It’s barely raised a ripple in the media, but senior Fraser government minister Dame Margaret Guilfoyle died on Remembrance Day, 45 years to the day when she was first appointed a minister.

The Prime Minister issued a formal statement on Thursday, befitting the death of a former Liberal cabinet minister. But it was a statement clearly written by someone for whom the Fraser years were learned from history books, and not showing more than superficial understanding of Guilfoyle or the times in which her political career flourished.