Revelations and Evaluations - Working with Fraser

November 24, 2025

https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/11/working-with-pm-fraser-parting-words-part-5-malcolm-fraser/?utm_source=Pearls+%26+Irritations&utm_campaign=61b37e7a62-Daily&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0c6b037ecb-61b37e7a62-744912623

Following the outstanding insights of _The Dismissal_ podcast, I wasn’t expecting another feast for thought so soon.

John Menadue’s just-concluded series on working as Malcolm Fraser’s senior bureaucrat is required reading, especially to those of us who took decades of persuading about Fraser’s humane vision. Curiously, Mr Menadue’s writing, despite its plain spoken directness of style, is deeply moving. He frames, with detail & clarity, Fraser’s record as a human rights fighter of historic distinction in and out of government.

As he emphasises, this was not some career re-definition or image makeover by a defenestrated ex-pm. What the post-Fraser Liberals never forgave him for - that he failed to institute treasury’s economic rationalist blueprint & consequently 1975 - 1983 were ‘wasted years’ - has always overlooked the fundamental truth that he understood economic Darwinism and rejected it.

Mr Menadue mentioned that the sight of Fraser’s dedication to Gough in his book gifted just before his passing brought him near to tears. Frankly I had a welling of similar emotion reading these lines. His poignant description of how these two remarkable antagonists found a deep and touching friendship after the most epochal political battle in our history is itself an astonishing story.