The newly released correspondence shows that the then governor general, Sir John Kerr, sacked the Labor government of Gough Whitlam in 1975 without giving advance notice to the monarch, because ‘it was better for Her Majesty not to know’. Jenny Hocking, the historian instrumental in getting the documents released, says the letters show an inappropriate ‘political’ discussion between the governor general and the royal family, and that some of the legal advice given by the Queen’s private secretary, Sir Martin Charteris, is ‘scandalous’.
