Andrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to have this opportunity to speak on the condolence motion for the Rt Hon. Malcolm Fraser, former Prime Minister of Australia.

I want to begin with something which Paul Kelly wrote about Malcolm Fraser in 1984 in his book The Hawke Ascendancy, which does chronicle those years: 'In 1977, Malcolm Fraser reached the zenith of his power in a career which would establish him as Australia's second-longest-serving Prime Minister to Sir Robert Menzies. He would soon lay claim to being the best Prime Minister produced by the Liberal Party, even including its founding father. His record as a power politician is rivalled in Australian history only by Billy Hughes and Menzies. Fraser's assets were an iron resolution, immense physical stamina, dominance of his party, extensive political management skills and his economic policy, despite the celebrated deviations from it.

The 1977 election had reaffirmed Fraser's control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate originally won in 1975. This meant he bestrode the nation, dominant in parliament, the cabinet and the Liberal Party in a manner so comprehensive that it is not likely to recur for many years.'

I read this book over 20 years ago and that portrait has always stuck with me—the fact that he was such a dominant figure in his time. I think in the years that have passed there have been so many different shades of Malcolm Fraser that people have seen that they have forgotten how dominant he was as Prime Minister in the parliament and in the Liberal Party.

I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to speak with Dr Jim Forbes last month. Of all the parliamentarians that served with Malcolm Fraser, Jim Forbes and his wife, Margie, probably knew Malcolm the longest. They had known each other at Oxford, before Malcolm Fraser became a Prime Minister. They had known him in his early 20s.

Jim told me a story which is in the biography by Philip Ayers. Jim is one of the last surviving ministers from the Menzies government. But when Menzies stepped down and Harold Holt became Prime Minister, Harold Holt called in all of the ministers and asked them what they would want to do. Jim had been the Minister for the Army. He enjoyed being Minister for the Army but he felt as a professional politician that it was time to seek new challenges. So Harold Holt asked him, 'Who do you think should do it?' Jim said, 'What about Malcolm Fraser? He's shown an interest in this and he is chair of the backbench committee.' And Harold Holt said, 'Well, he's not an ex-serviceman.' Jim's response was, 'Look, it's now 20 years after the end of the Second World War. We do have to start bringing on people who didn't serve during the Second World War.' As a result of that conversation, Malcolm Fraser became the Minister for the Army and later Minister for Defence.

He became Prime Minister when I was in year 3—I was eight—and when he lost the election I was 15, so my immediate interests and priorities were not necessarily politics. I was very much focused on other things. I can still remember the evening when he came on to introduce Countdown. Like most schoolkids at that time, we were waiting for it and suddenly Malcolm Fraser came on and said, 'And now for something completely different: welcome to Countdown.' I remember the subject in the schoolyard and then in the classroom the next day was how disappointed we had all been that the Prime Minister was there. But then we were relieved that it was just that he was only introducing Countdown!

I was just starting to become interested in politics towards the end of the time he was in government. I can remember the Commonwealth Games in Brisbane, where we won all of those gold medals in swimming. Malcolm Fraser seemed to have the knack of turning up when Australia was going to sweep the freestyle or whatever. I think it is probably something that John Howard learnt from at the Sydney Olympics, because I remember him being ever present while Australia was doing well.

I can remember seeing it on TV, that night when he had to concede defeat in the 1983 election—the tear rolling down his cheek when he was at the Southern Cross Hotel in Melbourne. I have vague memories of elections at that time. We lived in what was then the seat of Kingston—a large part of that is now the western part of my electorate. In 1980 it was won by 120 votes; it was the second-most-marginal seat in Australia at that time and was held by Grant Chapman. We were very conscious that we lived in a marginal area. We were in an area where in the subsequent election Gordon Bilney ran against Grant Chapman and won that seat in 1983.

In 1979 I had the opportunity to come to Canberra on a school trip, as so many do. We were shown around by Ian Wilson, who was then the member for Sturt. He spent some time giving us copies of Hansard and telling us how the building worked—we were then in Old Parliament House. I think we passed him—Mr Fraser. We did not meet with him then.

There are some other things that are memories of mine. Since Mr Fraser died I have also spoken with John Bolt, who has been a mentor of mine and who rowed for Australia in the Olympics. He had a different view of Malcolm Fraser as Prime Minister, because John was part of the Australian Olympic team preparing to go to Moscow and very nearly did not go. It was a very narrow vote which allowed Australian sports to make the decision to go to Moscow. That kind of sporting boycott is something that I hope we do not see again, where sports men and women, who suspend their careers and spend years of their lives training, do not end up going to the Olympics due to a political decision.

I have spoken to many people who were part of the Fraser government. During the Fraser government we saw the rise of an organised modest members' society. The issues they were considering were things like the duopoly in domestic airlines. But there was the start of a movement to see microeconomic reform and taxation reform, and I think that group did not feel that Malcolm Fraser was really their champion. I got to know John Hyde very well during my time as a member of parliament, and I think he and Malcolm Fraser had a very testy relationship during that time. John Hyde had a very clear idea of what sorts of economic reforms he would like see.

Malcolm was very dominant in the cabinet. One of the early decisions the Fraser cabinet made, in March 1976, was to proceed with the ban of cigarette and tobacco advertising on TV and on radio. One of the stories I have read about that decision—I could not immediately source it—was that they had a debate and the health minister proposed that they continue with the ban while the Minister for Posts and Communications put up an argument that they should seek further information and not continue with the ban. I read once that the vote was eight to six in favour of not continuing with the ban and then Malcolm Fraser said, 'Well, that's very clear; we will continue.' So, on a vote, the cabinet decision was clear but, as chair of cabinet, ultimately, Prime Ministers have to make their own judgement. I think his judgement on that occasion was right. It has been a very important reform and one of the reasons we have such low smoking rates now.

I admired his work with the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group and the role he played in criticising the apartheid regime in South Africa. When I worked in South Africa in 1989 and 1990, I found that many South Africans were aware of Australia's position on apartheid and many of them were aware of Malcolm Fraser's work on that. One of his legacies, which I am sure he would not be so proud of, was the role he had with Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe should have been a great country, and it is tragic to see what Mugabe has done in that country.

One of Malcom Fraser's courageous decisions was to allow more than 200,000 Vietnamese to settle in Australia. He saw, correctly, that Australia had a moral obligation to the Vietnamese with whom we had fought side-by-side in the Vietnam War. Malcolm Fraser had a Senate majority from 1975 to 1 July 1981. Since the reform of the Senate electoral system to a proportional representation system in 1949 it has been a very rare event for a government to have a Senate majority. After it ended in 1981, the next time a government had a Senate majority was during the Howard government from 2005. So it is a rare thing.

Another thing I would like to mention is the relationship between Malcolm Fraser and John Howard. In my lifetime, they have been the two dominant figures in the Liberal Party. I remember well during the 1996 election that Malcolm Fraser wrote an opinion piece which was a very strong endorsement of John Howard. It explained why Malcolm had promoted John Howard over more senior colleagues to be Treasurer in 1977. I keep going back to that and thinking how the Liberal Party and Malcolm Fraser underwent an estrangement. It is not all that long ago that, while Malcolm Fraser did not necessarily agree with everything the Liberal Party did, he was prepared to put his name to endorsing John Howard in 1996.

I had the opportunity to hear Mr Fraser speak at a Young Liberal Movement dinner in Adelaide in July 1993. It was just after the 1993 election. He was a fascinating speaker with clarity of thought. He was not a fan of Fightback!—which will not surprise anyone—but even 10 years after being Prime Minister he closely followed issues like Mabo, and his dissection of our campaign was very good.

In closing, one of the really beautiful moments at his funeral was when his granddaughter spoke about how he had adopted the iPad and how he had adopted social media and Twitter. It is almost incongruous that someone we remember so well from the seventies and eighties was so up to date with modern technology, but perhaps we should not be surprised.

Paul Kelly described how Malcolm Fraser operated as Prime Minister:

He devoured paper at work, at The Lodge, at Nareen, in cars and planes, at home and abroad … He processed information, recycled it, recalled it; the telephone was his companion in calm, conundrums and catastrophes.

But technology was only an enabler. He still was the same Malcolm Fraser. He made a real impact on this country. One of the regrets, I think, is that many of the reforms which Labor underwent in 1983 and 1984 could have been undertaken by the Liberal Party earlier—they were not, for reasons that have been well canvassed. It is appropriate that we honour his service and his contribution to the nation.

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