Malcolm Fraser

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The Right Honourable Malcolm Fraser AC CH GCL PC
Official portrait, 1977
22nd Prime Minister of Australia Elections: 1975, 1977, 1980, 1983
In office 11 November 1975 – 11 March 1983
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Governors‑General	Sir John Kerr Sir Zelman Cowen Sir Ninian Stephen
Deputy	Doug Anthony
Preceded by	Gough Whitlam
Succeeded by	Bob Hawke
Leader of the Liberal Party
In office 21 March 1975 – 11 March 1983
Deputy	Phillip Lynch John Howard
Preceded by	Billy Snedden
Succeeded by	Andrew Peacock
Leader of the Opposition
In office 21 March 1975 – 11 November 1975
Prime Minister	Gough Whitlam
Deputy	Phillip Lynch
Preceded by	Billy Snedden
Succeeded by	Gough Whitlam
Minister for Education and Science
In office 20 August 1971 – 5 December 1972
Prime Minister	William McMahon
Preceded by	David Fairbairn
Succeeded by	Gough Whitlam
In office 28 February 1968 – 12 November 1969
Prime Minister	John Gorton
Preceded by	John Gorton
Succeeded by	Nigel Bowen
Minister for Defence
In office 12 November 1969 – 8 March 1971
Prime Minister	John Gorton
Preceded by	Allen Fairhall
Succeeded by	John Gorton
Minister for the Army
In office 26 January 1966 – 28 February 1968
Prime Minister	Harold Holt John McEwen John Gorton
Preceded by	Jim Forbes
Succeeded by	Phillip Lynch
Father of the House
In office 5 January 1982 – 31 March 1983
Preceded by	Sir William McMahon
Succeeded by	Sir James Killen
Member of the Australian Parliament for Wannon
In office 10 December 1955 – 31 March 1983
Preceded by	Don McLeod
Succeeded by	David Hawker
Personal details
Born	John Malcolm Fraser (1930-05-21)21 May 1930 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Died	20 March 2015(2015-03-20) (aged 84) Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Resting place	Melbourne General Cemetery
Political party	Liberal (1952–2009)
Spouse	Tamara Beggs ​ (m. 1956)​
Children	4
Relatives	Simon Fraser Sr. (grandfather) Simon Fraser Jr. (uncle)
Education	Tudor House School Melbourne Grammar School
Alma mater	Magdalen College, Oxford
Occupation	Pastoral farmer
Signature

John Malcolm Fraser (/ˈfreɪzər/; 21 May 1930 – 20 March 2015) was an Australian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Australia from 1975 to 1983. He held office as the leader of the Liberal Party of Australia.

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. After an initial defeat in 1954, he was elected to the Australian House of Representatives at the 1955 federal election, as a member of parliament (MP) for the division of Wannon. He was 25 at the time, making him one of the youngest people ever elected to parliament. He is the latest Prime Minister to date who represented a rural constituency. When Harold Holt became prime minister in 1966, Fraser was appointed Minister for the Army. After Holt's disappearance and replacement by John Gorton, Fraser became Minister for Education and Science (1968–1969) and then Minister for Defence (1969–1971). 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 Liberal-National Coalition was defeated at the 1972 election, Fraser unsuccessfully stood for the Liberal leadership, losing to Billy Snedden. When the party lost the 1974 election, he began to move against Snedden, eventually mounting a successful challenge in March 1975. As Leader of the Opposition, Fraser used the Coalition's control of the Australian Senate to block supply to the Whitlam government, precipitating the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis. This culminated with Gough Whitlam being dismissed as prime minister by the governor-general, Sir John Kerr, a unique occurrence in Australian history. The correctness of Fraser's actions in the crisis and the exact nature of his involvement in Kerr's decision have since been a topic of debate. Fraser remains the only Australian prime minister to ascend to the position upon the dismissal of his predecessor.

After Whitlam's dismissal, Fraser was sworn in as prime minister on an initial caretaker basis. The Coalition won a landslide victory at the 1975 election, and was re-elected in 1977 and 1980. Fraser took a keen interest in foreign affairs as prime minister, and was more active in the international sphere than many of his predecessors. He was a strong supporter of multiculturalism, and during his term in office Australia admitted significant numbers of non-white immigrants (including Vietnamese boat people) for the first time, effectively ending the White Australia policy. His government also established the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS). Particularly in his final years in office, Fraser came into conflict with the "dry" economic rationalist and fiscal conservative faction of his party. His government made few major changes to economic policy.

After losing the 1983 election, Fraser retired from politics. In his post-political career, he held advisory positions with the United Nations (UN) and the Commonwealth of Nations, and was president of the aid agency CARE from 1990 to 1995. He resigned his membership of the Liberal Party in 2009 after the election of Tony Abbott as leader, Fraser having been a critic of the Liberals’ policy direction for a number of years. Evaluations of Fraser's prime ministership have been mixed. He is generally credited with restoring stability to the country after a series of short-term leaders and has been praised for his commitment to multiculturalism and opposition to apartheid in South Africa, but the circumstances of his entry to office remains controversial and many have viewed his government as a lost opportunity for economic reform. His seven and a half-year tenure as prime minister is the fourth longest in Australian history, only surpassed by Bob Hawke, John Howard and Robert Menzies.