Margaret Guilfoyle

Dame Margaret Georgina Constance Guilfoyle

Guilfoyle was born Margaret Georgina Constance McCartney on 15 May 1926 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She was the second of three children born to Elizabeth Jane (née Ellis) and William McCartney; her father worked as a civil servant and her mother was a schoolteacher before her marriage. The family immigrated to Australia in 1928, settling in Melbourne.^[1] Her father died when she was 10, after which she and her siblings were raised by their mother; they had no other relatives in Australia. Guilfoyle later recalled that her mother's experiences led her to realise "that, at any time, a woman must be capable of independence".^[2]

Guilfoyle began her education at the local state school in Fairfield, then attended a business college until the age of 15. She later took night classes while working as a secretary, studying accountancy at Taylors Institute of Advanced Studies and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. She eventually qualified as an accountant and chartered secretary and in 1947 became the head accountant at Overseas Corporation Australia Ltd, an export firm. She later went into private practice in order to spend more time with her family.^[1]

Politics

Guilfoyle joined the Liberal Party in the early 1950s. She was mentored by Elizabeth Couchman and Senator Ivy Wedgwood, who encouraged her to seek leadership positions within the party's organisational wing. In 1967, with their support, Guilfoyle was chosen as chairman of the state women's section and elected to the state executive. She also served as a delegate to the federal council. When Wedgwood announced her retirement, she endorsed Guilfoyle as her successor. Guilfoyle won Liberal preselection for the Senate against 20 male candidates, and was elected from second place on the Coalition's ticket in Victoria at the 1970 half-Senate election.^[3]

Senate

Guilfoyle's first term in the Senate began on 1 July 1971. She was re-elected in 1974, 1975, 1980^[1] and 1983,^[4] retiring on 5 June 1987.^[1] When she began her political career, she and Senator Nancy Buttfield were the only women in parliament. There were no female members in the House of Representatives. Guilfoyle was Australia's seventh female senator and the third from Victoria, after Wedgwood and Marie Breen. Over the course of her career, an additional 19 women were elected to the Senate.^[5]

Soon after taking her seat, Guilfoyle joined the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Government Operations.^[1] As part of the latter, in December 1973 she joined Ellis Lawrie and Bob Cotton in submitting a minority report that advocated the abolition of inheritance tax; their recommendations were eventually adopted almost a decade later.^[6] Guilfoyle was appointed to the Senate Select Committee on Foreign Ownership and Control of Australian Resources in 1972, and the following year joined the Joint Committee on Prices. The Herald described her as "a housewife with a big say on prices",^[1] while The Sunday Telegraph reported that she would be "looked upon by Australian housewives as their special friend in Canberra".^[7] She in fact took pains to avoid being pigeonholed as a spokesperson for women.^[1] According to her biographer, Margaret Fitzherbert, her choices of committee "reflected her professional interests and experience, and, in sidestepping committees that were overtly concerned with family issues, marked her apart from the women who had preceded her in parliament".^[7]

Government minister

In June 1974, Guilfoyle was appointed to

After the 1980 election, Guilfoyle was appointed Minister for Finance, effectively becoming the deputy to the treasurer, John Howard. She viewed her position as that of "chief accountant for the country".^[13] Beginning with the 1981–82 budget, government ministers were required to take budget submissions to Guilfoyle for approval. That role had previously been filled by the Expenditure Review Committee (ERC), a panel of five ministers. Under the new arrangement, the ERC only reviewed submissions if a minister had failed to come to an agreement with Guilfoyle.^[1] She was a key member of the Review of Commonwealth Functions Committee, a cabinet subcommittee nicknamed the "razor gang" that was tasked with cutting government expenditure. Its report, handed down in April 1981, recommended that hundreds of functions and programs be abolished, reduced, or transferred to state governments.^[14] Guilfoyle remained finance minister until the government's defeat at the 1983 election. She was made spokesperson for finance and taxation in Andrew Peacock's shadow ministry, but resigned the position after the 1984 election, and spent her remaining years in the Senate as a backbencher.^[1]

Later life

After leaving the Senate, Guilfoyle obtained a

Guilfoyle remained involved with the Liberal Party after leaving parliament. In 1993, she was briefly a candidate for federal president, the titular head of the party's organisational wing. She had the support of Jeff Kennett and Andrew Peacock, but withdrew from the race in favour of Malcolm Fraser; the successful candidate was Tony Staley, another of her cabinet colleagues.^[17][18] Later that year, she was appointed chair of the Liberal Women's Candidates Forum, which was set up by John Hewson to encourage women to run for office as Liberal candidates.^[19]

Personal life

Guilfoyle's husband was Stanley Guilfoyle, whom she married on 20 November 1952. The couple had two daughters and a son.

Guilfoyle died on 11 November 2020, aged 94.[23]

Honours

• Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE), 31 December 1979^[24]
• Centenary Medal, 1 January 2001^[25]
• Companion of the Order of Australia (AC), 13 June 2005^[26]

• List of the first women holders of political offices in Oceania

Notes

References