Once thing more certain than the sun rising in the east is that in 40 years time NO-ONE will remember or praise Tony the Fool for his humanitarian beliefs or for that matter anything.
Fraser, PM of Australia from 1975 to 1983 passed away this morning. He presided over the most tumultuous periods of Australian political history. I despised how he had blocked supply and brought on an unprecedented constitutional crisis, the like of which this country had never seen. He imposed a wage freeze on the Public Service when I joined and he lost an election soon after to Bob Hawke. But as time moved on, with the Liberal Party lurching further to the right, he became a moderate. He also did achieve and worked towards many noble causes. He followed Whitlam’s advances on Land rights and to his enormous credit, he facilitated the arrival and settlement of Vietnamese refugees. This was done with agreement of the then ALP Leader, Bill Hayden. He thought it was only fair that we accept people fleeing a country where we had fought an unsuccessful war. He was also instrumental in the fight against apartheid in South Africa and forced Conservative leaders of the time like Thatcher and Reagan to take that matter seriously.Times have changed; but not for the better.
sad for him and his family.
lets not forget who stole democracy for a time.
We have witnessed the end of an era.
Uren, Whitlam and Fraser gone within months of each other. All massive men in the pantheon of Australian politics.
Add the loss of Lee Kwan Yew, the father of Singapore and you add another massive man in the regional politic.