Malcolm Fraser dead at 84: Former P(rime) M(inister) (of Australia) passes away

“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,” Mr Fraser’s office said in a statement this morning.

“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.”

Malcolm Fraser was the leader of Australia's largest conservative party (the Liberal Party of Australia) from March 1975 until March 1983. His greatest moment came in the second half of 1975 when he successfully engineered (through entirely constitutional means) the removal from office of the Labor Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, and the most socialist government in Australian history, when Whitlam reeling from some of the worst scandals in Australian political history did everything he could to stay in office even if it was unlawful (in fairness to Whitlam, while he was willing to break the law, he did not try to circumvent the constitution itself, accepting his dismissal when it came).

Unfortunately, after that moment of greatness, Fraser proved to not really be all that conservative in office. It was better than having a Labor government, but it certainly wasn't true conservatism. His longest lasting legacy beside his actions in the dismissal of 1975 might have been his role in bringing along the career of his young Treasurer, John Howard, who in 1996 would come to lead one of the best conservative governments Australia ever had.

In his later life, since leaving office, Fraser shifted markedly to the left and most of his recent political activity seems to have involved attacking and undermining the party he once lead. He resigned his life membership of the party in 2009, just after our current Prime Minister, Tony Abbott became leader of the party - and if he hadn't had life membership and been afforded special respect and courtesy as a former leader and former Prime Minister, he might well have been expelled from the party before that.

There was good and bad in the man. I won't deny the bad. But today I want to remember the good. The man who brought down Whitlam by using the Constitution to do it.

He didn’t. It began being dismantled from 1949 and the process was completed by 1975, before Fraser took office. It was mostly done by the Menzies and Holt governments, with the Whitlam government dealing with the final traces of it.

Was it wise?

I think so, yes. The White Australia Policy was genuinely racist in both intent and effect. Stronger immigration controls based on other factors besides race may well be a good idea, but that one was not a good one.

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