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1951 Double Dissolution Correspondence: Menzies And McKell

Mar 19, 1951

These are the 1951 double dissolution letters exchanged between Prime Minister Robert Menzies and Governor-General Sir William McKell.

Menzies’ Liberal-Country Party government was elected in December 1949. Within 15 months, he called a double dissolution election, using the rejection of a banking bill as the trigger. In his advice to McKell (a former Labor Premier of NSW), Menzies argued that the Senate’s referral of the bill to a Committee constituted a “failure to pass”.

The correspondence is interesting for what it reveals about Menzies’ relationship with the Governor-General. [Read more…]

Filed Under: 1951 Federal Election, Double Dissolutions, Governor-General Tagged With: ,