Electoral record

In September 1903, Frazer won ALP preselection for the Division of Kalgoorlie, defeating two other candidates.^[8] The incumbent member John Kirwan was a Free Trader sympathetic to the labour movement. He had won a large majority at the inaugural 1901 election and had the support of the Kalgoorlie Miner and Western Argus. Kirwan's popularity may have contributed to the smaller number of candidates for ALP preselection, as he was widely expected to win re-election.^[9]

According to his friend Richard Crouch, Frazer's campaign was bankrolled with his poker winnings, which included a win of £1,000 in a single night (equivalent to $83,000 in 2022).^[9] The Kalgoorlie electorate occupied the south-eastern portion of Western Australia, with most of its population concentrated in Kalgoorlie and Boulder. In the lead-up to the federal election scheduled for 16 December, he began his campaign in the coastal hamlet of Hopetoun, subsequently travelling by ship to Esperance and then riding north to Norseman by bicycle, a five-day journey. His official policy speech was made in Kalgoorlie on 7 November,^[10] and included support for White Australia, protectionism, compulsory arbitration, old-age pensions, and direct taxation of the wealthy.^[11] Kirwan's campaign suffered from a lack of organisation, which contrasted with the pre-existing ALP and union branches that lent their support to Frazer.^[8] At the election, the ALP recorded a large swing throughout Western Australia, winning all three Senate seats and four out of five seats in the House of Representatives. Frazer defeated Kirwan by nearly 3,000 votes, polling almost two-thirds of the total.^[12]

After his initial success, Frazer was re-elected with an increased majority at each subsequent election. At the 1906 election he was opposed by William Burton, the mayor of Esperance, on behalf of John Forrest's newly formed Western Australian Party. This had been established as an attempt to harness regionalist and secessionist sentiment to provide a unified organisation behind anti-Labor candidates in Western Australia.^[13] However, Burton "swiftly repudiated the party label and spoke in favour of radical policies at meetings which, as he had no organisation, hardly anybody attended".^[14] Frazer won a majority of over 5,000 votes and 79 percent of the overall vote, the largest proportion of any candidate nationwide.^[15] His margin at the 1910 election increased to over 8,000 votes and 81 percent of the total, again making Kalgoorlie one of the safest seats in the country.^[16] His Liberal opponent John Thornett's first campaign meeting was infiltrated by Frazer supporters and turned violent. Thornett was assaulted and hospitalised for several days, after which he withdrew from campaigning. According to Murdoch (2013), "Frazer and the Labor Party had become so popular on the goldfields that it was dangerous to oppose them".^[16]

In a redistribution prior to the 1913 election, population decline on the Eastern Goldfields led to the Coolgardie electorate being abolished and split between Kalgoorlie and the new seat of Dampier. The incumbent ALP member for Coolgardie, Hugh Mahon, was defeated in Dampier, but Frazer retained the enlarged Kalgoorlie constituency unopposed.

Backbencher

In parliament, he studied law in order to improve his leadership skills, campaigned successfully for the Labor parliamentary caucus to select the ministry when in office and for Labor to stop supporting Protectionist Party governments. Following Labor's success at the 1910 election, he served as honorary minister in the Second Fisher Ministry. In 1911, he acted as Treasurer for several months while Fisher attended the 1911 Imperial Conference and coronation of George V.^[17]

Frontbencher

In October 1911 he was appointed Postmaster-General.

Frazer worked closely with Douglas Mawson to assist in the success of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition. Mawson needed the support of the department in respect of postal mail from Cape Denison and Macquarie Island. The expedition was the first to make provision for wireless telegraphy but the range was considered likely to fall short of the Australian mainland and Mawson sought and obtained the moving forward of the establishment of the Hobart wireless station (Callsign: POH, then VIH) to ensure the communications link.^[18]

He was a strong supporter for a uniform stamp for all of Australia, which was still using the old colonial (now state) issues. His first issue, now known to philatelists as the Kangaroo and Map series, was designed by Blamire Young and issued in 1913^[19]