Tim Fischer | |
|---|---|
 Fischer as deputy prime minister | |
| Deputy Prime Minister of Australia | |
| In office 11 March 1996 – 20 July 1999 | |
| Prime Minister | John Howard |
| Preceded by | Kim Beazley |
| Succeeded by | John Anderson |
| Leader of the National Party | |
| In office 10 April 1990 – 20 July 1999 | |
| Deputy | Bruce Lloyd John Anderson |
| Preceded by | Charles Blunt |
| Succeeded by | John Anderson |
| Minister for Trade | |
| In office 11 March 1996 – 20 July 1999 | |
| Prime Minister | John Howard |
| Preceded by | Bob McMullan |
| Succeeded by | Mark Vaile |
| Australian Ambassador to the Holy See | |
| In office 30 January 2009 – 20 January 2012 | |
| Nominated by | Kevin Rudd |
| Preceded by | Anne Plunkett |
| Succeeded by | John McCarthy |
| Member of theAustralian Parliament forFarrer | |
| In office 1 December 1984 – 8 October 2001 | |
| Preceded by | Wal Fife |
| Succeeded by | Sussan Ley |
| Member of theNew South Wales Parliament forMurray | |
| In office 13 September 1980 – 18 October 1984 | |
| Preceded by | Mary Meillon |
| Succeeded by | Jim Small |
| Member of theNew South Wales Parliament forSturt | |
| In office 13 February 1971 – 12 August 1980 | |
| Preceded by | New district |
| Succeeded by | John Sullivan |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Timothy Andrew Fischer (1946-05-03)3 May 1946 Lockhart, New South Wales, Australia |
| Died | 22 August 2019(2019-08-22) (aged 73) East Albury, New South Wales, Australia |
| Political party | National Party of Australia |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Awards | Companion of the Order of Australia |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | Australia |
| Branch/service | Australian Army |
| Years of service | 1966–1969 |
| Rank | Second Lieutenant |
| Unit | 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment |
| Battles/wars | Vietnam War |
| Service number | 2784385 |
Timothy Andrew FischerAC FTSE (3 May 1946 – 22 August 2019) was an Australian politician and diplomat who served as leader of theNational Party from 1990 to 1999. He was the tenthdeputy prime minister in theHoward government from 1996 to 1999.
Fischer was born inLockhart, New South Wales. He served with theAustralian Army in theVietnam War. On his return he bought a farming property atBoree Creek. He served in theNew South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1971 to 1984. Fischer was elected to theHouse of Representatives at the1984 election, representing theDivision of Farrer until his retirement in 2001. He replacedCharles Blunt as leader of the National Party in 1990, and in the Howard government served as Deputy Prime Minister andMinister for Trade. After leaving politics, Fischer served as chairman ofTourism Australia from 2004 to 2007, and was laterAmbassador to the Holy See from 2009 to 2012.
Fischer was born on 3 May 1946 inLockhart, New South Wales.[1][2] He was the fourth of five children born to Barbara Mary (née van Cooth) and Julius Ralph Fischer; he was predeceased by an older brother who died of meningitis as an infant.[3] His parents were "from once wealthy Melbourne families whose businesses had collapsed with the onset of the Great Depression".[4] Fischer's father worked as ajackaroo, settling inBoree Creek, New South Wales, in 1936, where he ran astock and station agency and later bought a small farm.[5] His paternal grandfather was born inKleve, Germany, and had his assets frozen due toanti-German sentiment during World War I. His paternal grandmother was the daughter of a French seaman.[6] Fischer's mother worked as a nurse prior to her marriage. His maternal grandfather was a Dutch immigrant who married the daughter ofFrancis Mason, an Irish immigrant who becamespeaker of the Victorian Legislative Assembly.[4]
Fischer grew up on the family property at Boree Creek and attended Boree Creek Public School for six years. From 1958 he boarded atXavier College in Melbourne.[7] He graduated in 1963 and won a scholarship to attend university, but returned to Boree Creek to assist his family.[8] In 1966 he wasconscripted into theAustralian Army and commissioned at theOfficer Training Unit, Scheyville. Fischer served with the1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (1RAR) between July 1966 and March 1969 as asecond lieutenant.[9] With his battalion, he served in theVietnam War.[10] Fischer was wounded in theBattle of Coral-Balmoral in May–June 1968.[11] 1RAR and the1st Australian Task Force were awardedUnit Citation for Gallantry for their actions Battle of Coral-Balmoral and Fischer was entitled to wear the citation insignia.[12]
Upon his return from Vietnam, Fischer took over the family property at Boree Creek and became active in theCountry Party, as the party was then called.[13]
Fischer representedSturt in theNew South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1971 to 1980 andMurray from 1980 to 1984. He served on the oppositionfrontbench from 1978 to 1984.[1]
In 1984, Fischer won the federal seat ofFarrer in the New South Wales far west for theNational Party of Australia, as the Country Party had been renamed.[14] Within a year he was on the opposition frontbench, and soon became a popular figure in both the party and parliament. His sometimes rustic manner and bumbling English concealed a shrewd political brain. In 1990, when an attempt byCharles Blunt to modernise the Nationals' image ended with him losing his own seat, Fischer succeeded him as leader, defeating the former leaderIan Sinclair.[15][16]
Fischer was an enthusiastic supporter of the "Fightback" package of economic and tax reforms proposed by theLiberal leaderJohn Hewson in 1991. But he was unsuccessful in persuading the majority of rural voters, particularly inQueensland, that the proposed changes, particularly thegoods and services tax, were in their interests, andLabor underPaul Keating won the 1993 election. On 23 March 1993, ten days after the election, Ian Sinclair unsuccessfully challenged Fischer for the leadership.[17]
In January 1994, Fischer suffered head and neck injuries in a car accident 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) south of his property inLockhart, New South Wales. His carT-boned a vehicle that had failed to yield to a give-way sign; the driver and passenger in the other vehicle were killed. Fischer was knocked unconscious in the accident and taken to hospital inWagga Wagga.[18] He took a month off from politics to aid his recovery, with his deputyJohn Anderson acting as party leader in his absence.[19]
The Liberals finally regained office underJohn Howard in 1996. Fischer became Deputy Prime Minister andMinister for Trade. The Liberals had won a majority in their own right in the 1996 election, leaving the Nationals in a much weaker position compared to previous Coalition governments. Nonetheless, Fischer was fairly active. He supported the government introducing toughgun control measures on automatic and semi-automatic weapons following thePort Arthur massacre in April 1996 alongside then-prime ministerJohn Howard, measures which were opposed by much of his party's rural base.[15][20]
Fischer also had difficulty with the determination of many Liberals, including the Treasurer,Peter Costello, to carry out sweeping free-market reforms, including abolishing tariff protection for rural industries, deregulating petrol prices and implementing other measures which farmers' organisations regarded as harmful to themselves.
In pushing to permanently extinguishnative title rights ofindigenous Australians following theMabo andWik decisions, Fischer attracted much criticism.[15]
Further trouble for Fischer and the Nationals came with the rise ofOne Nation, aright-wing populist party led byPauline Hanson, a disendorsed Liberal candidate who was nonetheless elected member for theQueensland seat ofOxley at the 1996 federal election. One Nation had its greatest appeal in country areas of New South Wales and Queensland—the Nationals' traditional heartland. For much of 1997 and 1998, it looked as though One Nation might sweep the Nationals out of existence. In the 1998 election campaign, however, Fischer strongly counter-attacked One Nation, mainly on the grounds of their "flat tax" economic policies, and succeeded in holding the Nationals' losses to oneSenate seat in Queensland.[21]
In 2001, shortly before the expiry of his last parliamentary term, Fischer made public his support for anAustralian republic in the future.[22]
As an MP, and later as leader of the Nationals, Fischer often had a rather hectic schedule of visits to various rural National branch meetings, and other relevant functions and gatherings. As a result, he earned the affectionate nickname of "Two-Minute Tim" – often he would arrive, speak to the gathering for a few minutes (i.e. the "Two-Minutes"), grab a quick bite to eat while chatting to some of the attendees, then have to head off to the next stop on his schedule.[23]
In 2014 it was revealed on the ABC programA Country Road that sometime before the 1998 federal election, Fischer, then National Party leader, had met with his deputyJohn Anderson and former ministerJohn Sharp for a luncheon at which they were surprised to learn from each other that they all intended to retire at the forthcoming election. They agreed that it was not a good idea for all of them to retire at the same time, as it could give a negative image to the party which at the time was battling against perceptions that its future was uncertain. In the end, only Sharp retired, with Fischer and Anderson delaying their own retirements and successfully recontesting the election.[24]
In 1999, he surprised his colleagues by resigning as party leader and as a minister, and by announcing that he would retire at theelection due in 2001. His decision to quit politics was motivated partly by the demands of his family, in particular that his son Harrison hasautism (Fischer himself claimed to have "high functioning" autism, though he was never professionally diagnosed).[25]
Fischer is the only person to have served the entirety of his ministerial career as Deputy Prime Minister.
After his retirement, he returned to farming at Boree Creek, and became involved in charity work, assisting organisations such as theSt Vincent de Paul Society, theFred Hollows Foundation and Autism New South Wales.[15]
Fischer served as chairman ofTourism Australia from 2004 until 2007. He was made a fellow (FTSE) of theAustralian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) in 2000.[26] He served as chairman and a patron of theCrawford Fund, an initiative of the ATSE supporting international agricultural research, from 2001 to 2006. He was vice-chair and chair of theCrop Trust (2013–2017) and a "vigorous supporter" of theSvalbard Global Seed Vault.[27] He served as national chairman of theRoyal Flying Doctor Service.[28] He also served as founding Patron ofAustralia for UNHCR (2001–2006),[29] an Australian charity that raises funds for the UN's refugee agency.
Fischer was appointed a Companion of theOrder of Australia (AC) in the 2005Australia DayHonours' List in recognition of his contributions to Australian politics, trade liberalisation, rail transport development, support of humanitarian aid, and to fostering community acceptance of cultural differences.[30]
On 21 July 2008, Fischer was nominated by Prime MinisterKevin Rudd as the first resident AustralianAmbassador to theHoly See.[31] Fischer worked closely with the Vatican on all aspects of the canonisation of Australia's first Roman Catholic saint,Mary MacKillop.[32] He retired from the post on 20 January 2012.[33]
In August 2013, following the shooting death of Australian baseball player Christopher Lane in Oklahoma, Fischer called for a tourism boycott of the United States to protest the activities of theNational Rifle Association of America and what he felt were overly lax American gun laws.[34]
In 1992, Fischer married Judy Brewer. They had two sons.[15]
Fischer was noted as a tireless advocate forrail transport and was probably Australia's best knownrailfan. He had a childhood hobby of studying rail gauges of the world. After retiring from politics he continued his association with rail as special envoy for theAdelaide toDarwin railway line and travelled on the first freight train and firstGhan passenger train to Darwin in 2004. The V class GT46C locomotive V544, owned and operated by Aurizon, is named after him. In 2007 he led the Rail Freight Network Review intorail freight in Victoria, as commissioned by theVictorian Government.[35]
Between 2008 and 2009, Fischer hosted three series ofABC Local Radio podcastsThe Great Train Show, covering a wide range of railway topics from around the world and within Australia.[36]
In October 2018, Fischer was diagnosed withacute myeloid leukaemia. He died on 22 August 2019 at the Albury-Wodonga Cancer Centre inEast Albury, New South Wales at age 73.[37] Fischer himself attributed the illness to exposure toAgent Orange during his service in Vietnam.[15] Fischer was given a state funeral, which was held inAlbury on 29 August 2019.[38]
| Ribbon | Award | Date awarded | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
_BAR.svg) | Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) | 26 January 2005 | [30] |
 | Australian Active Service Medal 1945–1975 | withVIETNAM clasp | [39] |
 | Vietnam Medal | ||
 | Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal | 1977 | |
 | Centenary Medal | 1 January 2001 | [40] |
_ribbon.png) | Australian Defence Medal | ||
_ribbon.png) | Anniversary of National Service 1951–1972 Medal | [39] | |
 | Vietnam Campaign Medal (South Vietnam) | ||
 | Grand Cross of theOrder of May (Argentina) | [41] | |
 | Grand Cross of theOrder of Bernardo O'Higgins (Chile) | ||
 | Grand Officer of theOrder of the Southern Cross (Brazil) | ||
 | Knight Commander with Star of theOrder of St Gregory the Great (Holy See) | 2019 | [1] |
 | Knight Grand Cross of theOrder of Pius IX (Holy See) | 2012 | [39] |
He served as a 2nd Lieutenant with 1 RAR from July 1, 1966, to March 31, 1969
For service to the Australian and New South Wales Parliaments, to advancing the national interest through trade liberalisation and rail transport development, to supporting humanitarian aid in developing countries and to fostering openness and acceptance of cultural difference in the community.
{{cite AV media}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)For service as Deputy Prime Minister and to expanding Australia's international trade
Media related toTim Fischer at Wikimedia Commons
| New South Wales Legislative Assembly | ||
|---|---|---|
| New title | Member for Sturt 1971–1980 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member for Murray 1980–1984 | Succeeded by |
| Parliament of Australia | ||
| Preceded by | Member for Farrer 1984–2001 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Leader of theNational Party of Australia 1990–1999 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Minister for Trade 1996–1999 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Deputy Prime Minister of Australia 1996–1999 | Succeeded by |
| Diplomatic posts | ||
| Preceded by | Australian Ambassador to the Holy See 2008–2012 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
