Malcolm Fraser

John Malcolm Fraser, AC, CH (born 21 May 1930), Australian politician and 22nd Prime Minister of Australia, came to power in the circumstances of the dismissal of the Whitlam government. After two huge election victories and many legislative achievements, he was defeated by Bob Hawke in 1983, and ended his career alienated from his own party.

Sourced

• Life wasn't meant to be easy.
  • Fraser's best known phrase, generally taken as a gloomy explanation of life's difficulties, but for him rather it was a reason to take on difficult tasks. Not widely recognised as being in fact a quotation from George Bernard Shaw's play Back to Methuselah: "Life is not meant to be easy, my child; but take courage: it can be delightful".http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/13084 Well known from his Alfred Deakin lecture speech (20 July 1971, http://www.unimelb.edu.au/malcolmfraser/speeches/nonparliamentary/towards2000.html), but he'd used it or known the sentiment for many years prior. (Per interview with Fraser for Australian Biography project, 1994, transcript.)
• "We used to have a view that to really be a good Australian, to love Australia, you almost had to cut your links with the country of origin. But I don’t think that was right and it never was right." Malcolm Fraser, at the opening of the Special Broadcasting Service in Oct. 1980. http://www.abc.net.au/rn/deakin/stories/s295948.htm