1975 Australian constitutional crisis
A constitutional crisis was created in 1975 when a number of Parliament conventions were overturned, resulting in the blockage of supply. The crisis was then resolved on November 11 by dismissing Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. This unpresidented action was then further dramatized by an effective and emotive speach by Mr Whitlam as he left the steps of Parliament house.
While quite popular in its first term for pulling troops out of Vietnam and several worthly social reforms including the creation of the medicare system, the Whitlam governments second term won in May 1974 had been plagued by several financial scandals. It was in this environment that the first of the Parliament conventions was ignored when two States replaced retiring Senators with members from the oppersition instead of the Senators own party.
Quoting financial mis-management as a pretext, these Senators helped to vote against the passage of the governments budget through the Upper House (a refusal of the Senate to pass the budget is known as blocking supply). This extraordinary action was then further compounded when the Prime Minister also decided to ignore convention in not calling for an election.
Finally, the Opposition Leader Malcolm Fraser meet with the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr. Alledgedly Mr Fraser argued that the Senate represented the displeasure of the Australian people with the governments management; that there was a practical impass for the government; and that if the Governor-General did not act decisively then the Prime Minister could without notice dismiss the Governor-General and maintain the deadlock indefinatly.
On the 11th of November 1975 the Governor-General of Australia dismissed Prime Minister Whitlam and appointed the Opposition Leader, Malcolm Fraser, as the care-taker Prime Minister on condition that Fraser would call for a general election. Fraser did so, and the Governor-General called a bitterly-contested general election (December 13) 1975. Interestingly, though one could expect a major back-lash against Fraser in favour of Whitlam; the Australian Labour Party (ALP) instead suffered its largest lost (lossing 7.4% of previous vote) of in then Australian history against Malcolm Frasers Liberal Party and its National Country Party allies.
Though it is questionable whether the ALP 1974-1975 management was sufficent justisifcation for the oppersition to break tradition in blocking supply, it does provide a practical case study to compare convention based systems agaist more ridgid systems such as used in the United States of America where the 2000 election was largely dependant upon technicality rather than any popular or practical issues.
The crisis is significant in analyzing Westminister systems for the large number of conventions that were broken. Unlike the United States, where legislative-executive relations are spelled out in the constitution, these matters are not explicitly stated in the Australian Constitution or any other legislation. Under normal circumstances, behavior is determined by convention and custom, however the crisis illustrates how those mechanisms can be circumvented in a crisis.
It is notable that although the crisis was accurately described as Australia's most dramatic political crisis since Federation in 1901, the event caused no disruption in the services of government, saw the parties remaining committed to the political and constitutional process by contesting the subsequent election and accepting the result, and has not led to any constitutional changes to this point (though some Australian republicans use the crisis as an argument for change). Indeed, Fraser and Whitlam have reconciled to the point where they have, on occasion, spoke jointly on political issues such as the referendum of 1999.
Journalist Paul Kelly has produced a series of books generally regarded as the most comprehensive accounts of the crisis. His most recent is entitled "November 1975".