Padraic McGuinness
Encyclopedia
Padraic Pearse "Paddy" McGuinness AO
(27 October 1938 – 26 January 2008) was an Australia
n journalist, activist, and commentator. He was notable for the evolution over his lifetime of his political beliefs. Beginning his career on the far left
, he subsequently worked as a policy assistant to the more moderate (but still leftist) Labor
parliamentarian Bill Hayden
(future governor-general). Later he found fame as a right-wing contrarian and finished his career as the editor of the conservative
journal
, Quadrant
. He had also worked as a columnist for The Australian
and The Sydney Morning Herald
and as the editor of The Australian Financial Review
.
McGuinness was born into a fifth-generation Australian family of Irish Catholic
heritage. His father, Frank McGuinness
(d. 1949), was the inaugural editor of Ezra Norton
's Sydney newspaper The Daily Mirror
in 1941. Padraic attended, first, St Ignatius' College, Riverview
(from his time there he dated the atheist attitudes which remained constant in his adult life, whatever his changes of ideological allegiance) and then obtained a scholarship to attend Sydney Boys' High School. He studied economics at Sydney University
(B.Ec., Hons, 1960), where he became a prominent member of the Sydney Push
in the late 1950s and early 1960s. At this time he identified as an anarchist but also joined the Labor Party.
After a short career as an economics lecturer at the then N.S.W. University of Technology, McGuinness moved to London where he worked with the Moscow Narodny [People's] Bank, an arm of the Soviet Government, from 1966 to 1967,. Continuing his studies at the London School of Economics
, he acquired a master's degree. He later worked for the OECD
in Paris, and there he observed personally the Paris Demonstrations of 1968. Having returned to Sydney in 1971, he began what would be a long tenure at The Australian Financial Review, by writing economics articles.
In 1973-74, he served the Whitlam
Labor Government as an economic advisor to the Minister for Social Security, Bill Hayden
, who was engaged in establishing Medibank
and framing restrictive regulation for private hospitals and nursing homes. During this time McGuinness advocated the introduction of Medibank, against the interests of doctors who wanted health care to remain private. Three decades later, in a Quadrant editorial, he poured scorn on the Whitlam government and the "plague of locusts" who worked for it, omitting to disclose his own central participation. After working for Hayden, McGuinness's career was chiefly in journalism, including senior editorial positions at The Australian Financial Review
(1974-87), where he became editor-in-chief in 1982. He also did column-writing for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age
and The Australian and in 1997 took over as editor of Quadrant, a position he held for a further ten years. In 2004, he had also stood as an independent on Leichhardt
Council.
McGuinness died from cancer on Australia Day
, 26 January 2008, aged 69, having recently stood down as editor of Quadrant.
According to journalist colleague Frank Devine
, "Paddy was the quintessential independent thinker, scorning humbug and stupidity. He was a bloodthirsty predator among those he identified as members of the chattering classes". However, he was himself frequently criticised for pomposity and hypocrisy when, for instance, he accepted an Order of Australia award in 2003 despite a long-held, vocal contempt for such honours.
The day before his funeral, former prime minister Paul Keating
denigrated him as "a fraud and a liar". McGuinness had been a frequent critic of the Keating Government
during its time in office.
Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
(27 October 1938 – 26 January 2008) was an Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n journalist, activist, and commentator. He was notable for the evolution over his lifetime of his political beliefs. Beginning his career on the far left
Far left
Far left, also known as the revolutionary left, radical left and extreme left are terms which refer to the highest degree of leftist positions among left-wing politics...
, he subsequently worked as a policy assistant to the more moderate (but still leftist) Labor
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
parliamentarian Bill Hayden
Bill Hayden
William George "Bill" Hayden AC was the 21st Governor-General of Australia. Prior to this, he represented the Australian Labor Party in parliament; he was a minister in the government of Gough Whitlam, and later became Leader of the Opposition, narrowly losing the 1980 federal election to the...
(future governor-general). Later he found fame as a right-wing contrarian and finished his career as the editor of the conservative
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
journal
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
, Quadrant
Quadrant (magazine)
Quadrant is an Australian literary and cultural journal. The magazine takes a conservative position on political and social issues, describing itself as sceptical of 'unthinking Leftism, or political correctness, and its "smelly little orthodoxies"'. Quadrant reviews literature, as well as...
. He had also worked as a columnist for The Australian
The Australian
The Australian is a broadsheet newspaper published in Australia from Monday to Saturday each week since 14 July 1964. The editor in chief is Chris Mitchell, the editor is Clive Mathieson and the 'editor-at-large' is Paul Kelly....
and The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald is a daily broadsheet newspaper published by Fairfax Media in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1831 as the Sydney Herald, the SMH is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Australia. The newspaper is published six days a week. The newspaper's Sunday counterpart, The...
and as the editor of The Australian Financial Review
The Australian Financial Review
The Australian Financial Review is a leading business and finance newspaper in Australia.Fairfax Media publishes it in a compact format six days a week, Monday to Saturday....
.
McGuinness was born into a fifth-generation Australian family of Irish Catholic
Irish Catholic
Irish Catholic is a term used to describe people who are both Roman Catholic and Irish .Note: the term is not used to describe a variant of Catholicism. More particularly, it is not a separate creed or sect in the sense that "Anglo-Catholic", "Old Catholic", "Eastern Orthodox Catholic" might be...
heritage. His father, Frank McGuinness
Frank McGuinness (Australia)
Frank McGuinness was an Australian newspaper editor and father of the journalist, P. P. McGuinness. He is most well known for taking part in starting the evening newspaper, The Daily Mirror, in 1941. Before this, he worked as a journalist on numerous newspapers, including the Melbourne Herald,...
(d. 1949), was the inaugural editor of Ezra Norton
Ezra Norton
Ezra Norton was an Australian newspaper baron and businessman.-Early life:Norton was born in the Sydney suburb of Watsons Bay, son of the proprietor of the Truth, John Norton and Ada McGrath , whom he married some weeks later...
's Sydney newspaper The Daily Mirror
The Daily Mirror (Australia)
The Daily Mirror was an afternoon paper established by Ezra Norton in Sydney, Australia in 1941, gaining a licence from the Minister for Trade and Customs, Eric Harrison, despite wartime paper rationing. In October 1958, Norton and his partners sold his newspapers to the Fairfax group, which...
in 1941. Padraic attended, first, St Ignatius' College, Riverview
St Ignatius' College, Riverview
Saint Ignatius' College, Riverview is a Roman Catholic, day and boarding school for boys, located in Riverview, a small suburb situated on the Lane Cove River on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia....
(from his time there he dated the atheist attitudes which remained constant in his adult life, whatever his changes of ideological allegiance) and then obtained a scholarship to attend Sydney Boys' High School. He studied economics at Sydney University
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
(B.Ec., Hons, 1960), where he became a prominent member of the Sydney Push
Sydney Push
The Sydney Push was a predominantly left-wing intellectual sub-culture in Sydney from the late 1940s to the early '70s. Well known associates of the Push include Jim Baker, John Flaus, Harry Hooton, Margaret Fink, Sasha Soldatow, Lex Banning, Eva Cox, Richard Appleton, Paddy McGuinness, David...
in the late 1950s and early 1960s. At this time he identified as an anarchist but also joined the Labor Party.
After a short career as an economics lecturer at the then N.S.W. University of Technology, McGuinness moved to London where he worked with the Moscow Narodny [People's] Bank, an arm of the Soviet Government, from 1966 to 1967,. Continuing his studies at the London School of Economics
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
, he acquired a master's degree. He later worked for the OECD
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is an international economic organisation of 34 countries founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world trade...
in Paris, and there he observed personally the Paris Demonstrations of 1968. Having returned to Sydney in 1971, he began what would be a long tenure at The Australian Financial Review, by writing economics articles.
In 1973-74, he served the Whitlam
Gough Whitlam
Edward Gough Whitlam, AC, QC , known as Gough Whitlam , served as the 21st Prime Minister of Australia. Whitlam led the Australian Labor Party to power at the 1972 election and retained government at the 1974 election, before being dismissed by Governor-General Sir John Kerr at the climax of the...
Labor Government as an economic advisor to the Minister for Social Security, Bill Hayden
Bill Hayden
William George "Bill" Hayden AC was the 21st Governor-General of Australia. Prior to this, he represented the Australian Labor Party in parliament; he was a minister in the government of Gough Whitlam, and later became Leader of the Opposition, narrowly losing the 1980 federal election to the...
, who was engaged in establishing Medibank
Medicare (Australia)
Medicare is Australia's publicly funded universal health care system, operated by the government authority Medicare Australia. Medicare is intended to provide affordable treatment by doctors and in public hospitals for all resident citizens and permanent residents except for those on Norfolk Island...
and framing restrictive regulation for private hospitals and nursing homes. During this time McGuinness advocated the introduction of Medibank, against the interests of doctors who wanted health care to remain private. Three decades later, in a Quadrant editorial, he poured scorn on the Whitlam government and the "plague of locusts" who worked for it, omitting to disclose his own central participation. After working for Hayden, McGuinness's career was chiefly in journalism, including senior editorial positions at The Australian Financial Review
The Australian Financial Review
The Australian Financial Review is a leading business and finance newspaper in Australia.Fairfax Media publishes it in a compact format six days a week, Monday to Saturday....
(1974-87), where he became editor-in-chief in 1982. He also did column-writing for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
and The Australian and in 1997 took over as editor of Quadrant, a position he held for a further ten years. In 2004, he had also stood as an independent on Leichhardt
Municipality of Leichhardt
The Municipality of Leichhardt is a Local Government Area in the inner-west of Sydney, in state of New South Wales, Australia.-History:The Municipality of Leichhardt stands on land that traditionally belonged to the Gadigal and Wangal people, of the Eora nation...
Council.
McGuinness died from cancer on Australia Day
Australia Day
Australia Day is the official national day of Australia...
, 26 January 2008, aged 69, having recently stood down as editor of Quadrant.
According to journalist colleague Frank Devine
Frank Devine
Frank Devine was a New Zealand born Australian newspaper editor and journalist. Devine was born in the South Island city of Blenheim and started his career there aged 17 as a cadet on the Marlborough Express. In 1953, Devine took a role with The West Australian in Perth, Western Australia...
, "Paddy was the quintessential independent thinker, scorning humbug and stupidity. He was a bloodthirsty predator among those he identified as members of the chattering classes". However, he was himself frequently criticised for pomposity and hypocrisy when, for instance, he accepted an Order of Australia award in 2003 despite a long-held, vocal contempt for such honours.
The day before his funeral, former prime minister Paul Keating
Paul Keating
Paul John Keating was the 24th Prime Minister of Australia, serving from 1991 to 1996. Keating was elected as the federal Labor member for Blaxland in 1969 and came to prominence as the reformist treasurer of the Hawke Labor government, which came to power at the 1983 election...
denigrated him as "a fraud and a liar". McGuinness had been a frequent critic of the Keating Government
Keating Government
The Hawke-Keating Government refers to the federal Executive Government of Australia of the Australian Labor Party from 1983 to 1996. The government was led initially by Bob Hawke as Prime Minister, who was succeeded by Paul Keating in 1991....
during its time in office.
Further reading
- McGuinness P. P. In Search of the Magic Pudding Keynote address to H R Nicholls Society Conference, August 1988
- One of McGuinness's final columns for the Sydney Morning Herald, reprinted on 28 January 2008