabbin Town Hall, in the electorate of Hotham, in Melbourne, on November 28, 1977.
The Dismissal led to calls for a new Constitution.
On the first anniversary of Whitlam’s sacking, Australians For A Constitutional Democracy held a series of rallies around Australia.
These pictures are from the rally held in the Melbourne Town Hall. Historian Manning Clark, Law academic Gareth Evans, writer Donald Horne and trade unionist John Halfpenny were among those who spoke.
The debacle over the Gair Affair and the Coalition’s threat to block Supply led Gough Whitlam to call a double dissolution election for May 18, 1974.
The double dissolution superceded the half-Senate election that was due by June 30.
After a week of turmoil and speculation over the fate of the government’s Supply bills, Whitlam rose in the House of Representatives just before 8.30pm on April 10 to announce that the Governor-General, Sir Paul Hasluck, had agreed to a double dissolution. This is Hansard’s record of the announcement: