Book review: 'Malcolm Fraser: The Political Memoirs'

At last he gives his own account of the dismissal, thus complementing John Kerr, Gough Whitlam and many others. He was part of some epochal two-person conversations with Sir John Kerr, which are recorded and which add to our understanding of that unprecedented event.

What is missing is the “other side”, the critical comments from those who disagree with the many assertions and judgments in this book. Not that it matters much. Those other opinions are on the public record and commentators now have another source to go to for a balanced view. What is important is that his side of critical events is now on the public record for historians to tease out.

He says that difficulties arise where two principles come into conflict. My memory is that 80 per cent of the business of Cabinet was settled in about 20 minutes and then hours were spend on the other, more difficult, contestable issues. It was so annoying then, in Parliament, to hear the other side arguing the very losing case we had spent hours considering.

Malcolm Fraser’s authority comes over clearly. What is less well portrayed is his awkwardness with people - indeed, in some of the writing it would be easy to forget just how awkward he could be. But that very awkwardness makes his achievements even greater. That such a person was able to do these great things is amazing.

After Malcolm Fraser left the Parliament, his activities continued. He was one of the “eminent persons” appointed to help end apartheid, he was Founder and President of Care Australia, President of CARE International, became first patron of the Sorry Day Committee, was Menzies scholar at, and a fellow of, the Center for International Affairs at Harvard University, was a member of the Interaction Council (p621), and a Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne.

There are 853 pages in this book. It is quite dense and not easy to read, but it is rewarding for those who do read it, especially for those who were there for some of journey through Parliament at that time. Some might think that it is over-written, that the editing has not been tough enough, but when one realises that Fraser was in public life for a long time, there is a lot of material to cover and a lot of records in his possession. There are 100 pages just for bibliography and index! And there have been a lot of events in a long political career.

For Australia’s sake we hope his public life is not over.