Anthony Albanese has denounced Gough Whitlam’s dismissal from office in 1975 as “a calculated plot, hatched by conservative forces which sacrificed conventions and institutions in the pursuit of power”.

Albanese said the election that followed – won by Malcolm Fraser in a landslide – did “not wash any of that away”.

The prime minister was speaking during a conference at Old Parliament House to mark the 50th anniversary of the November 11 1975 sacking of the Labor government by then governor-general, Sir John Kerr.

Albanese said the Fraser opposition had preyed on Kerr’s “desire to be at the centre of events”. It also “cultivated his paranoia, his fear that Whitlam was planning to replace him,” he said.

The Coalition had been aided by Whitlam’s “unshakeable belief – right up until the moment he was handed the letter of dismissal – that Kerr was a proper person, who would do the right thing”.

Albanese said the 1975 crisis was a “partisan political ambush”, not a constitutional crisis.

Despite what happened to him, Whitlam remained an optimist about what our democracy could achieve, he said.

“And, in a remarkable lesson to anyone in public life who might be tempted to hold on to resentment or bitterness he rebuilt a friendship with Malcolm Fraser.

"When we think of those two giants now, we remember them campaigning for a Republic together.

"Or we picture that line up of former prime ministers on the morning of the National Apology to the Stolen Generations, with Gough’s hand resting on Malcolm’s shoulder.”

The current Governor-General, Sam Mostyn, has said she would not behave as Kerr had done.

“I would not act in that way,” she said in an interview with The Australian.

“I don’t believe a governor-general should ever be in the business of surprising a prime minister.”

“If a government starts to behave irresponsibly, the role of the governor-general will be to have those conversations with the prime minister, with the ministers of the crown, early enough to say ‘there’s trouble ahead’,"she said.

"The holder of this office is there to protect the Australian public against the potential of irresponsible government,” Mostyn said.

Albanese announced the government will commission a statue of Whitlam.

As Labor looks back on a dramatic turning point in its history the Liberals, still shattered by their worst-ever election rout, are focused on the here-and-now of a defining policy struggle over climate.

Liberal moderates are publicly conducting a rear guard action against the conservatives’ strong push to totally scrap any reference to net zero.

The moderates accept the present commitment net zero by 2050 will be dropped from Liberal policy. But they want some reference to net zero retained, in terms of aspiration or pushed into the future.

On Monday moderate senator Maria Kovacic, shadow assistant minister to opposition leader, Sussan Ley, said: “I’m on the record as being someone who supports our commitments to net zero”.

She said those who wanted the words net zero removed at any cost were focused on “the ideology of that rather than what we are going =to do about the grid”.

The opposition needed to talk to those Australians who had moved away from it – they lived in metropolitan cities, she said.

She also criticised conservative senator Sarah Henderson’s attack last week on Ley, whom Henderson said was losing support. “My view is that we back in our leader”, Kovacic said. Henderson’s comments were not helpful and “unnessary”.

On Sunday another moderate, Senator Andrew Bragg, mounted a strong defence of net zero. “You can’t have a fatwa on two words. This is the international standard,” he said on the ABC. “Trying to pretend that you’re not going to say two words is absolutely ridiculous.”

On the other side of the debate, opposition communications spokeswoman Melissa McIntosh, who is member for the Sydney seat of Lindsay, said she had surveyed her community and “my community is super strong on not wanting net zero. It is killing them,” she said.

“They don’t want net zero, they are struggling under energy prices. Small businesses are closing, manufacturers are closing. I think this is a really important position for us to make and I hope we do the right thing by the Australian people.”