The recent celebrations of the Europeans’ discovery of Australia gave John Pilger the excuse to put out his version of the overthrowing of the Gough Whitlam government. The most interesting point he made was that the UK intelligence services were involved with the CIA. Extraordinary though this now seems, this had never struck me. The links between the US, UK, New Zealand and Australian intelligence services are detailed in the highly recommended Ties That Bind by Jeffrey Richelson and Desmond Ball (Allen and Unwin 1985). On page 154 the authors present this table. It seems unlikely that the extraordinary increase between 1974 and 1975 in reports received by ASIS from SIS is unconnected with the demise of the Whitlam government.
Table 7.1
Reports produced by ASIS, and received by ASIS from the SIS and CIA, 1974-75
| 1974 | 1975 | |
| ASIS | 507 | 516 |
| SIS | 697 | 1211 |
| CIA | 588 | 794 |