He was despised by many when in power, especially for his tactics in 1975. Perfect case of the ends justifying the means. Yet subsequent leaders of his party have taken his Liberal Party to be more like the Republican party in the USA which has been infiltrated by the far right wing ideologues of 'The Tea Party.'
They, (The Republican Party) are now so far away and removed from their first President- Abraham Lincoln in 1860. Same here in Australia where the Liberal Party of Malcolm Fraser has now become more Darwinist- the 'Survival of the fittest' policy. So looking back now, Fraser and his era is considerably different from the likes of Howard, Reith, Costello, Abbott, Heffernan, Bernardi and a few others.
Anyway this is a footy board, so politics and ideology shouldn't really be discussed here, but nevertheless Malcolm Fraser wasn't the big bad bogeyman that many believed back in that 1975-1983 era, when you look at his side of politics now.
At least he went to the Footscray ground and never complained about it, unlike a former president of the Northern Blues, who in his autobiography devoted quite a few lines as to how unpleasant the Western Oval was for him, when he watched his Northern Blues sitting in the E.J. Whitten Stand. Yet he was born in Williamstown! He should barrack for Footscray, shouldn't he?! As lacking in the corporate capabilities that the E.J. Whitten Stand was for people of his tastes, I wonder if he ever ventured to the "bathroom" behind the goals at the Scoreboard end at Princes Park. They didn't have a roof- this was in 1995. You can only wonder what the ladies 'bathrooms' were like there?
Anyway John Elliott got the last laugh, another bloke who was later to become President of an A.F.L club,(Footscray) was also unimpressed about the 'lack of corporate facilities' at our Footscray ground, so John Elliott never had to venture here anymore after 1996# as our new President got us to move in with John Elliott's Northern Blues at their ground. So Footscray supporters (and visiting teams supporters playing the newly named Western Bulldogs at Princes Park) got to play their part in helping Carlton Football Club pay off their new Legends Stand which was positioned where those " no roofed bathrooms' where at the Scoreboard end of Carlton's ground.
John Elliott deserves credit here though- he annoyed plenty of people when had their ground re-named Optus Oval to get a few bob, but he was totally aghast at the thought of Carlton playing under another name.
Jack Collins asked him once, what would happen if someone at Carlton suggested that they change their name?
"They would be hung up by a yard arm" replied John Elliott.
# Carlton's last game at the Western Oval was in 1991, (we nearly kept them goal less for the game, the previous time this happened was in 1960 when Richmond were kept goal less by St Kilda at the Junction Oval)
Carlton never played Fitzroy at the Western Oval during Fitzroy's 3 seasons (1994,1995,1996) at Footscray. So John Elliott got his wish of never coming back to Footscray after 1991. Of Fitzroy's 15 opponents in the then 16 team competition, all played Fitzroy at least once at the Western Oval during those 3 years. All EXCEPT for Carlton.