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Malcolm Fraser | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Official portrait, 1977 | |
| 22nd Prime Minister of Australia | |
| In office 11 November 1975 – 11 March 1983 | |
| Monarch | Elizabeth II |
| Governors-General | |
| Deputy | Doug Anthony |
| Preceded by | Gough Whitlam |
| Succeeded by | Bob Hawke |
| 6thLeader of the Liberal Party | |
| In office 21 March 1975 – 11 March 1983 | |
| Deputy | |
| Preceded by | Billy Snedden |
| Succeeded by | Andrew Peacock |
| Leader of the Opposition | |
| In office 21 March 1975 – 11 November 1975 | |
| Prime Minister | Gough Whitlam |
| Deputy | Phillip Lynch |
| Preceded by | Billy Snedden |
| Succeeded by | Gough Whitlam |
| Minister for Education and Science | |
| In office 20 August 1971 – 5 December 1972 | |
| Prime Minister | William McMahon |
| Preceded by | David Fairbairn |
| Succeeded by | Gough Whitlam |
| In office 28 February 1968 – 12 November 1969 | |
| Prime Minister | John Gorton |
| Preceded by | John Gorton |
| Succeeded by | Nigel Bowen |
| Minister for Defence | |
| In office 12 November 1969 – 8 March 1971 | |
| Prime Minister | John Gorton |
| Preceded by | Allen Fairhall |
| Succeeded by | John Gorton |
| Minister for the Army | |
| In office 26 January 1966 – 28 February 1968 | |
| Prime Minister |
|
| Preceded by | Jim Forbes |
| Succeeded by | Phillip Lynch |
| Father of the House | |
| In office 5 January 1982 – 31 March 1983 | |
| Preceded by | William McMahon |
| Succeeded by | James Killen |
| Member of theAustralian Parliament forWannon | |
| In office 10 December 1955 – 31 March 1983 | |
| Preceded by | Don McLeod |
| Succeeded by | David Hawker |
| Personal details | |
| Born | John Malcolm Fraser (1930-05-21)21 May 1930 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia |
| Died | 20 March 2015(2015-03-20) (aged 84) Melbourne, Victoria, Australia |
| Resting place | Melbourne General Cemetery |
| Political party | Liberal (before 2010) |
| Other political affiliations | Coalition (before 2010) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 4 |
| Parent |
|
| Relatives |
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| Education | Magdalen College, Oxford |
| Signature |  |
John Malcolm Fraser (/ˈfreɪzər/; 21 May 1930 – 20 March 2015) was an Australian farmer and politician who was the 22ndprime minister of Australia, serving from 1975 to 1983. He held office as theleader of the Liberal Party of Australia, and is the fourthlongest-serving prime minister in Australian history.
Fraser was raised on his father'ssheep stations, and after studying atMagdalen College, Oxford, returned to Australia to take over the family property in theWestern District ofVictoria. After an initial defeatin 1954, he was elected to theAustralian House of Representatives at the1955 federal election, as a member of parliament (MP) for thedivision of Wannon. He was 25 at the time, making him one of the youngest people ever elected to parliament. He is the latest Prime Minister as of 2025 to represent a rural constituency. WhenHarold Holt became prime minister in 1966, Fraser was appointedMinister for the Army. After Holt'sdisappearance andreplacement byJohn Gorton, Fraser becameMinister for Education and Science (1968–1969) and thenMinister for Defence (1969–1971). In 1971, Fraser resigned from cabinet and denounced Gorton as "unfit to hold the great office of prime minister"; this precipitatedthe replacement of Gorton withWilliam McMahon. He subsequently returned to his old education and science portfolio.
After theLiberal–National Coalition was defeated at the1972 election, Fraserunsuccessfully stood for the Liberal leadership, losing toBilly Snedden. When the party lost the1974 election, he began to move against Snedden, eventually mountinga successful challenge in March 1975. AsLeader of the Opposition, Fraser used the Coalition's control of theAustralian Senate to blocksupply to theWhitlam government, precipitating the1975 Australian constitutional crisis. This culminated withGough Whitlam being dismissed as prime minister by thegovernor-general,Sir John Kerr, a unique occurrence in Australian history. The correctness of Fraser's actions in the crisis and the exact nature of his involvement in Kerr's decision have since been a topic of debate. Fraser remains the only Australian prime minister to ascend to the position upon the dismissal of his predecessor.
After Whitlam's dismissal, Fraser was sworn in as prime minister on an initialcaretaker basis. The Coalition won alandslide victory at the1975 election, and was re-electedin 1977 and1980. Fraser took a keen interest in foreign affairs as prime minister, and was more active in the international sphere than many of his predecessors. He was a strong supporter ofmulticulturalism, and during his term in office Australia admitted significant numbers of non-white immigrants (includingVietnamese boat people) for the first time, effectively ending theWhite Australia policy. His government also established theSpecial Broadcasting Service (SBS). Particularly in his final years in office, Fraser came into conflict with the "dry"economic rationalist andfiscal conservative faction of his party. His government made few major changes to economic policy.
After losing the1983 election, Fraser retired from politics. In his post-political career, he held advisory positions with the United Nations (UN) and theCommonwealth of Nations, and was president of the aid agencyCARE from 1990 to 1995. He resigned his membership of the Liberal Party in 2009 after the election ofTony Abbott as leader, Fraser having been a critic of the Liberals’ policy direction for a number of years. Evaluations of Fraser's prime ministership have been mixed. He is generally credited with restoring stability to the country after a series of short-term leaders and has been praised for his commitment to multiculturalism and opposition toapartheid inSouth Africa, but the circumstances of his entry to office remains controversial and many have viewed his government as a lost opportunity for economic reform. He was the last Australian Prime Minister entitled to the style "Right Honourable" as a member of thePrivy Council of the United Kingdom. His seven and a half-year tenure as prime minister is the fourth-longest in Australian history, only surpassed byBob Hawke,John Howard andRobert Menzies.
John Malcolm Fraser[1] was born inToorak, Melbourne, Victoria, on 21 May 1930.[2][3] He was the second of two children born to Una Arnold (née Woolf) andJohn Neville Fraser; his older sister Lorraine had been born in 1928. Both he and his father were known exclusively by their middle names. His paternal grandfather,Sir Simon Fraser, was born inNova Scotia, Canada, and arrived in Australia in 1853. He made his fortune as a railway contractor, and later acquired significantpastoral holdings, becoming a member of the "squattocracy". Fraser's maternal grandfather, Louis Woolf, was born inDunedin, New Zealand, and arrived in Australia as a child. He was of Jewish origin, a fact which his grandson did not learn until he was an adult. A chartered accountant by trade, he married Amy Booth, who was related to the wealthyHordern family of Sydney and was a first cousin ofSir Samuel Hordern.[4]
Fraser had a political background on both sides of his family. His father served on theWakool Shire Council, including as president for two years, and was an admirer ofBilly Hughes and a friend ofRichard Casey. Simon Fraser served in both houses of the colonialParliament of Victoria, and represented Victoria at several of theconstitutional conventions of the 1890s. He eventually become one of the inaugural members of the newfederal Senate, serving from 1901 to 1913 as a member of the early conservative parties. Louis Woolf also stood for the Senate in 1901, standing as aFree Trader inWestern Australia. He polled only 400 votes across the whole state, and was never again a candidate for public office.[5]
Fraser spent most of his early life atBalpool-Nyang, asheep station of 15,000 hectares (37,000 acres) on theEdward River nearMoulamein, New South Wales. His father had a law degree fromMagdalen College, Oxford, but never practised law and preferred the life of a grazier. Fraser contracted a severe case of pneumonia when he was eight years old, which nearly proved fatal. He was home-schooled until the age of ten, when he was sent to board atTudor House School in theSouthern Highlands. He attended Tudor House from 1940 to 1943, and then completed his secondary education atMelbourne Grammar School from 1944 to 1948 where he was a member of Rusden House. While at Melbourne Grammar, he lived in a flat that his parents owned onCollins Street. In 1943, Fraser's father soldBalpool-Nyang – which had been prone to drought – and boughtNareen, in theWestern District of Victoria. He was devastated by the sale of his childhood home, and regarded the day he found out about it as the worst of his life.[6]
In 1949, Fraser moved to England to study atMagdalen College, Oxford, which his father had also attended. He readPhilosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE), graduating in 1952 withthird-class honours. Although Fraser did not excel academically, he regarded his time at Oxford as his intellectual awakening, where he learned "how to think". His collegetutor wasHarry Weldon, who was a strong influence. His circle of friends at Oxford includedRaymond Bonham Carter,Nicolas Browne-Wilkinson, andJohn Turner. In his second year, he had a relationship with Anne Reid, who asAnne Fairbairn later became a prominent poet. After graduating, Fraser considered taking a law degree or joining theBritish Army, but eventually decided to return to Australia and take over the running of the family property.[7]
Fraser returned to Australia in mid-1952. He began attending meetings of theYoung Liberals inHamilton, and became acquainted with many of the local party officials. In November 1953, aged 23, Fraser unexpectedly won Liberalpreselection for theDivision of Wannon, which covered most of Victoria's Western District. The previous Liberal member,Dan Mackinnon, had been defeated in 1951 and moved to a different electorate. He was expected to be succeeded byMagnus Cormack, who had recently lost his place in the Senate. Fraser had put his name forward as a way of building a profile for future candidacies, but mounted a strong campaign and in the end won a narrow victory.[8] In January 1954, he made the first of a series of weekly radio broadcasts on3HA Hamilton and3YB Warrnambool, titledOne Australia. His program – consisting of a pre-recorded 15-minute monologue – covered a wide range of topics, and was often reprinted in newspapers. It continued more or less uninterrupted until his retirement from politics in 1983, and helped him build a substantial personal following in his electorate.[9]
At the1954 election, Fraser lost to the sittingLabor memberDon McLeod by just 17 votes (out of over 37,000 cast).[10] However, he reprised his candidacy at the early1955 election after aredistribution made Wannon notionally Liberal. McLeod concluded the reconfigured Wannon was unwinnable and retired. These factors, combined with the1955 Labor Party split, allowed Fraser to win a landslide victory.[11]
Fraser took his seat in parliament at the age of 25 – the youngest sitting MP by four years, and the first who had been too young to serve in World War II.[12] He was re-elected at the1958 election despite being restricted in his campaigning by a bout of hepatitis.[13] Fraser was soon being touted as a future member of cabinet, but despite good relations withRobert Menzies never served in cabinet during Menzies' tenure. His long wait for ministerial preferment was probably due to a combination of his youth and the fact that Menzies' ministries already contained a disproportionately high number of Victorians.[14]
Fraser spoke on a wide range of topics during his early years in parliament, but took a particular interest in foreign affairs. In 1964, he and Gough Whitlam were both awarded Leader Grants by theUnited States Department of State, allowing them to spend two months in Washington, D.C., getting to know American political and military leaders. The Vietnam War was the main topic of conversation, and on his return trip to Australia he spent two days inSaigon.[15] Early in 1965, he also made a private seven-day visit toJakarta, and with assistance from AmbassadorMick Shann secured meetings with various high-ranking officials.[16]
In 1966, after Fraser had spent more than a decade on the backbench,Sir Robert Menzies retired as prime minister. His successorHarold Holt appointed Fraser to theministry asMinister for the Army. In that position, Fraser presided over the controversialVietnam War conscription program.[citation needed]
Under the new prime minister,John Gorton, he was elevated toCabinet asMinister for Education and Science. In 1969 he was promoted toMinister for Defence, a particularly challenging post at the time, given the height of Australia's involvement in theVietnam War and the protests against it.[citation needed]
In March 1971 Fraser abruptly resigned from the Cabinet in protest at what he called Gorton's "interference in (his) ministerial responsibilities", and denounced Gorton on the floor of theHouse of Representatives as "not fit to hold the great office of Prime Minister".[17] This precipitated a series of events which eventually led to the downfall of Gorton and his replacement as prime minister byWilliam McMahon. In theleadership contest that followed Gorton's resignation, Fraser unsuccessfully contested the deputy Liberal leadership against Gorton andDavid Fairbairn. Gorton never forgave Fraser for the role he played in his downfall; to the day Gorton died in 2002, he could not bear to be in the same room with Fraser.[18]
Fraser remained on the backbenches until he was reinstated to Cabinet in his old position of Minister for Education and Science by McMahon in August 1971, immediately following Gorton's sacking as deputy Liberal leader by McMahon. When the Liberals were defeated at the1972 election by theLabor Party underGough Whitlam, McMahon resigned and Fraser becameShadow Minister for Labour underBilly Snedden.[citation needed]
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After the Coalition lost the1972 election, Fraser wasone of five candidates for the Liberal leadership that had been vacated by McMahon. He outpolled John Gorton andJames Killen, but was eliminated on the third ballot.Billy Snedden eventually defeatedNigel Bowen by a single vote on the fifth ballot. In the newshadow cabinet – which featured only Liberals – Fraser was given responsibility for primary industry. This was widely seen as a snub, as the new portfolio kept him mostly out of the public eye and was likely to be given to a member of the Country Party when the Coalition returned to government.[19] In an August 1973 reshuffle, Snedden instead made him the Liberals' spokesman for industrial relations. He had hoped to be given responsibility for foreign affairs (in place of the retiring Nigel Bowen), but that role was given toAndrew Peacock.[20] Fraser oversaw the development of the party's new industrial relations policy, which was released in April 1974. It was seen as more flexible and even-handed than the policy that the Coalition had pursued in government, and was received well by the media.[21] According to Fraser's biographerPhilip Ayres, by "putting a new policy in place, he managed to modify his public image and emerge as an excellent communicator across a traditionally hostile divide".[20]
After the Liberals lost the1974 election, Fraser unsuccessfully challenged Snedden for the leadership in November. Despite surviving the challenge, Snedden's position in opinion polls continued to decline and he was unable to get the better of Whitlam in the Parliament. Fraser again challenged Snedden on 21 March 1975, this time succeeding and becoming Leader of the Liberal Party andLeader of the Opposition.
Following a series of ministerial scandals engulfing theWhitlam government later that year, Fraser began to instruct Coalition senators to delay the government's budget bills, with the objective of forcing an early election that he believed he would win. After several months of political deadlock, during which time the government secretly explored methods of obtaining supply funding outside the Parliament, theGovernor-General,Sir John Kerr, controversially dismissed Whitlam as prime minister on 11 November 1975.[22]
Fraser was immediately sworn in ascaretaker prime minister on the condition that he end the political deadlock and call an immediatedouble dissolution election.
On 19 November 1975, shortly after the election had been called, a letter bomb was sent to Fraser, but it was intercepted and defused before it reached him. Similar devices were sent to the governor-general and thePremier of Queensland,Joh Bjelke-Petersen.[23][24]
At the1975 election, Fraser led theLiberal-Country Party Coalition to a landslide victory. The Coalition won 91 seats of a possible 127 in the election to gain a 55-seat majority,[25] which remains to date the largest in Australian history. Fraser subsequently led the Coalition to a second victory in1977, with only a very small decrease in their vote. The Liberals actually won a majority in their own right in both of these elections, something that Menzies and Holt had never achieved. Although Fraser thus had no need for the support of the (National) Country Party to govern, he retained the formal Coalition between the two parties. This is likely because the Liberals needed the Country Party's support to pass bills in the Senate, since they came up just short of majorities in their own right in both 1975 and 1977.
Fraser quickly dismantled some of the programs of the Whitlam government, such as the Ministry of the Media, and made major changes to the universal health insurance systemMedibank. He initially maintained Whitlam's levels of tax and spending, but real per-person tax and spending soon began to increase. He did manage to rein in inflation, which had soared after the1973 oil crisis, whenOPEC nations refused to sell oil to nations that supported Israel in theYom Kippur War. His so-called "Razor Gang" implemented stringent budget cuts across many areas of the Commonwealth Public Sector, including theAustralian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).[26]
Fraser practisedKeynesian economics during his time as prime minister,[27] in part demonstrated by running budget deficits throughout his term as prime minister.[28] He was the Liberal Party's last Keynesian Prime Minister. Though he had long been identified with the Liberal Party's right wing, he did not carry out the radically conservative program that his political enemies had predicted, and that some of his followers wanted. Fraser's relatively moderate policies particularly disappointed theTreasurer,John Howard, as well as other ministers who were strong adherents offiscal conservatism andeconomic liberalism,[27] and therefore detractors of Keynesian economics. The government's economic record was marred by rising double-digit unemployment and double-digit inflation, creating "stagflation", caused in part by the ongoing effects of the1973 oil crisis.
Fraser was particularly active in foreign policy as prime minister. He supported theCommonwealth in campaigning to abolishapartheid in South Africa and refused permission for the aircraft carrying theSpringbok rugby team to refuel on Australian territory en route to their controversial1981 tour of New Zealand.[29] However, an earlier tour by the South African ski boat angling team was allowed to pass through Australia on the way to New Zealand in 1977 and the transit records were suppressed by Cabinet order.[30]
Fraser also strongly opposed white minority rule inRhodesia. During the 1979 Commonwealth Conference, Fraser, together with his Nigerian counterpart, convinced the newly elected British prime minister,Margaret Thatcher, to withhold recognition of the internal settlementZimbabwe Rhodesia government; Thatcher had earlier promised to recognise it. Subsequently, theLancaster House Agreement was signed andRobert Mugabe was elected leader of an independentZimbabwe at the inaugural1980 election. Duncan Campbell, a former deputy secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has stated that Fraser was "the principal architect" in the ending of white minority rule.[31] ThePresident of Tanzania,Julius Nyerere, said that he considered Fraser's role "crucial in many parts" and thePresident of Zambia,Kenneth Kaunda, called his contribution "vital".[32]
Under Fraser, Australia recognisedIndonesia'sannexation ofEast Timor, although many East Timorese refugees were grantedasylum in Australia.
Fraser was also a strong supporter of the United States and supported the boycott of the1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. However, although he persuaded some sporting bodies not to compete, Fraser did not try to prevent theAustralian Olympic Committee sending a team to the Moscow Games.
Fraser also surprised his critics over immigration policy; according to 1977 Cabinet documents, the Fraser government adopted a formal policy for "a humanitarian commitment to admit refugees for resettlement".[33] Fraser's aim was to expand immigration from Asian countries and allow more refugees to enter Australia. He was a firm supporter ofmulticulturalism and established a government-funded multilingual radio and television network, theSpecial Broadcasting Service (SBS), building on their first radio stations which had been established under the Whitlam government.[34]
Despite Fraser's support for SBS, his government imposed stringent budget cuts on the national broadcaster, theABC, which came under repeated attack from the Coalition for alleged "left-wing bias" and "unfair" coverage on their TV programs, includingThis Day Tonight andFour Corners, and on the ABC's new youth-oriented radio stationDouble Jay. One result of the cuts was a plan to establish a national youth radio network, of which Double Jay was the first station. The network was delayed for many years and did not come to fruition until the 1990s.
Fraser also legislated to giveIndigenous Australians control of their traditional lands in theNorthern Territory, but resisted imposing land rights laws on conservative state governments.
At the1980 election, Fraser saw his majority more than halved, from 48 seats to 21. The Coalition also lost control of the Senate. Despite this, Fraser remained ahead of Labor leaderBill Hayden in opinion polls. However, the economy was hit by theearly 1980s recession, and a protracted scandal over tax-avoidance schemes run by some high-profile Liberals also began to hurt the government.
In April 1981, theMinister for Industrial Relations,Andrew Peacock, resigned from the Cabinet, accusing Fraser of "constant interference in his portfolio". Fraser, however, had accused former prime ministerJohn Gorton of the same thing a decade earlier. Peacock subsequently challenged Fraser for the leadership; although Fraser defeated Peacock, these events left him politically weakened.
By early 1982, the popular formerACTU President,Bob Hawke, who had entered Parliament in 1980, was polling well ahead of both Fraser and the Labor Leader,Bill Hayden, on the question of who voters would rather see as prime minister. Fraser was well aware of the infighting this caused between Hayden and Hawke and had planned to call a snap election in autumn 1982, preventing the Labor Party changing leaders. These plans were derailed when Fraser suffered a severe back injury. Shortly after recovering from his injury, the Liberal Party narrowly won aby-election in the marginal seat ofFlinders in December 1982. The failure of the Labor Party to win the seat convinced Fraser that he would be able to win an election against Hayden.
As leadership tensions began to grow in the Labor Party throughout January, Fraser subsequently resolved to call adouble dissolutionelection at the earliest opportunity, hoping to capitalise on Labor's disunity. He knew that if the writs were issued soon enough, Labor would essentially be frozen into going into the subsequent election with Hayden as leader.
On 3 February 1983, Fraser arranged to visit theGovernor-General of Australia,Sir Ninian Stephen, intending to ask for a surprise election. However, Fraser made his run too late. Without any knowledge of Fraser's plans, Hayden resigned as Labor leader just two hours before Fraser travelled toGovernment House. This meant that the considerably more popular Hawke was able to replace him at almost exactly the same time that the writs were issued for the election. Although Fraser reacted to the move by saying he looked forward to "knock[ing] two Labor Leaders off in one go" at the forthcoming election, Labor immediately surged in the opinion polls.[35]
At the election on 5 March the Coalition was heavily defeated, suffering a 24-seat swing, the worst defeat of a non-Labor government since Federation. Fraser immediately announced his resignation as Liberal leader and formally resigned as prime minister on 11 March 1983; he retired from Parliament two months later. To date, he is the last non-interim prime minister from a rural seat.
In retirement Fraser was Chairman of the UN Panel of Eminent Persons on the Role of Transnational Corporations in South Africa 1985, as Co-Chairman of the Commonwealth Group of Eminent Persons on South Africa in 1985–86 (appointed by Prime Minister Hawke), and as Chairman of the UN Secretary-General's Expert Group on African Commodity Issues in 1989–90. He was a distinguished international fellow at theAmerican Enterprise Institute from 1984 to 1986. Fraser helped to establish the foreign aid groupCARE organisation in Australia and became the agency's international president in 1991, and worked with a number of other charitable organisations.[36] In 2006, he was appointed Professorial Fellow at the Asia Pacific Centre for Military Law, and in October 2007 he presented his inaugural professorial lecture, "Finding Security in Terrorism's Shadow: The importance of the rule of law".[37]
On 14 October 1986, Fraser, then the Chairman of theCommonwealth Eminent Persons Group, was found in the foyer of the Admiral Benbow Inn, aMemphis hotel, wearing only a pair of underpants and confused as to where his trousers were. The hotel was an establishment popular with prostitutes and drug dealers. Though it was rumoured at the time that the former prime minister had been with a prostitute, his wife stated that Fraser had no recollection of the events and that she believes it more likely that he was the victim of a practical joke by his fellow delegates.[38]
In 1993, Fraser made a bid for the Liberal Party presidency but withdrew at the last minute following opposition to his bid, which was raised due to his having been critical of then Liberal leaderJohn Hewson for losing the election earlier that year.[39]
After 1996, Fraser was critical of theHoward Coalition government over foreign policy issues, particularlyJohn Howard's alignment with the foreign policy of theBush administration, which Fraser saw as damaging Australian relationships in Asia. He opposed Howard's policy onasylum-seekers, campaigned in support of anAustralian Republic and attacked what he perceived as a lack of integrity in Australian politics, together with former Labor prime ministerGough Whitlam, finding much common ground with his predecessor and his successorBob Hawke, another republican.[40][41]
The2001 election continued his estrangement from the Liberal Party. Many Liberals criticised the Fraser years as "a decade of lost opportunity" on deregulation of the Australian economy and other issues. In early 2004, aYoung Liberal convention in Hobart called for Fraser's life membership of the Liberal Party to be ended.[42]
In 2006, Fraser criticised Howard Liberal government policies on areas such as refugees, terrorism and civil liberties, and that "if Australia continues to follow United States policies, it runs the risk of being embroiled in theconflict in Iraq for decades, and a fear ofIslam in the Australian community will take years to eradicate". Fraser claimed that the way the Howard government handled theDavid Hicks,Cornelia Rau andVivian Solon cases was questionable.[43][44]
On 20 July 2007, Fraser sent an open letter to members of the large activist groupGetUp!, encouraging members to support GetUp's campaign for a change in policy on Iraq including a clearly defined exit strategy.[45] Fraser stated: "One of the things we should say to the Americans, quite simply, is that if the United States is not prepared to involve itself in high-level diplomacy concerning Iraq and other Middle East questions, our forces will be withdrawn before Christmas."[46]
After the defeat of the Howard government at the2007 federal election, Fraser claimed Howard approached him in a corridor, following a cabinet meeting in May 1977 regardingVietnameserefugees, and said: "We don't want too many of these people. We're doing this just for show, aren't we?" The claims were made by Fraser in an interview to mark the release of the 1977 cabinet papers. Howard, through a spokesman, denied having made the comment.[47]
In October 2007 Fraser gave a speech to Melbourne Law School on terrorism and "the importance of the rule of law,"[48] which Liberal MPSophie Mirabella[49]condemned in January 2008, claiming errors and "either intellectual sloppiness or deliberate dishonesty", and claimed that he tacitly supported Islamic fundamentalism, that he should have no influence on foreign policy, and claimed his stance on thewar on terror had left him open to caricature as a "frothing-at-the-mouth leftie".[50]
Shortly afterTony Abbott won the2009 Liberal Party leadership spill, Fraser ended his Liberal Party membership,[51] stating the party was "no longer a liberal party but a conservative party".[52]
In December 2011, Fraser was highly critical of the Australian government's decision (also supported by the Liberal Party Opposition) to permit the export of uranium to India, relaxing the Fraser government's policy of banning sales of uranium to countries that are not signatories of theNuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.[53]
In 2012, Fraser criticised the basing of US military forces in Australia.[54]
In late 2012, Fraser wrote a foreword for the journalJurisprudence where he openly criticised the current state of human rights in Australia and the Western World. "It is a sobering thought that in recent times, freedoms hard won through centuries of struggle, in the United Kingdom and elsewhere have been whittled away. In Australia alone we have laws that allow the secret detention of the innocent. We have had a vast expansion of the power of intelligence agencies. In many cases the onus of proof has been reversed and the justice that once prevailed has been gravely diminished."[55]
In July 2013, Fraser endorsedAustralian GreensSenatorSarah Hanson-Young for re-election in a television advertisement, stating she had been a "reasonable and fair-minded voice".[56]
Fraser's books includeMalcolm Fraser: The Political Memoirs (withMargaret Simons – The Miegunyah Press, 2010) andDangerous Allies (Melbourne University Press, 2014), which warns of "strategic dependence" on the United States.[57] In the book and in talks promoting it, he criticised the concept ofAmerican exceptionalism andUS foreign policy.[58][59]
On 9 December 1956, Fraser marriedTamara "Tamie" Beggs, who was almost six years his junior. They had met at a New Year's Eve party, and bonded over similar personal backgrounds and political views. The couple had four children together: Mark (b. 1958), Angela (b. 1960), Hugh (b. 1962), and Phoebe (b. 1964). Tamie frequently assisted her husband in campaigning, and her gregariousness was seen as complementing his more shy and reserved nature. She advised him on most of the important decisions in his career, and in retirement he observed that "if she had been prime minister in 1983, we would have won".[60]
He was the former no. 1 ticket holder for theCarlton Football Club in theAFL.[61]
Fraser attended Anglican schools, although his parents were Presbyterian.[62] In university he was inclined towards atheism, once writing that "the idea that God exists is a nonsense". However, his beliefs became less definite over time and tended towards agnosticism.[63] During his political career, he occasionally self-described as Christian, such as in a 1975 interview withThe Catholic Weekly.[64]Margaret Simons, the co-author of Fraser's memoirs, thought that he was "not religious, and yet thinks religion is a necessary thing". In a 2010 interview with her, he said: "I would probably like to be less logical and, you know, really able to believe there is a God, whether it is Allah, or the Christian God, or some other – but I think I studied too much philosophy ... you can never know".[65]
Fraser died on 20 March 2015 at the age of 84, after a brief illness.[66][67] Anobituary noted that there had been "greater appreciation of the constructive and positive nature of his post-prime ministerial contribution" as his retirement years progressed. Fraser's death came five months after that of his predecessor and political rival Gough Whitlam.[36]
Upon his death, Fraser's 1983 nemesis and often bitter opponentBob Hawke fondly described him as a "very significant figure in the history of Australian politics" who, in his post-Prime Ministerial years, "became an outstanding figure in the advancement of human rights issues in all respects", praised him for being "extraordinarily generous and welcoming to refugees from Indochina" and concluded that Fraser had "moved that far to the left that he was almost out of sight".[68]Andrew Peacock, who hadchallenged Fraser for the Liberal leadership and later succeeded him, said that he had "a deep respect and pleasurable memories of the first five years of theFraser government... I disagreed with him later on but during that period in the 1970s he was a very effective Prime Minister", and lamented that "despite all my arguments with him later on I am filled with admiration for his efforts on China".[69]
Fraser was given a state funeral atScots' Church in Melbourne on 27 March 2015.[70] His ashes are interred within the Prime Ministers Garden ofMelbourne General Cemetery.
In 2004, Fraser designated theUniversity of Melbourne the official custodian of his personal papers and library to create the Malcolm Fraser Collection at the university.[71]
A street inAbuja,Nigeria, is named after Malcolm Fraser.
In June 2018, he was honoured with the naming of the Australian ElectoralDivision of Fraser in the inner north-western suburbs of Melbourne.[72]
Orders
1977Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH)[73]
1988Companion of the Order of Australia (AC)[74]Foreign honours
1999Order of the Three Stars, 3rd Class (Commander)[75]
2006Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun from theEmperor of Japan
2009Grand Companion of the Order of Logohu (GCL)[76]Organisations
Personal
Fellowships
Professorial Fellow, Asia Pacific Centre for Military Law at theUniversity of MelbourneAcademic degrees
University of South Carolina, Honorary Doctor of LawsDeakin University, Honorary Doctor of the University
University of Technology, Sydney, Honorary Doctor of LawsUniversity of New South Wales, Honorary Doctor of Laws
Murdoch University, Honorary Doctor of LawsA grandson John Malcolm Fraser (1930-2015) was prime minister of Australia from 1975 to 1983.
Mr Fraser stood up in Parliament on March 10, 1971, and announced his resignation as defence minister. Mr Fraser slammed prime minister John Gorton's interference in his ministerial responsibilities and accused him of disloyalty, saying he was 'not fit to hold the great office of Prime minister'.
{{cite news}}:|author= has generic name (help)The six decades since the advent of the United Nations have been marked by significant progress towards the ideal of a world ruled by law. In Professor Fraser's view, the Bush Administration, in its pursuit of its self-declared 'global war on terror', has done much to retard this progress. In his inaugural Professorial Lecture, he will address this regression and the Howard government's complicity in it, with his own suggestions for restoring the rule of law.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
| Parliament of Australia | ||
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| Preceded by | Member of Parliament for Wannon 1955–1983 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Minister for the Army 1966–1968 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister for Education and Science 1968–1969 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister for Defence 1969–1971 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister for Education and Science 1971–1972 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Leader of the Opposition 1975 | |
| Preceded by | Prime Minister of Australia 1975–1983 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Leader of the Liberal Party 1975–1983 | Succeeded by |
| Honorary titles | ||
| Preceded by | Father of the House of Representatives Father of the Parliament Co held withSir James Killen andSir Billy Snedden 1982–1983 | Succeeded by |
