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Distinguished historian Jenny Hocking fought for over a decade for access to correspondence between Governor General John Kerr and Buckingham Palace about the sacking of Gough Whitlam. Classified by the Palace as “personal correspondence”, Jenny finally secured their release in June 2020 following a landmark High Court judgment that decreed they were Commonwealth records. In her new book, The Palace Letters, Jenny discusses the implications of the Letters and their release for transparency and accountability in our democratic system, and for Australian democracy itself.

Jenny Hocking is emeritus professor at Monash University, Distinguished Whitlam Fellow at the Whitlam Institute at Western Sydney University, and Gough Whitlam’s award-winning biographer. Her appeal against the decision of the Federal Court in the Palace letters case was upheld by the High Court on 29 May 2020.