Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to be able to speak on this condolence motion here today. The year 1975 was my political awakening. At the age of nine I was old enough to understand something of what was happening and young enough to have lots of questions—questions I have since taken half a lifetime to begin to answer.

Like many others in this place I handed out how-to-vote cards in the 'turn on the lights' election campaign. It was an absolutely extraordinary time, with extraordinary leaders. The loss of Malcolm Fraser has given us a chance to paint a portrait of the man as he was, not simply accept the portraits that more recent commentators have painted. There are myths to explode, alongside accepted beliefs to celebrate. I want to focus on two great legacies which are close to my heart and are not widely known—first, the depth of his fiscal conservatism, and, second, his deep commitment to rural and regional Australia.

He was an extraordinary fiscal conservative. In so many ways, as Prime Minister, he faced challenges similar to ours today. The Whitlam government had raised spending from around $65 billion to over $100 billion in today's dollars, in three short years. Whitlam had convinced himself and the rest of Australia that there was a magic pudding of government money, and all you had to do was help yourself.

Fraser knew this was a recipe for disaster. Between 1975 and 1983 spending hardly grew in real terms. The scale of that achievement is better understood now than 10 years ago. Fraser's ability to stop spending-growth in its tracks should be seen as a monumental achievement, and one that kept Australia from becoming Paul Keating's famous banana republic. Central to this was the need to ask government to be innovative and productive, wisely using the public purse as though it was its own.

But perhaps less well understood was Fraser's commitment to, and belief in, rural and regional Australia and agriculture. Many of his insights were well ahead of his time. In his maiden speech, Fraser anticipated the agricultural opportunity in northern Australia. He said:

I wish to direct my attention now to the north of Australia where large areas are, as yet, hardly touched. In the Kimberleys area there are two river valleys, those of the Ord and the Fitzroy rivers … When those rivers are dammed, and I say "when" sure in the knowledge that this project must eventually receive the attention of the Australian Government, it will be possible to develop irrigation farms in the areas below the dams. I believe that is a national project which must be tackled by the Australian Government before long. When the work is done, new communities of Australians will spring up where now there are a few sparsely peopled and extensive cattle stations.

I remind the House that Malcolm Fraser made that speech well before the Argyle dam was built.

He also had a keen sense of the extraordinary potential from agricultural innovation—a potential that we continue to see today. Referring, in his maiden speech, to innovation, he said:

In my own part of the world, I have seen great examples of this in the agricultural and pastoral spheres. Three blades of grass have been made to grow where formerly there was only one. Three and four sheep are being carried to the acre on land that formerly carried only half a sheep. Private people are doing this throughout the whole country and it is adding to the national wealth of Australia …

Fraser saw the formation of the National Farmers' Federation. His observations are as relevant today as they were back then. In a speech at the formation of the National Farmers' Federation, he said:

I have always believed, both as farmer and as a politician, that farmers and pastoralists need to speak with a strong voice. You can deal with government much better if that is so. You can do it much better if you are speaking with one voice rather than with the two or three or four divided voices.

He went on to talk about the importance of competitiveness and the need for market access and low tariffs into key markets. Indeed, he focused a significant part of his speech at the inauguration of the NFF on the importance of getting access to markets in the European Community and the United States and the reduction of tariffs into those countries.

Like most farmers, Fraser also had a very keen sense of the land. Not surprisingly, he had great sympathy for Indigenous people and the land rights movement. Indeed, in 1976 he introduced a breakthrough land rights bill to the parliament.

Before heading off to Oxford to study, he travelled around rural Victoria and New South Wales and he kept a journal. His feelings and observations were extraordinarily close to my feelings and observations at a similar time in my life. I too, travelled to Oxford to study before I had travelled anywhere in the world and, like Fraser, on arriving in Oxford I felt small, and aware of how little my education and background had prepared me for the big and urgent ideas of the time. In his journal, Fraser talked about his connection to the Australian landscape in graphic terms. He said:

All my life I will have memories of calm nights beneath the sky, of waking before dawn to see the sun rise in the east, and of driving over the lonely bush roads with dust eddying all around. The deformed Mallee scrub and the ghost farms, the great plains and endless sand hills, the majestic mountains, the beautiful valleys and pleasant hills. All these are part of Australia and part of my memories. Among them I will find my home.

Rest in peace, Malcolm Fraser.

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