Speeches and articles
Malcolm Fraser’s first major public address was the speech he made in seeking preselection for the seat of Wannon in western Victoria in 1953. Since then, Malcolm Fraser has made hundreds of speeches, as a Minister, Prime Minister and, more recently, as a commentator on Australian politics and society.
Although Malcolm Fraser made use of speech-writers during his Prime Ministership, he was always an active contributor to the drafting of his speeches. In the introduction to their edited collection of Malcolm Fraser’s speeches, Denis White and David Kemp (both of whom were speech-writers for Malcolm Fraser) comment:
It is sometimes thought that the speeches of modern Prime Ministers are not really their own. In the case of Malcolm Fraser, nothing could be further from the truth. Drafts of speeches received his most careful and critical attention. Throughout his Prime Ministership (as well as before and after it) his public statements reveal remarkable consistency and continuity, and it is seldom easy to detect the distinctive hand of particular speech writers.
D. M. White and D. A. Kemp, Malcolm Fraser on Australia (Melbourne: Hill of Content, 1986), 2.
This web site aims to bring together as many as possible of Malcolm Fraser’s speeches and articles from his pre-selection speech of 1953 until the present. Speeches and articles will progressively be added to the site as they become available in digital form.
Liberal Party preselection speech
A draft and the speaking notes of Malcolm Fraser’s preselection speech
Parliamentary speeches
Selected speeches made by Malcolm Fraser during his time as a Member of Parliament, beginning with his maiden speech of 1956
Radio electorate talks
A selection of radio broadcasts made by Malcolm Fraser to his electorate of Wannon from 1954–1983
Non-parliamentary
speeches
A selection of speeches made by Malcolm Fraser following his resignation from Parliament in 1983. These include a number of recent speeches dealing with human rights, the treatment of refugees and the war in Iraq.