b'97regulations, then he, Game, would dismiss him. This allowed Lang to seek Games dismissal if he dared, which he did not.On the morning of 11 November 1975, Whitlam phoned Kerr and arranged to see him at 12:45 pm after the Remembrance Day ceremonies. Kerr also arranged for Fraser to come a quarter of an hour later. Mr Fraser was not told why I wanted him to come. Fraser later claimed that Kerr telephoned him and asked him whether, if he were commissioned as Prime Minister, he would: pass the budget bills, call an immediate double dissolution election for both houses of Parliament, and make no appointments, initiate no new policies, and conduct no inquiries into the previous government, before such an election.Fraser recalled answering yes to all these questions. In his memoirs Kerr denied making such a phone call to Fraser, but Fraser was adamant in all subsequent accounts that he did.The House of Representatives was suspended at 12:55 pm for the luncheon break. Whitlam arrived at Government House at 1 pm. Fraser had arrived earlier and been shown into another room. Whitlam and Kerr met alone in Kerrs study. Kerr knew that Whitlam intended to ask for a half-Senate election, one which would need to be conducted without supply, that is, unlawfully. So, after reconfirming that Whitlams intention was to govern without parliamentary supply, Kerr withdrew his commission and served on him the letter of dismissal. Kerr claimed Whitlam then sought to telephone Buckingham Palace to advise Kerrs dismissal, but Whitlam always denied this. At a press conference that afternoon he said The Governor-General prevented me getting in touch with the Queen by just withdrawing the commission immediatelyIn an article in Quadrant magazine (March 2005), David Smith, Kerrs Official Secretary, claimed that Whitlam knew of Kerrs intentions, the Queen had already made her position of non-intervention known to Whitlam and Kerr, and Kerr had called a double dissolution to be fair to both candidates, sincerely believing that Whitlam could win back government with the necessary majority in both houses. When Whitlam had left, Kerr574summoned Fraser and asked him the same questions which Fraser claims to have answered that morning. When Fraser answered affirmatively, Kerr then commissioned him as Prime Minister. Despite the passion of die-hard Labor supporters, furious at what they saw as an establishment plot to destroy a Labor government, Labor suffered its greatest-ever loss at the subsequent election (7.4% down on its 1974 vote) at the hands of the Coalition, which continued to hold power until 1983.Kerr later stated that Whitlam represented something that perhaps I might have been, had I stayed in the party as he did, and it has been suggested that the Dismissal was as much a case of a thwarted ego seeking his place in history as Whitlams mismanagement of the economy. After Kerrs death, his former embittered close friend, Whitlam cabinet member James McClelland, claimed that Kerr had long aspired to be top dog in Australia; that Kerr had once made a pass at him; and that the Dismissal could only be fully understood if Kerrs alleged repressed homosexuality was factored inthat an infatuation with Whitlam had become one for Fraser.Concern about his health may have been one reason why Kerr cut short his five-year term and stood down. In fact, his resignation, so dramatically announced in this poster, had already been proposed as early as March 1977, during the Queens visit. Fraser denounced Kerrs detractors as a hostile and bitter minority whose actions were unjustified. Kerr was appointed to the post of Ambassador to UNESCO, an office which he felt unable to take up because of continuing bitter attacks on him both inside and outside the Parliament. Bill Hayden, the new leader of the Labor Party, now in opposition, was one of the critics of the UNESCO appointment. In Parliament he stated, The appointment of John Kerr as Ambassador . is not just an indecent exercise of the rankest cynicism. It is in every respect an affront to this country.$500750575'