Best of 2025 - Working with PM Fraser - the changeover - Part 1 |
John Menadue stayed on as the most senior public servant in the land, after the trauma of the Dismissal. In this 5-part series he details what life was like working with PM Fraser. Given his closeness to Whitlam, some of his conclusions are surprising.
A repost from 19 November 2025
Hunkered down in Canberra after 11 November with the ‘caretaker’ conditions imposed by the Governor-General on Malcolm Fraser, there was a sense of unreality and nagging doubt about the future. The political and social fabric of trust had been torn. Would it keep tearing?
Some of my senior Canberra colleagues, conservative and privately Liberal Party supporters, were appalled by the turn of events. I received sympathetic support from them in the difficult situation I faced which was unique because of my long association with the sacked Prime Minister. I was his personal appointment to the most senior position in the Public Service. Would I want to stay if Fraser was elected? Should I stay? Would I be asked to go? I knew the questions were being canvassed. I thought the gossip was beside the point. Not for one moment did I consider resigning.
In the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, we turned to briefings for the new Government after the election. One normally has several months to prepare. In this case we didn’t have much time. It was made more difficult because the Liberal Party had not given a great deal of thought to policy development. A Liberal Party government would be a natural return to the pre-1972 order. We hoped that Fraser’s election policy speech would give us guidance on what we should prepare for, but it was stronger on politics than policy. We had long discussions with the Public Service Board about major departmental changes that Fraser had flagged.
In the unlikely event of Whitlam being returned as Prime Minister we also prepared a briefing. We expected that Kerr would resign rather than be sacked. I also knew that Whitlam had privately speculated that he might make a symbolic point of switching the residence of the prime minister from the Lodge to Yarralumla and oblige the new governor-general to move into the Lodge. He would have enjoyed that.
I knew that we might also need to be ready for........