How to Capture a Prime Minister

A Prime Minister under siege.

The unfinished political movement Australia may need.

How to Capture a PM (2023)

A documentary film. Rated M

Runtime: 1hr 42 mins | watch trailer below.

When a student protest erupts into violence, Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser is driven into a basement while his minders desperately hatch an escape plan. Overshadowed by the dismissal of the Whitlam Government, this filmmaker discovered this to be one of the most dramatic and revealing flashpoints in Australian history.

The film thrusts audiences into the political turmoil of 1970s Australia — and lands with unsettling relevance today.

Featuring Fraser’s final major interview, where he delivers searing critiques of the Liberal Party, America, and Australian foreign policy, the documentary forces a confrontation with the political inheritance of the present.

The unfinished blueprint

What the director didn’t know during production was that Fraser had secretly begun working with disillusioned Liberals and Labor figures on a progressive, youth-focused political movement aimed at renewing Australian democracy.

The blueprint centred on:

• accepting the scientific consensus on climate

• ambitious renewable-energy targets built around market mechanisms, not state control

• strong pro-immigration values

• a direct appeal to young Australians alienated by “corroded national politics”

The project was well advanced but stalled when Fraser passed away suddenly in 2015.

The Discussion

After the screening, director Gary Newman will be joined by political scientist Dr Mike Richards, who worked directly with Malcolm Fraser on the blueprint.

Together with the audience, they’ll unpack what Fraser was building — and why the moment to revisit it may have finally arrived.

With the Liberal Party in open turmoil, and net zero on the chopping block, and independents on the rise — Australian politics is entering a period of intensive renewal. The ideas Fraser left behind — pro-climate, youth-focused, market-driven — now sit in stark contrast to the direction his old party is taking.

We’ll explore whether Fraser’s abandoned project offers a pathway out of the current crisis — and what a 21st-century political movement might look like if we tried to finish what he started.

Gary Newman is a political filmmaker and commentator, with work published in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.

Dr Mike Richards is a political scientist and former chief of staff to several Labor leaders.

"Compelling" - The Australian

"Spellbinding" - The Age

"Who knew Australian history could be this bizarre, this interesting, and yet somehow so typical." - Jenny Hocking

"Rulers radicals and ratbags collide in chaotic drama." - Lindsay Tanner