The Truth of the Matter

On Remembrance Day 1975 the Governor-General of Australia, Sir John Kerr, sacked Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. The Dismissal was the culmination of almost three years of political conflict, as Whitlam's progressive Labor government rammed home legislative reform in the face of implacable and increasingly bitter conservative resistance. The focus of the Opposition's scheming was the Senate, where its leaders blocked supply in order to force a political crisis.

Whitlam, famous for his 'crash through or crash' style, refused to compromise with his political enemies. At an election a month after the Dismissal, the conservatives were returned to office. Controversy and recrimination followed. Many Australians, including Whitlam himself, believed he had been the victim of a coup.

In 1979 Whitlam published his own account of the events of 1975, The Truth of the Matter, an instant bestseller.
This fiftieth anniversary edition of Whitlam's account features a foreword from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.