Jenny Hocking, renowned for her extensive work on Whitlam, including the books Dismissal Dossier and The Palace Letters, achieved a significant victory in 2020 when the High Court ruled in favor of releasing the correspondence between former Governor-General John Kerr and the late Queen Elizabeth II.

Recently, Hocking made another remarkable discovery, unearthing unpublished letters at the Library and Archives Canada. These letters were exchanged between the then-Canadian Governor-General Jules Léger and the Queen’s private secretary, Sir Martin Charteris.

Hocking expressed concerns about the limitations in understanding the dismissal, stating, “One of the main issues with how we document and interpret the dismissal is the lack of access to comprehensive material.”

“It was unnecessary for a High Court case to be the means to access the Queen’s correspondence with Sir John Kerr during the dismissal period. Such access is crucial for a complete understanding of the palace’s involvement during that time,” she emphasized.

She further noted, “The palace still maintains that they played no role in the events.”

Hocking discovered a “revelation” in the 1977 letters which she said fundamentally changed her view of how both the Queen and Kerr felt about Whitlam’s dismissal.

In his note to Charteris, Léger described a governor-general as being “like a bee”, which can sting just once.

In reply, the Queen’s secretary wrote: “The Queen was… very interested to read your note on Sir John Kerr and in particular your reflection that a governor-general can only give one tap to the democratic clock!”

Léger also observed Kerr’s own “changing demeanour and attitude” over the dismissal in the years that followed.

“He notes that Kerr seems less certain of the position he’d taken when he saw him later in 1979,” Hocking said.

“And also Léger noting that at his own meeting with Kerr… Kerr had said that the Queen approved of the position that he took in relation to the dismissal.

“There’s a lot of interesting reflection on certainly how Kerr perceived his relationship to the palace at the time. And this is something we didn’t know of Kerr.

“He never really opened up about his changing perception and whether he regretted it or not.”

Hocking’s dogged pursuit of unlocking the truth of the Whitlam dismissal has been akin to piecing together a complicated and unfinished mosaic.

Amid her court wins is a frustrating reality: there is so much more she doesn’t know.

The biographer said while the Canadian archives “readily” facilitated access to the letters, much of the Australian archives remain shrouded in secrecy.

“There should not be hundreds, if not over a thousand, individual files in our National Archives that we can’t view in order to make a studied and empirically based  assessment of what happened in 1975,” Hocking said.

“I find that deeply troubling that we have the major national repository of archival documents still maintaining closed documents, many of which I’ve requested to access unsuccessfully.”

Under the Archives Act 1983, the majority of archival records enter the open access period after 20 years.

Hocking said she believed the 50-year mark since Whitlam’s sacking should be a strong impetus for more transparency.

Whitlam remains the only prime minister in Australian history to be removed from office by a governor-general’s reserve powers.

“It is critical because that can happen again if the same circumstances arose. So we do need to fully understand what happened in 1975 to be able to assess whether changes ought to be made,” Hocking added.

“Whether that is part of an ongoing argument about if we should move to a republic, or a need to codify the powers of the governor-general.

“These are all matters that are active and that until we can fully understand what happened in 1975 are to some extent unresolvable, because we’re not completely aware of precisely what happened while documents remain closed to us.”

The National Archives of Australia said it “acknowledges the historical significance of the Dismissal and has worked closely with researchers to process access applications on dismissal-related records as quickly as possible”.

“There are approximately 13,000 records in the collection across 94 series relating to Whitlam’s life before and during his term as prime minister, including the dismissal. Over 8,700 (almost 70 per cent) of these records are now publicly available,” a spokesperson told nine.com.au.

“Anyone can apply for the release of additional Whitlam records, or any record, that has reached the open access period under the Archives Act.

“National Archives welcomes access requests and remains committed to actioning these requests in a timely manner.”