Malcolm Fraser: The Political Memoirs

Malcolm Fraser is usually remembered for two things:

  1. His role in the Dismissal of Gough Whitlam in 1975
  2. His conservative, stiff and somewhat unfriendly persona

Malcom Fraser: The Political Memoirs is a biography and set of memoirs by Margaret Simons, who's written many books about Australia's political figures, including Penny Wong and Tanya Plibersek.

The Dismissal

During interviews for the book, Fraser is reluctant to go over the events leading up to the Dismissal, since "it's been written about extensively already".

The book makes Fraser's case for his reasoning behind the Dismissal (the Loans Affair, economic mismanagement, the inability to pass its budget, and his sense that it would take too long to "set the country straight again" if he didn't act).

He admits during the discussion that he had acted "opportunistically" when Joe Bjelke-Peterson replaced a Labor senator with one from the coalition, thus making it possible for them to block supply. Fraser also said he felt Sir John Kerr should have warned Whitlam about the very real possibility of dismissal.

The persona - conservative?

Fraser rails against the view that he was a "conservative". In fact, he saw himself as coming from the same mould as Menzies, which was to look forward and to be progressive.

Many examples are given in the book to suppport this view.

  1. Fraser's willingness to accept Vietnamese boat people, even though there was a lot of push back from his own party and in the general population
  2. His condemnation of South Africa's apartheid regime, which almost tore the Commonwealth apart. He refused to let the aircraft carrying the South African Springboks rugby team to refuel in Australia.
  3. Establishing SBS as a commitment to a multicultural Australia (quite remarkable, given the White Australia Policy had only been officially abandoned by Whitlam just years earlier)
  4. He opposed white minority rule in Rhodesia.
  5. He supported the boycottof the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow after the USSR invadeed Afghanistan
  6. He legislated to give indigenous Australian land rights in the Northern Territory
  7. He enthusiastically supported the South in any "North-South" dialogue, believing the best way for the poorer countries to develop was for the richer countries to remove trade barriers
  8. He helped to establish the Australian arm of the international aid group CARE (Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere) and ensured it actually achieved the intended aid outcomes
  9. He established institutions that ensured transparency and accountability (Human Rights Commission, Administrative Appeals Tribunal, the Onbudsman and the Freedom of Information Act)
  10. He was critical of John Howard's foreign policy (especially supporting Bush's War on Terror) and migration policies (regarding asylum-seekers)
  11. He criticised the reduction of human rights across the Western world as a result of the "War on Terror", allowing people to be detained without trial indefinitely
  12. He supported Kevin Rudd's Apology to the Stolen People
  13. He campaigned in support of an Australian republic
  14. He quit the Liberal Party after Tony Abbott rolled Malcolm Turnbull in 2009, stating the Party was "no longer a liberal party but a conservative party"

Fraser died in 2015, and the book was updated as a "Commemorative Edition". Since then, of course, we've seen the release of the Palace Letters which has given us new insights into why Kerr supported sacking Whitlam, and why he was so secretive in the lead up to that event.

In government, his "economic conservative" title was well-derserved, and his "Razor gang" spending cuts were feared (and suffered) by many. But throughout this, he still believed that there was an important role in government for helping the less well off.

While Fraser's role in the Dismissal is something many Australians can't forgive, his actions in government and since show a man who was deeply concerned with social fairness, human rights and a functioning multi-cultural Australia.

malcolm fraser political memoirs

Posted by Murray. Last modified: 06 May 2026.

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