I am a long-time reader, contributor and supporter of Pearls & Irritations. Australia’s media is highly concentrated, and becoming more so. Pearls and Irritations is not only a vital source of independent news and comment, it provides longer-form, deeply researched articles, from a range of specialists in their field. There is simply no other outlet for such detailed, well-written and well-researched regular journalism on topics which would otherwise be ignored, certainly in such detail, by the mainstream media.
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Jenny Hocking is an Emeritus Professor with the Faculty of Arts, Monash University
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Jenny Hocking is emeritus professor at Monash University, Distinguished Whitlam Fellow at the Whitlam Institute at Western Sydney University and award-winning biographer of Gough Whitlam. Her latest book is The Palace Letters: The Queen, the governor-general, and the plot to dismiss Gough Whitlam. You can follow Jenny on Twitter @palaceletters.
Comments
5 responses to “JENNY HOCKING supports Pearls and Irritations.”
Professor Hocking: thank you for your efforts and congratulations. Not only have you achieved the just result and earned the respect of the High Court but prodded the Court to go well beyond the letters and into reinforcing the supremacy of Parliament and its Committees over the opacity, wishes and hearsay of officials, Governments and Heads of State. I look forward to someone in Pearls explaining the decision. A monumental achievement. Thanks again
Hearty congratulations to Jenny Hocking for her courage, determination and doggedness, to the lawyers, including fittingly, Antony Whitlam QC and outstanding High Court advocate Bret Walker SC, for their great success in convincing the Court that the Palace Letters should at last be released to the Australian people. Justice and the future of our democracy has finally been enhanced.
What a difference to Australia’s constitutional and political life there would have been if the letters had been accessible to the public much earlier. So many falsehoods such as those appearing in John Kerr’s ‘Matters for Judgment’ and repeated by so many monarchists and conservative commentators, not least those employed by ‘The Australian’, including prolific political writer Paul Kelly, would have been exposed for what they were long ago. And in particular, what effect would public knowledge of the key role of Buckingham Palace in the dismissal of the democratically elected Whitlam Government in 1975 have made in the voting in the 1999 referendum about us becoming a republic!
Well done Jenny Hocking. At last the truth will be revealed. I sincerely thank you for your effort, dedication towards our greatest Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. Wishfully it will help Australia to become a Republic in the near future. You never gave up, what a reward!! I am positive that most of us are delighted with the outcome.
Vive la Republique
In a majority decision yesterday in Brisbane (travel restrictions) the High Court essentially agreed with Professor Hocking that the letters and other documents at the center of the case were in fact Commonwealth records and not ‘Private Papers’.
In an ABC News report Professor Hocking was quoted as saying:
“I really look forward to going into the archives next week and speaking to the director-general … and ensuring that I can see all 211 of these Palace letters as soon as the National Archives reopens,” she said.
“At this particular time in our history, more than ever we need to protect the right to know, the right to information, and the right to ensure accountability.”
Hopefully there are no stray dogs in the Archives to eat some of the documents before the Professor arrives.
Hear, hear!