Much-loved former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer (pictured) has died
Former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer has died after a battle with leukaemia.
Mr Fischer, 73, died at the Albury-Wodonga Cancer Centre, surrounded by close family members.
He had been battling acute leukemia for the past 10 months, and cancer generally for the past 10 years.
He leaves behind his wife Judy Brewer and son Harrison.
The much-loved former politician underwent chemotherapy last year after being diagnosed with acute leukaemia.
In May, when he opened a museum dedicated to his life at his birthplace of Lockhart, near Wagga Wagga, he revealed he was hoping the disease would go into remission.
‘Almost in remission, not quite. I am just uplifted by this nice gallery,’ he said in May.
In November last year, Mr Fischer (pictured left) revealed his son Harrison (pictured right), who has autism, helped him get through cancer treatment
Mr Fischer has been battling cancer for the past 10 years, starting with a bladder cancer diagnosis, then prostate cancer, two melanomas, and now, acute myeloid leukaemia.
He has been remebered in his ubiquitous Akubra, as a quirky man of great enthusiasms and a media tart whose effectiveness was regularly underestimated.
‘Two-minute Tim’, as he was called for the whirlwind speed of his meetings with voters, also had political courage – notably over gun control and Pauline Hanson.
In 1966 he was conscripted into the Australian army and, after being commissioned a second lieutenant, sent to Vietnam where he suffered shrapnel wounds.
More seriously, he suffered from cancers later in life which he attributed to Agent Orange, the toxic defoliant the Americans used widely during the conflict.
He first developed cancer in 2008 and was diagnosed with acute leukaemia in 2018.
In November last year, he revealed his son Harrison, who has autism, helped him get through cancer treatment.
Former Nationals leader Tim Fischer and his wife Judy at the 10th anniversary dinner for the Howard government in Canberra in 2006
Mr Fischer stepped down from his roles as trade minister, deputy prime minister and leader of the National Party in 1999 when Harrison was only five.
His resignation brought about a rare showing of public respect by then-Labor leader Kim Beazley, who said he was ‘one of the genuinely loved people in this place’.
Mr Fischer said a ‘convergence of certain political and personal factors’ was the reason for his shock resignation but he declined to elaborate at the time.
But it later emerged that Harrison’s diagnosis was a leading factor in his decision to resign.
Mr Fischer said he found himself sharing some characteristics with his son, leading him to believe he was also on the autism spectrum.
Judy Brewer, Mr Fischer’s wife, told the ABC she vividly remembered a doctor putting a negative inflection on her son’s diagnosis.
‘We were told, “your son has autism. He’ll probably never live independently, he will probably never have a job, he will probably never be able to do the other things that other children or adults do”.’
Mr Fischer, who first became an MP at the age of 24, was Nationals leader from 1990 to 1999 and deputy prime minister in the Howard government from 1996 to 1999.
He quit politics in 2001 and became Australian ambassador to the Holy See in 2009, a post he held for three years.