In April 1974, faced with attempts by the Opposition to obstruct supply (that is, appropriation bills) in the Senate, Whitlam obtained the concurrence of the Governor-General, Sir Paul Hasluck, to a double dissolution.
She was privy to her husband's thoughts and anxieties as the 1975 constitutional crisis developed, but in his autobiography Matters for Judgement (1978) Sir John Kerr strongly denied she had either dissuaded him from warning the Prime Minister Gough Whitlam that he was going to dismiss him, or that she herself had a political axe to grind.
In his many commentaries on constitutional issues, especially the reserve powers of the Crown, Forsey was a conspicuous supporter of the action of the Governor-General of Australia, Sir John Kerr, in dismissing the Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, in the 1975 constitutional crisis because his government was unable to obtain supply (approval to spend money) from the parliament and refused to call a general election.
He held this office until the Dismissal of the Whitlam government on 11 November 1975.
One of his first major stories was the dismissal of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in November 1975.
Fraser had originally offered the post to Sir John Kerr, who as Governor-General had been responsible for the dismissal of Gough Whitlam's government in the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis, but considerable public pressure prompted Fraser to withdraw the offer to Kerr, and offer the post to Slatyer instead.
Australian Labor Party | Australian | Australian Broadcasting Corporation | Australian Football League | Australian rules football | Australian National University | 1975 | Royal Australian Navy | Australian Open | Australian Army | Australian House of Representatives | Australian dollar | Australian Capital Territory | Royal Australian Air Force | First Australian Imperial Force | Australian federal election, 2007 | 1975 in music | Suez Crisis | Australian Institute of Sport | Australian Idol | Australian Greens | The Australian | Cuban Missile Crisis | Australian War Memorial | 1973 oil crisis | Australian Recording Industry Association | Australian English | Australian Bicentenary | Australian Aboriginal kinship | South Australian Railways |
The story also has echoes of the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis in which there was alleged CIA involvement to remove a government proposing to close US military bases on Australian soil.
The Labor Party immediately challenged Field's appointment in the High Court, and he was on leave from the Senate from 1 October for the remainder of his short-lived term, which ended when the parliament was dissolved on 11 November.
The King–Byng Affair was the most controversial use of a governor general's reserve powers until the Australian constitutional crisis of 1975, in which the Governor-General of Australia, John Kerr, dismissed Prime Minister Gough Whitlam.
During the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis, though opposed to the Whitlam government, Hall joined Labor (and independent Cleaver Bunton) in voting against the deferral of supply bills.