There is no equivalent of the Labor faithful and Champagne Idealists to remember and mourn Malcolm Fraser like Gough is remembered.

Mal remained respected through continuous achievement - after he was PM.

It is difficult to be in the middle, overall a small "l" liberal, rather than comfortably on one side or other.

Mal was not like those who rested on laurels when they exited the PM-ship. He was not like Abbott, Droopy Joe or the Poodle.

Mal had heart.

Do you think plantagenet that it was that heart that led him to make so many dreadful decisions, for which many are still paying.

I believe that Fraser & Whitlam between them caused more harm to aboriginal & Papua New Guinea people, than any other thousand people.

Not everybody agrees with everything Mal did; but particularly those on his side of the isle; who made him stand out as a small subgroup of genuine Liberals, like the very occasional Petunia in the Conservative onion patch?

I was one who couldn't wait to vote for him; ditto my parents, who until then, had been die hard Labor supporters!

However, I disagreed with him on many things, but particularly his position on East Timor; which seems to have mirrored Gough's?

And I have some sympathy with Hasbeen's position; inasmuch, we set PNG adrift far to soon in their development; and virtually still a stone age culture. Largely illiterate, hugely divided, bloodthirsty, and seething with primitive superstition and nepotism! And at complete odds with our stated position on Rhodesia.

Had this not been done at that time, we might not now be seeing the virtual massacre of PNG natives, (genocide) in the area now claimed by Indonesia?
Zimbabwe has arguably fared even worse!

[Sort of like setting a perfectly good boat adrift, with nobody who knew how to steer or navigate at the helm? And all rowing in different directions? If they managed to get anywhere, a fortuitous accident?]

And I believe we would have made better use of PNG's resources for their better development; if we were still there, benignly monitoring/assisting/overseeing progress?

We were the civilizing glue that kept a divided nation functioning as one, and under the rule of fair and just laws; the real legacy of British colonialism?

That said, there is however, much to like in Mal's legacy, including genuine humanity, real courage of conviction and remaining true to his own Christian values!

So and on balance, I can only end with the words, well done thou good and faithful servant!
Rhrosty.

As one poster on another website commented -

"Malcolm Fraser was the only past or present
Coalition MP to have signed the
"Canberra Declaration on Gaza."
(The other 79 signatories all being past or
present Green or Labor MPs)".

http://www.gazadeclaration.com/

"Eternal rest grant to them, O Lord.
And let perpetual light shine on them.
May they rest in peace. Amen."

RIP - Malcolm Fraser.
A decent humanitarian Australian.

Rhrosty people can have "genuine humanity", & "Christian values", & still be a disastrous bloody idiot. The people who ran the crusades, & burned "witches" at the stake were Christians too, don't forget.

I was only thinking locally, but add in East Timor, & Zimbabwe, & it is obvious more people are suffering today because of Fraser than Whitlam, but it is also obvious few in the world have caused so much damage to so many.

As I have said many times, god protect us from leaders, particularly ones as stupid as that pair. When you give arrogant, opinionated dills ideas of grandeur, catastrophe follows.

Fraser is elevated now by the media because, in retrospect, the political Left have given him a get out of jail free pass due to his support of some of their current day issues. At the time however the Unions did not support immigrants "taking Australian jobs" and hence the Left was did not always take the humanitarian option they seem to believe they did. At the time the Labor Party painted Fraser as a conservative bully boy who stole power from the duly elected Government which was to some extent true. The legend of Gough was somewhat overblown while Fraser's true place in history will take some time to work out.

It is a bit quiet at the moment so the media need their usual speculative gossip and manufactured controversy to haul in those dumbed-down audiences.

The death of a former PM is newsworthy. The speculative stuff is aimed at extending the life of the story.

The Greens as usual are jockeying to be the main story. Especially Sarah Hanson-Young, who gives Derryn Hinch quite a run for the title of Australia's human headline.

The following website sums up the man rather well:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-20/matthewson-malcolm-fraser-right-and-left-politics/6336146

"The death of Malcolm Fraser is a poignant reminder of a
time when it was not considered weak or permissive to
be a progressive in the Liberal Party; a time when a
Liberal politician and a government could be economically
as well as socially responsible."

"Such a combination should not be a relic of the past to be
wistfully remembered, but a feature of today's politics.
The sadness of Fraser's death is magnified by his loss as a
role model for modern Liberal progressives."

The best thing that Fraser did in his political career was to provide the circumstances for Whitlam to be dismissed by Kerr. It was all downhill from then on. However he did admit the Vietnamese refugees (presumed to be good coalition supporters), and this was opposed by Whitlam, presumably for the same reason. One can only assume today that the differnt attitudes to muslim immigrants is based on the perception that they would make good Labor voters. Apart from that Australia stagnated throuought his term, and it wasn't until Hawke and Keating that we got some modernisation of the economy.

Perhaps the greatest criticism of Fraser is the comment that if he supported so many left-liberal measures why did he not introduce them when he had the power?