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Today in History - November 11: Unlikeliest figure appears during Australia's gravest political crisis

By Richard Wood • Senior Journalist

On November 11, 1975, a high political day in Australian history, millions of people were given a touch of comic relief from the unfolding tumultuous events.

Australia was in the midst of perhaps its gravest constitutional crisis when Prime Minister Gough Whitlam was sacked by the Governor-General Sir John Kerr.

The British monarch's representative had stepped in after Whitlam's minority Labor government struggled to pass key financial legislation amid intense opposition.

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In Whitlam's place, he installed Liberal leader Malcolm Fraser as caretaker prime minister.

Australians watching on television saw the high drama play out on the steps of federal Parliament when Whitlam and other key figures from his dismissed government addressed the gathered Labor supporters.

Then suddenly a familiar but unexpected face stepped into the political maelstrom.

Inserting himself into the crowd of politicians came Norman Gunston, the hapless alter ego of Australian actor and comedian Garry McDonald.

With a microphone in hand, he quizzed the throng of people in his unique cringe-making style, for their views about the day's political upheaval.

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Turning to the crowd, he asked: in a mock-serious tone: "Is this an affront to the Constitution of this country or … just a stroke of good luck for Mr Fraser?".

Gunston's mock-serious coverage, also included shoving his microphone in front of a baffled Whitlam and other politicians.

The then trade union powerbroker and future prime minister Bob Hawke told him, "ah look, it's a bit too serious for that", while former cabinet minister Bill Hayden looked confounded by Gunston's approach.

The Gunston episode in what became known as the Dismissal provided a surreal distraction from one of the bitterest moments in Australian political history.

Whitlam's removal by the Crown's chief representative in Australia, while legal, outraged many Australians and strained relations with the UK.

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Whitlam urged his supporters to "maintain the rage", but in 1977 after a heavy defeat in the 1977 federal election, he was finished as a political force.

Fraser and his coalition government of the Liberal and Country parties remained in office until March 1983.

For more from our Today in History archive, click here

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