Person

Sir John Kerr

1914–1991 · 20th century

Sir John Kerr was Governor-General of Australia from 1974 to 1977. On 11 November 1975, after the opposition-controlled Senate had blocked the government's budget, he dismissed the prime minister Gough Whitlam and appointed Malcolm Fraser as caretaker until an election. The dismissal, unprecedented in Australia, provoked a constitutional crisis and remains controversial.

Sir John Kerr
Image: Work of the Australian Government · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 1 profile

Commonwealth of AustraliaGovernance

See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Sir John Kerr. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/sir-john-kerr
MLA
“Sir John Kerr.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/sir-john-kerr. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Sir John Kerr.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/sir-john-kerr.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Sir John Kerr’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/sir-john-kerr (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻