Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to join other colleagues to making some remarks of condolence here this afternoon on the passing of the late Malcolm Fraser, AC, CH, Australia's 22nd Prime Minister. On Friday morning when the news became public of Mr Fraser's passing, the first thing that came into my head was the sound of Malcolm Fraser's voice, which I had always found so very compelling not just through my career in this place but when starting in politics at a much younger age. It was intimidating. It was imposing. His stentorian tones, I think, come to everyone's minds when you say the words 'Malcolm Fraser'. That voice, I think, will be sadly missed.

I think having the opportunity to pay respect and say some words in condolence motions such as this on the passing of Australian prime ministers—and we have had to do it too regularly in recent months—is a very important part of what we do in this parliament. As Prime Minister today, Mr Abbott is only Australia's 28th Prime Minister. We are a young country and we have had very few leaders relatively speaking. But the demands, tasks and burdens which we ask those individuals to carry, no matter which party they represent, are enormous. For operations such as this chamber and the House of Representatives that tend from time to time to get a little carried away with themselves and where there are not always the most edifying performances, one suspects, for those who are minded to observe, the opportunity to be much more edifying and to pay very serious respect to those who have taken on the burden of leadership as our Prime Minister is, in my view, very important. I think the way in which the parliament marks these occasions is something we should not lose.

As a champion for the people of the world and for the rights of the most vulnerable people, Mr Fraser was tireless. From refugees to Aboriginal Australians, in my view he was an irreplaceable part of the broad church that is the Liberal Party of Australia. In later years, of course, he even grew close to his old foe the late Australian Labor Party icon Gough Whitlam. Today I can say with great confidence that the passing of Mr Fraser has touched almost everyone in this place, no matter their political branding.

Serving three terms as Prime Minister, he was of course a central character in one of the most controversial events, if not the most controversial event, in our nation's political history—the Dismissal of Prime Minister Whitlam and his government by the Governor-General Sir John Kerr in 1975. That, if nothing else, marked an important place in Australian history for Mr Fraser, but there was so much—so much—more.

When he came here, aged 25, he was an Oxford graduate and he was a grazier. He won the Victorian seat of Wannon in 1955. He was the youngest member of that parliament. For those of us who were elected to politics in our 20s, I have to say that Mr Fraser's name was regularly invoked as a very good reason for choosing a 20-something political candidate whenever asked, 'How could you possibly imagine you might want to do this at such a young age?' I always thought that arguing the case of a former Prime Minister as my example in point was very powerful. It took me some time to persuade the selectors that that was the case.

He married Tamara, or Tamie, Beggs a year after he became an MP. They forged an extraordinary partnership for our nation and for their family, of course.

Much has been said today in this place and in the other chamber of Mr Fraser's achievements as a minister and as Prime Minister and of the achievements of his government. I want to refer to a couple of specific and particular aspects of his career. He was regularly described as an ambitious backbencher, 'ambitious' of course being a dirty word when it coincides with 'backbencher' in the political sphere sometimes. He served on the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs from the very early sixties, from 1962, in an early indication of his recognition of Australia's importance on the world stage.

But it was not until 1966, some 11 years after he joined the parliament, following Robert Menzies's retirement, that Prime Minister Harold Holt then appointed Mr Fraser Minister for the Army. In 1966, as Minister for the Army, he visited Australia's troops in Vietnam. He also visited Thailand, Laos, Malaysia and the Philippines and made a very strong and real impression as an effective ambassador for Australia. He was later appointed by Mr Gorton, after Prime Minister Holt's death, as Minister for Education and Science. He entered cabinet as the Minister for Defence in 1969. However, he had what you could politely describe as a 'falling-out' with Prime Minister Gorton, and resigned from his portfolio in March 1971. Soon after, of course, as history tells us, Mr Gorton was replaced by Sir William McMahon, and he reappointed Mr Fraser to his previous portfolio of Education and Science.

That was a short-lived period for Mr McMahon as Prime Minister, as Mr Whitlam then swept to power in 1972 with the It's Time campaign. That was the first time that Mr Fraser had been confined to the opposition benches in his parliamentary career. I am sure it was a rude awakening, as it often is when one has to change sides in this building—or in fact in the previous building. But the then opposition leader, Sir Billy Snedden, was quick to utilise Mr Fraser's talent and experience and appointed him shadow minister for industrial relations in 1973. In a process that had become perhaps too familiar for those people close to Mr Fraser, it is fair to say, if I can put it this way, that Mr Fraser and Mr Snedden did not really see eye to eye given that the leadership ambitions of Mr Fraser continued to burn brightly, as he was entitled to do, and that led, when the coalition was defeated in May 1974, to Mr Fraser launching his first leadership challenge against Billy Snedden in November of that year, which was defeated. In March the next year, he was successful in obtaining the leadership of the coalition opposition. I heard Senator Fifield paying tribute to his leadership as opposition leader and his great success in that regard.

1975 became a very turbulent year. The Whitlam government was in great stress and distress, and the Fraser government put significant pressure on the government from the opposition by blocking money bills in the Senate. When the then Prime Minister refused to call an election, we all know that, on Remembrance Day 1975, the government was dismissed. Having been appointed caretaker Prime Minister, Mr Fraser promptly called an election and won in a landslide that December.

I remember well and adverted to the feeling in my own family in my home in December 1975. The excitement at that victory of the Fraser government and the team led by Mr Fraser was very much to the forefront in my family and amongst my parents' friends. The view was that the election of the Fraser government would bring back stability for the nation after the chaos of the final months of the Whitlam government. There were some very special achievements that Mr Fraser brought to bear as Prime Minister in the ensuing years. I want to refer to a few of those.

The Fraser government created the Special Broadcasting Service, SBS, in 1980, really bringing much closer engagement with very diverse parts of our community through the production of radio and television news and programs in multiple languages. And they cemented the concept of multiculturalism through the creation of the Ethnic Affairs Council, whose policies were to promote social cohesion, cultural identity and equality of opportunity. For those of us who know and remember fondly our former colleague the former member for Kooyong, Petro Georgiou, his contribution working closely with Mr Fraser in the establishment and operation of the Ethnic Affairs Council was something that Petro made sure we never forgot.

It is perhaps as Prime Minister that he became best known for instituting Australia's first seriously comprehensive refugee policy, which was developed in response to the influx of the many Vietnamese asylum seekers fleeing their war-torn country. Between 1975 and 1982, about 200,000 refugee immigrants arrived from Asia, 56,000 from Vietnam, in addition to the 2,000 Vietnamese who made the treacherous journey, then by boat, without documentation. He was immensely proud that these and other refugees from Asia were welcomed by Australia with open arms and open hearts.

I was quite young at the beginning of that process; at the beginning of that stream of migration I perhaps did not appreciate the humanitarian importance of what Australia and Malcolm Fraser did in those years. It is quite some time ago, possibly 15 years ago, I remember going to the Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre in Western Sydney, near Liverpool, which on three occasions has staged three separate exhibitions, beginning with Viet Voices in 1997, about the wave of migration. On the first occasion I was there, they had invited Mr Fraser, the former immigration minister, Mr Macphee, and other leaders of that time to attend. There were countless elderly Vietnamese community leaders who adored Malcolm Fraser and who saw Malcolm Fraser as saving not only them but also their families. They loved him, and that love for me translates in the way he changed the face of our country at that time. The face you see when you look at Australia in 2015 was fundamentally changed by Malcolm Fraser to be a diverse, cohesive, open community. Western Sydney itself changed as well—culturally and dynamically. It was a fascinating period, and his contribution to that time will remain with us forever.

Malcolm Fraser was an extraordinarily strong opponent of apartheid. He assisted in forming the 1977 Gleneagles Agreement and insisted that South Africa end apartheid if it wanted, for example, to participate in the Commonwealth Games. He even refused to allow an aeroplane carrying the Springboks rugby team to land in Australia to refuel en route to New Zealand, such was his disapproval of the apartheid regime. This, for me at the time as a year seven student, was an incredibly compelling issue. The fact that it manifested itself in Australia around sporting participation brought it back to Australian people in a way that perhaps it might not otherwise have come to the fore. My respect and regard for his stand on apartheid were immense. For me it turned him into a towering figure on the world stage and it really changed the way South Africans were required to operate. Not everyone in our party—not then and not later—supported his principled stand. It was a matter of some contention even some years later, when, as a very new member of the organisation, I would speak up party fora and endorse and in fact applaud Mr Fraser's position on this issue. In New South Wales I often found that it was not widely held, much to my surprise. How times have changed.

Much closer to home, he worked extraordinarily hard to advance the rights of Aboriginal Australians, pursuing even in those early years constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians and pursuing the provision of land rights, particularly to the Northern Territory. His government finally enacted the Aboriginal land rights act in 1976. The drafting of that legislation had been started by the previous government, and he progressed that as a bipartisan project to the point of fruition. The Fraser government also delivered the Aboriginal Development Commission Act in 1981, providing funding mechanisms for Aboriginal housing and businesses. Those measures, I suspect, he hoped would have delivered far greater returns to Aboriginal Australians than they did, but that conversation has been continuing for a very long time. I am indeed grateful that he began it in the way that he did.

After he was defeated and left the parliament, he continued of course his humanitarian work. He was appointed chair of the UN Panel of Eminent Persons on the Role of Transnational Corporations in South Africa. He continued to be prominent throughout the 1980s in the efforts to end apartheid and served as joint chair of the Commonwealth Group of Eminent Persons against Apartheid in South Africa. As everyone has said, he was indefatigable; having left the party—at what I now regarded as a very young age—he had many years ahead of him in which to continue to play a role in Australian society. I am not the first today—and I will not be the last— to say that he continued to speak his mind on a range of issues and was never afraid of who may take offence in the process. He was a small 'l' liberal right to the end. He was an outspoken critic of the Howard government on many issues, but particularly on those concerning refugees and Aboriginal Australians. Most recently, he lent his stentorian tones—that powerful voice—to the RECOGNISE campaign for constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians. He was also a passionate advocate for Australia becoming a republic—something that is close to my heart as well.

For a couple of years in the late 1980s and early 1990s, I was a member of the federal executive of the Liberal party, and that was the first opportunity I had to come to know Mr Fraser personally and reasonably well. In 1982, when I joined the Liberal party in New South Wales, the very first event I attended under the tutelage of my very good friend Narelle Donoghue, who was the finance director of the New South Wales Young Liberal Movement, was a cocktail party. I am sure that is what it was called in 1982, though I am not sure that we would call it that now. It was a cocktail party at the Masonic Centre in Castlereagh Street in Sydney. Anyone who is familiar with the Masonic Centre will recognise its extraordinarily brutalist architecture did not really fit with the event of the day with the Prime Minister. I am not sure it would be diminishing for me to go into some detail of how I stressed about what I would wear that day, Mr President, but, being not quite 20, it was an extraordinary opportunity for somebody who really wanted to become involved in politics to be in the same room as the Prime Minister of Australia. From the venue of such brutalist architecture, he gave a speech which was so compelling, so powerful and so engaging that those hundreds of people stood there in silence—absolute silence—listening to the Prime Minister speak. Further, during my period on the Federal Executive of the Liberal Party, I gainfully supported his efforts for federal party presidency, with my friend, John Brogden, in particular. Sadly, that was not to be. But I suspect, in truth, it let him spend a great deal more of his time on other causes in the end. But it certainly got me into trouble along the way with a lot of other people who were not supporting Mr Fraser's efforts for the Liberal Party presidency at the time.

His advocacy for media diversity in this country took me one day to the Sydney Convention Centre to see him—I think on the first occasion this happened—share a stage with EG Whitlam to campaign for media diversity in this country. And, having lived through 1975—I think I was a university student when this particular campaign took place—that was indeed a powerful joint message. Mr Fraser never took a backward step when he wanted to make a point. I have referred briefly to the republic referendum campaign. I really welcomed his support and his leadership in that campaign, and I know there were many republicans on this side of the chamber who valued that enormously. To be able to look to your former Prime Minister and receive that support was very important for us in the referendum campaign. Melbourne University law school once—some years ago now—invited me to share a platform with Mr Fraser in their Juris Doctor degree presentations. To go from that naive young Liberal of 1982 to finding myself on a platform–in any context—giving a speech with former Prime Minister Fraser was an extraordinary honour for me.

Mr Fraser went on and made a remarkable contribution to Australia's participation in the development sector, through his establishment of CARE Australia and his leadership of that great organisation. That is another indelible mark that he will leave on this country and on our contribution internationally in the development assistance space.

Just three years ago, in 2012, I went with my partner, Stuart Ayres, the member for Penrith, to hear Malcolm Fraser deliver the Gough Whitlam Oration at the Riverside Theatre in Parramatta. I mention that because there were only two Liberals in the room that day—at least, tagged and identified as such; only two Liberal elected representatives. It was an occasion upon which he shared with the nation and the world his views of the Australia-US alliance. I must admit, sitting in the front row that day I did twitch a little in my seat and think, 'I am not entirely sure Malcolm and I are going to agree on this point'. But his delivery of that oration, only three years ago—its lucidity, its strength, and its direct message on the issues that he found so very important—was a significant contribution in the annals of the Whitlam Institute, and I am very pleased that I attended on that evening. Attached to the Whitlam Institute at the University of Western Sydney are the Margaret Whitlam Galleries, which contain the most fabulous photographs of the first ladies of Australia, as they were known. Mrs Fraser and Mrs Whitlam, amongst others, are depicted in some of the photographs exhibited in that building. It is certainly something that I would encourage all to see if they have a chance to visit the university and the institute.

Whether it was on constitutional change or human rights, his advocacy for multiculturalism, his commitment to the environment, or his forceful stance on asylum-seeker policy, Malcolm Fraser was a true leader. He did differ with our political party in later years but, frankly, I have come to think about that as something that happens from time to time in families: it is not ideal, but it does happen; relationships do not always function as we would hope. The opportunity to pay respect and to make remarks in this condolence debate today is a very important part of acknowledging the quite extraordinary contribution of the man to this nation. We send our condolences to Mrs Fraser, to their children and grandchildren, and we say that the loss of Malcolm Fraser is the loss of a great leader.