He held ministerial office in the ALP governments of the 1940s, serving as Minister for External Territories (1941–1943), Social Services (1943–1946), Health (1943–1946), and Trade and Customs (1946).

He was turned down for military service during World War I and instead returned to a position at the Royal Arsenal in London, where he had worked before emigrating.

In June 1946, he became Minister for Trade and Customs (losing the Social Services portfolio) on the death of Richard Keane, but was not re-elected to the ministry in November 1946.

As a backbencher, he became a forceful critic of Labor leader, H. V. Evatt, whom he regarded as unelectable, and seconded a motion to declare the party's leadership positions vacant in October 1954.

[1][2] Fraser died in the Perth suburb of Victoria Park in 1961, survived by his wife, two sons and one of his two daughters.