Our Man Malcolm Deserves Applause
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday September 4, 1999
MALCOLM Fraser was always a juicy target. Squattocrat of Victoria's Western District, utterer of that deathless phrase "life wasn't meant to be easy", plotting villain of the '75 dismissal, he was regularly lampooned as a haughty grandee. Cartoonists drew him as one of those stone monoliths on Easter Island.
Yet there was more to him. The remote patrician had a broad streak of humanity. As prime minister, his Aboriginal legislation was ahead of its time, far more adventurous than anything his timid Liberal successors would dare attempt. A friend of Nelson Mandela long before it was fashionable, Malcolm drove the odious Mrs Thatcher to impotent fury when he nailed her to the wall over apartheid at a Commonwealth Conference.
He has eschewed the launching of books, the eating of public dinners, the backing of racehorses and the making of money that fills the days of other retired prime ministers. Surprisingly, he is a staunch republican, devoted to charitable good works.
And as chairman of CARE Australia, he was untiring in the struggle to secure the release of Steve Pratt and Peter Wallace from the clutches of Slobodan Milosevic. I never thought I would write this, but loud applause, please, for Malcolm Fraser.
© 1999 Sydney Morning Herald