Commissioner Bernie Frawley

On the night of 13 September 1999 Commissioner Bernie Frawley died peacefully at his home in Melbourne. A Funeral Mass was held on 17 September at the St. Ambrose Catholic Church in Brunswick. Presenting the eulogy, Commissioner Harrison described his friend and fellow Commissioner as “a man of substance and compassion”. “By any tests, Bernard John Frawley was a truly great Australian and yet he never saw himself as anything but an ordinary man and never lost the common touch,” he said.

Commissioner Frawley served 32 years as a Commonwealth public servant rising through the ranks of the service to achieve, in 1982, the post of First Assistant Secretary in the Department of Industrial Relations. He was appointed a Commissioner with the Australian Industrial Relations Commission in 1989.

The Commissioner’s sudden death was noted in major metropolitan daily newspapers around the country and obituaries were published in publications including Melbourne’s Herald Sun newspaper and the Canberra Times. Letters of condolence were received by the President, Justice Giudice, from many individuals and organisations.