Malcolm Fraser: a barnacle on the body politic

ALTHOUGH Malcolm Fraser was one of Australia’s most controversial and least popular prime ministers, and was effectively disowned by the Liberal Party and reviled by the Labor Party, he was proud of a string of policy achievements which underscored a small-l liberal philosophy.

He pointed to freedom of information laws, a generous refugee intake policy, the cementing of a policy of multiculturalism, the establishment of the Human Rights Commission, passing the Whitlam government’s Aboriginal land rights legislation and his long campaign to end apartheid in South Africa.

TIMELINE: Life and times of Malcolm Fraser

His role in the dismissal of Gough Whitlam’s government in 1975, Fraser argued, earned him the bitter enmity of much of the press gallery, which coloured his period in government from 1975 to 1983. But Fraser never regretted any of his actions in bringing down Whitlam’s government.

“For many people in the press gallery, Gough Whitlam was a hero,” Fraser told me in an interview in 2013. “He was a god. I was the terrible person who had brought him down. And they weren’t going to forget that.”

He resigned from the Liberal Party in 2009. But Fraser had been edging away from the party ever since 1983. Fraser led his government to defeat in 1983. He argued the party never forgave him for it.

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“John Gorton, Billy McMahon, Billy Snedden, all tried to distance themselves from Robert Menzies, who got out at his own time and at the pinnacle of his career,” Fraser said. “I had lost an election — they were certainly going to try and dissociate themselves from me.”

Fraser was a barnacle on the body politic. He trashed John Howard’s government mercilessly over refugee policy. He also waged a history war with Howard, who served as Treasurer in his government, over who was responsible for the slow pace of economic reform before 1983. Many Liberals say he squandered landslide electoral victories in 1975 and 1977. He was surprised that the party, and the voters, embraced Howard as one of Australia’s best prime ministers.

Others recall Fraser the Cold War warrior who praised Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, and was perennially at war with the trade union movement as the economy was gripped by stagflation in the 1970s. His government had a cold heart. Voters saw him as arrogant and aloof. His critics saw a man who changed many of his views over his lifetime and became, incredibly, a darling of the bleeding heart Green-Left.

Doug Anthony, who was deputy prime minister to Fraser, told me last year that he admired Fraser greatly as prime minister. He uttered not one word of criticism. He saw him as a commanding politician of courage and bravery in the 1970s and 80s. But Anthony, like many of Fraser’s former ministerial colleagues, is dismayed by the views he held in retirement and the relentless criticism of the Liberal Party.

I found Fraser a fascinating person to talk to in person and on the phone in recent, mellower, years. He had sat in the Liberal partyroom when Robert Menzies was prime minister. He was a minister in the governments of Harold Holt, John Gorton and Billy McMahon. He was an eyewitness to much of our post-war history and a major participant too.

Until his death, at age 84, he believed he was a misunderstood and maligned prime minister.