MALCOLM Fraser made many enemies in 1975 for his role in the sacking of the Whitlam government, but by the end of his life he had turned many into friends and earned a unique place in Australian politics.
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The great irony of Mr Fraser’s later years was that these new friendships, including with his old adversary Gough Whitlam, who died in October, came at the expense of former Liberal Party colleagues.
By 2009, when he resigned from the Liberal Party, he could no longer be called an elder statesmen of the party, he had become one of its most strident critics.
He had come to symbolise a point on the spectrum of conservative politics where the Liberal Party used to be.
As it moved steadily to the right under John Howard and later Tony Abbott, Mr Fraser became an increasingly vocal critic, particularly of its policy on refugees and asylum seekers.
Some die-hard Labor voters who remember the turmoil on the steps of the Australian Parliament when Mr Whitlam labelled him Kerr’s Cur, may never forgive Mr Fraser for his role in the sacking of an elected government, but they forget the economic precipice Australia was heading towards under Whitlam and the nation-changing policies which, like Mr Whitlam, Mr Fraser was also responsible for.
He was instrumental in organising international opposition to apartheid in South Africa.
He also turned Australia’s gaze towards Asia and in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, opened the country to tens of thousands of refugees.
He remained a true liberal if not a Liberal, until his death.