Sir David Smith KCVO, AO: Official Secretary to five Governors General
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry has offered condolences to the family of Sir David Iser Smith.
Sir David Smith
In a statement to J-Wire, ECAJ said: We express our sincere condolences to the family of Sir David Iser Smith, KCVO, AO (z”l), who passed away on August 15. He was born in Australia to Polish Jewish immigrant parents named Szmitkowski and had a distinguished career in the Australian Public Service.
Sir David was Official Secretary to five Governors General, from Sir Paul Hasluck to Bill Hayden and including Sir Zelman Cowen, and he served all of them loyally and capably. He is best remembered for reading out the proclamation of the dissolution of parliament before an angry crowd on the steps of the then Parliament House in Canberra upon the dismissal of the Whitlam Labor government by Governor General Sir John Kerr on 11 November 1975. Sir David gamely performed his duties, bearing the brunt of the ire being directed at Kerr.
Although Sir David supported Kerr’s dismissal of Whitlam, it remains the most controversial action ever taken by a head of State in Australia and arguably the most contentious action taken by any official in Australian history.
There can be little doubt that by the time of the dismissal, the Whitlam government was destined to be rejected decisively by voters at the next election. It was beset with incompetence, disreputable financial dealings and megalomania.
Yet many felt that it was a matter for the people to pass judgement on such matters, not the representative of the monarch. Kerr’s dismissal of Whitlam was criticised widely as underhanded and dishonourable and a usurpation of the sovereignty of the Australian people. When the voters went to the polls in December 1975, it was not to throw out the Whitlam government, which had already been dismissed, but to return the government of Malcolm Fraser who had been installed by Kerr as caretaker Prime Minister.
Sir David Smith KCVO, AO Born August 9, 1933, Melbourne Died: August 15, 2022
I remember David from my earliest days when he and I went to Princes Hill Primary school together in North Carlton in 1940s.