Governor-General Kerr dismisses Prime Minister Whitlam, 1975
The only sacking of an elected Australian government by the Crown's representative
Quick facts
- Date of dismissal
- 11 November 1975
- Governor-General
- Sir John Kerr
- Trigger
- Senate blocking of supply bills from 15 October 1975
- Election result
- Fraser's Coalition wins by large majority, 13 December 1975
What happened
From 15 October 1975, Opposition Leader Malcolm Fraser used his party's majority in the Senate to block passage of the government's supply bills, the legislation needed to fund ongoing government spending, demanding Whitlam call an election or resign. Whitlam refused, and the deadlock ran for weeks. On 11 November 1975, Governor-General Sir John Kerr used his reserve powers, backed by advice he had privately sought from Chief Justice Sir Garfield Barwick, to dismiss Whitlam as Prime Minister and appoint Fraser as caretaker Prime Minister on the understanding he would call an immediate election. The Coalition won the resulting election, held 13 December 1975, by a large majority.
Why it matters
The Dismissal remains the only time an Australian government has been removed by the Governor-General rather than through an election or parliamentary vote, and it triggered a lasting debate over the limits of vice-regal reserve powers and whether the Senate should be able to block supply from a government holding a majority in the House of Representatives.
How we know
The sequence of events, including the Senate's blocking of supply and Kerr's consultation with Barwick, is documented through parliamentary records and Kerr's own later published account, summarised by the Museum of Australian Democracy.
Sources
- Museum of Australian Democracy. 'We've been sacked': the 1975 Whitlam government dismissal · Primary source (author-declared)moadoph.gov.au · Cited as a "primary" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- WhitlamDismissal.com. Overview Of The Dismissal · General sourcewhitlamdismissal.com · Cited as a "reference" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
See something wrong? . Corrections with a source get fixed fastest.
Part of a timelineHistory of Australia33 events · 65,000 years of the world's oldest living cultures, a penal colony's dispossession of them, and the reckoning still underwayView all →