One of the great oddities of Australian government which baffles foreign observers – along with preferential voting and the small matter of quite when Australia became a nation – is the endurance of the coalition between the two main conservative parties, one predominantly urban, the other rural-based. This is now well over a century old, the odd blip notwithstanding.

No Liberal leader defended the coalition more resolutely than did one of Australia’s more unlikely Prime Ministers, the aloof, seemingly patrician but resolutely dedicated Malcolm Fraser. The reputation of this formidable individual is marred even within his own former party by a perception that his nearly seven and a half years in office were a lost opportunity for major economic reform, leaving much to be taken up by the Hawke government. 

How so? One mooted explanation that this seminar will explore is this avowed man of the land’s affinity with the National Country Party’s ‘Mulga Mafia’ – the tough troika of Doug Anthony, Peter Nixon, and Ian Sinclair, disdained by some critics as ‘economic cowboys’ who steadfastly resisted any policy threat to their rural constituency. Did Fraser so unduly favour the Nationals that he dashed the high hopes held by many of his Liberal supporters and ministers, indelibly marring his legacy?

Dr Stephen Wilks is an academic research editor with the National Centre of Biography, ANU School of History. He holds a doctorate from the ANU on ideas about economic and social development in twentieth-century Australia. Prior to enlisting in academia, he survived a decidedly varied career in government that encompassed AusAID, the Departments of Infrastructure, Regional Australia, Innovation, Immigration, and Trade, and overseas missions in Jakarta and Hong Kong. Stephen is the author of “Now is the Psychological Moment”: Earle Page and the Imagining of Australia, along with articles and book chapters on postwar Australian conservatism. He is also editor of ‘Order, Order!': A Biographical Dictionary of Speakers, Deputy Speakers and Clerks of the Australian House of Representatives, and has delivered numerous public lectures, podcasts and media interviews on political history.

Join Zoom Meeting: https://anu.zoom.us/j/88902124291?pwd=f9S8I7GgtJwog6OkB0E3BQTxq77WdN.1 

Meeting ID: 889 0212 4291

Password: 814181