Andrew William Fraser (aka Drew Fraser) (born 1944) is a Canadian-born academic and was latterly an Associate Professor in the Department of Public Law at Macquarie University in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.[1] Fraser holds a BA (Hons) and an LLB from Queen’s University, an LLM from Harvard University, and an MA from the University of North Carolina. His most recent book is The WASP Question (2011).
In July 2005, [Drew] Fraser received national attention in Australia with a letter to his local newspaper, signed with his academic title, in which he claimed that importing Sudanese refugees threatened to turn Australia into “a colony of the Third World” and “Experience everywhere in the world shows us that an expanding black population is a sure-fire recipe for increases in crime, violence and other social problems”.[2][3][4]
Macquarie University responded that it distanced itself from Professor Fraser’s remarks, but backed the right of academics to say what they wish in a responsible way. The acting Vice-Chancellor, Professor John Loxton, stated there was no place for racism at the university, but it “recognises and protects academic freedom as essential to the conduct of teaching, research and scholarship”.
Fraser was accused of being affiliated with White Supremacist groups, including the Patriotic Youth League (PYL), by the anti-racist group FightDemBack. Although both he and the PYL initially denied any connection, Fraser admitted he had attended PYL meetings and signed up to the PYL website after video footage of a PYL member describing him as an official legal adviser surfaced.[5]
Following an outcry from Sydney’s Sudanese community, Macquarie University Vice-Chancellor Dianne Yerbury on July 29, 2005 decided to suspend Fraser from teaching any further at the campus on the grounds that the race debate was “threatening to spill over into the classroom” and was “affecting the university’s ability to operate effectively.” [6] Macquarie University offered to pay out the final year of his contract but Fraser declined, describing the offer as a “dishonorable discharge”.[7]
On this incident, Fraser wrote:
“Truth is no longer a defence when it comes to charges of academic deviance. Instead of an invitation to debate the issues, the Vice-Chancellor’s office sought to get me off campus as soon as possible by offering to buy out my contract. The head of Human Resources made it clear to me that my public comments were damaging their efforts to market Macquarie University to foreign students.“When I refused the offer on the grounds that it amounted to a dishonourable discharge, VC Di Yerbury, ordered that I be suspended from teaching. This was justified on the specious grounds that the safety of students supposedly had been threatened by, among others, my supporters! For what must be the first time in academic history, alleged threats by outsiders to disrupt classes were met, not by tightening security to deal with the disrupters, but by getting rid of the disruptee.”[8]
In August 2005, more than 300 Macquarie University staff and students attended a forum on racism and free speech, at which Fraser (as well as Sudanese community and University members) was allowed to put his views from the floor.[9]
Fraser’s suspension ended in mid-2006, when an early-retirement package took effect.
In September 2005, Fraser wrote an article advocating a return of the White Australia Policy, entitled “Rethinking the White Australia Policy”. The article was set to be published in the law journal of Deakin University, but the University directed the journal not to publish it.[10] “Rethinking the White Australia Policy” has since been published and circulated across the internet.[11]
In the controversial article, Fraser wrote:
“Given the relentless and revolutionary assault on their historic national identity, white Australians now face a life-or-death struggle to preserve their homeland. Whether effective resistance to their displacement and dispossession can be mounted is another question. Unlike other racial, ethnic or religious groups well-equipped to practice the politics of identity, white Australians lack a strong, cohesive sense of ethnic solidarity. As a consequence, ordinary Australians favouring a moratorium on non-white immigration cannot count on effective leadership or support from their co-ethnics among political, intellectual and corporate elites. On the contrary, our still predominantly Anglo-Australian rulers are indifferent; some profit from, and others actually take pride in their active collaboration with the Third World colonization of Australia. None of the major parties, indeed, not one member of the Commonwealth Parliament, offers citizens the option of voting to defend and nurture Australia’s Anglo-European identity. The problem, in short, is clear: The Australian nation is bereft of a responsible ruling class.”[12]
In December 2005, Fraser further criticised multiracialism in Australia by writing an article regarding the 2005 Cronulla riots, entitled “Diversity vs. Freedom: Australians Fight On The Beaches.”[13] As with the full version of “Rethinking the White Australia Policy”, the article was only published on the internet, namely on the U.S.-based webzine VDARE.
A complaint from the Sydney Sudanese community about the original newspaper letter was upheld on 31 March 2006 by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, on whose direction Fraser reluctantly apologised for his remarks.[14][15]
Andrew Fraser addressed the American Renaissance Conference in February 2006, alongside speakers such as Nick Griffin of the British National Party and Professor J. Philippe Rushton. This was followed up later in the year with appearances at the Inverell political forum in March and at the Sydney Forum in August alongside speakers who included Jim Saleam of the Australia First Party.
Drew Fraser has several articles on VDARE.com including this one on the White Australia policy in force until 1974.
I emailed Drew Fraser: “I am curious about the aftermath of your remarks. How have people treated you? Has your life been ruined or enhanced by this controversy?”
He responds:
G’day Luke,
In the immediate aftermath of my published remarks on African immigration, I was suspended from teaching by the Vice-Chancellor of Macquarie University. But this was part of a long pattern of conflict between myself and the university administration. For decades, I had been regarded as a burr under the university’s saddle by “progressive” elements in the faculty as well as the administration.
That conflict became worse over time as the university and the law school became ever-more feminized. The law school ladies did not like and would not tolerate argument and debate over the central elements of the progressive ideological consensus. In 1999, the femocracy moved to expel me and several other men (including several Marxists) from the law school. In a form of academic apartheid, we were sent into exile in the Arts faculty in a purpose-built Department of Public Law.
While I enjoyed the relative autonomy of that arrangement, I did resent the stigma attached to our department.
As a consequence, when my comments resulted in suspension, I was more than ready to bail out and retire.
There was nothing the university could do to deprive me of my pension so my life since leaving law teaching has been relatively pleasant. Freed from teaching duties, I found the time to write The WASP Question and give talks to various groups around Australia.
The take-away message here is the absolute importance of financial independence to anyone contemplating a public break with the politically-correct orthodoxies of our time.
Regards,
Drew Fraser
