AUSTRALIA, BRITAIN AND

CROWN

Speech by the Hon. E.G. Whitlam, M. P. or the launching of "Labor and the Constitution".' London, 9 June 1977

I am glad that this scholarly and impor book has been published in a British editio

It

gratifying to find

that a book to

ch

ve contributed, and largely concerned withevents in which

my Government was involved, should qualify for a launching in such distinguished company and be graced by learned introduction from Mr David Butler. Mr Butler, the father of psephology, has emerged in hie secondary role as a constitutional lawyer. It is becoming fashionable for British academics and
publicists to make fortunes in Australia. David Butler i s

almost as prominent on Australian television as David Fr og

The book's main interest lies in the constitutional

crisi s

in Australia which came to a head on 11 November 1975.

On that day an appointed official of the Crown re oved an elected Government from office by the use of powers which the Queen of Britain does not possess and which no British monarch has exercised since George III. As David Butler points out in his introduction, however, the interest in that crisis confined to Aust ans.. not

It, is especially important that the lessons of those fateful events be studied and understood in Britain. This is not merely because of the continuing constitutional links between Britain and Australia and the continuing existence of the monarchy, though on both these issues great questions remain to be s e It is rather that what happened on 11 November must be en, as hreat to every parliamentary democracy established on the Westminster model. It is here in London here n the city where parliamentary goverment were evolved, and where they r ain enshrined and venerated at 'the lessons of Australia's crisis must b studied and absorbed, he institutions and traditions ed.

I shall naturally be seen as something of psartni

an

in these matters. I hope, in this distinguished gathering, that my concern will be understood and accepted for what it is a reflection of a profound and widespread anxiety among constitutional lawyers, among politicians, among m n of goodwill
in my own, country and beyond. Concern is not con fined to the

Labor Party, as this book will show. Deep emotions were arousedin Australia on 11 November, but the time has pass ed when our feelings were merely ones of personal outrage at to a Labor government, or done the
one of

a natural revulsion

Kerr and his wretched collaborators. Even graver issues concern us now in Britain as well as Australia, Here in London the Co onwealth Heads of Government are meeting at this moment.
Every one of the countries represented at that meeting has

rited or at some time experienced a system of government modelled on, or at least influenced by, the forms of parliamentary democracy practised at Westminster. Among those ountries are monarchies and republics, federations and unitary states

which acknowledge the Queen of Britain as head of countries .State and countries with monarchies of their own. Among one those that can still be considered democracies there great principle common to all; and that is the primacy o Parliament, the supremacy of the people + s House 7as the embodiment of the people'sand their ultimate defence agains despotism will or arbitrary ru le.

It is therefore timely that this book appear

i n Br tain while the 'Heads of Government are meeting. Our

constitutional conventions and legal traditions are such that if the events in Australia on 11 November are accepted as precedent, as they may weld, be taken as a precedent other con In my view there are grave risks for any parliamentary
0 3

democracy in which the head of State retains reserve powers whether written or unwritten - similar to those which the Australian Governor-General has disinterred, or invented n Australia. It is not my business to give advice o other countries on how to order their affairs. -But I ferven y believe the events n Australia on Remembrance Day are a proper. ELS subject of concern for the Commonwealth. let them be a warning democrats everywhere of how swiftly and ruthlessly

the constitutional machinery can be abused, even in countries where democratic traditions are strong,. and where the conventions of responsible government are assumed to be inviolate. For the whole of this century , those traditions and conventions were be safe in Australia. We have. seen that they were not. believed What other country with a similar system can assume that its elected government is safe from the whims and chinatlons or

another Kerr from an unelected hof State, an e az monarch el imin superior po e s

Most of the arguments about 11 November will be found in this book, and, my own views are perhaps no secret to you. Mr Butler has written a conspicuously balanced, an almost self- consciously judicious summary o f the pros and cons - altogether far too balanced and judicious for I have followed Mr Butler's writings on this question with some interest. They have matured with time. He seems take a o Cautious view today than he did last year in an article for the journal Parliamentary Affairs. Last year wrote that the Go erno -G neral had b "vindicated" by the

Australian electorate; indeed, that "the Governor-General's action solved the problem for Australia". My o view, has always been that the Governor-General's action reated many more problems than it solved. r indeed it solved nothing.

Let me make one simple point in reply to this assertion, commonly heard in Australia, that the Governor-General had to "so the problem" by a double dissolution. point is this:

the electorate .in December 1975 had returned a Labor Govern ent in the House of Representative@ while continuing to deny .i a as it did in May 1974 in the Senate as it did in May 1974 - that is, if the people had restored the amaj ority quo -the whole process of obstruction could have eta d again en after an and it is morally certain that it would have. election, the Government would still have been hostile and vindictive Senate. In practical to nerable to a

nothing would

have changed. There was only one way that the crisis could be solved", and that was by upholding the convention the convention followed in Australia for three-quarters of a century and, well

established in other parliamentary democracies t t an Upper House does not, and cannot, reject supply. It is of o s e

precisely for that reason tha the convention was dev loped in the first plac e.

Now that the convention has been broken by .conservatives there is almos t no way it can be, restored. A new and permanent element f instability has been established in Austra
l i fe ,

political

whole vice-regal institution has been compromised by

the pre ent incumbent. The crisis of .Remembranc e Day has called into question every aspect of. Australia's constitutional with Britain and the Crown. In a count coun ty that has always Prided itself on a robust independence, a certain healthy irreverence towards our former colonial rulers, it is extr aordinary how strongly these colonial links survive.
some

examples. All State governors in Australia are British officials

appointed by the British Head of State on the recommendation

of the British Government; all State honours are awarded in

the name of a defunct empire and by the British head

State

on the say-so of . British ministers; all State courts operating under State laws are subject to veto by the Privy Council a court in Britain appointed by the Government of Britain. on merchant shipping are circumscribed by laws o f Parliament, although this position can be rectified en laws
British
tr

the

Federal government seeking and ratifying international maritime

conventions. I have argued elsewhere that the Statute of Westminster, which regulates Australia's relations with Britain,

is no longer an instrument of Australian independence but an impediment to it. I believe it would suit the dignity of both Britain, d Australia if the Statute were repealed, and the

next Labor Government it is.

Australia will take stepsto see

Some of these matters may seem trivial or academia compared with the unparalleled trauma and upheaval of 11 November. In truth, however, they spring from the same defects and ambiguitieE -in the. Australian system of government and our relations with Britain. I have never been one to denigrate Britain's institutions. Contrary to a view in some quarters, I have long been an immoderate admirer of the values of British public life, its humane detachment and intellectual toleration, the spirit of liberty and enlightenment that pervadesher art of government. The liberal tradition of responsible government is beyond question the supreme contribution of the British people to western society. Our misfortune in Australia been, not that we have followed the British tradition that we have failed to follow it faithfully. On 11 November we failed to live up to its ideals; we fell short of its

dards.

at happened on Remembrance Day was not done in the tradition

W

estminster demo racy it was the ultimate violation of that

tradition an abuse of the rules, the ideals, the unwritten titer conventions and unspoken understandings on which the system, and a great part of our civilization are founded.

The full story of Remembrance Day has yet to be told. Whether it was planned or unplanned, a conspiracy of many or the work of one man, a premeditated thrust or a single act of impulsive folly - the fact is that it happened. The system allowed it to happen; and assuredly, as matters stand, it will happen again. It must not happen again.. I do no believe that

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