This man is the best of Australia’s political landscape 10 Oct 201110 Oct 2011 I used to hate him, but I have come to the realisation that Malcolm Fraser is the very best Prime Minister, politician and senior statesman Australia has produced in my lifetime. He criticises his own party for its demagoguery and race the the lowest common denominator, and defends the rights of the lowly. He is the most socially progressive senior political figure (including the Greens, who have defended censorship and state controls) in Australia today. Here’s an example, discussing the roles of public servants and their motives: It is a question of integrity, it is a question of honour, it is a question of people being there for the sense of public service and not there for the sense of personal power. Go read the entire interview at The Conversation; it rightly diagnoses all the failures of the Australian polity for the past thirty years, and in particular the “sticky fingers” of politicians like John Dawkins who messed with universities in the early 80s and Gerry Hand who demonised refugees. Australian stuff Politics
Australian stuff Australians and science 7 Dec 2010 A new poll has shown, they say, that Australians are more interested in science than sport, and think politicians should pay attention to the scientists (are you listening, Tony Abbott?). At least half think we should rely more on science than faith. This is good, and better than some, but… Read More
Evolution An unnecessary rebuttal 29 Oct 2009 A paper has been published formally rebutting the single most stupid idea ever published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA (PNAS(USA)). The story is in Scientific American but the gist is that Lyn Margulis, who sees the world in terms of endosymbiosis, having once correctly argued… Read More
Censorship No shit! 14 Dec 2008 Here’s an article, by MSN no less, that explains the problems with broad filtering. A fellow named Herman Libshitz can’t get an email account from Verizon because his name contains “shit”. Residents of Scunthorpe in the UK apparently have similar problems. God only knows what the residents of Testiclebreastpenisvaginaville can… Read More
I think that I have gone through something like the same change of mind when it comes to Frazer. The additional factor in my case being that he was the first Aussie PM I knew anything about as I arrived in the country in early 82. So I had to learn about the Whitlam fiasco from history and did not have that determining my early views of him. Frazer’s commentaries make you painfully aware of the ways in which the Australian political scene has changed for the worse.
I see nothing new here, just another example of an old pattern in which politicians magically become socially responsible in their outlook after they’ve been retired for a while and nothing they say actually matters any more. Disclaimer: I wasn’t around in the Fraser era. I was on the other side of the world, behaving like a preschooler.
That doesn’t make him the best PM we’ve ever had, just (maybe) the best ex-PM. Whitlam remains the best PM we’ve had, despite his flaws.
It’s a matter of a pinion, as Daedelus said to Icarus. I used to be a great supporter of Whitlam, but in retrospect I can only see that he really was harming Australian government the way Fraser said. Some of the things he did – especially withdrawing from Vietnam and permitting no fault divorce – we excellent, but they are not enough to make him the best PM. Fraser was an infrastructure builder who passed laws that protected the environment, refugees, and education from both political interference and exploitation by business. I think that had Fraser been PM through 72-75 he would have brought in those changes too.
“Don’t it always go show, that you don’t know what you’ve got ’till it’s gone?” I came to Australia from England in ’72 when the Whitlam era began and was immediately dismayed by the “it’s time” mentality, the huge chip on Whitlam’s shoulder and the fundamental lack of politicians with integrity. Fraser was, and remains, the exception that proves the rule.