Current Issue #488

Vale Malcolm Fraser

Vale Malcolm Fraser

Former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser died overnight. He was 84.


Former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser died overnight. He was 84. Fraser’s office confirmed the news in a statement released early this morning. “It is with deep sadness that we inform you that after a brief illness John Malcolm Fraser died peacefully in the early hours of the morning of 20 March 2015,” the statement read. “We appreciate that this will be a shock to all who knew and loved him, but ask that the family be left in peace at this difficult time.” Born in 1930, Fraser entered Parliament in 1955 to become the youngest Member of Parliament at the age of 25. Promoted to Cabinet by Harold Holt in 1966, Fraser eventually assumed the leadership of the Liberal Party in March 1975. By the year’s end, Fraser became Australia’s 22nd Prime Minister – after the dismissal of Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam – first as caretaker and then in his own right after a landslide victory in the 1975 Federal Election. While many of Fraser’s actions and legacies remained controversial following his retirement from politics after losing government to Bob Hawke in 1983, in later years he re-emerged as a vocal critic of the party he once led to government. After leaving politics, Fraser became a prominent human rights campaigner, clashing with the Howard Government over Australia’s treatment of Asylum Seekers. Fraser formally renounced his Liberal Party membership in 2009 following Tony Abbott’s elevation to the leadership. Fraser is survived by his wife Tamara and four children. Image: Malcom Fraser at Parliament House in 2008. Source: Wikipedia

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