Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications) Share this | Hansard source

Today we are assembled, again, to say farewell to one of our nation's great leaders. We have said farewell to Gough Whitlam this year, and now we say farewell to Malcolm Fraser.

Malcolm Fraser, as many speakers have noted, has been defined by his great conflict with Gough Whitlam, not in his own mind and not in our minds. That was an extraordinary conflagration in our political life. It is one that Australians will talk about, read about and schoolchildren will study forever, for centuries and as long as our nation exists. But Malcolm Fraser was a remarkable man; a remarkable progressive liberal. The term 'progressive' has been used a few times in this debate already today. It has been suggested that Malcolm Fraser in his later years became beloved of progressives. But Malcolm Fraser was always progressive.

Right back in the early 1960s, he noted on one occasion how remarkable it was that people who opposed the tyranny of the Soviet Union were regarded as extreme reactionary conservatives, but those who favoured a more lenient approach and those who favoured some form of accommodation with the Soviet Union were regarded as progressives. Yet, he asked, were those who fought for freedom, democracy and individual liberty not the true progressives? I think we would agree now, with the 20/20 vision of hindsight, that they were.

Before I go on, let me say a little about the centrality of Malcolm Fraser's life. At the centre of his life, at the very heart of his life, was a great love story. He and Tamie were married in 1956. He was 26 years of age and she was 20. So, barely out of her teens, she was suddenly the wife of a member of parliament, and we all know what a tough road it is for the wives and families of parliamentarians. Our own Prime Minister has said many times, and very insightfully, that all of us here are volunteers; our families are the conscripts. And Tamie managed her family of four children—Mark, Angela, Hugh and Phoebe—she managed all of that, without any of the conveniences of modern life that we take for granted: email, cheap telephony, sealed roads. She managed to move that family around from Canberra to Wannon to Melbourne—all around the country—keeping it all together in that time.

The Deputy Prime Minister, the Leader of the National Party, spoke of the great friendship between Doug Anthony and Malcolm Fraser, and it was a very deep friendship. They were citizens, arm in arm, Madam Speaker, as you would recall—you were on the other side, as I recall—on the side of the 'yes' vote in the republic campaign. You could see the affection between them. But that relationship was struck between their wives, when, in 1957, Doug Anthony was elected to parliament—surprisingly; it was as much of a surprise to him as it had been to Malcolm Fraser, when Malcolm Fraser threw his hat in the ring in a preselection, as a young man of 24, thinking he would have no prospects. And, of course, Doug Anthony was thrust into parliament unexpectedly because his father, who preceded him in the seat, had died. So you had two young wives, Margot and Tamie, here in Canberra, a very cold place. As Tamie once said, it seemed to be full of old, grey, bald men.

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