FRASER, JOHN MALCOLM (AUSTRALIA)

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06893591
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: March 9, 2023
• Document Release Date: August 26, 2021
• Case Number: F-2020-01826
• Publication Date: February 18, 1978

Approved for Release: 2021/08/25 C06893591
Prime Minister
(since December 1975)
Addressed as:
Mr. Prime Minister
Leader of the Liberal
Party (LP) since March
1975, Malcolm Fraser
became Prime Minister
in the LP-National Country
Party coalition government
formed after the December
1975 general election.
As leader of the opposi-
tion, he had been named
caretaker Prime Minister
in November, when Australia's Governor General
dismissed Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam after
a parliamentary impas6-e-over th-e budget. His
coalition government was returned to office in a
landslide victory on 10 December 1977. Long active
in the LP, Fraser has held several Cabinet posts
in previous conservative governments, including
those of Minister for Defense (1969-71) and min-
ister for Education and Science (1971-72).
Fraser was born in Melbourne, the grandson of
a man who came to Australia from Nova Scotia during
the 19th-century gold rush and eventually became
a member of the first Commonwealth Parliament. He
holds a master's degree with honors in philosophy,
political science and economics from Magdalen
College, Oxford. First elected to the House of
Representatives in 1955, he has been reelected
ever since.
A US Leader Grantee in 1964, Fraser visited
Washington most recently in June 1977. He is a
wealthy man, owning a house in Canberra and an
estate in Victoria, where he raises cattle and
sheep. His leisure interests include fishing,
photography, and motorcycling.--Traser, 47, is
married to the former Tamara Beggs and has four
children.
Approved for Release: 2021/08/25 C06893591