In January 1973, Smith was appointed Acting Official Secretary to Sir Paul Hasluck, and on 20 July was made permanent. He later became the first Secretary of the Order of Australia on its establishment in 1975. After Hasluck's retirement, Smith then served Sir John Kerr and was present at the time of the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis. Following the dismissal of the Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, on 11 November 1975, Smith read out the proclamation of the dissolution of parliament on the steps of the then Parliament House in Canberra: