Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I hope the member for Perth, sitting at the despatch box and interjecting, as I think she is—or perhaps a few ducks have come up from Lake Burley Griffin and are quacking down there—would disassociate herself from those comments. Otherwise,. I am not sure. They were shameful comments, they demean this parliament and they have no place whatsoever in a condolence motion.

In concluding my contribution to the condolence motion on Malcolm Fraser, he was the leader of this country during a very, very difficult time. One of his quotes when he came to politics goes back to 1953 when he was asked what persuaded him to run as a Liberal in parliament and he said that 'every man has a right to go his own way unhampered as long as he does not interfere with the rights of anyone else'. That is how Malcolm Fraser led his life. We may have disagreed with him and some of the decisions that he made later in life, such as support for Mugabe in Zimbabwe and criticising the immigration policies and border protection policies of the coalition government—he may have been on the wrong side of history on those—but look at his life in full. We and every Australian can be thankful that we had a man like Malcolm Fraser to lead this country at a most difficult time.

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