JOHN MALCOLM FRASER

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Malcolm Fraser's schoolmates nicknamed him 'Freezer' because they thought him cold and aloof. Later, colleagues called him 'The Prefect' or 'Chairman Mal' because they saw him as dictatorial and unbending. His phrase 'Life wasn't meant to be easy', reflecting his belief in the old-fashioned virtues of duty, honour and obedience, has become part of the Australian language. Spoken by a man from a background of wealth and privilege, it appealed to the ironical Australian sense of humour.

Fraser's background - the Western District of Victoria, where fine colonial homesteads stand amid prosperous pastures - is about the closest that Australia knows to the traditions of the English 'landed gentry' Fraser was the descendant of three generations of pastoral wealth and conservatism when he was born in 1930. He drank in its traditions from his earliest days.

As an only son, he had a privileged childhood and a first-class education, rounded off with graduation from Magdalen College, Oxford. But he was a mediocre scholar and not very popular. Possibly his aloofness was the natural shyness of a youngster from a protected background. When he returned home to the 3267-hectare family property, Nareen, he was a big, handsome young man, rather serious and reserved. He never related easily to other people except in a kind of schoolboy horseplay. Don Chipp, one of his later colleagues, wrote of Fraser that his idea of a joke was to stuff ice-cubes in the pocket of a drinking companion.

Involvement in politics was virtually an obligation for the heir to a Western District property. In 1955 he won the federal seat of Wannon for the Liberals and he soon won the friendly interest of Robert Menzies. The Prime Minister saw Fraser as an emerging leader, with the same qualities of resolution, resourcefulness and refusal to be swayed by unpopularity as Menzies himself possessed.

Marriage to a Western District girl, management of Nareen, bringing up four children and backbench parliamentary duties made up a busy life until 1966, when Holt made Fraser Minister for the Army. The big resolute man presented the ideal image for this appointment in the early years of the Vietnam War. Other minis-terial appointments followed, but Fraser became disenchanted with Gorton's style of 'one-man government' On 10 March 1971 he resigned as Minister for Defence and delivered the passionate condemnation of Gorton which played a part in the latter's downfall.

During 1971-75, Fraser attracted public attention first by his outspoken defence of independent schools as a vital part of the education system and then by two challenges for the Liberal leadership. Billy Snedden defeated him both times, but speculation over the leadership continued until Fraser won the position on 24 March 1975.

He immediately led the party into a fierce attack on Labor, whose sparkling performance under Whitlam had become overshadowed by the 'Loans Affair' and the world recession. There was a battle of the giants in Parliament when the two big men, Fraser and Whitlam, faced each other with equal determination to win.

Fraser's instruction to the Liberal senators to block the 1975 budget in the Senate was an unprecedented political manoeuvre. 'Refusing Supply' denied the government the money it needed to govern. The move was aimed at forcing Whitlam to dissolve the Parliament and it eventually triggered his dismissal.

On 13 December 1975, the electorate gave the Fraser government an over-whelming majority and started him on the longest period in office of any Prime Minister apart from Menzies. For the next seven years and four months he governed according to his beliefs in firm leadership, spending restraints, aggressive handling of trade unionism, encouragement of private enterprise and anticommunism in foreign affairs. But he was sensitive to public reactions and able to compromise quickly. Fraser introduced reforms such as direct payment of family allowances to mothers, an increased federal role in Aboriginal affairs and a number of initiatives in the areas of human rights, civil liberties and the environment.

In 1975, Fraser's authoritarian image seemed reassuring to an electorate bewildered by Labor disarray. The economy improved during the first years of his regime and his policies seemed to be working. But the 1980s brought severe recession and voters began to question the ability of a man whom they did not really like. As Robert Hawke said of him, "He won the votes of the Australian electorate but not their hearts' " By 1983 they were looking for an alternative and found it in Hawke, who was something of a folk hero. After the March elections, the stiff Fraser upper lip quivered when he acknowledged crushing defeat for the coalition.

He resigned as Parliamentary leader of the Liberals and soon retired from Parliament. Since then, he has served with distinction as co-chairman of the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group on Southern Africa.

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