Hal Colebatch has a great take-down of Malcolm Fraser in the latest Quadrant.
Though I have not seen the idea put forward by anyone else, it is my own belief that Fraser’s canoodling with these tyrants played a part in undermining the moral fibre of the Liberal Party, particularly among the intellectually keen and idealistic members of the Young Liberal movement and the various university Liberal clubs, and played a part in the defeat of 1983, when it had been elected and re-elected with landslides in 1975 and 1977.
During the last election Fraser declared that Tony Abbott was unfit to be Prime Minister – yet this same man installed and defended tyrants all around the world. Rather than be tolerated as a harmless old man, he should be treated with the contempt he so richly deserves.
This is not a thread derail, but THR has a response to Fraser’s criticsms of Howard
http://catallaxyfiles.com/2010/11/07/against-the-trend/comment-page-2/#comment-122952
Peter Patton
7 Nov 10 at 8:04 pm
Relevance?
Sinclair Davidson
7 Nov 10 at 8:06 pm
Also, why hasn’t history treated Fraser as the originator of the policy
After all, that’s what he did. No boat people thank you. We will personally tour refugee camps, and pick out the prettiest ones.
Peter Patton
7 Nov 10 at 8:06 pm
Not fair comment. Colebatch says this.
Sinclair Davidson
7 Nov 10 at 8:07 pm
Sorry, I don’t get the ‘unfair’ bit. Remember, Fraser accepted the first small wave of boat people, but quickly changed policy to hand-picking offshore. NTTAWWT, but it amounts precisely to what Howard did.
Peter Patton
7 Nov 10 at 8:13 pm
I don’t know about that – Colebatch puts in a good word for Fraser on this point.
Sinclair Davidson
7 Nov 10 at 8:26 pm
Yes, but it is the same point I make. What I find interesting on Colebatch’s take – because I was too young to remember any of thus, is the hard core opposition from the time from the ALP, the Left, and even parts of the bureaucracy, and yet Fraser mentions none of this. Fraser is trying to paint anti-refugee sentiment exclusively with the post-Fraser Liberal Party of Howard. He’s basically trying to write his own legacy.
Malcolm Fraser: The Last of the True Liberals!!
Peter Patton
7 Nov 10 at 8:30 pm
Speaking as Federal Vice-President of the Young Liberals in 1982 and a federal candidate in 1983, Colebatch would do better to look at the evidence rather than rush to conclusions on none at all.
I’ve never been accused of losing my fire because of Malcolm Fraser, and my recollection of the time was that we were more often than not fighting Fraser on a number of fronts.
Other prominent Y/Ls at the time who still have some public profiles were Saul Eslake, Mark Birrell, Louise Asher, and George Brandis. In the Liberal students you had Michael Kroger and Eric Abetz.
Graham Young
7 Nov 10 at 8:59 pm
“this same man installed and defended tyrants all around the world. Rather than be tolerated as a harmless old man, he should be treated with the contempt he so richly deserves.”
I have no problem with that. But I hope that, should the topic arise, you will be as forthright in condemning others who did the same.
Jarrah
7 Nov 10 at 9:23 pm
Colebatch is a wrong on details of the refugee issue, if right on the intent. The vast majority of Vietnamese refugees came through the refugee camps and arrived in Australia on a plane. That they were called boat people is a misnomer.
Fraser should have been born in the UK during the nineteenth century. You can just imagine the landed gentry types running fund raising campaigns to send missionaries like Livingstone off to deepest darkest africa. And then sit down to a well deserved cup of tea and some cake while the servants bustled about.
entropy
7 Nov 10 at 9:29 pm
Malcolm is an odd person and that’s for sure. He said:
We should not be guilty for our sins of 200 years ago. If that were so there would be no nation on this Earth that would not be guilty… If Australia has a problem it is not with immigrants or going to war, it is with our old inhabitants, Aborigines, and again it is a question of attitude”.
He then joined the chorus calling for Howard to say sorry. Mal had the chance to apologise but used the safety of retirement to create the image of a caring elder statesman. The bloke is a turd.
Sid Vicious
7 Nov 10 at 9:55 pm
Umm Sinclair.. A wise man once told me not not get upset with Tories.
Fraser of course is also a quisling Tory.
JC
7 Nov 10 at 10:13 pm
entropy
Precisely. Fraser was nothing more than a ethically-bereft backstabbing sociopath Rupyard Kipling wannabe, except with a 4th class honors degree.
Peter Patton
8 Nov 10 at 12:41 am
JC,
Nah – not a quisling, he was always a bit of a socialist. The old benevolent (or at least they thought of themselves that way) paternalist. While they may never join the ALP (too lower class and encourages the servants) they would not be comfortable with genuine liberalism either.
Andrew Reynolds
8 Nov 10 at 12:57 am
JC – he did, but Fraser isn’t a Tory. He left the party.
Sinclair Davidson
8 Nov 10 at 5:33 am
If Fraser had a genuine change of heart about refugees and Australia’s founding, then his attacks on Howard would be understandable. The problem is, he has made no attempt to explain how his original positions were wrong and what process led him to reverse them.
Michael Fisk
8 Nov 10 at 5:03 pm
[...] read into my comments because it are the exact opposite of my views. This morning I find myself in the embassassing position of partially agreeing with Malcolm Fraser. Today’s hate is of those same banks that were so [...]
Building Societies II at Catallaxy Files
9 Nov 10 at 8:38 am
Sinc
The Liberals are not Tories. That is why he left.
Peter Patton
9 Nov 10 at 2:27 pm