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Malcolm Fraser

November

The late Tom Hughes, QC, in his Sydney chambers in April 2008.

Vale Tom Hughes: Distinguished last cab off the rank

A giant of Australian law, reforming attorney-general and a powerful behind-the-scenes figure, Tom Hughes leaves behind a remarkable legacy.

  • Andrew Clark

August

Sir Rod in the gardens of his home at Woodend in 2010.

Leaders remember Rod Carnegie, the man who shaped Australia

Leaders from mining, business, politics and science gathered at St John’s Anglican Church in Toorak for the memorial service for business giant Sir Rod Carnegie.

  • Andrew Clark

October 2023

Bill Hayden

Vale Bill Hayden, a complex high achiever who helped shape Australia

Moody and often difficult, Bill Hayden played a major role ushering in reforms including Medicare, opening up the economy, and Australia’s engagement with Asia.

  • Andrew Clark

June 2023

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.

Malcolm Turnbull gets personal

The former prime minister lashed the intelligence of Lachlan Murdoch at a Crikey event on Tuesday night.

  • Mark Di Stefano

May 2023

Tony Staley, who played a pivotal role in helping John Howard to power in 1996, died aged 83 earlier this month.

Liberal Party heavyweights gather to farewell Tony Staley

Tony Staley was a kingmaker in conservative Australian politics and a cabinet worth of Liberal Party heavyweights joined his friends and family for his funeral.

  • Gus McCubbing
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King Charles III speaks to Lionel Richie and Lisa Parigi during the Garden Party at Buckingham Palace ahead his coronation on Saturday.

Voice vote will drive Australia’s next move on republic

Saturday’s coronation may be the prelude for a new republican push in Australia. But the real momentum will come from the success or otherwise of the First Nations referendum.

  • Updated
  • Andrew Clark
Trappings of monarchy – the robes the King and Queen will wear at Westminster Abbey.

Post-imperial nation that just can’t make the final cut

Charles Windsor is not popular in all his realms. But even the Albanese government is curiously reluctant to press a more self-confident identity.

  • James Curran

November 2022

Tony Whitlam

Tony Whitlam: Gough was ‘pissed off’ by Dismissal slur

Gough Whitlam’s son opens up for the first time about his father’s reaction to being dismissed, and Labor’s 1972 election victory.

  • Andrew Clark
Gough Whitlam on December 1, 1972 - the eve of his historic federal election win.

A time for change: Gough Whitlam’s election win, 50 years on

There was a revolutionary flavour to the Whitlam era, with its radical departure from the past and its abrupt demise.

  • Andrew Clark

August 2022

The historic Hawke summit in Canberra on April 11, 1983.

Labor’s job summit lacks genuine productivity purpose

Thursday’s summit needs to start reframing the entire workplace narrative for the modern world, not just fiddle with a broken system from a century ago.

  • The AFR View
Howard with then governor-general John Kerr and then prime minister Malcolm Fraser after Howard was sworn in as treasurer in 1977.

Kerr-Fraser conflict a precedent for governor-general’s intervention

Moves by the governor-general to knock back federal government appointments in the 1970s provide a precedent for the Morrison ministries case.

  • Tom McIlroy
David Barnett when he was PM Malcolm Fraser’s press secretary in 1980.

Veteran political journalist David Barnett dies, aged 90

The journalist spearheaded the first official Canberra bureau of AAP more than 50 years ago and served as press secretary to Malcolm Fraser for seven years.

  • Kaaren Morrissey

July 2022

Xi Jinping was due to attend a banquet hosted by outgoing Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam.

These diplomats picked Beijing’s world domination plan 40 years ago

A secret briefing paper from 1980 forecast that China would break from the West soon after growing its economy and technological base.

  • Andrew Tillett

April 2022

Rusted-on loyalists of all political persuasions are struggling to defend their Party leaders.

This election could be one of the most important in Australian history

Incompetence, small minds and a democracy under threat make the coming poll among the most consequential ever.

  • Anne Summers
April 20, 2022

Letters: A political race to the bottom

Federal election, diminishing political trust, Coalition selection committee, Labor economic policies, SA ICAC reform, Malcolm Turnbull, Solomons reaction.

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Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese.

PMs may no longer need posh private schools

The coming election pits a publicly educated leader against a privately educated one. But they aren’t in the parties you might expect.

  • Andrew Hobbs

February 2022

Index personal tax brackets to CPI to starve the spending beast

Governments that could no longer rely on bracket creep would have to make better decisions on how to raise and spend revenue.

  • Steven Hamilton

December 2021

Economic policy program director at the Grattan Institute, Brendan Coates, says a $20 billion fund overseen by the Future Fund could provide an ongoing source of revenue to boost social housing.

Australia on the cusp of an inheritance tsunami

Baby Boomers are expected to pass on an estimated $224 billion each year in bequests by 2050, leading some economists to call for an inheritance tax.

  • Michael Read

November 2021

Miscast as an Ayn Rand radical, Malcolm Fraser was a taxer, not an axer.

Australia’s wasted decade: lessons from the 1970s

What we learned from the decade in which the ‘dream economy’ of the 1960s squandered its luck helped transform Australia over the following 30 years.

  • The AFR View
Peter Robinson at The Australian Financial Review in 1968.

Exposing the tariff bludgers

As an editor of The Australian Financial Review and as an industry commissioner, Peter Robinson was a scourge of rent-seeking and cosy industrial arrangements.

  • Alex Millmow

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/person/malcolm-fraser-45h