Andrew Clark is an Australian journalist and commentator with a career spanning more than five decades. The son of historian Manning Clark, he began as a cadet at The Age in 1966 and went on to report and edit for outlets including The Sun-Herald, Australian Business, and The Australian Financial Review. A former foreign correspondent and co-author of Kerr’s King Hit (1976), Clark is known for his incisive political and business analysis and contributions to Australia’s public debate.

John Juriansz – Whitlam Institute - Professor John Juriansz is the Director of the Whitlam Institute and the Parramatta South Campus Provost for Western Sydney University. John previously served as Deputy Dean of the School of Law at Western Sydney University where he lectured in Equity & Trusts, Legal Technology, and Remedies. John is admitted as a Legal Practitioner of the Supreme Court of New South Wales and of the High Court of Australia. John has held a range of legal positions including as a Senior Lawyer at Gilbert + Tobin Lawyers, King & Wood Mallesons, MLC Limited, the Australian Law Reform Commission, and as a Member of the Litigation, Law & Practice Committee of the Law Society of New South Wales.

Elizabeth Reid: Elizabeth Reid is a pioneering Australian feminist, academic, and policy adviser known for her groundbreaking work in advancing gender equity. In  1973, she made history as the world's first adviser on women's affairs to a head of government when she was appointed by Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. This role positioned her at the forefront of policy development, advocating for matters relating to the welfare of women and children in employment, education, and reproductive health.

Throughout her career, Reid has worked extensively in international development, focusing on gender equity, HIV/AIDS policy, and social justice. Her contributions have had a lasting impact both in Australia and globally, making her a key figure in the ongoing struggle for women's rights.

Dr Elizabeth Cham – Dr Elizabeth Cham has been an academic, worked in Federal and State Parliament and in philanthropy, including ten years as CEO, Philanthropy Australia. After fifteen years Elizabeth has just stepped down as Board member of the progressive think tank, The Australia Institute (TAI). Dr Cham is also Chair of ANZTSR  (Australia New Zealand Third Sector Research Assoc) a regional network of scholars whose research focus is the not-for-profit sector, charities and philanthropy.

Biff Ward: Biff Ward is an Australian author, feminist, and activist known for her memoirs and for writing one of the first books on child sexual abuse. She was active in the women's liberation movement in the 1960s and '70s and remains a passionate advocate for social justice.

The Dismissal from Below

Frank Bongiorno and James Watson

Millions of words have been written about the dismissal of the Whitlam Government on 11 November 1975. Almost all have told that story via an account of the major players – politicians, judges, the Governor-General and the Palace – and in relation to constitutional law, parliamentary convention and high politics. Accounts of the Dismissal ‘from below’ – for instance, the march, strike, demonstration or meeting – have appeared but are less common. This paper – the result of research commissioned by the Whitlam Institute within Western Sydney University – seeks to recapture the Dismissal as an event that engaged the emotions and commitments of ‘ordinary Australians’ – on both sides of the controversy – and to explore its role in mobilising social movement, interest group and political protest (and affirmation). Its aim is to recover the Dismissal, and the anti-Kerr protests that extended through to 1976, less as unique constitutional event, than as an emblematic and supremely important example of the wider political mobilisations characteristic of Australia in the 1970s.   

Professor Frank Bongiorno AM is Professor of History at the Australian National University and Distinguished Fellow of the Whitlam Institute within Western Sydney University.  His books include The Eighties: The Decade that Transformed Australia (2015) and Dreamers and Schemers: A Political History of Australia (2022). He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, and the Australian Academy of Humanities; President of the Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences; and Immediate Past President of the Australian Historical Association.

Dr James Watson is a historian at the Australian National University in Canberra. His writing on Australian political and economic history can be found in History Australia and Labor History, and he is the author of a forthcoming history of asbestos in Australia from Monash University Publishing. He is currently writing a biography of the palaeontologist and Australian Museum director Robert Etheridge Jr.

Professor Julian Knowles is an Australian composer, media artist and academic whose work sits at the intersection of technology, sound and creative practice. He is currently the Executive Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Design at University of Canberra, having previously held senior academic leadership roles at Macquarie University (where he served as Professor of Media & Music) and at other institutions including Queensland University of Technology and University of Wollongong.

Professor Nicholas Brown is a distinguished Australian historian specializing in twentieth-century social, political, environmental and biographical history. He holds a Professorship in the School of History at The Australian National University (ANU) and heads that unit within the College of Arts & Social Sciences.

Associate Professor Will Brehm's research interrogates how comparative and international education intersects with international relations and the political economy of development. In his research, he has explored issues of educational privatization, regional identity making, community-based education, and the politics of knowledge production.

Professor Nicole Anderson is a Professor at Macquarie University, Sydney; Affiliate (Adjunct) Faculty at Arizona State University; and Honorary Professor at the University of Canberra. An internationally recognized scholar of French philosopher Jacques Derrida, she has published over fifty works on animals, ethics, culture, democracy, and philosophy. She is the author of Derrida: Ethics Under Erasure and is currently completing a second book, Derrida and Animals (forthcoming 2026). Anderson is the founding editor of Derrida Today (Edinburgh University Press) and Executive Director of the associated international conference series, which has been held across the UK, USA, Europe, and Australia. With Julian Knowles, she co-produced the acclaimed PBS podcast Futures of Democracy, ranked among Arizona’s top political podcasts from 2022 to 2025. She has also received an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant with John Potts, through which she co-curated a major exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales on philanthropist John Kaldor’s art collection.

Dr Julie Gough is a Tasmanian-based artist, writer and curator of Trawlwoolway descent (maternal line) from Tebrikunna, in north-east Lutruwita/Tasmania. Her multi-media practice, primarily installation, sound, video and sculptural work—focuses on uncovering and re-presenting hidden, subsumed or conflicted colonial histories, particularly those affecting Tasmanian Aboriginal people and their Country. Gough holds a PhD in Fine Arts (University of Tasmania, 2001) and a MA from Goldsmiths, University of London (1998), among other qualifications. Her work has featured in over 200 exhibitions since the mid-1990s and is held in major Australian state and national public collections. Living and working in Hobart, she also serves as Curator of First People’s Art and Culture at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, where she continues to engage in research-intensive art practice that seeks to disrupt mainstream narratives of Australia’s past.

Tom Brennan SC is a leading Sydney barrister practising in commercial, equity, administrative, and regulatory law, he is particularly recognised for his expertise in aviation and trade law. Before being called to the Bar in 2006, he was a partner at Corrs Chambers Westgarth and held senior advisory roles within the federal government, including as Principal Advisor to a Deputy Prime Minister. Brennan has appeared in significant cases before federal and state courts, including the High Court of Australia. Notably, he represented historian Professor Jenny Hocking in The Palace Papers case, which successfully led to the release of the secret correspondence between Governor-General Sir John Kerr and Buckingham Palace concerning the 1975 dismissal of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam.

Joseph Anthony Camilleri OAM is Professor Emeritus at La Trobe University, Melbourne, where he held the Chair in International Relations (1994-2012), and was founding Director of the Centre for Dialogue 2006-2012. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences.

He has authored or edited some thirty-five books and written over 120 book chapters and journal articles, covering such areas as peace and security, geopolitics, governance, the role of culture and religion, intercultural dialogue and conflict resolution.

He has convened several international dialogues and conferences, including From the Middle East to the Asia Pacific: Arc of Conflict or Dialogue of Cultures and Religions? (2008); the Australia-Malaysia and Australia-Indonesia dialogues (2010-2013); Towards a Just and Ecologically Sustainable Peace (2019), and Night Falls in the Evening Lands: the Assange Epic (2024).

He serves on the board of various organisations, and is the recipient of numerous Australian and international awards.