To add, I don't believe that Fraser was a brilliant strategist at all. He always was a colonial drongo, born with a platinum spoon in his mouth, who trudged doggedly on once he set course in a particular direction. Mind like a steel trap. Little gets in, but what does is there practically forever.

For a moment in history Australia was alive with the energetic, smart-A Gough, who even though flawed as far as leadership went, at least breathed some new life into Canberra and Australia.

Whitlam was a charismatic change agent who needed watchful direction, solid team members good with detail to bring him back to Earth and someone above him to make the decisions. He was let down by the usual Oz front bench - one where they let the leader do the work while they sort their own entitlements and have a jolly good ride. His cabinet colleagues should have sorted the wayward lunar module Rex Connor and that self-indulgent fool Cairns, to pick a couple of examples.

Fraser, although blessed with wealth, education, contacts, privilege and opportunity, was a highly predictable automaton of the Melbourne Establishment. He did not have the wit nor entrepreneurship to do anything with the power of office once gained, but to continue on while over-tightening the stays. That is not to say that the Fraser government wasn't useful because it reined in spending, but it represented another lost opportunity for Australia to modernise (eg float the currency). Fraser made his front-bench do some work for their money, which was good to see.

Doubtless Fraser did the best he could with what he had and his odd upbringing.

otb,

Ben Eltham - a lightweight and clueless you say?
Really? And on what do you base your comments?
His CV and staff profile at Deakin University
say otherwise.

Dear oh, dear. The world is full of people on this
forum - who should
just keep their mouths shut and not allow their biases
to speak for them.

Here are the facts concerning Ben Eltham:

Ben Eltham is an Australian writer, journalist, researcher,
creative producer and social commentator. He is a Research
Fellow at Deakin University's
Faculty of Arts and Education. In addition to his academic
research - Ben is also a widely-published writer and
journalist. He writes regularly about Australian politics,
Culture, and the Arts, for a range of publications and media
outlets - including The Guardian, Meanjin Quarterly, Crikey,
just to name a few. He is a regular commentator on radio
for 3RRR.

He completed a post-graduate honours degree in neuroscience
at the University of Queensland. He completed his PhD in
Cultural Policy at the University of Western Sydney. He is a
Fellow of Sydney based Public Policy Institute - The Centre
For Policy Development.

He has worked in the field of culture and the arts as a
freelance arts journalist and critic, producer and festival
director in Newcastle, Brisband, and Melbourne. He publishes
regularly in academic journals on cultural policy, social
media, communication theory and politics.

He's also a top bloke!

otb,

Actually - your take on Malcolm Fraser disagrees
with the views of people who really knew him.
From politicians, to journalists and political
commentators, to friends. I have received
a totally different view of the man from all the
reading that I've been doing - to the
one you've chosen to share with us. Perhaps you need to
do a bit more research, and reading if you're
aiming for accuracy. However, if all you're interested
in is just wanting to air your private opinions
that's fair enough.

Fox,

Your defence of Ben Eltham's opinion misses the point that there are many far better qualified and informed on the era and politics, and who lived through that time.

Obviously you cherry-pick opinions to match your own.

Paul, Is mise, you guys brought up the comparison not me, it's not my fault you know nothing about WW2.

Given Fraser's stand on South Africa and Cambodia it's clear he was accepting of the idea of mass murder, mass rape and torture as a means to an end.
What's that you say? Nobody knew what was going on in S-21 or the Quatro camps at the time? If Fraser is to be posthumously excused of his crimes against humanity then Goebbels and the other senior NS should also be rehabilitated because it's clear that they knew nothing about any mass murder on an "industrial" scale.
Just admit it, Fraser was wrong on South East Asia and wrong on Southern Africa, he facilitated then ignored the atrocities of the ANC and ZanuPF and worked against a regional solution in Cambodia.
Hey Liberals are not moral people by nature and Fraser was one of the worst, you forget he was hated by the left back in the day and now he's universally detested by radicals at both ends of the spectrum.
Fraser was weak, vain and above all self serving, of middling intellect it's no surprise that only far less intelligent people such as senator Hanson Young see him as this erudite, avuncular figure.

Jay,

What you say might be true about South Africa and Cambodia but you can't get away from the fact that that Hitler's little propaganda minister murdered his own very innocent children so there is no comparison.

You simply cannot say that a man who murdered his own children is better than a man who didn't do the same thing.

If Goebbels didn't know about the death camps in WW II then he was seriously misinformed and wasn't on top of his job.
I wonder who would have had the guts to mislead him?

You also said "....critical examination of the character of Fraser and Goebbels tends to favour the latter as the superior politician and the better man."

Is that not a comparison?