His paternal grandfather, Sir Simon Fraser, was born in Nova Scotia, Canada, and arrived in Australia in 1853.
Simon Fraser served in both houses of the colonial Parliament of Victoria, and represented Victoria at several of the constitutional conventions of the 1890s.
He eventually become one of the inaugural members of the new federal Senate, serving from 1901 to 1913 as a member of the early conservative parties.
Louis Woolf also ran for the Senate in 1901, standing as a Free Trader in Western Australia.
He eventually become one of the inaugural members of the new federal Senate, serving from 1901 to 1913 as a member of the early conservative parties.
He was the second of two children born to Una Arnold (née Woolf) and John Neville Fraser; his older sister Lorraine had been born in 1928.
John Malcolm Fraser (; 21 May 1930 – 20 March 2015) was an Australian politician who served as the 22nd Prime Minister of Australia, in office from 1975 to 1983 as leader of the Liberal Party. Fraser was raised on his father's sheep stations, and after studying at Magdalen College, Oxford, returned to Australia to take over the family property in the Western District of Victoria.
Only three Australian prime ministers have served longer terms in office – Robert Menzies, John Howard and Bob Hawke. ==Early life== ===Birth and family background=== John Malcolm Fraser was born in Toorak, Melbourne, Victoria, on 21 May 1930.
He attended Tudor House from 1940 to 1943, and then completed his secondary education at Melbourne Grammar School from 1944 to 1948 where he was a member of Rusden House.
He attended Tudor House from 1940 to 1943, and then completed his secondary education at Melbourne Grammar School from 1944 to 1948 where he was a member of Rusden House.
In 1943, Fraser's father sold Balpool-Nyang – which had been prone to drought – and bought Nareen, in the Western District of Victoria.
He attended Tudor House from 1940 to 1943, and then completed his secondary education at Melbourne Grammar School from 1944 to 1948 where he was a member of Rusden House.
Lopez, Mark (2000),The Origins of Multiculturalism in Australian Politics 1945–1975, Melbourne University Press, Carlton South, Victoria.
He attended Tudor House from 1940 to 1943, and then completed his secondary education at Melbourne Grammar School from 1944 to 1948 where he was a member of Rusden House.
He was devastated by the sale of his childhood home, and regarded the day he found out about it as the worst of his life. ===University=== In 1949, Fraser moved to England to study at Magdalen College, Oxford, which his father had also attended.
The previous Liberal member, Dan Mackinnon, had been defeated in 1951 and moved to a different electorate.
He read Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE), graduating in 1952 with third-class honours.
In November 1953, aged 23, Fraser unexpectedly won Liberal preselection for the Division of Wannon, which covered most of Victoria's Western District.
After an initial defeat in 1954, he was elected to the House of Representatives at the 1955 federal election, standing in the Division of Wannon.
In January 1954, he made the first of a series of weekly radio broadcasts on 3HA Hamilton and 3YB Warrnambool, titled One Australia.
It continued more or less uninterrupted until his retirement from politics in 1983, and helped him build a substantial personal following in his electorate. At the 1954 election, Fraser lost to the sitting Labor member Don McLeod by just 17 votes (out of over 37,000 cast).
After an initial defeat in 1954, he was elected to the House of Representatives at the 1955 federal election, standing in the Division of Wannon.
However, he reprised his candidacy at the early 1955 election after a redistribution made Wannon notionally Liberal.
These factors, combined with the 1955 Labor Party split, allowed Fraser to win a landslide victory. ==Backbencher== Fraser took his seat in parliament at the age of 25 – the youngest sitting MP by four years, and the first who had been too young to serve in World War II.
His ashes are interred within the Prime Ministers Garden of Melbourne General Cemetery. ==Personal life== ===Marriage and children=== On 9 December 1956, Fraser married Tamara "Tamie" Beggs, who was almost six years his junior.
He was re-elected at the 1958 election despite being restricted in his campaigning by a bout of hepatitis.
In 1964, he and Gough Whitlam were both awarded Leader Grants by the United States Department of State, allowing them to spend two months in Washington, D.C., getting to know American political and military leaders.
Early in 1965, he also made a private seven-day visit to Jakarta, and with assistance from Ambassador Mick Shann secured meetings with various high-ranking officials. ==Cabinet Minister and Gorton downfall== After more than a decade on the backbench, Fraser was appointed to the Cabinet by the prime minister, Harold Holt, in 1966.
When Harold Holt became prime minister in 1966, Fraser was appointed Minister for the Army.
Early in 1965, he also made a private seven-day visit to Jakarta, and with assistance from Ambassador Mick Shann secured meetings with various high-ranking officials. ==Cabinet Minister and Gorton downfall== After more than a decade on the backbench, Fraser was appointed to the Cabinet by the prime minister, Harold Holt, in 1966.
In 1971, Fraser resigned from cabinet and denounced Gorton as "unfit to hold the great office of prime minister"; this precipitated the replacement of Gorton with William McMahon.
He subsequently returned to his old education and science portfolio. After the Coalition was defeated at the 1972 election, Fraser unsuccessfully stood for the Liberal leadership, losing to Billy Snedden.
When the Liberals were defeated at the 1972 election by the Labor Party under Gough Whitlam, McMahon resigned and Fraser became Shadow Minister for Labour under Billy Snedden. ==Opposition (1972–1975)== After the Coalition lost the 1972 election, Fraser was one of five candidates for the Liberal leadership that had been vacated by McMahon.
In an August 1973 reshuffle, Snedden instead made him the Liberals' spokesman for industrial relations.
The government's economic record was marred by rising double-digit unemployment and double-digit inflation, creating "stagflation", caused in part by the ongoing effects of the 1973 oil crisis. Fraser was particularly active in foreign policy as prime minister.
When the party lost the 1974 election, he began to move against Snedden, eventually mounting a successful challenge in March 1975.
Fraser oversaw the development of the party's new industrial relations policy, which was released in April 1974.
According to Fraser's biographer Philip Ayres, by "putting a new policy in place, he managed to modify his public image and emerge as an excellent communicator across a traditionally hostile divide". ===Leader of the Opposition=== After the Liberals lost the 1974 election, Fraser unsuccessfully challenged Snedden for the leadership in November.
John Malcolm Fraser (; 21 May 1930 – 20 March 2015) was an Australian politician who served as the 22nd Prime Minister of Australia, in office from 1975 to 1983 as leader of the Liberal Party. Fraser was raised on his father's sheep stations, and after studying at Magdalen College, Oxford, returned to Australia to take over the family property in the Western District of Victoria.
When the party lost the 1974 election, he began to move against Snedden, eventually mounting a successful challenge in March 1975.
The Coalition won a landslide victory at the 1975 election, and was re-elected in 1977 and 1980.
Fraser again challenged Snedden on 21 March 1975, this time succeeding and becoming Leader of the Liberal Party and Leader of the Opposition. ===Role in the Dismissal=== Following a series of ministerial scandals engulfing the Whitlam Government later that year, Fraser began to instruct Coalition senators to delay the government's budget bills, with the objective of forcing an early election that he believed he would win.
Similar devices were sent to the governor-general and the Premier of Queensland, Joh Bjelke-Petersen. ==Prime Minister (1975–1983)== At the 1975 election, Fraser led the Liberal-Country Party Coalition to a landslide victory.
During his political career, he occasionally self-described as Christian, such as in a 1975 interview with The Catholic Weekly.
The Coalition won a landslide victory at the 1975 election, and was re-elected in 1977 and 1980.
Fraser subsequently led the Coalition to a second victory in 1977, with only a very small decrease in their vote.
However, an earlier tour by the South African ski boat angling team was allowed to pass through Australia on the way to New Zealand in 1977 and the transit records were suppressed by Cabinet order. Fraser also strongly opposed white minority rule in Rhodesia.
However, although he persuaded some sporting bodies not to compete, Fraser did not try to prevent the Australian Olympic Committee sending a team to the Moscow Games. Fraser also surprised his critics over immigration policy; according to 1977 Cabinet documents, the Fraser Government adopted a formal policy for "a humanitarian commitment to admit refugees for resettlement".
We're doing this just for show, aren't we?" The claims were made by Fraser in an interview to mark the release of the 1977 cabinet papers.
During the 1979 Commonwealth Conference, Fraser, together with his Nigerian counterpart, convinced the newly elected British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, to withhold recognition of the internal settlement Zimbabwe Rhodesia government; Thatcher had earlier promised to recognise it.
The Coalition won a landslide victory at the 1975 election, and was re-elected in 1977 and 1980.
Subsequently, the Lancaster House Agreement was signed and Robert Mugabe was elected leader of an independent Zimbabwe at the inaugural 1980 election.
Fraser was also a strong supporter of the United States and supported the boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.
Fraser also legislated to give Indigenous Australians control of their traditional lands in the Northern Territory, but resisted imposing land rights laws on conservative state governments. At the 1980 election, Fraser saw his majority more than halved, from 48 seats to 21.
However, the economy was hit by the early 1980s recession, and a protracted scandal over tax-avoidance schemes run by some high-profile Liberals also began to hurt the Government. In April 1981, the Minister for Industrial Relations, Andrew Peacock, resigned from the Cabinet, accusing Fraser of "constant interference in his portfolio".
Peacock subsequently challenged Fraser for the leadership; although Fraser defeated Peacock, these events left him politically weakened. By early 1982, the popular former ACTU President, Bob Hawke, who had entered Parliament in 1980, was polling well ahead of both Fraser and the Labor Leader, Bill Hayden, on the question of who voters would rather see as prime minister.
He supported the Commonwealth in campaigning to abolish apartheid in South Africa and refused permission for the aircraft carrying the Springbok rugby team to refuel on Australian territory en route to their controversial 1981 tour of New Zealand.
However, the economy was hit by the early 1980s recession, and a protracted scandal over tax-avoidance schemes run by some high-profile Liberals also began to hurt the Government. In April 1981, the Minister for Industrial Relations, Andrew Peacock, resigned from the Cabinet, accusing Fraser of "constant interference in his portfolio".
Peacock subsequently challenged Fraser for the leadership; although Fraser defeated Peacock, these events left him politically weakened. By early 1982, the popular former ACTU President, Bob Hawke, who had entered Parliament in 1980, was polling well ahead of both Fraser and the Labor Leader, Bill Hayden, on the question of who voters would rather see as prime minister.
Fraser was well aware of the infighting this caused between Hayden and Hawke and had planned to call a snap election in autumn 1982, preventing the Labor Party changing leaders.
Shortly after recovering from his injury, the Liberal Party narrowly won a by-election in the marginal seat of Flinders in December 1982.
John Malcolm Fraser (; 21 May 1930 – 20 March 2015) was an Australian politician who served as the 22nd Prime Minister of Australia, in office from 1975 to 1983 as leader of the Liberal Party. Fraser was raised on his father's sheep stations, and after studying at Magdalen College, Oxford, returned to Australia to take over the family property in the Western District of Victoria.
His government made few major changes to economic policy. Fraser and the Coalition lost power at the 1983 election, and he left politics a short time later.
It continued more or less uninterrupted until his retirement from politics in 1983, and helped him build a substantial personal following in his electorate. At the 1954 election, Fraser lost to the sitting Labor member Don McLeod by just 17 votes (out of over 37,000 cast).
He knew that if the writs were issued soon enough, Labor would essentially be frozen into going into the subsequent election with Hayden as leader. On 3 February 1983, Fraser arranged to visit the Governor-General of Australia, Ninian Stephen, intending to ask for a surprise election.
Fraser immediately announced his resignation as Liberal leader and formally resigned as prime minister on 11 March 1983; he retired from Parliament two months later.
She advised him on most of the important decisions in his career, and in retirement he observed that "if she had been prime minister in 1983, we would have won". ===Views on religion=== Fraser attended Anglican schools, although his parents were Presbyterian.
He was a distinguished international fellow at the American Enterprise Institute from 1984 to 1986.
To date, he is the last non-interim prime minister from a rural seat. ==Retirement== In retirement Fraser served as Chairman of the UN Panel of Eminent Persons on the Role of Transnational Corporations in South Africa 1985, as Co-Chairman of the Commonwealth Group of Eminent Persons on South Africa in 1985–86 (appointed by Prime Minister Hawke), and as Chairman of the UN Secretary-General's Expert Group on African Commodity Issues in 1989–90.
He was a distinguished international fellow at the American Enterprise Institute from 1984 to 1986.
To date, he is the last non-interim prime minister from a rural seat. ==Retirement== In retirement Fraser served as Chairman of the UN Panel of Eminent Persons on the Role of Transnational Corporations in South Africa 1985, as Co-Chairman of the Commonwealth Group of Eminent Persons on South Africa in 1985–86 (appointed by Prime Minister Hawke), and as Chairman of the UN Secretary-General's Expert Group on African Commodity Issues in 1989–90.
In retirement, he held advisory positions with the UN and the Commonwealth of Nations, and was president of the aid agency CARE from 1990 to 1995.
The network was delayed for many years and did not come to fruition until the 1990s.
Fraser helped to establish the foreign aid group CARE organisation in Australia and became the agency's international president in 1991, and worked with a number of other charitable organisations.
In retirement, he held advisory positions with the UN and the Commonwealth of Nations, and was president of the aid agency CARE from 1990 to 1995.
He opposed Howard's policy on asylum-seekers, campaigned in support of an Australian Republic and attacked what he perceived as a lack of integrity in Australian politics, together with former Labor prime minister Gough Whitlam, finding much common ground with his predecessor and his successor Bob Hawke, another republican. The 2001 election continued his estrangement from the Liberal Party.
Gorton never forgave Fraser for the role he played in his downfall; to the day Gorton died in 2002, he could not bear to be in the same room with Fraser. McMahon immediately reappointed Fraser to the Cabinet, returning him to his old position of Minister for Education and Science.
In early 2004, a Young Liberal convention in Hobart called for Fraser's life membership of the Liberal Party to be ended. In 2006, Fraser criticised Howard Liberal government policies on areas such as refugees, terrorism and civil liberties, and that "if Australia continues to follow United States policies, it runs the risk of being embroiled in the conflict in Iraq for decades, and a fear of Islam in the Australian community will take years to eradicate".
In early 2004, a Young Liberal convention in Hobart called for Fraser's life membership of the Liberal Party to be ended. In 2006, Fraser criticised Howard Liberal government policies on areas such as refugees, terrorism and civil liberties, and that "if Australia continues to follow United States policies, it runs the risk of being embroiled in the conflict in Iraq for decades, and a fear of Islam in the Australian community will take years to eradicate".
Fraser claimed that the way the Howard government handled the David Hicks, Cornelia Rau and Vivian Solon cases was questionable. On 20 July 2007, Fraser sent an open letter to members of the large activist group GetUp!, encouraging members to support GetUp's campaign for a change in policy on Iraq including a clearly defined exit strategy.
He resigned his membership of the Liberal Party in 2009, having been a critic of its policy direction for a number of years.
In a 2010 interview with her, he said: "I would probably like to be less logical and, you know, really able to believe there is a god, whether it is Allah, or the Christian god, or some other – but I think I studied too much philosophy ...
John Malcolm Fraser (; 21 May 1930 – 20 March 2015) was an Australian politician who served as the 22nd Prime Minister of Australia, in office from 1975 to 1983 as leader of the Liberal Party. Fraser was raised on his father's sheep stations, and after studying at Magdalen College, Oxford, returned to Australia to take over the family property in the Western District of Victoria.
In the book and in talks promoting it, he criticised the concept of American exceptionalism and US foreign policy. === Death === Fraser died on 20 March 2015 at the age of 84, after a brief illness.
Fraser's death came five months after that of his predecessor and political rival Gough Whitlam. Fraser was given a state funeral at Scots' Church in Melbourne on 27 March 2015.
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