John Malcolm Fraser, 22nd Prime Minister of Australia

Malcolm Fraser

Prime Minister of Austrralia from 11 November 1975 to 11 March 1983

John Malcolm Fraser. National Archives of Australia,

Malcolm Fraser was asked to take over the job of Prime Minister by the Governor-General when Gough Whitlam was dismissed in controversial circumstances in 1975. Fraser won the subsequent election by a landslide. He was Prime Minister for seven and a half years - one of our longest-serving Prime Ministers - continuing many reform policies from the previous government in areas of human rights and in judicial matters.

He was a prominent figure in international affairs, particularly in support of black African movements. Fraser maintained a conservative economic policy, opposed to economic deregulation.

Beginnings John Malcolm Fraser was born in Toorak, Victoria, on 21 May 1930. He's known by his middle name - Malcolm. He was the second of two children of Una Woolf and John Neville Fraser. Una Woolf was of Jewish descent and JN Fraser, Scottish. JN Fraser, a pastoralist who had trained as a lawyer, owned property in the Riverina district of New South Wales. He then bought 'Nareen', a station near Hamilton, Victoria, for his family to live on. Malcolm Fraser's grandfather, Simon Fraser, emigrated from Nova Scotia in 1853 and became a land speculator and pastoralist. Simon Fraser entered Victorian parliament, participated in the Federal Conventions of 1897-1898 and became a Senator at Federation.

Malcolm Fraser was educated at Geelong Grammar preparatory school, Toorak, Victoria, then Tudor House, Moss Vale, New South Wales, before going on to Melbourne Grammar at 14. He went to Oxford University, UK, where he graduated with a degree in philosophy, politics and economics. He worked as a grazier at 'Nareen' after returning from Oxford.

Malcolm Fraser unsuccessfully contested the federal seat of Wannon as the Liberal candidate at the 1954 general election.

He married Tamara ('Tammie') Beggs in 1956, and they had four children.

Entry to federal politics Malcolm Fraser won the seat of Wannon at the general election in 1955. At 25, he was federal parliament's youngest member. He held Wannon for 29 years through 11 general elections until his resignation from parliament on 31 March 1983.

Fraser was Minister for the Army for two years from 1966 to 1968 in the coalition governments of Harold Holt and John Gorton. He was Minister for Education and Science from 1968 to 1969 in Gorton's government and in William McMahon's government from 1971 to 1972. He was Gorton's Minister for Defence from November 1969 to 8 March 1971, when he resigned, accusing Gorton of disloyalty to him in a disagreement over the Army. His resignation set in motion McMahon's successful challenge to Gorton's leadership of the Liberals a fortnight later, resulting in Gorton's replacement as Prime Minister by McMahon.

Fraser was a member of the federal Liberal opposition executive from 1972 to 1975, and a spokesman on primary industry, then labour matters.

He became Leader of the Opposition on 21 March 1975 after successfully challenging BM Snedden for the Liberal leadership. The challenge was promoted by parliamentary party members dissatisfied with Snedden's parliamentary performance against the Labor Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam.

On 15 October 1975, Fraser set in motion the events leading to Whitlam's dismissal by the Governor-General when he announced that the opposition would refuse passage through the Senate of the Budget Bills until Whitlam called an election. Justifying this decision, he claimed revelations about the government's attempts to bypass the Loans Council to obtain funds overseas indicated 'extraordinary and reprehensible circumstances' which warranted an electoral verdict on the government's actions.

When the opposition, led by Fraser, refused to pass the government's Budget Bills through the Senate in October-November 1975, (delaying the funding of government operations) Australia experienced its most severe constitutional crisis. Fraser said the opposition would not grant supply until the government called a general election. The constitutional and financial crisis climaxed when JR Kerr, the Governor-General, withdrew Whitlam's commission as Prime Minister on 11 November 1975.

Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser Immediately after the dismissal of Whitlam, the Governor-General commissioned Fraser as interim Prime Minister pending a general election. Parliament was dissolved.

Fraser's Liberal-National Country Party won a landslide victory against the Australian Labor Party (ALP) at a general election on 13 December 1975. They won 91 seats (out of 127) in the House of Representatives and control of the Senate with a six-seat majority.

Fraser easily won the next general election in December 1977, although the ALP won back 14 seats from the Liberals. A new 'centre' party, the Australian Democrats, was formed in May 1977 by Don Chipp, a former Liberal minister who had become disillusioned with the party under Fraser's leadership. At the December 1977 election, Chipp took one of two Senate seats the Democrats won.

Fraser's government was returned to power at the general election in 1980. However, with three new senators elected, the Democrats gained the balance of power in the Senate.

Despite a reputation for conservatism and determination to slash government expenditure, Fraser's Liberal-National Party coalition continued and extended the process of reform begun under the previous ALP government. Among its innovations were these:

1976: establishment of the Family Court of Australia and Federal Court of Australia; Northern Territory granted self-government; passage of Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act; position of Federal Ombudsman established; ABC FM radio service established.

1977: National Aboriginal Conference established; Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) established to provide multilingual radio and television services.

1978: approval of parliament for building a new, permanent Parliament House on Capital Hill, Canberra. The winning design was announced in June 1980 and construction work began soon after.

1979: Norfolk Island Legislative Assembly established; Fraser played a key role in ending racial war in the former UK colony of Rhodesia, enabling elections to be held and a new nation - Zimbabwe - to be established under black rule; the government established the Australian Refugee Advisory Council to advise it on the settlement of refugees, many of whom had been arriving as 'boat people' from Vietnam since 1978.

1980: Aboriginal Development Commission established; in protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan the government cut wheat sales to the Soviet Union and discouraged Australian participation in the Moscow Olympics; first commercial FM radio broadcasting stations and first ethnic television stations established under SBS (Channel 0 Sydney and 28 Melbourne).

1981: the government declared 36,000 square km of the Cairns section of the Great Barrier Reef as a marine park.

1982: appeals to the Privy Council were abolished, making the High Court the final court of appeal; a new migrant selection scheme was introduced, based on criteria relating to family reunion and the need for skilled workers.

Although Fraser's government introduced many innovations, it was criticised by some Liberals for not initiating economic reform when it had the opportunity. Fraser proved a true conservative on economic issues, for example resisting economic deregulation and tariff reform.

Fraser travelled widely as both minister and Prime Minister to Asia, Africa, North America, the Pacific and Europe. He became a prominent figure in CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings), and hosted CHOGM in Sydney in February 1978, and in Melbourne and Canberra in September-October 1981.

On 3 February 1983, Fraser gained a double dissolution of parliament and called a general election. He hoped to gain an advantage from the disunity in the federal parliamentary ALP over Bob Hawke's challenges to WG Hayden's leadership of the ALP. Twenty minutes after Fraser announced the election, Hayden resigned as ALP leader allowing Hawke to assume leadership.

Following an election campaign largely focusing on Fraser's and Hawke's personalities, the ALP won a 25-seat majority in the House of Representatives. With 30 out of 64 Senate seats, the ALP had the largest number of Senators, but the success of the Democrats in winning five seats enabled them to continue to hold the balance of power in the Senate.

In conceding defeat early on 6 March 1983, the morning following the election, Fraser announced his intention of resigning from the Liberal leadership. He resigned from parliament five days later, on 11 March, and later that day the parliamentary Liberal Party elected Andrew S Peacock to replace him as leader.

Beyond politics On quitting parliament, Fraser retired to 'Nareen' but remained active in public affairs. In 1985 he was chosen as a member of an international group of 'eminent persons' seeking to end apartheid in South Africa by encouraging dialogue between the opposed racial communities. (He had been a real critic of apartheid since entering parliament.)

Later, he became a political columnist for The Australian newspaper. From 1987-2002 Fraser was chairman of Care Australia, an international relief agency with special interests in delivering aid to poverty stricken nations in Africa.

In 2000, Fraser's contribution to the advancement of human rights in Australia and internationally was recognised when he was awarded Australia's Human Rights medal.

Legislation Notable legislation during the period 1976 to 1983 included:

The Social Services Amendment Act 1976 increased the rate of child endowment, renamed family allowance, following Professor Ronald Henderson's Commission of Inquiry in Poverty.

The Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 gave land rights to Northern Territory Aborigines, implementing the recommendations of the Woodwood Royal Commission into Aboriginal land rights.

The Ombudsman Act 1976 established an office of Commonwealth Ombudsman, which was empowered to investigate grievances by members of the public about administrative actions by officials of Commonwealth departments, statutory authorities and other government agencies.

The Constitution Alteration (Senate Casual Vacancies) Act 1977 ensured that a casual vacancy in the Senate was filled by a person of the same political party as the former incumbent - subsequently passed at a referendum.

The Federal Court of Australia Act 1976 established a court of appeal to operate in areas of federal and territory law.

The Crimes (Taxation Offences ) Act 1980 outlawed the stripping of untaxed profits by way of 'bottom of the harbour' schemes.

The Taxation (Unpaid Company Tax) Assessment Act 1982 provided for the recoupment of tax evaded illegally since 1972.

The Aboriginal Development Commission Act 1980 provided a funding mechanism for Aboriginal enterprises, housing and other services.

The Human Rights Commission Act 1981.

The Northern Territory (Self Government) Act 1978 established a fully elected legislative assembly for the Northern Territory with powers in most respects equal to state powers.

The Freedom of Information Act 1982 established a legally enforceable right of access to the public for information held by ministers and officials.

From National Museum of Australia.

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Findagrave.com has Malcolm buried Melbourne General Cemetery, Carlton, Melbourne City, Victoria, Australia, Plot: Prime Ministers Garden

It is fitting that we celebrate the life and legacy of our 22nd Prime Minister here in this chamber, because this very building is one of his achievements. He was prepared to endure gibes about politicians spending money on themselves because he understood that Australians would come to appreciate a Parliament House that reflected our pride in ourselves and in our country. He foresaw a building that would be the crowning achievement of the Parliamentary Triangle and, along with the National Gallery and the High Court, which were also started on his watch, would reflect the modern nation we have become. He was right and, of course, as so often happens in our public life, his government wore the brickbats for starting it and another government gained the credit for opening it.

The Fraser government conferred self-government on the Northern Territory, established the Commonwealth Ombudsman and enacted our first freedom of information laws. After the Hilton Hotel bombing, his government established the Australian Federal Police, and it set up the National Crime Commission following the Costigan inquiry. His government commissioned the Campbell report, which laid the foundation for the eventual deregulation of the financial system. Like all good farmers, Malcolm Fraser was a conservationist. His government banned sandmining on Fraser Island, banned drilling on the Barrier Reef, set up the Great Barrier Brief Marine Park and had this wonder of the natural world heritage listed.

He was a Liberal humanitarian who worked against white minority governments in southern Africa and a staunch anti-communist who tried to keep our sports stars from the Moscow Olympics after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. At the height of the Whitlam turmoil, he had said that he would like to see sport rather than politics on the front page. When he imposed the Olympic ban, he managed to realise that goal!

Fraser was not an avid social reformer like Whitlam, nor a mould-breaking economic reformer like Hawke, but he gave the country what we needed at that time. He restored economic responsibility while recognising social change. His government passed the Northern Territory land rights act and he was the first Prime Minister to visit the Torres Strait. He established the Special Broadcasting Service and began large-scale Asian immigration to Australia by accepting 50,000 Vietnamese refugees fleeing communism. In 1983 Malcolm Fraser left parliament, proud of his government and its achievements. As he said at the time, 'Australia is handed over in as good or better condition than any other western country in the world.'

For a long time after 1975 Malcolm Fraser was largely defined by the blocking of supply, the dismissal of the Whitlam government and his subsequent electoral vindication. Neither Whitlam nor Fraser ever resiled from the positions they took at that time, yet ultimately they came to see the good in each other. Some years ago, Whitlam observed with characteristic wit that 'Fraser had supplanted him as the principal bogeyman of the hard Right and that this second usurpation had been easier to take than the first'. A sense grew, especially among Liberals, that the Fraser government might have marked time. In the late eighties and the early nineties Malcolm Fraser offered himself to be federal president of the Liberal Party, and twice it did not work out. As the Howard government implemented reforms such as the GST and privatisation, expanded mandatory detention to stop the boats and joined US-led military coalitions in Afghanistan and Iraq, an estrangement grew between him and the party he had led for eight years—for most of that time triumphantly.

John Howard has famously observed that the Australian Liberal Party, unlike its namesakes elsewhere, is the custodian in this country of both the liberal political tradition and the conservative one. But there is in fact a third tradition our party represents that is as vital as our liberal and conservative philosophies—a dedication to service and to repaying good fortune, the working out in this world of the gospel notion 'To whom much is given, much is expected'. Melbourne Grammar, Oxford and a grandfather who was a senator no doubt helped to crystallise Malcolm Fraser's instinct to serve. His shyness, born of a lonely childhood, often made him seem remote but it also created a keen sympathy for the outsider. Duty and service came naturally to him. He was a man to whom becoming a member of parliament, if that opportunity presented itself, would seem the most natural thing in the world. His political allegiances might have been instinctive as much as philosophical but he was the true and authentic representative of an honourable tradition.

My first contact with Malcolm Fraser was to lobby him for voluntary membership of the Australian Union of Students. 'Because he had not been consulting papers at the time,' Senator John Carrick advised me afterwards, 'the meeting had probably gone well because the Prime Minister was focused on the discussion and not on something else.' In the early nineties I persuaded both Malcolm Fraser and his one-time nemesis the Liberal turned Australian Democrats founder Don Chipp to join the Australian Council of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy. When I asked them both to speak at the launch, Chipp said that 'if that'—expletive deleted—'Fraser comes, I won't'. A few months later, Malcolm settled the matter by joining the republican side.

I did make it my business to renew contact with him on becoming party leader in 2009. We had some long talks. We often disagreed, but I appreciated his wisdom born of experience. He had a long and active life after leaving the parliament. He brought Care International to Australia in partnership with his longtime Liberal Party federal director Tony Eggleton. Throughout his life he enjoyed steadfast support at home. Tamie Fraser once said that the best thing about being the Prime Minister's wife is knowing that it will not go on forever. Her legacy continues through the Australiana Fund, which helps to furnish the four official residences. All subsequent Australian prime ministers and governors-general have benefited from her work. To Tamie and to the Frasers' four children, Phoebe, Mark, Angela and Hugh, and to their grandchildren, I extend the condolences of the parliament and the people of Australia. I also extend to them the gratitude of our party. Yes—today I say thank you to them, because my party has not said thank you often enough to their husband and father.

For most of his life, Malcolm Fraser was a classic representative of our party. He was conservative when he declared:

The values and principles by which we live, the human relationships which guide us, and the values to which we aspire as Liberals will not change.

He was Liberal when he stated, 'Each man from the street cleaner to the industrialist has an equal right to a full and happy life, to go his own way unhampered as long as he does not harm our precious social fabric.' He was above all an Australian patriot when he declared, at his first preselection, 'I could not enter this fight if I did not love Australia.' He was never considered a popular politician, although he won three elections, including the two biggest landslides in Australian history.