This is the Post Production Script (or transcript of the
program as broadcast) of the complete TV program. |
| Shot | Vision | Audio | In Point |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Animated Film Australia Logo |
00:01:30 | |
| 2 | Film Australia's Australian Biography series opening |
00:02:00 | |
| 3 | Fades from black |
00:01:38 | |
| 4 | Archival Fraser holding Mic and speaking at a Rally |
Fraser sync: All those for an election, all those who want Mr Whitlam to get the hell out of Canberra... |
00:01:47 |
| 5 | Archival People at Fraser Rally |
Crowd chanting: We want Fraser! We want Fraser! |
00:01:56 |
| 6 | Archival Fraser walking through crowd |
00:01:57 | |
| 7 | Archival Fraser waving to supporters |
00:02:01 | |
| 8 | Archival: Banners and supporters |
00:02:04 | |
| 9 | Archival: Whitlam supporters |
Crowd chanting: We want Gough! We want Gough! |
00:02:06 |
| 10 | Archival: Whitlam waving |
00:02:07 | |
| 11 | Archival: badge 'we want gough!' |
00:02:08 | |
| 12 | Archival: Whitlam |
00:02:09 | |
| 13 | Archival: Crowd |
00:02:10 | |
| 14 | Archival: Whitlam being interviewed |
Whitlam sync: The proclamation which you have just heard read by the Governor General's official secretary was countersigned Malcolm Fraser. |
00:02:11 |
| 15 | Archival: Fraser |
00:02:21 | |
| 16 | Fraser |
Fraser sync: I think when I went into politics my parents both believed, you know, really should he be doing this, will he make an ass of himself, he's very young and all the rest. |
00:02:24 |
| 17 | Archival: Fraser walking through crowd |
Announcer v/o: The Prime Minister of Australia, the Right Honourable Malcolm Fraser... Fraser v/o: Maybe I originally became a |
00:02:33 |
| 18 | Fraser |
Fraser sync: politician in a certain degree of ignorance. |
00:02:42 |
| 19 | Archival: Crowds standing at a Liberal Party Meeting |
Fraser v/o: I think we should all wish them a long and happy life in which that truism 'life wasn't meant to be easy' does not apply to them. |
00:02:45 |
| 20 | Photo: Fraser |
00:02:53 | |
| 21 | Fraser |
Fraser sync: I was born in Melbourne in a private house in, I think, Grange Road, I'm not sure. |
00:03:00 |
| 22 | Photo: Fraser as baby |
Interviewer o/s: And where did you spend your early years? |
00:03:06 |
| 23 | Fraser |
Fraser: I spent most of it in the Riverina on a property about fifty miles north of Deniliquin on the Edward River. |
00:03:11 |
| 24 | Photo: Fraser as young child holding bike |
Fraser v/o: We had five thousand acres of forest country, flooded country |
00:03:19 |
| 25 | Fraser |
Fraser sync: and occasionally station hands would get lost in that country because they have no sense of direction and I can remember riding out one day with my father and he said 'never come out through this country alone' and I'd already been riding alone through it for a couple of years without getting lost. |
00:03:24 |
| 26 | Photo Fraser in boat as young boy |
Interviewer o/s: Growing up there, alone as it were, with your parents and the property, |
00:03:45 |
| 27 | Fraser |
Interviewer o/s: were you particularly close to your mother? Fraser sync: Well I think I was close to both my parents, I don't think closer to one than the other. Interviewer o/s: What kinds of values |
00:03:51 |
| 28 | Photo Fraser and family having a picnic |
Interviewer o/s: do you think your parents were most concerned about communicating to you at that time? |
00:04:01 |
| 29 | Fraser |
Fraser sync: Honesty and telling the truth and I suppose working hard or whatever. Interviewer o/s: Hard work was valued? Fraser sync: Oh yes, work's valued. Work was essential, it was the nineteen thirties. Interviewer o/s: So where did you go to school? Fraser sync: I went to a preparatory school in Glamorgan for a while, this was in the latter part of the nineteen thirties, then I went to -- and this almost started -- the start of the war to a boarding school for four years at |
00:04:05 |
| 30 | Photo Fraser sitting in early teens |
Fraser v/o: Moss Vale, then I went to Melbourne Grammar. |
00:04:40 |
| 31 | Photo Melbourne Grammar |
Fraser v/o: Melbourne Grammar is a strange school in that I think there are a lot of traditions in Melbourne Grammar which are not |
00:04:44 |
| 32 | Fraser |
Fraser sync: particularly good for a lot of kids,. You know ,if you're good academically that's fine and they do everything for you, if you can play sport reasonably well, that's fine, they'll do everything for you. If you're one of the duller variety, I think they used to just, in many ways, wash their hands of you. |
00:04:50 |
| 33 | Photo Classroom |
Fraser v/o: You had, you know, everyone was divided into houses and schoolwork just went on and |
00:05:09 |
| 34 | Photo Cadets kneeling by a weapon |
sport went on and you only go to the cadets and cadet |
00:05:15 |
| 35 | Photo Fraser in Cadet uniform |
camps and... Interviewer o/s: Do you think that there was anything out of this early time |
00:05:20 |
| 36 | Fraser |
Interviewer o/s: at Melbourne Grammar that shaped you for you later life? Fraser sync: : I doubt if Melbourne Grammar influenced me at all. I'd hate to say that. Interviewer o/s: Really? Fraser sync: Hmm. They'd hate to hear me say it. Interviewer o/s: They would. They felt that they shaped people. Fraser sync Yeah? Well I don't think they did. |
00:05:25 |
| 37 | Photo Fraser as a young man standing outside gates in Oxford |
Interviewer o/s: Now you left Melbourne Grammar having done quite well academically and went immediately off to Oxford. Were you active |
00:05:43 |
| 38 | Fraser |
interviewer o/s: in the political life of the...? Fraser sync:: Not at all. Interviewer o/s: Why was that? Fraser sync: I didn't want to be. Interviewer o/s: Why? Fraser sync: I was probably terrified of making a speech or having to make a speech. Interviewer o/s: When did you get over that? Fraser sync: Oh, twenty years later. |
00:05:52 |
| 39 | Fraser |
Interviewer o/s: Were you intellectually excited by the ideas you were encountering? Fraser sync: Well, some of them. Interviewer o/s: Do you remember was there any particular tutor |
00:06:09 |
| 40 | Photo Students wearing robes in hall |
Interviewer o/s: or any particular line of argument that for you was a bit of a revelation? |
00:06:20 |
| 41 | Fraser |
Fraser sync: One of the things we studied very briefly, because there wasn't all that much to it, was Machiavelli. |
00:06:26 |
| 42 | Print Portrait Machiavelli |
Fraser v/o: Now the conventional wisdom of Machiavelli is that he was a terrible person, advocating terrible things, but the truth of it is that he never advocated anything. Now there's no reason |
00:06:33 |
| 43 | Fraser |
Fraser sync: why you couldn't translate Machiavelli into a democratic state and say what you needed to do to stay in power under democracy. |
00:06:45 |
| 44 | Fraser |
Interviewer o/s: You did PPE, Philosophy and Politics of Economics. What do think, why did choose that instead of Law, your father had done Law hadn't he? |
00:06:52 |
| 45 | Photo Fraser as a young boy and family |
Fraser v/o: He'd done Law and so the choice was between the two. |
00:07:01 |
| 46 | Photo back of a group of barristers |
You know, I would have enjoyed practicing law, but lawyers always regard themselves as superior beings, they are most arrogant race, they really are, or breed. |
00:07:05 |
| 47 | Fraser |
Interviewer o/s: So you think if you'd done a Law degree you might have learnt how to be arrogant? Fraser sync: I never particularly regarded that as a sin in politics. |
00:07:15 |
| 48 | Photo Fraser and other holding their horses |
Interviewer o/s: At what point did you decide that you wanted to go into politics? Fraser v/o: Well that was all an |
00:07:25 |
| 49 | Photo Fraser and horse |
accident. I'd come back from Oxford, |
00:07:29 |
| 50 | Fraser |
Fraser sync: the Labor Party held this seat, one or two of them didn't like an ex.. Interviewer o/s: That's the seat of Wannen? Fraser sync: Wannen...Ex-president of the Liberal party, Magnus Cormack who was going to stand, and they were saying 'Well you know you won't get preselection but why don't you throw your hat into the ring? and it will at least make it a more interesting pre-selection.' And that sort of conversation went on for a little while with a few people, this I suppose was in late in 1953 or 1954 and I'd thrown my hat into the ring and shortly after I'd done that I thought to hell with it, no point throwing your hat into the ring and not winning. So I started to work at it |
00:07:34 |
| 51 | Photo Fraser with woman next to Radio |
Fraser v/o: and won. I was twenty-five. But suddenly |
00:08:17 |
| 52 | Fraser |
Fraser sync: you realise you're representing forty-odd thousand people. |
00:08:22 |
| 53 | Photo Menzies boarding a plane |
Interviewer o/s: How did you get on with Menzies? Fraser v/o: I got on with him well. |
00:08:28 |
| 54 | Fraser |
Fraser sync: I always regretted that I hadn't been in one of his ministries, but I think it was probably Harold Holt |
00:08:32 |
| 55 | Photo Harold Holt smoking cigar |
Fraser v/o: who in the end made me a Minister, who had argued |
00:08:39 |
| 56 | Photo Harold Holt and Fraser |
'Oh young Malcolm's not ready yet', and Harold, I mean, I'd been, |
00:08:43 |
| 57 | Fraser |
Fraser sync: contrary to the views I now hold, I'd argued against the size of the immigration program at one point during the 1950's. I happen to think that I was wrong at the time. Certainly from this perspective. But that was arguing against something that was dear and close to Harold Holt's heart, but still I felt it at the time, so I argued it, |
00:08:47 |
| 58 | Harold Holt |
Fraser v/o: and anyway Holt suffered a great deal |
00:09:14 |
| 59 | Fraser |
Fraser sync: because he was Prime Minister when Australian servicemen were being sent to Vietnam, and conscripts were sent to Vietnam, |
00:09:18 |
| 60 | Photo Fraser in Army fatigue saluting to Soldiers |
Fraser v/o: it would have been sending people into conflict. |
00:09:24 |
| 61 | Photo Australian Soldiers |
Interviewer o/s: As Army Minister you presided over the period when they were in conflict. Did you have that same feeling? |
00:09:28 |
| 62 | Fraser |
Fraser sync: Yes I did but at the same time |
00:09:35 |
| 63 | Photo Fraser holding a gun |
Fraser v/o: I believe that the commitment was right. I still believe it was right. |
00:09:39 |
| 64 | Fraser |
Interviewer o/s: After Harold Holt drowned there was a change of leader. Who did you support? Fraser sync: I supported John Gorton and shouldn't have. |
00:09:43 |
| 65 | Photo Gorton |
Interviewer o/s: Why did you support him at the time? Fraser v/o: I thought he could handle Whitlam. |
00:09:54 |
| 66 | Fraser |
Fraser sync: He couldn't really, and Hasluck might have. |
00:09:59 |
| 67 | Photo Hasluck |
Fraser v/o: But Hasluck was a man of intellectual quality. |
00:10:04 |
| 68 | Fraser |
Fraser sync: John Gorton was a Prime Minister who had it all at his feet and kicked it all away. Interviewer o/s: At the beginning though, from your own personal point of view, it looked as if you'd done the right thing because he promoted you and seemed to respect you. Fraser sync: But Hasluck would have, too. There was nothing in that. Interviewer o/s: So what went wrong between you and Gorton? Fraser sync: Well you've got to understand your attitude to government. I believe that the Cabinet procedures were important because, certainly in significant issues you've got to discuss them, you want a variety of minds paying attention to an issue so you know what its consequences will be. The more the serious the issue the more important that there be a Cabinet discussion, |
00:10:09 |
| 69 | Photo Gorton |
Fraser v/o: because, you know, an arbitrary Prime Minister not subject to the restraint of those procedures |
00:11:01 |
| 70 | Fraser |
Fraser sync: can be just as damaging to a country as an arbitrary, absolutist monarch, there's no difference. Interviewer o/s: So did you become aware of this style in Gorton that you didn't like from the moment that you were in his Cabinet? |
00:11:08 |
| 71 | Photo Gorton on telephone |
Fraser v/o: I'd become fearful of it from about day two. Interviewer o/s: So what happened then |
00:11:24 |
| 72 | Fraser |
Interviewer o/s: when you decided that you Fraser sync: Well I just resigned. Interviewer o/s: And did you discuss this with Gorton? Fraser sync: Not beforehand, no. Interviewer o/s: Why not? Fraser sync: Because he'd have me head chopped off. If I was going to resign, I was going to resign I wasn't going give him the privilege of sacking me. Interviewer o/s: So who did you give your resignation to? Fraser sync: I took the unusual course and took it straight to the Governor General. Interviewer o/s: Legally, quite correct of course. Fraser sync: I'm not sure it was unconventional, put it, at best it was unconventional. Interviewer o/s: But you always had a great regard for the Office of Governor-General. Fraser sync: Well it's, you know, it is a safeguard, it does not make independent decisions, but it makes sure that procedures are followed. Interviewer o/s: It also meant that Gorton couldn't sack you before he accepted your resignation. |
00:11:29 |
| 73 | Fraser |
Interviewer o/s: And then you made probably one of the most scathing speeches that anyone has ever made about any leader, let alone his own leader. Fraser sync: It wasn't scathing, it was, in my view it was objective and balanced and moderate, so I suppose that shows how I was feeling at the time. |
00:13:15 |
| 74 | Continuation of previous shot |
Fraser sync: Once he had a piece of paper from me he couldn't sack me. Interviewer o/s: It's said that he asked, or he has said that he asked you whether you were going to resign and that you assured him that he could sleep well and not worry about it. Fraser sync: He asked me what I was going to do. Interviewer o/s: Right. Fraser sync: Look, this is one of those occasions... Interviewer o/s: Can we have your version of it? Fraser sync: Well no, he asked me what I as going to do and I said you can sleep. Look there had been a quite outrageous television program the night before which I watched and he watched, but if you've made decision that you're going to resign, you can't give a warning. It's one of the tough things in politics. I mean John Gorton had been a close friend of mine and here I was going to resign from his government in a way that would probably end his prime ministership. |
00:12:22 |
| 75 | Photo Gorton and McMahon |
Newsreader narration: It took Mr McMahon 63 years to do it |
00:13:32 |
| 76 | Photo brief case |
After possibly the most sensational and dramatic week in Australian politics, Billy McMahon |
00:13:35 |
| 77 | Photo McMahon |
was Prime minister. McMahon got there because of this man -- |
00:13:40 |
| 78 | Archival: Fraser being interviewed |
Malcolm Fraser, Defence Minister in Gorton's Cabinet. |
00:13:43 |
| 79 | Archival: The Press |
He dropped the bucket on his leader, charging disloyalty over a series of incidents involving journalists. |
00:13:47 |
| 80 | Fraser |
Interviewer o/s: How did you then stand in relation to your now new leader? Fraser sync: I'd never been very close to McMahon. |
00:13:53 |
| 81 | Archival: Whitlam rally |
00:14:02 | |
| 82 | Archival: Supporters standing around Whitlam |
00:14:04 | |
| 83 | Archival Rally crowd |
00:14:06 | |
| 84 | Archival Whitlam and team at Rally |
00:14:07 | |
| 85 | Archival: fast pan left of Rally crowd |
00:14:08 | |
| 86 | Archival: Back of man at Rally |
00:14:09 | |
| 87 | Fraser |
Fraser sync: When we got into Opposition there was a conscious effort to try and say some things about what the Liberal Party stood for and you know write some, write articles about that and I'd done -- it's hard to remember the dates exactly, I made one speech to the Alfred Deakin Lecture Trust and Menzies came out of retirement to chair the meeting for me and that sort of thing. |
00:14:14 |
| 88 | Photo Fraser |
Fraser v/o: It was the first speech since Menzies that articulated a philosophic view |
00:14:40 |
| 89 | Fraser |
Fraser sync: for the Liberal Party. Interviewer o/s: Was that a conscious act? Did you think... Fraser sync: Yes, definitely. Interviewer o/s: ...this is missing, no one else is doing it? Fraser sync: It's missing now, too. Interviewer o/s: Do you think you might do something about it now? Fraser sync: I'm too old to do anything about it now. I could write the speech, but I'm not sure who I'd want to give it to to deliver it. |
00:14:45 |
| 90 | Photo Bill Sneddon |
Interviewer o/s: What did you think of Bill Sneddon as a leader? Fraser v/o: If Bill had been content to be it, he'd be a good deputy. |
00:15:07 |
| 91 | Fraser |
Fraser sync: It is not kind to make somebody leader who hasn't got the qualities to be leader. Interviewer o/s: And what qualities did he lack? |
00:15:16 |
| 92 | Photo Bill Sneddon |
Fraser v/o: I suppose at the end of the day, judgment, resolution. |
00:15:22 |
| 93 | Fraser |
Interviewer o/s: What brought you to be leader of the Party? Fraser sync: I guess they thought I might be able to win an election. |
00:15:27 |
| 94 | Archival: Fraser speaking at an Election Rally |
Fraser sync: All those for an Election, all those who want Mr Whitlam to get the hell out of Canberra... |
00:15:34 |
| 95 | Archival: Man cheering |
Reporter narration: On October 15 th 1975 Liberal and Country Party |
00:15:43 |
| 96 | Archival: crowds |
senators voted to defer money supply bills in the Upper House. The pressure began to build in a battle of nerves. |
00:15:47 |
| 97 | Archival: Whitlam standing in the middle of a crowd of people |
00:15:56 | |
| 98 | Newspaper Photo Fraser |
00:16:02 | |
| 99 | Archival: Parliament House |
00:16:05 | |
| 100 | Archival: Crowd |
Crowd chanting: We want Gough! We want Gough! |
00:16:11 |
| 101 | Archival: Fraser |
00:16:19 | |
| 102 | Archival: Whitlam |
00:16:20 | |
| 103 | Archival: Fraser holding hands aloft with man on stage |
00:16:21 | |
| 104 | Archival Whitlam on stage with Hawke amongst crowd |
00:16:22 | |
| 105 | Archival Fraser and Kerr |
Interviewer o/s: At what stage did you discuss with Sir John Kerr, the tactics that would have to be used to deal with this extraordinary |
00:16:26 |
| 106 | Fraser |
Interviewer o/s: situation that in your view had happened in the country. Fraser sync: Never. Interviewer o/s: Well there was a point where you did discuss it. Fraser sync: Tactics? Interviewer o/s: Just the way in which the whole thing would be handled on the day, as it were. Fraser sync: No, tactics were never discussed. Going back awhile, quite late, I knew Sir John fairly well, something Whitlam had forgotten, because I had chosen him to, as my last act in Minister of Defence, but I put into force about four hours before I resigned as Defence Minister, to do a study of armed services pay and conditions, and I -- John Kerr to spoke to me when I was just a backbencher quite often because I knew the problems that he was, had been asked to overcome. And so I got to know him reasonably well. I knew he wouldn't act until the last minute, the last minute was when you could act and still have an election |
00:16:40 |
| 107 | Archival |
and get it all cleaned up before Christmas and about a week before that I'd said to Sir John, |
00:17:41 |
| 108 | Fraser |
Fraser sync: 'Your Excellency, you know that if there is not election at the end of the day I'm going to have to say something about what that means and I'll regret it, but it will mean obviously saying something about this office, because I believe that your duty requires you to provide an election and to make sure that there is an election. I think that's very clear from the constitution and from the historic precedencts of the office. In other words you're the last protector of the democratic system in Australia' and you know I would have said 'I'm sure that you would want to go down in history as being that protector', which he will, but he would not have wanted to be condemned |
00:17:53 |
| 109 | Photo Fraser and Kerr |
Fraser v/o: for failing the office, for failing that democratic responsibility. |
00:18:38 |
| 110 | Fraser |
Interviewer o/s: What did you feel was the most important thing that you had to do as Prime Minister? Fraser sync: Oh re-establish a sense of stability to the government in Australia, re-establish financial stability and, because circumstances in which investment would start moving forward again. Explain to countries overseas that the Whitlam Government had been nothing more than an aberration. |
00:18:45 |
| 111 | Photo Fraser at Cabinet table |
Fraser v/o: We were the first government to preach financial restraint in |
00:19:14 |
| 112 | Photo Cabinet Meeting |
the middle 1970's, we modified |
00:19:18 |
| 113 | Fraser |
Fraser sync: taxation for mining, we introduced some new measures for farming |
00:19:22 |
| 114 | Photo Fraser at lectern |
Frase v/o: and we did get our economy into order, but then |
00:19:27 |
| 115 | Fraser |
Fraser sync: our social policies, family allowances was a dramatic advance and change in terms of the way in which Australia dealt with its less well off people and families who are in greater financial hardship. The changes to Aboriginal policy and the changes in the multicultural area, multicultural area in particular were world firsts. |
00:19:32 |
| 116 | Photo Fraser |
Interviewer o/s: Many very people in this world seek power, |
00:20:02 |
| 117 | Photo Fraser in Glasses clenching fist |
the power to control, the power to make decisions. Fraser v/o: Well the whole purpose |
00:20:06 |
| 118 | Fraser |
Fraser sync: of a democratic society, of course, and a democratic government is to make sure that whoever's President or Prime Minister, that he doesn't have too much power, |
00:20:10 |
| 119 | Photo Margaret Thatcher and Fraser |
Fraser v/o: and there are two, I think there are two different kinds of politicians. |
00:20:20 |
| 120 | Fraser |
Fraser sync: There are those who want power because they have a particular purpose, they want to achieve something or they want to improve society or contribute to Australia, but we can't also deny the fact that there are some people who want power just because they like to exercise power. |
00:20:24 |
| 121 | Photo Keating |
Interviewer o/s: What kind do you think our present Prime Minister, Mr. Keating is? |
00:20:42 |
| 122 | Fraser |
Fraser sync: Oh I think he's got some things that he wants to do. Much more so than Mr. Hawke. |
00:20:46 |
| 123 | Archival Hawke and Wife |
Reporter v/o: Shortly after midnight, Mr Hawke entered the tally room to declare |
00:20:53 |
| 124 | Archival back of Crowd |
a Labor victory. For several minutes there was pandemonium. |
00:20:56 |
| 125 | Archival Hawke and Wife |
00:20:59 | |
| 126 | Archival: Fraser |
Fraser sync: I want to make it quite plain that I take total responsibility for the timing of the federal election. I take total responsibility for the conduct of that election. I therefore take total responsibility for the defeat of the government, and I'd like to thank all my colleagues and the Liberal Party right around the country for the support they have given, not just over recent weeks but over the last seven years. Interviewer o/s: What did it feel like to lose that election? |
00:21:03 |
| 127 | Fraser |
Fraser sync: Nobody likes being beaten in an election, even if you've won three before, but |
00:21:43 |
| 128 | Photo Fraser |
Fraser v/o: there was obviously greater freedom and all the rest. |
00:21:50 |
| 129 | Fraser |
Interviewer o/s: But also great loss of opportunity. Fraser sync: Oh, a loss of opportunity. What I should have done was to take a year sabbatical and decide what I was going to do after that, instead of resigning from the parliament about the same time. Interviewer o/s: Why did you resign? Fraser sync: Well, I thought neither Peacock nor Howard would have a real chance if I was there. People would have, if things started to go wrong and, you know, wonder when I was going to make a move and all the rest and I thought I owed it to my successors to give them a clear run. Well, in the event they mucked it up for themselves anyway, and so far as the party's concerned, if I'd been there, the history if the last ten years might have been quite different. |
00:21:54 |
| 130 | Photo Fraser leaning on gate |
Interviewer o/s: And the experience that you'd had and the qualities that you'd brought to the leadership |
00:22:42 |
| 131 | Fraser |
Interviewer o/s: could have been used again. Fraser sync: Yeah. Interviewer o/s: So you feel you did make a mistake in leaving it? Fraser sync: I've already said that. |
00:22:47 |
| 132 | Photo Fraser and Wife in Twenties |
Interviewer v/o: How did you meet your wife, Tammy? Fraser v/o: Oh, somewhere in Victoria. Interviewer v/o: What contribution did she |
00:22:55 |
| 133 | Fraser |
Interviewer o/s: make to your political life? Fraser sync: Well the most important part of it would have been encouragement, help to me |
00:23:02 |
| 134 | Photo Fraser and Tammy sitting down in garden with dog |
and, especially when things were difficult. |
00:23:10 |
| 135 | Fraser |
Fraser sync: When you made your speech condemning Gorton, you know,you just really wonder what you're doing and where it's all going or what the future holds. |
00:23:14 |
| 136 | Photo Press core |
Fraser v/o: Tammy played a tremendous part and was always enormous encouragement and support ,and |
00:23:23 |
| 137 | Photo Tammy |
always there when needed and |
00:23:31 |
| 138 | Photo Tammy talking to crowd of people |
I suppose, you know, in many ways |
00:23:35 |
| 139 | Fraser |
Fraser sync: was politically, very helpful because with her personality, |
00:23:39 |
| 140 | Photo Fraser and Tammy |
Fraser v/o: you know, people'd say 'Well if Tammy can put up with him he can't be all bad'. |
00:23:45 |
| 141 | Archival: TV Presenter |
TV Presenter sync: Malcolm Fraser has condemned the South African Government in an extraordinary Joannesburg news conference. |
00:23:50 |
| 142 | Archival Black men marching |
TV Presenter v/o: He has predicted violent change and has said that black south Africans have no other choice. |
00:23:56 |
| 143 | Archival Fraser speaking at news conference |
Fraser sync: if they have no capacity, no legal means of arguing for their freedom and achieving it, ultimately they only have the force and power they can muster with their arms. |
00:24:05 |
| 144 | Fraser |
Interviewer o/s: Why did you think Bob Hawke chose you or recommended you to be part of the Eminent Persons Group to go to South Africa? Fraser sync: Well, I would have carried credibility in that area that a lot of other people would not. I suppose being a conservative politician and also having the credibility in issues of race was a help and it was useful. |
00:24:17 |
| 145 | Archival Fraser and other standing outside building |
Fraser v/o: We found that the ANC was certainly ready and willing to negotiate |
00:24:42 |
| 146 | Archival Fraser |
and the government was also, |
00:24:46 |
| 147 | Archival Members of the Eminent Persons Group |
but at the time the government was only prepared to negotiate on its own terms. We set out |
00:24:50 |
| 148 | Fraser |
Fraser sync: in our negotiating concept the steps that the ANC would have to take before the government could realistically be expected to sit down with them, and also the steps that the government would have to take. |
00:24:56 |
| 149 | Photo Fraser and other at press conference |
Fraser v/o: It's interesting that in the time that passed after that |
00:25:09 |
| 150 | Fraser |
Fraser sync: Commonwealth Report in 1986, to the time when negotiations for us began between Mandela and de Klerk, both the government and the ANC had implemented our negotiating concept to the full. In other words we described accurately in 1986 what each would have to do as a pre-condition for sensible and worthwhile negotiations. So in that sense, I think we made a very real contribution. We exposed the issues and the analysis that we set down at that time remain valid right through. |
00:25:15 |
| 151 | Photo Fraser |
Interviewer v/o: Would you describe yourself as an optimist? |
00:25:58 |
| 152 | Fraser |
Fraser sync: I think probably I am, because if you weren't an optimist, I think you're very stupid being a politician, probably stupid being involved |
00:26:02 |
| 153 | Photo Fraser at desk |
Fraser v/o; with a major aid organisation. |
00:26:12 |
| 154 | Fraser |
Interviewer o/s: You've been critical of some of your colleagues on the grounds that they were emotional, |
00:26:15 |
| 155 | Photo Fraser and ? |
Interviewer v/o: that's been a theme in some of your criticisms... |
00:26:20 |
| 156 | Fraser |
Interviewer o/s: Would you be able to respect yourself, would you be able to respect a leader who showed emotion publicly? Fraser sync: Showing emotion isn't something that necessarily destroys respect, but you really want to make sure, or you want to believe, or I would anyway, that a person is in control of themselves. |
00:26:24 |
| 157 | Photo Head of Fraser |
Interviewer o/s: Did you feel disappointed with yourself that you showed some emotion on the night that you, that you lost the election |
00:26:53 |
| 158 | Fraser |
Interviewer o/s: in '83? Not very much, but just a little bit showed through. Fraser sync: Some. Probably. Interviewer o/s: You would have preferred not to show anything? Fraser sync: Yes. Interviewer o/s: And yet some people say that it's because you're so in control of yourself that others have sometimes found it hard to see you as a sympathetic human being. Fraser sync: Well, maybe. I don't know. |
00:27:00 |
| 159 | Photo Fraser standing under Street signs |
Interviewer v/o: What would you like your epitaph to be? |
00:27:24 |
| 160 | Fraser |
Fraser sync: I haven't even thought of it. I don't know. Interviewer o/s: How would you like people to think of you? Fraser sync: Well, maybe they could use that quotation from the old man. Interviewer o/s: Life wasn't meant to be easy? Fraser sync: But take courage child. It can be delightful. |
00:27:28 |
| 161 | Credits |
00:28:00 |