Andrew Peacock

Andrew Sharp Peacock

Peacock was born on 13 February 1939 in Melbourne, Victoria,^[1] the son of Andrew Sharp Peacock Sr and his wife, Iris Lamb. His father was a marine engineer and one of the founders of Peacock and Smith Ltd, a large shipbuilding firm. He was educated at Scotch College and at the University of Melbourne, where he graduated in law. In 1963, he married Susan Rossiter (1942–2016), the daughter of Victorian Liberal MLA Sir John Rossiter.^[2] They had three daughters, including the horse trainer Jane Chapple-Hyam.^[3]

Early political career

Peacock unsuccessfully contested the seat of

In February 1966, former prime minister Sir Robert Menzies resigned, triggering a by-election in Kooyong, the eastern Melbourne electorate that he had held for 32 years. Peacock gained Liberal preselection, making him the favourite in this comfortably safe Liberal seat.^[5] The Liberals (and their predecessors) had held the seat since Federation in 1901, usually without serious difficulty. As expected, he won 2 April by-election, albeit with a slightly reduced majority.^[6] He easily retained his seat in the general election held seven months later.

Ministerial career

In November 1969 Peacock was appointed to the

When the Liberals went into opposition in December 1972, Peacock became a senior member of the Liberal frontbench. As a party moderate, he was a supporter of the new leader, Billy Snedden. When Snedden lost the 1974 election, Peacock began to be seen as a leadership candidate,^[9] but it was Malcolm Fraser who took the initiative and deposed Snedden in 1975. Fraser made Peacock foreign affairs spokesperson, and when Fraser became caretaker prime minister, Peacock became minister for foreign affairs, a position he retained when Fraser led the Liberals to victory in the subsequent December 1975 election.^[10][11] Peacock said before the 1975 election that "the US has no needs to take sides" because the ANZUS treaty had bipartisan support.^[12]

He served as foreign minister until 1980. He had a number of acrimonious disputes with Fraser, particularly over the recognition of the

Fraser's government was defeated in the March 1983 election by the Labor Party under Bob Hawke. Fraser immediately retired from politics, and Peacock contested the party leadership, defeating Howard, who remained as deputy leader.^[16]

As opposition leader, Peacock faced an uphill battle against the hugely popular Hawke.^[4]

Unlike the previous time his party was in opposition between 1972 and 1975, first led by Billy Snedden and then by Malcolm Fraser, Peacock did not push for an early election. When an early election was called however in late 1984, he described it as unnecessary and accused Hawke of calling one for fear of the economy turning down in the following year 1985.^[17]

At the 1984 election he was given little chance of winning, but he performed better than expected by reducing Hawke's majority. In 1985, as Labor's position in opinion polls improved, Peacock's popularity sank and Howard's profile rose, keeping leadership speculation alive. Peacock said he would no longer accept Howard as deputy unless he offered assurances that he would not challenge for the leadership. Following Howard's refusal to offer such an assurance, in September 1985 Peacock sought to replace him with John Moore as deputy leader.^[18] The party room re-elected Howard as deputy, contrary to Peacock's wishes. Despite possessing greater support in the parliamentary party than Howard,^[19] Peacock resigned on 5 September 1985,^[20] concluding the situation was untenable. Howard was comfortably elected opposition leader on 5 September,^[21] and he appointed Peacock shadow foreign minister. However, after a private car-phone conversation between Peacock and then-Victorian opposition leader (and future Premier) Jeff Kennett severely attacking Howard was leaked to the press, Howard dismissed Peacock from his shadow cabinet in March 1987, calling Peacock's actions "damaging" and "unloyal".^[22]

Howard lost the 1987 election to Hawke, largely due to the Nationals pulling out of the Coalition in support of Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen's quixotic bid to become Prime Minister. After the election, Peacock stood against Howard for the leadership losing 41 votes to 28, but was elected deputy leader in a show of party unity. Peacock's supporters began to plot against Howard, and in May 1989 they mounted a party room coup which returned Peacock to the leadership. Peacock, now 50, cultivated a new mature image, enhanced by a second marriage to Margaret St George.

On 18 March 1990, Peacock was interviewed by Laurie Oakes on the television program Sunday, regarding his stance on the Multifunction Polis (MFP), a proposal to build a Japanese funded technology city in Australia.^[23] Peacock attacked the MFP concept, saying it would become an Asian "enclave".

At the 1990 election the Coalition won a slim majority (50.10 per cent) of the two-party vote and took seven seats from Labor. It also reduced Labor's majority from 24 seats to nine. However, it only garnered a 0.93 per cent two-party swing. Combined with a three per cent swing against the Nationals (who saw their leader Charles Blunt ousted in his own seat), this prevented the Coalition from picking up the additional seven seats they needed to make Peacock prime minister. This was all despite Hawke's government being in political trouble, with record high interest rates and a financial crisis in Victoria. Although Peacock was credited with helping the non-Labor forces regain much of what they had lost three years earlier, it was not enough to save his job, and he resigned after the election, promising not to make another attempt to return to the leadership. He became shadow attorney-general (1990–92) and shadow trade minister (1992–93) under the new leader, John Hewson, whom Peacock had supported in getting the job in 1990 over Peter Reith and to stop Howard returning.^[26] After Hewson's election as leader, he endorsed Peacock as his deputy, which caused a furore with Howard supporters. Peacock, however, had no interest in becoming deputy leader again and withdrew happily. Reith was instead elected deputy in a close contest against Peacock supporter David Jull. The closeness of the deputy's contest was seen as a reflection of the tensions in the Peacock-Howard rivalry that still existed as Reith had been Howard's running mate when Peacock overthrew Howard almost a year earlier. This tension was not reflected in the leadership contest as both Hewson and Reith had supported Howard and Hewson was elected with a lopsided margin of 62 votes to 13 votes for Reith.^{[27][page needed]} Peacock believed Hewson to be the best man for the job after seeing that Hewson was a hard-working shadow treasurer.^[28]

Peacock returned to Foreign Affairs when Hewson lost the 1993 election to Paul Keating. He retained Foreign Affairs when Hewson was displaced by Alexander Downer, whom Peacock supported after Hewson initiated the May 1994 spill. Peacock believed Hewson made a mistake in calling a spill; Peacock was not aware of Hewson's intention before it happened but decided afterwards to support Downer as he felt no longer obligated to support Hewson.^[28]

After politics

Peacock resigned from Parliament on 17 September 1994.

Peacock died at his Austin home on 16 April 2021, aged 82.^[36] No cause of death was given, although it was noted by Derryn Hinch that he had "significant medical problems".^[37] Obituaries took note of, and emphasised "his impact on Australia's foreign policy and international relations" and described Peacock as having "left an indelible mark on the country".^[38]

Upon his death, Peacock's former rival

Then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison described Peacock as "one of our greatest Liberals, who helped shape Australia and the Liberal Party over three decades", and praised his record as Foreign Minister, noting that "he was vocal in his denunciation of the Pol Pot regime in Kampuchea, despising what he called that 'loathsome regime'".^[41] Tributes were also paid by, among others, then-Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese,^[42] deputy Liberal leader Josh Frydenberg,^[43] former Liberal Prime Ministers Malcolm Turnbull and Tony Abbott,^[44] former Labor Prime Ministers Kevin Rudd^[45] and Julia Gillard,^[46] and former Opposition leader John Hewson.^[47]

Peacock was given a state memorial service at St Paul's Cathedral in Melbourne on 11 February 2022; the 10 month delay being attributed to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.^[48]

Honours

In the 1997 Queen's Birthday Honours, Peacock was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia.^[49]

For his role in bringing in New Guinea independence, Peacock was appointed a Chief Grand Companion of the Order of Logohu in 2006.^[50]

In 2017, Peacock was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun by the government of Japan, "for his contribution to strengthening and promoting friendly relations between Japan and Australia".^[51]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Andrew Peacock.

• Appearances on C-SPAN

Parliament of Australia
Preceded by Robert Menzies	Member for Kooyong 1966–1994	Succeeded by Petro Georgiou
Political offices
Preceded by Phillip Lynch	Minister for the Army 1969–1972	Succeeded by Bob Katter
Preceded by Charles Barnes	Minister for External Territories 1972	Succeeded by Gough Whitlam
Preceded by Joe Berinson	Minister for Environment 1975	Succeeded by Ivor Greenwood
Preceded by Don Willesee	Minister for Foreign Affairs 1975–1980	Succeeded by Tony Street
Preceded by Tony Street	Minister for Industrial Relations 1980–1981	Succeeded by Ian Viner
Preceded by Phillip Lynch	Minister for Industry and Commerce 1982–1983	Succeeded by John Button
Preceded by Bob Hawke	Leader of the Opposition 1983–1985	Succeeded by John Howard
Preceded by John Howard	Leader of the Opposition 1989–1990	Succeeded by John Hewson
Party political offices
Preceded by Malcolm Fraser	Leader of the Liberal Party of Australia 1983–1985	Succeeded by John Howard
Preceded by Neil Brown	Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party of Australia 1987–1989	Succeeded by Fred Chaney
Preceded by John Howard	Leader of the Liberal Party of Australia 1989–1990	Succeeded by John Hewson
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by John McCarthy	Australian Ambassador to the United States 1996–1999	Succeeded by Michael Thawley