Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the house record its deep regret at the death on 20 March 2015 of the Right Honourable John Malcolm Fraser AC CH, former Member for Wannon and Prime Minister, and place on record its appreciation of his long and highly distinguished service to our nation and tender its profound sympathy to his family in their bereavement.

It is fitting that we celebrate the life and legacy of our 22nd Prime Minister here in this chamber, because this very building is one of his achievements. He was prepared to endure gibes about politicians spending money on themselves because he understood that Australians would come to appreciate a Parliament House that reflected our pride in ourselves and in our country. He foresaw a building that would be the crowning achievement of the Parliamentary Triangle and, along with the National Gallery and the High Court, which were also started on his watch, would reflect the modern nation we have become. He was right and, of course, as so often happens in our public life, his government wore the brickbats for starting it and another government gained the credit for opening it.

The Fraser government conferred self-government on the Northern Territory, established the Commonwealth Ombudsman and enacted our first freedom of information laws. After the Hilton Hotel bombing, his government established the Australian Federal Police, and it set up the National Crime Commission following the Costigan inquiry. His government commissioned the Campbell report, which laid the foundation for the eventual deregulation of the financial system. Like all good farmers, Malcolm Fraser was a conservationist. His government banned sandmining on Fraser Island, banned drilling on the Barrier Reef, set up the Great Barrier Brief Marine Park and had this wonder of the natural world heritage listed.

He was a Liberal humanitarian who worked against white minority governments in southern Africa and a staunch anti-communist who tried to keep our sports stars from the Moscow Olympics after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. At the height of the Whitlam turmoil, he had said that he would like to see sport rather than politics on the front page. When he imposed the Olympic ban, he managed to realise that goal!

Fraser was not an avid social reformer like Whitlam, nor a mould-breaking economic reformer like Hawke, but he gave the country what we needed at that time. He restored economic responsibility while recognising social change. His government passed the Northern Territory land rights act and he was the first Prime Minister to visit the Torres Strait. He established the Special Broadcasting Service and began large-scale Asian immigration to Australia by accepting 50,000 Vietnamese refugees fleeing communism. In 1983 Malcolm Fraser left parliament, proud of his government and its achievements. As he said at the time, 'Australia is handed over in as good or better condition than any other western country in the world.'

For a long time after 1975 Malcolm Fraser was largely defined by the blocking of supply, the dismissal of the Whitlam government and his subsequent electoral vindication. Neither Whitlam nor Fraser ever resiled from the positions they took at that time, yet ultimately they came to see the good in each other. Some years ago, Whitlam observed with characteristic wit that 'Fraser had supplanted him as the principal bogeyman of the hard Right and that this second usurpation had been easier to take than the first'. A sense grew, especially among Liberals, that the Fraser government might have marked time. In the late eighties and the early nineties Malcolm Fraser offered himself to be federal president of the Liberal Party, and twice it did not work out. As the Howard government implemented reforms such as the GST and privatisation, expanded mandatory detention to stop the boats and joined US-led military coalitions in Afghanistan and Iraq, an estrangement grew between him and the party he had led for eight years—for most of that time triumphantly.

John Howard has famously observed that the Australian Liberal Party, unlike its namesakes elsewhere, is the custodian in this country of both the liberal political tradition and the conservative one. But there is in fact a third tradition our party represents that is as vital as our liberal and conservative philosophies—a dedication to service and to repaying good fortune, the working out in this world of the gospel notion 'To whom much is given, much is expected'. Melbourne Grammar, Oxford and a grandfather who was a senator no doubt helped to crystallise Malcolm Fraser's instinct to serve. His shyness, born of a lonely childhood, often made him seem remote but it also created a keen sympathy for the outsider. Duty and service came naturally to him. He was a man to whom becoming a member of parliament, if that opportunity presented itself, would seem the most natural thing in the world. His political allegiances might have been instinctive as much as philosophical but he was the true and authentic representative of an honourable tradition.

My first contact with Malcolm Fraser was to lobby him for voluntary membership of the Australian Union of Students. 'Because he had not been consulting papers at the time,' Senator John Carrick advised me afterwards, 'the meeting had probably gone well because the Prime Minister was focused on the discussion and not on something else.' In the early nineties I persuaded both Malcolm Fraser and his one-time nemesis the Liberal turned Australian Democrats founder Don Chipp to join the Australian Council of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy. When I asked them both to speak at the launch, Chipp said that 'if that'—expletive deleted—'Fraser comes, I won't'. A few months later, Malcolm settled the matter by joining the republican side.

I did make it my business to renew contact with him on becoming party leader in 2009. We had some long talks. We often disagreed, but I appreciated his wisdom born of experience. He had a long and active life after leaving the parliament. He brought Care International to Australia in partnership with his longtime Liberal Party federal director Tony Eggleton. Throughout his life he enjoyed steadfast support at home. Tamie Fraser once said that the best thing about being the Prime Minister's wife is knowing that it will not go on forever. Her legacy continues through the Australiana Fund, which helps to furnish the four official residences. All subsequent Australian prime ministers and governors-general have benefited from her work. To Tamie and to the Frasers' four children, Phoebe, Mark, Angela and Hugh, and to their grandchildren, I extend the condolences of the parliament and the people of Australia. I also extend to them the gratitude of our party. Yes—today I say thank you to them, because my party has not said thank you often enough to their husband and father.

For most of his life, Malcolm Fraser was a classic representative of our party. He was conservative when he declared:

The values and principles by which we live, the human relationships which guide us, and the values to which we aspire as Liberals will not change.

He was Liberal when he stated, 'Each man from the street cleaner to the industrialist has an equal right to a full and happy life, to go his own way unhampered as long as he does not harm our precious social fabric.' He was above all an Australian patriot when he declared, at his first preselection, 'I could not enter this fight if I did not love Australia.' He was never considered a popular politician, although he won three elections, including the two biggest landslides in Australian history.

Years ago, when I was helping to draft the 'Fightback!' document, I sought to include a few observations that were critical of the Fraser government. My senior collaborator, David Kemp, rightly chided me on the grounds that it is hard to disown your past without diminishing your future. In a sense, today's proceedings are a farewell to this complex and driven man, to this forceful and effective leader, to this rare public personality who gained the support of all points on the political spectrum, but almost never at the same time. We Liberals owe him more than that. Our challenge is not to say goodbye; it is to be more magnanimous in his death than we were in his life and to acknowledge this giant, who was surely one of us.

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We give thanks for Malcolm Fraser's six decades of service to our nation as a parliamentarian, Prime Minister and statesman. We farewell a person of hidden depths and many parts, a man often misunderstood. For some, Malcolm Fraser was a hero who became a villain. For others, he was a villain who became a hero. But neither of these simple sketches are fair, and, in time, history's judgement will be kinder than either.

The good that Malcolm Fraser did will live after him, to his great and enduring credit. Malcolm Fraser came to public life as a man in a hurry. He was a candidate for parliament at 24, the member for Wannon by 25, a minister at 35 and Prime Minister at 45. His appetite for hard work, his formidable intellect and his healthy ambition drove this rapid rise, but Malcolm Fraser was always more than the sum of his aspirations. He was broader and bigger than his opponents imagined possible, and he was both shyer and smarter than people appreciated. Beyond the stern visage and the Easter Island jaw, beloved of cartoonists, beat the heart of a humanitarian. His concern for the welfare of the vulnerable and his belief in the equal treatment of all won Malcolm Fraser many new admirers in the long third act of his public life. Yet, as both Bob Hawke Paul Keating remarked in their warm tributes last week, Fraser's belief in racial equality was a lifelong article of faith. It was a golden thread of integrity. It began in the lonely days of his childhood in the Riverina, where his closest friend was a young Aboriginal girl, an experience that had not left him when as minister for education he would ease that great patrician frame of his into the red dirt of the territory to sit with community elders. It is a memory that abided when, as Prime Minister, he passed the Whitlam land rights act and the Racial Discrimination Act and kept faith with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. And indeed as an elder statesman, resplendent in pinstriped suit and waistcoat, he continued to champion the cause of reconciliation.

But Fraser's commitment to human rights ran deeper even than this. As Prime Minister, he led Australia's independent condemnation of the evil of apartheid. He took a principled stand, declaring that South Africa's regime of racial prejudice was 'repugnant to the whole human race'. And he matched his words with deeds, visiting Mandela in prison, imposing international sanctions and, perhaps most famously in our sport-loving nation, refusing to allow the Springboks' plane to stop here on its way to New Zealand. Later, Fraser delighted in telling the anecdote of Mandela's first question to him at their meeting: 'Mr Fraser, can you tell me, is Don Bradman still alive?' And so, when Mandela became President, Fraser took him a bat inscribed by the Don: 'To Nelson Mandela, in recognition of a great unfinished innings.'

It was Malcolm Fraser who laid the broad foundation of our great, generous, modern multicultural society. He had the wisdom to understand that there was nothing for Australia to fear or lose in embracing people from every culture, faith and tradition. He knew that diversity would enrich our nation and our lives. Under Fraser, Australia offered refuge to tens of thousands of Vietnamese people driven from their homes by the terror of war and dictatorship. Many of these families, who made Australia their second home, have paid touching tribute to Malcolm Fraser as their second father.

Fraser's Australia also quietly moved to the reality beyond White Australia, giving a second chance to people from South Africa shut out of their nation by apartheid. The new nation he built was given voice, music, news and stories by SBS. For some it was a glimpse of another, wider world; for others it was the songs and sound of the home they had left behind. Multicultural Australia will always stand as the tallest monument to the life and legacy of Malcolm Fraser. It is an achievement we celebrate, we enjoy and we give thanks for every day.

Much has been said and written about the central role Fraser played in the dismissal of the Whitlam government. Never before or since have political passions run higher in this nation. Even now, the acrimony and the vitriol showered on each side by the other—the sheer ugliness of those days—leap from the pages of old newspapers and bark at us from old footage. But the passing of the last of the central protagonists of the drama of 1975 is not the time for relitigating old arguments or resuscitating old grievances. As Malcolm's great friend the Hon. Ian Macphee has said, 'Malcolm never spent time regretting the past; he was always looking to the future.'

So let us take our inspiration from Malcolm Fraser and Gough Whitlam. Let us remember Whitlam and Fraser standing together on the steps of the Victorian parliament in 1999, arms aloft, rallying support for the republic, or that wonderful ad created for the yes campaign, where Whitlam looks at Fraser, eyes twinkling, and says, 'Malcolm, it's time,' and Malcolm looks back at Gough, with that same good-humoured glint of irony, and says, 'It is.' Let us remember the second Whitlam Oration was given by Malcolm Fraser, at Gough Whitlam's insistence, with a video introduction by Whitlam. Most fittingly of all, let us remember Whitlam's hand resting on Fraser's shoulder on the morning of the national apology by the Rudd government—two champions of the rights and opportunities of First Australians, standing with their successors, united, celebrating a day of justice and healing. If those two titans could find it in themselves to make peace and to build a friendship, to campaign together for shared beliefs, then none of us have the right to hold onto the bitterness of that bygone era. This chapter in our nation's life is closed.

We will always remember Gough Whitlam for so much more than the way he left office, and we will remember Malcolm Fraser for much more than the way he came to office. This is not to pretend that Malcolm Fraser was not a political opponent of Labor for a major part of his public life, or that he was not antagonistic to many of our policies and principles. He would not want us to minimise our differences or disagreements. But when we look at Malcolm Fraser's life and legacy—the humane treatment of Vietnamese refugees, the promotion of an independent foreign policy for Australia, support for a republic and Australia's active role in the resolution of international situations—there is no disputing that he was involved in the creation of good values. If that is what you leave behind from this place, acting for good in the name of the public good, then that is a truly remarkable contribution.

The passing of a former Prime Minister always gives us pause. Last year, Labor farewelled the author of our modern identity. It was a time of sadness, joy and contemplation—time to revisit the standards that Gough set for us, to ask how far we had come in fulfilling his vision for Australia. So it is with the passing of Malcolm Fraser—a transformed political figure—Gough's fierce foe, who became his firm friend. All of us can ask ourselves in this place if we can do better by each other and the people we serve. Perhaps we can recognise that while we are all people of different beliefs, we share a common faith: we all believe in the value and importance of public life, the noble calling of politics and the greatness of the nation that we love. Let this respect for each other and for our democracy be Malcolm Fraser's final act of public service.

My final words today, however, are for Malcolm's loving wife, Tammy, and their children and grandchildren. I should confess that about a dozen years ago Tammy Fraser told me that it was her grandfather who was the first grazier in the district to employ union shearers in his woolshed. Ever since then I have had something of a soft spot for her. Tammy Fraser once described herself, modestly, as 'just someone in the back row'. But she was so much more than that. She performed the public duties of a prime ministerial spouse with poise, class and verve, and her contribution to our nation continued long after she and Malcolm had left the Lodge. She is in all our hearts today, as are all the members of the Fraser family.

Farewell, Malcolm Fraser. His duty done, may he rest in eternal peace.

Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I remember the day so vividly—11 November 1975. It was a Tuesday. By coincidence, I was sitting in a constitutional law exam in the Bonython Hall at the University of Adelaide when an excited young exam monitor suddenly burst in to exclaim that Whitlam had been dismissed by the Governor-General. The theoretical matters we had been studying immediately took on a much more serious tenor, as we tried to come to terms with the constitutional implications of the news for our exam papers.

Malcolm Fraser's role in the events leading up to the dismissal have been more than thoroughly scrutinised. However, it reveals a defining aspect of his character. He was driven by strong principles and deeply-held values. To paraphrase one of his global contemporaries, 'Malcolm was not one for turning once he had set its mind upon a course of action'.

I found Malcolm Fraser, as I suspect many Australians did, to be an enigmatic and complex political figure. My encounters with Malcolm Fraser ranged from observing his legendary inability to suffer fools to receiving his advice from time to time, and to witnessing his great pride in being awarded in 2011 the Papua New Guinean Grand Companion of the Order of Logohu, which carries the honorary title of 'Chief'.

This award was recognition for his support during the early years of Papua New Guinean independence when, as Prime Minister, he ignored Treasury advice to maintain ongoing direct budgetary support for the fledgling government.

As a defence minister, education minister, Prime Minister, Commonwealth eminent person, through CARE Australia and CARE International and as a refugee advocate and a public intellectual, Malcolm Fraser had a major impact both on our own thinking as a nation and on our global standing. One of Malcolm Fraser's enduring legacies was in the environmental sphere, including his proclamation of Kakadu National Park in 1979, his banning of the whaling industry and his strong support of environmental management in general. He once stated:

Conservation of the natural resources of this earth is emerging as one of the basic challenges to mankind.

As minister for education, Malcolm Fraser performed with great energy and distinction under Prime Ministers John Gorton and Billy McMahon. Characteristically, he had clear views and married them with Liberal values. He believed there should be broad choice in education and he reformed the funding of non-government schools to ensure parents had the widest possible choice for the education of their children.

His impact on foreign policy was profound. Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger complimented Malcolm Fraser on his pragmatic approach to relations with China and the Soviet Union. Malcolm Fraser had a deep understanding of the complex aspects of our engagement with Japan and demonstrated a far-sighted approach to South-East Asia. More recently, he expressed concerns about elements of the Australia-US alliance—not concerns I share, but he was not afraid to initiate discussion on issues that should be openly and strongly debated and challenged, to ensure that all our international engagements are in our ongoing national interest.

Malcolm Fraser was not afraid of controversy, particularly when his moral compass had established a point of principle in his mind. He took on the issue of apartheid, much to the reported initial discomfort of Margaret Thatcher and many of the more conservative elements of Australian society. The Gleneagles agreement and the subsequent agreement forged at the Lusaka Commonwealth conference, opposing apartheid and gaining the independence of Zimbabwe, were landmark events where Malcolm Fraser led Australia into an alignment with the countries of the new Commonwealth.

He supported strong defence spending and strong alliances. He always sought alliances and partnerships that not only defended Australia's independence but gave us added strength. As Minister for Defence in 1971, he was one of the architects of the Five Power Defence Arrangements that established a mutual defence pact in our region. This has been an important but often overlooked element of what was initially motivated by a desire for regional stability and which today helps underpin regional prosperity.

Over his long and many-faceted political career and public life, he touched many areas of foreign policy. He always brought to it a relentless intellectual curiosity and a restless drive to get solutions and outcomes. This took many forms—articles, books, speeches, interviews phone calls. He was not satisfied with just stating a view, as he wanted action and outcomes, or a good argument as to why not. In one of his first foreign policy actions as Prime Minister, he said there was a need to involve non-government organisations in foreign policy. He saw their value in support for aid programs but also the different perspective they could bring to situations from the diplomats and other channels, through their insights and on-the-ground experience. Perhaps earlier than many others, he saw the limits of government and the capacity of others to contribute to the often challenging problems in the world.

It was the experience of his government's engagement of the then US based aid agency CARE to deliver aid to Uganda, struggling under Idi Amin's regime, that caused him to accept the role as founding chair of CARE Australia in 1987. With his characteristic energy and determination, he established CARE Australia as a freestanding body from CARE International. Malcolm Fraser's exacting demands for action and outcomes, characteristic of all his endeavours, helped make CARE one of the most effective emergency aid organisations in Bangladesh, Sudan, Somalia, Rwanda and Bosnia. He took a hands-on approach to this role and was not there just to raise money and chair meetings. This extended to putting himself on the front line of aid delivery, frequently ignoring the advice of security experts by taking the view that, if the CARE workers were in the field and at risk, he could be there too. He worked tirelessly and against the odds to win the freedom of CARE workers Pratt and Wallace, held hostage in then Yugoslavia, including spending days in Belgrade while it was under bombardment by NATO.

One of the signature decisions of his government was to reverse the refusal to take refugees from the wars of Indochina. This was one of the first signs of the deeply-held humanity and compassion that drove Malcolm Fraser throughout his life, and which caused his later self-imposed estrangement from the Liberal Party. Malcolm Fraser worked hard to build social capital in our community so the influx of Vietnamese refugees was accepted and embraced. This was a significant achievement in terms of social harmony, and the extraordinary benefit these refugees were to our society—their energy, creativity and commitment to Australia—brought significant change to the betterment of our community.

The enduring legacy of Malcolm Fraser's life is in the example he set of strong and practical action across so many fields: of big thinking; of intellectual rigor, not complacency; and of boundless ambition for this country, all informed by the deepest liberal principles of equality of opportunity and an abhorrence of prejudice.

Malcolm Fraser never accepted the status quo and always sought to advance humanity by challenging the norms and by not allowing society to turn the blind eye to social challenges. He could make life uncomfortable for those of us making current policy and laws, but we will be the poorer as a nation for the loss of his oversight.

I extend my sympathies to Tammy Fraser, one of our most gracious first ladies, and to the Fraser family.

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Malcolm Fraser was a champion of human rights in Australia and around the world. For many, his opposition to apartheid, both in government and subsequently, was his finest hour. He was among the first world leaders to visit Nelson Mandela in Pollsmoor prison, where Mr Mandela had been transferred from Robben Island. Later, he served as the co-chairman of the Commonwealth Committee of Eminent Persons against Apartheid, which was formed in 1985 to encourage a process of dialogue and reform in South Africa.

His belief that Australia should chart a course in international affairs based on what was right, not what was fashionable, was on display when that committee recommended sanctions against South Africa in opposition to the then position of the British and American governments. This was consistent with his long-standing advocacy for an independent Australian foreign policy, which I greatly admire.

He was very generous in sharing his time before his most recent publication, Dangerous Allies, and in describing to me in detail his views about Australia's independent foreign policy. He would also later speak of how proud he was to attend Nelson Mandela's inauguration as President of South Africa in 1994.

He also changed the lives of many people around the world through his work with Care Australia. He had a strong belief that we in Australia have both the ability and the responsibility to give help where it is needed. He was chair of Care Australia from its formation in 1987 until 2002, president of Care International from 1990 to 1995 and vice president for another four years. His contribution, including through his understanding of the need for long-term capacity building to overcome the systemic challenges of poverty, was immense. In recent years he was embraced by many on the progressive side of politics for his outspoken defence of human rights, for his commitment to and respect for international institutions and for his advocacy for reconciliation and for a truly independent Australia—a republic.

These were not new causes for Malcolm Fraser. As Prime Minister, and as well as sharing the bipartisan opposition to apartheid, Mr Fraser continued the work of the Whitlam government on land rights, as well as passing the Australian Human Rights Commission Act in 1981 and establishing the Human Rights Commission.

In recent days we have heard and seen many tributes from those who arrived in Australia as refugees during the Fraser years. He was a great champion of multiculturalism and, of course, of SBS. As a champion of these issues, now perceived to be progressive, Malcolm Fraser was consistent. His advocacy was not a sign of changes to his own views but a reminder that there was a time when a belief in fundamental human rights, international law and equality, regardless of colour or creed, were uncontroversial views.

His great opponent, and later sometime ally, Gough Whitlam, did not wish that his achievements in the prime ministership be overshadowed by the way he left office. Nor did Malcolm Fraser wish his prime ministership to be defined solely by the manner in which he achieved it. History will forever record the controversy of the Dismissal, but so too it will record Malcolm Fraser's enduring contributions to our national life. My thoughts are with his family and friends at this sad time.

Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Malcolm Fraser is remembered principally for being one of the major players in a most momentous event in our political history, the Dismissal. There is no escape from that, given the power of those events. Almost everything else about him is and will be perceived through that prism. It has certainly profoundly coloured judgements about the government's that he led and much of what was a long and often very public and controversial life thereafter. To conservatives of the day, he was a hero for ending what was regarded as the worst government, or one of the worst governments, in our country's history—so bad that extraordinary means justified the end. There is no doubt that the vast majority of Australian people at the time agreed with Malcolm Fraser's actions, because his victory in the 1975 election remains the biggest landslide victory in our history—the coalition won 91 seats in the House to Labor's 36—and he went on to win two more elections. On the other side, of course, there were those who sought to 'maintain the rage', and it is therefore a great irony that Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser buried the hatchet a long time ago—perhaps others should take their lead. It is obviously fair to describe their relationship over more recent years as one of genuine friendship, which is by no means the only irony in the perceptions of the man who was the third longest-serving Liberal Prime Minister in our history.

John Malcolm Fraser was a member of the House from 1955 to 1983, and Australia's 22nd Prime Minister from 1975 to 1983. He is one of a small number of our prime ministers to have come from regional Australia. His parliamentary, ministerial and prime ministerial career thus spanned almost three decades of rapid and tumultuous change at home and abroad. These changes severely challenged comfortable certainties about Australia's economy, our society and our place in the world. These were decades that demanded extraordinary qualities of character and leadership. Malcolm delivered these qualities to the coalition party and to the nation. He was part of a generation of Australian politicians who recognised the need for constructive change right across the national agenda. He understood Australia is a great nation and it could be made better. Indeed, in his opposition to apartheid in the 1960s, Malcolm was well ahead of most Australians. He showed early on that he had a mind and great convictions of his own, which were not always shared by those who supported him. He earned the ire of my electorate when he stopped sand mining on Fraser Island, ending an important local industry and costing many jobs. If you visit the mining areas today, you could not separate them from the places that were never mined—as the locals told him at the time, in no uncertain terms, would happen.

Australians continue to reap the benefits of the Fraser government's reforms, from the establishment of the Special Broadcasting Service to the declaration of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and self-government for the Northern Territory. He was responsible for the decision to construct the Tarcoola to Alice Springs rail line. He established the Australian Federal Police in response to the Hilton hotel terrorist bombing. The closer economic relationships with New Zealand was completed in this era, and it was described at the time by the United Nations as:

… the world's most comprehensive, effective and multilaterally compatible free trade agreement …

That is probably still true today. His generosity towards the boat people of Vietnam at the end of the war was widely shared by the people of Australia.

He was a man of the land. Nareen in the Western District of Victoria was, for much of his life, his home. He had a healthy respect for what was in his early years in public life the Country Party, later the Nationals. He and Doug Anthony formed a lifelong bond long before Malcolm became Prime Minister. He was also close both politically and in genuine friendship with Peter Nixon, a relationship which continued after both had exited political life. With Ian Sinclair, these four were dominant forces in the Fraser governments. In the ABC's recent history of the Nationals, Heather Ewart spent a good deal of the first episode exploring these relationships, and there were some memorable exchanges. After Doug Anthony said, 'If the Country Party needed to fight Fraser it did so,' Fraser said, 'With me, I don't think there was ever a need to flex muscles,' and Ewart interjected, 'Because you agreed with them most of the time.' Fraser's response was, 'Or they agreed with me.' Indeed, that is how it was. With Doug Anthony, Peter Nixon and Ian Sinclair—'the mulga mafia' as they were known—a powerful team evolved with Malcolm Fraser as Prime Minister. They understood each other and in some ways set the tone for the relationship between the parties that has endured. John McEwen and Robert Menzies had a similar relationship, where mutual respect was the key. As Paul Kelly observed in The Australian at the weekend, 'The Fraser-Anthony-Nixon-Sinclair era gave the coalition perhaps its deepest meaning.'

All of us who have followed in both the Liberal and National parties have learnt and benefited from that experience, and I believe the country is significantly better for it. Malcolm Fraser made an extraordinary contribution to Australian history and helped create a modern and outward looking nation. Doug Anthony concluded his tribute to Malcolm Fraser over the weekend with the words: "Today I have lost a good friend and Australia has lost a fine statesman." May he rest in peace. I also extend my condolences to his family, particularly his greatly loved and admired wife, Tamie, and his children and grandchildren. I salute a great Australian.

Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is thankfully a comparatively rare thing for a parliament to gather to farewell a former Prime Minister, and yet it has fallen to this 44th Parliament to send two giants of our political life on their way. Malcolm Fraser was an extraordinary man, a big strong-willed man who did not hesitate to use his force of will to insist on what he saw as the right outcome for his country. The years 1975 to 1983 were the Fraser years full stop. Much to the chagrin of our party, and many in his own party, he dominated his government completely and he dominated the parliament like few others have. Important as those years were, his life should be seen as a whole. He was elected to parliament in 1955 at the age of just 25. He was a substantial figure as the Minister for Education and the Minister For Defence and he was Prime Minister at the age of 45. In retirement he was a famous man keen to contribute to important debates in his nation and in the world.

There would hardly be an adult Australian who has not been in both violent disagreement and passionate agreement with him at some point in the course of his public life. Perhaps James Killen, in his autobiography, summed him up best. They shared an office as backbenchers in Old Parliament House. Killen wrote many years later: 'Sharing that office gave me an understanding of one of the most complex characters this country has ever known and an insight into a mind that could display a bravura of intellect, a hopeless sense of obstinacy, a grasping, almost oppressive, sense of detail and a capacity to wield the skills of politics with a singular ruthlessness.'

In losing Malcolm Fraser we have lost a link to an era—not just his own era but the Menzies era before it. Having cut his political teeth as a backbencher in the Menzies government, he very much saw his own government as a continuation of the Menzies-McEwen tradition. He believed in nation-building. He believed in national institutions. He believed in government building stronger national institutions. He longed for and predicted a mining boom that would require massive investment in infrastructure and would transform the country. He was right. It occurred 30 years later than he predicted, but he was right.

When you consider some of our important national institutions, there is a list that he either conceived or defended against attack—the SBS, the Australian Institute of Sport, this very important building. When the Treasury and the Department of Finance suggested abolishing the Australian Institute of Sport as a savings measure, he angrily wrote on the briefing note: 'If you want to see the Australian flag fly high, put money into it. Dries see everything from an accounting point of view. There are other things that are more important.'

Malcolm Fraser's hallmark was courage. It took courage for him to adopt multiculturalism as the official policy of the government. It had been a concept first promoted by the Whitlam government but formalised under his government as government policy. Bipartisanship has been important in multiculturalism and for that Malcolm Fraser deserves credit. It took courage to oppose apartheid. I have seen it said in recent days that his rejection of apartheid was unremarkable because it was conventional wisdom to oppose apartheid in the 1970s. I disagree. Let us remember that Fraser had to sack one of his own ministers because of his support for apartheid. Interestingly, so affronted was Prime Minister Fraser that one of his own ministers would support apartheid that he recommended to the Government-General that he not only be dismissed as a minister but be removed from the Executive Council, an employment which is normally for life and which meant that that individual was not entitled to be called 'the honourable' for the rest of his life. Of course, it also put him on a course of conflict with other prime ministers in the Commonwealth of Nations.

Malcolm Fraser also showed great courage in taking on the scourge of tax evasion. I have not seen this commented upon in the obituaries in recent days, but his courage deserves to be remembered. The Costigan Royal Commission and the McCabe Lafranchi reports exposed widespread taxation, as blatant as dumping company records in Sydney Harbour; hence, the schemes being known as bottom-of-the-harbour schemes. Fraser was personally affronted by this sort of behaviour. But this was not a universal view with his own party, I say as a historical observation not a partisan point. But Fraser did not care. State executives of the Liberal Party carried motions condemning their leader. Former Prime Minister McMahon led a backbench revolt against legislation to crack down on tax evasion which saw members crossing the floor. Fraser did not care. He knew he was right.

He was always prepared to do the controversial when he thought he was in the right. He did so in ways not always to the liking of our party and in latter years not always to the liking of his own. People and principle were always more important to him than party. I remember early in my time as Minister for Immigration sitting in my office and we had a young receptionist in the ministerial office not long out of school. She sheepishly came into my office one day and said, 'There's a man called Malcolm Fraser on the phone and he wonders if you might take his call.' I said, 'Of course I will take his call.' He was lobbying on behalf of an individual refugee. I gently asked her later whether she knew who Malcolm Fraser was. I thought by her tone that she might not have realised that she had spoken to a former Prime Minister. She said she did know who Malcolm Fraser was, but she was surprised that a man as humble and polite as that could really have been a former Prime Minister on the phone talking to her. I thought that was a telling anecdote and a mark of the man.

Malcolm Fraser has our respect. I have been struck in recent days by the number of rank and file Labor Party members, who have expressed their condolences to me on his loss. We respect him and mourn him. We imagine him with Gough in another place, comparing notes on our most recent battles. In doing so, we remember the Hebrew proverb:

Say not in grief: 'He is no more,' but live in thankfulness that he was.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When I was a newly elected member of this House some 22 years ago, Malcolm Fraser gave me the best political advice that I have ever received. He said that when a constituent is in contact with you as a local member of parliament, when they have gone to the trouble of being in touch, it is because the matter they raise is, for them at that time, the most important thing of all. For you, as a member of parliament, it may be one of very many things with which you need to be concerned. But for them it is uppermost, and so it is essential to respond as quickly and as well as you can to their issue. This, it seems to me, is great advice for a member of parliament. But it also reflects the fact that, no matter how high the office he held and how widely he was respected around the world in the years after his service in this House, Malcolm Fraser never lost sight of the high honour we have of serving our constituents and of the importance of each and every one. I was very grateful for this advice and I remain grateful to this day.

So, while the international community has lost a statesman, our nation has lost one of the great makers of modern Australia and his family has lost a husband, father and grandfather, I personally am deeply saddened at the loss of a mentor and a friend, someone who remained so until his unexpected death on Friday. Even after he left the Liberal Party, I remained a great admirer of him, valuing his contribution in the context of his times and sharing so many of the values for which he fought so hard over many decades. We continued to meet and talk, and I last met with him just a few weeks ago.

Of course, my personal sadness can be nothing as compared with the sadness of Malcolm's family. They are in our prayers and our thoughts, and our hearts go out to them in their grief. In concluding the acknowledgements to his most recent book Dangerous Allies, Malcolm wrote:

As always, Tamie has helped in innumerable ways and made it easier to bring the book to a conclusion. Thank you, Tamie.

Anyone who knew the Frasers personally or even watched them in their public life will never doubt that Tammie always 'helped in innumerable ways'. In extending our deepest sympathies to her and to her and Malcolm's family, we join with Malcolm in saying, 'Thank you, Tamie.' Thank you also to Tamie and Malcom's children for sharing their father with the nation, a price that all of us in this place who are parents will understand.

My political awareness really developed greatly under the influence of Malcolm Fraser. During the 1975 election campaign, when I was eight years old, I rather surprised the teachers when I wore a Liberal Turn on the Lights campaign badge to school. I joined the Young Liberals not long after Malcolm Fraser left office. As an undergraduate, I read Philip Ayres biography of him, with its forward by the former President of France, Valery Giscard d'Estaing. Giscard d'Estaing wrote that, in his first long discussion with Malcolm, when Malcolm was Prime Minister and Giscard d'Estaing was President, and during subsequent meetings:

Malcolm Fraser came across as a man of conviction. He is deeply attached to the values of human dignity and solidarity, and we have developed a true friendship.

Giscard d'Estaing continued, in 1987:

Together, we often called to mind the need to give a new impetus to the North-South dialogue. I am also very much aware of the action that he is carrying out in order to accelerate an end to apartheid.

Malcolm Fraser's fidelity to his principles does not prevent him from having a decidedly pragmatic approach to international problems. Giscard d'Estaing wrote:

In my opinion, as well as that of most of the Western leaders who know him, Malcolm Fraser is a remarkable mediator. In particular, I remember the important role that he played at the time of the independence of Zimbabwe.

It is just a little sidelight on the importance of Malcolm's international role that, as I was reading these words as an undergraduate in Adelaide, an African American Rhodes scholar in Oxford, then working on a doctoral thesis on Zimbabwe's independence, was also, in her words, enjoying the chapter in Malcolm's biography on Zimbabwe. She is Susan Rice, now the National Security Advisor to the President of the United States. Of course, it was Malcolm's role in the so-called Eminent Persons Group, asked by the Commonwealth in the mid-1980s to help shape the way towards the end of apartheid, that earned him renewed international respect, including from Nelson Mandela with whom he first met in Pollsmoor prison in 1986.

I have already mentioned Malcolm's sage advice to me as a new member of parliament. Perhaps he took so benign and kind an interest in me because we both unexpectedly won preselection battles we had not particularly intended to enter at around the age of 24, and we both entered this House at the age of 25—no laughing from the member for Mayo—almost 40 years apart. Malcolm, of course, won a marginal seat and made it safe. I learnt from him some of what is needed of a marginal-seat holder. In more recent years, of course, while I have served as shadow minister and now as Minister for Education and Training, our bond has reflected the fact that Malcolm, an Oxford graduate and a university person to his death, twice served as Minister for Education and Science. As Prime Minister, he was so committed to education that he appointed the great Sir John Carrick as his education minister and then also as Leader of the Government in the Senate.

Malcolm, of course, studied philosophy, politics and economics at Magdalen College, Oxford, under famous tutors. Even early in his parliamentary career, he, like Sir Robert Menzies, spoke of the importance of the humanities and, indeed, of the continued and perhaps increased importance of the humanities in a scientific age. In 1958, when the Western world was obsessed with the Soviet scientific challenge, reflected in the sputnik satellite, he told the House that he hoped:

… the study of the humanities … will be encouraged. I refer now to studies of the philosophies and of ways of living that can add richness to our lives. … The only … purpose of life is human happiness.

Malcolm continued this interest in ideas and the encouragement of the humanities, which, as I say, he shared with Menzies, in his time as Minister for Education and Science and beyond.

Even before he became a minister, Malcolm had also combined that interest with a strong encouragement of the development of colleges of advanced education—colleges which focused on more immediate vocational preparation than universities did. He supported the great expansion of higher education and of opportunity for students under the Menzies government. In 1968, when John Gorton became Prime Minister, Malcolm succeeded him as Minister for Education and Science. After a period as Minister for Defence under Gorton, and then some time back on the back bench, he again served as Minister for Education and Science for most of the McMahon government. As Minister for Education and Science, Malcolm continued the growth of government support for Catholic and independent schools, arguing that this was both fair and good economics. He expanded support for school libraries and for preschool teaching colleges. He promoted the study of Asian languages and culture, seeing Australia's future in Asia and also seeing the need for Australia to be a genuinely multicultural rather than a narrowly assimilationist society. He was a founding member of the Australian Conservation Foundation in 1965. Malcolm, as minister for science, promoted conservation, including, conspicuously, of the Great Barrier Reef.

Also, as Minister for Education and Science, Malcolm was a great friend of both universities and of CAEs. Like Menzies, he stressed the importance of the autonomy of universities, and he skilfully navigated challenges to this in the late sixties and seventies when student protests led some to want to see government interference in universities. He expanded scholarships, both for students to complete their secondary education and for them to go on to higher education. In 1972, as a minister who was expanding opportunity for students through Commonwealth scholarships, Malcolm opposed Gough Whitlam's policy of so-called free education, on equity grounds. He argued, on the same grounds later cited by prime ministers Hawke and Keating, that: 'This would result in the gigantic inequality of a wharf labourer paying taxes to subsidise a lawyer's education.' In the 1980s, Malcolm supported Prime Minister Hawke and education minister Dawkins in their reintroduction of university fees, at the time that HECS was created.

Malcolm's interest in ideas and in universities was reflected in his turning to leading scholars for ideas and specialist advice. In 1971, briefly again on the back bench, he invited professors from the Australian National University to help him think through how best to develop and expound the Liberal philosophy for the challenges of the times. He did this, for example, in an Alfred Deakin Lecture at the University of Melbourne, presided over by Sir Robert Menzies, as chancellor of the university. It was at this lecture that Menzies famously turned to Malcolm and said, not once but twice, 'Your day will come.' Later, as leader of the Liberal Party, choosing advisers such as David Kemp and Dennis White, with deep understanding of political science and philosophy, Malcolm frequently articulated the Liberal philosophy for which the party of Menzies stood, including its emphasis on equality of opportunity and the need to rebalance the relationship of the individual and the state. This, too, was something that he and I would later discuss.

Of his many formulations, one that I especially liked was in early 1975, when Malcolm said: 'The politician's task is not to subordinate the wishes of the people to the power and purpose of the state, but to maximise a person's capacity for making his or her own decisions.' Always at the heart of Malcolm's values was unstinting opposition, which I passionately share, to racism in any form, at home and abroad, be it indifference, or worse, towards Indigenous Australians, or racism in Africa, or anti-Semitism. His vigorous and path-breaking efforts against racism, in both national and international affairs, stands as a lasting legacy to him.

Like so many others, I admired and admire this, and his policy of welcoming to Australia tens of thousands of Vietnamese and other Indo-Chinese people, who, after communist victories throughout Indo-China, were seeking to escape those new and murderous tyrannies. He rightly argued that Australia should not turn away from those whose side we had fought on in Vietnam. The diverse face of modern Australia has also, of course, benefitted greatly from this welcome to those escaping danger, most of whom came here through orderly refugee resettlement processes in Asia.

In any tribute to Malcolm Fraser it is common to refer to the 1975 constitutional crisis, and to the subsequent friendship that developed between the great adversaries, Fraser and Whitlam. But I would like to refer to the choice that Prime Minister Fraser made in 1977, when Sir John Kerr decided to resign as Governor-General. Malcolm chose as his successor a vice-chancellor who had spoken much of the need to preserve the fragile consensus in a divided society, Sir Zelman Cowen. This inspired and brilliant choice of a Governor-General, who famously brought a touch of healing, was something of which Malcolm was rightly proud, as we would be justified, also, in pride in the selection of Sir Ninian Stephen to succeed Sir Zelman, as Governor-General.

If time, the ever-rolling stream, has borne away the great protagonists of the 1970s, who contributed much in the decades since, it has also borne away great and distinctive leaders who have profoundly influenced so many of us in this place, and fathers who leave unfillable holes in the families they loved and who loved them. This is most surely true of Malcolm Fraser. I give thanks for his life and treasure his memory.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will not forget my first opportunity to meet Malcolm Fraser. It was in an airport lounge, where, with the humility you would not expect from a former Prime Minister, he introduced himself to me and then asked at what point there was going to be a new political party formed, with particular people from the Labor Party and particular people from the coalition. In the years that have intervened, almost every one of us, in Malcolm's mind, has been accepted into and expelled from that party over the years. But it shows the forthrightness of somebody who leaves public office but never retires from public life, and he was an example to all in that.

There is one part of Malcolm Fraser's legacy as Prime Minister that I expect no-one other than me would refer to, given that the Department of Finance has traditionally been the most hated department within any government, because I am the only person in the room involved in this portfolio, as the current minister is in the other place. I should acknowledge that the Department of Finance was in fact a creation of the Fraser government. When each side of politics talks about the need for being careful in spending, we all know that in that process the role of the Department of Finance is absolutely paramount and has been an important part of economic rigour, even since that point.

There are two elements of the Fraser legacy that I wish to focus on. The first is with respect to environmental protection. The other is multiculturalism. On environmental protection, we need to remember that the Fraser government was to set a new standard in what a conservative government would do, following a Labor government. It was a long time since there had been a Labor government, and it was open to the Fraser government, had they wished to, particularly with the thumping majority he received, to simply try to clear the decks of every part of the Labor legacy. Instead, in many ways, in particular on environmental reform, Malcolm Fraser made the judgment call to build on the legacy of the Whitlam government. So, where the Whitlam government had established legislation allowing for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, Malcolm Fraser commenced the process of declaring it. Where the Whitlam government had signed up to the world heritage convention, the Fraser government made the decisions to start declaring places to be listed on the World Heritage List: the Great Barrier Reef, Kakadu National Park and, while it became more famous as a reform of the Hawke government, it is also true that the Franklin River was put on the world heritage list by the Fraser government.

In multiculturalism, though, the role of Malcolm Fraser needs to be given the full level of recognition. The term had been used—it had been used by Whitlam government ministers. In fact, it had been used by Malcolm Fraser himself when he was a minister in the Gorton government. But, if we think of how controversial that term was—if we remember that, up until that point, up until the beginning of the conversation about a multicultural Australia, the main pathway of discussion of immigration within Australia was about keeping people out, and, in particular, of using language tests as the device to keep people out—it should probably come as no surprise that, while the term was being used in policy circles and while it was being used at community events, no-one was using the term within the parliament. While the parliament was being held in a different room, the dispatch boxes are the same, and 41 years ago, almost to the day, at this dispatch box here, Malcolm Fraser, as a shadow minister for labour and immigration, became the first member of parliament to ever refer to us having a multicultural Australia or a multicultural society, here within the parliament.

As Prime Minister, he set about an important review of settlement services conducted by the Victorian lawyer Frank Galbally. The significance of that review needs to be understood as well, because this was not simply about Australia deciding the extent to which we would tolerate people from other countries; it was about deciding how we would invest to welcome people from other countries and to make their pathway into Australian society as seamless as possible. As a result of that review, the Fraser government expanded English language teaching services, and expanded on-arrival accommodation, orientation help, interpreting and translating services, helping recognise qualifications that people had achieved overseas and having those qualifications recognised here in Australia, and, of course, establishing the multicultural resource centres which, to this day, provide a fundamental framework for the community in many of our electorates in the MRCs around Australia.

In talking about multiculturalism, he also established the Institute of Multicultural Affairs. In his first address to them, he stated:

Multiculturalism is about diversity, not division—it is about interaction not isolation. It is about cultural and ethnic differences set within a framework of shared fundamental values which enables them to coexist on a complementary rather than competitive basis. It involves respect for the law and for our democratic institutions and processes.

Much is made of that part of multiculturalism which involves refugees coming from Vietnam. I will refer to that in a moment, but it is important to pause and note that, for multicultural Australia to work, leadership of our country can play a very direct role in facilitating the public conversation about that, beyond the laws and beyond the programs.

Establishing SBS now we mention as a footnote. That was a controversial decision—to have taxpayers' money go to programs that had to be subtitled—and yet it provided a window to make sure that multicultural Australia was not something that communities just celebrated amongst themselves but were able to share those traditions with the rest of Australia.

The extent of what was done with respect to people coming from Vietnam I think is made clear in a simple statistic: 300,000 people in refugee camps from Indochina; 56,000 came to Australia from Vietnam alone—an extraordinary change to our nation; an extraordinary, positive decision. But, in terms of the leadership Malcolm Fraser was willing to offer on this, I think his quote says it all, when he said: 'If we had taken polls, I think people would have voted 80 or 90 per cent against us, but we explained the reasons for it.' He went on to say: 'We were also working to get people to understand the idea and the reality of a multicultural Australia could be an enormous strength to this country, not a weakness.' In doing so, Malcolm Fraser helped build on continuing to lay the groundwork for what is the best of so much of modern Australia. With respect to all his family—in particular, to Tamie—may he rest in peace.

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to join with everyone else in offering our condolences, particularly to that towering figure, Tamie Fraser, and the Fraser family, on the loss of their husband and father, and, for the nation, a former Prime Minister. Yes, Malcolm Fraser was a towering figure, in many, many ways. Nearly 60 years ago in this place he delivered his first speech, and the values that he espoused in his maiden speech were relatively consistent throughout his life. In fact, he was quite prescient. At that time, Australia had a population of nine million, and he said, 'I hope and expect that I will live to the day when Australia has a population of 25 million.' And he almost got there.

But, unquestionably, he did get there in 1975. And there has been a lot of retrospection in the debate about Malcolm Fraser, and, indeed, Gough Whitlam, and 1975. It was a different era to that which many would like to think about. It was a different era, where the world was divided into two. You were either a fan of Skyhooks or a fan of Sherbet. You were either a Manly supporter or a Wests supporter. You were either Liberal or Labor. You were either Holden or Ford. The divisions in the community were pretty stark, as it was in the environment of the Cold War; it was stark division in the community. And Malcolm Fraser did ride that division—he did ride that division in order to obtain power. And he was a fierce advocate. When I was a very young boy, I remember our teacher rushing into the classroom on 11 November 1975 yelling out, 'The government's been sacked,' and I thought to myself, 'I don't know what that means.' But it was the beginning of an era of incredible division, and Malcolm Fraser knew that, and, unquestionably, it shaped the way he thought he should behave into the future. There is no doubt about that.

He was the right man at the right time for our nation. He knew he was not perfect. Of course, no Prime Minister is. No successful member of this place will ever be perfect. They will have flaws and they will make mistakes.

For the many successes of the Fraser government, which have been outlined by my colleagues here today—initiatives that stretch from an embrace of multiculturalism, the development and set-up of SBS through to his embrace of immigration, particularly migration from Vietnam—there was another side to it. There was a guilt in the nation associated with developments in Vietnam that had an impact on the Fraser government at that time, as there was concern for the Christians in Lebanon that gave him cause to bring in a very significant influx of migrants from Lebanon at that time. It was quite dislocating in the community, as many members over there would know. But also it was a time when he endeavoured to provide stability and certainty.

He was not a traditional Liberal Prime Minister in one sense, but he was a traditional liberal. He was a fierce critic and he was tougher on no-one more than himself. He was someone who was not afraid to espouse values that would be contrary to the common view. On many occasions Malcolm Fraser would take a stand when it was uncommon and unpopular to do so. Yes, he took very moralistic and appropriate and rightful stands on racism, on bigotry. He also took a very firm stand on issues relating to foreign investment and on the management of the Public Service. In fact, he in 1975 was so concerned about the overwhelming power of the Treasury that he set up a rival agency, the Department of Finance. In fact, his economic legacy is not properly recognised. In the eight years that he was Prime Minister the economy grew in size by nearly 20 per cent. Of course, he was the great initiator—and we will be forever thankful—of the Expenditure Review Committee. That committee has endured, much to the chagrin of my colleagues. But it has endured and it is one of his many lasting legacies.

In his 1971 Alfred Deakin lecture, Malcolm Fraser espoused the challenge that life was not meant to be easy. He was taken out of context at that time, but he was recognising that the world was changing and changing quite rapidly and that nations must change to cope, in order to survive. That 1971 Alfred Deakin lecture I would commend to the House as something to reflect upon. The world does change. Malcolm Fraser changed with it, but his values were consistent.

I, like many others here, had many interactions over the years with Malcolm Fraser. He would occasionally ring to offer advice. On numerous occasions he would give criticism, publicly and privately. The hardest thing about being in the Liberal Party is that some of our toughest critics are our own. Robert Menzies was no different. Malcolm Fraser was no different. It is because we expect so much of ourselves. The modern Left is trying to own Malcolm Fraser, but no-one owned Malcolm Fraser. He was his own man. He was a genuine liberal. He was of the Liberal Party and forever, no matter what happened in later years, he will remain a part of the Liberal Party.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to add to the comments of the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and others on this important condolence motion on the death of former Prime Minister John Malcolm Fraser. It has indeed been a sad time when it comes to the passing of some of the political giants of our times: Gough Whitlam, who transformed Australia into the modern, outward-looking society that we are today; Neville Wran, who revitalised Labor after the events of November 1975, not just in New South Wales but also nationally; and my dear friend Tom Uren, who rose above the horror of being a prisoner of war of the Japanese to show us the importance of respect for humanity and peace and who remade the relationship between the national government and those in our suburbs and regional communities; and now Malcolm Fraser, a liberal in the truest sense of the word and one of the giants of modern political Australia.

The passing of leaders provides an opportunity to reflect on their individual achievements, but it also allows us to reflect on issues of our era and the way in which they have shaped our lives, our society and indeed our own thinking. Malcolm Fraser's life was an authentic chronicle of the past five or six decades of life in Australia. His was an example that constantly invites us to reflect on our own views.

I will never agree with the outcome of the events of November 1975. At the time, like Joe Hockey, I was young student but a true believer, even at that time. I saw this intervention as undemocratic and, like many in the great Labor family, had a personal view of Malcolm Fraser that was not complimentary. I remain of the view that the events of that day were wrong, but the passage of time has allowed me to see Malcolm Fraser's life in a very different context. It is clear to me he was a man of intense principle. Malcolm always stuck to his principles, no matter the often fierce criticism that he received. He believed in justice. He could not tolerate racism. He wanted to empower others to be their best. He saw public service as a responsibility, not a choice.

After winning elections in 1975, 1977 and 1980, he has left substantial legacies. He offered refuge, as has been said, to those fleeing from Vietnam. He left a legacy of support for multiculturalism that today most of us take for granted, but at the time it was quite a radical position pushing it forward in opposition from people across the political spectrum. Yesterday, I had the honour of being at the Carnival of Cultures in Ashfield. It was a classic multicultural celebration, the like of which occurs in all of our electorates, whether it be in urban or regional Australia, but it is something that back in the late 1970s would have been unthought-of. He was consistent, he was strong and he was radical in his fight for multiculturalism, and he deserves, I think, respect for making Australia stronger for it.

His opposition to the apartheid system in South Africa was also strong and consistent, as was his support for reconciliation with the First Australians. He created important institutions, including the Human Rights Commission and the Australian Refugee Advisory Council. On the environment: he declared the Great Barrier Reef a marine park, made the first declaration of Kakadu National Park, opposed whaling and saved the magnificent Fraser Island from sandmining. With regard to education, in my portfolio I have had the honour of going to the Australian Maritime College in Launceston. As the Minister for Education and Training said, Malcolm Fraser regarded education as not just about universities but also very much about vocational training. That institution today continues to play a critical role in providing Australians with skills in the maritime sector, skills so important for an island continent such as ours.

Much has been made since Malcolm's death of his relationship with the Liberal Party, particularly in later years. I will leave that to people who know more about the Liberal Party than I do. Politicians come and go but many like Malcolm Fraser make powerful contributions to the life of our nation, and then they disappear into the comfort of retirement or another career. That was not for Malcolm. His nearly three decades in parliament were only the start of his political engagement. Using the platform that comes from being a former Prime Minister, he kept fighting for justice for the rest of his life as a statesman and as head of CARE Australia. Because his principles were based so very firmly in his love of humanity and justice, he challenged us. His message was that neither self-satisfaction nor artificial partisan divide should prevent a person from speaking up on an important issue.

Sometimes his advocacy made people in this parliament uncomfortable. Malcolm criticised both the coalition and the Australian Labor Party on the issue of our treatment of asylum seekers. He did so in a way that was consistent and not partisan, and did so according to his own beliefs. He asked everyone in this parliament to think very carefully about the effect of our policies on real people. Of course the asylum seeker issue is complex. If it were simple, it would have been resolved. But Malcolm's advocacy in this area will stand long after today, reminding us that, whatever the politics, this is a very human issue. It is an international issue, and it must always be seen in that context.

Malcolm Fraser was a true liberal. Like Menzies before him, he believed in small government, individual enterprise and liberty. He certainly was not a radical reformer like Whitlam, a man with whom he formed a great friendship in recent years, despite the events of 1975. That showed how big, not just in physical stature, both these great Australians were.

In areas where changes were required in the administration of this nation, Malcolm Fraser's decisions were tempered by a basic understanding that people must come before ideology. I express my sincere sympathies to his family, particularly to his wife Tamie who also deserves our thanks for her contribution to the life of our nation.

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to 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.

Opposition Member:

An opposition member interjecting—

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

'Nothing's changed,' I heard somebody say! That is a very harsh comment. Perhaps there are not quite as many men as there used to be, but there are nonetheless still—I think we would all agree—too many, relative to the women.

But that pair formed a bond. They were both young women, having their first babies together, both in this pretty tough environment.

Above all—and I know that Malcolm's family will recognise this—out of all of this, in the discussion of his great achievements, to which I will turn in a moment, is this House's, this parliament's, this nation's love to them, to the family, recognising their grief, their loss and, above all, honouring that great love story which was the foundation of Malcolm and Tamie's joint expedition into the public life of Australia and all the achievements that flowed from that.

I should say a little bit about Malcolm Fraser's demeanour. He was elected to parliament as the youngest member of parliament at the time, at 24, but he was also the tallest. He had always—partly, I think, because of his height—

Government members interjecting—

The member for Longman should not feel that as a backhanded compliment! Unlike the member for Longman, the then member for Wannon, the young member for Wannon, had a chilly demeanour. He was shy. I think a lot of people took that for a real personal coldness, which was not the case. Malcolm Fraser was a shy man, and in some cases that was really misinterpreted. And that, coupled with his height and a rather austere appearance—the farmer from the Western District—meant it was easy to paint a caricature, particularly contrary to the flamboyance of Gough Whitlam or indeed the extraordinary gregarious conviviality of Bob Hawke, who succeeded him. But he was always a very droll man. He had a very good sense of humour. I want to recall a letter that Malcolm Fraser wrote to the Melbourne Sun on 3 June 1954, after he had only just failed to win the seat of Wannon from the Labor Party. It was a Labor seat and he nearly won it. He lost by a few hundred votes and then of course won it at the next election and then built up his majority till it became a very safe seat. But he wrote this letter following the election:

Sir

In the course of the recent federal election campaign statements been made in the Melbourne press with respect to my football activities past and future. Three statements have been quoted as having been made by me. All are untrue. I did not say I played Australian Rules football for Melbourne Grammar or rugger for Oxford University. No local team in the Western District has ever approached me to play football. The only position that I would be qualified to fill on a football field would be that of goal post.

For a shy 24-year-old—honourable members can understand—he had a very good sense of humour.

Often governments and politicians and leaders get credit for doing things that would have happened anyway because the tenor of the times is such that certain reform was inevitably going to happen and the respective government or Prime Minister—or minister, for that matter—is johnny-on-the-spot who happens to be there to make the decision that had to be made. But the real mark of political achievement is when leaders actually change history, when they do things that are different, and Fraser had a very deep sense of this. After all, as the Treasurer—he is not here anymore; he has vanished; that is quite a feat! But, as the Treasurer was saying earlier, in Malcolm Fraser's Deakin lecture, where he used the line 'Life wasn't meant to be easy,' he was actually summarising Arnold Toynbee's 12 volumes—which was quite an achievement—which he had studied at Oxford. Toynbee's thesis really was that civilisations basically are not destroyed by external forces; they commit suicide; they give up. He made the point that we have to keep on fighting; we have to recognise that we have big challenges and keep on going at them. That is what he meant. It was not at all the smug remark that it was later represented to be.

When you look at what he did in respect of shaping the nature of Australia today, it is really quite remarkable. When you sum up Australia to a foreign friend, one of the first things you would say is, 'This is the most successful multicultural society in the world.' There is no country in the world that has a higher percentage of immigrants—that is to say, people who were born outside of Australia. Not one. No comparable country has as high a percentage. America, supposedly the melting pot, has half the percentage. And ours is so diverse.

How have we been able to do that so successfully? Well, this has been the work of generations and of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Australians. Ultimately, it comes from the good sense and big-heartedness of Australians. It has seen enormous leadership from those in this chamber. Of course, the member for Berowra, who I know will speak later, is one of the great architects of this. But Malcolm Fraser was so far ahead of his time. He was the first federal politician, as far as we know—certainly the first minister—ever to use the term 'multiculturalism' and talk about multiculturalism. He did so in a speech to the State Zionist Council of New South Wales in 1969. That is a full four years before Al Grassby, described as the father of multiculturalism, became a minister.

You can see here where impressions can be so misleading. Malcolm Fraser—tall, rather austere, suited, generally with a waistcoat, with stiff English shoes, looking very much the creation of the establishment—was undoubtedly a member, a scion, if you like, of the Protestant ascendency in the Victorian establishment. It is easy to put him into that conservative box. Al Grassby, of course, had his moustache, his purple suits and so forth—clearly a progressive and a radical. But there was Malcolm Fraser, four years before, in office, making those very points.

His views on this matter, I think, were in large part formed by sectarianism. As I said, he grew up in the days when sectarianism was much stronger. He went into politics at the time of the Labor split; he was very close to BA Santamaria. That is quite a tradition with Prime Ministers on our side, so it seems—that is a compliment.

Honourable members interjecting—

They will laugh at anything; they are easily amused, Prime Minister. Fraser deplored the way Billy Hughes, in the First World War, had set out to divide the nation on sectarian grounds. This really marked his thinking and, I believe, made a huge impact on his approach to multiculturalism and racism in the years ahead. He was, as we know, a great supporter of Aboriginal land rights, when in office as Prime Minister; views that were strongly reinforced when he toured the Northern Territory as education minister with Billy Wentworth, who was then the minister for Indigenous affairs or whatever the department was called at that time.

His treatment and welcoming of Vietnamese refugees was—and I say this without a tinge of partisanship—in contrast to that of the previous Labor government. In that respect, Fraser was very critical of the Whitlam government for not being generous enough to refugees from Vietnam. In government this so-called conservative, this stiff member of the establishment, had a much more generous approach than any of his predecessors. In that sense, as you can see with multiculturalism, with immigration and with antiracism, he was very, very much ahead of his time—ahead of his time whether it was on the Liberal side or the Labor side.

The establishment of the Special Broadcasting Service, which has been mentioned, was an extraordinary innovation—unique anywhere in the world, as far as I am aware. That was very much a creation of Malcolm Fraser, inspired, no doubt, by his adviser Petro Georgiou. When Petro retired from this House, he said very eloquently of Malcolm Fraser:

To those who have sought to denigrate Malcolm Fraser, I just want to say one thing: Malcolm’s fusion of political toughness with compassion and social conscience is simply beyond their comprehension.

He has been criticised for not doing enough in terms of microeconomic reform. That criticism is both inaccurate, up to a point, but also rather unfair. As John Howard and Peter Reith have both said in recent times, Malcolm Fraser, while he went into parliament as a young man, was very much there with the views and attitudes of the 1950s and 1960s. Inevitably, he was imbued with the attitudes of men and women a generation older than himself, because they were his peers. So you cannot look at the economic debate of 2015 and go back to 1975, all those years—40 years—and say, 'They got it wrong; they weren't progressive enough; they didn't understand it.' It was, in every respect, a very, very different world.

During the republic campaign, as the Prime Minister observed, Malcolm Fraser was deaf to the Prime Minister's eloquence and, thankfully, supported the 'yes' vote. He did so with someone who became his old friend—Gough Whitlam. I will say a little bit about that in conclusion, but just let me say this about the republic debate. Fraser made a remarkably energetic and thoughtful contribution to that debate. He was hyperactive: he gave speeches, he wrote articles and he tackled one of the very key constitutional points, which was whether, under the republican model being proposed—the scheme, as honourable members will recall, was that the Prime Minister could remove the president but not appoint the successor to the president. This was one of the safeguards built into it. The argument was put by the monarchist side that the Queen had no obligation to act on the advice of the Prime Minister to appoint or remove a Governor-General.

Fraser of course, having been a Prime Minister and having had real, firsthand experience of constitutional crises, was able to lend the authority of his office invoking actually Robert Menzies, who had commented on this same point, to lend some real authority and dignity to that debate. He made a very big contribution to the 'yes' campaign. Whenever we polled the ratings, the respect and approval of various political figures engaged in the campaign, he was at the very top. He was such a widely respected person.

So much else has been said about Malcolm Fraser's illustrious life. Can I just conclude on one lesson that I think he gives to all of us. People in our line of work tend to get consumed with bitterness and resentment. Often we have good cause to be or, at least, we think we do. Fraser, who had plenty of detractors and plenty of enemies, was, nonetheless, not a hater. It was a remarkable feature of his evolution. Remember that he ceased to be Prime Minister at age 52 or 53, so he was a young Prime Minister and a young ex-Prime-Minister. But, despite all of that tumult and all of the venom that had been expended at him, he did not look backwards; he was focused on the issues of today and tomorrow. His last tweet, we all recall, was tweeting an article about Chinese foreign policy. He was not interested in getting into his anecdotage, sitting back in the armchair and talking about what might have been or who was right or wrong in the sacking of Gorton or the sacking of Whitlam. He was focused on the future. But he did so in a thoroughly positive way and, in that respect, gave all of us an example that we should at every stage, like Fraser and like Whitlam did, drive the negativity and hatred and bitterness out of ourselves, fill it with love because that makes us stronger and makes our nation stronger.

Farewell Malcolm Fraser. The nation has lost one of its greats. We salute you. We pray for your family. They are in our prayers and we know that your role in Australian history will be forever recognised as one of the greatest, one of the architects of the extraordinary nation all of us are so honoured to represent in this chamber.

Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Families and Payments) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I first met Malcolm Fraser in 1977 when I went to see him in search of funding for women's refuges in Australia. I was working as a volunteer on the night roster at a refuge here in Canberra. Going to see him on that occasion was a difficult task because, for many activists of my generation, I still harboured a great deal of anger because of the dismissal of the Whitlam government, and his actions to dismantle Medibank had only reinforced my view of him. But he was prepared to see me, to listen and, most importantly, to respond to the needs of women who had been the victims of violence.

This was my introduction to the compassionate man that many Australians came to know. Alongside his role in those tumultuous events of 1975 his compassion will be a lasting memory for many Australians. It was 30 years later before I would personally see him again. By this time I was the minister for indigenous affairs and we were going through the details of the apology to the stolen generations with Lowitja O'Donoghue, in January 2008. He was very kind and engaged. He and Lowitja were the patrons of the Stolen Generations Alliance.

Looking back to the apology, it may seem that it was always going to be a unifying moment for our country, as the vast majority of Australians came together to acknowledge the wrongs of the past. But it had not come easily. Malcolm Fraser had shown great leadership on the need for the apology when many in his party vehemently opposed it. In 2003, in the Great Hall of Parliament House, Malcolm Fraser delivered one of his finest speeches on Australia's journey towards reconciliation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. He said:

Reconciliation requires changes of heart and spirit, as well as social and economic change. It requires symbolic as well as practical action.

In these short sentences Fraser had dispelled the prevailing yet false notion that reconciliation required a choice between practical and symbolic reconciliation. As Prime Minister, Fraser's achievements in Indigenous affairs were impressive. The most significant of these was the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976, which had been drafted by the previous Labor government and enacted by Fraser. Because of this act, land rights were returned to Northern Territory Aboriginal people, a great achievement for our nation.

Fraser had succeeded against strong opposition from the Country Liberal Party in the Northern Territory. He had taken on many in his party to achieve an extraordinary change for Indigenous people. Fraser's work on Indigenous issues continued well into his postparliamentary life. He was of course responsible for establishing the Human Rights Commission and then, in 1997, its successor organisation, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, published the Bringing them home report, an investigation into the practice of forced removal of Aboriginal children from their families. Fraser became a strong advocate for an apology and for those who had been stolen. He was a fierce opponent of those who claimed that either children had not been taken or it had all been for their own good.

In 2000, Fraser delivered the Vincent Lingiari Memorial lecture. In his speech Fraser dispelled the myth that righting past wrongs to Indigenous Australians was somehow not the responsibility of contemporary Australia. He said:

We can’t say it happened beyond the memory of today’s Australians. We cannot say it happened in a past age. These events were continued after we and many other states had accepted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

On Sorry Day that same year he walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge alongside 250,000 Australians, calling on the Howard government to make an apology to the stolen generations. Never one for mincing words, Fraser said:

Australia must not become an international pariah because of one person's blinkered vision.

When Prime Minister Rudd delivered the national apology in this parliament in 2008, Malcolm Fraser sat over here in this chamber with Gough Whitlam and many members of the Stolen Generations as they witnessed the apology that he had campaigned for for more than a decade.

Above all Fraser remained a man with great hopes for Australia's future—hope that our journey towards reconciliation was one within our collective reach. In his memoir, in the chapter 'The difficulties of freedom', Fraser wrote that 'these remaining roadblocks are largely due to a failure to come to terms with history'. Some people accept that the history of white settlement was brutal and bloody. Some people accept that there was dispossession and that generations of children were taken from their families. Others either deny the history or refuse to accept it. Non-Indigenous Australians need to do much more to come to grips with what happened and to understand that it creates obligations. Few Australians have done more to help us come to terms with this history and the obligations that it creates, and for this all Australians owe Malcolm Fraser a deep and lasting gratitude.

We are again at a time when we need to find consensus in Indigenous affairs, particularly on resolving the question of constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Aboriginal people continue to struggle for understanding of their connection to their traditional country. This time we will have to find this consensus without Malcolm Fraser. We will need new champions for the cause of reconciliation. But, like Fraser, I am optimistic that we can get it done and continue on the path towards a more reconciled nation of the type that Malcolm Fraser himself would be proud.

Philip Ruddock (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I speak as a member who served with Malcolm Fraser in the other place for some 10 years. I speak of him in the context of a parliament that can be at its best when we remember his service as we did Gough Whitlam's service. I think he would have been proud of us recently when we spoke as one on the issue of the death penalty. I served, obviously, at a time when the parliament was at its most adversarial. I know something of the pain that so many suffered at that time. It was an extraordinarily difficult time. As we moved towards 1975, I had many friends on both sides of the parliament. After 1975, it was difficult to say that we were friends. The events were extraordinarily challenging.

I want to put one context, if I may, on it, because some of my friends often suggest that Malcolm did not do all that he could have with the mandate that he received in 1975 and 1977. It was important to understand the depth of feeling within the Australian community at that time. And I know, having spoken with Malcolm about those issues, that he was about reuniting Australia after a very difficult circumstance and was very conscious that to press on with many of the changes that we may have thought were necessary and of fundamental importance could have been extremely divisive for a nation that was already experiencing division. He was about healing. And I think, for my friends who take a very critical view, it is important to understand just that.

I can remember Malcolm Fraser as a campaigner for me. I was first elected in 1973. I must say I was never a very successful member in relation to leadership contests! I must say I told Tony Staley, when he came round to talk to me about possible moves, that I did not support them, and when Billy Snedden rang me up later on I had to tell him I was not going to vote for him, so I had both Malcolm and Billy convinced that I did not vote for them. Just very interesting—my votes are never well understood!

Can I just say a little about the big man. I remember in 1975 when he came around to my home in Oatlands, and he came with Tony Eggleton, a great man who is here with us today and whom I acknowledge. My daughter Kirsty, who is well known as having been a fearsome refugee advocate and in New South Wales also is the Environmental Defender, looked at Mr Fraser, and she said, 'Oh Mr Fraser'—she was three—'you're a big man.' And she looked at Tony and she said, 'And you're a little man.' I'm sorry Tony! But it is a very interesting anecdote about a man who came and worked with me in my constituency and was extraordinarily well received, and that I do remember. But for me my greatest pride was to be able to walk with a leader who appreciated something of the Australia that I think is of fundamental importance not just to us but to the world.

Malcolm, in his comments, was very kind to mention my support for our cultural diversity. I have to say that cultural diversity is a strength, not a weakness. I think many fail to recognise that the fundamental problems that exist around the world often occur where people feel threatened, and one of the things you can say about Australia is that nobody can feel threatened in this society, with more than six million of our citizens overseas-born. I do not mean to correct you, Malcolm, but Israel and Luxembourg, I am told, have a larger proportion of their populations overseas-born—in Luxembourg I think it is the tax arrangements—but, it is very important to understand, not the United States and not Canada. I say to people so frequently that we are an example to the rest of the world about how people can come together and live together harmoniously. But it does not happen.

Non-discriminatory selection is important, but coupled with it is the support for the programs that were institutionalised under Malcolm Fraser's leadership. Mention has been made of our Special Broadcasting Service. It started with radio before he was there and broadened to television through what we know today was his government's pioneering work. When you look at the settlement programs, the language programs, the Galbally report and the way in which it was implemented, it has given us a society which is, I think, unique in the world and an example to all others.

I walked the same path in relation to apartheid. Members know that from time to time invitations are extended by those who seek support for their particular positions. The South African government was no different. I would never go to South Africa until those policies changed, and my first visit to South Africa was in 1994, when they had their first democratic elections and I was able to participate as a Commonwealth monitor. He gave me pride in Australia for what we were able to do and achieve.

If it were only for those matters, he would be worthy to be commended by us all for his achievement, but there was so much more. I think the only one that has not been mentioned today was to put in place Australia's first Freedom of Information Act in 1982.

For my own part, I was pleased to work with him, but for my own part the most difficult and telling experience in the parliament for me was in 1988, when I crossed the floor on a race issue, against my own party. I might say Malcolm was more supportive of me then when I had a different view than when I might have wanted to take a different view at other points in time—but one should not be surprised about that. He rang me and was very supportive at what was a difficult time.

I do not mean to correct people in the debate today, but I want to put one other matter in context: he did start the building of this parliament, but he was never an advocate for it. Doug Anthony and Malcolm Fraser came to us in a party room meeting in the Old Parliament House and said, 'We've got a great plan for a new accommodation for members of parliament: we're going to build two extra annexes—one on the bowling green for the House of Representatives, the other on the bowling green for the Senate.' And I have to say the party room rolled him. There were only two speakers, and he was suddenly convinced that, rather than Menzies's legacy on the lake, he should build a new Parliament House on this site, for which the Prime Minister has given him credit.

Can I just say that, in the life of Heather and me, Tamie looms large. She was an extraordinary first lady for this nation. She made spouses feel particularly emboldened in supporting their partners in this place. She accompanied my wife, Heather, quite frequently around our electorate. She was a focal point for geniality and, I must say, a magnificent first lady for Australia.

Can I just say for Phoebe, Mark, Angela and Hugh: you are right to be proud of your parents for the contribution they have made. You are right to be proud of your father, whom we lament as passed. We thank Malcolm for his service to this nation.

Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I last saw the Rt Hon. Malcolm Fraser in May last year at the launch in Melbourne of Australians Detained Abroad, a humanitarian NGO that supports Australian families who have loved ones detained overseas. Fraser, towering above the crowd in his immaculate three-piece suit, downed a double scotch, neat, and addressed the room without notes for 40 minutes. Fraser seemed absolutely undiminished even well into his ninth decade. It is a deeply saddening shock to have lost him late last week. Another former Prime Minister, Paul Keating, summed it up well on Friday. He said:

I always thought Malcolm would be around a lot longer. I must say, I wished he had been.

I would like to express my condolences to Mr Fraser's family and loved ones. And, to my parliamentary colleagues in the Liberal party, we on this side of the House know well the sadness of losing a hero.

I was fortunate, late in his life, to develop a friendly relationship with Fraser who I came to greatly admire and respect. I never confessed to Fraser that as a young student I had been a keen participant in demonstrations and rallies against him, but I learned a lot from him about government and about politics. I had some robust discussions with him, especially about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but our discussions were always respectful and he was always prepared to listen.

When reflecting on Fraser's life, I do not think it is possible to omit his role in the tumult of 1975 though it was, and is, divisive. Fraser was a great political warrior. It would diminish him not to recall his part in the most momentous crisis in Australian political history, but we are blessed to live in a country where political crises are resolved peacefully. We are blessed to live in a country where even the fiercest political contest does not tear us apart as a community and where we can respect and admire our staunchest opponents. Malcolm Fraser embodied that sense of decency. The friendship he came to share with Gough Whitlam should be an example for all of us in this place. I know that many on my side of the House are grateful for Fraser's advice and friendship over the years.

There has been a lot of commentary about Fraser's views and political commitments over the years, and debate about whether and how they changed. Fraser was a giant of Australia's liberal tradition and it is for those opposite, the modern custodians of that tradition, to judge those matters. It is clear, however, that Fraser's most deeply held convictions endured throughout his life. A few of Fraser's achievements as Prime Minister give us an insight into those convictions. In 1981, fulfilling an election commitment, Fraser established Australia's first Human Rights Commission. He gave that body power to assess Australia's compliance with a range of international human rights instruments including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Declaration of the Rights of the Child and the Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons.

As we have heard from other speakers, Fraser embraced multiculturalism. He created the Special Broadcasting Service, SBS, to broadcast multilingual and multicultural programs. He denounced bigotry and he welcomed refugees.

On a different note, we should recall that Fraser ended commercial whaling in this country. The Whale Protection Act, Fraser's government passed in 1980, ended a practice which had taken place here since colonisation in 1788. Indeed, whaling had been one of Australia's first export industries. Fraser's act took whales from the purview of the industry minister and instead put them under the protection of the environment minister. The speed with which Australia shifted from being a whaling nation to a staunch international advocate of the protection of whales is in no small part due to Fraser's leadership on this issue.

Fraser carried on the work of his great foe Whitlam in securing land rights for Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory. In 1973 Whitlam had established a royal commission into Aboriginal land rights. Royal Commissioner Edward Woodward delivered his final report in 1974. Responding to Woodward's recommendations, the Whitlam government introduced its land rights bill into parliament in October 1975 but did not pass it before the government's dismissal. Fraser pressed on with this work. He passed a slightly modified Land Rights Act in 1976. As Noel Pearson noted in his eulogy for Gough Whitlam last year, Fraser's legislation would eventually 'see more than half of the territory restored to its traditional owners.' It is worth noting Fraser's courage here. He did not have to press on with land rights legislation and indeed he faced significant opposition for doing so. We should all be grateful that Malcolm Fraser made land rights a bipartisan project.

It is clear that for Fraser an abhorrence of racism and a commitment to racial equality were deep-seated convictions but he did not content himself with attending to these matters at home. Abroad, Fraser fiercely opposed apartheid in South Africa. He was a strong supporter of the Gleneagles Agreement in 1977, under which the nations of the Commonwealth agreed to impose a sporting ban on apartheid South Africa. Again, Fraser did not have to take up cudgels to fight racism across the globe. Doing so put him at odds with, among others, the ascendant conservative Prime Minister of Britain Margaret Thatcher. He did it nonetheless, because he knew it to be right.

No-one, whatever their political orientation, can doubt that Fraser had the courage of his convictions. The commitment to human rights, to tolerance and to human dignity, which lay behind many of Fraser's achievements in his time in office, reverberated through all of his later work whether in international organisations, civil society or as a private citizen. At the urging of Prime Minister Hawke, Fraser headed an international group of eminent persons to continue his work in opposing apartheid. He visited Nelson Mandela in prison and would later attend his inauguration as President in 1994.

Fraser continued to participate in our national life until the very end. It is a measure of the man that one can say that, even at 84, he had so much still to contribute. Australia owes Malcolm Fraser a great debt for a life of distinguished public service. We are the poorer for his passing.

Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today is a day of reflection, a day to remember. It is a day on which we pause to remember Australia's 22nd Prime Minister, a man who stood up for his convictions and fought for decency, for liberty and for justice. The Rt Hon. Malcolm Fraser will be remembered, as many have said, as a man of courage and a man of conviction—a leader who was a tireless champion of freedom and free enterprise, a Prime Minister who advocated against apartheid and oversaw enduring reforms to the structure of government.

He entered this parliament in 1955 at the age of 25 to represent the great seat of Wannon in Victoria's Western District. There is a story, a story that is perhaps apocryphal, that when Malcolm Fraser had been here for almost a decade, he went to see Prime Minister Menzies, lamenting the fact that he was languishing on the backbench after all that time—to which Menzies apparently replied that he should stay here rather than go back to Wannon and continue farming. Indeed, the next year, in 1966, Fraser was appointed to the ministry as Minister for the Army. Then in 1969 he was appointed to cabinet as the Minister for Defence. It was in this role, as Minister for Defence, that he established the Tange review of Defence that led to the modernisation of the structure of the ADF and the defence department in Australia. Despite the fact that Fraser had resigned by the time that report was given—indeed it was given to and implemented by the subsequent government—it was an initiative of his which has had lasting consequences in this country.

During his life, Malcolm Fraser was a beacon of all that is good about our great democracy. His achievements in office were conspicuous; his stewardship of the nation was commendable. His vision and achievements in the journey towards a multicultural Australia were, as so many speakers have indicated this morning, considerable.

When we leave this place, all of us, we would like to be judged on what we sought to achieve, what we wanted to do. Although it is the fate of public men and women to be judged on what they achieved rather than what they intended, it is also true that history will be a better judge than anything that is said or written in the current times. Public figures should be judged against the issues and the challenges they faced at the time according to the circumstances, the mores and the expectations of their era—not against the contemporary, often subjective, standards of a different era. It is against this mark that we should look at the life of Malcolm Fraser. There will be plenty of commentaries in coming days that claim much for and against him, many of which will reflect a desire to claim him for one modern cause or another—without the scrutiny that history demands.

Nonetheless, Fraser remains an enigmatic figure. I suspect he was affected by the significant criticism that he suffered from having brought down a popular Labor leader and then, in a sense, being overtaken by the sweep of economic history—led by Hawke, Keating and Howard—in the subsequent years. Regarded favourably and unfavourably from time to time, and by all sides of politics as ideological, Fraser will remain that enigmatic figure—a man, though, who in his own mind was always on the side of rightfulness and justice. History will say that was appropriate.

Today we honour a man who attained the highest political office in this nation, became then the second longest-serving Prime Minister and did much good in public life. The judgement of history about motivations, intentions and influences is beyond today's discussion. Nevertheless, we cannot altogether ignore or dismiss it, as it underlies why a person enters public life and participates in it for years—or, in Malcolm Fraser's case, for decades. Every person who has become or will become Prime Minister is a complex knot of competing interests, desires and ambitions. In seeking to understand this, we shed some light on the significant role of national leadership in responding to the issues before it—and should be judged, as I said, according to the challenges and circumstances of that time.

By the time I stood for preselection in 1991, things in some senses had moved on. The Fraser years were seen by many, rightfully or wrongly, as an era of economic promise that had been wasted. I recall going to see Mr Fraser a few months after I was elected. There was already a sense of a man who, in some respects, was at odds with his party, who pined, I think, for a different, earlier, economic order and who had trouble supporting some of the changes that occurred even in a relatively short period of time. Nonetheless, he gave me one piece of advice that I have always recalled—and that was: always stand up for what you believe in.

To Tamie and the entire Fraser family, I echo the deepest condolences of a most grateful nation. Our nation is all the richer for the enormous contribution that Malcolm Fraser made. Malcolm Fraser was Australia's leader, Australia's Prime Minister, but in the regions of my home state he will always be remembered as their leader, as Victoria's Prime Minister. May he rest in peace.

Chris Hayes (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Sadly we have lost two giants of Australian political history within months of each other. Malcolm Fraser was a great Australian, providing six decades of public service and a legacy of helping transform Australian into the inclusive, multicultural nation that it is today. Malcolm Fraser will also be remembered as a great champion of human rights in Australia and around the world and a true warrior for equality. Through his critical role in establishing the Human Rights Commission and his contribution as the founding chairman of Care Australia, Fraser contributed to tackling the challenges of poverty and inequity both here and abroad.

Much has already been said this morning about his commitment to the campaign against apartheid in South Africa, his involvement in drawing attention to the human rights crisis in Rwanda and, more recently, only a few weeks ago, joining in the campaign against capital punishment and attempting to save the lives of two Australians on death row in Indonesia. But it is his contribution to harmony and multiculturalism domestically that will live longest in our national memory. Malcolm Fraser is rightly credited for Australia opening its doors to thousands of Vietnamese who became refugees in the 1970s as a consequence of the Vietnam War. Following the fall of Saigon, which was 40 years ago this coming April, the first wave of Vietnamese fled their homeland driven by hopes of achieving freedom, liberty and a better life for themselves and their families. Now they are referred to as our first boat people. But it was Malcolm Fraser that allowed more than 50,000 Vietnamese to start their new lives here in Australia. This was a brave and courageous decision at the time, a decision that was based in compassion, but one which showed great foresight because the many Vietnamese refugees who have made Australia their home are today making a remarkable contribution to this nation.

As a representative of the most multicultural electorate in Australia, with more than 20 per cent of my community being Vietnamese speakers, I am very much aware how highly regarded Malcolm Fraser is. In 2011, Malcolm Fraser attended the Vietnamese Tet festival in Fairfield. More than 10,000 people attended that festival, and unmistakable was the love and respect that the Vietnamese people had for him. Since his passing, I have spoken to many representatives of our local Vietnamese community, who have all expressed great sadness.

I would like to share with the House the thoughts of some of the most prominent members of our Vietnamese community. Dr Thang Ha, president of the Vietnamese Community in Australia, New South Wales chapter, told me that 'the passing of Malcolm Fraser is the saddest news for Vietnamese Australians.' He said, 'Malcolm Fraser acted in accordance with his heart and allowed the first wave of Vietnamese refugees into Australia.' He went on to say, 'The Vietnamese community in Australia is indebted to his generous support and vision for a multicultural society.'

Mr Tri Vo, who is president of the peak Vietnamese body, the Vietnamese Community in Australia, said, 'The Vietnamese Community in Australia will always remember and appreciate the former Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser, for his courage and compassion in opening Australia's doors and welcoming refugees from Vietnam and Asia, and for his support for multiculturalism.' In this community, many have also spoken of him as a father. They will mourn him not just as a leader but as a family member.

My final words are for the family of Malcolm Fraser. On behalf of a very grateful community and a most grateful nation, I offer my sincere condolences to Malcolm Fraser's wife, Tamie, and to their children and grandchildren. Our thoughts and prayers are with them.

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today this House marks the passing of a giant of our modern political life. In John Malcolm Fraser our nation has lost a distinguished Australian in every sense. He was a passionate Liberal, a successful farmer, a devoted gardener, a talented angler and an extraordinarily skilful politician. When I met him for the first time, I was a student at Melbourne University and had been asked to present a paper on his government's policies towards southern Africa at an international conference. I thought it would be only polite that I should give him the opportunity to rebut some of his critics, so I called him seeking an interview. The request was met with an immediate 'yes', and two weeks later we had an hour and a half on his strident opposition to South Africa's apartheid regime, colonisation and communism. Never realising that I would one day represent his former seat, the thing that struck me above all else at this first encounter was the size of the man. He had the physical presence of a large draught horse, and gave the realistic impression that he would work just as hard. In fact, the local press, when he became the member for Wannon in 1955, reported that he was both the youngest and the tallest member of parliament. I should have copyrighted the next line because the member for Wentworth has unfortunately already stolen it, but we now have the youngest and smallest member of the federal parliament!

Malcolm Fraser approached politics with the same resolve as he did life's challenges: with a belief in hard work and the individual. He had a self-deprecating sense of humour. As we all do, he used to love telling campaign stories, but in his case only if it was at his own expense. David Hawker, who succeeded Malcolm in Wannon, recalls Malcolm laughing at himself when only one person turned up to a campaign event he had organised in Dergholm. Fraser suggested to the gentleman that they adjourn and have a chat across the road over a beer at the pub instead. The gentleman insisted he had turned up to hear what Malcolm had to say, and so the would-be PM started delivering his prepared stump speech. Five minutes in, Fraser was interrupted by the man's raised hand. 'Do you have a question?' he asked hopefully, 'Yes, could we have that beer?' This reflected one of his perfected campaign techniques.

Each election campaign, Fraser liked to have a beer at the front bar of the local pub, as he visited towns across the electorate. His record for this was 26 in one day. When I met with the former PM, on being preselected as a Liberal Party candidate for Wannon, he was extremely keen to impress on me the need to work hard for your electorate. He told me how he was one of the first parliamentarians to advertise in the local newspapers that he would be visiting towns and be available to meet with people at a certain time. As his good friend, Digby Crozier, reminded me, what we today politely call listening posts, Fraser called growling posts. Some things in politics never change.

His family farm in western Victoria gave him a great appreciation and understanding of regional and rural life. The news of his passing has been saddening for many Australians, but particularly so for the communities in his former home of western Victoria, where, due to his tireless hard work on their behalf, he was a much admired local member. Being a rural member was never lost on Malcolm. Ever with a mind to his local community, he strove to improve their lives, the lives of those that he represented.

He campaigned personally for the upgrade of the Port of Portland. While the upgrade was primarily for getting more crops and cattle to ships, it has now allowed for further improvements that have brought cruise ships directly to the heart of western Victoria.

He also pushed for the establishment of an education institution in western Victoria, which led to the Deakin University campus in Warrnambool. It now hosts over 1,300 students studying courses from arts and law to psychology and nursing.

His loyalty to Wannon was never far from his mind in Canberra. Upon hearing that the television antenna on Black Mountain was to be taken down, he requested it be put up on Mount Dundas, north of Hamilton. This caused some controversy at the time but certainly not with the viewers in Hamilton and surrounds, who before this had seen their local member on television with a large dose of, to them, very foreign snow.

Fraser's origins on the land led him to a great understanding of agriculture's place in Australia—its history, its economy and its future. Clean, fresh food in abundance to feed them and a surplus of wool to clothe them, he believed. Unsurprisingly, this attitude made him a natural ally of the Country Party, where he made firm friends with Doug Anthony, Ian Sinclair, Peter Nixon and others. While still in government, Fraser continued to run Nareen, where he established a well-regarded Simmental stud. One stock agent recalls that Big Mal was happy to turn a blind eye when enterprising agents labelled his bulls for sale as being from 'the Prime Minister' rather than from Nareen, especially when it led to a premium being paid.

When not running Nareen, Malcolm was often found angling in the rivers of the Western Districts and along its beautiful coastline. Those who accompanied him always delighted in his presence, particularly as he was known to bring one of Tamie's marble cakes as a thank you for getting him out of the house. When asked by the Portland Guardian now the Portland Observer, in 1953, what persuaded him to run for parliament as a Liberal, Fraser responded that 'Every man had the right to go his own way unhampered as long as he did not interfere with the rights of anyone else.' This commitment to the individual marked Fraser as a classical liberal and it remained an intractable part of his philosophy for the entirety of his life—a constant that was backed by hard work.

Hard work was not an ethos for Fraser; it was a simple necessity for being human. When delivering this sentiment again as part of his 1971 lecture, he summarised Arnold Toynbee's 12-volume work into one sentence: 'Through history nations are confronted by a series of challenges and whether they survive or whether they fall to the wayside, depends on the manner and character of their response.' For Fraser, the response, which remains as true today as it did then, involved: 'A conclusion about the past that life has not been easy for people or for nations, and an assumption for the future that that condition will not alter.' Later in his career, he would remark: 'If you want the kind of Australia we want it to be, you're not going to do it on a 35-hour week.'

His legacy of contrast and complexity is best summed up in his role as the creator of both the Commonwealth Ombudsman and the Australian Federal Police, institutions that are at the forefront of recent discussions on national security. In establishing the Special Broadcasting Service he said: 'We used to have a view that to really be a good Australian, to love Australia, you almost had to cut your links with the country of origin. But I don't think that was right and it never was right.' The over 56,000 Vietnamese immigrants who came to call Australia home are a reflection of how Fraser saw the individual as a means to change society for the better. A monopoly, he pointed out, cannot alter human nature.

There are those who have looked to Malcolm Fraser's public life as being only one of contradictions: a man of the Right who found his home in the Left. This is unfair to both him and his beliefs. In the years after his retirement from politics, particularly with regard to his views on immigration, he held steadfastly to his own beliefs. It is also unfair to overly criticise his lack of economic rationalism. His was a time when economic theory was more Black Jack McEwen than Bert Kelly. In the end, the economy proved to be the Fraser government's undoing. Australia suffered again from the boom-bust cycle that had plagued the Whitlam government's finances. No government can accomplish all things. Instead, Fraser's great economic achievement was his application of financial restraint on the national budget. As he outlined in 1971: 'Many have come to regard budget time as they regard Christmas. It should not be so regarded. No responsible government can behave like Father Christmas and look after the affairs of this nation.' As time would show, the establishment of his 'razor gang' to reduce the size of government, along with the Campbell inquiry's recommendations, laid the path to Australia's future economic reform.

No leader is without their flaws. In resigning his life membership of the Liberal Party, many lifelong supporters in Wannon were devastated. The only comparable feeling, I believe, would be if Jack Dyer, that great Richmond legend, had resigned his life membership of the Tigers and spent his final days supporting Collingwood. This was Malcolm's choice. Ever the champion of the individualism that drew him to the Liberal party, it was a path that he knew would disappoint many. As Liberals, we may not have liked it. But we must respect it.

Malcolm Fraser held only one title that was perhaps of more pride to him than 'Prime Minister of Australia'; Malcolm Fraser was 'King of the Camellias'. At his property in western Victoria, Fraser and his wife Tamie grew over 90 varieties of camellia, often opening their garden to the public and the community. So prolific was Fraser's green thumb that he accidentally crossbred a new variety of camellia. He named his one lifelong love after his other, the camellia japonica, 'Tamie Fraser'. This beautiful pink bloom can now be found just down from F Gate in Melbourne's Royal Botanic Gardens.

My thoughts are with those who knew this hardworking classical liberal, farmer, gardener, angler and extraordinarily skilful politician best: his beloved wife Tamie and their four children.

Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In my first term of parliament, I shared a stage many times with the then Liberal state minister for multicultural affairs, Nick Kotsiras, and he would always, in a heartfelt and genuine way, say that in Victoria you would find that multiculturalism is a multipartisan affair and that whatever happens in the rest of the country on questions of race and ethnicity you will not find people in Victoria seeking to divide to win votes. I think he was dead right, and I think in many respects we have Malcolm Fraser to thank for that.

My colleagues in the Senate will be canvassing more broadly some of the broader issues that have been raised, and especially Mr Fraser's post-political life. Of course, there are many, many areas where my party and I would not agree with the decisions or actions that were taken by him. But here I just want to briefly pay tribute to the real impact and way in which he shaped my electorate of Melbourne. The suburb of Richmond, in Melbourne, was the first port of call for many people who were amongst those tens of thousands who came to Australia and came to Victoria in those years after the Vietnam War. Many of them are still there and some 40 years on, marking the anniversary, many of the leaders of the community have begun a sustained effort around the country to say 'Thank you, Australia, for taking us in,' and especially to say thank you to Malcolm Fraser.

Reading some of the tributes in the newspapers over the weekend, it was apparent that many of the members of that community viewed him with the same reverence that they might view their parents or their grandfathers. I think it is telling and a remarkable tribute to the foresight of the decision to adopt that particular migration policy that we are in a position as the Australian community to say back to those Vietnamese refugees and the ones who came after them, 'Thank you for helping put Australia on the map,'—and thank you for putting places like my electorate of Melbourne on the map. I am sure that every member in this place believes this of their own electorate, but I genuinely believe that, when it comes to questions of race, humanity and culture, if the rest of Australia were more like Melbourne, it would be a better place, and I think in many respects we have Malcolm Fraser to thank for that.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I wish to associate myself with the remarks that have been made in the chamber today, because together they form a parliamentary eulogy for a remarkable man, a man whom, as a young political aspirant, I met before he became Prime Minister and continued to know after he left that great office. My thoughts and wishes are for Tamie and her family and the children.

I note it was appropriate, also, to have had with us in the chamber for most of the debate today a man who had a close association with Prime Minister Fraser for 50 years, and that was Tony Eggleton. It was most appropriate that he was here and on the floor of the House.

I understand it is the wish of honourable members to signify at this stage their respect and sympathy by rising in their places.

Question agreed to, honourable members standing in their places.

Debate adjourned.