Radio Electorate Talks

From January 1954 until early 1983, Malcolm Fraser made a weekly radio broadcast to his Wannon electorate. The talks were broadcast on Sunday evenings on radio station 3HA Hamilton and repeated on 3YB Warrnambool and 3LK Western Victoria. Mr Fraser recorded these talks on a reel-to-reel tape recorder, and the tapes were mailed to radio station 3HA for broadcasting. The text of the electoral talks was mailed to newspapers in Mr Fraser's electorate.

The talks cover both local Wannon issues – such as the wool industry and postal services – and, increasingly, topics of broader national and international interest such as taxation and education. The radio broadcasts for 1974-75 increasingly focus on controversial issues associated with the Whitlam Labor Government, for example Senator Lionel Murphy and the 1975 budget.

Note that some records from this collection are currently held by the National Archives of Australia and that there are no records for the period from 7 November 1975-3 May 1981.

Sources

University of Melbourne Archives, Fraser, John Malcolm, Acc. No. 105/72.

Ayres, Phillip 1987, Malcolm Fraser: a biography, Richmond, Vic., William Heinemann Australia, p. 57.

Talks not yet available in full text from this site can be requested for viewing in the Cultural Collections Reading Room at the University of Melbourne by contacting archives@ archives.unimelb.edu.au or (03) 8344 9893/8344 6848. Alternatively, to have a specific talk added to this website, email kathrynw@unimelb.edu.au.

Date first broadcast	Subject	File
27 Feb 1983	Final days of the election campaign	105/72 [12]
12 Sep 1982	Findings of the Costigan Royal Commission	105/72 [11]
13 Jun 1982	Banning nuclear-armed ships from Australian ports	105/72 [12]
28 Mar 1982	Victorian state election	105/72 [12]
15 Nov 1981	Great Barrier Reef Marine Park	105/72 [10]
1 Nov 1981	Conservation and heritage initiatives	105/72 [10]
11 Oct 1981	Assassination of President Sadat	105/72 [10]
4 Oct 1981	Relations between developed and developing countries [missing p. 1]	105/72 [10]
16 Aug 1981	Meetings of employers, ACTU and premiers; wage claims	105/72 [10]
31 May 1981	Measures against tax avoidance	105/72 [10]
24 May 1981	Economy, industrial relations	105/72 [10]
6 Jul 1975	Sacking of Jim Cairns	105/72 [9]
9 Dec 1973	Australia’s new national song; Australian defence forces; Arab/Israeli crisis	105/72 [6]
6 May 1973	Victorian elections; support for Dick Hamer; recommendations of the Land Conservation Council in Victoria	105/72 [6]
29 Apr 1973	Abortion debate; 18 year olds to vote for first time in Victorian election; Anzac Day	105/72 [6]
13 Nov 1966	Education	105/78 [14]

The Malcolm Fraser Collection at the University of Melbourne

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Radio electorate talks

Sources