The PRESIDENT (Senator the Hon. Stephen Parry) took the chair at 10:00, read prayers and made an acknowledgement of country.
That the Senate records its deep regret at the death on 20 March 2015 of the Right Honourable John Malcolm Fraser, AC, CH, former member for Wannon and Prime Minister of Australia, places on record its appreciation of his long and highly-distinguished service to the nation and tenders its profound sympathy to his family in their bereavement.
All my life I will have memories of calm nights beneath the sky, of waking before dawn to see the sun rise in the east and of driving over the lonely bush roads with dust eddying all round. The deformed Mallee scrub and the ghost farms, the great plains and the endless sand hills, the majestic mountains, the beautiful valleys and pleasant hills. All these are part of Australia and part of my memories. Among them I will find my home.
When Aboriginal issues came up in the Party room, I had some very good and wonderful thought, particularly after the change of government in 1975. Malcolm Fraser and Philip Lynch, Margaret Guilfoyle, Bernie Kilgariff, Fred Chaney, Ian Viner, Peter Baume, …
There are no quick fixes to Indigenous poverty and social disaster. Solutions will be found when the non-Indigenous people respect the insights of Indigenous people, and listen to them. Solutions will not be found while Indigenous people are treated as victims for whom someone else must find solutions. They will be active partners in any solution.
Mr Fraser pushed it through—
against strong opposition from the Country Liberal Party.
Mr Fraser pushed it through against strong opposition from the Country Liberal Party in the Northern Territory. Aboriginal people will ever be grateful to Mr Fraser for holding out against that opposition. We also recognise that Mr Fraser was a great advocate for the human rights of all peoples.
As the youngest member of this House—in passing I should like to say that if I remain a member it will take me 33 years to reach the average age of members of the Cabinet—I appreciate the honour that the electors of Wannon have shown me by returning me as their representative.
We owe a duty to ourselves, to future generations of Australians, and to the rest of the free world to play our part in the maintenance of world freedom and peace; and any effective foreign policy directed towards that end must, quite obviously, envisage an effective defence force.
I was too young to fight in the last war, and I owe a debt of gratitude to those who fought in World War I, as well as in World War II. But I am not too young now to fight for my faith and belief in the future of this great nation, in which the individual is, and always shall remain, supreme.
Arnold Toynbee once wrote twelve volumes to demonstrate and analyse the cause of the rise and fall of nations. His thesis can be condensed to a sentence, and is simply stated: That through history nations are confronted by a series of challenges and whether they survive or whether they fall to the wayside, depends on the manner and character of their response. Simple, and perhaps one of the few things that is self evident. It involves a conclusion about the past that life has not been easy for people or for nations, and an assumption for the future that that condition will not alter. There is within me some part of the metaphysic, and thus I would add that life is not meant to be easy.
Life is not meant to be easy, my child; but take courage: it can be delightful.
We need a rugged society, but our new generations have seen only affluence. If a man has not known adversity, if in his lifetime his country has not been subject to attack, it is harder for him to understand that there are some things for which we must always struggle. Thus people or leaders can be trapped to take the easy path. This is the high road to national disaster. There are many strands to the maintenance of will—a society that encourages individual strength and initiative, an understanding of events, ability to bear sacrifices, an understanding that there are obligations that precede rights and a belief that work is still desirable.
The great task of statesmanship is to apply past lessons to new situations, to draw correct analogies to understand and act upon present forces, to recognise the need for change. We must be particularly aware of the great weaknesses of man's idealism which is to forget the frailty of the human race, to believe that man is something that he is not and so construct a view of society that can only exist in the mind. We can only draw reality from our idealism when we can accept that while we strive for perfection, we will not reach it in this world nor our sons after us. Recognition of this truth should soften the radical, bring tolerance to the fanatic, temper the extremes of love and hate. But it will not make our vigilance or struggle any the less necessary.
Some people appear to believe that the differences between governments of the Liberal and Labor persuasion on the issue of government intervention is merely a matter of degree. On this view, Liberal Governments make merely a pretense at resisting governmental growth, while Labor governments actually foster government growth. Superficially, the record bears this out. There has been a continuing growth in the size of government over the last few decades.
Underlying the different rates of expansion of government, are two fundamentally opposed attitudes to the role of government and its proper relation to the people of Australia.
One attitude, the Liberal attitude, is that there are serious limitations on the ability of the government to produce the better life, that while government may encourage and assist people, basically, a better life will be built by Australians themselves, through their own efforts, by their own decisions, on their own volition.
The other attitude, the Labor attitude, believes that a government growing in size and powers and concentrated in Canberra, is the road to a better life for the average Australian.
The Liberal view is that the goals of Australians should be set by Australians themselves in the course of their lives. Government is the focus of common but limited goals. It does not, and should not set, detailed goals for individuals. Government has the job of aiding people in pursuit of their diverse objectives and of minimizing the imposition of uniformity and conformity.
The Labor view on the other hand views government as embodying some higher wisdom, as the authentic voice of the community, as distinct from the individuals who make up the community. In this view, it is bad that individuals differ, that they want different things. Since there is a common interest known to the governments, its wishes prevail over individual desires. In this view that fewer choices in important matters that individuals have, the better, because the greater the latitude that individuals have the more likely they are to deviate from the government's line.
The means of implementing this philosophy is through gaining control over an ever-increasing proportion of the earnings of the individual. It gains this control through the tax system.
The notion of an all-embracing community will and over-riding community interest represented by a ruling group which claims to have the insight to discover what the com-munity really wants, has been the basic rationale for totalitarian movements which suppressed people in the interests of a myth. Government is not the embodiment of the community. It is a set of institutions within a wider society. A community composed of groups and individuals who have both co-operative and conflicting interests.
The significance of undertaking an increasing number of activities through governmental decision can only be appreciated if the character of governmental institutions is properly understood. Government is bureaucratic. It is not the only bureaucracy in society, but it is the most powerful. Government places decisions in the hands of a few. In the provision of services, it tends to be monopolistic. It largely relies on the acquisition of resources by compulsion from other sections of the community. In allocating resources, governments rely on authority and coercion. These are simple facts.
They do not mean government cannot be used for very worthwhile ends, in a dynamic and creative way. In fact, it is fundamental to Liberal beliefs that the power of government ought to be used to establish the circumstances in which people can act according to their own wishes and to assist those in need, who would not otherwise obtain assistance. One of the great strengths of the Liberal tradition of political thought is that it has always had a much more accurate view of the role and nature of government than those influenced by socialist philosophy.
This is the reason why Liberals have always sought to keep government limited. Liberals have recognised that that government, in common with all monopolies, is a threat both to individuals and to the community's constituent groups. It inevitably means a massive growth of monopoly power, the power to dictate. Government may have both a constructive and destructive role in relation to the constituent groups of community. Ill-conceived government action effectively destroys co-operation between members of the community.
If one had asked the people of Melbourne whether they wanted Melbourne to become the largest Greek city outside of Greece, they would have said No with a resounding majority. Now that it has happened, Melbourne is proud of the fact and Australia is much better off as a consequence of that migration.
How did we change? Why did we change? Why did both major political parties abandon leadership and reverse the policies which Australia had implemented so successfully for so many decades?
It is our task to reverse that attitude and to re-establish Australia as a compassionate and humane society.
Australia's current policies are often attacked because they offend international agreements, which we helped draft and supported. They offend sections of the Convention on Refugees and on the Rights of the Child but we need to look at current policies on the basis of Australian values because they offend every decent fibre of our being. They offend every idea of a fair go. They offend the basic principle that we should do to others what we would like done to us.
he Government has attracted support by playing on insecurities, by emphasizing difference, by exaggerating numbers and by claims that in the event were totally untrue.
There is much insecurity in the world at the present time. Many of those insecurities are shared by Australians but those insecurities do not relate to asylum seekers and refugees who come to Australia by boat. There are great insecurities as a result of economic globalisation and the failure of anyone to spell out where that process will end. That insecurity should be directed at government and not at a few thousand would-be refugees.
When the policy of compulsory, mandatory, non-reviewable detention is ultimately abandoned, we will have ended a period of shame for Australia worldwide.
Foreign Aid from wealthy nations has fallen dramatically in the last 25 years. That trend should be reversed so the greater impact can be made in tackling problems of poverty and persecution at their source.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne?
You have to be an optimist … Why involve yourself in issues of public policy unless you are?.
The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre has lost not only a fellow advocate but a true friend.
Someone whose involvement with the centre extended far beyond the purely professional to a warm and very personal friendship.
Mr Fraser's involvement with the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre began in April 2010, at the launch of his biography at Melbourne University.
Mr Fraser spoke about his long-held views about immigration and multi-culturalism as being integral to our nation—and he bemoaned the resurgence of harsh, punitive policies and attitudes towards asylum seekers and refugees, considering it a return to the ugliest side of the days of the White Australia Policy.
Alarm over Abbott's view on Islam. Abbott dangerous to harmony, peace, a destroyer of wisdom.
Four reasons to raise women’s pay that should make men happy.
Abbott government considers axing the Australian census to save money … Gov has no idea of what a Nation should be.
I kind of expected Malcolm Fraser to continue sending wonderful, compassionate tweets for forever. May he rest in peace.
Sad to hear of Malcolm Fraser's passing. A true Liberal and force for a fairer, more cosmopolitan Australia.
The loss of Malcolm Fraser so soon after the death of Gough Whitlam is a double blow to Australia and its politics. Both giants among men.
One of the great causes for which the ALSF has fought and for which it continues-to fight is voluntary student unionism. You have fought for the right of students to choose freely whether or not they wish to belong to a union. Whether or not they wish to pay student union fees without fearing that their student status will be threatened.
In this campaign, especially in relation to eliminating the diversion of compulsory fees for socio-political activities you have the full support of the Federal Government.
In today's world, Fraser's liberalism, civility, deep personal interest in policy, complete rejection of the politics of personal abuse and his love of debate, combined with political skill, remain qualities for which our political system has a deep need.
The criticisms are often sharpest from those who believed that policy can be reformed by an act of will, for Fraser refused to exercise his powerful will to bring about reforms of which he remained to be convinced, and which he believed had only limited public support.
Strong ties to Britain prevented the full assumption of independence until the century had nearly half gone.
Within existing levels of taxation, governments at all levels must learn to judge their priorities more harshly. There are many things which it is desirable to do, but we cannot achieve them all in this year or next.
Privately, Malcolm had a soft spot for Tasmania. He was a keen angler and kept a fishing shack in the Central Highlands which he enjoyed visiting.
I was very happy to note in His Excellency's Speech that adequate mention was made of defence, the necessity to maintain our armed forces and to develop them in the years to come. I think every Australian at present realizes that we cannot just sit down in our corner of the world and expect other people to allow us to remain quietly by ourselves. We owe a duty to ourselves, to future generations of Australians, and to the rest of the free world to play our part in the maintenance of world freedom and peace; and any effective foreign policy directed towards that end must, quite obviously, envisage an effective defence force.
At present we have slightly over 9,000,000 people in Australia, and when we consider that this country is equal in area to the United States of America, which has over 150,000,000 people, we must realize how sparsely inhabited this continent is. We may not have the same natural riches as the United States, but every honourable member will agree that the possibilities for development in this country are very great indeed. I am sure that I shall live to see the day when we shall have 25,000,000 people in Australia and then we shall be able to look the world in the face far more boldly and play a more effective part in the maintenance of world peace and freedom
I guess we've got some people in Canberra who believe that what they're doing is right. I believe it is profoundly wrong.
I think putting the SAS onto the Tampa did more to damage Australia worldwide than any other single act of government.
The less constructively a society responds to its own diversity the less capable it becomes of doing so. Its reluctance to respond, fuelled by the fear of encouraging division, becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy—the erosion of national cohesion is a result not of the fact of diversity but of its denial and suppression.
This is a demeaning debate, it's a miserable one. It also shows that the politicians who participated in this debate have contempt for all of us, for the majority of the Australian people. They believe that despite all the evidence to the contrary, that if they appeal to the fearful and mean sides of our nature, they will win support.
Our democratic system depends on the "rule of law", it depends on due process, on properly produced evidence, on precedents and on a process that is open to appeal by a higher authority. This legislation gives to the minister, Scott Morrison now, or whoever it may be in the future, total arbitrary, dictatorial, tyrannical powers over the lives and fortunes of asylum seekers. It destroys the "rule of law" as we know it.
He continued in his speech:
Under the UN Refugee Convention, which Menzies signed onto in 1954, boat people were not illegal. The treaty says that those fleeing terror often travel by unorthodox means and often without papers. You could not go to a tyrant and say you have killed half my family, I want a passport and visa to leave this wretched country before you kill the other half of my family. It tears up international law, concerning what is called non-refoulement.
We must not send people back to countries where they might be subject to torture. This government now says people can change their behaviour, they can modify their behaviour and if they modify their behaviour they won't be subject to torture. Or they can live in another part of the country and they won't be subject to torture. How naive, how ignorant can this government be?
The minister's decisions are absolute, they are not subject to review. The determination procedures have been short-circuited to such an extent that any legitimate examination of a boat person's case would be almost impossible. This is a far cry from the Australia we used to know, but it is today's Australia.
We are entitled to be confident of our capacity to march through the decade ahead at a better pace than almost any nation. We are entitled to be optimistic about our future.
… if you’re interested in public policy there is one thing that is absolutely essential–even if it’s long term, you have got to remain an optimist.
The Government believes it has a responsibility to all Australian school children and for the first time in Australia's history the Prime Minister has taken steps that will give effect to that belief in a realistic and fair manner.
… would result in the gigantic inequality of a wharf labourer paying taxes to subsidise a lawyer’s education.
I guess over all those years he touched people in so many walks of life. And he was a man of many, many different sides, not just the political side and all his enthusiasms and things. He touched people and it was just very nice to hear …
"It was just our life, for us it was just our life. He was a politician from when we were born so that was just the way we lived. We didn't know anything else."
Anybody who achieves what Malcolm Fraser achieved in his life deserves respect as a quite extraordinary Australian.
Early in the life of his government he observed that "the interests of the United States and the interests of Australia are not necessarily identical".
"Our first responsibility is independently to assess our own interests …
"The United States will unquestionably do the same."
He was the very first person I interviewed, on my first day as a journalist. He seemed terrifying, this apparently born-to-rule minister for defence, the Vietnam War splitting the nation. And yet he ended up saving me, and probably my career.
… … …
The editor of the Portland Observer , who had barely finished hiring me, sent me to the Richmond-Henty Hotel overlooking Portland's harbour to interview Mr Fraser. He advised me to ask him about a pet subject, the wool-floor pricing scheme, about which I knew nothing. The assignment started badly when I spilled hot coffee over the minister's pants. It got worse when he launched into a long dissertation on wool pricing. Unable to keep up in my scrawled long-hand, I feigned expertise in shorthand and covered pages with squiggles and dots that meant nothing at all. Pouring perspiration, I figured my career was finished before it had started, and just wanted to get away.
Eventually, Mr Fraser twigged. "Well, Tony," he said, as I snapped shut my notebook with its useless notes, hoping only to escape with my life, "It's quite a complex subject - let's boil it down to a few sentences, and you can take them down longhand. I'll go slowly."
Those few sentences, dictated with the Received Pronunciation he had cultivated at Oxford, became a small front page story.
He'd saved my career, gently.
For much of his life, Phong Nguyen has felt as though he had two fathers.
He barely knew his own father, who spent 13 years in a North Vietnamese hard-labour camp. They were reunited later in life in Australia – before Huong Xuan Nguyen passed away a few months ago at the age of 84.
When Malcolm Fraser died at the same age, early on Friday morning, Mr Nguyen mourned a second time.
"The news of his death is not just a national mourning for Australia, but for us," Mr Nguyen said.
"For every one of us, he is more precious and more respected than our own parents and great grandparents."
I abhor any activity that might threaten the extinction of any animal species, particularly when it is directed against a species as special and intelligent as the whale.
The Government is not prepared to contemplate that kind of proposition. It needs to be understood that this federation is a compact between six States. The States entered into the federation under certain terms and circumstances.
The States that are smaller in population believed that in a country as large as Australia, they would need some protection against the capacity of those in New South Wales and Victoria to change the Constitution to suit themselves at the expense of those in South Australia Western Australia, Queensland and Tasmania.
Therefore, the provision in the Constitution that one needs not only a majority of voters but also a majority of States is a very real safeguard and a very real protection for the less populous States. It is a protection that the Government believes is appropriate to Australia's circumstances.
There is one final thing that I should like to say. I was too young to fight in the last war, and I owe a debt of gratitude to those who fought in World War I, as well as in World War II. But I am not too young now to fight for my faith and belief in the future of this great nation, in which the individual is, and always shall remain, supreme. … But all these things will mean nothing if one thing is ever forgotten — that the individual happiness of each citizen is, and must remain for ever, the first thought of our national leaders.
One of the great causes for which the ALSF has fought and for which it continues to fight is voluntary student unionism. You have fought for the right of students to choose freely whether or not they wish to belong to a union.
This is what faith in Australia is all about. It is what our commitment to freedom and private enterprise means, it is the path which realism dictates for 1983 and it will make our nation stronger and more self-reliant than ever.
Socially, we must continue to build on Australia's excellent record as a genuinely liberal society. A society which rejects uniformity and which has what someone recently described as a "zest for differences" which generate innovation, ideas and progress. The differences between us as individuals, the variety that different and distinctive cultures and attitudes give to Australia, are an essential part of the community's driving force. Tolerance of differences and their encouragement also engenders in individuals respect for their own community and social system. By creating a liberal, dynamic society we can make Australia really great and set an example to the rest of the world.
It has been a great honour and privilege to have been Prime Minister of Australia.
During the election I said that what happened to Malcolm Fraser as an individual was of no account. I meant that. But what happens to Australia, to our way of life and to the kind of country we leave our children is of great and lasting significance.
The values and principles by which we live, the human relationships which guide us, and the values to which we aspire as Liberals will not change.
I urge Liberals everywhere to keep the faith.
Because of the increase of arbitrary powers, not subject to appeal or review, that the government has granted its own ministers, the work of the commission is more necessary than it has ever been.
These actions make the Australian Human Rights Commission even more important to safeguard remaining freedoms and to prevent a full introduction of a police state …
I suppose I see in Mandela all the aspirational things we would like to be, but we know in our hearts we often fall short.
Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott are proving there are no depths to which they will not sink to persuade the Australian people they are the toughest in relation to asylum seekers. The demonising of asylum seekers continues apace.
In my view, the great virtue he had is that he extended the honourable and honoured notion of mateship to people who had traditionally been excluded from our definition of mateship.
We were also working to get people to understand that the idea and the reality of a multicultural Australia could be an enormous strength to this country, not a weakness.
There is strength in this kind of diversity so long as we understand what it's about.
Each man from the street cleaner to the industrialist behind a rich desk has an equal right to a full and happy life. Each one has an equal right to go his own way, unhampered so long as he does not harm our precious social framework. The wish that men may continue to enjoy this right is the real reason that urges me to enter a lifelong fight against socialism, and I feel that this fight is worthwhile because of the unique and individual characteristics I find in every person.
In the past, civilisations have been destroyed and peoples have disappeared from the earth because they could not withstand the dangers that beset them. I cannot assume that Australia's survival is inevitable any more than was the survival of past civilisations that did not and would not accept the challenge that confronted them. Our survival requires courage, a sense of duty and direction, and some greater sacrifice from every one of us.
That, as a mark of respect to the memory of the late the Right Honourable John Malcolm Fraser, AC, CH, the Senate do now adjourn.