Malcolm Fraser
Malcolm Fraser served as head of government in Australia, a position he held as a male politician born on 21 May 1930 in Toorak, Victoria, and one that defined the central arc of his public life until his death on 20 March 2015 in Melbourne.
Fraser's education took him from Tudor House at The King's School to Magdalen College, where he received a university-level formation before entering political life. Born into the Melbourne establishment suburb of Toorak, he pursued a career in politics conducted in the English language across decades of Australian public affairs. His trajectory from educated young man to head of government reflected a sustained engagement with the institutions and processes of Australian political life, though the specific contours of that rise are not elaborated here beyond what the record directly supports.
Over the course of his career and in the years that followed his time in government, Fraser accumulated a series of formal recognitions. He received the Companion of Honour and the Companion of the Order of Australia, as well as the Order of the Rising Sun, First Class, an award conferred by Japan. He also received the Human Rights Medal, a distinction that anchors at least part of his later public identity to the domain of human rights. Beyond these honours, he was designated an Australian National Living Treasure and served as a Fellow of the Royal Commonwealth Society, affiliations that placed him within broader civic and Commonwealth networks.
Fraser died in Melbourne on 20 March 2015, having lived to the age of eighty-four. The Human Rights Medal he received stands as one of the more concrete indicators of the concerns that marked his public engagements in the period following his time as head of government, and it remains among the formally documented distinctions attached to his name in the public record.
Quotes by Malcolm Fraser
It is ironic in today's world, but the core values, the protection of the law which we had thought to be universally accepted, has been seriously breached by the war on terrorism.
Socialism is not a way of life. It is an unworkable formula which would apply to robots but not to men and women.
Why turn away from that talent? What is it in today's parties that is virtually saying, 'Well, if you're a George Williams or Garr Barwick, you may not get pre-selection?' I'd like to reverse that.
I wasn't a party apparatchik. I think too many of today's people in both parties come forward, university, 'What party will I join? Oh, yes, I know somebody here. I might get a job working for this member or for that shadow minister or minister.'
If we want a cohesive society, if we want people that are prepared to respect others who are different in our society, I think a number of the race-related issues have been handled in ways which I really abhor.
I didn't like the way Andrew Peacock was not supported in 1984. He'd done well in that election; he deserved to continue. But by the end of '85, he was out.
We could try and establish a world in which the great and the powerful adhere to that international law which they require ordinary mortals to adhere to. In other words, there is one international law, and even America and even Russia and China and Japan must adhere to it, and Australia must adhere to it.
There should be a global commitment to try and get rid of UNHCR refugee camps and long-term people in those camps.
Although our capacities to advance our interests are limited, we should be active and constructive in pursuit of a peaceful and favourable international environment.
Politicians today are not highly regarded... there seem to be people young and old and in the middle saying that they have never heard such wretched debates.