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Padraic McGuinness

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For other people named Patrick McGuinness, see Patrick McGuinness (disambiguation).

Padraic Pearse "Paddy" McGuinness AO (27 October 1938 – 26 January 2008) was an Australian journalist, activist, and commentator. He began his career on the far left, then worked as a policy assistant to the more moderate Labor parliamentarian Bill Hayden. 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.[1]

Padraic McGuinness
Born(1938-10-27)27 October 1938
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Died26 January 2008(2008-01-26) (aged 69)
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
NationalityAustralian
Other namesPaddy McGuinness,
P. P. McGuinness
Occupation(s)Journalist, newspaper editor
Known forViews as a political commentator

Early life

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McGuinness, named after Irish nationalist Patrick Pearse, was the youngest child of Frank McGuinness (1900–1949), who was the inaugural editor of Ezra Norton's Sydney newspaper The Daily Mirror in 1941. Padraic attended, first, Saint 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 the University of Sydney (B.Ec., Hons, 1960), where he became a prominent member of the Sydney Push in the late 1950s and early 1960s. At that time, he identified as an anarchist but also joined the Labor Party.[2]

Career

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After a short career as an economics lecturer at the NSW University of Technology (now the University of New South Wales), McGuinness moved to London where he worked with the Moscow Narodny [People's] Bank, an arm of the Soviet Government, from 1966 to 1967.[3] Continuing his studies at the London School of Economics, he acquired a master's degree.[4] He later worked for the OECD in Paris, and there he observed 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.[2]

Government adviser

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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 reforming policy for private hospitals and nursing homes.[5] During this time McGuinness advocated the introduction of Medibank, against the opinions of doctors who mostly wanted health care to remain private.[2][6]

Journalist

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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 wrote occasional film reviews and columns for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Australian. In 1997 he was appointed editor of Quadrant, a position he held for ten years.

Political candidate

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McGuinness reportedly became a member of the Australian Labor Party and unsuccessfully sought preselection for the seat of Sydney (which he later persistently denied).[7] In 2002–2004, he served as an independent councillor on Leichhardt Council.[8]

Death and legacy

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McGuinness died from cancer on Australia Day, 26 January 2008, aged 69, having recently stood down as editor of Quadrant.[1] He was survived by his daughter Parnell Palme McGuinness, named after Charles Stewart Parnell, and two siblings: his older brother Michael and his older sister Judy. Parnell McGuinness is a columnist with the Sydney Morning Herald.[9]

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".[10] However, he was himself frequently criticised for pomposity and hypocrisy when, for instance, he accepted an Order of Australia AO award in 2003[11] despite a long-held, vocal contempt for such honours.[12]

The day before his funeral, former prime minister Paul Keating, denigrated him as "a fraud and a liar".[13] Keating had previously paid public tribute to McGuinness for contributing to his economic education[14] but, after McGuinness became a frequent critic of Keating's government and persona, Keating described him as "a bloated cane toad",[15] and predicted that "the quality of the Australian press will rise simply because his vituperation and contumely will have been excised from it."[16]

Bibliography

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Books

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Articles

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  • McGuinness, P. P. (July–August 2003). "An interview with Vaclav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic". Quadrant. 47 (7–8 [398]): 22–25.
  • McGuinness, P. P. Oh, for an intelligent social engineer Sydney Morning Herald, June 2004[b]

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Notes
  1. ^ Keynote address to H R Nicholls Society Conference, August 1988.
  2. ^ Reprinted in commemoration on 28 January 2008.

References

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  1. ^ a b "Former Quadrant editor McGuinness dies, aged 69 Archived 29 January 2008 at the Wayback Machine" ABC News, 27 January 2008
  2. ^ a b c Murphy, Damien (28 January 2008). "He argued his way into papers and mags". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 3 May 2008. Retrieved 26 March 2009.
  3. ^ Henderson G. Knees-up in Balmain The Sydney Institute's Media Watch (and Sydney Morning Herald, 23 September 2000)
  4. ^ H. R. Nicholls Society "Personal profile"
  5. ^ Le Guen, Roxane. "Residential Care for the Aged: An overview of Government policy from 1962 to 1993 Archived 25 November 2015 at the Wayback Machine". Background Paper No. 32, 24 November 1993, Australian Parliamentary Library. ISSN 1037-2938
  6. ^ McGuinness P. P. "The Whitlam Schemozzle Archived 18 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine" Quadrant editorial, January–February 2003
  7. ^ Walsh, Max; Clark David. "Remembering Paddy McGuinness Archived 23 September 2018 at the Wayback Machine", radio discussion on ABC Radio National, 4 February 2008. (Click on "show transcript" near head of page.)
  8. ^ "Leichhardt Council Annual Report, 2002–2003". Archived from the original on 18 December 2015. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
  9. ^ "Parnell Palme McGuinness". Sydney Morning Herald. 2020. Archived from the original on 25 June 2021. Retrieved 27 June 2021.
  10. ^ Stapleton, John (28 January 2008). "PP McGuinness, 'dissenter', dies". News.com.au. Retrieved 30 October 2016.
  11. ^ "Mr Padraic Pearse McGuinness". It's An Honour. Archived from the original on 19 May 2021. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
  12. ^ "Sir Paddy Archived 12 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine" ABC Media Watch item, 10 February 2003
  13. ^ "McGuinness a fraud and a liar: Keating" The Australian, 31 January 2008
  14. ^ McGuinness P. P. "Paddy has the last word on the vitriol of Paul Keating", The Australian, 1 February 2008 (reprint of an article dated 15 April 1989). Accessed 2 September 2016
  15. ^ "PM's blustering betokens self-doubt Archived 7 July 2024 at the Wayback Machine" Canberra Times, 12 December 1993, p.9, at Trove
  16. ^ Tadros, Edmund. "Keating monsters McGuinness on eve of funeral Archived 7 July 2024 at the Wayback Machine." The Sydney Morning Herald, 31 January 2008. Retrieved 2 September 2016
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