Malcolm Fraser — Ruthless PM and bleeding heart
(Photo courtesy Bill McAuley | billmcauleyphotographer.com)
This special photographic shoot included a touching moment with former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser at Nareen Station. (Photo, 1990.)
Fraser was raised on family farms and after serving as PM from 1975 to 1983, he returned to run his Victorian property, Nareen.
After the shoot at his homestead, I was invited to sit down with the man so often portrayed by the media as heartless. During our chat, Fraser became quite emotional, displaying a palpable amount of vulnerability.
With tears and a voice cracked with emotion, he sobbed.
"I only tried to do the best for the people of Australia."
During his time in the Lodge, Fraser was criticised for being conservative on economics. His tenure was plagued by high unemployment and inflation. And he was knocked for dismantling Australia's healthcare system at the time: Medibank.
The full extent of Fraser's involvement in the dismissal of Gough Whitlam in 1975 remains in the shadows.
The former PM was also an environmentalist at heart — just ask the whales! And he sustained an abiding interest in human rights. Not long after he left office, Fraser formed CARE Australia, an aid organisation that strives for social justice and aims to vanquish global poverty.
Indeed, the man in my photo was a mystery to most.
**These photographs are part of an IA series that looks at Australia through the lens of award-winning photojournalist, Bill McAuley.**
Editor's note: This image was acquired by the National Portrait Gallery in 2010.
Bill McAuley's 40-plus-year news career began in 1969 as a cadet photographer at 'The Age' in Melbourne.
Bill has several published collections, including 'Portraits of the Soul: A lifetime of images with Bill McAuley'. To see more from Bill, click HERE.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
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