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Citizens Electoral Council of Australia

Media Release  Wednesday, 25 March 2015

Craig Isherwood‚ National Secretary
PO Box 376‚ COBURG‚ VIC 3058
Phone: 1800 636 432
Email: cec@cecaust.com.au
Website: http://cec.cecaust.com.au
 

CEC’s Isherwood:

Farewell Malcolm Fraser, champion of sovereignty and peace

It is with both great honour and great sadness that on behalf of the Citizens Electoral Council I pay tribute to former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, who passed away on 20 March at the age of 84.

The universal respect being expressed for Mr. Fraser from individuals and organisations across the broad political spectrum, speaks eloquently to his integrity, and to his steadfast adherence to principles.

Malcolm Fraser spoke out on issues that brought him into conflict with the political consensus in Australia, including the shameful mistreatment of asylum seekers; the assault on civil liberties from “anti-terrorism” laws; the destructiveness of radical financial deregulation; and, on the optimistic side, for the need to develop Australia and build the population up to 45-50 million people.

Above all, Malcolm Fraser devoted his final years to fighting for Australia to end its historical subservience to empires, first to the British Empire, and now to an America presently acting in that British imperial tradition. His deepest passion was that Australia assert itself at long last as an independent sovereign nation.

That was the message of his 2014 book, Dangerous Allies.

Mr. Fraser warned that the Anglo-American powers were the strategic aggressors against China and Russia, and are therefore pushing the world towards nuclear war, and that Australia’s strategic subservience to the Anglo-Americans made us complicit in their strategy.

Malcolm Fraser was not prone to exaggeration: he warned his fellow Australians that the current US strategic policy of the Obama administration, the so-called Asia Pivot, for which Australia has made itself available as a staging ground, is leading to nuclear war with China, in which Australia would inevitably be a target.

He viewed the Russian situation similarly: the cause of the crisis, he emphasised repeatedly, is not Russia’s policy, but the aggressive eastward expansion of NATO, driven by our US and UK allies, to encircle Russia, in clear breach of the spirit of the undertaking given to Mikhail Gorbachev following the end of the USSR.

He was one of the few prominent Australians to speak out against the coup in Ukraine in February 2014, orchestrated by the US, the UK and the EU, which installed a neo-Nazi-infested regime in order to expand NATO right up to Russia’s border.

Put bluntly, Malcolm Fraser disagreed vehemently with virtually everything that Australian politicians and the media are telling us about the major strategic challenges facing the world today: that China is aggressive and bullying its neighbours; and that Putin is a tyrannical dictator determined to expand Russia and destabilise Europe.

Finally, Mr. Fraser also had firm views on the financial system. He is decried by the Liberal-Labor consensus for resisting the radical deregulation of the financial system that was pushed by banks, financial markets and Thatcherite think tanks during his prime ministership, and he was right to do so. His wisdom and foresight were vindicated when the deregulated global financial system melted down in 2008.

With that understanding, in 2013 Mr. Fraser threw his support behind the CEC’s campaign for a full Glass-Steagall separation of retailing banking from investment banking in Australia and worldwide, declaring that “Repealing Glass-Steagall [in the US] was the stupidest thing they ever did.” In August 2014 he made his own submission to David Murray’s Financial System Inquiry, calling for Glass-Steagall to be imposed on Australia’s banking system.

Malcolm Fraser had the courage to change his views as he went through life, but he didn’t change his underlying principles. What really changed after he left the formal political arena was the Australian elite, which now shamelessly dances to a foreign-dictated tune of right-wing economic and strategic policies which portend disaster for his beloved nation. Australia has lost a true statesman, who continued to lead until the day he died. One can almost hear a single kilted piper playing over his grave, announcing that Malcolm Fraser has fought his final fight. To truly honour him, we as Australians must find the wisdom to heed his warnings, and the courage within ourselves to act for the causes which he so nobly advanced, until his spirit departed.

On behalf of the entire CEC I offer my heartfelt condolences to Malcolm Fraser’s widow and lifelong partner Tamie, and to their children and grandchildren.

Click here for a free copy of the CEC’s Oct.-Dec. 2012 New Citizen newspaper headlined “Act Now! Stop Nuclear War!”, which features Malcolm Fraser’s detailed warning that the direction of Australia’s Anglo-American-run foreign policy is leading to nuclear war.

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