Free Jacks and Jokers by Matthew Condon

[probably Superintendent Vern MacDonald] be made an Assistant Commissioner and that Minister Tom Newbery had just called him and indicated that he would be replaced by Inspector Terry Lewis.’
    Early says Whitrod declared the situation untenable and that he would be resigning. He asked Jim Casey to find out the particulars of his superannuation entitlements.
    ‘Why would you have to resign over a matter like that?’ Early says he asked.
    ‘They would put him in a back room and bypass me for him and that would not work,’ Whitrod allegedly replied. As it was, the government was extremely well prepared for whatever indignant reaction might come from Whitrod.
    Former Police Union boss Ron Edington confirms the plot to unseat Whitrod. ‘Joh had to get rid of him because he bailed up on Joh and told Joh that he wasn’t answerable to him,’ remembers Edington. ‘So he wasn’t going to be dictated to by bloody Joh. Then old Whitrod goes down and he objected to it and they said, “Oh well, perhaps we could make him [Lewis] a Chief Commissioner.” Whitrod went back and called all his staff together and had a discussion with them all as to what he should do.’
    Lewis’s new appointment was announced on Monday 15 November 1976. He was deluged with phone calls, cards, letters and telegrams of congratulations. Lewis’s diary noted for that day: ‘The Premier phoned congratulations on promotion. Numerous other callers. Off duty at 6 p.m. Received 44 telephone calls up until 11.30 p.m.’
    One typed letter came from none other than Whitrod staffer and supposed loyalist Greg Early, who divulged some interesting political machinations around the decision.
    ‘Dear Terry,’ he wrote, ‘congratulations on your promotion. It seems likely that you will go one step further. Two weeks ago I was talking to ‘Shady’ [Lane]. He said that next week (last week) was to be a very important week. I took from that comment that there would be some movement but I never thought it would be as big as it has turned out to be.’
    (If Early is accurate, Don ‘Shady’ Lane knew about, and was freely discussing, Lewis’s elevation to Assistant Commissioner from the week beginning Monday 1 November. It was on that precise day that Newbery took Whitrod’s controversial Cedar Bay report to Cabinet for discussion. It was most likely the moment the decision about Lewis was sealed. Five days later, Lewis would have his meeting with National Party president Bob Sparkes in Charleville.)
    Lewis also received a telegram from his old mate in Sydney, former detective Ray ‘Gunner’ Kelly. ‘Warmest congratulations. STOP. Your appointment heralds reprieve of wonderful service. STOP. Sincere wishes long successful reign, warmest regards, Ray Kelly.’
    And another: ‘Congratulations best wishes for future, Glen and Heather Hallahan.’
    Also a note on writing paper featuring an illustration of flowers and a teapot, from Lewis’s daughter Lanna. ‘Dear Dad,’ she wrote, ‘this is just a short note to say how pleased I am about your new promotion to Assistant Commissioner. I would just like to say that I am very proud of you and love you very much.’
    Lewis also says he received a call in Brisbane later that afternoon, concerning Whitrod’s objection to his appointment as Assistant Commissioner.
    ‘I’ll tell you something … not to name people but somebody phoned me … when I got appointed Assistant Commissioner he [Whitrod] said apparently he wouldn’t work with me,’ claims Lewis. ‘And apparently the Premier – again I wasn’t there – I was told that the Premier said either to him or to the Minister [Newbery] to tell him if that was going to be his attitude he’d make Lewis a Chief Commissioner and Whitrod could work for him.’
    Lewis’s diary for 15 November recorded that apart from the Premier ringing with his congratulations on his new appointment, he was also phoned by ‘Mr [Ken] Crooke, Press secretary to Min. for Police