Paul Keating says he would have put then-governor-general Sir John Kerr under police arrest during the turmoil that led to the sacking of the Whitlam government.

Keating, who had been appointed the minister for northern Australia just a fortnight before the events of November 11, 1975 , was with Gough Whitlam in the hours after Kerr sacked the prime minister and appointed Malcolm Fraser as the nation’s political leader.

According to Keating, who went on to become prime minister from 1991 to 1996, he told Whitlam that he should go directly to Queen Elizabeth II and sack Kerr.

If he refused to go, Kerr should be locked up by local police.

“My proposition was that Gough should ask the Queen to accept his advice to appoint a new governor-general,” he said. “In the event that Kerr resiste

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