The Full Wiki

John Kerr: Wikis

  

Note: Many of our articles have direct quotes from sources you can cite, within the Wikipedia article! This article doesn't yet, but we're working on it! See more info or our list of citable articles.

Encyclopedia

Updated live from Wikipedia, last check: June 01, 2012 21:36 UTC (51 seconds ago)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Contents

John Kerr may refer to:

Government and politics

Scientists

Sport

Armed forces

Other


Simple English

Sir John Robert Kerr (24 September 191424 March 1991) was the 18th Governor-General of Australia from 1974-1977. He is famous for dismissing Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in 1975. This is one of the most famous events in Australian history. Even though the Whitlam government was not voted back in after being dismissed, Kerr's actions divided opinion and he continued to be disliked by many people.

Prime Minister Gough Whitlam chose John Kerr to be Governor General in 1974. In 1974–75 the Whitlam government thought about borrowing US$4 billion in foreign loans. A Minister, Rex Connor, had secret discussions with a loan broker from Pakistan. The Treasurer, Jim Cairns, misled parliament about this. This made the new leader of the Opposition, Malcolm Fraser use the Senate to stop passing money for the government until there was an election. Whitlam refused. In 1975 the opposition, led by Malcolm Fraser, blocked government supply in the Senate. This meant that the government had no money. This was a big crisis in Australia. In order to end the crisis, John Kerr dismissed Whitlam and made Fraser the Prime Minister. Whitlam lost the election that was held a month later.[1]

References








Got something to say? Make a comment.
Your name
Your email address
Message
Please enter the solution to case below
5-2=