From the time he entered parliament in 1955, Malcolm Fraser undertook almost weekly speeches for local radio stations in his electorate of Wannon. They cover a huge range of topics, from foreign policy to political philosophy to agricultural concerns to early discussions on racism. With over 700 transcripts available, the speeches document the continuity and evolution of Fraser's personal ideology over his entire parliamentary career.
Political Rhetoric Project
In 2022, a joint project between the Melbourne Data Analytics Platform, the Faculty of Arts Digital Studio and UMA sought to create analytical tools for the radio talk text using a methodology of natural language processing called topic modelling to identify significant topics and perform temporal analysis in order to better understand Fraser's political rhetoric. Methodology and findings can be found on the Archives and Special Collections website.
Malcolm Fraser Radio Talks and Broadcasts. University of Melbourne Archives, accessed 12/07/2025, https://archives.library.unimelb.edu.au/nodes/view/630114
