Malcolm Fraser

:This article is about the former Prime Minister of Australia; for the Western Australian public servant, see Malcolm Fraser (surveyor).

Elder statesman

In retirement Fraser served with distinction as Chairman of the United Nations Panel of Eminent Persons on the Role of Transnational Corporations in South Africa 1985, as Co-Chairman of the Commonwealth Group of Eminent Persons on South Africa in 1985-86, and as Chairman of the UN Secretary-General's Expert Group on African Commodity Issues in 1989-90. Fraser became president of the foreign aid group Care International in 1991, and worked with a number of other charitable organisations.

Related Topics:
United Nations - 1985 - 86 - 1989 - 90 - 1991

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In 1986, while Fraser was visiting Memphis, Tennessee, his hotel room was burgled, with Fraser losing his luggage, money, passport and clothes. This episode passed into Australian mythology as the "Memphis trousers" incident.

Related Topics:
1986 - Memphis, Tennessee

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After 1996 Fraser was critical of the Howard Liberal government over foreign policy issues (particularly support for the foreign policy of the Bush administration, which Fraser saw as damaging Australian relationships in Asia). He campaigned in support of an Australian Republic in 1999 and in the 2001 election campaign he opposed Howard's policy on asylum-seekers.

Related Topics:
1996 - Bush - Australian Republic - 1999 - 2001 - Asylum-seekers

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This completed Fraser's estrangement from the Liberal Party. Indeed, he and Whitlam say they are now good friends. Many Liberals became unrestrained in their attacks on the Fraser years as "a decade of lost opportunity," on deregulation of the Australian economy and other issues. This was highlighted when in early 2004 a Young Liberal convention in Hobart called for Fraser's life-membership of the Liberal Party to be ended. As Fraser passed 70 he had lost none of his combativeness and generally gave as good as he got in these exchanges.

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