The dismissal of Gough Whitlam's government by Governor-General Sir John Kerr in 1975 remains one of the most divisive events in Australian politics.
In the leadup to that moment, the Whitlam government had been embroiled in several controversies.
Most damaging was the Loans Affair. Minerals and Energy Minister Rex Connor, whose visions were as huge as Whitlam's, wanted to borrow $4 billion in petrodollars through funny-money operative Tirath Khemlani to finance his massive power projects.
Despite treasury opposition, the loan was approved in questionable circumstances by executive council.
The money never came through, the opposition and the media became increasingly critical and eventually Connor was sacked for misleading parliament.
All this was happening against a worsening economy, with inflation and unemployment rising.
After the massive anti-Labor swing in the Bass by-election, new Liberal leader Malcolm Fraser knew that he could now win an election.
The loans affair formed the basis for Fraser's "reprehensible circumstances" to justify his blocking supply in the Senate.
Yet it couldn't have happened, at least in the form it took, without Whitlam's old nemesis, Queensland premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen.
When Queensland Labor senator Bert Milliner died, Bjelke-Petersen rejected Labor's nominee and sent the unknown Albert Field, who promptly announced he'd vote against the government, to Canberra.
A High Court challenge stopped Field voting on the critical supply divisions, but it didn't matter.
Although NSW independent Cleaver Bunton and South Australian independent Steele Hall voted with the government, it gave the Fraser forces a one-vote majority on the motions not to proceed with the supply bill. On a tied vote, the motions would have lost.
The supply crisis, a battle of wills between two utterly determined men, was resolved on November 11, 1975, when Kerr sacked Whitlam and appointed Fraser as caretaker prime minister on condition supply was passed and an election called.
Whitlam made his famous "Kerr's cur" and "maintain your rage" speech on the steps of Parliament House. But in the following election, he was slaughtered.
It was a political crisis, until Kerr made it a constitutional one; and a contest Whitlam probably would have won before the money ran out in mid-December, as there's now ample evidence that some Liberal senators had deep misgivings about Fraser's tactics.
Kerr, a Labor appointment, ignored Whitlam's advice not to seek the opinion of High Court Chief Justice Garfield Barwick, a former Liberal minister. Whitlam didn't know the GG was also consulting another High Court judge, Anthony Mason.
Nor did Kerr give Whitlam any hint that he was considering the action he took, an action that gave Fraser a political advantage.
The governor-general prematurely played the arbitrator when he should have been a conciliator, although to some extent Whitlam determined the timing of events by advising a half Senate election.
On the other hand, Whitlam - never a great people manager - handled Kerr badly. The governor-general had an ego nearly as big as the PM, yet Whitlam publicly treated him as a cypher.
Furthermore, a decision that handed the mess to the Australian voters to resolve couldn't be all bad.
Whitlam stayed on as Labor leader until the 1977 election, another heavy defeat. The magic was never recaptured.
