Queenslander Bill Hayden said Malcolm Fraser was a man who stood by his word.

Mr Hayden served as Opposition Leader for six years to Mr Fraser and, if not for political twists, would most likely to have taken Australia's top job from him.

Mr Hayden's famous quote, "that a drover's dog could lead the Labor Party to victory, the way the country is," came on the afternoon the ALP replaced him with Bob Hawke, to lead them to success at the 1983 federal election.

From his property outside Ipswich on Friday afternoon, Mr Hayden, now 82, remembered Mr Fraser as a man who stood by his word.

When Mr Fraser routed Labor in 1975, Bill Hayden was Labor's sole Queensland MP, the member for Oxley in Ipswich.

"He was Prime Minister of Australia for more than seven years and as such he has always had my high personal respect," Mr Hayden said.

"Anyone representing all of us as our head of government in this country deserves to be respected."

Mr Hayden said Mr Fraser worked hard for Indigenous people in Australia and in Africa.

"He had many pluses on the scoreboard," Mr Hayden said.

"He had his distinguished Aboriginal Affairs ministers work very hard on the welfare of Aboriginal people.

"He made many important breakthroughs in Africa on the issues of self-determination and democratic rights for people in southern African countries."

Mr Hayden, who is convalescing after a stroke, said issues reported as Mr Fraser's shortcomings were often the fault of local political leaders.

"Andrew Peacock, then Foreign Minister, told me once when I asked him, that Malcolm was consistently supportive of his efforts for political rights of the people of Africa," he said.

Mr Hayden said Mr Fraser was wrongly accused of trying to pull apart Medicare, the universal health scheme he introduced as Gough Whitlam's Minister for Social Security after the 1972 election.

"Fraser was accused - after promising to retain the scheme - of not being honest, in fact, being responsible for dismantling it," Mr Hayden said.

"I don't accept that.

"I have read the published work of respected academics Ann-Marie Boxall and James Gillespie, which convinced me that this was wrong.

"The research showed Fraser tried very hard to keep the scheme intact, but difficulties at the time rendered it impossible, which caused him to back away from his commitments."

Mr Hayden said the work by Boxall and Gillespie in their book Making Medicare changed his view of Fraser's attitude to Medicare.

"They absolutely convinced me that the accusations against Malcolm Fraser were wrong and that he did try very hard to keep his word."

Mr Hayden said both Mr Whitlam and Mr Fraser had, in recent times, put the events of Sir John Kerr's dismissal of Mr Whitlam as prime minister in 1975  behind them.

"One of the most significant efforts carved out by Malcolm and Gough was that they were both big enough intellectually and emotionally to put the sensational political events of 40 years ago behind them for the good of Australia," Mr Hayden said.

"This is a major reason why I have admired both of them.

"They dismissed the bitter political crevice eroding the foundations of our national politics of that time, and set a desirable standard for the future. For that we owe gratitude to both men."

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