The dismissal: what Gough said

Gough Whitlam's immortal words on the dismissal.

"Well may we say `God save the Queen' because nothing will save the governor-general. The proclamation which you have just heard read was counter-signed by Malcolm Fraser who will undoubtedly go down in Australia's history from Remembrance Day 1975 as Kerr's cur...Maintain your rage and enthusiasm through the campaign for the election now to be held."

- On the steps of Parliament House, Nov 11 1975.

"An individual of the outmost obscurity, from which he rose and to which he sank with equal speed."

- On Albert Field, whom Joh Bjelke-Petersen appointed to a casual Labor Senate vacancy. (In The Whitlam Government, 1985)

"The deceit he practised not only on me but others of my colleagues...was in itself disgraceful. The secrecy of his intervention was the essential ingredient in the success of the whole operation. Yet if Kerr's chief concern was to end the crisis, then his intervention lacks the most fundamental of all justifications, the justification of necessity."

- On Kerr's role. (In The Whitlam Government)

"Once Sir John Kerr had served his purpose and become a political and personal embarrassment, he was discarded. It was not the rage of the victims but the contempt of the beneficiaries which sent him into exile."

- On Kerr's fate. (The Truth of the matter, second ed., 1983)

"Fraser exploited his opportunity with great skill. Whether or not he was a better politician than I, he was certainly the better psychologist, at least with respect to Sir John Kerr...He played on Kerr's vanity."

- On Fraser's role. (Abiding Interests, 1997)

"Here, then, is the Barwick doctrine in all its starkness, absurdity and irresponsibility."

- On High Court Chief Justice Sir Garfield Barwick's advice to Kerr. (Abiding Interests)