interview revealed that Khemlani and Connor were still in contact, which brought the affair to a head. After Connor directly denied Khemlani's version of events, as reported in the Sydney Morning Herald, Khemlani flew to Australia in October 1975 and provided Game with telexes sent to him from Connor that refuted Connor's denial. On 13 October 1975, Khemlani provided a statutory declaration and a copy of the incriminating telexes sent from Connor's office, a copy of which was forwarded to Whitlam. Upon receiving the documents, Whitlam dismissed Connor from his government for misleading parliament. In his letter of dismissal, date 14 October 1975, Whitlam wrote, "Yesterday I received from solicitors a copy of a statutory declaration signed by Mr Khemlani and copies of a number of telex messages between Mr Khemlani’s office in London and the office of the Minister for Energy. In my judgment these messages did constitute 'communications of substance' between the Minister and Mr Khemlani". Connor was replaced as Minister for Minerals and Energy by the Minister for Agriculture, Ken Wriedt. Aftermath The affair embarrassed the Whitlam government and exposed it to claims of impropriety. Malcolm Fraser led the opposition, which used its majority in the Senate to block the government’s budget legislation, thereby attempting to force an early general election by citing the loans affair as an example of ‘extraordinary and reprehensible’ circumstances. Fraser told Parliament that the government was incompetent and the opposition Liberal-Country Party Coalition delayed passage of the government's money bills in the Senate with the intention of forcing the government to an election. Whitlam refused to call an election. The deadlock came to an end when Whitlam was dismissed by the Governor General, Sir John Kerr, on 11 November 1975 and Fraser was installed as caretaker prime minister pending an election. At the general election held in December 1975, Fraser led the Coalition to a landslide victory. In popular culture The Loans Affair was dramatised in the 1983 Ten Network mini-series The Dismissal. See also List of Australian political controversies Māori loan affair in New Zealand; 1986–87 References External links Whitlam Government Dismissal: Overseas Loans Affair Editorial on the "Loans Affair" (Extracts from The Australian) Topical Discussion on the Loans Affair and the Dismissal (Includes Chronological Timeline of Key Events) 1975 Australian constitutional crisis 1975 in Australia History of the Australian Labor Party Gough Whitlam Financial scandals Political scandals in Australia