John Malcolm Fraser

Background

Malcolm Fraser was born in Victoria, Australia, on May 21, 1930, to a family of large landowners, the class at the heart of conservative politics in the country.

Fraser's father, John Neville Fraser, had been educated at the University of Melbourne, and was a pastoralist at Moulamein in the western Riverina region of New South Wales, and later at a property called "Nareen Station" in Nareen, near Hamilton in the Western District of Victoria. Fraser's mother, Una Woolf, was of Jewish descent on her own father's side, which Fraser did not discover until he was an adult.

Education

Fraser was educated at Melbourne Grammar School and at Oxford University.

Career

From the start of his career, Fraser was identified with the conservative wing of the Liberal Party of Australia. In 1955 he was elected to the House of Representatives. He first held government office between 1966 and 1968, as army minister.

From 1968 to 1969 Fraser was minister for education. He was defense minister from 1969 to 1971, when he resigned after an argument with the Liberal prime minister, John Gorton. After Gorton's Liberal Party-National Country Party coalition was defeated in the 1972 election, Fraser joined the shadow cabinet. He was elected leader of the Liberal Party in 1975.

In November 1975 Sir John Kerr, Australia's governor general, dismissed Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and invited Fraser to form a government. Fraser won the ensuing election of December 1975 by a landslide. But since Whitlam at the time of his dismissal had a majority of the House of Representatives, the episode was controversial.

Fraser's Liberal Party-National Country Party coalition won substantial majorities in the elections of 1977 and 1980. In early 1983, however, it was defeated by the Australian Labor Party, led by Robert Hawke, mainly because of voter disapproval of Australia's high inflation, unemployment, and interest rates. Soon after the election Fraser resigned as Liberal Party leader and from parliament.

Achievements

• Fraser "became an outstanding figure in the advancement of human rights issues in all respects", was "extraordinarily generous and welcoming to refugees from Indochina" and had "moved so far to the left he was almost out of sight".

Works

More photos

• book

  • Malcolm Fraser: The Political Memoirs

    ( Part memoir and part authorized biography, this account...)

  • Dangerous Allies

    ( Australia has always been reliant on “great and powerfu...)

Politics

As prime minister, Fraser sought to cut the rate of inflation, mainly by slashing government expenditure, but ultimately had little success. He also attempted to reduce the number of strikes. These conservative policies were predictable, but his foreign policy was a surprise. During the Vietnam War, Fraser had consistently advocated Australian military participation on the American side and had frequently denounced the Communist Chinese government. Yet as prime minister he promoted closer relations between Australia and China, in part to build an alliance to counter what he considered the expansionist tendencies of the Soviet Union.

Connections

He was survived by his wife Tamara "Tamie" Beggs, whom he had married in 1956, and their four children, Mark, Angela, Hugh and Phoebe.

Father:

John Neville Fraser

Mother:

Una Woolf

Wife:

Tamie Fraser